Shards In Your Heart || AOT x Male Reader

Expedition

The scout headquarters were huge. Tall and towering the stone buildings were, almost dwarfing the rest of the landscape. The headquarters were in the city of Shiganshina, one of the outermost cities in Wall Maria. In the compound of HQ ran lines and lines of horse stables, hundreds of horses of various different colours sat, locked up in their stables.

As soon as you reached HQ you were divided into different squads, under different squad leaders. (Y/N) ended up in Squad Miche, led by Section Commander Miche Zacharius.
The members, as you got to know them, were Nanaba; a pretty woman and a deadly fighter, as well as Gelgar, with hard resolve. From your batch, Tomas and Henning were placed alongside you.
Miche now led (Y/N) and the newbies towards the stable, walking behind you.
In an odd set of events, he sniffed each of you, individually, nodding after each sniff. You shrugged it off as a weird quirk while Tomas looked particularly offended: at least, until Nanaba, laughing heartily, explained Miche's unique sense of smell and the fact that he did that to everyone; it was just his way of greeting.

At the stables (Y/N) selected a powerful black stallion, his shiny coat glinting in the hot sun while (Y/N) took him for a test ride. He was beautiful and took to you immediately,
"I'm going to name you (H/N) alright."
He neighed in response and perhaps satisfaction as you ran your hand along his neck, feeding him a carrot.

A month had passed since you joined the Survey Corps, and your Squad was preparing themselves for a new expedition. Everyone got up on their horses, nervously waiting for the gates to open. You were supposed to be looking for new areas and resources, perhaps even establish a watch tower outside the walls. Almost all the expeditions ended badly, cutting the scout's numbers by large amounts.
You were riding to certain death.
This was the first Expedition with Erwin as a commander, he had great success previously with his squad, employing the Long Range Scouting Formation; a highly successful riding formation employing the clever use of flares that ensured the minimal amount of exposure to the Titans. The month was spent learning and practicing the formation as well as adapting it to a larger number of people.

Coordination was key.

The gates opened, agonisingly slow, (Y/N) tensed up his muscles:
"CHARGE"
came the Commander's shout as hundreds of soldiers rode out, their horses' hooves stomping the ground, kicking up eddies of dust. (Y/N) was positioned in the far north; he would be among the first to encounter Titans and warn the rest of the troops with them. Erwin would be in the centre of the formation with Miche and Hange, and Levi, as you got to know earlier, would be defending the left flank.

About half a kilometre from the walls, you spotted a Titan, quickly firing a red flare, the message was carried on.

So far so good.

But luck would only last for so Long.

Everything seemed to happen so fast, it took a while for (Y/N) to process what was going on. A horde of Titans came charging upon them, from the North, having destroyed part of the troops, from the right side. There were a couple of red flares fired in quick succession from the centre: you could only assume Miche had detected the Titans. (Y/N) looked over his shoulder; the formation was turning around, heading eastward.
The ground was flat, no high structures from where the soldiers could use ODM: their only move? To escape, as fast as they could from the Titans.

The formation seemed to be breaking apart, much of the northern front was destroyed, all you could think about was the large number of soldiers, your comrades being killed and eaten alive in front of you. The field, once blank, was now painted with the blood of your fallen soldiers.

The Titans, having picked up your scent, followed the scouts, there were a whole horde of them.
Miche was riding fast and close to you, he was now followed by Nanaba and Gelgar,
"(Y/N), head back to the centre of the formation. Report your situation to the Commander. Stay there." He made off with his team, as well as a few odd soldiers; the formation split, a group of soldiers led by Miche rode westward, luring the Titans away from the rest of the scouts into a small forest. (Y/N) rode inwards, finally catching up to Erwin and Hange.
"Erwin Sir, I bring a message and situation report"
"Speak"
"The northern front has been destroyed, few survivors remain. Section commander Miche led a team diverting the Titans away, they are currently heading eastward"