When a bomb filled with napalm explodes, it sends napalm in every direction, although most of it goes towards the ground. In this case, the missiles used by the G-Fighter were filled not with copious explosives or incendiaries, but instead they were filled with a small quantity of explosive material and a large amount of a new, gel-like substance that was utterly undetectable to sensors. However, this blue, paint-like substance had a nasty surprise for shielded warships that had it smeared on them.

This was because it made the shields of said warship stop covering the affected area, which let that area be a prime target for precision fire.

The jelly-like substance quickly turned into a paint-like covering when not in certain specific conditions, and said paint seemed to wreak havoc with any shields that attempted to cover it. Thus, the shields would seemingly cover the paint on sensors, but in fact would not be doing so. It was an odd material with so very many applications, most of them being military. It was one of the ‘gifts’ that the late Angelus Holy Union had given to the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth after its destruction, and Arcadia was going to exploit the hell out of it.

A few more splotches of anti-shield gel were all that was needed for the G-Fighter and its pilot to dominate the next phase of the mission. Having the unique quirk of all summoned vehicles, it was able to resupply its finite missiles on the go, almost like it was carrying substantially more than it should have. While it was no Ball or Oggo in terms of cheapness, the G-Fighter was definitely no Mobile Suit Golem and definitely not one of the best pieces of equipment in the AGC’s arsenal. Neither was the GM Kai for that matter, but the fact that they were here, despite being the antiques that they were, showed how little of a threat the Austorians were considered to be by the Arcadians.

Every piece of tech, including every weapon and MSG sent were things from Arcadia’s early days. Old, surplus weapons, armor and MSGs from before the current ‘Era’ of MSGs, Ships and MAGs that Arkhan could readily bring into reality. Sure, he could still bring in the old reliable MSGs, MAGs, weapons and ships, but they were genuinely outclassed by the newer ones.

But back to what was going on in the atmosphere of Planet Lod.

The G-Fighter with the teddy bear decal had, after several passes, made enough gaps in the shield coverage of the ASS Franz Ferdinand to move on to the next phase of its attack. It peeled off and made distance between itself and the Alien/ Lodian hybrid ship and as it came about it let fly some sustained fire from its particle beam guns. The beams swept across the much larger vessel, and as you might expect, the armor and hull of the ship was not made with materials powerful enough to withstand a decent hit from a directed plasma weapon.

The beams sliced through the mix of aluminum and steel like a blowtorch through butter, in some cases cutting ‘clean’ through the entire airship and leaving gaping, molten holes where the anti-shielding gel had been. Entire decks had been reduced to molten slag and multiple systems were either down or in the process of going down. The prototype shield generator on board had been cut nearly in half and the only thing keeping the airship in the sky were a handful of anti-gravity projectors that were on the brink of losing the remainder of their power supply.

With no more shielding and barely any maneuverability, the Franz Ferdinand was dead in the sky, drifting along with the breeze and slowly sinking down towards the ground. As the craft began to sink, it found itself in a very dangerous position. It was not insignificantly behind the lines of the Lodian Alliance, and right in the firing arcs of the Alliance artillery. With every meter it sank, more guns besides the ground-based anti-air could fire upon it and, like the opportunistic soldiers they were, the guns on the ground quickly laid into the floundering airship.

The yellow GM Kai also had some fun of its own, firing a mix of missiles, kinetic slugs and beam weaponry at the now rapidly descending wreck. Before it reached merely 90 meters above the ground, something inside the ship failed in a cataclysmic fashion. In under two seconds, the entire airship that was the pride of the Austorian military exploded like the Hindenburg if it had been filled with temperature-activated high explosives. The blazing wreck hit the ground and crumpled under its own weight as it smashed into the dirt nose first.

The flames spread so quickly throughout the wreck that it was a miracle that anything managed to escape the inferno intact. The Field Marshal on board was one of the lucky ones to have survived with his life and be mostly unburnt. His second in command was not as lucky, and he emerged as a man that bore a striking resemblance to a certain Space Wizard Samurai after his first trip to a magma planet. Both could be treated, to various degrees, by the medicine and doctors from the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth, but neither of them nor the rest of the survivors of the crash had any desire to be pitied and helped by their foe’s ‘Tyrannical Alien Puppet-Masters’.

Both fortunately and unfortunately for them, Arcadia was not tyrannical and did not permit them to die and/ or live in agony. They would be treated, and they would survive and so help them God they would make sure they had a decent life as POWs. It was a surprise and shock when the Arcadians learned the Austorians had been selling their POWs to the UGN for unknown goals, but the Arcadian’s and the Lodian Alliance were not about to stoop to that level.

…

With the destruction of the Austorian airship, the UGN stopped playing around. There was no other way to make the Primitives win without direct intervention. No longer did they feel the need to use ‘plausible deniability’ to its fullest; now was the time to do something, anything to deal a blow to Arcadia’s rapidly advancing status and position. It committed a full fleet of warships to the ‘rogue elements’ and an entire three armies for good measure. They neglected to scrub the insignias from these ships and sent them forward in a hurry, which would soon come back to bite them.

Arcadia, however, still outmatched them, despite the UGN not being aware of it. Like good little puppets, the UGN’s leadership had already signed those seven systems over to corporate interests, and if those systems were not taken, they would have to reimburse the groups they had promised the systems to. This was something the UGN leadership could not afford, as they had already blown the budget on other, less publicly minded enterprises.

Despite their lack of common sense and general ineptitude in regard to dealing with intel properly, they were unsurprised when reports came back that the God-King of the AGC was on the planet, and sent another fleet, once again without clearing off the insignias, markings and more. However, this time the fleet was accompanied by a full detachment of troops that could only deployed by the unanimous consensus of the UGN leadership to kill the ‘Evil God-King of Arcadia’. The fleets jumped in and began to slog through the sizable Arcadian forces, all the while their records were being infiltrated by Arcadian hackers while their insignias, markings and ship names/ descriptions were recorded in detail.

Soon the entire galaxy would know that the UGN was directly interfering in affairs they should not have been and that the ‘rogue elements’ were nothing more than another ploy by the idiots in their cushy chairs and suits. Arkhan watched as the transports carrying the elite UGN goons entered the atmosphere and laughed as he opened a connection with the UGN high command and a side connection to the various news networks from within UGN space.

“Boy, are they going to be pissed.” Arkhan said with a snicker.

The UGN dropships were about to fly straight into hell.