The Section 9 is composed of former military officers, forensics scientists, and police detectives; these agents answer only to the Chief Director and the Prime Minister of Japan.

[5] Public Security Section 9 was established as a search and rescue organization; its mission statement has evolved to meet the demands of an uncertain and changing world characterized by invisible enemies who can destabilize entire countries from a simple reach of their keyboard, and by a blurring of the lines—between war and politics, combatants and civilians, crime and terrorism—have become increasingly irrelevant.

[1] Officially billed as an international organization, it is actually a covert counter-terrorist network and anti-crime unit operating in the Japanese National Public Safety Commission.

With its unique organizational structure, Section 9 is empowered and expected to handle both areas, removing bureaucracy and logistics that might otherwise slow down the process.

[7] In particular, Section 9 and its members are among the best counter-fourth generation cyberwarfare operatives in the country, and as a result usually end up involved in cybercrime cases relating to cybernetic lifeforms and the Internet, such as hacking and cyberterrorism.

[1] In preparation for an attack on their headquarters by the Umibozu's shock troopers and their Type 303 Armed Suit robots, all remaining Section 9 members barricade themselves into the building and fight the invaders with heavy weaponry.

The whole thing turns out to have been Aramaki's plan, sacrificing Section 9 in order to leave the prime suspect wide-open to arrest, investigation, and prosecution.

The first episode involves a hostage situation in which nine terrorists, who call themselves the Individual Eleven, are holed up in the Chinese Embassy, demanding a swift change in the Refugee Action Policy.

Section 9 is promised full reestablishment, and the approval of their new budget proposal that includes the reinstatement of think tanks (Tachikomas), on the condition that there are no hostage casualties in the process of stopping the terrorists before the press blackout runs out.

Later in the series it is revealed that the Individual Eleven's true intentions were to harm the wellbeing of refugees that had taken shelter in Japan at the end of World War IV.

Solid State Society initially focuses on the cyberbrain suicides of members of a terrorist organization that gained asylum in Japan.

Major Kusanagi, an ex-army hacker, is recruited by Aramaki and charged with putting together a team to deal with high level hacking threats.