By Mikazuki and Orga watch a Martian sunrise as they stand before a memorial for all of Tekkadan’s fallen, including Biscuit. Orga comments that once they swear the Sakazuki blood oath with Teiwaz, they’ll be equal to Naze and the Turbines. Orga thinks that the Sakura Farm won’t make enough money, leading lots of young men to join Tekkadan. He plans to run only legitimate businesses some day and will take the shortest route to do so. Orga wonders if Biscuit would’ve stopped him, and while Mikazuki doesn’t know, he says he won’t stop if Orga won’t either. In the year since Tekkadan’s debut, the group has grown and opened an Earth branch to provide defense services to Arbrau. Kudelia partnered with Teiwaz to create the Admoss Company and manage the mining of half-metals, with the eventual goal of making Mars’ economy independent. She also worked with Tekkadan to create an orphanage at the Sakura Farm. Due to Tekkadan’s display of power, child soldiers have increased in number, and old mobile suits from the Calamity War are being restored for service. New recruit Hush Middy enters an empty hangar and sees Mikazuki sleeping on the floor behind some crates. He doesn’t see what the big deal is about him and is overheard by Yamagi and Dane Uhai. Yamagi comments that Hush hasn’t seen the real Mikazuki yet. In the field, Shino yells at new recruits like Hush, Dane and Zack Lowe as they run laps. Eugene tells Shino not to be hard on them like the old First Corps, but Shino doesn’t want any of them to die from him going easy on them. Nearby, Lafter and Dante test out the new mobile suit Shiden, but she easily outmaneuvers him. Hush thinks the mobile suits are special because of the Alaya-Vijnana System, but Shino points out that they don’t have it. Zack complains about Orga not letting them get the surgery, and Eugene explains that they didn’t get it because they wanted to. No one should risk so much on that surgery, and Eugene wants to create a world where it isn’t necessary. Orga takes a call from Naze, and Dexter comments to Merribit on how Orga has grown into his leadership role. Orga tells Naze that he’s grateful for all the Turbines have done for him, but he’s not ready to stop yet. In Chryse City, Kudelia meets with a man named Allium Gyojan, who allowed her to make her first speech years earlier. He asks her to speak at a meeting for his group, but she declines. He then reveals that he knows about mining tour she’s going to give and asks to participate. Secretary Cucubita Hugues interrupts the meeting, so Kudelia uses the opportunity to decline again and dismiss Gyojan. After he leaves, Cucubita comments that his group Terra Liberionis is just barely hanging on, so he wants to ride Kudelia’s coattails. Kudelia is worried about what he knows and asks her to contact Tekkadan. Gyojan drives off and asks someone to make contact with another party. At a boarding school, several children are impressed that Tekkadan is coming to pick up Cookie and Cracker. The two ride in a car with Atra and Mikazuki and talk about school life. They stop when a parked car explodes, and the sisters plead with Mikazuki not to go outside. Later, Orga tells Mikazuki to ship out in the morning with Nadi to go pick up the Gundam Barbatos Lupus from the Turbines. Orga explains that the job has to do with something suspicious about Kudelia’s mining tour in two weeks.
Later, Orga holds a meeting and tells Akihiro, Eugene, Shino, Nadi and Merribit about the upcoming Admoss Company mining tour, which they’ll be providing security for. After that, Eugene tells the new recruits that this job will be their first battle. On Earth, McGillis attends a meeting with the leaders of the Seven Stars as the newly promoted head of the Fareed family. He addresses Gallus Bauduin, Nemo Baklazan, Elek Falk, Rustal Elion and Iok Kujan and asks for permission to allow his Outer Earth Orbit Regulatory Joint Fleet to operate on Mars. Having exposed the corruption of the Mars Branch, he feels guilty for setting in motion the events that discredited Gjallarhorn, so he wants to fix things and restore order. Iok objects because that would interfere with the jurisdiction of Rustal’s Arianrhod fleet, but Rustal responds that it doesn’t matter who does the protecting on Mars. After the meeting, Rustal and Iok are met by pilot Julieta Juris, and Rustal comments that McGillis has been looking for an excuse to operate in his territory, but he welcomes the challenge. McGillis’ subordinate Isurugi Camice asks how things will go, and McGillis explains that the man leading the Mars Branch is someone he nominated when he was part of the Inspection Bureau. McGillis also has someone there to rely on, and when Isurugi asks if it’s a friend, McGillis answers that he has no more friends. Zack, Hush and Dane sit around a campfire talking about how nothing has happened during the entire week and the job ends tomorrow. However, that ends when Ride and Akihiro pull up in a Mobile Worker and announce that the enemy is incoming. Orga informs Kudelia that the pirates known as the Dawn Horizon Corps recently landed on Mars and were probably hired by Terra Liberionis. She asks where Mikazuki is, and Orga answers that he’s on his way. The pirates attack with HD Mobile Workers, but eventually they deploy Garm Rodi mobile suits to turn the tide in their favor. Tekkadan’s Mobile Workers begin a hasty retreat, and Hush wonders if he’s going to die. However, things change when Shino, Dante and Derma Altland arrive in Shidens and engage the enemy suits. The pirate leader taunts Shino and asks where Tekkadan’s devil is, and Shino sees that another squad of suits are approaching. Akihiro orders the Mobile Workers to form a line and hold off the mobile suits. In space, Mikazuki prepares to launch as Nadi’s shuttle begins atmospheric re-entry. He launches in the Barbatos Lupus and opens fire on the Garm Rodis from above. After landing, he uses his sword mace take down one of the suits.
The series begins its second season with a quick explanation of how the status quo has changed since the end of the first. Tekkadan showed the world how corrupt Gjallarhorn was, and though the organization has lost a lot of credibility, it is far from defeated. McGillis has been rising in the ranks since engineering his father’s downfall and is now the head of a Seven Star family. The rest of the Seven Star leaders are old men or the youngish Iok, so it’s clear that McGillis’ target is Rustal. Tekkadan’s rise has ironically led to the increased use of child soldiers, and the organization has expanded enough to have a branch on Earth. We introduced to three new recruits who weren’t around in the early days, and while that’s a good perspective to have, I worry about balance because Tekkadan already had a large supporting cast. It’s good to see how Orga and Kudelia have grown into leadership roles and come so far from what they were at the start of the series. The ghosts of the past linger as Cookie and Cracker are bothered by a kid at school talking about Biscuit’s death like it was something cool, and it’s sad to see their panic about Mikazuki going into danger. Naturally, this being a Gundam series, the Barbatos has been upgraded and given a new addition to its name. Since Mikazuki only makes his dramatic entrance at the end of the episode, we’ll have to see what this upgraded suit can do next time. Overall, the second season gets off to a good start, and hopefully it will properly balance its now larger cast on both sides.
Comments