It was the bloodiest war in history. It was the death of half of humanity. And it is over... on paper.
Paper does not hate. It does not bleed, or struggle to live with what they have done. People hate, bleed and live... and while they do these things, can the war truly have reached its end for those that carry on?
Those That Carry On
is a fanfiction by drakensis that fuses elements and characters of Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing into a single setting and story.
A few years have passed since Zeon surrendered to the Federation, the problems of the war haven't gone away. Prejudice is rife, many colonies still refuse to accept Federation authority and ambitious men and women are willing to sacrifice others for their own benefit. A handful of mobile suit pilots find themselves in a position to make a difference, but doing so has costs for them.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: In canon, Kira was just a regular teenager when the Junius Seven incident happened and the war started. Here? He had been a veteran of the Zeon War and feared as The White Devil years before the Bloody Valentine War.
- Adaptational Job Change: In canon, Dekim was a terrorist paramilitary leader. Here, he’s a Senator in the Earth Federation.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon, Treize and Dekim barely knew each other, and were largely only connected by the former’s relationship with the latter’s daughter. Here, the two are explicitly allies.
- Kira and Athrun are not Childhood Friends here. This is justified by the fact that Athrun is from the Jupiter Sphere, and travel times between there and the Earth Sphere are largely impractical.
- Almighty Janitor: Dorothy is technically just the Federation’s military attaché to the Republic of Zeon. In actuality, she is it’s ruler in all but name.
- Anachronism Stew: On the UC side, the setting is mostly that of Stardust Memory, but elements from latter parts of the UC are incorporated. Most notably, the increased relevance of the Jupiter and Mars Spheres (which only showed up in the UC 120s and 130s respectively), and characters that didn’t appear until later showing up early.
- Colonized Solar System: Aside from the canonical Earth Sphere, there are also colonies at the Sol-Earth Lagrange Points, Mars, and Jupiter.
- Composite Character: A lot of people, on account of mixing several series that tend to have expies of each other’s characters.
- As mentioned below, Relena Darlian is mixed with Sayla Mass/Artesia Som Deikun.
- Duo Maxwell takes more than a few elements from Judau Ashta.
- Heero is really Kira, who was also the Gundam pilot during the One-Year War, replacing Amuro.
- Zechs Merquise is Char/Casval’s newest alias, after he joined the Federation military
- The Moore Brotherhood has a few elements taken from Blue Cosmos, most notably being responsible for nuking Junius 7.
- The Conspiracy: Dekim, Treize, and Delaz are in a secret alliance to weaken the Federation Government.
- Cool Starship: The Albion.
- The Pegasus was this during the Zeon War, but it’s since been retired.
- Deadpan Snarker: Fairly common. Cima, Char and even Heero get in on it.
- Disguised in Drag: Duo finally gets a false identity... that Heero put together using a photo of Duo in drag.
- Experienced Protagonist: Heero is this, as he is really Kira Yamato, the now-retired Ace Pilot of the Federation
- Fusion Fic: Between the UC, AC, and CE timelines. Overall, the setting is the UC around the time of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, with various concepts and characters from Wing, SEED and latter in the UC inserted throughout.
- King Incognito: Federation lieutenant Relena Mass turns out to be a false identity of Artesia Som Deikun, the provisional governor of Zeon.
- Mythology Gag: The Coordinators are based out of the Jupiter Sphere instead of the Earth Sphere. In canon, the first Coordinator, George Glenn, made his big debut by going on a mission to Jupiter.
- Not Quite Dead: Kira was presumed dead after the Zeon War. In reality, he had gone into hiding under the name Heero Yuy
- Puppet King: Double Subverted. Artesia is meant to be a puppet ruler of Zeon, with the real ruler being her military attaché Relena Mass, except Relena is Artesia’s Secret Identity, meaning that she has all the control. But then Relena is replaced by Dorothy Catalonia.
- Retired Badass: After the Zeon War, Kira faked his death, took on the name Heero Yuy, and decided to spend the rest of his life in the junkyards of Shangri-La.
- Secret Identity: at times it seems that almost every major character has at least one.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: In particular, Cima and Heero.
- Spanner in the Works: Dekim was heavily funding the construction of New Moore with the assistance of the Moore Brotherhood in hopes that the colony cluster would be developed enough to earn seats at the Federation Senate and expand the Bartons’ power base… Then the Brotherhood nuked Junius Seven.
- Survivor Guilt: Cima adds this to her existing traumas.
