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Petals of Titanium -- My Life as a Mecha Setting Bridge Bunny Quest

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The Laurent said:
Honestly, a part of me is not sure I trust Daystar and her plans at all.
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I have to agree with this - she went to one of the individuals who in so many ways can't say no. Can't say no in even more ways than most people, in both the definition of tenuous position but also just conditioning.

Which in some ways makes sense but in others - well there was a reason "divine" had to be bit back.
 
Thanks Gaz for writing the best season of Gundam since 00 s1. I mean this in the most sincere and serious way I can, this was and is easily in the top 5 stories ive read on this site.
 
Apparently, she's recruiting veterans, including Divine Navy personnel who are already indoctrinated into cult of personality thinking and entirely dependent on her good will. Since they are excommunicated traitors to the Divine Empire, they will make loyal shock troops for Daystar's Imperial Guard.
 
Hey, nobody died! That's always nice to see. Enough to make up for the dire lack of Owusu in this epilouge.

Gazetteer said:
Nonetheless, Dame Nalah gives her a Faiza a mildly reproving look. "Is that any way to say hello? You two are sisters, now."
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Speaking as an older sibling, that is absolutely the way little sisters say hello.

Also, I like how Amani went into the war a single child and came out with two sisters. She's probably the only personnell who managed that feat.

Yes, Faiza has been confirmed as best sister. Really hope my actual sister won't find this post

Gazetteer said:
Anja shrugs. "Took the opportunity to call home, before we get underway. I ended up with my lovelife being compared to North's."

Grayson snorts with amusement. "Well, it's good she's still making you look bad from all the way back on Titan. Is her lovelife particularly prolific, these days?"

It's not like it's a secret anymore. "Well, you know," Anja says, casually, waiting for him to raise his pouch of coffee to his lips, "her and Perbeck."

His reaction is everything she'd hoped for and more. "What?" he hisses, after narrowly succeeding in choking down his mouthful of coffee instead of spitting it out.
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... Sorry Mazlo, you have been firmly unseated as the story's second best boy.

Thanks to the thread for reminding me that Grayson is actually kinda cool.

Gazetteer said:
Then, before he has time to respond to that, she adds, more seriously: "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know... I appreciate what you did for me."

Grayson struggles to recover, but manages it, somehow. Anja respects that. "I put your name forward when the captain was looking for suitable officers, Li. That's all."

"It's not nothing, sir," she says, meaning it. "It means a lot."

"Well, despite your many flaws, you're good at your job. Just, try not to get shot again, Sub-lieutenant."

Anja grins. "I'll do my best, sir."
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Crap, I am starting to ship it...
@Gazetteer! You can't keep hiding the love interests offscreen, my goggles are not built for that! It'll result in nothing but rampant, unseaworthy pairings; illogical theorising and possibly me starting to sound like Anja's mother.

Usually when a writer is so good at making me ship things, I believe it's on purpose...

Gazetteer said:
"Hello, Ms. North," Daystar says, as if this entire situation isn't patently absurd. Why would she ever come here, of all places? If she wanted so badly to speak to Mosi, she could presumably contact the SRI and arrange for a meeting.
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Well Mosi, it seems you made the mistake of underestimating a runaway space princess who has her mind set on improving the world.

Genre conventions say that it usually ends for the better, but genre conventions also say that Ito should've lived, so...

Gazetteer said:
Daystar smiles very slightly, as though she knows she's going to get what she wants. "To get quickly to the point, then: I have a proposal. One that I think you'll want to hear."
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Yup, definitely a space princess with a mission.

Stand aside world, this is going to shake things up something proper. Yes, at least on the level of the a system-wide civil war.
 
Hm. Well I suspect the reason Mosi still has her old rank insignia from the Divine Navy compared to everyone else is that well the reformation of the Imperial Guard is being used as cover to assemble an infiltration unit that will have "miraculously" survived, and a lengthy manner of vetting the loyalty of those with the necessary skill set through seeing where their loyalty to the throne is in the dark to eventually form the core of a new IG.
 
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Yun said:
Hm. Well I suspect the reason Mosi still has her old rank insignia from the Divine Navy compared to everyone else is that well the reformation of the Imperial Guard is being used as cover to assemble a series of infiltration unit that will have "miraculously" survived, and a lengthy manner of vetting the loyalty of those with the necessary skill set through seeing where their loyalty to the throne is in the dark to eventually form the core of a new IG.
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They'd need a really good cover story then.

Or the guys back on Jupiter will need to be idiots.

Probably both.
 
Raiseth said:
They'd need a really good cover story then.

Or the guys back on Jupiter will need to be idiots.

Probably both.
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It's a big war, travel takes months, and most importantly of all the leadership screwed over their ability to resupply, which when paired with battle damage to say an air supply like what happened to the late Rose to explain a need to find a viable supply of oxygen while dodging patrols. It certainly isn't a foolproof plan, but Mosi can play the part of a fanatic, and more importantly she's basically guaranteed to be loyal to the mission whereas most others lack a family to be willing to turn on any turncoats.
 
The Laurent said:
That's the... worst case scenario, yes. Well, one of the worst?
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In one sense it's not too different to J6's case; they're indoctrinated towards royalty, and thus towards her. In one sense, corralling them is actually prudent to prevent them getting pulled under someone else's wing. (Though admittedly the 'loyalist' Royal Family is all of two people as far as I can recall)

The real question thus becomes 'how did the loss of J6 affect Daystar'? She tried to 'deprogram' her, teach her there was more to life whilst not taking advantage of that loyalty... and J6 died for her anyway. And the entire gaggle of Divine Navy POWs is a lot more than one single Jovian test pilot. It's going to be less personal just by the numbers, and they're 'replacements' on top of that.

So how cynical is Daystar going to prove?
 
Guessmyname said:
In one sense it's not too different to J6's case; they're indoctrinated towards royalty, and thus towards her. In one sense, corralling them is actually prudent to prevent them getting pulled under someone else's wing. (Though admittedly the 'loyalist' Royal Family is all of two people as far as I can recall)

The real question thus becomes 'how did the loss of J6 affect Daystar'? She tried to 'deprogram' her, teach her there was more to life whilst not taking advantage of that loyalty... and J6 died for her anyway. And the entire gaggle of Divine Navy POWs is a lot more than one single Jovian test pilot. It's going to be less personal just by the numbers, and they're 'replacements' on top of that.

So how cynical is Daystar going to prove?
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Her immediate reaction to lose her friend was realising just how many people eventually would -or already have- die for her sake. Her second reaction, seemingly, was to enlist in a position where she will see combat.

Those are not the actions of someone cynically spending lives. Those are the actions of someone with a goal who recognises that it will not come cheaply, and who is willing to put their own life on the line for the sake of it.

Plus, she went for Mosi North here. That is not a coincidence. Daystar saw Amani leave J6's room and had a vested interest in her friend making connections with other people. There's no way she doesn't know of the North family situation. Whatever the Princess has planned for Mosi*, she will not be a faceless fire-and-forget soldier.

*Spoiler, it's a highly experimental mecha that sells boxload of toys
 
Also, note how we got at least two indications of active insurgencies ongoing within Divine Empire controlled space. One of which apparently has the ruling Duchesses' daughter as an informant; as a plot hook that tells me that Daystar is thinking less of 'infiltrate deep into enemy controlled territory as a deep agent' and more 'slip into weak and/or periphery holdings and establish connections with active resistance in preparation for a coordinated assault' probably ferried along by a convenient new class of stealth ships one of which is already partially populated by known characters.
 
Though, I'm still kinda curious about what Amani's new job involves. She's only been on it for a year, so obviously she's not being pointed in the direction of big leadership opportunities, but she was pretty mum about the details of what she did/was doing.
 
Well before I start that reread, I just randomly remembered a minor character. Remember Commander Green, that divine navy officer that had taken Mosi under his wing? What happened to him, did he die at Iapetus? In my cursory search the last I could see of him was him in his damaged mech being hauled back to a divine navy carrier during that battle, but nothing about whether he survived or not. I remember being curious about how dame North would feel about him after hearing about what he was for Mosi. Like, during the fight between dame North and Green during the battle of Iapetus, they definitely hated eachother, and Green played a big role in keeping Mosi indoctrinated, but he also may well have kept her alive. And I also just thought he was an interesting character. But then in the tension of the battle and the North family drama afterwards I think it slipped my mind.

Also, in the process of looking for what happened to Green, I found this:
Gazetteer said:
As a child, Mosi had loved her grandmother. One of her earliest memories was the kind old woman giving her a snowglobe -- Mosi, who had never seen snow, never been to Earth or Mars, found the nature scene with its evergreen forest utterly enthralling. It had been her most prized possession. Then, when she was six, her grandmother had died.
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Gazetteer said:
She'd been furious at her grandmother and all the world in that instant, and she'd taken it out on everything she owned. Furniture tipped over, objects hurled across the room, clothing torn, until it had all passed, and she'd been just a shell shocked little girl, sobbing in the wreckage of her bedroom. That was when she'd seen it -- the snowglobe, lying shattered against a wall, glitter and chemically-laced water spreading over the floor amid the shards of glass.
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Gazetteer said:
Mosi had fallen to her knees, huddled over the ruined snowglobe, frantically trying to put the pieces back together with her bare hands, fingers bleeding from a dozen tiny cuts. She had to fix this, somehow, this thing that she broke, this thing she'd never get back, even as she realised that it was hopeless. Suddenly, a presence kneeling behind her, arms going around her, gentle hands holding her by the wrists, pulling her own away from the sharp glass."What have you done to yourself, Malaika?""Can we fix it?" Mosi demanded, frantic, not caring about her own injuries. "Can we... can we glue it?" Even as she asked, she knew they couldn't. She still needed to hear it."No. Sometimes, when we break something, it can't just be put back together." Mosi, unresisting, allowed herself to be pulled away and brought to the bathroom, stinging soap and water on her cuts, those same gentle hands applying sealing spray.Mosi's voice, uncharacteristically small and timid, had ventured, more a comment than a question: "People can't be fixed when they break either."Thoughtful silence for a long moment, then soft lips kissing her forehead. "No," Nalah agreed, "sometimes they can't. That's why we have to be careful."
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I'd forgotten that the snowglobe mentioned at the start of this last update had come up before. So, here's this, in case I wasn't the only one.
 
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Wasn't the SRI program that made J6 on Jupiter? That, with the epilogue focus on Jupiter rebellions and another neural linked pilot makes me think that Daystar is trying for an exfiltration mission.

A Mosi centric story where a small and potentially unreliable squad of highly skilled shock troops ends up in the midst of a rebellion much bigger than the mission planned sounds amazing.

I loved how Mecha battles were depicted. It was really vivid and I felt the emotions of the characters most there, whether fighting for their lives or just talking, every word laced with the thought that they're seconds away from cold, heartless vacuum.

I can't wait for the sequel.
 
For all it's worth, I think there's an independent uprising on Jupiter, and the Duchess' daughter is an informant to them, not to the loyalist imperials, so the next season promises to be interesting, what's with three warring factions.
 
I never thought I'd see the day.

I was going to write a more in-depth reflection, on the twists and turns the story took since I joined all the way back before Iapetus, when the story seemed at its most grimdark and everything was stacked against our heroes. We've come a long way since that point, from romancing Perbeck to turning the tide against the unstoppable invasion. And, of course, getting a lot of characters killed in the process.

But the fire alarm went off waaaay too early in the morning here, so I'll just reiterate how amazed and impressed I am with how brilliantly the story was written, and how smoothly all of its components fit together. It's a real testament to your skill and talent that a serial, less predictable medium such as questing was woven into such a cohesive narrative.

Well done, @Gazetteer. Can't wait for the sequel.
 
cB557 said:
Well before I start that reread, I just randomly remembered a minor character. Remember Commander Green, that divine navy officer that had taken Mosi under his wing? What happened to him, did he die at Iapetus? In my cursory search the last I could see of him was him in his damaged mech being hauled back to a divine navy carrier during that battle, but nothing about whether he survived or not. I remember being curious about how dame North would feel about him after hearing about what he was for Mosi. Like, during the fight between dame North and Green during the battle of Iapetus, they definitely hated eachother, and Green played a big role in keeping Mosi indoctrinated, but he also may well have kept her alive. And I also just thought he was an interesting character. But then in the tension of the battle and the North family drama afterwards I think it slipped my mind.
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Commander Green is actually one of my favourite characters in the story, and would have the title of 2nd best boy if helping to blow of thousands of civilians didn't disqualify you for that title. He definitely kept Mosi alive though.

He sheltered her from bullies, told her that she was capable of greatness despite having traitorous parents and backed her, which let her get the one area of freedom she managed grasp. Notably, he also taught her it was perfectly fine to commit unambiguously evil acts( betray the Divine Empire) if it was neccesary to survive, and that she should bury any guilt felt about it.
If Commander Green hadn't been there, Mosi would at best be a rank and filer far away from anyone who could save her, and at worst be dead from her "allies".

Of course, Green also sent Mosi on a mission were she would kill thousands of civilians and encouraged her o kill her own mother, which seriously cuts down on the good points.

Personally, I think he was caught during the mass surrender. If Mosi is going to be a major character in the sequel (as the sequel hook would imply), her father figure is too important to just kill off offscreen. He was wounded and wrecked, so he probably couldn't escape on his own and since we avoided the war crimes he also wouldn't be killed as a POW.

There is a chance that he ends up in one of the Usurper holdouts if the ship he's on managed to escape, so we might also see him there.
 
The Laurent said:
Honestly, a part of me is not sure I trust Daystar and her plans at all.
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Mosi is pleased not to be the only one.

Rockeye said:
I thought the Imperial Guard was utterly gutted?
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It was, leaving Daystar to rebuild it almost from scratch. Which, of course, means she can fill out the ranks with people loyal to her.

Raiseth said:
Also
Petals of Gold and Silver when?
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That's a good title, considering that the United Solar Empire Navy uses silver, and the Divine Navy uses gold.

OriginalName said:
Thanks Gaz for writing the best season of Gundam since 00 s1. I mean this in the most sincere and serious way I can, this was and is easily in the top 5 stories ive read on this site.
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That's very sweet of you to say!

1) On the other hand, though, Gundam is a franchise about a lot, but one of the things that it's very preoccupied with is an idea that protecting things and people and being able to live by your ideals is something you can only do if you actually have the power to back your ideals up. I'm writing a story about people who largely are not singularly handed that power, though, so I'm more dealing with... differing degrees of helplessness and making the most of that anyway.

2) IBO was so much better than 00 season 1

Omegahugger said:
Crap, I am starting to ship it...
@Gazetteer! You can't keep hiding the love interests offscreen, my goggles are not built for that! It'll result in nothing but rampant, unseaworthy pairings; illogical theorising and possibly me starting to sound like Anja's mother.
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Mrs. Li would love it if Anja ended up marrying Grayson, he's a nice young man from a good family and it would represent Anja moving up in the world.

Anja likes her string of dirtbag boyfriends, though, because it means she doesn't have to try very hard either.

Yun said:
Hm. Well I suspect the reason Mosi still has her old rank insignia from the Divine Navy compared to everyone else is that well the reformation of the Imperial Guard is being used as cover to assemble an infiltration unit that will have "miraculously" survived, and a lengthy manner of vetting the loyalty of those with the necessary skill set through seeing where their loyalty to the throne is in the dark to eventually form the core of a new IG.
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Putting her old rank insignia up at the top was more to represent that she hasn't really moved on to anything concrete since her defection, while her identity is still kind of wrapped up in being a pilot. That patch also says the HDMS Amaranth, which blew up en route to Titan.

Zaealix said:
*stares*
...I THOUGHT THIS RIDE WAS OVER!
I THOUGHT THE BOOK WOULD CLOSE! GADGETEEEEEAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!
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No one's ever called me Gadgeteer before.

The Laurent said:
Though, I'm still kinda curious about what Amani's new job involves. She's only been on it for a year, so obviously she's not being pointed in the direction of big leadership opportunities, but she was pretty mum about the details of what she did/was doing.
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Working at headquarters, under a more senior analyst to inretpret scan data and encoded messages. It is extremely boring work that Amani finds fascinating and engaging because she's a nerd.

PS: Thank you very much to whoever gifted me an account upgrade and gilded the epilogue post! It's very kind of you.
 
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Gazetteer said:
Mrs. Li would love it if Anja ended up marrying Grayson, he's a nice young man from a good family and it would represent Anja moving up in the world.
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I know that, and knowing that hurts my very soul.

Gazetteer said:
Working at headquarters, under a more senior analyst to inretpret scan data and encoded messages. It is extremely boring work that Amani finds fascinating and engaging because she's a nerd.
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It's also a relatively safe job, which I think is one thing both Nalah and Lori can agree is a very good thing.
 
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