Alien Invasion
It was 4:55, local time. 19:55, 28th February 2221, Earth Standard Time. General Aleksei Skobelev checked his gear for the last time. Exoskeleton checked all green. Weapon was all green. Communications, all green. He was ready. As was the rest of the army. He entered the landing capsule.
“Drop in five minutes,” he said after grabbing the communication. “Everyone, ready! Move according to plan.” He paused a bit, and then added: “Show mercy”
We are ready...
Quiet Flight
The sun was rising over the horizon as Qaarugm flew his propeller-driven biplane over the border of Yehm-Tiiqup, his home nation and Yehm-Houtrend, the nation of evil usurper. Things have been peaceful for centuries, but now, it seemed like old feuds were on the rise and he was scouting the border to be sure. He flew over the bank the river Shanbaloo, the border river seperating two nations. Another biplane was approaching from the enemy side, the pilots flew within meters to each other, then waved and continued on their course.
This is modern weaponry for the Gorf
It was a peaceful, serene morning. The birds were chirping, the rising sun was reflecting from the calm surface of Shanbaloo and there was not another intelligent being in sight. Well, apart from the other pilot, but Yehm-Houtrends could be considered barely intelligent anyway. At least they were good engineers. Qaarugm gazed at the enemy plane with envy. Three wings, two machine guns and clearly, a more powerful engine.
Whoever heard the rumor that an enemy attack is imminent and that the enemy is amassing troops to this region, was definately wrong. And why now, Quaarugm thought to himself. The Queen was wise, the armies of Yehm-Tiiqup strong and even though there had been talk about overthrowing the usurper and uniting the lands, there always been that. The people were not interested in another bloodshed, not again something like happened during the last usurper war, centuries ago.
Back to task at hand, Quaarugm did not find any signs of enemy troops, or that there has been some troop movement, or that anyone apart from the enemy pilot was even alive at this hour. He added some throttle, pulled the joystick down and started to gain height, trying to get a good overview of the area before returning to base.
It was then he he noticed a shooting star. At this hour?, he thought. But then he saw another. And another. And another. The sky was filled with them and they seemed to come down straight towards the ground. He pulled his throttle to the max, gained height and projected an optimal course in his head, trying to get to the place he and the closest star would meet.
He had to change the course several times, for the shooting star seemed to be... decelerating, of all things. Still, he managed to get there, and as he approached, it became more and more obvious that this wasn’t start at all. It was definitely artificially made, about 15 meters in length, though the design was nothing like he had seen before. It had no propellers, it was made wholly of metal and by everything he knew about planes, it shouldn’t be flying.
He thought about returning to the ground, to alert the others, but then thought the better of it. By the time he got back, the strange crafts have already landed. Instead, he took his plane closer.
By now, the strange craft was descending at a speed similar to his. He still didn’t know what he was dealing with, but Quaarugm knew two things- this vessel was not part of Yehm-Tiiqup army, and they were descending towards the main army base, near the capital. It is either going to be an execution or a medal, he thought, as he lined the strange vessel up and pulled the trigger. His machine gun hummed as it spit up the bullets and with satisfying thump, the bullets hit the enemy ship... and bounced off, doing no damage at all. He made another pass, he was sure that he hit and yet, the result was absolutely the same.
Strange ship, moving towards the surface. And two more.
Even more insulting- though the vessel seemed to have some sort of guns in their front, they just ignored him, didn’t change course, didn’t seem to care he was there. Quaarugm went for a third pass, this time aiming for the pieces blowing off fire from the jet, apparently slowing the enemy vessel down. Again, nothing.
It was then that the vessel reached the ground. It’s doors opened and strange figures poured out. Their shape was totally unfamiliar to Quaarugm, but the things in their hands, he knew well enough. They were guns, that is for sure. Perhaps, if his bullets couldn’t penetrate the vessel, perhaps they could penetrate the- he was pretty sure by now this was a correct term- enemy. He gained some height and then, set to the course towards the enemies. He saw one soldier to raise his weapon, but he knew he was out of range. He would fire too soon and then, spend some time reloading.
To his surprise, he wasn’t out of range. He let out a yelp as the plane was hit in the engine, a shot of utmost perfection. The bullet passed straight through the engine and Quaarugm was nearly hit himself.
“By the Maker,” he had time to think, “The engine was over one metre of thick metal- and it went right through...” and now he was in trouble. Trying to control the plane, he was desperately looking for somewhere safe to land. He could make it, he could land the plane in it’s current condition. It will be rough, but it should be doable. Then, he saw the soldier lining up for another shot...
Alien Invasion
“Stop,” said Aleksei Skobelev to the soldier aiming at a plane and put his hand on his shoulder. “You already got him.”
“Sir,” the soldier lowered the weapon, feeling half reluctant and half relieved.
Aleksei gazed up. His dropship was the first to land, but there were more coming. Much more. The sky was filled with dropships, slowly descending upon the planets. He grinned. Of course, them ships could do the “drop like a rock until you have 100 meters to the ground and then hit full thrusters” routine, but this, this seemed to be much more intimidating. Impending doom, descending slowly. And since the locals had no means to get the ships, then it was all good. Plus, it didn’t turn the stomachs of his soldiers upside down.
There was another ship and yet another, until 50 ships landed the clearing. Some minor hovertanks rolled out, and other light support equipment. Plus, of course, transportation. No way the Normans were going to walk like the legions of old. They were now 250 soldiers, and that was all this clearing is going to get. The party amassed and upon the command of general, rolled out.
Aleksei himself was riding his little tank, half of the equipment tossed out and replaced with mobile command center. Occasional gaze to the screen showed that everything was proceeding as planned, the resistance thus far had been very light and no Norman casualties. All six invasion points, or by other words, six capitals of the major nations of Jurg-Faliigh, were still mostly unaware what is happening, though people were already gathering to the streets and watching with amazement the lightshow thousands of dropships bringing well-equipped soldiers to the surface, though of course, they had no clue it was an invasion. Yet.
Fort Tiiqup was the main defensive post of Yehm-Tiiqup, guarding their capital and nearby areas. Housing over 100 000 soldiers and the best defensive systems money can afford. Machine guns and artillery placed on concrete emplacements, trenches, barbed wire. Lots and lots of underground bunkers. A frightening sight if you happened to me fellow Gorf invading it. Not so much if you happened to be an alien invader.
The fort was already on full alert. The didn’t know what was going on, but they knew something was happening and thus, every cannon, every machine gun, every defensive position was manned and like an angry hedgehog, ready to rain death upon any foe. Ok, perhaps not like an angry hedgehog. “Perfect,” thought Aleksei. Surprise raid was not part of his plans.
Aleksei and his merry men, now grown to nearly 5000, were approaching the fort. Because of the long-range artillery, the soldiers had spread out and to be fair, shield generators and point defences would get rid of the slow Gorf rounds. Of course, they didn’t know that. And Aleksei preferred that they didn’t.
The effective range of tiiqupi bullets was around 300 meters. They flew further, yes, but at 300 meters, they had trouble penetrating even paper. There, the Normans stopped and gazed thousands upon thousands of Gorfs, all of them armed, all of them in there positions and aiming their guns at Normans. Aleksei grabbed a yellow flag from his backpack. Here, it meant “let us negotiate”. And sure, well enough, the gates opened with minutes and some fancy-looking officers, riding local six-legged beasts rode out.
Shiny uniforms are still an issue, Aleksei thought. Apparently, not for soldiers no more, they wore almost sensible gray/green. But the officers- it looked like a travelling circus or a Norman coronation party. All the colors, all the shine and of course, all the attitude.
On the other side, you have Aleksei. Undistinguishable from his soldiers, apart from four big stars on his helmet. Carrying a rifle, just like anyone else. Traditional cigar stump on his mouth. Still, it was without question who was in charge here, for Aleksei’s presence was well-felt.
Who seemed to be a leader of the enemy delegation addressed Aleksei: “Who are you and what do you want?”
Aleksei smiled, understanding the question without need to translate. “We are Normans and we wish for your surrender”
As words were translated to Gorf, the members of the delegation looked at the Normans again. Yes, they were armed and armoured, but they looked weak compared to a Gorf. And there was so few of them. Few thousand against one hundred thousand Gorfs hidden behind the fort. They did the Gorf version of sarcastic laughter, turned their beasts around and prepared to leave.
Aleksei raised his communicator.
“Rabid Dog One calling Fleet,”
“This is Fleet,” Aleksei recognized the voice of Admiral Julia Hauteville-Krüger herself.
“Requesting three orbital orbital strikes, utmost precision please, to these coordinates,” he said while bringing up holographic map of the neighborhood (thank god for orbital mapping satellites) and transferring the coordinates. The whole process took about 5 seconds and the delegation was still turning around.
Admiral Julia was already expecting the call. After all, this had been the plan all along. Another 15 seconds later she cheerfully announced: “Rabid Dog One, this is Fleet. Solution ready, waiting for your go”
“Go, I repeat go”, Aleksei responded, and shouted “Brace” to his men.
There was a whistling noise as the slugs fired from HVT Columbus penetrated the atmosphere. It lasted for most a second though, then they impacted the ground with a satisfying thump. No, not to the fort. Each slug was sent to one side of the fort, each about 1 kilometer before the initial fortifications begun. And none were sent to the location where Aleksei and his crew were, of course. It was lucky that no-one lived within miles of the fort- the soldiers wanted a clear line of sight.
There was even no need for explosives within the slug. The energy released at impact was enough to first create a massive shockwave that amongst other things blew the Tiiqup delegation off their beasts and forced Normans, who knew it was coming, to hold to the ground, steady. Then, it was the big oomph and finally, all the mud and soil and dirt and rocks the slug had displaced came raining down.
Photo taken from some distance- initial dust cloud forming
Aleksei and his translator moved through the hailstorm of mud to the Tiiqup delegation, who sat on the mud, their rides happily escaping over the fields. Aleksei had to scream to make himself heard, and so did the translator:
“You have one hour to surrender. If you don’t by then, we will send next charges straight to your fort,” and he added after a pause “And believe me, the only difference between now and then is that it will be raining concrete and Gorf instead of mud and dirt”
After the translator had gotten the message through, the Gorf did not feel like laughing no more. Instead, they crawled back to fort to bring the message- and there was fear in their eyes. Deep fear. For no man or fungus wants to die like this. Ingloriously. At the push of the button.
It took half an hour and some clearing of the mud and dust, revealing three huge craters next to the fort for the Gorf to realize they had fungoids chance in pesticide barrel against the Normans. After that, they surrendered. And with the fall of Fort Tiiqup, the capital was defenceless and after three hours, their Queen signed an unconditional surrender, bringing the nation of Yehm-Tiiqup under Norman rule.
At the same time, other invasion forces met similar success. The Gorf were overwhelmed by the Norman force and were unwilling to fight a battle against enemy so strong as the Normans. Or any battle, for that matter. Too much years of peace had made their soldiers cowards. By the evening, all the six major nations of Jurg-Faliigh had surrendered to Normans. Minor nations, seeing the big ones fall, surrounded in the following day.
It was amazing invasion. Whole planet conquered and not a single Norman dead. Yes, there were some injuries- some Gorf who didn’t want to surrender and had a rifle, some minor forts holding out, but overall, the Normans got away clean. And the Gorf lost just a few hundred. Scare tactics worked well- they were scared into submission, not beaten. This way, more lives were spared. On both the Norman side and Gorf side.
Normans are successful in their first invasion
Normans just got their fifth world and had advanced across the Great Emptiness to another spiral arm of the galaxy.
... though the Gorf will not prove to be the best of subjects so easily.
As for Quaarugm, the brave pilot- he survived the crash landing, though he injured his right leg permanently. Limping Quaarugm, he was called later. Then, he escaped to the woods and in a year, became one of the most prominent leaders of Gorf resistance, causing Normans quite a trouble. Still, not for a second, did Aleksei Skobelev regret sparing him.
Guests in Soval
The fall of Gorf was witnessed by a strange ship of unknown origin. It entered the start system about the time the Norman buildup begun and stayed there until the end. Then, they jumped out, not responding to Norman hails.
Hello, strange folks. What are you looking at?
Convincing them seems as a better option. 
