| Ground Investigation Bureau | |
|---|---|
 Lou Collins arriving at the G.I.B. in Battle 42. | |
| Origin | Tiphares |
| Affiliations | Tiphares TUNED |
| Type | Government agency |
| Leader | Bigott Eizenburg |
| Notable members | Lou Collins Dr. Russell |
| Debut | Battle 30 |
The Ground Investigation Bureau (火星王国議会派 Chijō Kansatsu Kyoku?) (G.I.B.), known in Japan as the Ground.Inspect.Bureau, was a Tipharean government agency responsible for safeguarding Tipharean interests on the surface, primarily beyond the Scrapyard in the Badlands. It did this through agents on the surface who were members of the elite force known as the TUNED. The G.I.B. later created the TUNED AR Series 2, a series of combat androids based on Alita, the original TUNED agent. The G.I.B. reached its high water mark during the climax of the Barjack War by destroying the Heng. However it was effectively dissolved when the secret of Tiphares was inadvertently discovered by its staff, who were terminated by the Medical Inspection Bureau.
History[]
The G.I.B. was a quasi-secret government agency for political and legal reasons according to Russell.[1] Bigott Eizenburg was its inaugural member. Because any Tipharean who set foot on the surface could no longer return to the aerial city, the G.I.B. needed to recruit a suitable candidate who was already on the surface. Eizenburg set this in motion by sending 1,000 TR-55 units to the surface to scout for candidates for the TUNED project in ES 576.[2] One of these discovered Alita after she began competing in the Third League of motorball two years later in ES 578.[2] It attached itself to her and was accepted as a pet which Alita named Kimji. Kimji stayed with Alita throughout her motorball career and subsequent retirement.
Plot[]
Battle Angel Alita[]
Alita accepts Eizenburg's offer in Battle 30.
Two years later, Kimji recorded Alita's battle with Zapan after he obtained the Berserker Body. After Alita was apprehended by the Factory and nearly disposed of for the Class A crime of using a firearm, Eizenburg was able to intervene just before her brain would have been destroyed. He then arranged to speak to her directly in her disembodied state, offering her the only chance at a lifeline that she had and revealing the source of his intelligence, Kimji. Eizenburg manipulated the data that he showed Alita, convincing her that she had been grossly underappreciated by the residents of the Scrapyard she had rescued from Zapan and had always been an outsider. With her brain slowly dying, she grasped at the possibility of becoming stronger, but it was her primary mission, apprehending Desty Nova, that clinched the deal for her. She was unaware that Eizenburg had a hidden agenda, the development of a series of combat androids which would use her and her Panzer Kunst as a basis.
Alita's subsequent history over the next decade was not elaborated on, although she was assigned a mission to terminate Deckman 50 in ES 586.[2] Dr. Russell joined the G.I.B. some time before ES 590, when Lou Collins, the debut operator, was recruited. Because of the G.I.B.'s secretive nature she was unable to find the office on her first day, but by chance ran into Eizenburg. He led her to the G.I.B. via a maintenance stairwell, but Lou thought that he was trying to molest her and pulled her pistol on him just when they arrived outside. The commotion drew Russell out and the misunderstanding was quickly cleared up. Russell showed Lou where her terminal was and she immediately began working with Alita, helping her during a sudden ambush by Nova's cyborg ninjas. During this time Eizenburg subsequently took a back seat and let Lou do her job as he was involved with getting the TUNED AR Series 2 operational.
Lou is surprised to find that the rest of the operators have been added in Battle 42.
Ten days later after Alita's duel with Den[3] the TUNED AR Series 2 were activated and their operators were brought in. Russell was let go just before their debut because of his opposition to their replacing Alita, which Lou learned about that same day. Alita was half an hour away from arriving at the Granite Inn when she was waylaid by the first of the AR Series to appear, AR-2. Eizenburg then revealed the true intention of the TUNED operation and that Alita would be replaced. She was nearly killed by AR-2 when she lost her will to fight but was saved by Lou, who shot and destroyed the operator's terminal, freezing AR-2. After Lou was taken away by the Medical Inspection Bureau, Eizenburg assigned the remaining AR units to anti-Barjack operations. He then took over as Alita's operator and had her continue her original mission to arrest Nova with the promise that she would be released from service to the G.I.B. upon completing the mission.[4]
At the same time, AR-10 appeared as the Heng was about to fire on Tiphares and demanded the Barjack's surrender. This was disregarded and the Heng was fired, but the shell could not penetrate the aerial city's force field. Before a second shot could fire, the Heng was destroyed by the Abaddon, which the G.I.B. had been authorised to fire by Melchizedek. AR-10 then mopped up the survivors, during which she was killed by Fury.
The end of the G.I.B. in Battle 48.
Although the Barjack's primary means to attack Tiphares had been destroyed, the victory was short-lived. At the Granite Inn, Alita was trapped by Nova's Ouroboros Program and he hacked into the TUNED comm lines. Despite this apparent setback, Eizenburg unexpectedly invited Nova to return to Tiphares with the approval of both Melchizedek and LADDER, offering Alita as an incentive. Despite the betrayal, she was able to break out of the Ouroboros and confront Nova about why Daisuke Ido had erased his memory. Nova then revealed the existence of the brain bio-chip by sawing open his own head. Eizenburg was so shocked by this that he confirmed it for himself by cutting open his own head. When he saw his bio-chip he lost his mind and wandered back into the G.I.B. control room, revealing its existence to the operators. This triggered a swift and deadly response by the M.I.B., and an M.I.B. Machine purged them all, bringing an end to the G.I.B. The surviving AR units were left to their own devices on the surface.
After killing Alita with a doll bomb, Nova used Support System Gabriel to return to Tiphares, taking over the G.I.B. facilities and recruiting Russell to cooperate with him. He rebuilt Alita here in the Imaginos Body and allowed her to go free after she awakened. Russell's later suicide upon learning of the brain bio-chips left Lou as the sole surviving member of the G.I.B.
Last Order[]
Nova reveals the existence of the brain bio-chips to Tiphares in Phase 3.
Nova, with his new assistant Jim Roscoe, rebuilt Alita using the G.I.B. facilities, which were housed in one of the three bulges on the underside of Tiphares.[5] Following this, Nova betrayed Russell by using him as one of the adults whose heads he sawed open to reveal the secret of Tiphares while broadcasting live after hijacking the public broadcast network. Jim was so shocked by this revelation that he killed Nova himself to find out. Following the defeat of Sachumodo and end of the Tipharean civil war, the survivors gained control of the M.I.B. While investigating the M.I.B. Core Block, Nova II found Lou's body in the Disposal Division with her bio-chip missing. This discovery set Alita on her journey into space to recover Lou's brain from the Brain Incubator in Ketheres.
Other appearances[]
The G.I.B. appears in Gunnm: Martian Memory, although Russell and the other operators do not appear. The operator's control terminal is different, as it has a projector which displays a hologram of Gally. Gally meets Lou under different circumstances due to a change in POV, as she accesses a hidden terminal after arriving at Factory Farm 22. Following the meeting she is attacked by Nova's cyborg ninjas. The fall of the G.I.B. is revealed through Eizenburg's radio transmission at the Granite Inn. After arriving on Zalem, one of the areas that Gally can access is the G.I.B. office where Lou worked.
AR-2's operator in Battle 44.
Trivia[]
AR-2's operator was injured by debris when Lou destroyed her terminal and was not shown during the fall of the G.I.B. She thus likely survived the purge by the M.I.B., but her fate ultimately remains a mystery as she could have died during the Tipharean civil war.
References[]
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