So, I've been doing some digging into the extensive lore of the world of Nier, particularly the events happening from just the end of Ending E of Drakengard to Automata. A super TL;DR of the lore without major spoilers is that humanity in order to survive the Maiso given off by the boss lady in Drakengard decides to split their souls from their bodies which leads to the events of Nier and Nier: Replicant. And the current state of humanity that's revealed at the end of Automata is thanks to the ending of Replicant and what is done with the Grimoires by Nier. As we're slowly making our way towards the Singularity, what if in the universe of Nier the push for Elon Musk's envisioning of the future was taken much more into consideration and one part of humanity instead of going under Project Gestalt went under a different process entirely to preserve the human race through the use of encoding one's very brain to an Engram to later be downloaded into a biomechanical body.

In and of itself, it sounds pretty interesting, right? One of the things that makes us human is the very concept that we have a soul and the soul being very integral to the story in Replicant. So, one of the big questions in this story that I want to ask is do these humans that have encoded their very being to the digital realm still believe that they have a soul? It's like that moment from Mass Effect 2 when Legion asks if he has a soul and it makes you genuinely think if Legion, an amalgamation of machine intelligences, has a soul. So, with the idea's proposal proposed, let's get down to how I want this to play out. But before that, another mini lore dump. In the world of Automata, there's the land of light and the land of darkness. Basically, one half of the hemisphere is in perpetual darkness, while the other in perpetual light due to the planet getting tidally locked. Obviously, if this were the case, life would not be able to continue due to one half of the world basically being Mars and the other side being a frozen wasteland with only a small livable band where the two halves meet. So, I'm going to change it up as to how that works.

So, with all that out of the way, let's get this party started.

Title: [undecided].

Rating: T+ to maybe M; more likely starting at T+ then escalating to M.

Pairing(s): m!OC/Commander, 21O, A2, other 2B types? I'm really undecided on this as to how it may go. May as well leave options open for now. True 2B/9S though.

Summary: When humanity decided what it was going to do to preserve itself, some chose Project Gestalt, but others had something else in mind and decided to save their entire beings digitally onto Engrams and stored them remotely on Mars, far away from the White Chlorination Syndrome's cause with a facility on Earth that would create biomechanical bodies capable of continuing the species ready and waiting to be used. However, things happen and thousands of years pass. One of the humans stored on ice is finally able to be transmitted to Earth with the goal of assessing the livability of the planet and establishing if recolonization efforts are worth it, but this doesn't go unnoticed by YoRHa and Adam/Eve.

Disclaimer: I own nothing other than my copy of MS Word and my desktop. Nier: Automata belongs to Platinum Games and Yoko Taro. I'm only playing around in his playground. All original ideas are owned by me unless otherwise specified. See the forward for the full disclaimer.

XxXxXxX

In the center of a dark room sat a single man on an ordinary office chair. A circle of light surrounded him and the chair revealing himself to the rest of the room's occupants. Surrounding him in a half-moon formation were nine podium desks, each of which had a person shrouded in darkness behind them. The residual light refractions only let the man in the chair see the general outlines of these figures. Six males and three females.

"Agent," one's voice said, it was garbled as to hide their identity and who specifically was speaking, "you have been selected to the final round for Project: Homecoming."

"I thank you for your consideration," he said humbly.

"However," another stated, "before we select a finalist, we must know that you are mentally sound for the potential trials ahead."

"Councilor?" he asks unsure of where this line of questioning was going to lead.

"It states in your records that you were among the last of the evacuation fleets to leave Terra, is this correct?"

"Yes, it is."

"And is it also correct that your sleeper ship was stranded for the better part of a century in deep space before a patrol vessel found you and what remained of your fellow travelers?" another asked.

"Yes, that would be correct. From what we were informed of, creatures belonging to that of the White Chlorination Syndrome victims damaged our homing beacon transponder," he answered truthfully.

"And do you hold a grudge against the WCS monsters that allowed several thousand of your fellow travelers, including immediate family, to perish?"

He steeled himself. "If the Councilor is asking whether or not my past involving the WCS monsters and their shell of human selves will affect my performance, I can reassure this Council that it will not."

"Despite seeing what these creatures are capable of first-hand?" an older-sounding voice stated. "In your record, it is stated that you were moved around many times from Berlin to Tokyo, to Los Angeles, to New York, to finally Cape Canaveral where you and your family emigrated from Terra. During your time moving through various refugee camps, I'm certain you saw what they are able to do to close friends if not family, yes?"

He took a deep breath before answering. "If it pleases the Council, yes, I have seen what the WCS monsters are capable of doing, however, I have also seen what man was able to do to one another. From the Iraqi wars to the final Resource Wars after the Tokyo Incident of 2003. I have seen both the best and worst of what mankind has to offer the universe. If chosen for this mission, I will not lose sight of the goal and mission statement of it."

There was silence as the Councilors looked to one another. Finally, one spoke up. "Thank you for your time, Agent. We will inform all volunteers of the results shortly of our decision."

XxXxXxX

The innumerable sounds of clacking could be heard as false, tactile button projections were pressed by Operator units in the Bunker control room. No one really knew why the holographic projections made noise. Some speculated that it was because Humans originally used these stations before they fled to the Moon Base and needed something to tell them that their inputs had been made. All of the Operators present had their roles. Many were assigned to units in the field while others were to internal operations and monitoring. 18O was one of those units that fit the latter.

She was like the rest of her 'sisters.' That being with short blonde hair, grey eyes, and fair skin which in the light of the Bunker Control room's monitors made them look like ghosts. She wore the same attire as they did. A black bodysuit that covered her groin and wrapped over her shoulders, missing sleeves and leggings. A microskirt. A sheer material that covered the exposed synthetic flesh and high heel boots that reached her thighs. The last thing that finished her attire was gloves that stopped at the cuff and a veil that covered everything from the bridge of her nose down to her neck.

She typed away at her terminal until an alert popped up on her screen. Even with her android reflexes it was borderline missable. It was up one moment and gone the next. If it wasn't for the fact that she caught it in the corner of her eye, she would have missed it entirely. It was some kind of transmission. It was high-powered and cast from parts unknown to a borderline ancient satellite in orbit of Earth with a transmission diameter of less than a centimeter. It lasted less than a millisecond.

She tried to trace the signal to its endpoint, but it went into the City, a target for the second Pearl Harbor Invasion. A stronghold of the Machine Lifeforms a resistance group agreeing with Yorha in its end goal of stopping the Machine Lifeforms was currently reinforcing their invasion in a few days. As for specifics, when it reached the City, it just disappeared into the buildings long since been abandoned by their previous inhabitants. 18O contemplated relaying this information to the Commander, but she hesitated. After all, she and the rest of the Council were planning the invasion as a follow-up to a failed incursion several years prior that resulted in the loss of all units. 18O filed this away in her memory banks to follow up on after the incursion. Right now, it was just a curiosity, nothing worth bothering her commanding officer over right now.

And so, the next few planetary days went by and the operation that kicked off the next Machine War occurred. There was a celebration for the establishment of a beachhead by units 2B and 9S. It was during the very brief celebratory event in the control room that 18O noticed something much, much bigger.

It was another transmission. Same satellite. Same location in the City. Instead of what looked like a signal that lasted but the blink of an eye, this was a transmission that lasted much longer and appeared to be in the range of two and a half petabytes. Her eyes widened in shock. There weren't many things that could be contained in that amount of data in a datastream that appeared to be cast in a very thin transmission radius. The first thing that came to mind was one of the many Black Box transmission kiosks positioned in advance of the invasion which looked like old, decrepit vending machines once used by humans. But with a supporting Scanner unit any one of the Yorha androids could transmit their Black Box data back to the Bunker to be backed up and reissued in a new body should something happen to their body; obviously the kiosks were a redundancy in case there was no Scanner unit for any reason. But that data was transmitted from the Bunker to Earth or vice versa, not from deep space to Earth.

However, the Machine Lifeforms were solely based on Earth. Whatever invasion they originally incurred all those thousands of years ago had set local nodes that have been proven to be extremely difficult to destroy. Not once since the evacuation of Humanity did they see data streams get sent FROM space TO Earth. That begged the question of where it came from, after all, the origin was obscured on top of being such a small transmission radius that it made it extremely difficult to trace.

"Commander White, I have something!" 18O shouted out.

This got the entire control room's attention including the aforementioned commander. "Yes, Operator?"

"There is what seems to be a massive data transfer happening in the direction of the City."

She raised an eyebrow. "Is it one of our units being transmitted to the surface?"

"No! It's coming from deep space but the exact origins are being obscured and relayed by a human-looking satellite in orbit of Earth."

This got her attention. After all, it was very odd. "Do you know where it's being transmitted?"

"The edge of the City. According to old human records, it would have still been in the city limits but the official records list it as being redacted." The commander was silent as she ran her own thought processes and analysis. "Ma'am?"

"What units do we have already on the ground?" she asked to everyone in the room.

"Units 2B and 9S, but they're already on assignment," 6O reported. "I can have them belay their current operation but I do not know how long it will take them to get to those coordinates."

Commander White paused for a moment but shook her head. "No, their operation is too important to be delayed. Who else has made landfall since the beachhead was established?"

There was silence as each Operator went over their own list of androids under their watch. One Operator spoke up, "I have 12G and 20S who are on patrol but not assigned to any pressing operation."

"How easily would you be able to route them to 18O's observed coordinates?"

"A few hours at most."

"Work with 18O to send your units to the location."

XxXxXxX

"I don't get why we're the ones that have to do this," 20S complained as she hiked a few steps behind her companion.

"You mean, other than Command told us we had to?" 12G stressed.

"Well, yeah!" the scanner complained. The gunner shook her head in annoyance as she continued to lead the way toward 6O's waypoint.

The two were dressed in the standard Yorha fare. That being a white under suit unitard and black dress with black stockings inside knee-length combat boots. Black lace covered their midriffs and cleavages for maximum coverage. Visor coverings laid over their eyes giving them a HUD with multiple layers of information. They both had long sleeves and white gloves to maintain a good grip on their weapons. For 20S she had a headband while 12G had her hair tied up in a ponytail to keep it out of the way when she was fighting. There were… questions as to why the Council wanted them to wear these combat uniforms, but many of those questions were squashed by Commander White who said that it was their job to follow orders and orders were to wear these outfits. 20S had the standard Yorha melee weapon – a sword – meanwhile 12G had a rifle based on the Kalashnikov pattern of rifles.

"I thought you were complaining that we had nothing to do?" 12G countered.

"Well… yeah."

"And didn't you say that you didn't want to be wasting our time on, and I quote, 'small-fry Machine Lifeforms that the Resistance has been dealing with for centuries now?'" she prodded with an implied raised eyebrow.

"Yeah…"

"Well?"

"Alright, alright," 20S relented. "Fine, I'd rather not go into a completely unknown area with just the two of us where the closest support units are hours away."

"Didn't your idol 2B do the same just a few days ago?"

"I mean… yeah, but she and her partner had to detonate their Black Boxes."

"We're here," 12G announced. This snapped 20S out of her annoyance. They looked at the building in front of them. It was an ancient car service station that at some point served petroleum fuels. The interior had long since either been ransacked by human refugees who couldn't escape to the Moon or the contents had decayed with time.

"It… looks like a service station," 20S pointed out the obvious. She then activated her sensors suite. "However… it looks like there's more to it." She proceeded to walk over to an unassuming wall and opened a console window. A few seconds later the wall shimmered to show what looked to be elevator doors.

12G's Pod – likewise with 20S's Pod – who had been silent through their banter throughout the City and until now, spoke up. "Sensors indicate a large power source under this service station."

The doors opened. It was illuminated by what appeared to be LED lights. "Maybe we should call for backup?" 20S suggested nervously.

"We are the backup," 12G responded as she entered the elevator car. Sighing, 20S joined her and their Pods followed.

There weren't any buttons but a single control screen. 20S brought up another console window and a second later there was the signature 'ding' of the elevator while the doors closed. They immediately noticed that they were going down extremely quickly. They watched as the display above didn't show a floor, but a number of meters below ground. It stopped at 2 kilometers below the surface. As far as they were aware, this was the deepest any structure – human, Machine Lifeform, or Yorha – had been recorded. The door dinged again and opened.

What appeared was a long corridor with what seemed to be a light at the end. 12G took point and started to walk ahead of 20S. As they walked, the lights that ran along the floor lit up as they entered some unknown sensor range of it (as when they stepped out of it, it turned off. To say it was eerie was an understatement. They arrived at what was a pair of doors with an opaque window where one couldn't really see anything beyond it. They were double-hinged so one could push on them from either direction. Seeing as they weren't locked, they pushed their way in.

The room opened up to show a receptionist area with a desk and computer terminal which had long since been coated in a thick coating of dust that was more akin to a blanket. There were dim running lights along the floor and ceiling that allowed the two androids to look about without assistance from their Pods or night vision modes. There were chairs and what looked to be dust-covered magazines on end tables. There was a single door that led out of the room and a light on top of the door switched from red to green and the sound of locks disengaging was heard. The doors opened to reveal a massive complex.

There was a massive antechamber which in the center appeared to be some kind of computer system processing area with plenty of terminals and screens; almost like the Bunker's control room. But there wasn't anyone at any of the stations and all the screens appeared dark. The large chamber appeared to span at least three stories, them being at the topmost area. Looking down, there were two lights coming from windows in the branching rooms that were on. From this distance, they could tell that in the language on record as English there was written 'Armorer' and the other being 'Medical.' Armorer was on the lower of the levels and Medical was on the middle of the three floors. The material appeared to be utilitarian grey as it was all metal plates with some cushioning laid on top of it, mostly in the form of carpeting. The lighting was the same energy-efficient LED lighting lining the panels on the walls and floors.

The pair leaped off the railing and used their Pods to slow their descent to an almost feather-like landing. There was one console that was on that had several lines of text on it.

"Transmission complete," 20S read out. "Hash check confirmed, 0% fragmentation. Re-sleeving process initiated." She looked up at 12G who was looking at the light coming from the Armorer room's window. "What is this place? It doesn't look like it was made by Machine Lifeforms."

"No, it doesn't," 12G replied. She looked at her Pod. "Try and link up with the local network and pull as many files as possible for the Bunker."

"Acknowledged," the Pod replied.

"Come, 20S." They walked away from the Pod which had begun its work. They walked to the Armorer's window and saw machines manufacturing new weapons. The patterns that were used appeared to be based on that of the Armalite pattern series of rifles used thousands of years ago. On another part of the automated facility's room appeared to be a series of machines manufacturing ammunition. No matter what part of a process they were looking at, it was starting from the raw materials and manufacturing them into their final products.

"My scans are telling me that those rifles are magnetically assisted, chemically propelled weapons," 20S reported. "Based on our records of Machine Lifeform armor, they should be able to penetrate it easily if my readings are right."

"Perhaps my Pod can pull the schematics for the weapons for the Bunker to improve on." 20S could only shrug at that.

They climbed the stairs to the next level and to the next light, which happened to be on their left. Walking over the window showed what looked to be a medical bay, but it appeared to go deeper and a light further in confirmed this. Looking at each other once to make sure they were on the same page, they entered the medical bay. Inside it looked to be what anyone would expect from a place of medical care. There were beds, monitors, and what appeared to be screens for both entertainment of the patients and visiting individuals to stave off boredom.

"12G," 20S spoke up, "do you think that this was a human facility?"

"I can't think of many biological organisms who could create such a thing," 12G replied. Her eyes wander to across the way – what would be underneath the reception area – to what appeared to be a mess hall. Machines didn't eat. The closest analog was them consuming water to power their reactors. There were… some who cooked and consumed other materials to emulate their creators. "Come on," she ordered.

They approached the doors that had light still coming from behind them and as they did, they couldn't help but notice a placard that stated 'Needlecast arrival/departures' on it. 20S searched through her database of known human acronyms and words and this didn't match up with any known words in the human language lexicon. They walked through the doors to see what could be described as cubicles with a space for someone to sit, but beyond that was a plexiglass walled room where a table sat in the center and beyond that what seemed like a conveyer belt that something hung on. It showed a temperature below zero. They continued to walk until they spotted something in one of the rooms.

Inside on the table was what looked like a plastic bag filled with some kind of translucent goop. And in that goop was what appeared to be a naked figure with some kind of apparatus covering their mouth and nose. They couldn't quite tell but it appeared to be modeled after a male.

"Why would anyone leave an android down-," 20S started before suddenly stopping. She looked to 12G in horror before stating, "My sensors indicate that's a carbon-based lifeform."

12G immediately snapped to pay attention to the figure on the table. "You're telling me…"

"That that's a human?" 20S completed. "Yes, I believe so."

"But they're all supposed to be on the Moon!" 12G exclaims in a borderline out-of-character outburst.

"I know!" 20S exclaims in a just as worried outburst. "What do we do?"

12G saw the human twitch and without thinking, she wrenched the doors of the room open and rushed in. Seeing what looked like a zipper on the pouch, she pulled it down and what spilled out was the translucent sludge that was suspending the person inside – which she confirmed was male. He then fell to the ground following the sludge and in doing so was shocked awake.

For the Agent, what felt like floating in the void for eternity was immediately met with a rude awakening, as was the process of Needlecasting and re-sleeving in general. He immediately grabbed at his face and pulled away the intubation mask which kept this body alive while it was in suspended animation. Well, more specifically in his case, the cloned body was kept in storage until needed. As he ripped it away and breathed in the very stale air of the bunker deep underneath former Japan, his senses went on high alert as the military neuro-chems kicked into gear and noticed the two very unexpected onlookers. He sprung up with surprising – at least to the strange women's point of view – speed and wrapped his arm around one of them in a hostage hold. The first thing he noticed was that this woman was much, much heavier than he expected for her petite frame.

"Wait! There's no need to be hostile, human!" the one with a sword currently on her back called out. "We're friends!"

"Who are you?" the Agent growled out, not from any source of animalistic or primal reactions to the chems, but that this was the first words spoken by his vocal cords in this body. This wasn't his first time transmitting into a new body. "What do you want? How did you get in here?" he demanded.

"I'm Yorha no. 20 Type S and that's Yorha no. 12 Type G."

"What?" the Agent asked in genuine confusion.

"I am a Scanner unit and she is a Gunner unit," 20S tried to clarify. "Our names can be simplified down to 20S and 12G respectively," she continued before changing the subject. "My partner and I came down here after the Bunker detected a massive data transmission coming to this location," she answered the second question. "As for how we got in here, the doors just… opened."

"What's a Yorha?"

The two looked at one another. "You don't know what Yorha is?" 20S asked.

"No. Never heard that before in my life."

"Yorha is an android organization founded by the Council of Humanity on the Moon to fight the Machine Lifeforms."

"Machine Lifeforms? What happened to WCS and the monsters that came from them?"

"I… don't have the answer to that. But the Machine Lifeforms invaded thousands of years ago and humanity fled to the Moon while we fight to reclaim the Earth for them." There was a pause as he digested this information. "Can I ask what you call yourself?"

He returned his attention to the robot/android girl and replied, "I'm Agent-."

To be continued…?

XxXxXxX

And with that, this pilot is complete. Now, I did leave off the name only because I couldn't think of one. So, if I decide to continue this one that's kind of the first thing that I'll need to think up. The second thing is that if you're familiar with the show or book series Altered Carbon, you'll recognize a lot of inspiration was taken from that for some of the terms and the like. One of the themes that will be explored in this story is the nature of humanity. After all, humans in this story will be living on another planet using meat suits to pilot their digitized brains around, they're basically androids already with extra steps. At what point does one cease to be human and machine begin? And vice versa? This is legitimately high-tier sci-fi stuff that I don't know if I'll be able to do it justice, to be honest. As for what continuity that the Automata side of things will follow, originally, I considered using one of the true endings, but with the release of Automata 1.1a, I think that's the way that I'd proceed in following the anime and manga adaptation as it does have a little more liberty to work with on top of extra characters such as Lily who was revealed to be a Type L android, a type that we had never seen before. In other words, a much more interesting content pool to draw from.

On to fic related things. As some of you may have noticed, there have been rumors of another purge going on; specifically, that of those who write lewd materials on this site. One such author, Cambrian Beckett, has already been purged from the site with all their stories deleted (granted his stories were reposts from other sites). While a mass majority of my portfolio on this site consists of non-lewd materials, as some of you know I have dabbled in it in bursts but not regularly. That being said, there is a possibility that this archive or my account could get nuked off this site. I don't really have a plan for if this happens, so, fingers crossed that doesn't happen. If it does, I do ask that the FFN staff only nuke the chapters they have this conflict with and leave the other entries. I do understand why they're doing this, that being that they likely got a complaint about explicit material and now they need to clean house again as this has happened before, roughly a few years ago. I do wish that there was a compromise like an AO tag that can only be accessed by signing in and by enabling a setting. Granted, as someone who has been on the internet a long time and been exposed to this stuff despite there being Age Gates on sites that state "this is for 18+ only, are you 18? Yes, no." when I was still underage many, many years ago, there is no real solution without people giving their real identities to FFN staff with proof of ID; this is something I clearly don't see happening. I won't stop writing these types of stories as I've stated numerous times that I do this for myself, as a way to explore ideas. However, I just won't publish them here any time soon. I guess I'll watch and wait and see where this whole thing ends up. After all, I do follow some really major stories with 2k+ followers and favorites who are still up that has this kind of material in it. For all we know, this is one person getting nuked and everyone else freaking out.

On to happier news related to fic things. I've recently come up with a Cyberpunk 2077/Black Lagoon idea where V ends up in Roanapur before Rock joins the Lagoon crew and he becomes a legendary edgerunner in another time and place. I have a TES: Skyrim idea where a self-insert gets isekai'd to Skyrim via Sheogorath and has GAMER powers with changes to the world to make it interesting. I may have mentioned this in the last entry, but I have 3 Breath of the wild/Tears of the Kingdom ideas, two of which are crossovers with Fate and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, the last one is a ToTK solo entry. All three have interesting scenarios behind them. Lastly, I have a Fate and Percy Jackson idea where both Rin and Shirou end up in the PJO-verse because Zelretch wants them to research the magic of this world. I do have some more lewdfic ideas but as mentioned in the previous paragraph those will be written just not released for a while.

On to IRL stuff. Been dealing with some personal issues such as what my primary doctor has identified as anxiety (but it's so negligible that it may as well be like an allergy flare-up) which can be managed with therapy. It'd probably help if I set up the appointment. I've been getting another 3d printed project going and it's mostly complete. I just have to make some modifications to it as well as wait for a part I ordered to arrive to complete it. There might be something, eventually, on my Odd Sea channel. We had a team member quit last week and that's been a whole can of worms that we've had to deal with. Outside of that, my sibling who had been staying with me for the summer left to go back to college and my roommate swapped shifts, so weekends are going to be very quiet and week days a little noisier. Hell, if I was dating right now, date night at my place would actually be possible on the weekends with the extra privacy during those almost 14 hours. Shame that I'm single.

Anyway, I'll see you next time in whatever I decide to release next (or not, we'll see as to how this whole round of banning goes and if I get caught in the crossfire or not). Let me know what you thought about this idea in all the usual places.