Galaxy Express 999

Space--the Sea of Stars...quite possibly the last place one can hope to find true freedom. The Earth has become a dystopian hell of gargantuan megalopolis cities between freezing wastes as the sun fails to penetrate the choked atmosphere. It is a fiefdom of the far-reaching Machine Empire in all but name. The planet La Metal in distant Andromeda offers free conversion from a frail organic shell into an immortal machine body to become an eternal Mechanoid...if one can but afford the astronomical cost of a ticket aboard the fabled space train Galaxy Express 999, to travel to that distant star. The wealthy and the powerful have either undergone conversion already, or attempt to curry favor with the Mechanoid emissaries of the Machine Empire so that they might be granted such a boon. You are a lowly slum-dweller from the bowels of one such city. You never bothered to learn its name...it hardly matters down in the lowest levels where all the detritus falls, and you live hand-to-mouth, huddled around the exhaust vents and radiators to cling to what little warmth is available, scavenging the depths for scraps to live on and hoping a bigger group of survivors doesn't decide to stamp out yours and take what little you have. Until the day a golden opportunity strikes. A chance to wrest your fate into your own hands. A lone mysterious woman who makes you an offer you cannot even conceive of refusing... - My attempt at taking on the lofty Leijiverse, a setting I've been fond of for many years and could not find anywhere on AID. Hoping to see if I can do it justice. - For bonus points, a bit of crossover/overlap with elements from the Lensman universe--the anime version specifically, another for which I have a fondness and felt rather compatible with the Leijiverse material. - Sadly going to have to recommend high context for this one, it's just too plot heavy.