The massive Holy Union armada dropped out of Hyperspace and directly onto the newly remade minefield. Countless nukes went off all at once and a wave of destruction swept across the whole of the Angelic armada. The light of over ten trillion miniature and temporary suns turned the space occupied by the Angels into an ocean of luminescence, as if the very gates of heaven had opened wide and the shining rays of God’s divine presence had flooded outwards. The light began to dim and what lay where the Angel’s Armada once existed was…

The whole Armada. Every ship had emerged from the apocalyptic minefield mostly unscathed and at most suffering minor damage to their hulls and exposed parts. The vast flagship of the Angels had sacrificed much of its shielding to allow those craft that followed it to exit the hell they had walked into with minor damages at best. It would take a good two and a half to three weeks for the ‘Final Judgment’ to recover its shields, but it had enough reserve shielding to walk away completely unmarred by even the nukes that detonated at point-blank range.

The other ships would recover their shields in a matter of days at most, but time was of the essence and they could not wait around for the heretical xenos scum to fortify their position. They needed to advance and fast, for there was to be no mercy and no respite; they would drive a stake through the heart of this annoyance and reduce it to ash with cleansing fire. Such was the burden of being the superior beings; all were beneath them and they all existed to be enslaved or purged (but mainly just purged).

The national anthem of the Angelus Holy union, a poem written in ages past, was played on a wideband hail. To reiterate just how racist and evil these so-called ‘Angels’ were, their national anthem was a modified version of “The White Man’s Burden”, just with key part swapped out for things that fitted the AHU better. Thus, the poem “The Pure Angel’s Burden” echoed throughout the System, with anyone with the mind to listen being able to hear the racist, bigoted, xenophobic and hate-filled drivel that was the Angels’ favorite poem.

After the Angels had announced themselves, their ships began to move forwards, with the ‘Final Judgement’ leading the charge. Rather than go over or under the asteroid belt, they instead let the flagship and its powerful shields and hull do the work of carving a path through the mix of rock, ice and metal that had so easily been defended prior to now. From every possible angle the defense installations hidden in the belt opened up on the sizable force that stood against them. However, every time they tore down the shields on an AHU ship it would immediately be shielded again as the Angels’ mobile ‘Battle Vatican’ shaved off some of its own shields and transferred them to the targeted vessel.

Despite making no noticeable effect on the AHU armada, the defensive instillations kept up the attack. Even when they were targeted by the AHU’s numerous technologically advanced weapons, the second defensive line did not give up. Even when bastion after bastion fell beneath the withering fire of the Angel’s assault, they did not yield. One by one the defense platforms fell silent, the fury of their assault giving way to a widening debris field until at last there were only the main five Asteroid Fortresses left. Each one was as big as A Baoa Qu (the site of the last battle in the original Mobile Suit Gundam 0079) and each one was armed to the teeth.

They unleased hell upon the invaders, but found their efforts stymied by the ridiculous amounts of shielding energy that the Angels’ flagship had and the way it would automatically transfer the needed energy to any ship that was too low or was unshielded. One by one the weapons of the five Asteroid Fortresses fell silent due to the guns of the AHU navy. Eventually, the Asteroid Fortresses were silenced as the AHU armada moved past, every ship in the battlefleet just as unscathed as they were after the nuclear minefield went off.

Things were looking dire, but Arcadia was not ready to throw in the towel just yet, or ever. While the defense stations and the asteroid forts had been silenced, the AHU had overlooked one crucial detail.

There were no MSGs or MAGs in sight.

Sure, they could not use their sensors very well, despite having calibrated them to be just barely able to make things out in the Blackout Traps they had cut through, but the biggest threat that the previous incursions had faced were nowhere to be seen. This was not because they (Arkhan’s creations) were too scared to face them (the Angels), but instead it was because they had overlooked a simple detail.

The defense stations and asteroid forts were not, as the AHU believed, fully autonomous and filled with advanced sensors and targeting systems. They were hollow and manned by either living or mechanical crews (mostly the mechanical). So, when the guns went down, the crews did the sensible thing and bailed out. The living were able to escape using small space ships, while the MSGs merely played dead and floated about with the wreckage. What the AHU had assumed were the energy signs of slowly dying electronics were in fact Arkhan’s creations that had decided to wait for a chance to strike. Though the guns of the asteroid fortresses were ruined, their compliment of MSGs and MAGs were still very much ‘alive’ inside.

Keeping just out of sensor range, the incredibly angry creations of Arkhan followed the hostile armada, making sure not to use their thrusters too much so as not to risk them being spotted. And so, while the AHU’s armada cruised towards Gaia, it was followed by an ever-growing number of furious killer machines that were just itching to tear into their foe.

…

Based on the visual data that they had, the xenos fleet was massing just beyond the orbital range of their home world’s moon. The numbers of ships that could be seen was astounding, and in a purely numerical engagement where both sides had equivalent technology there would be almost no chance of the faithful emerging victorious. Although that thought alone could be considered heresy, even the most devout of Lugus’ chosen trembled at the thought of having to face that many ships if they had the same tech the faithful were using.

What was not only the most shocking but also most infuriating of all was the sight of a ship just as large as if not larger than their flagship. It was absolutely inconceivable that these primitives would be able to make something that big in so short a period of time, let alone be able to make that many ships to compliment it. The force facing the faithful outnumbered them roughly fifteen to one, and the annoying gnats that buzzed around the xenos ships just made things that much more infuriating.

They had come here expecting a stand-up fight, not to have to deal with annoyances like fighters and bombers. The fact that these primitives did not see the honor and purity in engaging in a slugging match between fleets and instead chose the low and dishonorable path of using strike craft to fight only rustled their jimmies even more. In fact, everything about this whole ordeal pissed them off with copious amounts of religiously inclined righteous indignation. Why couldn’t the xenos and heretics just understand that the only way to save their souls was to accept oblivion? Any sane mind could see that they were nothing more than parasites and squatters occupying land that rightfully belonged to the children of Lugus!

The AHU armada assembled into formation as the mass assault of strike craft that included fighters, bombers, boarding craft and the giant mechanical humanoid war machines rushed towards them from the xenos’ lines. Each group of alien space craft broke off from the others and began their own attack runs. However, so long as the pride of the Holy Union stood strong there was no way that even a single scratch would come to the vessels manned by the faithful. As missiles and torpedoes were launched by the pesky gnats they were quickly taken down by the purpose-made PD. The heretical xenos had no way of…

A light traced a line across the void. Coming from far away, it rushed towards the one side that the xenos were not targeting. Quickly, the heretics cleared out as the light grew closer. And then it hit, and all hell broke loose. The light painted a brilliant white streak across the void and washed over everything in its path. The vision of half the armada was filled with uncaring and hateful light until they could no longer endure the ravages of what was assaulting them and were wiped away by whatever almighty act of god just hit them.

The Angels did not know that they had made one more mistake in their invasion beyond what mistakes they had already committed. If they had attacked from the ‘West’ rather than the ‘South’, they would have seen and likely would have destroyed one of Arcadia’s best cards they could play.

Half of the AHU’s armada had been reduced to molten slag and space debris by a Colony Laser, a weapon with the same level of power as their flagship’s superweapon. And while the flagship still stood defiant, half of its hull was now in various stages of being melted. Without missing a beat, the Arcadians took advantage of the AHU’s disarray and went on the attack, all the while the ‘Final Judgment’ was beginning the firing sequence of its main weapons.

Its target?

The very ship Arkhan was on. Arcadia’s flagship was now in a heap of trouble.