The Victory
or how the Normans won their first interstellar war
Shots in the Blizzard
“The Navy boys have it easy,” one of the grunts complained.
General Aleksei Skobelev, concentrating on holographic map before him, showing all the units in Cradon and their status, raised his head: “Whatever you mean?”
“They see the enemy, it’s a quick and clean fight. You see them and pull the trigger. It’s paradise!”
“Unless you’re blown off to space, soldier,” Aleksei mentioned. “Remember, there are no wounded in space”
“But until then, they have it nice and warm and with mug of joe in their hands,” the soldier persisted. “Not like us”
Indeed, the blizzard had started again and the temperature had dropped to -20C. It wouldn’t even be so bad, but add the freezing wind and the snow that blinds you and covers your equipment with minutes...
“I’d still take my exo-armor and good rifle and medics nearby over being sucked to the vacuum anytime,” Aleksei replied. “You can’t even scream obscenities to your enemies when you’re about to die”.
The grunt had something else to say, but Aleksei raised his hand. The others shut their mouth, grabbed their rifles and stood at attention. Aleksei sniffed the wind, trying to feel the freezing patterns of it against his face. Then, he grabbed his automatic rifle from his back, uncocked it and fired entire clip into blizzard.
Norman soldiers in Arctic conditions
There was a deafening screech and something fell to the ground. This was enough for rest of the platoon to fire blindly to the blizzard as well. Especially satisfying were the light machine guns, able to fire 1200 slugs per minute and keep it up for 10 minutes without reloading. Then, the flak guns started their work, pounding the general area where the screams came from. There were more screeches and thumps and someone shouting orders in an alien language. Then, there was silence.
“General,” one of the soldiers whispered “How did you know?”
“Gut, son gut,” grinned Aleksei and despite the blizzard, lit his cigar, grinning like a madman. “I felt it in the wind”
Then, he put his rifle at the ready, ordered his men to follow him and carefully started walking towards where he heard the thump. It was about 100 meters from the camp when they reached the first body.
“Soddy day for the bird, from snowstorm to firestorm,” one of the soldiers commented. The rest just watched. It was not a beautiful sight. Poor Plex-Cradonian had been hit with a stray bullet to his shoulder. It was enough to make him unable to fly and the poor bird had dropped to the ground. He was still holding on to his rifle.
“Nasty death,” Aleksei put. Then, he examined the body more closely.
“Ahh, that’s why our thermal cameras didn’t pick him up,” he mentioned. The alien had donned some sort of thermal suit, making his temperature to show the same as the outside. Meaning, the aliens had figured out that Normans were using thermal cameras to pick up their raids.
A technician made his way to the corpse, touched the material. Then, he removed his goggles, played around some with the settings and said to Aleksei: “General, our goggle can be configured to scan for the material as well. Simple software update.”
Aleksei nodded and said: “See that everyone gets it.”
Then, he thought a bit, and commanded his soldiers: “Gather all the bodies, stack them in a funeral pyre and give them proper Plex-Cradonian funeral. They deserve that much.”
Soldiers saluted moved to pick up the pieces.
The Invasion
It was 28th October 2229. Third week of the invasion. Norman ships landed in 4th October. As usual, Aleksei Skobelev was in the first shuttle. Total 12 armies, meaning 12 million soldiers were landing. In order to take a planet with around 12 billion Plex-Cradonians.
The Fleet had been in orbit of Cradon for nearly a year. From December 2228, the planet had been under constant bombardment. The Normans didn’t go all-out though, they were careful not to hit anything civilian. After all, they wanted the planet to themselves. The military, their production, their supplies, their infrastructure, was hit without mercy though.
The thing is- after the initial bomb run, where about quarter of Plex-Cradonain army perished, the enemy grew smart. They dispersed. You can hit fortifications from space. You can hit factories. You can hit supply depots. With enough firepower- and that Normans had- you can even hit the enemy underground bunkers. Or just render them unusable.
Actually, this is what happened to Plex-Cradonian leadership. Most of them gathered to underground bunker, five kilometers beneath the surface. Normans discovered it by accident and instead of trying something else, they just shot the entrances, so that enemy were trapped in, slowly suffocating to the lack of fresh oxygen. When the bunker was opened after the war, it was not a pretty sight. Apparently, the leaders had realized that in order to survive, the less birds breathing, the longer they have oxygen. So, the inhabitants of the bunker turned against each other. The final survivor actually outlived the Norman invasion, but in the end, he didn’t survive until excavation as well. He shot himself before suffocating. To this day, the Plex-Cradonians believe the bunker is cursed and avoid it.
The rest of the birds, as mentioned before, dispersed. Into small units of 100-200 birds, operating almost independently. Coordinating with each other when needed and if they happened upon other parties, but mostly, they kept on their own. And you can’t shoot 100-200 soldiers from space. Too mobile targets and so on.
When the Norman armies landed in 4th October 2229, dropships coming in at full speed, guns blazing, expecting a big battle, they were in for a nasty surprise. No big battles, no clear opposition, nothing. Instead, they faced guerilla hit-and-run tactics. And these tactics can be especially nasty surprise when you are facing an enemy who is able to fly and shoot their guns while doing so.
The Invasion begins
It’s the Normans we are talking about though. They adapted quickly. Also, small squads, superior firepower, fast anti-aircraft guns and flak guns reconfigured to target the Plex-Cradonians. It was never a single deciding battle as it was with fleets. It was 100 little battles each day. Were it Plex-Cradonians trying to sneak in on Normans and attack them, were it Normans finding their hideout and trying to take them on their nests. Were it just enemies meeting by chance.
The Plex-Cradonians bled faster then Normans though. One by one, Normans took over the key infrastructure points in Cradon. One by one, the battles were won and the enemy numbers thinned.
It was finally in 23rd November, 2229, when the representatives of Cradon, flying with clear weather and carrying the white flag, flew to the encampment where Aleksei was and offered their unconditional surrender. They knew full were they were defeated....
... and here it ends. The Norman losses were not that terrible actually
End of War
Aleksei and his soldiers were left behind in Cradon, keeping the peace and order and stopping the birds from doing anything stupid, like sneak attack or rebellion. The Fleet broke orbit and headed towards Kimitar system, where the enemy had two planets.
It proved not to be necessary though. The best Christmas gift the Hauteville Empire ever received- it was in 25th December 2229 when the Plex-Cradonians surrendered. Realizing the futility of their struggle, they just gave up and ceded all their four planets to the Hauteville Empire.
Like hell it was a temporary setback. Stupid birds.
With this, the Normans had won their first interstellar war and extended their reach to yet another spiral arm of the galaxy. Now, the Normans were definitely the biggest players in their neighborhood.
Dividing the Spoils
Four planets were added to the Hauteville Empire, making the total number of planets in the Empire 10. Of course, these four were full of angry birds, not really happy with the sad end of their Empire. It takes time to pacify them and integrate them into Hauteville Empire like good subjects. Still, they got a right to vote and other full citizenship perks. The Plex-Cradonian planets were divided into separate sector, called Avis Caveam Sector, so that the local rulers did not report to Empress and the parliament directly, but through the sector governor and the sector parliament. Carrie Hauteville-Pearson, former governor of Tuscany, was promoted as the first governor of Avis Caveam Sector.
The Avies Caveam Sector
Also, they got Norman kings. Seeing that these are arctic planets, Hautevilles from Sweden were given power over the the Kingdoms. Hendrik Hauteville-Fåhraeus got the Star Kingdom of Cradonia and the Plex-Cradonian homeworld of Cradon. Almost totally filled with angry birds. Very angry birds. Not the best of Kingdoms, but everyone was sure that the Hendrik I will be more then able to rule a planetful of birds.
Johan Hauteville-Anderson got Star Kingdom of Umea (formally Kimithar System), with two worlds. Ryygd, a large arctic world, and Tikeq, small, but extremely rich moon orbiting the barren world of Umea II.
Two worlds for the Star Kingdom of Umea
Most curiously, Umea IV was a perfect planet for the humans. Continental, temperate climate and nice living conditions. It was set to be the next planet to be colonized- and also, the capital planet for both Star King Johan I and the entire Avlis Caveam sector. It still needs some colonization first though.
Umea IV, planned home for the Star Kingdom of Lulea and the future sector capital
Finally, there was the Star Kingdom of Lulea (formally Folingar System) got handed to Rikard Hauteville-Åslund. Just one planet, Kitrel, but boy, what a planet it was. Just colonized, not even having a planetary administration, but the size of that beauty- it was predicted that the planet can house 24 billion people without issues. Or 24 billion birds, for apart from angry birds and Hauteville Kings and their military and administrative personnel and family and some friends, there wasn’t much interest for humans to live under these conditions. Even the Finns shrugged at the conditions of arctic worlds...
Lulea and their single habitable world, Kitrel
Other Matters
During the war, something else happened. Earth became as populated as it could. 16 billion people were living on the planet. From Greenland to Antarctica, all were full. Mostly thanks to new farming practices and also, Norman policy to help with reproduction. Significant tax cuts for families with children 4 and above, ample maternity leaves, giving both private and public sectors strict rules about having to take mothers back to work. Most recent was raising total paid maternal leave to two years, half of it had to be taken by fathers. And of course, giving the example themselves. Emma have birth to seven children, four girls and three boys. With all this in place and also, advanced medicine to cut down mortality rates, humanity was able to successfully double their numbers every 20-25 years.
The Earth, in her full glory!
There was another sector made too. Gorf were granted their own sector, ruled by Tancred de Hauteville, son of Emma. Called Kish after one of the oldest known Kingdoms of Earth, coming from time when civilization on Earth was taking their first steps in the rich lands between Eufrat and Tigris rivers. At the times Kish prospered, the Norman ancestors were still hunter-gatherers. It was sort of the bow to the ancient Kingdoms and rich traditions of Earth. The Gorf... were not pleased, but they were generally not pleased anyway.
The first Humans also settled on Jurg-Faliigh, giving the Normans at least a bit easier time. The manned the new administrative sector.
Kish Sector. Also, humans are nearly the only productive species here
Freedom of thought is a luxury when dealing with xenophobic aliens, whose main thoughts are “Kill of humans” and “Death to oppressors”. With the conquest, Normans were forced to stop the old freethinking traditions and enforce some quarantine on information. Not really a censorship, rather control of the data flow, forcing the questionable subjects to hide on 50th page of Google search results and onward. This is a prime example of realpolitik- something that not a single person thinks is a good idea, but still, it is something that must be implemented.
Some of the decisions, i just hate to make...
“We are Normans. We are humans. We must forget old feuds between human nations- and don’t worry, we will find plenty of new enemies in the galaxy,” was the official slogan of social campaign waged by the Hauteville Empire during the war. Promise of the new enemies is always a good thing, especially if you are a Norman and people listened.
More propaganda! And more influence!
