Once the Kingdom heard the news that the ‘Dark Prince’ Edwin had been slaughtered along with two hundred knights in a backwater village, there was both an outcry of sadness and jubilation. The sadness was at the loss of the aging King Herman’s only child and thus the only heir to the throne. The jubilation was due to the Prince’s death there was no chance of him running the country into the ground with his hedonistic and debauched lifestyle. Most nobles now were eyeing each other and the King greedily, plotting to use whatever ties and connections to the royal blood, no matter how small to attempt to secure their place as the next king.

The rest were either preparing to weather the oncoming storm or were desperately trying to avenge the Prince’s death. The problem was, they had no idea who or what had done the deed, and their only clues were the scorch marks from large amounts of heat in the village and the trail of something the size of a fortress moving towards the Kingdom of Grellek. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that some massive beast carrying a small army of knights appeared and took the Prince and his retinue by surprise before slaughtering them all. While many people had grudges against the Prince, the treatment of his remains was appalling by any standards.

As the trail led into the Grellekian lands, numerous fingers were pointed at the Kingdom of Grellek and accusations of assassination and other unchivalrous deeds were leveled. However, the Kingdom of Grellek vehemently denied the accusations and said that the trail started in the Kyrellian lands and moved through theirs. As both sides bickered over who was and was not responsible for Prince Edwin of Kyrell’s death, the threat of civil war in Kyrell grew ever more large until the Nobles split into three distinct factions and began a battle to the death to determine who would succeed the aging King Herman.

The sides were spilt as follows;

The Queens Guard – Those that supported the 39- year-old Queen and the idea of her taking the throne and a new husband after the King dies. The Dukists – Those that supported Duke Franco in his bid for the throne. The New Royals – Those whose ambition for power far outstretched their blood ties to the throne.

This three-way battle for the heart of Kyrell was sure to uproot and shatter the lives of countless peasants living throughout the land as they were likely to be drafted into this squabble that should have been kept to the nobles. All peasants knew all too well that they would likely end up facing Knights, Mercenaries and Adventurers, all of whom were more than capable of cutting through their massed ranks like named characters from Dynasty Warriors. In essence, no matter who won, the peasants would be getting the short end of the stick.

Arkhan was completely unaware of all of this, as he and his giant yellow land battleship cruised through the lands of the Kingdom of Grellek. The advanced systems on board the Gallop – class had allowed him and his army to avoid getting too close to any kind of settlement and his Mobile Suit Golems had occasionally gone out forage for supplies. He had clean water, plenty of food, a toilet and god’s gift to man; Air Conditioning!

“I can’t believe I lived for six whole years without this! You don’t realize just how much of a luxury air conditioning, indoor plumbing, food refrigeration and a clean fresh water supply are until you live for a while without them!” Arkhan said while lying on a bed in the captain’s quarters.

There was a knock on the door. Arkhan sat up and opened the door. A blue Gouf was standing at attention when the door was opened. It was Ramba Ral.

“Sir, I wish to report that we are just about to cross the border from the Kingdom of Grellek into the Uncharted Lands that exist beyond. However, there is a slight problem…”

“Well, don’t leave me in suspense. What is the problem?”

“There appears to be a large contingent of armed individuals attempting to prevent us from crossing the border. They include 100 Heavy Cavalry, 100 Heavy Infantry and roughly 34,000 Light Infantry wielding mismatched weapons and wearing poor quality armor. They are too far for us Mobile Suit Golems to sortie out and deal with them, however they are within range of the Gallop’s cannons and machine guns. Therefore, we request permission to bombard the enemy. Do we have permission to do so, Sir?”

“Go ahead. Just make sure that if they decide to break and run that you do not chase them. Likewise, if they try to close and attack, all units may sortie to protect the Gallop. Do not engage at close range unless it is absolutely necessary. If guns are ineffective, switch to RPGs. Concentrate the Gallop’s firepower on the Heavy Cavalry and Heavy Infantry, if they break then it is likely the light infantry will follow suit soon after. I don’t want any more unnecessary casualties on our side, we just got a few more higher tier comrades after the skirmishes with the monsters we encountered on our way through Grellek and I don’t want to lose anyone.”

“Understood, we will attempt to rout the enemy with a pinpoint bombardment, if that fails we will attack with ranged weapons and only enter melee if necessary. Commands received and acknowledged. We will begin our bombardment momentarily.” Ral said before saluting and walking off.

The Gallop slowed down its movement to a crawl and the two fromward facing twin machine guns opened fire at an angle so that their rounds would arc into the mass of troops ahead of them. Unlike a Mobile Suit Golem, the vehicles that were Summonable were 1x1 scale and thus the ‘Machine Guns’ of the Gallop were more comparable to massive, rapid fire cannons that were designed to take out 1x1 scale Mobile Suits and do damage to other land battleships as well as act as anti-aircraft weapons. Against the knights and assorted drafted peasantry, they were like using an automatic grenade launcher to deal with an ant mound.

The sustained fire of the Gallop’s machine guns turned the area that the knights used to occupy into a blasted hellscape of smoking craters and torn flesh and metal. Upon seeing the destruction that erased the knights and the range at which it was inflicted, the peasants abandoned their duties and fled as fast as their legs could carry them. As they fled, they prayed to the gods that they would not be targeted by whatever had just happened to their Noble masters. After they had fled far enough they turned around to see a massive yellow beast speeding through the miniature wasteland that it had created.

They prayed that the beast would let them live and would leave the Kingdoms of Humanity behind. They ultimately got their wish, albeit temporarily. In but a short while, the beast would return with many other equally massive and powerful beasts like it, as well as a massive force of unstoppable metal men.