The ‘bulk freighters’ arrived in orbit of the first of the 80 planets to begin their worldwide civil war/ revolution, only to discover that they were not alone. Both the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth and the Urk Consortium had taken up positions around the planet, and there were very few areas in which the Omniconpro Corporate Sector (or at least what they hoped would be the future Omniconpro Corporate Sector) could park their heavily armed and armored ‘civilian relief vessels’. As if this wasn’t enough, while the Consortium ships were definitely warships, the Arcadian vessels seemed to be a mockery of the OCS’s (Omniconpro Corporate Sector’s) feeble attempts to pretend that the ships they sent were anything other than warships.

Painted on the sides of the Arcadian ships were markings and writing that clearly labeled their vessels in the same manner in which the OCS ships were. The universal markings were those that indicated the ‘cargo ships’ were filled with supplies for a relief effort and for non-combat supplies, despite the fact that there were warship turrets sticking out at various places and providing a not insubstantial amount of coverage. Naturally, like the pot calling the kettle black, the captains aboard the OCS vessels were outraged at the obvious Arcadian warships daring to utilize those markings for such an underhanded use!

“This is Captain Divryl Kl’or of the OCSS ‘Bull Market’. I hereby demand that all military vessels leave the system at once! The Omniconpro Corporate Sector will not tolerate unwanted intrusions into its sovereign territory! Leave immediately or face the full might of the OCS Security Forces! If you will not leave, prepare to be boarded so we may assess whether or not you have military equipment on board. If we find even a single weapon meant for the planet aboard your ships, we will be forced to call in ‘the big guns’.”

Neither the Arcadian nor Consortium ships budged an inch, even after Captain Divryl issued his commands another three times. Finally, he had endured enough and sent out a group of boarding shuttles. If he could prove the Arcadians had weapons and/ or munitions aboard their vessels, he could use that as an excuse to---

“This is Captain Quatro Bajeena of the AGCS ‘Spirit of Daikun’. I hereby demand that all military vessels leave the system at once. The Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth will not tolerate military vessels intruding on our relief effort. Leave immediately or face the full might of the AGC civilian relief forces. If you will not leave, prepare to be boarded so we may assess whether or not you have military equipment on board. If we find even a single weapon meant for the planet aboard your ships, we will be forced to call in ‘the big guns’.”

At which point one of the Arcadian ‘civilian relief ships’ launched a group of boarding shuttles towards the OCS ships. Now the two forces were doing the exact same thing to each other. However, unlike the Arcadians, the OCS ships could not withdraw any material designed to aid in the war effort into a pocket dimension. ‘The Hanger’ was finally getting some much-needed use, although not in the way it was intended. The two groups of boarding craft passed each other, flying close enough that the OCS Security Forces could look out the window and see the welds and rivets on the Arcadian craft. Oddly enough, there did not seem to be any windows on the Arcadian shuttles, which raised the question as to how they saw out of the vehicles.

To alter a quote from Legion from Mass Effect; “Windows are structural weaknesses. Arcadia does not use them.” Because when you have cameras, do you really need a big pane of glass? Glass is fragile, but (usually) metal is not, so why give your ships massive weaknesses that can be exploited when you can just use tons of cameras? It was the same logic that was responsible for the bridge of the Arcadian ships being squirreled away deep inside the vessels, rather than jutting out of them like big, fat targets.

As the OCS shuttles landed in the hangar bay of the largest AGC ‘relief ship’, the first thing that stuck out was the general lack any kind of organic presence. Instead, Worker Balls and Zaku Tanks lifted freight and shifted the positions of containers. There was not a single living being in sight or sensor range.

“Ah, there you are.”

A golden droid walked up to the OCS Security Team. The leader of the party wondered how much it cost to coat the droid in solid gold, let alone keep it so shiny and scratch free.

“They must have paid a fortune to kit you out in pure gold.”

“Haha. No, it wasn’t expensive at all, but I can see why you would think so.”

“Well, either way,” the Security Captain responded, “take us to your leader. We will be searching this ship for any weapons, munitions and/ or other war supplies.”

The gold-plated droid let out a small chuckle.

“What’s so funny, robot?”

“What’s funny,” the gold droid retorted, “is that you did not realize that I am the Captain of this ship.” The droid stuck out its hand. “I am Captain Quatro Bajeena; a pleasure, I’m sure.”

“A Robot in command of a ship?! Are those idiots trying to start a robot uprising?!”

Seeing that the Security Captain would not shake his hand, Quatro retracted his gesture and got ready to expect the worst.

“I am one who fulfils their duty, regardless of the reception. Can I expect the same from you?”

“Bah! Just keep out of our way, and you won’t get scrapped!”

Quatro watched as the OCS Security Team began to scan every box and crate that they could find, hoping to locate some kind of war material, only to have their look of confusion and general disappointment grow with each box and crate that came back with a negative. The Mobile Suit Golems could not help but be grateful that their lack of an organic face meant they could not have an expression seen. Every container that was scanned made the OCS Security Team look and feel ever more frustrated and confused and made the MSGs even smugger.

At long last, after religiously scanning every container three times and even going so far as to demanding a couple of the crates be opened for inspection, the OCS Security team admitted defeat and made their way back to their shuttles. Back on the OCSS ‘Bull Market’, the MSGs were having the time of their mechanical lives following their Creator’s orders. While it would have been easy to examine every crate thoroughly and find the many that contained war materials, they instead stuck to their commands and would only examine the ones they knew contained civilian and medical goods, while acting like they were going to search the ones with actual military hardware.

Arkhan’s goal was not to crush the UGN and OCS here and now. No, he wanted them to get embroiled in the civil wars that were raging across the 80 systems. He would turn these planets into gigantic sinks for time and money, eventually forcing the UGN and OCS to invest so much that they would be forced to deal with the ‘Sunk Cost Fallacy’. If and when that happened, Arcadia would be able to crush the UGN and its corporate backers not with war, but with the massive recession and possibly depression that would occur once enough wealth and resources had been pointlessly squandered in such a massive money hole.

Arkhan was prepared to play the long game. Given a few years of continuous losses, the OCS would be forced to call in the UGN for backup. And when that happened, the snowball would start to roll even faster.