Turn, Turn and Turn [A]gain! (Turn A Gundam Quest)

[X] What the hell is this man you don't even…


It is, you are forced to admit, odd to look at a man's true nature and be utterly baffled. His mindset is, in a word, alien, filled with a love of violent conflict and admiration for the Dark History that you simply do not share and have no interest in understanding. When the connection finally breaks, it leaves you in confusion and him in disappointment.

"…I thought that you of all people would understand." He says before he sighs and looks around the room. "My name is Gym Ghingham, Fleet Admiral of the Ghingham Fleet. I believe I have been made acquainted with some of your number."

Lord Guin nods before turning to you. "The good Fleet Admiral was the one to escort us to the capital."

"And I will make you understand once day, pilot of the Turn X-" Fleet Admiral Gingham is about to say more when Gadget elbows him in the side. His eyes light up in anger, but it goes out like a candle in the wind when he spots your mother.

"Master Dragon!" He all but cheers. "I had hoped you would join us! With the Turn A, we-"

"I've heard it before, Fleet Admiral." She interrupts. "And I doubt that you will be more convincing than your underlings. Let it go, Gym Ghingham."

Gadget's attention, unlike that of the admiral, is focused on you. "Wait…Er-Master Dragon? This guy kinda looks like you."

"My name is Laura Cehack." Your mother explains. "And that young man over there is my son, Loran."

Both Gadget and Admiral Ghingham snap their heads around to appraise you, making you feel like someone's favorite food. Ghingham's Pressure, as strong as your own, gains a touch of renewed interest, but Gadget's is suddenly filled with a whole lot of sinking feelings.

"Oh fuck, I tried to kill the Dragon's son." She whispers to herself as the first traces of panic start to set in. As if on cue, Midgard chooses this moment to empty his stomach behind you, much to the displeasure of the militiamen standing next to him.

You mother just shrugs. "I am not angry, not with either of you. You clearly weren't trying very hard." Her voice falls to a whisper. "But had you hurt him in any lasting fashion I would have flayed the both of you alive."

Gadget did mention this earlier, didn't she? Something about the Dragon, your mother, being able to flay powerful psychics alive and feed them their own skin without them being aware they were even under attack.

"But enough talk!" Your mother snaps, cutting off whatever the Admiral was about to say. "It is time to open this up before the children can mess things up even more than they already have." She lays her hand on the pod and applies a complicated set of Pressure Shards into its Psychoframe. The pod opens to reveal an exquisite silvery statue of a woman in her fifties, nude but for the strategically placed hair that so much resembles that of Queen Dianna. You are about to ask Kreis what is going on, but the way the air is suddenly charged with mild, yet overpowering, hostility stops you cold.

Kreis, shrouded in an aura that could make a glacier seem soft and warm, looks from your mother to the silver woman and back again.

Laura, what have you done? I entrusted you with that Gundam in confidence-

"I did what was necessary to keep her dream alive. Her health failed while our work remained unfinished, and now the Moon needs her more than ever." Interrupts your mother, who smiles as the 'statue' begins to stir. "Ladies, Gentlemen, and others: I present to you-"

The silver woman's metal skin flakes off her eyes to reveal the pure alabaster flesh underneath. Her eyes crack open a moment later, focusing on you. "Laura?" She croaks weakly. "Is that you?"

Your mother coughs. "Over here, my queen. That would be my son, Loran."

Wait, is that Queen Junno?! For the love of apple bottom jeans, is everybody's mother going to show up at some point today?

…

…Sochie in apple bottom-no. You mentally shake yourself. You need to focus on the matter at hand. Like what the hell is a two hundred years dead queen doing here today?

The supposed Queen Junno stumbles out of the pod and is helped by your mother, who helpfully supplies a robe for her to cover up with. The silvery material is flaking off all over her body, but from the neck down there remains a covering of dark grey scales, like a thicker version of the ones that you have under your clothes. What did Vestige call them again…DG Cells?

Now that the newcomer's face has been fully freed you can clearly see the similarities between her and Dianna. Just like in the pictures, Junno is what Dianna will likely be once she has aged another thirty or so years. The beginning of Fall to Dianna's late Spring.

Queen Junno's eyes have fully cleared up as your mother helps her put on the robe and brushing the last few silver flakes out of her voluminous blonde hair, and from the way her Pressure surges it is obvious that she is a psychic, about as strong as you, even. And now those blue eyes are taking in the people in the room with undisguised curiosity.



Choose 5

[] "What?"

[] "How?"

[] "Why?"

[] "Admiral, where did you find the Turn A?"

[] "Kreis? What, exactly, are the DG-Cells?"

[] "Wait, who is the Queen now?"

[] "What now, Queen Junno Soleil?"

[] Write in.


*******************************************************************************************

Ghingham's reaction to Confusion, the option that won out, was disappointment and a renewed resolve to make you understand him as you fight.

The reaction to Understanding would be Understanding in turn, though both he and Loran would agree that it can only end in blood between them.

The reaction to Rejection would be pity.

The reaction to Hate would be owerpowering amusement and delight.

The reaction to Disgust would be confusion.

The reaction to Pity would be Hate.

The reaction to Sorrow would be Confusion.

The reaction to Love would be Love, Denial & Confusion.

[X] "How?"
[X] "Why?"
[X] "Kreis? What, exactly, are the DG-Cells?"
[X] "Admiral, where did you find the Turn A?"
[X] "What now, Queen Junno Soleil?"


"How?"

You draw everyone's attention when you speak up, especially Junno's as it is her and your mother that you are challenging. "How and why?"

The late, yet present, queen raises an immaculate eyebrow. "How?" She shuffles a bit under her robe until she finds a hole for her to stick her arm out through, giving you another good look at the grey DC-Cell scales covering her arm. "These are how. The power of the DG-Cells bolster the subject's body to heights unreachable by anyone with Limiter Nanites working on their bodies. They even allow one to bypass the effects of those Limiters, and can in some situations serve as a means to attain immortality."

Kreis snarls at her.

But only for one person, isn't that right? Speaking of situations, Junno, what the fuck where you thinking when you bonded with the Devil Gundam?

That sounds ridiculously foreboding.

Late Queen Junno shrugs. "It wasn't part of the plan, I admit. Originally I just kept it around as a source of DG-Cells, letting me strengthen the Ghingham Fleet and provide food, medicine and housing to my people." Her face falls. "All those centuries of struggle, working myself, Joshua and Laura to the bone to prevent everything from falling apart…My health started to fail." She blinks. "I am not entirely clear on what happened next…?"

Your mother steps in to continue the story. "You collapsed from the stress, my Queen, and your repeated stays in cryosleep did not help matters. The work was not finished, so I gave you to the bound Devil Gundam so that you might have been brought back should your daughter not be able to carry the torch you sacrificed so much to light."

Queen Dianna, her look stormy, protests. "And you feel that I have not lived up to my mother's example?" She says, her voice dangerously neutral.

"This entire disaster can be laid at your feet, princess." Answers your mother. "But I suppose you did the best you could given that Queen Junno died before everything was ready."

You reenter the conversation before they can derail it with their argument. "Kreis? What, exactly, are the DG-Cells?" Neither Dianna or your mother are happy with the interruption, but they let it slide when Kreis points at Junno, whose arm is still exposed after she lowered it.

Like Vestige explained to you, they are a type of nanomachine that were intended for terraforming but can also serve a multitude of biological purposes. Other than that, they can function as a self-repair system or as less-powerful Turn Nanites.

In their base state they are manufactured and controlled by the Devil Gundam, a corrupted terraforming device originally called the Ultimate Gundam. I long suspected that it was created thanks to a Memory Relationship about the Turn A, but it was so long ago that I have no way of confirming it one way or the other, especially since I was sleeping at the time.

"And this weapon is here?" Demands Lord Guin, who has found his voice.

Kreis nods.

Yes, under our feet, in fact. The DG-Cells are one of the components that make the Moonrace's cryosleep chambers more that a way of keeping corpses on ice, and they also allowed the creation of several new cities and their plant life here on the Moon at a vastly accelerated rate than would otherwise be possible.

Although, I did remove its ability to act independently, as well as leave it with some hard-coded limits. But I never expected that Laura would pull a stunt like this…

Late Queen Junno nods. "Indeed. The past two centuries have been like a hazy dream, but I still spent every second of it breaking the beast to my will." She smiles. "With me doing the thinking for it, bypassing the limitations you placed on it will be merely difficult rather than impossible."

"Oho?" Titters Lady Lily. "Do you intend to have it spearhead your conquest, then, your Majesty?"

The former queen looks at the Luziannan noblewoman like a particularly filthy cockroach. "And risk the source of the Moonrace's prosperity and happiness being damaged or, God forbid, destroyed? Are you mad?" She looks away with a huff. "The Devil Gundam is not going anywhere. It shall forever remain here beneath our feet and provide for the Moon, just like how it will, in time, provide for the Earth."

"You will share this technology with us?" Asks Lord Guin, eyes alight with barely-disguised greed.

"Of course." Answers Junno with a beatific smile, one which to your senses is dripping with enough poison to drown a city.

In the pause that follows you take a moment to swallow your trepidation and reluctance before you address Fleet Admiral Ghingham again. "Admiral?"

Ghingham, who along with Gadget has been shifting between silently admiring Kreis and observing the conversation so far, glances over to you at your question. "Hm? What is it?"

"Where did you find the Turn A?"

He simply smirks at you. "Why on Earth would I tell you-"

I am curious as well. I died certain I had killed the damn thing, and Vestige was…most distressed when they saw it the other day.

Admiral Ghingham, it seems, is a lot more pliable by the words of Kreis Kreuz than those of Loran Cehack, for he wastes no time in explaining that his parents, the first leaders of the Ghingham Fleet when it was formed by Junno, found it on the Moon's surface years after the Calamity.

"When they found the Turn A it looked like a mass of white rock, but once they had scraped it out of the trench it made when it crashed into the Moon and gotten it into the laboratory they discovered that it was still alive." He explains giddily. "When I took control of the Fleet I discovered it resting in a vault marked for indefinite containment, but the door could not be opened without the Royal Seal."

The eyes of everyone with the knowledge to put two and two together lock onto Maintainer, who wilts under the collective staredown. "H-how was I supposed to know that he would use it for this?!" He protests desperately before one of the Militiaman tasked with guarding him swats him upside the head.

"I thought it was too useful to destroy, so I ordered it to be sealed away instead of killed." Junno muses while holding her chin as she appraises Gym Ghingham. "But I was too afraid of Gidae's Psychoframe Ghost to allow anyone to actually pilot it. Tell me, Gym Ghingham, what is it like?"

The Admiral shrugs. "Murderous, insane, repetitive…It simplicity has allowed it to hold on the past two thousand years, but it has faded to the point where it has lost the ability to influence someone of my strength."

Meaning that it likely would not be able to affect you as well, you realize, for Gym Ghingham is about as strong a psychic as you. But one thing still bugs you: "What now, Queen Junno Soleil?"

It takes a moment for the late queen to realize you are talking to her, but she quickly recovers and takes a moment to think about the question. You feel from her Pressure that you are unlikely to like the answer.

"Isn't it obvious?" She asks, her smile widening with every syllable. "I intend to retake my throne and consolidate my power before mobilizing the Moon's forces and subjugate the Earth."

"…What." You breathe, flabbergasted at how flippantly she says it.

She shakes her head, her smile giving way to resignation and resolve. "Both the Moon and the Earth are populated by children that have forgotten the horrors survived by their elders. Without my rule they will one day repeat the horrors of the Dark History out of ignorance, and that is why I must bend all humanity to my will." Her face remains unchanging, but her Pressure gains a tinge of fear as she speaks of the Dark History.

It is funny, in a morbid sort of way. Your history textbooks always painted Queen Junno as a wise, motherly figure, but this…

Junno turns to Lord Guin and Lady Lily. "What say you? If you bend your knees now, I guarantee you positions as favored vassals, to be given first pick of the technologies I intend to share with the people of Earth once I become its sovereign."

Lord Guin, sweating buckets while his thoughts race at the speed of light, is the first to answer. "Your offer is tempting, your Majesty-"

"How dare you?!" Thunders the Lieutenant, all eyes falling on the Captain of the Royal Guard as he steps towards Queen Junno. "You may be Her Majesty Queen Dianna's mother, but that does not change the fact that your crown has been passed on to her! You have no right to command the Ghingham Fleet to kill itself against the Earth, nor to give orders to a single member of the Moon's army!"

Junno quirks an eyebrow. "Is that so?" She turns to Admiral Ghingham. "Admiral, if you swear yourself to me I will have you organize and lead the invasion forces. Claim the entire Earth in my name-" Her voice and Presence becomes laced with her Psychic Pressure. "-and satisfy the orders inscribed upon your very DNA!"

…From the way the Admiral starts to howl maniacally, she's got him hook, line and sinker.

The Lieutenant, however, is not done. "Don't be foolish! The Ghingham Fleet does not have the numbers to subjugate the Earth! While you might defeat the first armies, the nations of the Earth are adopting Dark History technology at an alarming rate! You would be fighting constant rebellions all over the globe and never have the means to decisively end any of them!"

"Have you forgotten the Turn A?" Asks Junno with amusement. "But you are right, conquering Earth with the Ghingham Fleet and keeping it is a tall order, but that is what the Mobile Dolls are for." She turns her head to look at you. "But what about you? Will you serve me? With two Turn Units, there would be no force that could stand against us. The war would have a swift end, and with both Turn Units on the same side there would never be a repeat of the Dark History!"

Kreis chooses this moment to interject, his voice desperate.

Loran, do not do this! The Turn A must be destroyed and starting wars with the goal to end all wars have never really worked! Something always goes wrong, either because the plan was stupid or because humans will be human, so-

"Be quiet, Kreis." Snaps your mother, her cold words cutting the ghost off. "Let our-let my son decide for himself."

You look at Lord Guin and Lady Lily. Both of them are on the fence and looking at you. They know fully well that there is nothing they can do should you join Junno, and as such they are keeping silent until you have made your choice.

It falls to you, then.



[] Refuse.

[] …You have terms.
--[] Write in.

[] Accept.

[] Write in.


************************************************************************

Accepting Junno's offer will end the Quest. Asking for terms…depends on the terms, really.

[X] Refuse.
--[X] Send a psychic message to Sochie to tell the others that it's time to run like hell!


"Not interested." You say before rallying your psychic power and releasing it as a burst of warning to the people above, specifically Sochie. To your consternation it strikes some sort of Pressure barrier and dissipates without leaving the room, a familiar Barrier-

A Cloister?

Eyes widening, you look to Gadget, who replies with a wicked grin. "I figured you wouldn't want him to alert his friends, your Majesty."

"I did not." Assents Junno, who goes on to look over the fading remains of your display with a mix of interest and amusement. "Thank you…"

"Captain Merrybell Gadget, Ma'am."

"Of course."

The display of Psychic power, while invisible to all but Dianna and the Lieutenant, still shakes Lord Guin and Lady Lily out of their hesitation. Their refusals are immediate, much to Junno's undisguised chagrin.

"And to think…" She mutters dangerously. "You could have brought your people prosperity undreamed of…"

Kreis clenches his fists, and the ghost's odd Pressure begins to surge.

Loran, I want you to take the others and leave. NOW.

Leave him here? "But-!"

Don't argue! I will buy you time.

Junno bursts out in laughter. "And how much time do you believe you will be able to buy against the four of us, Kreis? You are dead, only here because of this room's Psychoframe. Even if your knowledge and skills outmatch ours, you are running on fumes, and you have no ability to replenish your strength." She gestures around the room as you begin to rouse your stunned allies into evacuating posthaste.

The outcome is decided, yes, but I am no stranger to hopeless battles.

The ghost tosses you a Pressure Shard.

Vestige had this with them. Take it to the White Doll.

You are the last out the door as the five psychics within prepare for battle. As the doors begin to close Kreis turns his head to look at you one final time, a small smile on his lips.

Live well.

A vast storm of Pressure fills the room as the doors seal behind you, providing a thorny, black backdrop for the Militia's retreat as everyone hurries back to the paths that led them here. Hasty escape plans are made over the radio between leaders stuffed into cars. You and the others in Mobile Suits serve as the rearguard until everyone is clear, tensely watching out for any enemy response as the psychic battle in the Archive reaches a crescendo.

And then you are gone.


*


It is only when you and the others return to the Borjarnaught that you find the time to inspect the Pressure Shard Kreis' ghost gave you. Looking at it, it seems to be some sort of key, but to what.

A thorough investigation of the White Doll's cockpit with your senses reveals some sort of Pressure Construct with a prominent hole, perhaps a keyhole. A likely possibility judging from the way that the Shard and the Construct resonates with each other.

You carefully allow the Pressure Shard to rejoin the Pressure Construct. It floats through the air of the cockpit until it slots into the lattice of Pressure Shards in front of you, making it coalesce into a thin, wavy copy of Vestige.

Hello, Loran. If you are listening to this message, then I am probably gone for good.

It is right. Even as it speaks you can see the construct begin to dissolve into fading pulses of Pressure. You know what the future looks like, you know what is to come, but you force yourself to listen nonetheless.

I leave behind this message so that, should I not return, you would gain complete ownership over Turn X. From now on, you will have complete access to all its functions.

The copy-Vestige hesitates.

I realize that this might come out of nowhere, but in case that we did not find the rest of Kreis Kreuz underneath the palace, you deserve to know that he was your father. Sort of. It is a complicated story involving nanomachines, but your mother and he were involved and wanted children. I know it is sudden, and perhaps not my place, but during these few, short months we have known each other I did think of you as…mine.

It shrinks in on itself.

I…I understand that it is presumptuous of me, not just to play parent when I am just a shadow of the real one, but also to burden you with a final request:

Destroy the Turn A. I beg of you, if not for mine or Kreis' sake, then for every life, human or alien, that Kreis' misbegotten machine has taken! And the lives that it will take, should it be allowed to exist!

Your hands tighten on the controls as the construct crumbles, the last invisible embers of its power spent to give you one final whisper.

I leave everything in your hands.




Loran Cehack has become the Turn X's Designated Pilot! Priority Repair is upgraded to 3d100! All Destroyed Systems are now Heavily Damaged! May activate Combat Mode!

Warning: All Combat Mode Attacks have the Merciless Special Rule against Targets that are not another Turn Unit. Only fully-restored Systems may be used in Combat Mode.


*


Queen Dianna and Kihel rejoin the Borjarnaught after you escaped Genganam, the Lunamantique at the head of a small squadron of Almaiya-Class Battleships and Magogame transports, members of the Moon's military willing to side with her over Junno. Ivory and Fuun Saiki show up even later in a tiny civilian hauler, apparently controlled by a biosensor hooked up to the central control system.

Some Ghingham Fleet elements shadow the motley convoy, but none of them move to engage, not even the Gendarme-Class battlecruisers that could in theory overtake the slower battleships and transports. It is not until you are about to leave Lunar orbit that six lances of dark crimson come out of nowhere to light up the void above you.

A warning volley.

You turn the White Doll (perhaps you should start calling it the Turn X?) around to face the incoming Sid. It refrains from firing at you as it comes closer, but you can sense a mind fading into existence when it stops accelerating a distance away from the convoy, instead matching speed with it. You recognize the Pressure emanating from it, so you break off from the fleet, Lightwave thrusters firing to bring you to a full stop while they go on ahead.

"Loran? What are you doing?"

The voice is Sochie's, coming over the radio of her Qubeley as she struggles to decide whether or not to break off from the fleet herself. Corin and Arisa are no better, and make their own protests.

"I'm sorry." You sigh. "But this is not an opponent you can help me with."

You cut the comm-link with your allies, sparing a glance at the White Doll's sensors to make sure they don't try to follow you anyway when the Sid suddenly hails you. A tap on a holographic key later, and you come face to face with your mother.

"Hello, Loran." She seems tired from the battle with Kreis' ghost, but you have no idea how long she has had to recover. "Ghingham wanted to fight you himself, but I overruled him. There is no need for the two of you to kill each other when you can simply come with me."

You shake your head. "I'm not joining Junno, mom."

She sighs in response, shaking her head in turn. "You children have completely forgotten to fear your elders, haven't you?"

"Vestige told me that Junno killed her father to become queen." You protest. "What about that?"

Her eyes narrow. "Don't think you can dissuade me with a gotcha question, Loran, the circumstances were wildly different. That fat, babbling idiot Jannus was dragging our great kingdom into a death spiral. He deserved everything he got."

"Just like Junno deserves what is going to happen to her." You counter. Baselessly perhaps, it is not like you can see that far into the future, but with a Turn Unit you are hopeful that you can stall Junno's forces until the Earth is strong enough to help Dianna defeat her.

It clearly isn't what your mother wants to hear. "Do not even joke about that, young man, now come with me! Please, think of all the people you can save if you turn back now!"

You take a deep breath.

"No."

Your mother-no. Laura Cehack clicks her tongue. "Tch. Very well." Her custom Sid shakes with Her Pressure as red lines appear all over her Sid's armor, tracing the circuity of the machinery underneath while releasing the telltale aura of a Psychoframe.

"I will have to ask Her Majesty for permission to bring you back once mankind has been united under her rule." You can feel a flash of killing intent before it fades into the icy emptiness of Laura's Wraith training. "Fear not, my dear. I will make every practical effort to see that your friends live though the coming war."

...

…

…


[] Engagement range.
--[] Stay at Long Range.
--[] Keep normal distance.
--[] Close in.

[] Mobility.
--[] Stick with the Lightwave Maneuvering Thrusters (Flight Mode).
--[] Risk using the Voiture Lumiere.

[] Initial Left Hand Weapon.
--[] Dober Gun.
--[] Leo Beam Rifle.
--[] Type-TX Beam Pistol.
--[] Dainsleif Spear.
--[] Type-TX Bazooka.
--[] None.

[] Destruction Manipulator Melee Weapon.
--[] Beam Saber.
--[] Beam Cutter.
--[] Shining Finger.

[] Destruction Manipulator Ranged Weapon.
--[] Beam Rifle.
--[] Buster Rifle.
--[] Beam Machinegun.

[] Defenses.
--[] Activate the Lightwave Shield.
--[] Activate the I-Field.
--[] Activate both of them.

[] NT Systems.
--[] Stick to the Psychoframe.
--[] Activate Bloody Siege Mode.
--[] Activate the NT-D Mode.

[] NT Power.
Choose 3
--[] Telekinetic Strike.
--[] Telepathic Strike.
--[] Telekinetic Barrier.
--[] NT Empathy.
--[] Psyco-Regen.
--[] Channeling.
--[] Psyco-Shroud.
--[] Psyco-Hijack.

[] Psycho-Field. (NT-D Mode only)
--[] Spatial Distortion.
--[] Deluge.
--[] Invasion.
--[] Dream Ward.
--[] Temporal Jaunt.
--[] Refrain from using a Psycho-Field ability.

[] Combat Mode. (Warning: All Attacks are Merciless vs Non-Turn Units)
--[] Yes.
--[] If the battle drags on. (Activate on Turn 3)
--[] No.


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Laura Cehack Stats.

Sid Laura Cehack Custom Stats.