Mobile Suit Gundam: Continuum

Five years had gone by since the war had ended between her people and those that lived on the moon, under its massive domes, since before the Dark Times. Lauren....or Laura, as she liked to be known now, had come from there, years before the war started. He....or rather, she had always alarmed at her habits shortly after the war. With the festivals and memorials done, the Republic that succeeded Lord Guin's wartime rule had seen fit to repudiate the debts of his government as those of the disgraced and exiled man himself, thus allowing them to renege on the promises made to the militia. With the honors and more they'd more then earned buried under the cold disinterest and bustle of reconstruction, Sochie had taken to sitting out in the cold in the clear winter nights, and studying the moon and stars with a telescope, headphones and antenna.

That was years ago, and since thenm, her sister....or rather, the queen that had looked like her sister but had been so much older, and had wanted to fade from existence for ever so much longer then any of the rest of them had been alive, succumbed to pneumonia last winter. Lauren...Laura, had disappeared shortly thereafter, leaving no one to come a blanket around her as she continued her nightly vigils, when she forgot to do so for herself. Tonight was one such night, and even though she was dressed in layers, she was freezing.

Sochie exhaled, staring at her misty breath obstructing the purple blackness, dotted with moon and stars in front of her. She adjusted the rudimentary earphones on her head with one hand, and continued listening to the weird sounds of in the flux of space, the music of the spheres, as Lord Guin (although, no, he wasn't a noble anymore) had often referred to it, eloquently.

'The spheres sing', Lord Guin had told her once, years before the war, half a decade, when she'd still been nothing more then a little girl. She could recall it like yesterday, now, she'd been wandering about his estate like a ragamuffin, and she'd been followed by the grounds-keeper, who then discovered the tree-fort she'd constructed on the edge of the property. All the adults had responded negatively, and there'd been talk of trouble and being sent to her room, and things she couldn't understand about suits being brought to ber parents (at least at the time), but then there'd been Guin, and he'd just laughed, and smiled whimsically, patting her on the head.

'You're a brave girl, Sochie', smiling kindly at her, as he always did to everyone. They'd already made her clean up and dress nicely since she'd been filthy and her clothing worn when they'd found her adventuring in the woods, and Lord Guin had asked that tea and cookies be brought for them. 'I don't really mind if you build a little house for yourself in or around my property. You do know now that you should be more careful, though, right Sochie? Some take their land rather more seriously...'

She remembered nodding solemnly. "Yes!", she'd piped jubilantly, happy she wasn't in trouble, and wouldn't have to suffer all that would go in hand with that. She looked up and down his meticulously ordered library-study curiously, before her eyes came to rest on a similar set of earphones, lying on a wooden chair, the set connected to some strange mechanical apparatus. A telescope sat on its tripod not far from it, and she'd thought of a telescope of her own the groundskeeper had confiscated with her treehouse; a much flimsier one, and made for a child, but a telescope she owned herself, nonetheless. She remembered, she'd pointed. "Um....what's that, Lord Guin?"

She looked up at the nice adult everyone in town had always loved with obvious curiosity, drawing the same warm smile he always wore.

'Heh. Oh, that....well, with those, I listen to the music of the spheres, Sochie...'

She tilted her head to the side. "The musics of the spears? What spears, Lord Guin?"

Lord Guin had laughed kindly, patting her on the head, before turning his gaze back to the telescope and radio, his expression taking on another common quality, as though he were looking at something that was far away, so far away that only he could see it.

'Well....Sochie?' He turned back to her, looking at her intently. 'Do you think a person that decides to be a soldier in a war is brave, Sochie?'

She remembered she'd nodded. "Well yes, Lord Guin, a soldier is a brave person, I think."

He laughed gently, handing her a cookie, which she promptly bit into, eagerly.

'I see.....well, they're not spears, but spheres....big balls of light, the stars, do you know what I mean, Sochie?'

He raised his hands in an all encompassing gesture that made Sochie look up and all around too, trying to imagine the sky through the gilt ceiling.

"Mhm...", she swallowed, like their momma had always told her, before opening her mouth to speak. "Uh-huh...the stars are suns, like our sun, right, Lord Guin?"

He nodded emphatically. 'That's right, Sochie....and they sing...' He was looking right at her, but he still seemed to be looking through her, thoughtfully, as though contemplating vast distances.

"What do they sing about, Lord Guin?"

His expression changed. Only ever so slightly, but the perfect amount that it wasn't too small or too obvious to be dismissed by the overactive mind. There was mourning there. Sadness. Maybe even regret, she though, looking back on it now in hindsight. Then he concentrated on her, again.

'They sing about a lot of things, Sochie. They used to say the stars used to be people, you know. They'd say that every time that someone goes to heaven they become a new star, somewhere in the sky, and they sing, too, about the things they know, once knew, and would've known, if they hadn't gone to the sky first...'

She'd looked away, she remembered, uncomfortable, since their father had died...they'd told her he'd gone into the sky, too, somewhere you couldn't see in it, but then they'd buried him deep under the soil, and-

"But what do they sing about?", she'd asked, interrupting herself. "What do they sing about most, Lord Guin?"

And again, his expression drew far away, as he seemed to gaze on some distant future, some possibility that seemed to make him at once fond and horrified. Was it the future, she wondered now, looking back from her own stargazing night, was it the shifting, relentlessly changing future, unknowable and impossible as it seemed, increasingly?

'Well...', he'd continued, hesitantly. Then he shook his head, as if shaking off some leash, some noose that wanted to drag him to the sky, too. He fixed his gaze on her, sitting there, nibbling on her chocolate chip cookie. He leaned forward, mussing her hair suddenly, staring into her eyes, searching them. 'They say they mostly sing sad songs, about their loved ones that didn't make it to the sky to be with them. One story says its warriors, or those killed by warriors, or those killed as a consequence of war, or worse. Sometimes those in peace, though less often then not, who couldn't find their way to the sky...sometimes, but especially in times of war, some forget the way. And so they sing, hoping they'll find their way home when they hear the voices of those that loved them.'

"Oh...", she'd said, not knowing how to respond. She still didn't know how to respond, having been to war and back. She sung sometimes, old songs from childhood, nursery rhymes and other things, for the ones she remembered that hadn't made it home during the trip to the moon and back. She blinked back a tear, and turned her eyes back to the star filled sky, not daring to remember Gavane, or the marriage they'd dared to dream they'd share together.

A new star blinked into existence in the sky, and suddenly her headphones crackled full of a new sound. She peered through her telescope, surprised. It was close. Small. and close.

She stared, forgetting the new sound, until a voice emerged through the distortion, crisp and clear.

"...Compared to the Earth Federation, the resources of Zeon are one thirtieth theirs..."

The voice that came through was noble, the tone shrill. She remembered the man from the moon that had started the last war, suddenly, her body tensing, alertness pumping through her veins. Gym Giginham....this wasn't him, but the tone in the voice reminded her of him.

"We must never forget what the Earth Federation has done to our people! ...By focusing our anger and our sorrow, we are finally in a position where victory is within our grasp; once again, our most cherished nation will flourish! Victory is the the only tribute suitable for those who have already given their lives to our cause! Rise, our people, Rise! Take your sorrow, and turn it into anger! Zeon thirsts for the strength of Her people...!"

There was a pause in the shrill speech, and then the unmistakable sound of a traditional salute by the speaker, followed by a hail. "SIEG ZEON!!!"

It seemed whenever, wherever this speech was taking place, whether a recording or not, there was an audience immediately at hand. A hundred, maybe a thousand voices lended the original speaker their assistance, begging victory for 'Zeon', whatever that was, and returning his gesture simultaneously...

Sochie sat up in her chair, exhaling another steamy breath into the cool winter air, wide-awake now. She reduced the volume on her radio by turning a dial, but still, she could hear the voice murmuring, repeating its proclamations, obviously a recording now, and of indeterminate significance and age. She wondered, as she stared through her telescope at this new satellite what had changed; she didn't notice on the accompanying rangefinding board that the instruments mislabeled the newcomer 'Sputnik', though she couldn't have known what that meant, anyways. She found herself wondering who Zeon was, and if Diana Soreil, buried in her sister's grave adjacent the garden, knew what all this meant.

And Lauren Cehack..., she thought, then mentally corrected herself. Or rather, Laura....Laura Rolla...

Did this have something to do with the mysterious Moonrace operative's sudden disappearance?

"Many of your fathers and brothers have already perished valiantly in the face of a contemptible enemy..."

Abstract:

The year is Correct Century 2350. Five years have passed since the end of the last war, with Gym Giginham's junta disintegrating with his death, bringing a start to an uneven peace between the people of Earth and the Moonrace. Dianna Soreil has died on Earth while her double, Kihel Heim, has been marginalized, and then secretly exposed and detained. In the past four years, the Moonrace has grown diplomatically cold in direct correlation to their numbers swelling in the domiciles of Inglessa and Luzianna. In the last year, fixed elections have led to a total take-over of the government of Nocis City by pro-Moonrace parties; a domination of the new economy by the industry moguls come down with the colonists has led to an installment of a corrupt and dirty political machine to perpetuate this injustice. In Inglessa, the Earth natives have been effectively reduced to second-class citizens A new war seems inevitable, as the subdued Inglessa gradually builds momentum for war on Luzianna at the behest of their new masters. All hope is not lost, however. Laura Rolla, the hero of the last war, has eluded a dragnet intended for her. Meanwhile, the people of Inglessa have responded to injustice in their own way, many migrating further up into the colder northern lands, where rumor has it that the disgraced Lord Guin has begun a highly profitable excavation industry in 'Autoah'. And stranger still, large quantities of space debris of indeterminant origin have begun spilling themselves out into space at Equatorial orbit. Moonrace science teams have been sent to investigate this phenomenon, which appears to be a wormhole. The mix of semi-intact ships and mobile units, and sometimes cadavers, dates back far into the Dark Times, some pieces as far into the past as the fabled One Year War 3000 years ago.

OOC:

Alright, I'm looking to find enough Gundam fans to start an RP occurring after the events of Turn A. I will allow any character that is easily missed in its own continuity, whether canon or original, so long as they aren't KIA in their series of origin. The only stipulation is that the character wind up through the wormhole if they aren't from the Turn A time-period, and that they aren't piloting anything too unlikely on arrival (no one of a kind Mobile Weapons, such as were verified destroyed in their native series; ie, no Gerbera Tetras, Operation Meteor Gundams, Perfect Zeongs, or Gyans). There will be ample opportunity later in play to acquire more advanced and suitable of Mobile Weapons.

Think of this as Dynasty Warrior Gundam, with an actual plot. All you need to do is drop a character sheet as follows if you would like to participate:

Name:
Appearance:
Personality:
From:
(Provide your characters native period and allegiance)
History:

If your character has a Mobile Suit, Mobile Armor or other comparably significant weapon of war, please drop a description as follows:

Model #: (refer to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for details)
Name: (Include the standard name before it's nickname in italics when appropriate; ie, Zaku II, GM, Leo, etc)
Acquisition: (was it issued, excavated or stolen?)
Armaments: (If it doesn't deviate from traditional loadouts as described, type 'Standard' before listing them)
Modifications: (Do the internal components deviate from the original build? If so, how?)

Bare in mind that, especially in the Universal Century period, there were numerous variants of common models which were also themselves quite commonplace. If you want to note that you have a high-performance version of something time-period common, look for the already listed variant first.


I'm looking for particularly talented players to write for a few specific characters:

Loran Cehack / Laura Rolla
Harri Ord
Sochie Heim
Relena Peacecraft
Yazan Gable

If there's any interest please give me a holler. For additional resources, please refer to these sites:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I intend for Universal Century to be featured most prominently in this RP, though from my list of requested canon characters, I'm sure you can deduce that I'm not close minded to other continuities. The potential for 'invincibility' with certain series and their primary units, however, will make myself and others authorized to manage this RP prejudiced against requests for characters and units from outside of Universal Century, After Colony and Future Century eras.