Earth. Many things were just as they are now and have been for a long time. Wars came and went, political and economic situations arose. There was much tension between the alliance of the U.S. and the European Alliance, and Russia, China, and the Middle East as each vied for power and influence, and each worked to stop the other as indirectly as possible.

Tensions rose and fell but another catalyst soon came about. This one pushed things to a point just as volatile as the global posturing: humans mutated. It started subtly but quickly and many people tried to hide these mutations initially. Some were easily hidden while others were not. After a variety of incidents all over the world, some that involved humans lashing out at mutants who responded, or simply mutants using their powers blatantly, the world responded.

In 2020 different nations and governments reacted in different ways, but all over the world, things were violent and tumultuous. About this time, the world Powers began to mobilize and some seemed willing to take this situation and use it to press others for more land, power, or resources. Things began to heat up to a multi-directional cold war when in 2022, something unthinkable happened: spaceships began to orbit the Earth.

For the first few days, the massive ships hovered in space but after several days, a handful moved down and hovered over land masses. One day, several fragments of the ships were launched at the Earth and each country. Finally finding a reason to focus on something that wasn’t human, the military powers banded together and launched nuclear arsenals at the ships.

None of them reached their targets or detonated.

Hours later, the ships launched energy weapons that destroyed most large cities and other populous areas. Not long after, the invasion began as aliens transports poured out of the main ships, swarming the Earth with alien lifeforms.

The invasion had begun.

Hey, sorry it took me so long to get my character sheets up. On a side note, why is finding a mostly-accurate picture the most difficult part of it?

I hope you don't mind that all three of my characters are women. I considered doing one male and two female, but all of yours were guys, and it seemed it would be way off balance that way. Not to imply we have to have exactly the same number of male and female main characters. I just that would be easiest to start out.

I am not sure why it's so difficult, but I blame you, haha.

I don't mind either way about the gender make up. A guy's gotta have choices, right?

Also, I've been "busy" too, and if you think it has anything to do with World Of Warcraft: Legion coming out, you may be on to something. Between today and tomorrow, I'll have something up, probably in the IC part.

Az

This alien invasion and the invaders themselves are very unique. The most important aspects are that this race has not ever been at war in any capacity. Couple that with the fact that this "invasion" was not planned, it makes things more interesting. Very bluntly, they are not used to this and do not excel at it. They are learning as they go. Additionally, they are dealing with extremely limited resources. So while they do have extremely advanced technologies, those techs were not once even remotely utilized in the capacity of war.

One other small, interesting thing is that the invaders to not trust completely autonomous machines. At every level, they have some living alien controlling a machine.

Leaders [+]
Humanoid in physique, these top echelon of the alien civilization direct the subspecies under their joint stratagem. These beings communicate via telepathy. When engaged in conversation, the leaders create a psychic link with the other as thoughts flow freely from one to another. While the other participant may communicate, the leaders have the ability to enforce their will via mental manipulation, which plays a vital part in the subjugation of the subspecies. Humans have the ability to resist the mental abilities of these aliens, but it differs from person to person, mainly based on composure and mental strength. Additionally, a large part of the powers succeeding initially is the shock of communicating directly via telepathy and then dealing with the aliens forcing will on the individual. It has been noted that the initial success is most likely based on it being the first time one has had a mental link of this nature. Generally, humans are much more successful resisting if they can succeed in breaking the initial attack.

Handlers [+]
Handlers are very fragile looking, and this is completely accurate. They are very smart and can actually learn and speak human languages, although they rarely need to do so. While their individual abilities differ somewhat, the typical Handler can easily control 3-5 crowned humans with some being able to control more or less. Additionally, a key factor is the precision or attention required. For example, having 5 humans simply walk is different than having 5 humans fire weapons accurately, or sorting debris.

These tend to travel in small units controlling various amount of crowned humans, and that size normally depends on the tasks. While they take orders from the Leaders, they do exercise some free will in how they accomplish tasks. In these groups however, there is no “leader” and sometimes, three different Handlers may complete a task in three different ways. There doesn’t seem to be the need to compromise or work together, or unit. They simply seem to get the job done as they see fit.

Worker/Soldier [+]
Originally, these aliens were workers whose jobs were mainly manual. For purposes of conducint war however, they were altered. Containing three separate mutation variants, the now-grunts are the backbone of the newly reformed war machine. While the mutation strain was altered and refined to accelerate the mutations growth, it is still unperfected, which results in acceptable deaths throughout the process. However, the efficiency of the transformation cannot be understated.

So in short, there is an abundance of Workers who are being augmented to perform in the capacity of soldiers. Any not taken for that purpose yet are still in the Worker capacity.

Grunt [+]
The first variant is the general all-purpose variant, and these were formerly Workers. These grunts are essentially the equivalent of humanity’s general ground forces. They aid in attacks, hold down captured areas, and provide logistical support to ensure the leadership’s orders and strategies are conveyed to all operational units within the area. These variants can be modified via technological alterations that can be grafted onto their hard external shell. While very basic, the versatility of this variant makes them highly lethal.

At this point, the majority of attacks are carried out by Grunts. However, as the Invaders adapt, more types are sure to enter the fray. Initially, they were armored aliens fighting with melee weapons and then began to appropriate human firearms into their armories.
(In short, more combat classes to come later.)

Crowned Humans [+]
These are humans that have an alien device covering their head and face. This device has two main effects. One, it creates a series of electric pulses and frequencies that essentially break any control the human has over its own body. Most humans retain their conscious to a degree. This crown can be removed with a few tools as it only attaches inside the skin near the temples and then is kept on by an alien adhesive.

Next, it introduces an alien symbiote that bonds with the human entirely. It bonds to blood, bone, organs, and even to DNA. Introducing the symbiote is extremely painful and even though the crowned body may not react, the human feels everything. Once the bond is complete, the human body has some amazing benefits. The symbiote makes the person stronger and almost immune to “weaknesses” of normal humans. They gain amazing stamina, sight, agility and pain resistance. They heal faster and are almost immune to illnesses. Any ailments that the human had prior are gone, and this includes any mutant powers.

Removing the crown is just as painful as the implanting, however, it is a terrible ordeal on the mind this time as the human is, as most say it, unplugged. The mind goes into a sort of shock almost immediately and this has a tremendous likelihood of damage, and even death. A telepath, or several, can assist in this and dramatically decrease the chance of harm.

A crowned human with no handler will either stand idle and do nothing, or carry out whatever the last order was, and then if that’s complete, it too will stand idle.

Mech-aliens [+]: This last group of aliens are extremely specialized and there is not much uniformity or consistency to them as a whole. Most generally have two arms, two legs and a head, but even this is not always the case. Because the race as a whole does not trust machinery (specifics are not known) that is not directed, guided, or controlled by aliens, or at least directly controlled by their thoughts, it is very rare for anything to be done by a machine. These aliens have machines, parts, or electronics bonded with them, or are sometimes actually bonded to a machine itself, and operate in that capacity. While in many cases the machines or computers do the work, at some capacity, that activity is controlled by the alien. It seems this race has a high capacity to be bonded with machines while the other races cannot.