With the support from the OCS and UGN mostly cut off due to the war that had been started, the UGN-backed United Galaxy Movement found itself on the back foot far more often than before. The Arcadian-back Children of Liberty, on the other hand, was still receiving supplies and aid from Arcadia. More specifically, now that the UGN and AGC were at war, Arcadia could field its own soldiers and war machines, such as its Mobile Suit Golems and Mobile Armor Golems.

Now that there was no further reason to hide their involvement, Arkhan dispatched his creations and had them fight alongside the rebels of the Children of Liberty, both on the front lines as infantry and as a kind of giant tank. Both sides of the conflict quickly realized just how much power was held in the hands of the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth after a handful of skirmishes were ended by the Mobile Suit Golems entering ‘Real Mode’ and laying waste to entire positions singlehandedly. While some of their leadership were apprehensive about becoming a part of the AGC, it was decided that it was better to be on the side of the people with giant death machines and a near unlimited fleet of warships than to try and go it alone.

Besides, they had helped get them this far, and had requested nothing from them save that they succeed, so what was the problem? Sure, there were concerns about whether Arcadia would let them govern themselves or whether the AGC would install a despotic puppet government, but given the state of the infrastructure and industry of the 80 systems, the next few decades would be a difficult period of time if they did not receive aid from someone or something. Still, they had a much higher opinion of the AGC than the UGN or OCS, and after much deliberation they decided to ask their benefactors about what their plans were moving forward.

It turned out that they had nothing to fear. Arcadia was not intending to install a puppet government or rule with an iron fist (despite what the UGN and OCS propaganda had said to the contrary). No, Arcadia simply intended to let them choose for themselves how they wished to progress in their current relationship. Would they become an enemy, ally or ruler? That was up to the Children of Liberty to decide for themselves. Arkhan had confidence that they would make one of the correct choices, which were, in his eyes, choosing to either ally with Arcadia as an independent nation or choosing to join up and become part of the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth.

To both Arkhan and most of the leadership of the Children of Liberty, the worst decision they could make would be to become hostile to the AGC, OCS and UGN all at the same time. Sure, there were some small number of die hard zealots who, like any good uber-nationalists, advocated for the Children of Liberty to take over the Galaxy. Thankfully, these voices were quite few and far between, and made up less than 1% of the total population of the rebel movement. Unfortunately, they tended to be quite vocal, oftentimes in the most destructive of ways, which led to the saner members of the Children of Liberty experiencing no end of frustrations.

Now that victory was all but assured, the various different groups and factions within the Children of Liberty began jockeying for power in the state that was to come. They were counting their chickens before they had hatched, but at this point they could afford to do so. The vocal minority that were the uber-nationalistic extremists that had been mentioned earlier found out the hard way that very, very few people wanted to join their cause, especially after seeing what Arcadia could do.

So, they chose to seize power and position through force. They were more than willing to throw away their lives to secure the dominance of their party, and a few well-timed assassinations, mass bombings and mass shootings would be enough to make the rest of the parties bend the knee and submit, right?

Wrong. Dead Wrong.

Their attempts to use fear and slaughter to intimidate the rest of the Children of Liberty into submission backfire in a quite spectacular fashion. They had severely underestimated their own former comrades in arms, who had faced similar if not identical things on a daily basis at the hands of the less-than-squeaky-clean OCS “Security Forces’. In fact, the OCS had outdone the extremists in every manner in terms of cruelty and terror tactics during the civil war. These actions left a bitter taste in the mouths of all sane members of the Children of Liberty, and rather than acquiesce to the demands of the fanatic nationalists, they instead cut off all connection to them and viewed them in the same vein as the OCS forces.

At the request of the non-extremist members of the Children of Liberty, Arcadian forces swept the fanatics from their hiding places with ruthless efficiency. Their leaders were apprehended, but they would not stand trial for their actions. This was not due to them being heroes and deserving of leniency or due to the Children of Liberty not wanting to stain their own name. Rather the extremist leaders took poison after their capture, leaving only their own cadavers behind.

As the war between the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth and the UGN and its allies moved into the next few months, almost no resources found their way to the United Galaxy Movement while the resources given to the Children of Liberty began to plateau. The United Galaxy Movement was effectively nonexistent, reduced down to a couple hundred members after they had suffered loss after loss. A few days later and the Children of Liberty were completely triumphant.

It would take years for the damage that had been done in the course of the civil war to heal, both in terms of the numbers of people and the scars that could be seen on the land. The UGN had been driven off and its proxies had been crushed, but the effects of the war would be felt for generations to come. Even though Arcadia was still embroiled in a war, it sent construction crews to repair and replace what had been damaged, destroyed and lost. It was hoped by those that lived in the 80 systems that war would never again trouble them, but such a hope was childish and futile.

For now, at least, there was peace. The question was how long that peace would last.