The clopping hooves of her mare and the loud whistling air ringing in her ears were the only sounds Isanna could hear as she galloped her way across the top of the walls back to the inner gate of Shiganshina, where soldiers both Garrison and Scout alike were stationed and busying themselves with the current chaos.

The raven guided her ride through mess towards Erwin, who was currently in the middle of a serious discussion with the Commander of the Garrison; he had a balding head and a wrinkly face, but it didn't stop the air of command permeating through his stance. Dot Pixis. Just like Erwin, he wore a solemn face empty from the sheer panic the rest of the soldiers around them had.

"At this rate, humanity will have to abandon Wall Maria."

Isanna clenched her jaw when she was at a hearing distance from their conversation, hopelessness and frustration building up inside her at the thought of humanity giving up their third wall, but she knew it was the only option they had.

Commander Pixis noticed the raven woman in the corner of his eye and turned to face her. He was about to ask who she was when he finally recognized her. "Ah, Vice Captain Isanna."

Following his gaze, Erwin looked and finally saw Isanna, who upon noticing the attention of the two Commanders, hastily unmounted her horse and respectfully gave a salute. She didn't want to correct him that she had in fact just been promoted that same day, because they had more pressing matters at hand.

"Commander Pixis, sir."

Commander Pixis nodded at the girl in acknowledgement, having been acquainted with the girl a few times in the past. "At ease, soldier."

Isanna lowered her fist and looked at Erwin, but before she could make her report, he had already given her another order: She was to go down and relay Pixis' command for half of the Garrison squads to pull back and send messages to every town in Wall Maria to alert everyone and assist in evacuation in the other regions.

"Your report will have to wait," Erwin added, "after you relay our orders, proceed to provide assistance against the titans with Levi and the others."

Saluting, Isanna affirmed his instruction before she briskly turned away to follow through with her new orders. Isanna latched a hook on the side of the wall and allowed herself to fall, her tied hair whipping upwards as gravity continued to pull her down. Using her line to decelerate her descent, she landed on the nearest rooftop and zipped across the town of abandoned buildings to where their vanguard was.

In less than a minute, the girl could see some Scouts fending off the titans in the frontlines; she felt bad that they had no time to rest, but they had a duty to uphold.

Grunting, Isanna shot a hook towards the nape of an unsuspecting titan and bursted forward in quick speed, bring down her blades in a wide arc and causing titan blood to spurt out. She pushed off the falling body and landed on a nearby rooftop, scanning her kill as steams began to rise from the titan corpse.

"Isa!" Hanji called from about two buildings away. "Glad to see you've joined the party!"

Isanna didn't answer her, because 1) this was far from your average kiddie party, and 2) she was not in the mood to humor the brunette. While the girl had her lazy days, she knew when to joke around and when to take things seriously, and their current situation just so happened to fall in the second category.

Jumping off the roof, Isanna hooked a line to the next building and whizzed forward. She managed to kill two more titans before she saw something in her peripheral view.

Snapping her head, the girl narrowed her eyes at the trio of children who were running towards the inner part of the city where the ferries used for evacuation were located in the harbor. The three darted around crashed boulders, fallen buildings and bloody corpses on the streets.

"Reiner, hurry!"

A tall kid with raven hair that was pushed down on his head glanced behind him as his blond friend picked up his pace. Ahead of them was a blonde girl.

Isanna noticed a titan lumbering a few meters behind them and quickly went to dispose of it, slivering past its nape in a hurried slice.

As the titan fell down in a crash, crushing some of the corpses with its fall, the trio jolted at the noise and turned around to see a soldier briskly walking towards them. The blond boy gulped, beads of sweat trickling down his face as he protectively stood in front of his friends.

"You brats!" yelled the raven woman as she stomped near them, "what're you staring at?! Hurry up and go to the evacuation ferries!"

The trio of children blinked at the soldier for a few seconds, before it dawned on them that she was trying to help them. With a shaky nod, they continued on running towards the harbor, with the blond boy giving one last glance at the soldier.

Isanna clicked her tongue as she watched the kids run up the empty street. She thought there were no longer any civilians this near to the breach - much less children, and wondered if there were more left behind; she could only hope not.

Hooking a line to a building, the girl flew upwards and whizzed through the town, keeping an eye out for any more surviving civilians while also looking for Garrison squads. In just a few minutes, she finally saw them.

"You there!" Isanna marched through the bricked roof where a few Garrison soldiers were perched, their eyes turning to her at her call. The girl could see through their faces that they were scared beyond compare due to the way they were trembling in their boots. They were unprepared for the chaos.

But it's supposed to be their job to be prepared. She clicked her tongue. Although she had the urge to yell at them to get their shit together, this was no time for reprimanding.

"Send a message to your squads!" she began, "the southern forces of the Garrison are to divide into two, pull back and send messages to every town in Wall Maria. Do not leave a single town unprotected, and assist the evacuation in other districts."

The soldiers were too scared to even muster a reply, all of them staring at her with shaking eyes.

Isanna gritted her teeth. "Get moving!"

"B - but," one of them squeaked out, flinching when the girl's sharp eyes landed on him, "we were t - tasked to assist in the southern breach.." his voice drifted away weakly at the end of his sentence.

An eye twitched in Isanna's face. They were in the middle of an emergency and they dared to question her orders? Had humanity downgraded so much that their soldiers could not only carry their own balls but also had the time to hesitate? She doubted they could even lift a finger to help in their shaken state.

Isanna realized that this was a bitter price to pay for 100 years of peace; humanity had become too complacent with their caged life and were not trained enough for such dire emergencies. In fact, even she herself had not expected this.

"These are Commander Pixis' orders!" She stepped forward and grabbed the soldier by the front of his uniform, bringing their faces closer together. "Get your fucking shit together, soldier. Wall Maria has fallen, and we don't have the fucking luxury to accomodate all of your cowardly asses!" She roughly shoved him backward as the man stumbled on his feet and landed his butt on the bricked roof.

She glared at them. "Get moving, now. Before I shove you into a titan's throat myself." She knew however, that as much as she was itching to shove them down through one, she couldn't; because they needed all the help they could get in this mess.

With a squeak, the soldiers scrambled on their feet and rushed to follow through with her order.

"Then," one of the soldiers paused, looking at Isanna hesitantly, "that means only half the southern squads of the Garrison and the Scouts will be left to cover for the breach.."

Isanna scoffed and turned around. "We don't walk out of those walls every expedition for a joyride, soldier."

True, nobody had ever expected such a tragic end to their century-long peace. The current events that were raining down on them like hurtling meteors were events humanity were not able to brace themselves for, resulting to this chaos of unpreparedness.

But Isanna was a soldier of the Survey Corps; a shitty situation was something they were not foreign with, and it so happened that such shitty circumstances were where they excelled in.

This crest she bore behind her back was proof of that.

Brandishing her spare blades, Isanna walked away without a backward glance.

"Just us is enough."