[Erwin is quiet for a few minutes after Falco finishes. He knew most of this already, but hearing it from someone on the opposing side, someone who would have ended up fighting against them (but is now somehow on their side? he's going to have to get the full story at some point), is another perspective altogether.]

I wasn't there. When the first Wall fell.

[He stares off into space, looking at nothing, and his voice goes quiet.]

The Survey Corps was out beyond the Wall when the attack happened. It was either planned, or a horrible coincidence. We weren't there for the first few hours, and it was... a massacre.

[He remembers riding back into Shiganshina, and the chaos and horror they found there. He remembers the three days in the saddle after that, doing everything they could to get civilians out of harm's way, and suffering catastrophic casualties doing it. He remembers the tattered remnants of the Corps limping behind Wall Rose, and getting handed the reins and told to rebuild, and how everything changed.]

[But he also remembers a pair of young Survey Corps recruits, barely out of childhood, and how, for the few weeks they'd been members, they'd been good soldiers.]

War is horrible for everyone. Only someone who has been there can really understand it.