OT: Alien invasion

[manunancy]

A few thoughts about that :

* one major point is that the aliens at a minmum want to have a bipshere that's at least in a decent shape - henc nop major nuking or crashing a dino-killer comet or astero-d into Earth.

* as far as motivation go, onenovel I read had a race of robotic sentiences evolved from some old probe which had a 'creed' bas on some old garbled lines of code form their remote ancestors who basicaly ordered them to 'find uses for things'. Which meant they experminented with slave labor and using human parts int themselves to see how they could use humans... Something along that line might work.

Another option to explain for a relative lack of ressource could be that said aliens are basically underfunded criminals who think the humans would make perfect novelty slave and their planet would offer plenty of exotic pets and foodustuffs to sell under the counter. The spacegoing equivalent of somali pirates mixed with sudanese horse-mounted raiders. They first gatheed amples to evaluate the market (UFO sigthings, abductions and cow mutilations) and now the don has decided it's time to take charge and really start the market.

Using dumb and fast-breeding goons would be both a way to save on the transport bil and help with keeping teh operation out of the glactic law enforcement's eye. Get a few gigatons of old surplus weaponry scheduled for recycling, a handfull of breeders and move all that into the solar systems would be easier than assembling an invasion force in a settled system. No nosy neighbours to call he cops.

Note : and since these gusy are basically criminals using dumb muscle, it offers a nice explanation for suboptimal planning and tactics : their weapon mix is what they can scroune from the recycling yard and they have little military experience, giving the locals a chance to fend off the thugs...

[Legbreaker]

You haven't seen my daughter's Barbies. I call them Civil War Survivors. Well over half are missing arms or legs.

True, dismembered they may be, but the individual components are indestructible!

[Targan]

Welcome to the forum manunancy! Perhaps you might like to tell us about yourself on the 'Introducing myself' thread: http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=2698

[95th Rifleman]

I like the falling skies rationale. Taking Huma children and converting them via some kind of process into either a slave-race or the alien race.

When you think about it, it's the prefect form of colonisation.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Webstral's post made me think of something else, something humans have been happy enough to do in the past to foreign cultures - religious conversion.
Perhaps the aliens are "invading" to convert the heathen humans to the true faith, if they don't convert willingly then they'll be forced to.
Maybe they made peaceful overtures to the world's governments and said "convert to our faith and be part of the wider universe". We responded with "No way" and they said, "Fine but now it's convert or die!"

[mikeo80]

Sort of off topic

This scenario is exactly what the teenaged, late night, creature feature watcher wants to see!!

I have been involved with a group that experimented with the idea of TMP being the result of Bruce Morrow seeing the aftermath of an Alien Invasion and the devistation that resulted.

The invasion was a mish mash of Heinlen's Bugs, Worldwars critters, and Independence Day. Of course, OUR critters would never use a computer operating system designed around Windows!!

I mean, come on, a computer virus

I also prescribe to the Carl Sagan hypothesis of extra-terestrial life.

1) We are it. Seems like a waste, but at this moment, we seem to be the only sentient () life form.

2) There are others, they are at the same level of tech we are.

3) There are others, they have warp drive, star drive, whatever. They have not gotten here yet. Space IS big. Really, Really BIG.

My personall favorite !!

4) There are others, they have warp drive, they have been here........




Wait for it.......




For obvious reasons, they decided to leave the children in the sandbox. Maybe they will grow up

My $0.02

Mike

[dragoon500ly]

[QUOTE=StainlessSteelCynic;38426]Living room - i.e. expansion of the Empire. Their home planets are overcrowded and they need room to expand.
Plus they get the benefit of a subjugated race to do their menial work for them and a planet full of resources.
Perhaps they even need the Earth for it's water resources, splitting water for hydrogen as a fuel. (Hmm, seems Targan has already evaluated this aspect)[QUOTE]

You could also add a second group of Aliens, fighting a war with Earth stuck in the middle and the strategic position of our solar system makes it vital for both sides to control and fight over.

[Rainbow Six]

Maybe they don't need a reason...they would just destroy for the sake of destroying, much like an intergalactic plague of locusts.

Or maybe the aliens might just see it as some form of pest control, much like we might fumigate a house to get rid of bugs.

[copeab]

I think District 9 and it's implied sequel would make for a quite logical alien invasion scenario (really more a rescue/revenge operation than invasion, though ...).

[Tombot]

Attack the Block

Just saw the latest film from the crew of "Shaun o.t.Dead", which has an alien-invasion stopped by a suburban, london teenage-gang.
The main-acteur looks like a 15 year old version of denzel wahington (in a good way, he has charisma) and another good thing the film has - Mike Frost (although he doesnt show up to often, but its still cool)!

If you want a totally different approach to the topic; check it out, its a good one. (Love the brits for their movies, always original)

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=cD0gm7dHKKc

[Sanjuro]

For alien motivations, how about they see our development as a future threat, and invade to try and destroy us before we develop the technology that would let us compete with them If you want to give humanity a break, use Harry Turtledove's idea that between their recon and their assault, we developed faster than they expected and have higher tech than their forces expect... not as high as the aliens, but perhaps they were only expecting muzzle-loading firearms, or no aircraft, or no electronics...

[copeab]

For alien motivations, how about they see our development as a future threat, and invade to try and destroy us before we develop the technology that would let us compete with them If you want to give humanity a break, use Harry Turtledove's idea that between their recon and their assault, we developed faster than they expected and have higher tech than their forces expect... not as high as the aliens, but perhaps they were only expecting muzzle-loading firearms, or no aircraft, or no electronics...

As an aside, this requires the aliens not have FTL drives or communications.

[weswood]

For alien motivations, how about they see our development as a future threat, and invade to try and destroy us before we develop the technology that would let us compete with them If you want to give humanity a break, use Harry Turtledove's idea that between their recon and their assault, we developed faster than they expected and have higher tech than their forces expect... not as high as the aliens, but perhaps they were only expecting muzzle-loading firearms, or no aircraft, or no electronics...

I was thinking about this last night. The aliens discovered humanity centuries ago and left probes/satelites to monitor our progress. Then in the early 40's with testing of atomic weapons, the satelites sent out a message to the home planet. 10 or 15 earth years since then for the message to reach, 5 years to assemble the invasion fleet, and the rest of the time to travel to earth. That way they would have a better idea of what we are capable of, and gearing thier equipment- tanks, apcs, aircraft, etc. to destroy us.

I'm thinking a psuedo medeviel fuedal matriarchal society, with the nobility in charge of descending areas of responsibility. The commoners would be the vehicle crewmen and some shock troop, but the majority of the infantry would be the sporks, led by commoners of proven ability, simuliar to knights.

[pmulcahy11b]

There is an episode of the new Science Channel show Curiosity which in my mind gives a plausible reason for aliens to invade earth and wipe out humans: for whatever reason, they want our planet, with the biosphere intact, so they can live on it.

They wouldn't want the Earth to strip it of resources -- for a technological civilization that can travel the stars, resources can be found a-plenty in any asteroid belt or on moons, and water is easy to find and even make. Intact biospheres of the type that Earth has aren't as common by a long shot.

So, why have there been scattered reports of alien abductions and UFOs They need test subjects and air samples. They've probably been taking animals, particularly birds, as well.

First, they need to take away from us the one thing we need and the rest of the biosphere doesn't: technology. The show had the example of a rain of nanobots -- trillions of them -- which produced EMP effects. The nanobots are only of the molecular size. Sort of shut off the Earth like a light switch.

Then, the reason for abductions and air samples and test subjects: the aliens would engineer diseases targeted only at humans, using animals as carriers (more reliable than simply spraying the atmosphere with disease). If we figure out a cure for one disease, they have many more standing by.

The show gave some ideas on how we could stop the aliens, centered around asymmetric warfare and making their victory too expensive (sort of like what the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese did to us), but it gave the strong impression that we really didn't stand a chance against an alien invasion.

[Matt W]

IMHO, the best alien invasion scenario was a Doctor Who invention: the "Sea Devils" and the "Silurians". These were basically intelligent, bipedal dinosaurs whose (highly-advanced) civilization foresaw the impact of the big meteorite that killed off all the other dinosaurs. A few isolated colonies survived by using a form of suspended animation (in huge bases buried under old rock or in the oceans). Of course (like the Morrow Project) their "wake-up" was delayed longer than they expected. But now they're back - and rather annoyed to find their planet full of vaguely intelligent primates