TriMax 11 Chapter 3
Feb. 21st, 2005 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Chapter 3 - 'HEKIREKI' (Thunder)
The broadcasts by the Earth ships cause chaos, as everyone wants to know exactly what's going on right now. Luida's meeting with the whiny old men goes into a recess.
Vash and the girls hop back on to the ladder and Brad docks with the main Ship. Luida comes down to meet them.

She immediately wants to know about his hair, but Vash evades answering that one. He's unhappy with the timing of the Earth ships' arrival, and Luida agrees - they know nothing about the numbers or capabilities of the fleet. A soldier arrives calling for Luida. Vash offers to go with her, but she tells him to stick to planning the actual fighting. (What - she doesn't think Vash would be an asset at her political board meeting? *g*)

Brad sets about organising the stores on board his ship, when Milly suddenly says, "Hey... Where's Mr Preacher? Wasn't he with you?"

Vash freezes. After a pause, Livio starts to speak up, but Brad elbows him aside. Brad explains rather euphemistically that Wolfwood's gone on a very long journey.

Milly slowly bursts into tears as it sinks in. That requires Meryl, fast.

The Ark is buzzing the surface of the planet and trashing empty towns as it goes. Zazie and a bunch of her sandworms watch it go. She's looking rather more battered than the last time we saw her - had trouble getting off the Ark? She's impressed by the Ark's power, but she's really not happy with the way things are going. And yet another Gung-Ho-Gun turns against Knives....

Back in Luida's meeting, there's more discussion of how much they don't know - about the Earth fleet, about the Plants that Knives has gathered. Luida finally manages to thrash out some agreement with the head planetary bigwig, the Mayor of December, over the objections of some of the others. I think the decision is to stop direct military attacks on the Ark because they're useless, but I can't begin to tell you how much my Japanese isn't up to political and military discussions, so don't swear on that one, okay?
Meryl and Milly hand Vash a big envelope full of his old stuff. Meryl rifled his pockets when he went off without the coat to get Knives at Geneora Rock. Vash wants to know why she's suddenly handing this stuff back now. I love some of the junk Vash keeps in his pockets. I'm particularly intrigued by the silly little key-ring figure!)

The stuff had been kept in storage at Bernedelli, and they were running an inventory. I get the feeling Meryl's decision to liberate it and return it to Vash isn't one the Company knows about XD.
There's a box in there that Vash doesn't recognise, and he opens it to find it contains some of the broken coins that Knives' assassins carry. Meryl apparently had a chat with the incarcerated Ninelives after the attack on the Ship - he gave her his coin, explained what it meant, and told her to give it to Vash. Ninelives, it turns out, was another Gung-Ho-Gun whose only motivation for fighting was fear of Legato.

Vash thanks Meryl and turns to leave. She tries to talk to him about what's going on, saying something about the Ship scanning for explosives and biological weapons, but Vash is as annoyingly evasive as ever, and walks out, saying he's going to see a short middle-aged guy.
Second row - the hair, the smile, the gloating - yeah, I think we got who this is.
Livio's in the washroom.

Brad walks in, and Livio thanks him rather haltingly.
Brad says he's okay with working with Livio - he's a useful kind of guy and there's a lot of stuff needs doing. Down at the bottom, he reminds Livio about Wolfwood and what happens to people who tag along with Vash the Stampede. (Over the page, he looks really mad at himself as he walks out of the room, and wonders why he bothered.)

Luida and the Mayor go to talk to the general, who really doesn't like what he's hearing, pointing out that he has the right to ignore blatantly unreasonable orders. Luida has to get all narrow-eyed and authoritarian with him.
The guy Vash wanted to see was Marlon, of course. Marlon can fix him up with some of the ammo he needs, but he's short on resources and can't meet all of Vash's special requirements. That doesn't worry Vash, though.

Marlon says it's not his place to interfere in Vash's life, but he proceeds to give Vash a lecture anyway, on trying to do too much all by himself and the dangers of being lonely. He thinks Vash should spend more time with Meryl and Milly. (I see Marlon obviously enjoyed his drinking session with them XD)

Vash listens to so much of this, looking slightly stunned and more and more distressed - and then he snaps and wants Marlon to STFU. Marlon can't figure out why the hell he got this kind of reaction.

Down on the planet, the people see a massive glowing light far out in the desert. It's an explosion, zooming in closer over several pages. And yep, Legato's awake again.

Awake and standing over Zazie's twisted body....
