Armageddon
Discovery
It was 1st November 2214, in skies above the New Normandy. Small orbital installation gathering data from the surrounding space. As boring job as it gets- collecting the data, seeing the machines work ok, reading a book with your feet on the table. The last was a favourite part of a technician stationed there. Of course, feet on the table was kind of metaphorical, cause no-one bothered with artificial gravity in there, so the feet on the table doesn’t give you quite the same feeling as it does on a ground. Still, two-week shifts, good pay and he was already a week in.
It was just when the woman got down comfortable, took out a classic- Asimov’s “Foundation and Empire”, grabbed herself a cup of joe and started reading when the alarm went off. Now, there go points for zero gravity- if this would have happened on Earth, she would have poured hot coffee all over her. Now, what she spilled floated around her. After a few seconds of attempting to capture the coffee back, she gave up and concentrated on the alarm.
First was the traditional method- hit the console hard and hope it will shut up. Didn’t work. She sighed- she had just gotten to the good part- and tried to turn off the alarm. Didn’t also work. Now, when the basic diagnostic failed, it was time to track the source of the problem. And what a problem it was- an asteroid, more then 50 km in diameter and heading straight to New Normandy. The technician was shocked for a minute, staring at the screen.
Then, she warned the planetary administration. Well, after scanning the manual for 30 minutes to find the appropriate contact, then dealing with the pissed off contact whom she called in the middle of the night, of course. Then, after the seriousness of the issue got through, it took another 12 hours for planetary governor to make a decision- ask the Earth for help, for New Normandy lacked any means to deal with the threat.
Oops....
Setting Sail
The fleet was in orbit around Earth when they got an alarm. It was 04:45 in Earth Standard Time (or Palermo Time), 2nd November. It too another 5 minutes for Admiral Julia Hauteville-Krüger to wake up, receive the message, understood the gravity of it and raise an alarm. It took another 6 hours to find the drunken sailors on shore leave, load extra supplies and prepare the fleet. At 10:45, Earth Standard Time, the fleet took off.
Luckily, it wasn’t a very fast asteroid and it was discovered in time. For you know, space is vast and the distances one needs to cover...Let’s just say that the fleet arrived in Alphecca System in 27th January, 2215. Wormhole generation also took some time, but the biggest delay was subspace flight from Earth to Tokugawa. They were flying as fast as they could and they were flying fast corvettes equipped with recently discovered ion engines... and it still took three month for them to reach the other system. Though the predicted collision date was August, the people of New Normandy already got quite anxious and started demanding the abandonment of colony and evacuation of citizens.
Battle Against the Rock
It was 4th March 2215, 18:58 Paremo time when the asteroids were finally in sights of Norman ships. 50 kilometers or rock dwarfed the Norman corvettes, mere 70 meters in length and seemed impossible to be blown up by the slugs spit out by ship's mass drivers. There was plan B of course- send in a crew of deep-sea drillers, drill a hole in it and blow it up, but it was risky and best to be done with conventional means.
Arrival to the New Normandy
“Fleet, approach to 10 kilometers, each to your designated position. Keep the distance and keep firing,” Julia Hauteville-Krüger commanded the fleet. She smiled and added “No need for evasive maneuvers, unless the rock starts shooting back”
She leaned back. It was an easiest set of orders she had ever given. In fact, Ensigns could give that order.
Battle Against the Rock
Thump-thump-thump, the cannons of the HTV Columbus fired, echoing through the ship and making it vibrate slightly. Then, there was silence for two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, as the cannons reloaded. Then again, thump-thump-thump. It had been going on for a week already and humans had adapted to the monotony of the shots. They automatically brace a few seconds before the time comes. They sleep without noticing the vibrations or hearing the sounds. They feel something is missing when the cannons stay silent for some reason, be it the cooling or emergency maintenance. They feel something is missing when the shot is delayed. It had become a routine.
Julia felt utterly bored and useless. Especially the latter. It was the easiest battle she had commanded (well, and her third, to be fair) and she had nothing to do apart from logistics. Organising spare parts, extra ammo, extra food and supplies, keeping the rotations, allowing part of the crew to go and have fun in New Normandy for a week and then come back to the familiar thumps of the cannons.
It took almost three months. The asteroid had become much smaller already, as Norman ships chipped pieces of it to space. Now, the rock was just 10 kilometers in diameter. The blown-off pieces were steadily following the asteroid it’s wake. In 27th May, 09:47, salvo fired directly from several ships finally hit the sweet spot. It is quite sad that there are no sounds in vacuum, for it would have been really impressive. Explosion, or rather, a small mushroom of dust and ice, blowing up from the inside of the roid and then, the cracks. Visible cracks on the surface, growing small, then getting bigger and bigger, until the remaining asteroid blew into small pieces in quite a spectacular fashion.
The end of several month of bombardment
Fleet flew into safe distance and there was some cheering, but mostly exhaustion. Julia Hauteville-Krüger ordered the fleet to sail to New Normandy, where there was victory parade awaiting for them. Much to the dismay of the local authorities, the parade was delayed though for 48 hours, as the around 200 crewmembers of the fleet got into ground, were transported into hotel, where they spent the next 36 hours sleeping and after that, getting themselves in order again. Then, there was huge parade and celebration and free booze for the crewmembers and all that.
As for the asteroid- the mineral-rich pieces were picked up by mining ships, transported to Earth and used to fund another colony ship. This way, the threat to one of the colonies became the birth of a new one.
I’m Doing Science
It takes special Norman band of crazy. When uncovering the long-lost sentient machine race that was hell-bent on wiping out the organic life on galaxy, one of the Norman scientists thought about it, then thought some more and then thought that why the hell not. Robots! Perfect, especially for the colonies. To extract minerals from there- doing it much more efficiently then humans and also, allowing the colonies to grow much faster. In July 2214, the plans were formalized.
Of course. Let's build our own Cybrex.
Construction of first massive robot population begun in 2215, in the New Normandy colony, were a new mine was set up. The robot workers proved to be though, didn’t need stupid things like oxygen and managed to work for a week before their battery needed recharging. Soon, Tuscany followed, but there were no robots on Earth. And even in colonies, the robot population was kept to a minimum.
If you know how to build a robot, why not build one? Or a billion, for that matter
Also at the same time, Normans came up with designs for new fancy state-of-the art physics laboratories, but this is so much more boring then robots.
New toys!
Better logistics systems to support bigger fleet were also drawn. Starting from February 2215, the Hauteville Empire could field more ships.
More ships!
In other news- first debris was analysed. The recently blown up void cloud was scanned by HTV Caldwell and this gave Normans a bit of insight on how the systems work. Especially with the regenerative hull part and also, some ideas on how to use their lighting as weapon for Normans.
This is the future- someday, Norman ships will repair themselves!
The Wild Hunt
Empress Emma laughed hard. So, the boffins had researched a problem of how to deal with both the 3-meter tall huge carnivores of Tuscany and small, slim, around 1 meter in length (half of them teeth) predators in New Normandy. She new it would become an issue sooner or later, but this time, the scientist reacted faster then she though.
Is this really the best way to deal with wildlife?
She grinned, for she had her own solution. First, a quick call to Walter Schmidt, the head scientist of sociology and the one who came up with the idea. A quick bet was made- cask of fine wine to see who clears about the equal area in Tuscany first- the science or the Empress.
Then, Emma called the Wild Hunt, as it was called later. All Hautevilles and other Normans who would join, going off to the field trip to Tuscany, to hunt the teeth-o-fants, as the beast were called. Also, offering a grand reward for the winner. Of course, the call was heard by many and in a month, a chaotic, unorganized, quite often happily drunk crew of nearly 15 000 Normans departed Earth to Tuscany. Using the attitude “Shoot anything that is taller then 2 meters and has fangs... nah, anything with fangs” vs scientific method. The battle has begun.
Half a year later, Emma was enjoying a cask of really fine wine with Walter Schmidt and the winner of the Wild Hunt, Count Robert Hauteville-Malina of Tenoxtitlan. She smiled at Walter and commented: “You have a very good taste in wine, mister” and raised her glass in his honor.
Tuuki Birds!
The ships that stumbled upon Alphecca System turned out to be some sort of four-eyed birds that lived south of the Jusstkan Pig Empire. Calling themselves Interstellar Imari Sovereignty, the birds were pacifistic in nature and for once, did not pose any threat to the Hauteville Empire. An embassy was established to mutual benefit.
As far as looks go... the toucan-like birds, with their four eyes, claws littered with teeth and angry outlook, are actually quite nice
Also, the Cynn Empire, neighbors of the Fex’Klanga Star League, were declared rivals by the very same Fex’Klangans. Now, the Hauteville Empire followed suit- just to show their solidarity with the nice neighbours.
Hello! We hate you!
Finally, during this time, the Plex-Cradonian Sovereign States, or the Angry Birds to the west, declared the Hauteville Empire to be their rivals. Smart birds. Normans replies "Why thank you" note written on "I hate you too" card.
Well, we hate you too!
Finally found a non-xenophile race! 
