FenrisUlf Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 HI all, Okay, this could work as well as pure SF (and I originally conceived it that way), but with all the Authority-style discussions that have been going on, I decided to ask about a long-term plot idea here. In effect, a small group of aliens gets stranded on Earth in some third-world nation that they than change into a major league power with their technological help and advice (i.e., provide clean fusion power, antigravity, nanotech or whatever). Unfortunately, these aliens happen to come from a species that has a very fascistic/meritocratic mindset, and are big on 'the group above the individual'. (Think a whole race of Peter Singers.) The country they're in isn't much better -- but now they have an arsenal that puts every First World nation to shame, and both the human and the alien leadership would have no real problem with playing at empire-building. But at the same time, this new society is actually making life better for their own people. The citizens/subjects are living better than ever, and they make it clear that they aren't interested in tyranny for its own sake. But they are interested in expansion against other Third World nations, and will resist with some major ordnance if any of the big boys try to interfere. Would anyone out there have any ideas on just how the world community would probably respond to this, with a minor power no one cares about going to a major world-beater within about a year (and setting itself up as a new alternative to both the West/US & Europe and China)? Especially if the leadership seems ready to try making like Gengis Khan? This will be taking place in the modern-day Hero Universe. Any advice, words of wisdom, or criticism will be much appreciated. Flames you can keep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden I'll have to think about it, neat idea though. Ironically enough, if I recall Terran Empire right, there was a time the Perseid (Ironclad's people) tried to conquer Earth in order to stablize the then tumultous region, for 'it's own good'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden Metahuman teams with the proper abilities (stealth, teleportation, etc) will be formed and told that acquiring the alien's tech base, or samples for suitable reverse-engineering, are of the highest priority. If suitable super-assassins exist and can be inserted, the enemy nation's key scientists and production people might start suffering inconveniently timed strokes. (Hey, Andres Panthanatos, about that pardon you wanted...?) Meanwhile, diplomatic pressure and reward (read: bribery) will be offered on every level, to buy time for steps 1 and 2 to work. Yo, spook types? Batman clones? Presumably, the third world nation that the aliens picked is run by the usual paranoid strong man asshole type. Feed his paranoia. Do some disinformation and trickery. Make him think that his alien buddies are actually pulling one over on him, and maybe *he'll* solve your problem *for* you. Basically, the plan is to turn your various problems against themselves while stealing the bang-bang for yourself, and then delay the onset of booms until the superpowers have duped the tech for themselves... at which point, with (edit) the enemy's vast superiority in tech now nullified, the victory swings back to the side with the greater mass. (And the greater experience in warfighting.) PS -- does Doctor Destroyer exist in your world? He'll be a major third player in this race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden Ditto to above post by Chuckg. You basically would have to work in the shadows to stop this rather a head-on approach. It also could be potentially interesting to have the powers that be forming an alliance to put down this threat together or alternately actually fighting with each other to keep the other from getting the tech first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden Ditto to above post by Chuckg. You basically would have to work in the shadows to stop this rather a head-on approach. Unless you're a JLA-level team with the willingness to just go in and, well, go Authority on their asses, yeah. Have to do it indirect, because the direct approach is just charging straight into the mouths of the cannon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden Assuming the aliens know about these super heroes (and if it's the official CU universe, those darn earthlings keep smacking the snot out of would be invaders) then they'll either want to lay low, or play the public relations game. Why announce you intend to conquer other nations when instead you announce you want to 'help' them? If they can make the other third world nations so dependent upon them, economically and otherwise, when they do decide to take over they can do it a lot easier, and perhaps even be welcomed. The "Big Boys" of other nations are sure to try to interfere, but if public opinion is against them, it will be that much harder. Now, about those pesky heroes.... perhaps the aliens study "Humankind's incredible capacity for benificial mutation!" and start to tinker, to create their own super beings out of the local populace. Perhaps they'll even have the sense to put in some fail safes so their enforcers don't turn on them, but if they don't... well, it could still be an interesting plot development. You said "a few" aliens had landed? If it's not enough to continue their species on earth, they may have no choice but to breed with Earthlings. If a few generations are allowed to pass, we have a whole new ball game there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden Great idea. I had a somewhat similar notion - an alien empire that calls itself the Benevolent Empire and does indeed act in about the most benevolent manner possible while still being an empire. I pictured the BE setting up a number of enclaves of willing converts on Earth, people keen to make use of the definite benefits offered by alien trade and technology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden Which world was it in "Champions In 3-D" where the aliens showed up in the late 40's, and happily gave Earth any advanced technology we wanted... ... except weaponry? Because they were (or at least they claimed to be) pacifists? And then, 50 years later, when the entire Earth was a mostly-disarmed Utopia w/ only primitive WWII weapons (and all of those rusting and mostly abandoned)... ... the alien tech stopped working, the invasion ships landed, and humanity became a slave world under their empire? Patient folks, those aliens. Very patient. Can't remember which timeline it was, though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intrope Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden Which world was it in "Champions In 3-D" where the aliens showed up in the late 40's, and happily gave Earth any advanced technology we wanted... ... except weaponry? Because they were (or at least they claimed to be) pacifists? And then, 50 years later, when the entire Earth was a mostly-disarmed Utopia w/ only primitive WWII weapons (and all of those rusting and mostly abandoned)... ... the alien tech stopped working, the invasion ships landed, and humanity became a slave world under their empire? Patient folks, those aliens. Very patient. Can't remember which timeline it was, though... I don't think that was actually in 3D; there was a similar scenario involving a utopian world where everything was powered via some kind of super-tech power beaming system. Naturally, while your characters are there, it starts acting weird--apparently, somewhere in the core of the system is some incredibly archaic (copper wires! relays! etc.) but critical piece that's failing. Naturally, no-one in this world remembers how to do simple electronics... But the patient-uplift-invaders is a kind of amusing idea, though. Good for a Champs-3D visit, to be sure. But back to the Green Alien's Burden: It might work even better if the GAs weren't actually (or apparently) fascistic (I'm not sure I'm actually seeing how the described being were really fascist in any strong sense anyway). Consider: said aliens come down out of the blue and take over North Korea. And they do so in a way that largely eliminates all the big troubles this could cause--like NK's Gotterdamerung strategy of levelling Seoul (big forcefields?). Moreover, in the aftermath they: declare peaceful intentions (and turn over all NK's WMD to the UN's teams fro destruction). Begin turning all NK into a beautiful place. Set out a timetable for enfranchising the North Koreans (along with education), etc. (For sake of argument, during the takeover the GAs use nothing more lethal than Star Trek Phasers, and don't otherwise display any earth-shattering military might). This could be very interesting scenario--the other world powers would likely be quite unsure of what to do here. Especially since you've replaced one intractable morass with an (apparently) better situation for everyone. Any number of scenarios could play out here, given the right characters: espionage, probing missions, attempts to determine just how powerful these people really are, trying to determine whether they are really aliens, or some kind of front for Dr. D (or Mechanon--maybe he got inspired by ChuckG's peaceful-uplift-invasion , etc.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost who Walks Posted June 18, 2004 Report Share Posted June 18, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden I actually had this happen in my game. The aliens have been taking over subsaharan africa, and the natives couldn't be happier. In that case, the aliens were arriving through a Stargate like device. Different countries, would do different things. Most countries barely care about their nearest neighbors, and are unlikely to do anything about internal problems (Example: EU policy in the Balklans for many years) Other countries are very protective about their "spheres of influence". (Example: Russia in Central Asia, USA in Central America, and France in the former French colonies) All this only applies to internal stuff. Once the aliens turn expansionistic, the world will go against them. (at least publicy, through the UN. Thats what its for). Behind the scenes, everyone will try and cut deals with the agressor, chiefly to make sure their economies don't get hurt. All this above is from a IRL perspective, for superheroic... Villain groups may try and form alliances with the alien conquerors. The aliens will most likely need locals to run the areas they take over, unless they have an instictive knowledge of human psychology. Politically, effots would be made to split the alien alliance with the humans. Divide the aliens from the human leadership, and the human leadership from the locals. When the actual wars start, the aliens will have to spend a lot of time guarding their rear areas. With both guerilla warfare and supertypes, nothing will be secure. Besides sending in superheroes, hostile governments would also try and destabilize the alien regime. Weapons to rebels, drugs to the populace, and parachuting in counterfeit currency (to wreck the economy) are all effective methods. As a side note, an interstellar power that can turn an average country to first world status in less than a year can easily do it repeatedly. The aliens could simply outspend everyone in foreign aid... I notice you mentioned the aliens were stranded...perhaps a first world government is holding their ship? Provides a reason for the war, dang government! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted June 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden A little more on the idea. I was figuring that, for use in the CU, maybe these guys are either (a) flunkies or allies of the Hzeel, out to cause trouble, OR ( /enemies/ of the Hzeel, hoping to slow them down when they invade by forcing them to turn Earth into a Vietnam/Soviets in Afghanistan deal. As for the basic setup, maybe I shouldbe ashamed to admit I got it from an alternate earth version of the Roswell 'UFO crash' as set down by Ken Hite. What if it really happened, and some of the aliens survived, and they were able to prevent their being 'disappeared' and decided to farm out their skills as a way of making their lives better/more comfortable, if nothing else? (Sort-of like that old time travel story deal where the advanced 20th centurians 'uplift' their ignorant, pathetically grateful ancestors, regardless of how it might have worked in reality). And yes, Doctor D. would get involved eventually -- right about the time when his creations turn their new empire over to daddy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted June 19, 2004 Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden A little more on the idea. I was figuring that' date=' for use in the CU, maybe these guys are either (a) flunkies or allies of the Hzeel, out to cause trouble, OR ( /enemies/ of the Hzeel, hoping to slow them down when they invade by forcing them to turn Earth into a Vietnam/Soviets in Afghanistan deal.[/quote'] Heh. Another quote from S.M. Stirling's _Drakon_ comes to mind here... Protagonist is talking to a traveller from an advanced parallel future, who's pointed out that an extremely dangerous superhuman from that same future has come back to their world to conquer it... "Why am I getting this really shitty feeling about all this? You going to offer us advisors and military aid? Like we and the Soviets did back in the old days? And yeah, we were telling the truth when we told some Third World schmuck that he was better off taking our guns. But that didn't change the fact that when the two elephants were finished having their proxy war across his back garden, it was squashed pretty fucking flat." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewings Posted June 19, 2004 Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden It depends entirely on the leaders. Bush Jr. would probably declare war on general principles, you can depend on every religious extremist to declare the aliens "Satanic" or the equivalent, every tin-pot dictator will see them as a convenient way to get advanced weapons (laws? Trading? We need those weapons!). The moment the country starts to become prosperous, most organized crime group will do their level best to take over or at least become a major power bloc. Basically, every major power group in the world will assume they're hostile, evil, or whatever, and react accordingly. As Tommy Lee Jones said in "Men in Black," a person is smart. People are blind, stupid, panicky animals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted June 19, 2004 Report Share Posted June 19, 2004 Re: The green alien's burden > It depends entirely on the leaders. Bush Jr. would [snip] Isn't there an NGD board for this? And yes, I know, it's 'technically' scenario relevant. Still didn't need to grab the excuse quite so *fast*, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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