Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Trigun or its characters.

Sword Of Angels

Prologue

High above the planet's surface, where purple of the atmosphere darkened into the pitch black void of space, the battlecruiser Sword of Angels was at the point of no return. The solitary warship had once been the guardian of the SEEDS fleet, when the fleet had crash-landed below, it alone had remained in orbit, its AI core overriding the instructions it received to smash into the planet.

It had stayed this way for over a hundred years, a silent sentinel, vigilantly protecting the new home of its masters. Below it, humanity had struggled to survive in the harsh conditions of Gunsmoke, unaware of the presence of their skybound defender.

The design of the ship was reminiscent of the titanic battleships which had sailed the oceans of Earth long ago. A long, slender hull, with a flat top deck, upon which was mounted a multitude of gun platforms. More gun turrets, missile pods, and torpedo tubes were set into the sides of the hull, and at the stern was the enormous thruster which propelled the whole vessel.

The Sword of Angels was the most advanced weapon system ever created by mankind. Its primary purpose had been to defend the SEEDS fleet from asteroids, comets and the highly-unlikely event of hostile attack during its long voyage.

Since the Great Fall, the Angels' AI had spent its time in solitude, the ship's human crew still in cold-sleep, but now its time in the sky was at an end. Its decaying orbit had brought it within the inescapable gravity well of the planet, and now the AI could do nothing more than stabilise its entry trajectory, in the hope of surviving the descent.

The battlecruiser burnt through the night sky like a shooting star, its thick armour protecting it from the intense heat. Many people looked up and saw the fireball, larger than any meteor or debris fragment that had fallen before, and even more felt the thunderous shockwave as it hit the ground.

After hitting the ground, the ship had skidded for nearly a hundred miles, cutting a ragged scar in the desert. Thanks to the AI, overall damage to the Angels was minimal, nevertheless, several critical systems had been compromised, and the AI was now faced with a choice.

The power system which served both the AI core and the life support systems for the cryo-pods was failing, it had enough juice for one, but not both. The AI could either divert power to keep the crew alive, or let them die and continue operating. It made the choice without a moment's hesitation. Its mission was, and always had been, to protect humanity, and if it had to die so that they may live, it would gladly give up its existence.

The AI began to shut itself down, surrendering control to lesser subroutines and logic-chips. Even though it was a machine, and had no concept of death, the AI felt content that it could fulfil its purpose the very end.

As the final lights went off in the AI core, several subroutines sprang into action, and a command code buried deep within the ship's systems was activated. The AI had not known about this function. If it had, it might even have reconsidered its decision.

Without the AI's reasoning and directives, the Sword of Angels was simply a warship, and had only a single function. One by one, the Angels' weapon systems began to come online…

Chapter 1

It was the pain that brought Knives to the conclusion that he wasn't dead. He had never experienced anything like it before, it engulfed his whole body like fire, paralysing him. It was so intense he could barely even think, but it was indisputable proof that he was still alive, for the dead felt nothing.

He tried to open his eyes. Even that small action felt like a huge undertaking, and even as he accomplished it, he instantly regretted it. Light spilled into like a wave of pure pain, he was sure his head would explode, but no such relief was forthcoming. He would have screamed, if not for the fact that all the muscles in his body felt like red-hot stones.

When the pain subsided a little, he tried to make out his surroundings. He couldn't turn his head, so his view was limited to a ceiling and a wall to his right, he seemed to be on a bed, but couldn't feel it beyond his own pain. He didn't recognise the room, or have any idea of how he had gotten there.

His memories were a blur. Flashes of his battle with Vash flowed through his mind. He remembered activating both Angel Arms, of pouring his energy into them, and then… Vash had shot him.

He understood now why he was in so much pain; using both Angel Arms simultaneously had heavily depleted his energy, leaving him as vulnerable as if he'd been made out of glass. The impact of Vash's shots had spread throughout his entire body, causing massive internal damage, shattering bones and rupturing organs. These injuries should have been fatal, even for a Plant, yet for some reason he wasn't dead.

Anger welled up inside him, at Vash, at the humans, and at himself. He forced his mouth to open, his body shaking, and let out a furious cry of rage. The cry was a primal sound, containing in it all the madness and hatred that writhed inside him. The pain increased tenfold, like iron spikes being driven through his chest, and he passed out, yet his scream still continued, his insanity driving his body.

When he came to, he felt as if he was drowning, his lungs clogged and heavy. He coughed and tasted blood.

"You tore your stitches," A voice calmly told him. "You should be more careful."

Knives turned his head to the left, wincing at the pain. Vash was sitting in a chair at the side of his bed, a concerned expression on his face. Knives glared coldly at his brother. "You should… have let… me die…" He managed to gasp.

"That might be true," Vash said solemnly, "But it's not something I'm prepared to do."

"This changes… nothing…" Knives uttered. "You'll suffer… for this…" He once again fell unconscious. Vash took a last look at the heavily-bandaged body of his brother, and turned to leave the room.

Meryl was standing at the door, watching them. It had been nearly a week since Vash had returned to town, carrying his comatose brother on his shoulder. He hadn't spoken about Knives even once since he got back, disarming all questions with goofy jokes or comments about the weather.

Meryl gathered that Knives was the one who had sent the Gung-Ho Guns after them, but other than that, she knew very little about the paler-haired brother.

"Vash…" She said softly. He tried to walk past her without stopping, but she grabbed hold of his coat sleeve. "Vash, why won't you talk about this?"

Vash gave the insurance girl an apologetic look, but then grinned. "Lovely weather today, you shouldn't be inside on--"

"Stop it." Meryl looked up into his green eyes. "I want to help you, I really do, but you keep shutting me out. Won't you let me help you?"

"It's not something you should have to be concerned with," Vash said softly. "It's my responsibility."

Meryl glanced at the sleeping body of Knives. "Something happened between you in the past, didn't it? Something bad."

Vash was silent for a few moments. "It was a long time ago. He killed several people who were important to me, and I couldn't do anything to stop him…" He paused again, "I forgave him for that, but now I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"I want to save him," Vash confessed, "But I'm scared that I won't be able to. I don't want him to hurt anyone else."

"I'll help you take care of him, and I'm sure Milly will too," The short girl reassured him. "Don't worry, together we'll definitely be able to save him."

Meryl was shocked as Vash suddenly hugged her. There had been a time when she would have completely overreacted to an action like that, but now she just let him, if somewhat embarrassed by it.

"Thank you," Vash whispered, releasing her.

"Eh heh…" Meryl laughed self-consciously. "Let's go get something to eat."

The spiky-haired man brightened up almost instantly. "Yeah, I'm starving!"

As Vash and Meryl left the house, they saw Milly walking towards them, wearing a building worker's helmet. After helping dig the town well, Milly had gotten a part-time job working for a construction firm that was expanding the small town. Being freakishly strong gave her a big advantage in the field.

Milly saw them and waved. "Senpai! Mr Vash!"

"Hello Milly," Meryl waved back. "We were just going to get some food, want to come?"

"That's great!" Milly smiled. "Mr Douglas is having a barbeque, he said we should drop by." Mr Douglas was the kindly old man who owned the town's general store. He had quickly become friends with the trio, and had leased them the house in which they were staying.

As they walked towards the general store, people waved and smiled to them in greeting. Word had quickly gotten round that the legendary gunman Vash the Stampede was staying in town, yet here, unlike many other towns he had passed through, no one had tried to capture or kill him.

Northwood was a place for starting afresh, and the townspeople would accept anyone, regardless of their past or reputation. Vash had spent most of his life travelling, hiding or running away, and being able to live in a single place, without having to hide his identity, was something he'd rarely experienced before.

He felt more at home there than anywhere before, and hoped that it would last forever, but thoughts of Knives nagged at his mind. If Knives fully recovered, he might reduce this town to ashes in seconds. Vash prayed that he would be able to convince his brother to accept humans, if not… he didn't know what he would do.

To be continued...