Divided by a Wall

The insurgents, freshly bankrolled by a wealthy sponsor, throw AI-guided hardware at Batou's mercenary crew after their supposed silent approach is blown. Weapons open up, Obsidian slips away, and the fight scatters through a garage. A rogue robot dog harries Batou before it is put down, and Kusanagi turns a Tachikoma loose on a tank the targets have barricaded themselves inside. When a cloaked drone drops a missile on the position, the Tachikoma survives filthy but intact, and Saito's attempt to snipe the aircraft fails, hinting his satellite feed has been compromised.

With the tank unhackable and the team's vehicle wrecked, Kusanagi commandeers a Stinger and gives chase. Ammunition runs dry, the drone hunts the cloaked walker, and Saito, thought lost in the blast, turns out to have ridden out the explosion tucked inside his Tachikoma. Batou trades missile fire with the tank, losing the Stinger but crippling the enemy vehicle, and Kusanagi finally brings the drone down single-handed. As she moves to question the ringleader, the downed drone spends its final missile, and a black-clad special operations unit storms in demanding everyone stand down, an order Batou has no intention of obeying.

Elsewhere, Togusa visits Aramaki. After a brief word about his divorce, the two return to unfinished business: a proposal from newly installed Prime Minister Chris Otomo Tate to rebuild Section 9. Aramaki reads the offer as a leader wanting a tool to flex, and the pair weigh whether the American-blooded PM might answer to Washington. Aramaki wants the old team assembled for a foundational operation, and Togusa, doubtful of his own worth, agrees and takes his first task: locate the former members.

The sponsor-armed insurgents deploy AI drones against GHOST, and Obsidian escapes early in the raid.

Saito's compromised satellite feed and near-death in the drone strike become a running thread, resolved when he is found alive inside his Tachikoma.

Kusanagi destroys the drone alone, but the ringleader's interrogation is interrupted by a final missile and the arrival of a hostile special operations team.

Aramaki recruits Togusa to scout the scattered veterans of Section 9 for a rebuild ordered by Prime Minister Chris Otomo Tate.

The episode carries the subtitle AT YOUR OWN RISK and sits within the 2045 run of the series. Shinji Aramaki directed it from a script by Kenji Kamiyama.

It first aired in Japan on April 23, 2020, with the English release following on May 3, 2020. The story is preceded by Sustainable War and continues into MIA.