The Rose of Sharon was a Mobile Suit that was never meant to be finished – at least not in the world of Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX.
Imagine a weapon that was never meant for your reality. What would discovering it do to a person? And how long do you think it would be before you made the jump to using it as an energy source to power your massive Solar Ray cannon? Because that’s exactly what happened to the Rose of Sharon, which might be better known as the MAN-08 Elmeth in a universe we’re more familiar with.
Rose of Sharon Design And Capability
Like many of the Mobile Suits that Zeon fielded in the latter part of the One-Year War, the Rose of Sharon was an experimental prototype. Designed as a “Large Newtype Mobile Armor”, the Elmeth project was all about the union of pilot and machine. It was made with the experimental Psycommu control system in mind. You can see it in the look of the vessel. It’s made to resemble something organic. A flower bud. A diving bird of prey.
Compared to the robotic humanoids that other Mobile Suits embody, the Rose of Sharon is alien. Even its method of attack is very different. The Elmeth carries two Mega Particle Guns, mounted near the cockpit, capable of elevating and firing. But far more deadly were the 12 Bits.
These flower-seed like constructs were actually remote weapons equipped with a rocket thruster, vernier maneuvering jets, and a single beam gun. All of which were integrated with the Psycommu system mounted in the Rose of Sharon. This system let a powerful Newtype pilot operate the bits independently of the Elmeth itself.
And with a special Psycommu receptor built into its framework, a Bit could operate even at long-range despite Minovsky particle interference, thanks to the psycowaves transmitted via Newtypes. It would take an exceptional Newtype to pilot the Rose of Sharon to its fullest effect, however.
History Of A World Created As A Refuge
And the Rose of Sharon found an exceptional pilot in the form of Lalah Sune. In one universe, she sacrificed herself to prevent Char Anzable from dying at the hands of the White Gundam. And so potent was that sacrifice, that the Rose created an entire alternate universe, the Universal Centry (GQ) where Char did not die.
It all began in the GQniverse when the Rose of Sharon appeared in cislunar space surrounded by glowing green energy dubbed Zeknova. The craft was quickly captured by Zeon forces and brought underground to study. However, the study – this universe’s Char were both believed lost when Space Fortress Solomon. Char and the Red Gundam were swallowed up by pink Zeknova in the first recorded incidence of the “Zeknova phenomenon.”
This mysterious energy was a side effect of the Rose of Sharon originating in another universe. And its devastation led to Zeon ceasing production on all Psycommu weapons. Thuse the Elmeth in UC (GQ) was never completed. And the Rose of Sharon might have been lost to all at the bottom of Earth’s deep oceans.
At least until Amate Yuzuriha rediscovered the fallen weapon. Once recovered, as is its want, Zeon turned it into a weapon. Especially at the behest of Kycilia Zabi. She used the Rose to power a deadly Solar Ray that bent space and time to its will, destroying enemies with deadly singularities. Amate, however, took steps to free the Rose, and might have succeeded if not for the intervention of Shuji Ito.
Ito had come to destroy the Rose and kill the pilot. To spare the beleaguered, in-stasis pilot, Lalah Sune, from learning that she would never meet Char in this universe or the other – but Amate was able to fend off Ito. And Lalah awoke to realize that the world she had created was not so bad – and taking Shuji with her, the Rose of Sharon departed for its original home.
Every rose has its thorns. And the Elmeth more than most!
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