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This is a Dual episode. This ties in with the Cabinet Intelligence Service & Gouda story-line (though the two main story lines inter-relate). This is the first Dual episode and the fourth episode of the season.
Summary
The largest live fire exercise ever conducted by the Japanese Self Defense Force takes place in advance of the Prime Minister's planned announcement of the repealing of the Refugee Special Action Policy. As part of this exercise, a group of soldiers with Ground Self Defense Force have staged a 5:30 AM practice raid against a building where a simulated refugee terrorist group is alleged to be keeping a think tank. A Jigabachi helicopter (an assault chopper that somewhat resembles the US Apache) is dispatched to destroy the tank, but after firing an anti-tank missile into the target the pilot of the helicopter suffers a massive heart attack, and the Jigabachi begins to spin out of control. The on-board Artificial Intelligence (AI) gets the helicopter back under control and the military officers in charge of this particular drill decide to abort it out of concern for the safety of their troops; however, the AI aboard the Jigabachi refuses to acknowledge the order to return to its parent JMSDF aircraft carrier. Acting on the assumption that the chopper is under attack, the AI overrides the flight controls of other armed Jigabachi aircraft, an air tanker from the carrier, and several nearby military bases, ordering these units into a tight defence formation in the heart of the Niihama Refugee Residential District.
By 8:45 AM the situation has escalated; the Jigabachis have openly engaged anyone and anything the AI has diagnosed as a threat, and if the choppers do not leave the area soon they will not have enough fuel to make the return trip to their bases. Section 9 and the GSDA are placed on standby in anticipation of being ordered in to resolve the conflict when Aramaki is unexpectedly approached by Kazundo Gouda, the head of the Cabinet Intelligence Service, who explains that the probable reason for the helicopter AI's refusal to comply with the stand down order is that the AI is still receiving transmissions from the dead pilot's cyberbrain. Acting on this assumption Gouda transfers control of the situation to Section 9, and outlines a plan that calls for Batou and Kusanagi to take a handful of Tachikoma tanks and lure the Jigabachis out to a secluded area of the refugee district, allowing Saito to snipe the deceased pilot's cyberbrain. Wasting no time, Section 9 puts the plan into action. Though they manage to recall the helicopters, the damage has been done. The whole incident served to strain relations between the refugees and the government, and Section 9 begins to suspect a conspiracy.
