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

[X] The White Doll itself. (Recover 7d2 Integrity)


You decide to be better safe than sorry and set the Priority Repair System to assist the Self-Repair.


Roll 7d2 for Self-Repair = 10! White Doll regains 10 Integrity!
White Doll Integrity: 12/12


Now then, time for a patrol.



[X] Check on Keith and Fran.


Later that night you call Fran on the phone, agreeing to meet with her back in Nocis the next day. You'll swing by Keith at the Donkey Bakery afterwards. The place she chose for you to meet up is at the park close to Bostonia Castle.

"They went with my picture of you in the article about the ball!" She exclaims proudly after giving you a hug. Then she pokes you teasingly in the stomach. "You look good in a dress."

"Perhaps I do…" You answer with a smile before sitting down on the bench beside her. "How have you been?"

"I'm doing alright. People are hungry for pictures of Mobile Suits, so my photographs are in high demand by the newspapers."

The two of you sit and talk for a while about the quiet war, about life, about what you hope for the future, until almost two hours have passed and it is time you leave.

*




As planned your next stop is the Donkey Bakery, but Keith is not in the shop when you get there. The only other person present is the daughter of Keith's boss, Verlaine Bond.

"Excuse me, is Keith here?" You ask of the young woman working with the bread filling the shelves.



"Nope. He left some time ago." She says, adjusting her apron as she stands up. "He didn't tell me where he went or when he would be back either."

You take your hat off. "I see."

"Sorry to tell you."

"Please don't, I was just dropping by." You hasten to assure her. "By the way, my name is Loran."

"I know that." Verlaine answers easily as she walks behind the counter. "Keith's told me about you and the Fran girl."

She promises to tell Keith you were here, and you make to leave. On the way out you take in the smells of the bakery and the sight of the freshly baked bread on the shelves…

"Keith…" You whisper to yourself. "You belong here." Smiling, you leave the bakery.

Only to be stopped on the road by a pair of Royal Guardsmen.



"Are you Loran Cehack?" Asks the lead one.

"Yes? What is the matter?"

He raises an eyebrow at your question. "We need you to come with us."

You take a step back. Their Pressure isn't hostile, just urgent, worried about causing a scene perhaps. "Where are we going?"

His hand meaningfully starts resting on his sidearm, halting any further retreat. "You will find out."


*


You end up being taken back to the Dianna Counter landing zone in an armored car. The spectacle draws a few glances, most notably from a large man in a red jumpsuit who is staring straight at you. he elbows the woman eating an apple next to him, making her glare at her companion. Then she notices you an all the color withdraws from her face. Before you are lead into the Soleil you think you can see figures from the top spire look down on you.

Escorted through the corridors of the Soleil, you are pushed into a conference room where Harry Ord awaits you.

He rises from his seat to greet you. "Loran Cehack. We meet again."



"Sir." You nod. "I was under the impression that I was free to pursue any enterprise I so wished after the completion of my mission?"

The captain (lieutenant?) smiles. "Quoting the recruitment flyers are we? But yes: Normally this would be the case, but a complication has risen."

"Complication?" Does he know? You can't get a clear read on his Pressure, it seems to be in the process of becoming denser, mucking up your ability to get a good feel for it.

"The Militia's White Doll." He clarifies. "Its presence does not only inflame the Militia, it also provokes our own forces into disobeying orders. It would be better for everyone if it simply disappeared."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"Nothing in particular." He lies as he walks past you. "I am merely testing a theory."

It is only when you walk out of the door that you realize what he is going to do. "Lieutenant, wait!"

Your plea falls on deaf ears and the door slides shut, locking itself with a beep. The room's intercom crackles to life above you. "Do not be alarmed, you will be released in a few hours." It shuts off right afterwards preventing you from shouting back. It wouldn't have helped, now that you think about it, but it would have made you feel better.



[] After an hour the silence is broken by the door opening to reveal-
--[] The man and woman from outside.
--[] Kihel in her disguise as Queen Dianna.

[] After a few hours Harry simply lets you go.


*********

'[X] Practice with the White Doll.' Will happen after this scene has played out.

[X] After an hour the silence is broken by the door opening to reveal-
--[X] Kihel in her disguise as Queen Dianna.


You almost jump to your feet when the door suddenly opens to allow Kihel-as-Dianna, flanked by Lieutenant (Captain?) Harry and her adjutant (Miran was it?), entry to the room. "Y-your Majesty!"

She waves you off. "At ease, Mr. Cehack." She then glances at Harry. "I thought I recognized your guest. Why is he here?"

"He is one of our advance scouts, your majesty." Harry stiffly explains. His Pressure is a mix of embarrassment and frustration.

Kihel-as-Dianna tilts her head before turning back to you. "Truly?" Her Pressure is at once questioning, surprised, and a little bit desperate.

She's fishing for information, you realize after scanning her Pressure. "Yes my queen. I was sent here two years ago to survey the state of the Earth in preparation of the Moonrace's Return. You may not remember, but you selected my group personally."

"Indeed." She answers in a non-committing manner. "But that does not answer my question. Why did Lieutenant Harry bring you here?"

"I don't know. I formally left the Dianna Counter a few weeks after the first landing, but then a pair of Royal Guardsmen asked me to come with them while I was visiting a friend in Nocis." You answer, which causes her to look expectantly at the Lieutenant.

"I…" He hesitates. "I wanted to test if Loran Cehack and Laura Rola is the same person."

Kihel-as-Dianna makes a show of rubbing her forehead. "So you resort to grabbing a civilian off the street? I did not expect you of all people to pull a stunt like this." She turns around to address the two members of the Royal Guard standing by the door. "Arrange for a car to take Mr. Cehack back to Nocis. We will escort him out."


The walk through the Soleil quickly becomes an impromptu interrogation as Kihel-as-Dianna asks you questions about how life has been here on Earth for you, your thoughts on the conflict, and if you have told anyone else about being from the Moon. Though the adjutant and Lieutenant Harry keep silent the whole way.

"Only Miss Kihel's sister, Sochie Heim, your majesty. I told her the morning after the first landing. Miss Kihel doesn't know yet."

"I see."

And with that you walk the rest of the way in silence.


You see the red-clad man and the turquoise-haired woman from before standing right by the entrance. Out of the corner of your eye you see them exchange worried looks as you are being driven back to Nocis.

Their Pressure feels a lot like Lieutenant Harry's…


*


The first thing you do after getting back to the Heim manor is to change into your Laura guise before taking the White Doll to the camp at the Heim mines. From there you borrow Colonel Michael's phone to call Lord Guin.



Colonel Michael is the head of the Inglessan Militia, and is staring skeptically at you as you inform Lord Guin in hushed whispers that the Royal Guard suspects that Loran and Laura is the same person. On the way back to the White Doll you spot a FLAT being cleaned of several years of dirt by a group of Militia technicians.

"Where did that come from?"

"Some kid came along and said he would like to sell me the location of a Mechanical Doll." The Colonel gruffly explains. "I was tempted to tell him that Lord Guin has made all Dark History artifacts the property of the state, but then he went on to explain that it was a Moonrace mechanical doll."

When you ask for a description your thoughts come to a stop when you hear 'wore an apron'. Keith…is this where you have been today?


*


[X] Practice with the White Doll.


A few days later you are in a different section of the rocky wilderness practicing with the White Doll, trying to apply what you learned in the battle with those boxy Mobile Suits to your improvised training regimen.


+5 Pilot XP


You think you are onto something.



Your training is interrupted by a pair of contacts appearing on the White Doll's sensors. It is the boxy mobile suits again. You quickly landskim into cover and carefully peek out…

They land a little bit beyond optimal range of your Beam Pistol. Both of them are armed but only one of them has any weapons at hand, a machinegun judging by the shape, though the pilot keeps the weapon lowered. The unarmed one walks forward until it is well within range, eventually stopping behind a pair of rocks that reach up to the Mobile Suit's waist. The cockpit hatch on its chest opens to reveal the man in the red jumpsuit.



The response from the White Doll is immediate. The man's mobile suit is instantly classified as friendly (at least, that is what you assume the color of the targeting reticule's highlights going from orange to green means) and a holographic screen pops open, racing through a list of what you think are profiles before stopping at one bearing this exact man's face.

Hold up, the White Doll knows this person?

Whoever he is (you cannot read the letters used to spell his name) withdraws a megaphone of all things from his belt.

"OI! WE SNUCK IN AND OVERHEARD WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT!" He screams in your direction. "ARE YOU LORAN CEHACK!? WHAT IS YOUR MOMMA'S NAME!?"


You decide to-


[] Ignore him and-
--[] Retreat.
--[] Attack.

[] Open a comm-link and-
--[] Answer him honestly.
--[] Stick to the Laura Rola story.
--[] Ask him who they are.

[] Write in.



If it comes to fighting you will…

(You are staying in cover)


[] Mobility.
--[] Stay on the ground with the Landskimmers.
--[] Take to the air with the Flight Mode.
--[] Take to the air with the Flight Mode and risk using the Voiture Lumiere.

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

[] NT Systems.
--[] Stick to the Psychoframe.
--[] Risk using the NT-D Mode.

[] NT Power.
--[] Telekinetic Strike.
--[] Telepathic Strike.
--[] Telekinetic Barrier.
--[] NT Empathy.

Loran Cehack : 2

Sochie Heim: 2

Dianna Soleil: 1

Harry Ord: 1

Man in red: 1

Turquoise-Haired Woman: 1


Every other encountered character has an NT-Level of 0.

[X] Open a comm-link and-
--[X] Ask him who they are.
---[X] Why does the White Doll know you?



You quickly plan out what to do if they turn hostile, but refrain from activating any of the White Doll's systems just yet. Instead you put on your goggles and wrap your scarf around your face before opening a comm-link to the red-clad man's Mobile Suit. "Hello?"

Peeking out of your cover you see the red-clad man perk up before he jumps backwards into his cockpit. Soon enough his voice comes over the comm-link. "Hi there. I see you figured out the radio on the Turn X."

The what? "Who are you people?"

"Name's Corin Nander, Acting Head of the DHV-MSF Third Division. Though I suppose I am the leader of the Corin Nander Penal Mobile Suit Corps at the moment." He answers while leaning casually into his seat. You don't know how to make your comm-links sound only, so he is surely studying you as well. "As far as the Dianna Counter's concerned I'm just here to serve out my sentence, but the two of us came down here to get Turn X away from this war, because none of you idiots have the slightest clue what you're playing with here!"

He calms down. "Speakin' of: Could I convince you to hand it over in exchange for some Leos? That's the kind of Mobile Suit we're flying just so you know. We brought enough spare parts to make a couple more of them, and after we're done sinking Turn X into a volcano or something we'll come back to help!"

He…seems sincere, but you cannot hand over the White Doll (if that is what the mean by 'Turn X'). You tell him so.

"Figures." He grumbles. "Then again, I wouldn't trade Turn X for a handful of Leos either." Corin sinks a bit into his pilot seat muttering.

"So…" You say once it is clear that Corin isn't going to say anything. "Who is your friend?"

He glances up and you and sighs. "One sec, gotta bring her into the link…" A second later another holographic screen, this one displaying the face of the woman with the turquoise hair, pops ups beside the one displaying that of Corin Nander. The moment her face appears the White Doll reclassifies her unit as well to 'Friendly'.

"Um…hi." You greet her. "Who are you?"

She blinks before leaning back with a smile. "Arisa Gunhale, acting head of the DHV-MSF Second Division. Technically not a part of the penal force, but I volunteered to come when they showed me pictures of Turn X being down here."



She points her thumb in a direction you assume is Corin's Mobile Suit (Leo, was it?). "Besides, this guy was going and since I've been in cryo almost all the time since the battle against the Turn A I didn't really know anyone else up there."

You didn't understand half of that, but you got the gist of it. But if what they are saying is right… "Why does the White Doll know you?"

"White Doll?" Arisa asks before looking somewhere off screen (at Corin Nander you assume). "Do you mean the Mobile Suit you are piloting?"

You nod at her. "Yes."

"That was our leader's unit. That oddball kept all the data on the DHV in the Turn X, so it makes sense that our profiles would be in there." She answers easily. Then she perks up. "Hold up, if you have our profiles, wouldn't you know our names already?" Her eyes narrow before she smiles again. "You're having trouble with the language settings, aren't you?"

When you refuse to answer she keeps going. "Anyway. I'd love to keep talking, but we came here for a reason." Her Leo(?) begins to walk forward until it is beside Corin's. "Are you Loran Cehack? And if so, what is your mother's name and what does she do?"


[] Ignore him and-
--[] Retreat.
--[] Attack.

[] Answer them honestly.

[] Stick to the Laura Rola story.

[] Write in.

*********

Before any of you get crazy with the Write-ins, Laura Cehack works as a materials researcher at a lab outside of the Moon's capital of Genganam.