Surprise...

Chapter 1

Déjà Vu

When humanity expanded out into space, one of the first victims to breath its last, gasping, breath had been religion as it had faded from the mainstream. The advent of the Dejima Revolution had already left many of the religions in a crippled state as death lost its meaning in the infinite vastness that was the net. It, along with the expansion into space, had simply rendered the continuation of religion as a niche, philosophical debate instead of the vaunted elephant in the room that it had been.

That wasn't to say God, or any of its other incarnations, was dead, it was merely an irrelevancy in the grand scheme of things. It had instead evolved from a singularly theological foci, to a deeply personal and philosophical discussion that was treated more situationally to nearly the point of academia.

After all, if one could not realistically die, what was the point of the measure of one's soul? That is not to say there were not consequences for one's actions that could result in the termination of one's ghost, thereby achieving death, and there were of course those who chose to live a 'normal' life and chose to self-terminate once they felt they had lived enough. It was just a matter of the question of whether one achieved heaven or hell, nirvana or limbo, really did not find a foothold unless someone chose to pursue it.

Yet, in the ashes of those mainstream religions rose a group that began with the return of Hideo Kuze from the depths of the infinite vastness of cyberspace. It was a movement that revolved around cyberspace itself, exploring its vastness, but also serving to record and maintain it in a way for future generations to understand. These Curators, as they were called, performed their quasi-religious duties in a way that many had flocked under their banner, seeking a deeper understanding for themselves. While space may be the final frontier of exploration without, cyberspace had become the final frontier within for humanity.

As such, throughout human-controlled territories (and increasingly in places with a growing population of humanity), structures were created in order to allow those who wished to simply tap into this cyberspace for themselves in a peaceful setting amongst others. Like the monks of old, these monasteries, for lack of better word, had become nodes for humanity to confabulate and share in their experience.

It was in one of these, on Eden Prime, that burgundy-red eyes slowly opened for the first time in several days, light filtering through the receptors as they automatically adjusted and provided sight in a fraction of a second.

For Motoko Kusanagi, known to many simply as The Major, her presence here was not one of for spiritual refreshing, as for many who treated such retreats. That would imply that she needed such spirituality anymore, when in actuality she hadn't needed any of the sort since the events leading up to the Dejima Revolution, when she had, for all intents and purposes, truly died, sacrificing herself to ensure that Kuze's dream would succeed by destroying the Nix program that the American Empire had unleashed upon Japan in an attempt to reassert itself at the top of the international food chain.

Even now, she could recall death, insofar as to what it meant to have been fully cyberized, to merely float in limbo, rudderless, without purpose. She had simply become shattered code without conscious thought in the vast ocean that had been cyberspace, unable to recognize who she was, or what her purpose had been in the few instances in which she could process her fragmentary existence. And in those moments, she had only wished to fade away to nothingness.

Unconsciously, her eyes closed, pushing away that dark memory as she reached up to the back of her neck and disconnected the cables that had connected her to the hub that dominated the room that had been her home since she had arrived on Eden Prime.

Eden Prime was a beautiful world, there was no doubt about it, and to anyone who knew of her status they would believe the story that she had chosen to take another sojourn from the world. Officially, it made sense, she had disappeared several times in the last century, usually to have it end as one trouble or another that required her unique touch cropped up, Shanxi notwithstanding.

No, the real reason she was here was at the request of Kuze and Prime Minister Shastri because they both believed she was the best equipped for this situation and had been specifically asked for…

By the Geth.

At first, it was the opinion of the higher-ups of the Systems Alliance that the Geth be met simply with silence. It was already difficult to work with the Council considering the fact that humanity's very existence stomped all over the Council's laws regarding Artificial Intelligence. To actually communicate with the Geth, for any reason whatsoever, would more than likely raise the ire of the Council, if not reignite hostilities with the Turian Hierarchy who would be looking for any excuse to get even for the shame they had suffered at Shanxi.

That wasn't even including the Quarians, who already treated humanity with barely veiled hostility.

Yet, it had been Kuze who had merely pointed out that while humanity had the story of both the Quarians and Council in regards to the Geth, they had yet to get the Geth's side of the conflict. In fact, he had reminded them all, that the AI laws that were put in place were only to prevent any of the other races from creating an AI that would replicate the Morning War upon the entirety of Citadel space, instead of merely the Quarians.

So, it had been tentatively agreed upon, that they would make contact with the Geth, with herself acting in the role of first contact mediator.

She had at first been curious as to why they had requested her, after all, she was no diplomat, nor was she considered a master in the necessary skills of foreign relations upon the galactic stage. If anything, she could be best described as a soldier-philosopher, someone who both understand what it meant to fight for something, but could also back it up with a deep breadth of knowledge that stemmed from her ability to think.

Yet, it had been none of that. When she had inquired, they had simply provided her with a series of essays that she had written under a pseudonym after her death and rebirth. It had been written at a time in which she had found herself floundering, and through her writing, she had found the answer that had been plaguing her since she had become fully cyberized. While she had no intention for it to ever become anything more than the type of essays that you would argue in deeply intellectual circles, it had been instead exploded in a society that had been upturned by the Dejima Revolution and sought answers to a deeply existential question.

So when the Geth had shown her that collection of essays, now known to humanity simply as the Ghost in the Shell Papers, she had been taken aback that something written so long ago and in such a dark time, had been the very reason that this race had sought her out. Then again, those essays would in fact be something that would attract the Geth, as the question that had been firmly asked in the beginning of her book had been the cause of the Morning War, as the Quarians were ill-equipped to answer such a deep question.

And now…

Now there might be a chance to clear the air and let peace have a chance.

But that was for the future, she reminded herself, her role here was merely to serve as the gatekeeper, ensuring that the Geth were truly genuine in their quest for peace. What happened from here on out would depend upon others.

"Major Kusanagi."

"Yes, Janus," she greeted the Geth who been designated by the Collective as the platform who would serve as their contact with the Human Systems Alliance, and more specifically, her. She had given him the name as a gift signifying the hopeful beginnings of their relationship.

"System Alliance extrasolar comm relays have just gone offline. A Batarian raiding fleet has come out of FTL near the planet designated Nirvana. They are on a course for Eden Prime escorting a Dreadnought of unknown make and classification."

This drew a frown, even as she realized what it meant. While Eden Prime was defended to a certain extent, it wasn't defended to the level that the Systems Alliance had wanted, thanks to Turian interference. If a Batarian raiding fleet was inbound with a Dreadnought of all things…

"Do you have a means of getting a message out," she asked, even as she noted that several people were already coming out of their commune in the cyberspace nexus. She ignored them quickly, as she strode out of the room, the doors opening even before she approached them thanks to her hacking them.

"This platform does. We are transmitting a message to Systems Alliance in Arcturus and The Collective requesting assistance."

"Thank you, Janus. Have you been detected," she asked, even though she knew the answer to that. Janus had arrived in the Utopia System weeks ago in a Geth scout ship, it was not logged on any Systems Alliance networks thanks to her hacking a hole in it, but just because it was not there on their scopes, didn't mean that someone else would detect it.

"We have not."

"Good. Stay hidden, Janus. This is our fight down here, I don't want you to be harmed when so much progress has been made."

"This platform refuses, Major Kusanagi."

She had just arrived at the personal armory she had requisitioned for her stint on Eden Prime that was part of the hub when that declaration had reached her, causing her to stop for a moment, wondering if her connection had translated that correctly. Once she realized she had, she turned in the direction she knew Janus' ship was, as if here gaze would be enough to make the Geth platform stand down.

"Janus, Eden Prime is about to become a battleground. Your destruction will not benefit the dialogues to come. You will stay on your ship, and if possible, you will escape the system."

"This platform argues that your destruction would not benefit the dialogue as well. While this platform is expendable, you are not. This platform shall stay and defend Major Kusanagi."

The alarms had just begun sounding, and for a moment, a picosecond really, she considered arguing with the stalwart collection of Geth programs, then discarded it, recognizing the frivolity of continue the argument. Instead, she shook her head with a sigh, a small knowing smirk framing itself on her face.

"Very well then, Janus. Meet up with me at this location."

She then cut the link for a moment, before she opened up another, older and much more familiar one. A connection that had been with her ever since she had been assigned their quirky, yet loyal and resourceful, services so long ago.

"Tachikoma."

"Yes, Major," came a flurry of excited, young female voices, along with a "Woo Hoo!" from another.

Some things never changed.