Mobile Guardian Q Gundam: Resurrection

Title:	Mobile Guardian Q Gundam: Resurrection
Author:	UltraMatt
Date Written:	6/21/2020
Continuity	SSEU Earth 1337-A
Time Placement	30,000 AD
Synopsis	Lani Asaka is a young teenager living in a small village, who soon gets caught up in the struggles between the ruling class and lower classes thanks to an ancient mecha.
Rating	G
Additional Notes	The first part of the Q Gundam Quartet.

Lani Asaka is a young teenager living on a small farming colony within the greater Versal Empire. The Empire itself has begun to strike against smaller uprisings being lead by a group calling itself The Third Army, themselves formed after increasing discriminations against non-noble families. One day, during a market day, Empire forces attack Lani’s village, apparently on the search for something. Rushing home, she only sees her parents long enough for her mother to tell her to flee to a nearby memorial mound, before her home is destroyed and her family is killed. Lani does so and when a stray shot blows a hole in the structure, accidentally falls through, discovering the entrance to a cockpit. In a panic, Lani manages to cause the now revealed Mobile Suit to rise, taking out one enemy Suits in the process, which seems to have an effect on one of the older solders. Fleeing clumsy away from her village, she is ambushed two other times before she’s suddenly saved by a different mobile suit, which she discovered is piloted by one of her friends, who had secretly been a member of the Third Army. She leads Lani to a Third Army ship, the Valkyrie, which had been secretly hidden away and after managing secure the Mobile Suit, take off just in time to witness the rest of the village being carpet bombed by the Empire Army.

At the Empire’s Homeworld, the head of the military reports the destruction of the colony to the elderly Emperor, as well as the reports of the newly sighted Mobile Suit. This news seems to disturb the Emperor, who demands that the TA Ship be tracked down and destroyed. Though partially confused, the Commander agrees to this, leaving the room and the Emperor to bemoan a feeling of unleashing a terrible mistake. The Commander contacts the nearest fleet and gives them the orders he had received. On board one of the ships, Delvis Zor, the soldier who had witnessed his comrade get killed, swears to get revenge on the Mobile Suit and it’s pilot and volunteers to lead the effort to capture the ship.

Onboard the ship, Lani is introduced to the rest of the pilots and crew, though she soon becomes overwhelmed by questions about the Mobile Suit and retreats to an empty quarters, trying to cope with the death of her family. She’s soon visited by her friend, who shares with her the sorrow of having lost everything that is precious to them but takes comfort in that they’re in this together. Lani is then suddenly requested to meet with the captain, her friend offering to escort her, though Lani turns it down. Lani meets with the captain, who explains to her what the Third Army’s goals are and asks her about the Mobile Suit, which she is unable to explain but now refuses to use, even though the Captain asks her to help them. He is understanding but the conversation is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a smaller vessel. The captain goes to meet with the pilot of the vessel, Lani following along. The pilot is a small space merchant, who gives the Captain coordinates to an abandoned satellite cluster, which Lani finds out is the manner in which the Ship itself often salvages to pay for the few Suits that they have. The merchant takes unusual interest in Lani’s Mobile Suit before leaving. A few of the crew don’t trust the merchant but realize that they have little choice in the matter as they need the supplies and the next friendly colony. With no choice, the ship takes off towards the cluster.

Onboard his ship, the pilot sends a message to the Empire vessel ESS Zodiac, giving the location of where the TA ship will be headed. The captain of the Zodiac then orders the ship to try and intercept the rebel spacecraft.

At the TA ship, Lani is struggling to fit in and even more so when a few of the crew members learn that Lani has no interest taking part in the fighting, with one of the pilots accusing her of cowardice and another telling her that the conflict affects them all. One of the pilots argues that if she isn’t going to take part, then she should give up the Mobile Suit to one of them and though Lani doesn’t like the idea, she realizes that it’s the best thing to do, after which she leaves the room. Lani bumps into the doctor who tries to help cheer her up and give her some perspective on everything, which seems to help her a little bit. The ship enters the satellite field and Lani is amazed by the sight of the junk strewn space, having never left her own planet. As the ship settles into the debris field, several suits are sent out to pick up what technology they require. Lani, however, gets a bad feeling and not long after, the salvaging group is suddenly ambushed by Empire Mobile Suits. Lani’s friend scrambles for the fight and when Lani hesitates, one of the other pilots is chosen to pilot Lani’s MS. However, much to their surprise, they find they can’t even get inside the machine, as if it is purposefully locking others out. Hearing the group getting overpowered over the communications line, Lani rushes to the MS and much to everyone else’s surprise, manages to unlock it and takes off into the middle of the battle. Though at first, her lack of combat prowess puts her at a disadvantage against the other enemy suits, she soon finds the sheer speed and agility of the MS allows her to avoid almost any attack the Empire throws against her. During one of her attacks, one of the Empire pilots manages to get the best of her and mocks that the Third Army is so going to be destroyed, but before he can finish, he manages to get hit by a shot from one of the ship’s pilots. However, the group realizes they’re far too outgunned and instead manages to slip out another way before the Zodiac can realize what has happened. By the time they are able to leave the field, the Third Army ship has escaped.

The Zodiac captain reports back to the Imperial Military Command of the loss of the Third Army ship. The commander tells him to remain where he is and that he will have further instructions for him. He turns to confer with his fellow military leaders and each of them, while eager to put an end to the Third Army’s actions, are also wondering why the Emperor seems to suddenly want to accelerate plans to destroy them. Each of them agree, though, that the gains will outweigh any issues that may arise. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Delvis Zor, who had been recalled. The High Commander applauds his past actions and performance and gives him a new task, one which he may be interested in.

The TA Ship has stopped in orbit around a small asteroid, while it works on repairs from it’s last battle. Inside, Lani is looking over the MS, wondering about why she could pilot it and nobody else and about why her mother had the device which was able to activate it. Her friend comes to check up on her and then explains to her why they’re all fighting and what they’re fighting for. She tells Lani that though they have both lost their families, this crew can forever be relayed on to be her family after this, something which brings comfort to her. Their conversation is interrupted as they’re called to a meeting of all ship staff. In the main bay room, the captain addresses the team. He doesn’t mince words and feels that the Third Army has been somehow recently compromised and that he has decided the only thing to do is bring what they do know back to their headquarters at the former colony of Alboria. He also asks Lani to continue to operate as the pilot of the new MS, with the hopes they might be able to use it to turn the tides in their efforts against the Empire, something that the girl agrees to do so. As repairs finish, the ship takes off once more in the direction of the Alboria.

Lani takes this time to better equate herself with the ship and it’s crew and takes a small moment to practice in the MS, finding that she almost seems to know how to operate it by pure instinct, though she still loses the small competition she has with the other pilots. The fun is interrupted as they discover the remains of the merchants’ vessel and realizes that it has been destroyed by the Empire, though they are able to recover it’s data compartment, which is brought onboard and given to Doc to translate.

As the ship approaches the location of Alboria, Doc finally breaks through the encryption, only to discover that it includes a communication sent to the Empire detailing the location of the main base of the Third Army. Too late, the vessel realizes they have entered a trap as they discover the entire satellite abandoned and as they get nearer, Empire ships emerge from behind the the Colony and begin to attack the ship. Scrambling every suit at their disposal, the smaller force of the ship finds itself horribly outmatched against the fleet which has been sent against them. Lani goes out as well and though she at first tries to help, she is suddenly sidelined by Delvis Zor, who begins to blame her for his friend’s death and calls out vengeance against her. Though Lani’s suit is far faster and more agile than Delvis’, his combat experience keeps the two even, keeping her separated from the rest as the ship takes damage from the constant barrage of the Empire space vessels. Forcing her onto the surface of the artificial satellite, Lani doesn’t even understand why he hates her and tries to defend her actions, but he simply insults her and tells her that he’ll get his hands on her MS after he kills her. After a lengthy battle, he manages to corner her against some debris. However, before he can hit her with a final strike, Lani’s friend bursts through and gets in the way, her suit getting horribly damaged. As she skids away, she tells Lani not to give up hope and to believe in the rest of the crew, before her suit explodes, killing her. Lani is overcome by anger and sorrow and as she cries out for her dead friend, her eyes take on a subtle glow as a secondary system within the suit activates, causing it to suddenly increase speed at such a high level that it nearly tears Delvis’ own MS apart in the process. She then proceeds to decimate almost the entire group of Empire MS troops with strange energy shockwaves before the system suddenly shuts itself down, causing her to nearly pass out. At the same time, a group of Third Army vessels suddenly appear and begin to firing on the Empire fleet, helping the stricken ship to retreat in the process. Delvis Zor sees this from his badly damaged MS and swears vengeance against Lani for what she’s done.

Back on board, the captain speaks with his fellow officers, learning that the Third Army has moved it’s headquarters to a new location and that he is to make his way towards the Outer Colony Edges for resupply and new orders. As the other crew members mourn the deaths of several of comrades, Lani sits silently inside her unit, devastated still by the death of her friend and everything that she knew having been lost. She remembers her friend’s last words and silently agrees with them. As she looks over the systems in front of her, she notices a phrase lit up on one of the screens: GUNDAM. Outside, the vessel silently makes it’s way through space, accompanied by a small group of Mobile Suits to protect it.

The End

In the back alley of a city on one of the outer colonies, a young man walks through the rain, before finding shelter underneath an overhang. After a moment, the rain slows and he steps outside. He looks up at the sky and sees the stars, before smiling….