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

[Iceblocks]

[X] "Corin stopped one of the huge Gundam Mechanical Dolls with a Dainsleif harpoon gun he took from a downed enemy, killing it even as it blasted his Leo into dust."


Sochie gestures to the silver screen behind her. "Corin stopped one of the huge Gundam Mechanical Dolls with a Dainsleif harpoon gun he took from a downed enemy, killing it even as it blasted his Leo into dust."


A projector somewhere in the dark in front of her starts up, and an image of a battlefield among the farmlands of northwestern Romagna appears on the screen behind Sochie. At first it is just a still image of a Leo Flight Type Custom delivering the final blow to a Dainsleif-armed Mahiroo with a Vibroblade, but after a few seconds the scene starts to play.


*


Corin's hands gripped the controls, making his Leo drive the stolen Vibroblade through the cockpit of the Mahiroo, the pilot's Psychic aura winking out as the blade pierced the Mobile Suit's back armor. He kept the enemy unit lodged onto his blade for a second, using it as a shield should anyone try to shoot him while he was looking around. A few railgun slugs, fired from his front and from his left, passed through the air around him, but some quick leveraging of the Mahiroo let him hide behind both it and its toroidal shield.

The Gaurian Enacts keep firing, forcing him to hide behind his improvised cover until they suddenly let up and scattered into the air. The shaking earth revealed the reason: A Destroy Gundam, half again as tall as a WaDom and much bulkier, strode out of the smoke and light of the battlefield. A slight Pressure, along with a warning wail from sensors registering target locks, told him that it was focused on his Leo.

If he ran, this colossus would be free to rampage through Romagna. There was no one else close enough to help the Romagnans and the Abruzzians take on a properly supported Destroy Gundam.

He let go of his appropriated weapon, letting the dead Mahiroo take a barrage of beam fire while his custom Leo dove for the weapon the enemy had dropped in the melee: A Dainsleif. The ground around him erupted into great gouts of soil as the Enacts added the weight of their fire to that of their massive ally, perforating his Leo's Flight Unit but failing to prevent him from readying the harpoon railgun.

Kneeling, he brought the weapon to bear on the Ghingham Fleet Gundam and fired at the same time as it opened up with its chest beams, rewarding him with the sight of the blue wave of charged particles momentarily splitting in two before it all became LIGHT.


*


The view on the silver screen cuts off. Sochie is gone, a door to her left snapping shut behind her. Arisa Gunhale walks out from behind a curtain. She takes the now vacant chair for herself and sighs with anger and resignation.

"Corin was the last one, the only one of us who hadn't died before he became a Dark History Veteran. Sir Kreis found him in the cycle before this one, and put him in a stasis capsule after telling him everything."

She shakes her head. "We all felt him die, heard him as he crossed over." A laugh. "He seemed more surprised than anything, like he couldn't believe what was happening…"

"Whatever, we won. The Gaurians were pushed back with massive losses once the Ghingham Fleet withdrew instead of risking more of their heavy units, but they were not out of the war just yet. Gauria might smaller than the Amerian Sunbelt Region, but it is much more densely populated and has a ton of industry, giving them everything they needed to replace their losses."

A map of the world appears on the silver screen, projected onto it by an unseen source.

"And let's not forget the rest of the world. Junno is winning, even with us running around to force her forces into a stalemate in one theater or other, but that was not the only kind of war that is being fought: We spent a few weeks more fighting in the mountains that make up the Gaurian-Romagnan border when Loran suddenly got recalled to Luzipurch."

The map disappears, replaced by portraits of Guin Sard Rhineford and Lily Borjarno.



"Things were coming to a head in the Congress of the Amerias. Both Lord Guin and Lady Lily had finished their preparations, leaving only Loran and the Turn X as wildcards."



"I don't know the exact details of what happened when Guin's Monarchists and Lily's Federalists confronted each other with Loran in the middle, but to hear it from the kid he-"



[] "-Sided with Lily Borjarno, uniting America as a federal constitutional monarchy with her as the head of state."

[] "-Still felt like he owed Guin, but not enough to start a civil war on his behalf, so he forced him into a compromise with Lily Borjarno: Lily's plan for a united America would become reality, but with Guin Sard Rhineford as Emperor to her Empress."

[] "-Tried to force them to bury the hatchet until after the war with Junno, kicking the can down the road."

[] "-Washed his hands off it and let the factions sort it out themselves, for better and for worse."


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Sorry about the long wait. I had planned to write this over a month ago, but between work, the urge to start Let's Playing a Pokemon fangame, and rediscovering the Shadow Hearts series I just couldn't find the time.

 

[Iceblocks]

[X] "-Still felt like he owed Guin, but not enough to start a civil war on his behalf, so he forced him into a compromise with Lily Borjarno: Lily's plan for a united America would become reality, but with Guin Sard Rhineford as Emperor to her Empress."


Arisa waves over her shoulder at the silver screen. "-he still felt like he owed Guin, but not enough to start a civil war on his behalf, so he forced him into a compromise with Lily Borjarno: Lily's plan for a united America would become reality, but with Guin Sard Rhineford as Emperor to her Empress."

The projector shuts off before starting up again, replacing the pictures of Loran and the Turn X with a recording of a parade through the city of Luzipurch. It is in color and in high definition, so one can infer the use of Moonrace cameras. The Turn X strides at the center of the parade, right behind the float carrying the newlywed Royal Couple of Inglessa. The ancient Mobile Suit is carrying a banner decorated with a crowned bald eagle, the flags of the Amerian states scattered across the feathers of its spread wings.

Arisa watches is silence as the parade reaches the plaza before the old Luziannan Diet building, the site where the negotiations of the Pan-Amerian Congress have taken place for the past months. Guin Sard Rhineford and Lily Rhineford nee Borjarno step off the float to meet the finely-dressed crowd gathered outside the great hall's doors. As they draw near the kings, princes, dukes and presidents all display the symbols of their offices. Ancestral swords, decorated scepters, bourgeoisie medallions… all presented to the couple as the gathered heads of state together pronounce them emperor and empress of a united Ameria.

"Heh." Arisa chuckles. "It is funny how the United States always shows up in some form, but that's Memory Relationships for you."

She quietly laughs to herself as she leaves, even as the recording of the coronation is replaces with pictures.








*


The projector turns off as Loran Cehack enters the room. Silently, he sits down in the chair that Arisa just vacated.

"Lord-" He catches himself. "Emperor Guin was not happy when I refused to join him, even less when I started to pressure him to take Empress Lily's offer." A hand plays with his immaculate white hair as he looks down.

"He doesn't trust me anymore. I don't think he will again."

The projector lights up once more, bathing the silver screen in light as a map of the world appears above Loran.

"The weeks after coronation ceremony saw the war intensify as Queen Junno and the Ghingham Fleet redoubled their efforts to conquer Earth. With the formation of the first official Amerian armies in centuries, we were able to keep them away from the Adeskan mass driver and Ameria proper, with Dianna Counter help of course. Still, more and more of Colombia south of Ameria fell to Junno's forces."

Loran pauses, considering, before he telekinetically gathers the dust off the floor, constructing a crude pointer. The rod hovers motionlessly for an instant before it shoots closer to the screen, drawing circles in the air around Gauria.

"My team were still fighting Gauria and the main Ghingham Fleet push, and the Turn A mostly operated there as well when it was not leading operations in the Babel Region or in the USX."

The rod goes south to Abruzzo.

"Our main objective, beyond keeping Gauria and their Ghingham Fleet masters out of the Stivalia Peninsula, was to ensure that the Abruzzian Salamis cruisers made it into orbit to join Queen Dianna's fleet above Ameria. While they might not be as powerful as an Almaiya or an Aspite, they should be sufficient as support vessels for the proper battleships."

A telekinetic shift brings the rod back to the Romanga, where it taps the screen and trails off into Gauria.

"The others and I ended up spearheading an offensive, breaking through the Gaurian lines and forcing the Ghingham Fleet to commit, preventing them from interrupting the cruisers from taking off from the Abruzzian mass driver. I had to teleport back to stop an ocean assault from Ghingham Fleet elements based in the Babel Region, but the operation was a complete success."

Loran waves his hand and the rod crumbles to dust.

"But… we couldn't stay to help the Abruzzians or the Romangans after that. New Mountain Cycles were found all over the Earth, and both Junno and the Earth's forces were racing to claim them for themselves."

He stands up and points to the map.

"Sochie, Arisa, Ivory, Fuun-Saiki and I packed our things and headed to-"



[] "-Africa, to seize Mountain Cycles containing thermonuclear missiles before Junno's collaborator states could get a hold of them."

[] "-Asia, to keep the Ghingham Fleet away from a newly-discovered Mass Driver."

[] "-the Babel Region, to ensure that the spaceships of the Sultanate of Medina stayed out of Junno's hands."


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This also took longer than it needed to, but I will finish this quest.