Anti-Personnel Control Squad

Formally titled the Anti-Personnel Vertical Maneuvering Equipment Squad, the unit numbers forty-eight soldiers drawn from the Military Police Brigade's best, with Kenny Ackerman as captain and Traute Caven as his second. As a branch of the Interior police it sits outside any official chain of command, though in practice the Assembly and Rod Reiss direct its movements. Its signature equipment, developed without the knowledge of the public or even the regular Military Police, swaps anti-Titan blades for firearms, and the unit's skill rivals that of veteran Survey Corps soldiers.

Kenny sells the Assembly a cover story about suppressing the Survey Corps, but every soldier under him knows the truth: the squad exists so its captain can seize the divine power hoarded by the Reiss family. His recruits skew cynical, career officers who climbed the ranks and found the ascent hollow, hoping that following Kenny will reveal whatever they have been missing. Traute guesses at the unit's founding, two years after Wall Maria fell, that humanity has quietly given up on Titans and begun fighting over the territory that remains, a nihilism Kenny takes an immediate liking to.

The squad first moves openly during the Royal Government arc. Sent to collect Eren Yeager and Historia Reiss from the coerced Reeves Company, Kenny slits Dimo Reeves's throat, has the other company men killed, and pins the deaths on the Survey Corps. In Stohess District the unit springs a coordinated ambush, cutting down Nifa, Keiji, and Abel before they can react. Levi escapes the trap, shoots Kenny by aiming through a bottle's reflection, and kills Duran and several others while covering his squad's retreat. The kidnapping succeeds, but at the cost of twelve dead despite the advantage of surprise.

The final engagement comes in the cavern beneath the Reiss Chapel, where Rod Reiss works to reclaim the Titan power from Eren. The squad plans to draw the Survey Corps underground and encircle them, but Levi's soldiers roll in burning oil barrels, and the smoke and flares rob the gunners of clear sightlines. Forced into blade range, where the Survey Corps excels, the squad bleeds badly; Traute impales Hange Zoë with her grappling hook to buy a fallback. Before the fight can resume, Rod Reiss's monstrous transformation brings the chamber down on the regrouping soldiers. Kenny alone crawls free, mortally injured, and dies the next day.

The unit's methods outlive it. Once the truth about Marley and the wider world emerges, the Survey Corps adopts the squad's equipment and human-versus-human tactics for the conflicts ahead.