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NOMAN'S LAND: Difference between revisions
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A flotilla of ships navigates through space, the SEEDs fleet, passing through the upper atmosphere of a desert planet. Aboard one, SEEDs Ship Five, a boy in cold-weather gear enters a room full of hundreds of people in cryogenic suspension and greets them, some by name. As he does this, he is knocked off his feet by an explosion. The boy is called to return to his other companions over the PA: his twin brother, Nai, and a woman he addresses as Rem, their adoptive mother. Rem hurries both boys to an escape shuttle as the ship falls apart around them, deflecting Vash's fearful requests to know what's going on. After climbing into the pilot seat, Nai asks Rem to come too, but she hangs back. She tells the boys she loves them and that meeting them has brought her joy. Then she launches the shuttle, just before a gout of flame roars through the corridor and erases Rem from sight. Nai is almost entirely stoic, but the other boy - Vash - is tearful and devastated. Nai steers the shuttle through clouds of debris, around other dying ships, and towards the desert planet's surface. | A flotilla of ships navigates through space, the SEEDs fleet, passing through the upper atmosphere of a desert planet. Aboard one, SEEDs Ship Five, a boy in cold-weather gear enters a room full of hundreds of people in cryogenic suspension and greets them, some by name. As he does this, he is knocked off his feet by an explosion. The boy is called to return to his other companions over the PA: his twin brother, Nai, and a woman he addresses as Rem, their adoptive mother. Rem hurries both boys to an escape shuttle as the ship falls apart around them, deflecting Vash's fearful requests to know what's going on. After climbing into the pilot seat, Nai asks Rem to come too, but she hangs back. She tells the boys she loves them and that meeting them has brought her joy. Then she launches the shuttle, just before a gout of flame roars through the corridor and erases Rem from sight. Nai is almost entirely stoic, but the other boy - Vash - is tearful and devastated. Nai steers the shuttle through clouds of debris, around other dying ships, and towards the desert planet's surface. | ||
May 25, 10:00 AM. Two people drive across a desert, driving a truck towing a battery pack with a satellite atop it and listening to November Public Broadcasting for the news, reporting that the July city government is after a suspect in a series of | May 25, 10:00 AM, an unknown amount of time later. Two people drive across a desert, driving a truck towing a battery pack with a satellite atop it and listening to November Public Broadcasting for the news, reporting that the July city government is after a suspect in a wide-ranging series of mass murders and Plant thefts. The driver, a small young woman by the name of Meryl Stryfe, is talking with her older male colleague, Roberto de Niro, who persistently refers to her as "Newbie". It turns out that they are reporters working for a news agency and have been assigned a story, and that she is the newest recruit to be brought on. Recently graduated from the high class November University, Meryl is eager to prove herself and change things for the better while Roberto says that her good intentions and inexperience will be quick routes to death - the planet they inhabit, No Man's Land, is a harsh and unforgiving place (as demonstrated by the enormous alien whale breaching the sand behind them). As Meryl grows defensive and irritated with his cynicism, the truck's engine suddenly dies, which Meryl is embarrassed to realise is because she forgot to charge its battery. Roberto sighs and wearily says Meryl doesn't have long to live. | ||
Roberto and Meryl continue on foot, the harsh sun quickly tiring Meryl and leaving her thirsty. She asks if the so-called "Humanoid Typhoon" even exists. Roberto tosses her a tabloid-style magazine with an article on the topic, complete with a caricatured illustration, and tells her he's dangerous - anyone who encounters him is marked for death. She scoffs, saying that no person is only a monster. They pass near three bodies tied up and hanging upside-down from a pile of scrap metal, which Roberto stops to identify as the work of the Bad Lads Gang. The central corpse, Meryl realises, is not a corpse, as she accidentally pulls off its prosthetic left arm investigating. The very much alive young man in a bright red long coat spins on the rope and cackles madly. Declaring him a "creep", Roberto turns to leave, but Meryl decides to help him down rather than abandon him. Roberto notes the heavy pistol in his holster and his "Lost Tech" prosthetic arm, and asks if the mystery man is a gunman of some kind. Now seated on the ground and refitting his prosthetic, the young man acknowledges he can use his weapon but denies being a fighter. | Roberto and Meryl continue on foot, the harsh sun quickly tiring Meryl and leaving her thirsty. She asks if the so-called "Humanoid Typhoon" even exists. Roberto tosses her a tabloid-style magazine with an article on the topic, complete with a caricatured illustration, and tells her he's dangerous - anyone who encounters him is marked for death. She scoffs, saying that no person is only a monster. They pass near three bodies tied up and hanging upside-down from a pile of scrap metal, which Roberto stops to identify as the work of the Bad Lads Gang. The central corpse, Meryl realises, is not a corpse, as she accidentally pulls off its prosthetic left arm investigating. The very much alive young man in a bright red long coat spins on the rope and cackles madly. Declaring him a "creep", Roberto turns to leave, but Meryl decides to help him down rather than abandon him. Roberto notes the heavy pistol in his holster and his "Lost Tech" prosthetic arm, and asks if the mystery man is a gunman of some kind. Now seated on the ground and refitting his prosthetic, the young man acknowledges he can use his weapon but denies being a fighter. | ||
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Everyone in town runs for cover as Vash, dismayed but oddly calm, sighs that the Captain is crazy and decides to finally draw his gun. Roberto tells Meryl that Vash is just like her: well-intentioned and obviously doomed. Vash takes aim and pulls the trigger, but the gun is empty, and he checks his pockets only to realise he's completely out of bullets. He panics, wailing and crying theatrically, and calls for ammunition. Rosa approaches Meryl and hands her a single .22 bullet, which Mery runs to toss up to Vash. The July MP Captain first knocks the bullet away before Vash can catch it, then when Vash does catch it and load his weapon, the Captain throws him off-target by firing on his pistol and rushes to shoot Vash point-blank before he can recover his aim. Vash dodges three such shots with impossible, inhumanly effortless grace, then grapples the Captain and flips him off his feet before knocking him out by hitting him in the back of the head with his pistol. He then uses a piston installed in his prosthetic to break a large rock out of the ground, throws it upwards into the oncoming cloud of missiles, and fires his single bullet after it. The rock shatters upon hit and its pieces are thrown outward, harmlessly detonating all the missiles before they can destroy the town. The police are thrown out. | Everyone in town runs for cover as Vash, dismayed but oddly calm, sighs that the Captain is crazy and decides to finally draw his gun. Roberto tells Meryl that Vash is just like her: well-intentioned and obviously doomed. Vash takes aim and pulls the trigger, but the gun is empty, and he checks his pockets only to realise he's completely out of bullets. He panics, wailing and crying theatrically, and calls for ammunition. Rosa approaches Meryl and hands her a single .22 bullet, which Mery runs to toss up to Vash. The July MP Captain first knocks the bullet away before Vash can catch it, then when Vash does catch it and load his weapon, the Captain throws him off-target by firing on his pistol and rushes to shoot Vash point-blank before he can recover his aim. Vash dodges three such shots with impossible, inhumanly effortless grace, then grapples the Captain and flips him off his feet before knocking him out by hitting him in the back of the head with his pistol. He then uses a piston installed in his prosthetic to break a large rock out of the ground, throws it upwards into the oncoming cloud of missiles, and fires his single bullet after it. The rock shatters upon hit and its pieces are thrown outward, harmlessly detonating all the missiles before they can destroy the town. The police are thrown out. | ||
The next day, Meryl admiringly tells Vash he has amazing skill, but Vash demurs, claiming that he just got lucky. Neither Roberto nor Meryl are fooled and Roberto calls his bluff: Vash was not frightened by the military police, but he's scared of ''something'', and whatever it is, the red Plant has something to do with it. What is it? Vash drops his oblivious goofball attitude and hesitantly reveals that he has a brother. A flashback shows the moment just after the twins' escape shuttle crashed, where Vash finds Nai laughing atop a pillar of rubble while he watches burning SEEDS ships rain from the sky, and the pods with sleeping people inside being consumed by flames. Nai triumphantly shouts that his work is successful, and when Vash tells him in horror that he's committed murder with Rem among his victims, Nai gleefully names Vash his accomplice. The flashback ends, and Vash tells them his brother is named "Millions Knives". A strange insect-bird creature, one of several lingering around the town and Vash when he was tied up, flies from Jeneora Rock to the city of July. It reports | The next day, Meryl admiringly tells Vash he has amazing skill, but Vash demurs, claiming that he just got lucky. Neither Roberto nor Meryl are fooled and Roberto calls his bluff: Vash was not frightened by the military police, but he's scared of ''something'', and whatever it is, the red Plant has something to do with it. What is it? Vash drops his oblivious goofball attitude and hesitantly reveals that he has a brother. A flashback shows the moment just after the twins' escape shuttle crashed, where Vash finds Nai laughing atop a pillar of rubble while he watches burning SEEDS ships rain from the sky, and the pods with sleeping people inside being consumed by flames. Nai triumphantly shouts that his work is successful, and when Vash tells him in horror that he's committed murder with Rem among his victims, Nai gleefully names Vash his accomplice. The flashback ends, and Vash tells them his brother is named "Millions Knives". A strange insect-bird creature, one of several lingering around the town and Vash when he was tied up, flies from Jeneora Rock to the city of July. It reports to a robed man playing a complex piano piece under the gaze of twisted, snarling statue: Knives. He is glad to know what he wants has been located, and declares that he will go to claim it before exterminating the parasites once and for all. | ||
==Characters== | ==Characters== | ||