At first, we were content to simply be given weapons and armor by our new benefactors, and they were content to simply let us do as we wished with them. Food, weapons, ammunition, materials and more were funneled into our Alliance whenever we requested it. Thanks to the Arcadian warships hanging overhead, we no longer had to worry about the warships of the United Galactic Nations and thus could rebuild what was destroyed without concern.

We were the focal point of a proxy war, with neither side investing their own troops and forces in our fight beyond training and aiding in strategy and research. Technically both the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth and the United Galactic Nations were involved, but both sides had limited ‘plausible deniability’ regarding their involvement. The UGN claimed that the forces aiding the Austorians were rogue elements, which was utter bullshit, but it was the same excuse that the AGC was using.

Eventually, the ‘rogue elements’ of the UGN began deploying their own soldiers and war machines into Lod’s atmosphere, which resulted in the AGC doing the same. Oddly enough, despite having automata that could fight as infantry, the AGC instead kept them in their titanic ‘Real Mode’ for some reason.

We would find out later that they were claiming that the ‘Mobile Suit Golems’, as they called them, were based off of titanic piloted war mechs. Keeping them in ‘Real Mode’ allowed them to claim that the MSGs that were aiding us were merely stolen military vehicles that were piloted by suicidal combatants. I can imagine the surprise the Austorians must have felt when they tried to pry open the area which would have held the cockpit, only to have the downed machine explode in their faces.

The war machines they sent were extremely powerful, and the equipment they loaned us was top notch stuff too. A 9-millimeter sub machine gun with limited armor penetration capabilities, an infantry-based plasma gun that could one-shot an armored car with minimal recoil, surface-to-air wire-guided missiles and more were given to us like party favors, all in the attempt to further mess with the UGN.

Of course, the ‘Beam Weapons’ they gave us only had one shot in them and were so few in number, merely 10 total, that they were used solely for propaganda purposes. After all, it was not like they were going to give us weapons that powerful like candy during Witches Night.

The war that by all rights should have ended in our crushing defeat was now in a near deadlock with no end in sight. Neither we nor the Austorians could advance more than a few kilometers at a time, and even the strongest and furthest pushes only lasted a few days before the battle lines returned to what they originally were. Eventually, both the Austorians and their masters were stuck in a perpetual grind against the Lodian Alliance and its benefactors in the Arcadian Galactic Commonwealth.

The AGC did not seem to want to assist us in any pushes, but rather advised us to hold the line and let the Austorians and their masters grind themselves to gristle against our rapidly increasing fortifications. Their King referred to this as a ‘perfect war of attrition’. As he had so eloquently put it, “Let them throw themselves into the meat grinder while we wait patiently for them to shave away their power bit by bit in pointless and meaningless assaults. Eventually there won’t be enough Austorians left to fight, at which point we can advance against a bunch of barely trained and completely untrained children and old men.”

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It was a twisted strategy, but after what we had been through it seemed only right that they should suffer just as much as, if not more than we had. We were waiting like a predator for the Austorian forces to die due to their own foolishness, but the UGN had other plans. A Zeppelin, armed and armored with xenotech, was sent to punch a hole in our fortifications, and did it hit hard. Our weapons could barely scratch it, even the ones gifted to us by the AGC. After a few hours of panic and despair, the Arcadian cavalry arrived in the form of two machines; a yellow GM Kai in ‘Real Mode’ and a G-Fighter with a teddy bear decal.

Two machines versus a nearly five-hundred-meter-long cigar shaped hybrid of Lodian and Alien tech. A worrying match up to be sure, but for whom?

…

“Huggy Bear to Papa Smurf, come in Papa Smurf.”

The pilot of the G-Fighter carried the GM Kai into the field as he contacted home base.

“This is Papa Smurf. What do you require?”

“Huggy Bear has arrived on site and is requesting permission to drop the package; how copy, over?”

“Permission Granted, Huggy Bear. You may drop the package.”

“Affirmative, Papa Smurf. Read you loud and clear.”

The yellow-colored GM Kai dropped from the G-Fighter and began to run across the chaotic battlefield, sending fire downrange at the Austorian and UGN anti-air emplacements.

“This is Yellow Temperance to Papa Smurf; requesting that Huggy Bear remain in the area of operations to provide support, over.”

"This is Papa Smurf to Yellow Temperance; request acknowledged. Huggy Bear, you are to remain in the AO and provide support how you see fit.”

The G-Fighter picked up speed and made a few strafing runs against the advancing Austorian infantry.

“This is Huggy Bear, command acknowledged. Staying in the AO until either commanded otherwise or significant damage has been taken.”

“Understood. Huggy Bear and Yellow Temperance, happy hunting.”

Arkhan listened in on the banter between the pilot of the G-Fighter, the GM Kai and the contacts at home base. He only had one question regarding the whole thing.

“Why is his callsign ‘Huggy Bear’?! It is just so… against what you would expect from a military callsign!”

The dream team of Rick ‘Huggy Bear’ Collins and the unnamed yellow GM Kai got to work, all while Arkhan tried to figure out what could have gotten the big, muscled, man’s man of a pilot the callsign of ‘Huggy Bear’.

…

“Is that a fighter?”

The Austorian Field Marshal on the bridge of the Austorian Sovereign Ship (ASS) Franz Ferdinand watched in disbelief as a lone heavy fighter repeatedly wove around the augmented Zeppelin’s anti-aircraft fire all while sending fire of its own towards the much larger Austorian airship. The gnat of a machine was bothersome, but it should not have been so hard to swat. The AA on the Franz Ferdinand were top of the line and could shoot down anything that got close.

Anything aside from this crazy son of a bitch in a mere heavy fighter, it seemed.

The occasional hit from its missiles did not seem to do much, if anything at all, as they exploded just before impacting the ship. For the life of him, Field Marshal Johan Amadeus Hohenheim von Schmitt could not figure out if the shields they had aquired from their extraterrestrial partners were stopping the missiles or if they were just prematurely detonating.

Unfortunately for him, he and the UGN would find out all too late about Arcadia’s newest weapon. Until the time for that was ready, the G-Fighter would continue to saturate the Austorian ship with missiles that detonated just shy of the vessel’s shields. The Austorians were about to get a lesson in why a modern military should always invest in point defense, be it mere turrets or designated ships.