Squad Mike

Squad Leader Mike Zacharias heads this major division of the Survey Corps. Its core members are veterans who served before Wall Maria fell, and when the crisis of the Wall Rose invasion erupts, responsibility for the unproven recruits of the 104th lands on their shoulders.

Trusted with Erwin Smith's plan to trap a Titan spy on the 57th Expedition Outside the Walls, Mike rides with the capture team while his subordinate Nanaba minds the recruits at the forest's edge. After the restraining weapon pins the Female Titan, Mike and Levi discover that ultrahard steel cannot bite through the crystallized hands shielding her nape. Her scream summons a horde that strips her body while its pilot escapes, forcing the Corps to retreat to Karanes District.

Erwin next assigns the squad to supervise the newer Survey Corps members inside Wall Rose while trusted soldiers move against Annie Leonhart in Stohess District. Two days later, Titans inexplicably appear within the Wall. Mike dispatches Thomas to carry the warning to Stohess, organizes the recruits into four riding teams to spread word through the interior, and peels off alone to delay nine pursuing Titans. He kills five before a beast-like Titan hurls his own horse at him, knocking him into a Titan's jaws; the creature questions him, takes his maneuvering gear, and sets the horde on him. He dies recalling his own words to Nanaba, that humanity is not beaten so long as it keeps fighting.

The riding teams search through the night without locating any breach. Gelgar's southern team passes through Ragako and finds it wrecked yet strangely empty of corpses, while Nanaba and Henning scout the Wall to the west. The two groups meet in the dark and shelter at the ruins of Utgard Castle, where the Beast Titan sends waves of Titans against the tower. Hurled chunks of Wall kill Lynne, Henning, and the horses. Gelgar and Nanaba fight on with dwindling gas and blades until both are stranded and devoured. During the later battle of Shiganshina, Erwin envisions Mike, Nanaba, and Gelgar atop the mountain of corpses his orders have raised, silently asking whether their deaths meant anything.

Mike Zacharias leads the squad until his death. Its known former members are Nanaba, Gelgar, Henning, and Lynne, all lost in the defense of Utgard Castle, plus Thomas, whose fate after delivering the warning to Stohess goes unrecorded.