Narvik

Fifty thousand Narvik soldiers entered Masnonia. Only about six hundred survived and returned to their homeworld.

The Masnonians were elated. Amidst the piles of rubble and the small towers of corpses they expressed their joy at the sight of Narvik starships leaving the atmosphere.

President Jardon could have told his people it was time to rebuild. He could have told them that they should learn from the bitter three-week war, that Narvik was not to be ignored and that they should try to improve their relations to avoid another war.

Instead, he made an extremely stupid decision: He ordered his army to 'punish' the Narvik by attacking their home planet. Despite strong public objection to this order, the Masnonian military, overconfident and hungry for revenge quickly regrouped, re-armed and repaired their starships with the intent on invading the Narvik homeworld with maximum force.

The United Coalition of Species warned Masnonia not to invade, but they were ignored. President Jardon spent most of his nation's treasury purchasing new weapons and starships from the forever-neutral Candils, upgrading the Masnonian arsenal three generations ahead.

In the year 3521, six months after the end of the First Narvik-Masnonia War, 320 starships, each one carrying thousands of soldiers, military drones and combat vehicles set off for Narvik.

The Masnonia Army thought the mission would be an easy one. After all, they were told that the Narvik were still reeling from their defeat. There were also rumors that the Narvik King, King Halis Varnuvi, had lost the support of his people after the failed invasion. Their plan was to strike the heart of Narvik, to attack the capital mega-city Varnuvan, King Halis's giant palace. They wanted to eliminate Narvik leadership and install a puppet governor to keep the Narvik in check.

What they did not know was this: The Narvik never intended to conquer Masnonia. Their plan was to simply kill President Jardon, nothing more. Had they succeeded, they would have left Masnonia in peace.

To understand why, one must look back into the history of President Jardon's leadership. Jardon had always considered the Narvik a 'backwards race', a warlike people that did not deserve his respect. He could not understand why the rest of the United Coalition of Species allowed Narvik, a nation where a criminal's entire family would celebrate at his own execution, a nation where a woman or a man may have a multitude of spouses, to continue to exist.

The workings of Masnonian society were very opposite to the Narvik's, but relations had never deteriorated to the point of war. Trade was maintained despite their dislike of one another, and there were sometimes tourists from both sides visiting their neighbor. They just treated each other like estranged distant relatives who would never sit to eat at the same table. Somewhere at the most basic level they knew they were related.

In fact, biologically speaking, the two peoples were practically the same species. The Narvik had adapted to a world covered with ash and volcanoes, while the Masnonians adapted to a world that had constant rain.

When Jardon came to power, he saw a chance to 'teach' the Narvik the 'errors' of their culture. Of course, he had some measure of intelligence and he avoided open confrontation with the Narvik.

Jardon ordered assassinations, the targets being the Narvik Elders, the ones entrusted with preserving and teaching their way of life. Jardon raised taxes for Narvik immigrants, or citizens of Narvik heritage. He also raised prices for trade with the Narvik, which led to protests from the Masnonian Merchants Union. Even internet and media broadcasts from Narvik had been blocked off with powerful jammer satellites.

Everything Jardon could do to cause Narvik suffering and reduce the influence of their culture, he did. At first the Narvik assumed the assassinations were committed by the alienated sects of Narvik's official religion, the Binarity Order, and they thought Masnonian economy was suffering, which would be a plausible, reasonable explanation for raising costs for trade and the revised tax policies.

However, Narvik spies discovered Jardon's intentions, and accused him of purposeful, illegal discrimination against an entire nation. The United Coalition of Species heard their grievances, but Jardon's army of lawyers and their talent for finding loopholes in the laws of the Coalition allowed the persecution to continue.

The new laws of Masnonia affected both nations greatly: Narvik was dependent on Masnonia's food and water exports, and Masnonia needed Narvik's unique metals to build spare parts for their essential machines, such as the Tachyon field generators that defended Masnonian cities from orbital attacks, the unique nanomachine colonies they used for medical purposes, and many other unique Masnonian inventions.

After only two years, about 20 percent of Narvik's populace had died of thirst or hunger and Masnonian infrastructure almost collapsed. The Tachyon shields fell into disrepair as spare parts became scarce. Though other planets could provide the needed material, these worlds were very distant from Masnonia and were already strained while supplying other planets.

Blaming Jardon for the suffering of both nations, King Halis ordered an invasion into planet Masnonia, in a bid to quickly capture Jardon and either make him end the persecution or execute him. It was a desperate attempt to prevent the deaths of billions of Narvik lives, as their own planet was simply unable to provide enough food for all of the populace.

The Narvik failed and the Masnonians 'won'. The Narvik did not expect a counter-attack, but they were prepared: All eight billion, two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand and seventy-three of them.

Narvik culture demands everyone to be a capable fighter, or at the very least a good tactician. Every man, woman and child carries a weapon of some sort, be it a knife or a military-standard rifle. Those physically unable to fight on the frontlines were often encouraged to play games such as Boknai or Garwi, which were board games that were created to develop strategic skills.

Hungry and desperate, the Narvik fiercely defended their homeworld. Unfortunately for the Masnonian invaders, the natives proved to be effective with their personal weapons, and the Masnonian military found themselves overwhelmed by sheer numbers. United and firmly believing that losing the war would mean extinction, the entire planet rallied behind King Halis, who played a vital role as Grand Strategist, directing attacks on every front.

Though the Masnonians constantly bombarded many of the Narvik cities, King Halis had already ordered his subjects to go underground, working and living in the emergency global tunnel network completed a decade ago, and as a result only 122 Narvik citizens out of the billions were killed.

The Narvik could not compete in the air, but they would never lose too much control of the ground territory. Though the Masnonian military were able to secure landing zones in six provinces, the Narvik were always able to repel any attempt to expand further or to land in other regions.

The Narvik knew they were outmatched in technology, but they quickly learned how to capture, reverse-engineer and then turn their enemies' weapons against the invaders. The locals also knew how to use their volcanic environment to their advantage, redirecting the flow of lava to wherever their enemies would be, whenever they could. The Masnonian soldiers, expecting gunfire and mortars, instead often found themselves bathed in literal fire and magma.

After four months of fighting, it had become clear that the locals had closed the technological gap. Narvik soldiers no longer carried the inferior SVK-41 rifles, but instead mostly equipped with their own modified version of the new Masnonian standard: The Candil Self Defense Weapon Model 832, a distinctly modern weapon that was light, reliable and versatile, capable of penetrating most contemporary body armor and able to fire even when filled with ash.

When Narvik produced its own tanks and unmanned drones to counter Masnonia's, President Jardon considered the nuclear option. He claimed that it was a 'strategic necessity to use our nuclear advantage', and announced the launching of the Leviathan, an enormous interstellar missile capable of delivering a nuclear payload from one planet to another.

It was at this point the UCS decided to intervene. Though nuclear weapons were not banned, their use was strictly limited, and one the size of the Leviathan was illegal. Jardon ordered the launch before the UCS could send their peacekeeping forces to Masnonia, and the gigantic missile set off on its three-day voyage to Narvik.

The Narvik discovered the coming of the Leviathan when they intercepted transmissions between Masnonians. The fact that the Masnonian soldiers had been ordered to retreat offered little relief when accompanied with the news that a nuclear weapon able to ruin half of the planet's surface was on its way.

However, as the last Masnonian starship was about to leave orbit, forces of the 6th Narvik battalion were able to shoot it down using reprogrammed Masnonian drones, and from the wreckage they were able to find one very valuable piece of data: The Leviathan Control Codes.

The Leviathan, having to trouble a great distance, obviously had a guidance system to keep it on track. Though Masnonia would transmit data to the missile for the first half of the journey, the outer space fleet closer to the target would continue to guide the missile to reduce transmission lag.

The Masnonian military, though disturbed by the loss of a starship, were convinced that the Narvik would not be able to decrypt the control codes in time. They were wrong.

A few of the Masnonians, no more than thirty, defected to the Narvik side during the final weeks of the conflict. One of those defectors was Colonel Vadrona, who had access to the Leviathan control codes. Masnonian records at the time registered him as Killed In Action when Vadrona's convoy was destroyed during an attempt to raid the Narvik base, Location 422. In reality, Vadrona was a Narvik sympathizer and he fabricated his death to allow himself to assist the Narvik directly by providing them information.

With Vadrona's knowledge, they were able to hijack the Leviathan on the final day of the journey. At that pivotal moment, instead of using it to devastate the Masnonian fleet in orbit, King Halis ordered the Leviathan to disarm itself and let it crash into the nearby moon.

Halis made the decision after (correctly) considering the situation: They received news of the UCS attempting to arrest Jardon, and for them that meant they should try to have as much 'moral high ground' as possible while at the same time demonstrating that they were still willing to end the conflict peacefully. In not using the Leviathan against their foes, the Narvik were able to make their claim for peace and were seen to be more noble in the eyes of the countless peoples in the universe.

After the UCS were able to secure Jardon after a brief, intense skirmish, Vice President Harnol ordered the Masnonian fleet to pull back from Narvik space. Though Harnol had always known the invasion of Narvik was pointless, he found himself stuck with very little power to do anything to have any real influence on it.

Four days after planet Narvik celebrated the end of the war, delegates from the UCS and Vice President Harnol arrived at Haliso Spaceport to sign the peace treaty between Narvik and Masnonia. Though relations were still tense, all sides agreed that they should try to return to the way things were before Jardon came to power.

Jardon was soon tried for his crimes, the number one offense being that he ordered the use of an illegal weapon against a nation recognized by the UCS as 'a civilized state'. However, during the trials it became more and more obvious that Jardon was suffering from mental disorders. He suffered from hallucinations and during one of the trial sessions he spent an entire hour rambling about nonsense that ultimately had no point.

Many suspected that he was simply acting insane to make a bid for the insanity plea, but after in-depth psychiatric analysis, it became clear that Jardon had little hold on reality. The judge eventually sentenced Jardon to a lifetime in a mental institution instead of a prison, as he was deemed legally insane.

Though Jardon escaped legal punishment, he earned the hatred of two worlds for causing the deaths of thousands, if not millions of lives, and damaging the relationship between two neighbors. After the Jardon Presidency, Masnonia revised their requirements for election candidates, and Narvik continued to live as they did before the wars, slowly recovering from the collective trauma.

400 years later, the bond between these two nations had become so close that they became staunch allies during the fall of the UCS. Eventually Narvik and Masnonia overcame the desperate UCS forces in their sector, making use of the once-disarmed Leviathan lodged in Narvik's moon to destroy the UCS fleet.