Fourth Squad

The Fourth Squad ranks among the major divisions of the Survey Corps and answers to Squad Leader Hange Zoë. Its senior officers form a smaller unit of their own, Squad Hange, and most are veterans whose service predates the fall of Wall Maria, which makes the squad a natural pick for the Corps' riskiest and most sensitive operations.

During the 57th Expedition the squad helps spring Erwin Smith's forest trap on the Female Titan. When blades and even ordered explosives fail to carve the captive open, the Female screams, and the squad watches approaching Titans ignore every soldier to swarm and devour her instead. Days later in Stohess, Abel, Keiji, and Lauda chase the transformed Annie Leonhart toward Wall Sheena, losing her only where open ground robs their gear of anchor points; after her defeat, Keiji has to be pulled back from smashing the crystal she seals herself inside. The fight also cracks the Wall and exposes a Colossus Titan within it, so the squad hurries to shield it from sunlight while Hange grills Minister Nick about what his church knows.

In the Wall Rose crisis the squad carries the intelligence tying Reiner and Bertolt to Annie, wipes out the Titans at Utgard Castle to recover the eviscerated recruit Ymir, and is standing atop Wall Rose when the two Warriors reveal themselves. Hange splits the unit into four teams against the Colossus Titan, but its scalding steam keeps them at bay, and when the giant crashes down from the Wall the blast leaves the officers broken or unconscious, unable to join the ride to rescue Eren.

The squad's Royal Government work turns to shadow warfare: guarding hideout cabins, testing Eren's Titan, and helping Hange, Levi, and Moblit break Interior MP Djel Sannes until he names the Reiss family as the true royal line. Nifa carries Erwin's plan to crown Historia between the squads, and the operation that follows costs Nifa, Keiji, and Abel their lives when the Anti-Personnel Control Squad ambushes the stakeout in Stohess. Hange and Moblit answer by strong-arming the Berg Newspapers into printing the truth behind Dimo Reeves's murder, clearing the Corps' name.

At the battle of Shiganshina District the squad's Thunder Spears cripple the Armored Titan, but Bertolt returns, rises into the air, and detonates into the Colossus Titan before the soldiers can pull clear. The transformation obliterates the entire unit; Hange alone survives, shoved down a well at the last instant by Moblit Berner.

Hange Zoë leads the squad through its whole recorded history and is its lone survivor at Shiganshina. Moblit Berner, Hange's ever-present aide, dies making that survival possible. Nifa, Keiji, and Abel fall to the Anti-Personnel Control Squad during the coup, and a black-haired soldier of the unit also dies in service, while the fates of officers Rashad and Lauda go unrecorded.