YoRHa is a play performed in Tokyo in 2014.
The events in the play created by Yoko Taro are set 4 years before
the ones in NieR:Automata.
The 14th Machine War is already happening and aside from being the fight
with the heaviest losses from both sides, it's also the first one in which
a YoRHa squadron is used.
The year is 11941.
In the BUNKER, a space station orbiting around the Moon
the YoRHa squadron is preparing for their first field mission.
A YoRHa squadron is formed by ANDROIDS with advanced combat skills,
created as a countermeasure against the disconcerting number of bio-machines
sent from the aliens to conquer the Earth.
The evolving potential of the bio-machines is so high that it requires
the same efforts in the advancement of Android's technology to compensate,
and to push their mental and physical evolution to the limit the Androids get implanted
with memories of humans from the past, fake memories that make them more similar to humans
and allow themselves to learn from the experience inside and outside the battlefield
despite the prohibition of feeling and showing any kind of emotions,
being considered a hindrance to their evolution.
A member of YoRHa squadron is the Attack Model Number 2.
Number 2 has the memories of a young girl living a peaceful life with her grandmother,
taking care of the farm outside the boundaries of their village.
The Android spent most of her time in the Bunker training with an older prototype,
named SEED, an experimental unit who was sent on Earth three times
in the past and claims knowing some humans having fought by their side.
Even if YoRHa models are not allowed showing any kind of emotions, a great affection
and a deep friendship grow between Number 2 and SEED.
When the squadron is about to take off for their first field mission,
Number 2 is informed by the Commander that SEED is dead in an accident
during a test involving some weapons.
Even if she was soulless, SEED leaves a message for Number 2 with her last words,
urging the friend to find herself a reason to live.
After humans escaped on the Moon right after the assault from the Machines,
they got back to their original form.
Watching the Earth from above, they started wondering if
their own existence wasn't a mistake.
But even if that was the case, we don't have any other choice
than to fight for them. It's our only purpose.
I don't want you to become like me, Number 2.
Please, find a reason to live.
Thank you for talking with me.
Farewell.
The mission requires the YoRHa squadron to infiltrate in the enemy facility inside
Mount Ka'ala, on the Oahu island in the Hawaii, to destroy the Machine's Mainframe,
shutting all them down at the same moment.
The squadron tries to land at Pearl Harbor, but they get attacked
by the enemy on the surface, utilizing a laser-targeting system
more evolved than the YoRHa cloaking technology.
Almost all the squadron is annihilated before landing.
Only four YoRHa members survive.
The Attack Models Number 2 and Number 4,
the Artillery Unit Number 16 and the Scanner Unit Number 21.
The squadron was supposed to be leaded by Number 1, but
after her death Number 2 is forced to take over and lead in her place.
Number 21 asks for the mission to be aborted: everything is messed up and
the situation is desperate, continuing would just be a hopeless suicide.
But the orders are clear: regardless of any losses,
the mission must proceed.
This lead to the YoRHa squadron to fight endless waves of Machines,
having the latter reached the landing site in the meanwhile,
so to catch their breath the Androids activate a powerful EMP that, beside
halting all enemies attack, also cut out any communication with the Bunker.
Despite that, they are being overwhelmed, but right before being defeated
a new squadron comes to their rescue, killing all the Machines and
blowing a lot of ground mines that manage to decimate the remaining enemies.
In that way the YoRHa squadron learns about the Resistance for the first time, a group of Androids
survived from an old squadron abandoned on Earth more than 200 years before.
In the beginning the Resistance amounted to 160 members, but now only
a handful of Androids lived in their camp, still fighting against the Machines.
Since they've been abandoned, the Android stopped calling themselves
with the codes the Bunker gave them: their leader called herself Rose and
gave new names to all her companions.
Just as soon as Number 2 tries to thank them for their intervention, the Resistance
points their weapon towards the YoRHa Androids, doubting their identity
and their purpose on the surface.
Two members of the Resistance, Anemone and Dahlia, are about to fight against
Number 4 and Number 16, incited by a third Android, Lily, afraid that YoRHa
are actually Machines so evolved that they can appear like humans.
Lily is extremely scared of dying, unusual in an Android,
and that makes her suspicious and really cautious.
I dream, I feel emotions.
Why shouldn't I be human?
Because you are not alive.
We are all made from mechanical parts.
Even so, when we break, we die!
And I'm afraid of dying!
Rose keeps her warriors at bay, allowing Number 2 to explain
the desperate situation they found themselves into.
Once they find out that the YoRHa squadron suffered heavy losses
and looks like being abandoned by the Moon as well, both groups cease any hostility
and together they get back to the Resistance camp.
When they are finally safe, Rose tells the story of how the Resistance survived
centuries without any aid or guidance from the Bunker, and how they never ceased to fight:
not for the command center, but just to save the planet for themselves,
since they are now like a family and only wish to live on Earth in peace,
something they could only hope to achieve after defeating the Machines.
Rose offers new names for Number 2 and her squadron members, but she declines
shocked, postponing the decision to whenever the mission will be completed.
After the mission for the assault at Mount Ka'ala is explained in details, some
Resistance's Androids are not convinced about helping the YoRHa squadron.
Rose counters saying that this is the chance for all of them to obtain a new purpose:
after years of battles and fallen comrades, their efforts accomplished nothing;
now they finally have a concrete opportunity to turn the tables.
We fight to protect our family.
Isn't that obvious?
A true leader have to be ready for this, as well.
But I...
Have to fight for my friends?
You can do it.
The courage you showed is what made me want to help you.
I can't take credit for that.
Someone taught me that, working together, you can manage to do almost anything.
Those words keep buzzing in my head...
You really look like a human. Maybe you give me this impression
because I've always been looking for people like them.
When everything seems to be fine, the Resistance points their weapons towards Lily,
in shock: the android is showing symptoms of an infection known as LOGIC VIRUS,
a virus she contracted when fighting the Machines that overwrites
the android's systems making them red-eyed berserkers
with the same skills of the bio-machines.
Rose is about to execute Lily on the spot, convinced that she can't be saved from the
LOGIC VIRUS, when Number 21 gets in her way.
The words she heard from Lily about being part of a family deeply touched her,
and before executing her she wants
to try to save her.
Being a Scanner type, Number 21 manage to hack the LOGIC VIRUS,
stopping Lily's infection and bringing the android back to her former self, yet leaving her
with the new skills she learned, thus making her incredibly powerful.
The Resistance and the YoRHa squadron start their expedition towards Mount Ka'ala,
but they fall victim of an ambush.
In the midst of the enemy fire, Number 2 calls the orbital station asking for aerial
support, but the Commander doesn't even speak with her directly.
One of her assistants, Futaba, tells her that any support request is denied and
that she should use the Resistance as cannon fodder instead,
to enter the facility.
Once again left without help, the group decides to split up.
Since Number 16 is an Artillery-type android, therefore useless in close quarter combat,
she stays with Lily and with most of the Resistance, with the task of giving
cover to the ones trying to sneak inside the facility.
Thus whilst Number 2, Number 4, Number 21, Rose, Anemone and four more
Resistance's androids head inside the mountain, their companion are outside
fighting a battle they can't possibly win.
Lily's powers are exceptional, the complicity between the warriors is deep and intense,
but there are just too many Machines.
When the enemies eventually fuse together in a gigantic bio-machine,
the androids have only one solution to prevent it from reaching their companions:
sacrificing themselves by overcharging their fusion reactors.
Together, they use that energy to blow up 100.000 enemies.
Not one single android survives this.
Number 2 and the others manage to reach the elevator that will take them
to the Mainframe.
The technology moving the elevator is ancient, but the bio-Machines protected
it with a defense system that only Number 21 can hack.
Sadly she has to keep up the hacking for all the time the elevator
will be working, so she must stay behind.
Before the doors closes, Anemone gets out to stay with Number 21,
and to fence off any machine coming for her until
the others reaches the Mainframe.
Right after the others left, Anemone reveals that she knows that Number 21 has been
infected with LOGIC VIRUS and that she's fighting it with all her strength
trying to be useful till the very end.
With great affection and a sad promise, Anemone agrees to kill
Number 21 when she'll go berserk.
Afterwards, Anemone gets infected and throw herself against
the Machines, falling in battle.
Since when?
You realized it?
Nothing can be hidden from you...
You've been infected haven't you?
Can't you heal yourself?
Yes, but the Machines understood how my system works and adapted to it.
If the virus can't be cured, you...
Thanks for staying with me.
When the elevator reaches the server...
I will give you peace.
When what's left of the group finally reaches the inside of the mountain after
the long descent, they met two mysterious red-dressed girls,
revealing themselves as the Artificial Intelligences of the Machines' Mainframe.
The two of them explain to the androids that their actions are futile, and some special
bio-machines appears and defeat the whole team in a matter of seconds, except for
Number 2 and Number 4, now surrounded not only by enemies but also facing their
previously allied androids – Rose included – converted by the Logic Virus infection.
But... It's terrible that everything came down to this...
You want to stop fighting?
Being an Android, don't you find this unusual?
Aren't you sad?
Of course I am!
But that's a different matter.
We have to fight because it is the only purpose of our existence.
I'm not afraid of fighting. I'm afraid of losing our friends in battle.
Why?
Why do we have to feel these emotions?
We are just androids...
And still, we are so human.
By that time, the red-dressed girls reveal to the androids the truth they learned
from their contacts with the Moon, scanning their bodies and hacking their
black boxes, where the memories of each Android is stored.
Their mission was suicidal to begin with.
All the assaults, all the difficulties and even the defeat inside the mountain were
calculated by the command, that wanted the YoRHas to find themselves
in impossible situations.
The androids, put under the heaviest pressure, would've been forced
towards a natural selection and an evolution that would've later been retrieved
in the form of data archived inside their black boxes, so to create new generations
of YoRHA even more perfect and human-like.
No YoRHa was intended to ever come back alive from the mission,
not even in the remote chance they actually succeded.
Each Android had inside herself a bomb that would explode at the moment
of their death, or that would've condemned them to the same fate by
self-destruction in the event of a successful mission.
As she finds out the truth, Number 4 stares intensely Number 2 and says to her...
Farewell.
... and detonates herself along with the Mainframe,
making a mission supposed to be a predestined failure, an unexpected success.
All the Machines around the mountains in a 250km radius stop working.
In the Bunker, the production for a new series of YoRHa units begins, using the data
obtained from the mission: the new Battle model will replace the obsolete Attack unit.
From the ruins of Mount Ka'ala Number 2 emerges, heavily damaged
by the explosion and yet still alive.
The Artificial Intelligences, oddly protective towards her, disturbs
the signal from the black box, so to keep her survival hidden
to the Bunker.
The last survivor of the YoRHa squadron removes her black blindfold
and raises her sword towards the sky in a taunting gesture.
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