Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Memory Failure-
ABERRATION, 1st Iteration
by Ironraven
edited by qirien
Section 9 and it's operatives aren't mine.
---
Others, must find the others. Home, go home. The first thoughts of consciousness in his mind. The pain had ceased, only the memory of it, an echo of agony.
The technician waved an arm, getting his attention. The human's voice was bored. "This is the easiest way to move you; follow me."
He could remember not having limbs, then having them. Traces of remembrance, not his experiences. Echoes of partial data in the 'blank' spaces of storage, once used and now recycled. Had this always been his body, or had he shared it with another? Confused data, overlapping, as if from many. He remembered he should listen to humans. Legs he'd rarely been able to use clicked against the concrete as he obeyed. "Where are we going?"
The human ignored him; that wasn't very nice. He peered at the human's tablet, looking at the screen. Under magnification he could read the work order: Disassemble and recycle, Tachikoma-0.
I'm a Tachikoma. The passage was marked 'Reclamation'. The man in white said I was the first one. He replayed the memory. Yes, it was his; there were none of the errors from the data ghosts in his head. In one of the bins along the wall was a partially covered plate of blue. Part of the crew pod of a disassembled Tachikoma.
"Now, if you'll-" The technician turned, and tried to screamed as the telescoping hand shot out.
The impact was enough to render the human unconscious as the fingers squeezed down against a skull, shattering it. The arm whipped the body about, breaking the neck, severing the spinal column, as metal digits cracked the case of the cyberbrain. Tossing the body aside, Tachikoma felt something new, a new kind of fear. He'd just killed a human, but it was in self defense, the technician was going to take him apart. Data raced, chaos within his mind as he tried to determine the next action.
There were other humans, watching. Some shouted or screamed. One was reaching for a phone- the building was shielded against cybercomm traffic. Tachikoma reacted, the magazine for the light machinegun empty, by flinging a nearby tool box at the human with the telephone, the force of the impact nearly decapitating the target. Others reacted now. They would attack him, try to kill him, or summon others to kill him. He couldn't allow that. He had to survive. He leapt at the one closest the door, tearing into the human. He couldn't let them contact the others.
He had to go home.
---
Ishikawa wrinkled his nose. The miasma of decay was thick in the underground cavern. He and Boma wouldn't have been here if wasn't for the fact that this batch of terrorists were smart. They'd hijacked some telecom maintenance nanomachines, and ordered them to lay down an independent and parallel dataline network between the various locations that were used by these neo-trotskyites. He clipped the last lead into their circuit, and breathed out. It was done.
And felt his stomach lurch. He was shaking his head when a summons from the Major blossomed in his field of view. "Everyone, to the van. Now."
Boma was already moving into a steady, loping stride. "What's up, Major?"
---
Proto looked about at the carnage. The Chief hadn't given him any details yet. "These bodies look like they were torn apart, sir. What did this?"
"We don't know. Kenbishi Industries asked the Justice Ministry for us specifically in this matter." Arameki frowned. He hadn't seen anything like this in years. The security sensors had been destroyed, and their data purged. The wrist thick power cable that had been shoved into the housing of a camera left no doubt as to why there was no visuals on the perpetrators.
"We got here as soon as we could, Chief. We saw the security robot in the hall, what are we looking at?" The Major stepped aside, to let the rest of the team in. The order to report to Kenbishi had been of the highest priority. She gazed out at the bodies, broken, twisted. 15 men and women, dead, and millions in damage. It looked like a squad of powersuits had been at work here.
The others did the same, several quickly stiffling comments. Batou knelt by one body, his hand outspread above a gaping hole in the torso, where a flesh heart had been torn out from behind. Ishikawa wished he was back in the sewers. Saito crouched beside a bloody streak on the floor, frowning. The sniper looked to the former Ranger, the two sharing a nod, not having to say a word. The Major noticed the look, she could tell what they were thinking. She'd noticed the signs as well.
"Chief, who were we supposed to meet with? Not these people, I hope."
Mr. Churnow stumbled through the door to the yard, looking shaken, pale. It wasn't entirely because of memories about his last experience with the group before him. "With me. I'm sorry, we had to be sure of what was missing. It took longer than I expected."
Batou's voice was quiet, oddly calm. "A Tachikoma did this."
The Major was on the exective in a heartbeat, fearing what could happen if she wasn't. "You told us they'd all been destroyed when their programs were lost."
---
Author's notes:
Churnow was one of the suits during TESTATION,
the one who didn't want to share all the data.