As Arkhan predicted, the UGN began to intervene in the Proxy War between the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth and the Omniconpro Corporate Sector. The first hints of their intervention came in the form of massive tax breaks for the Corporate Sector’s various smaller sub-divisions. Then they began ‘bailing out’ both the Omniconpro Corporate Sector itself and the other groups that supported and furthered its goals. After that they began waiving restrictions on the OCS ‘security forces’, allowing the OCS to have a legitimate military force, not merely a military force under the guise of a civilian asset protection force.

This all coincided with the OCS deploying purpose-built warships in each of the eighty systems and ‘accidentally’ discharging the weapons onboard in the direction of the Arcadian ‘civilian relief force’. To counter this threat, Arcadia itself ‘temporarily waived restrictions’ on the ‘privately owned civilian charity groups’ that had been ‘supplying the devastated civilians’ with ‘the necessary supplies needed to prevent their collapse’. The escalation of force in the eighty systems continued until the OCS leadership decided that enough was enough and commanded the UGN military to ‘conduct fleet maneuvers’ in said systems.

As the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth did not view the OCS or UGN claim over the systems as legitimate due to them being in open civil war (a civil war that they started, but no one else knew that), the AGC sent its own ships into the contested star systems to do the same. Numerous times the two sides came but a hair’s width away from initiating war, but thankfully cooler heads prevailed. The AGC continued to let the OCS and UGN forces search the ‘relief ships’, but due to the use of ‘The Hanger’ the inspections never turned up any evidence that the AGC was supplying the Children of Liberty with military hardware. The only thing they could complain about was the seeming lack of security that the AGC had when distributing their relief supplies.

It was obvious that they were letting the Children of Liberty, a known terrorist and separatist group, send their agents to acquire supplies during the many times that they were handed out. Oddly enough, the supplies they gave out were cheap and antiquated, but the Children of Liberty (which the UGN and OCS believed were being supported by the AGC) always seemed to have the best equipment. Boxes that were empty were oftentimes stolen under cover of night by these damn terrorists, and in the off chance that a Children of Liberty base was taken there were oftentimes at least a dozen of these empty boxes, crates and containers just lying around.

Sure, the AGC flag had been scratched off and they were repainted in Children of Liberty colors, but the fact that they had these boxes did raise flags. They could not prove it, but the UGN and OCS had a sinking suspicion that there was something special about theses boxes. Much to their quiet concern, after disassembling and studying them, the materials that made up the containers were not at all special, but there were traces of magic inside.

However, without solid evidence, even the OCS leadership did not want to risk a full confrontation. And so, more empty containers found their way to the terrorists and they just seemed to be getting better equipped by the day. It seemed that the Proxy War would never end, and while the OCS and UGN were getting more and more involved, it seemed that Arcadia was still (mostly) uninvolved.

All that changed when the current UGN General Secretary decided to visit the warzone personally on one of his childish and idiotic whims.

…

A large UGN fleet entered one of the war-torn systems and began to make a bee-line straight for the contested planet. The Children of Liberty had all but taken this planet, leaving the UGN-aligned Galactic Unity Movement cornered in the ruins of a massive mega-city. The space above said mega-city was one of the few places that the OCS and UGN ships could safely stay, as the Children of Liberty had somehow managed to either find, improvise or otherwise acquire multiple surface-to-orbit weapons.

The young General Secretary did not find this to be ‘fun’, hiding out above a ruined testament to the failings of the UGN. He wanted some ‘action’ and being holed up in an ever-shrinking area above the planet or hiding out beyond the range of the surface-to-orbit weapons was not his idea of a fun and enjoyable experience. Looking out of the viewports that turned the bridge into less of a military command deck and more of a massive target, he thought of something ‘ingenious’.

“I want to see what is going on over there. Make those ships move out of the way!”

His high pitched and nasally voice barked orders at the bridge crew.

“Sir, if we go over there it is highly likely that we will be fire upon by either the rebel ground forces or the AGC ‘relief ships’.”

“AGC?”

The officer at his side stifled a sigh. This was to be the fifty ninth time that he had told this idiot what that acronym meant.

“AGC stands for ‘Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth.’”

“Well make them move! I want to see some other part of the planet, not these ugly ruins!”

“If we try and force them to move it could cause a war to break ou-.”

“I don’t care! Make them move! Shoot them if you have to! No, scratch that! Shoot them now! Blow them out of the void! I want to see the pretty fireworks!”

The bridge crew did not know what to do. They were beholden to the will of this prepubescent, pint-sized and imbecilic General Secretary, but they also knew that to fire upon these Arcadian vessels was to invite an even more forceful response. If they did fire, which they would likely have to, this Proxy War could easily boil over into a full scale one. While the UGN had tried to suppress it, these people were knowledgeable about how close the UGN had come to being erased by the now destroyed Angelus Holy Union and how said galactic superpower had been crushed by the rising Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth.

“With all due respect, I cannot follow that orde-.”

BLAM!

The aide fell to the ground with a thud as smoke rose from the back of his head. One of the OCS ‘advisors’ had shot him at the base of his skull with a heavy blaster pistol.

“Does anyone else want to stop me from getting to see some fireworks?”

A few more OCS ‘advisors’ marched in and took positions near the bridge crew.

“This vessel is mine! This fleet is mine! The UGN is mine! You do what I say, or you die! So, do as I say and shut up and shoot those ships!”

Feeling like they had no other option, the bridge crew directed the weapons on the flagship and the other ships in the fleet. They took aim with their particle lances and held their breath.

“FUCKING FIRE ALREADY!”

The seventeen UGN warships opened up on the Arcadian ‘cargo haulers’ with every energy weapon they had. Despite receiving numerous hails from the Arcadian ships, the barrage continued unabated until it became clear to even the child that was the General Secretary that the weapons were having no effect.

“Damn them! Tell the ‘Zephyr Breeze’ to ram them!”

With guns to their heads, the bridge crew complied, and the corvette left the group and put its thrusters to max. However, as soon as it left the safety of the area above the ruined mega-city, it took a direct hit from the surface-to-orbit hypervelocity cannon that it had entered the range of. The corvette was ripped in half as the solid metal slug fired from the massive railgun instantly overtaxed its shields and ripped clear through its hull.

“SEND ANOTHER!”

Another ship left the group of now fifteen ships, only to be hit by yet another round from a hypervelocity gun. Exactly one hour of this pointlessness later, and the flagship was the only one left of the UGN fleet that wasn’t either a drifting hulk or an ever-growing cloud of debris.

“FUCKING DAMN IT!” the General Secretary screamed as he stomped his feet, swung his armed and ultimately fell to the floor in a full-blown childish tantrum. It was at that moment when the one hundred strong fleet of Arcadian warships dropped out of hyperspace just in front of the ‘cargo haulers’. The six-year-old General Secretary snapped and sent out an order that would set the galaxy aflame.

“ALL OCS AND UGN SHIPS!” he yelled through his tear-and-snot-covered fur, “ATTACK THE AGC SHIPS! BLOW THEM TO BITS WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!”