This war took place on the plateau near the first city all the way into the forests and hills near the Kaipo living region. The second city of Nissimus never entered this conflict, too busy with their own affairs and didn’t want to deal with the first city at this time. The first aggressor in the war was the Kaipo who attacked an outpost. However, they were retaliating to a move that the outpost commander had made into the camp. The commander had taken a number of his troops and questioned the populace and took samples of Kaipo technology which was very primitive in Nissimus standards. The Kaipo responded with a full out attack on the outpost, capturing it easily. They executed the command and sent the men back to the Nissimus.
This action caused the leaders of the Nissimus to send a response force to recapture the outpost and to teach the Kaipo to not attack a Nissimus facility. The men sent were lightly armed, not expecting much trouble. They even sent a message ahead of them to warn the Kaipo of the impending attack, hoping to intimidate them to such a degree that the Kaipo would leave without a fight. This was a mistake as would be expected. The Kaipo were a greater force than the Nissimus had anticipated and proved themselves in battle. The Nissimus force was beaten soundly and the Kaipo proved their strength. The Kaipo had tactics that counterbalances the Nissimus’ advanced technology. On top of this the Kaipo still had a number of the old Nissimus rifles. It became something of a fearful tale among the Nissimus soldiers to never let a Kaipo within arm’s reach. The short story went that the Kaipo would grab their victim and fly them high before dropping them and feasting on the remains. The first part of this story was a true tactic, but the rest could be considered untrustworthy.
The Nissimus responded with more force and having their scientists work on flight based technology. That was the greatest advantage that the Kaipo had their ability to fly and their high maneuverability in the air. This made it difficult to shoot them and gave them the advantage of attacking from above unexpectedly. The Nissimus attempts at such were at this point less than satisfactory. Most of the suits either failed to lift off or were too slow that the Kaipo could knock them out of the air easily. The Nissimus quickly decided to focus on anti-aerial weaponry instead of figuring out how to fly. They never gave up on the possibility of flightsuits however and simply changed their focus.
The first part of the war was burning down, the Nissimus had reclaimed their outpost and had made the Kaipo that had held it die. This wasn’t enough though. The leaders of the city were very upset by this time, almost five standard years of war and they had little to show for it. Their inability to make the Kaipo pay for the damage done was infuriating. At last they decided to try and play a ditch battle. They hoped the utterly crush the Kaipo, maybe even drive them extinct.
When the Nissimus attacked the Kaipo camp it was a slaughter for both sides. The Kaipo lost many people before the civilians could be moved, however the deaths of women and children only drove their warriors further. The Kaipo fought with such viciousness that the Nissimus lost more than they killed. The Nissimus soldiers at that point didn’t have the will to kill innocents as they were thought of. For them there wasn’t dignity of honor in killing those that couldn’t defend themselves. Even so, the female Kaipo did their part to fight back the Nissimus, joining the men and showing themselves to be every bit as strong as their male counterparts.
At this point the war seemed to end, in actuality it only fell into a slumber. Neither side really gave up hostility, instead keeping forces as guards to watch against possible invasions. The Nissimus during this time continued, working on anti-air weaponry. They had recently made another technological advancement, the computer. Theirs was a very primitive and cumbersome computer, but it automated things that would otherwise require the Nissimus to do. They combined the two things and came up with an automated turret that would target flying enemies and shoot them down with larger projectiles than their rifles. They had begun to prepare for its first field test, they would have lifesize dummies launched into the air and see if the computer could identify them. The war could have ended at this point, had an accident not occurred.
The Kaipo in the meantime were still enjoying life as much they could and trying to survive. They tried to forget their very irritating neighbor and went about their lives. The Kaipo began to even more enjoy flying over the mountains and forests. The rush of wind and ground beneath them was exhilarating. This would however lead to the restart of the war. A few Kaipo were flying over a patch of forest further from the mountain than usual when they came across the anti-air testing ground. They didn’t know what it was and the Nissimus didn’t know they were there until they brought the computer online and by then it was too late. The turrets shredded through all but one of the Kaipo. The survivor, an Ukus, went back to the mountains telling of the aggression of their enemies the Nissimus.
When the Kaipo leader of the time went to the Nissimus to ask for a justification the Nissimus responded that it was a very unfortunate accident and that they wouldn’t allow it to happen again. The Nissimus were certain of the repercussions and were already preparing the anti-aerial cannons to be sent into the field. However, before they could move the prototype cannon, the Kaipo attacked. The facility was only lightly manned and was not prepared for the dozens of Kaipo that attacked. The facility was burned to the ground, but not before the Kaipo stole a number of the Nissimus’ new weaponry and destroying the anti-air gun.
This attack led to a drastic change in the war. The Nissimus saw the attack as an attempt to remove the weapon that would nullify their flight based advantage. The Kaipo had not foreseen this assumption; their attack had solely been revenge for their fallen and to show that their people would not die without being paid for. The Nissimus responded by attacking the mountain village with ground forces while they furthered their development on anti-aerial weapons.
The initial attack of ground forces found stragglers who had been making their way up the mountain. Because the Nissimus had separated into small groups in the hopes of catching their enemies unawares, the Kaipo were able to defeat some of the enemy while they retreated. It was during one of these skirmishes that the second great leader of the Kaipo arose. Karpoth had defeated an entire enemy group with only two men as allies. He returned to the mountain village and proclaimed himself leader. He was accepted with the proof and he brought the Kaipo into a proper military campaign.
The first of these attacks was the Nissimus attack on the Kaipo village. Their ground forces had had to march for two days up the steep mountain slopes, losing a number of people along the way. When at last they reached the caves they were exhausted. The Kaipo had the distinct advantage and used it to their advantage as best they could. The Nissimus were badly beaten and retreated within half an hour of the beginning of the battle. Karpoth led the Kaipo into an aggressive pursuit until they were almost half-way down the mountain. By this time the Nissimus troops were doubly fatigued and the Kaipo were forgiving enough to let them escape. Most of the survivors of that battle didn’t take part in future battles against the Kaipo.
With their village defended and the enemy troops sorely outnumbered, Karpoth led the Kaipo onto a retaliatory attack on their old village that had been taken by the Nissimus. It wasn’t well defended after sending most of the forces to the battle for the mountain. The Kaipo took it easily, with the Nissimus retreating soon after they lost their commander. The Kaipo set up the village as a military facility, cleaning the weapons as they saw the Nissimus did and generally keeping strict over watch of the surrounding area. They had the Nissimus’ outposts located and marked on basic maps. They also had food and water sent up from the facility to the caves so that the people up there could survive while the war continued.
The Nissimus at this time had built a number of prototypes of varying methods. They posted one of each in the outposts, they expected them to be attacked next after reports of the loss of the old Kaipo village. They also began trying to begin trading with the other city in the hopes that they would come to aid them. The second city was uncertain whether it wanted to join this war. They didn’t have a bad relationship with the Kaipo, in fact they didn’t have any sort of communication with them. The Nissimus of this city decided that they could share technology however.
This was quite a boon for the first city. The second city had been working on expanding the capabilities of their rockets and in so doing had figured a basic computer system. They made their rockets with stabilizers which helped it to keep a mostly straight forward path when launched. When they began making computers they made the stabilizers capable of moving to allow the missile to move in flight a small amount. They then put computers in the launchers themselves so that a target could be picked out and the rocket would try as best it could to reach the target. The launchers built for these were slightly bulkier, noticeably heavier, and considerably more fragile. However, they would prove useful against the Kaipo.
The new launchers did not reach the outposts before the Kaipo began their attack. The Nissimus defenders were able to test the anti-aerial guns, however they also lost them. Most of the designs worked well and helped hold off Kaipo attacks, until the Kaipo used shells taken from the Nissimus mortars in the village as bombs. Those shells devastated the Nissimus defenses and ended up destroying most of the guns as well. Few of the Nissimus in the outposts escaped alive, those that did would return to report the success of the guns as well as the desperate loss of men. Even with the mortars, the Nissimus fought hard to defend their outposts. Some of the locations simply had to be bombarded into dust before they could move in, and by then there was nothing worth salvaging.
The Nissimus attempted to take back the outposts for the next year, failing every time. They varied strategies: sending large groups, sending small groups, setting up teams of launchers and mortars nearby, moving aerial guns as close as possible. For all that, the Kaipo fought harder, always just managing to defeat the enemy, but at great cost. The Kaipo lost many, many men in these battles. The ones that survived the battles were often the most maneuverable in flight and most times even these came back with wounds. Many of them didn’t fly again. Even so, they were able to return to the village with pride and were welcomed. Many younger Kaipo joined the fighting to replace those lost, each secretly hoping to gain glory for deeds accomplished. At this time Karpoth’s son joined the war as well.
The final year of the war was little more than trading blows and losing men. The Nissimus would lose a position and the Kaipo would take what they could and leave. The Nissimus sent more men to replace those lost and would recapture the place. The Kaipo would have the same issue; however they retreated much quicker due to their less numbers. In the last three months though, a tremendous leap occurred within Nissimus technology. The second city and the first both had their scientists collaborate on designs for more advanced combat machines. This would give the last month of the war a most definite advantage as the results would show.
The combined efforts of both sets of scientists conceived an armored walker. It had missiles based on the laucher’s design, an anti-aerial gun, and a prototype rapid fire automatic rifle like assembly. This took a month to make into a workable design; however by the end of it they had a single prototype working in the field to fight the Kaipo in one of the last battles. It was armored against most of their rifles, making the weapons the Kaipo had stolen obsolete, thereby giving the Nissimus and advantage.
The walker’s first battle was for the village of the Kaipo, its first target was the enemy defenses that had been built up while the other battles had occurred. It proved to be very effective, capable of ripping through most of the metal and wood used as barriers, shooting down Kaipo in flight, and taking down those on the ground. It wasn’t brought down, however the pilot died when a Kaipo shot through the glass used for the cockpit. The machine was out of battle, and the remaining Kaipo were able to route the Nissimus forces. While this was a victory for the Kaipo, the Nissimus saw it as proof of concept and began to try and build more to continue the battle.
The scientists that had built it however were not cooperative, after seeing the effectiveness of the machine in battle, their consciences appeared to take a blow. They decided not to build any more walkers until the war was ended. Because the single walker they had was no in enemy hands, the Nissimus leaders had little choice but to agree. They began to try and open peace talks. However, as expected the Kaipo did less that trust the supposed treaties. They were afraid that it was all a façade and that they would be attacked when they let their guard down. They held their defenses and didn’t allow Nissimus into their areas.
It was a week before the talks began to make headway, after that the peace negotiations began in earnest. The results of the agreed upon treaty was that the Kaipo would return the walker and the Nissimus of the first city would leave the Kaipo to their own devices. Further the Nissimus were barred from producing more than a hundred of the walkers, though because the Kaipo had no way of monitoring the Nissimus the city leaders disregarded it. Thus the second great war and the first interspecies war came to a close.
