Lieutenant Mikaere stood on his post on FOB 12 in Southern Taiwan where he awaits his commanding officer. He has been informed of supplies arriving from Aotearoa which will help turn the tide of the war. The man survived the battle of Fangliao where Chinese forces attempted an air landing in Taiwan proper but were thwarted by Polynesian artillery and machine gunfire. The battle was bloody and many of his comrades fell in the battle. mostly due to outdated tactics, and their weapons not being sufficiently strong enough to fight the Chinese airborne troops' better equipment. Their old British heritage SMLE rifles stood no chance against Chinese assault rifles and submachineguns which wreaked havoc in the trenches, if the Polynesians did not have their heavy artillery to bear on the enemy, they might have not won the fight.

"Lieutenant!"

Mikaere awoke from his nap and stood in formation and saluted. "Sir!"

Your service during the battle was invaluable and have done a great service to the Empire. How you took Hill 80 in a charge was an act of selfless bravery and a testament to the Maori's courage.

"I took no pleasure in it, sir, my rifle jammed from the mud and I had to use my Taiaha to finish the job. 5 men stood dead with my sword bloodied in hand."

"Your imposing strength seemed to have scared off the Chinese right at their soul, well done Lieutenant."

"With all due respect Commander, what is our courage worth if our men are slaughtered off by machine-gun fire with ease? We might be physically stronger than the Chinese but flesh is still flesh and one can always die with sufficient firepower."

"We know this Lieutenant, the disaster at Hiroshima proved it so, thus our nation has been hard at work developing new weapons for our brave soldiers."

"Such as?"

The commander presents the Lieutenant with a new weapon, much more advanced than the old rifles and pistols the army held as standard issue. "What is this..."

It is the PIA Huata Model 18 also known as the "Huata"

"Long spear huh? I like the name"

"It is a gas-operated semi-auto rifle designed to withstand most weather conditions and uses standard-issue ammunition of existing rifles.

The lieutenant inspects the rifle and then points at some canisters, he shoots them all in rapid succession with high accuracy, and he reloads with no issues.

"Seems to be in order"

As he holds his rifle he hears a mechanical rumble.

"What the hell is that?"

"Oh yes that is some of our walkers that just arrived."

"Walkers? i thought the ones we had were quite small."

"Not this one."

The Lieutenant observes a 15-meter tall construct imposed over the base, the metal beast is highly armored with a 152mm artillery turret on its center and a commander's bridge on the front with 60mm autocannons and bristling with cannons and machineguns on the broadsides and rear, as it walks towards the coast.

"How the hell did this thing get here."

"It swam alongside the fleet."

"Swam?"

Yes, it is what we call an Amphibious Heavy Walker, It has half the size of a normal corvette and has the firepower of a light cruiser on land. It is the pinnacle and fusion of our naval and land technologies into one.

"Let us see how well it fairs against the Chinese..."