Galaxy Express 999 Episode 001

Thus begins the story of the greatest space opera of its era… Galaxy Express 999… (Read: Galaxy Express Three-Nine)


Episode 001: Departure Ballad

The year is 2221 AD. With enormous advances in technology… Intergalactic travel is now a matter of routine… On Earth… a massive high tech metropolis called Megapolis has been built as a hub for the ‘Space Train’ system… a network of space going ‘Trains’ which spans the entire galaxy…

Only the wealthy may call Megapolis their home… and the poorer folk are cast out and made to live in terrible conditions… the citizens of Megapolis are by and large cyborgs… that is… humans who have forsaken their natural bodies to obtain longevity by transferring to mechanical bodies… Cyborg bodies are highly sought after… but are too expensive for common folk to obtain… It is the dream of all those who reside outside of Megapolis to one day obtain similar cyborg bodies…

Given their poverty… these folk were quick to catch upon the rumor of a planet in the far reaches of the Galaxy where one could obtain a cyborg body free of cost… but in order to get to the planet… one had to board the Galaxy Express 999… and tickets for the Galaxy Express 999 were also very expensive…

The protagonist of this story… a young boy by the name of Tetsuro is heading towards Megapolis with his mother… in hopes of earning enough money to board the Galaxy Express and obtain cyborg bodies for themselves… However… on the way… they are ambushed by a group of Megapolis Cyborgs led by “Cyborg Duke”… they killed Tetsuros mother for sport… ‘Human hunting’ being a favorite pastime of the rich cyborgs in Megapolis… They abandon Tetsuro in the cold wilderness thinking that he would soon die of overexposure to the elements… Tetsuro gets buried in the snow and faints…

Tetsuro wakes up in a warm room in the company of a very beautiful woman… who looks very much like his mother… She identifies herself as Maetel… She offers Tetsuro an unlimited ticket for the Galaxy Express in exchange for him being her ‘guard’ during the journey… Tetsuro is tempted by the offer… but his thirst for vengeance is too great… He overhears a transmission from the Duke as they celebrate their kill and learns that the Duke and his men are not too far away from where he and Maetel are… he grabs a gun and heads towards the Dukes home despite Maetels warnings that he would become the enemy of all the cyborgs if he killed the Duke… After reaching the Dukes residence, Tetsuro kills everyone present and tries to escape the hordes of ‘Robo-Cops’ chasing him… he is eventually surrounded by robotic dogs… but manages to escape with Maetels help…

Maetel and Tetsuro are hiding in a ritzy hotel… (Maetel has a fan-service shower scene here *Nosebleed*)… Maetel seems to be having a conversation with someone about Tetsuro, but denies it when confronted by Tetsuro… just then… the cyborg police manage to find them, but Maetel manages to escape with Tetsuro and they both board the Galaxy Express… As the 999 departs… Tetsuro is awed by the quaint appearance of the train… (see Screenshots) … He wonders why it was designed that way… Maetel tells him that it was meant as a small comfort… a reminder of their past lives… to those passengers who might never return to earth again… Tetsuro swears that he will return with a mechanical body... and Maetel advises him to take a good long look at the lit up cities of the earth... appearing to be so many bright dots on a black canvas since this will probably be the last time he will see them with human eyes...

Next Episode: The Red Winds of Mars!

Screenshots