Aliens, so why invade earth?

The Artist Formerly · Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:29 pm

If you're a star spanning culture, why bother invading earth? What's so great about it? What would be the advantages of it? And would it be worth the time and money to occupy?

This is just a thought experiment for our posters. Discuss.

say652 · Unread post by **say652** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:42 pm

Earth
1) rapidly producing slave population.
2) humans are the most vicious animals in the galaxy.
3) very little technology or intelligent beings among the population.
4) the planet has several useful planets in the system rich with mineral wealth.
5) We must clone Nikki Minaj for um scientific reasons

Glistam · Unread post by **Glistam** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:49 pm

Resources. Slave stock. Colonization. Colonialism.

The Artist Formerly · Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:03 pm

say652 wrote:Earth
1) rapidly producing slave population.

Who detonate nuclear weapons in their only bio-sphere and nailed their god to a stick.

2) humans are the most vicious animals in the galaxy.

Check.

3) very little technology or intelligent beings among the population.

Check.

4) the planet has several useful planets in the system rich with mineral wealth.

Check.

5) We must clone Nikki Minaj for um scientific reasons

For science and reasons!

say652 · Unread post by **say652** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:53 pm

Humans are also why in my hu game a bew age of gods failed miserably and the Kardashians wield power near to Zues.

The Artist Formerly · Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:20 pm

say652 wrote:Humans are also why in my hu game a bew age of gods failed miserably and the Kardashians wield power near to Zues.

One of the most beautiful things ever written on this board. :heart:

Incriptus · Unread post by **Incriptus** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:50 pm

1: Religion

a: Earth is identified as the holy/promised land
b: Human beings have souls, and they want to know why
c: Religion doesn't need an excuse!

2: Super Beings

a: Need to find out to create their own in those numbers.
b: Need to put a stop to it
c: Some earthling started it!

3: Geography

a: Earth is near a worm hole
b: Earth is a dimensional nexus
c: Earth is the closest inhabitable world

4: Limited Space Travel

a: Point to Point travel: They can transport to limited destinations and earth is one of them.
b: Colonization Ship: Slow Travel + Stasis. Space travel before terra-forming.
c: Unknown Materials: The power source is rare, and happens to be on earth

Jefffar · Unread post by **Jefffar** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:01 pm

Don't forget, if Japanese cartoons have taught us anything, aliens are inevitably and overwhelmingly attracted to our species. Beautiful alien females like nothing better than nerdy adolescent human males and slimy tentacle creatures can't resist human females.

More on topic, earth may be something of an anomoly, being small and low gravity compared to most worlds we are now aware of. Perhaps that makes us a relatively easy target.

Pepsi Jedi · Unread post by **Pepsi Jedi** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:59 am

The classic reason is 'Resources'. I.E. Water more than most things, but if one has space fairing tech, you'd think they could mine water elsewhere.

That said not all space travel is equal. Ours could be the closest planet 'easy' to get to with the resources. Be it water or gold or what have you. I think Battlefield earth it was gold they were after? It being very rare off of earth? Of course their domination of the planet took like 20 minutes.

As for slaves. Meh. Humans are pretty squishy and notoriously hard to keep once you capture them. Slovenly creatures that are difficult to train and hardly worth the effort. If you can travel the stars, it seems it'd be easier to create robots (Even if they're non sentient droids) to do easy crap like that.

Daniel Stoker · Wed Apr 29, 2015 11:25 am

There’s also the classic “Earth is in a strategic place” be it for a Hyperspace Bypass or on the bath for a Galactic War and they need a base here.

Daniel Stoker

flatline · Unread post by **flatline** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 11:47 am

Because they can.

Even if the Alien culture as a whole isn't interested in invading Earth, it only takes one individual (with an army) to invade.

--flatline

Chronicle · Unread post by **Chronicle** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:08 pm

Earth Girls are Easy?

Stone Gargoyle · Wed Apr 29, 2015 4:08 pm

1)The planet is in a strategic location or some such, as for building an intergalactic highway or establishing a listening post or way station.
2)The aliens need the minerals and resources as they are like locusts and strip every planet they come across of its food and base metals.
3)Gratification, as the aliens like torturing other species.

Glistam · Unread post by **Glistam** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 7:17 pm

To save us from ourselves.

Pepsi Jedi · Unread post by **Pepsi Jedi** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 11:34 pm

Too late.

Glistam · Unread post by **Glistam** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:35 am

To serve Man.

gaby · Unread post by **gaby** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:59 am

Beat-up a weker People.

glitterboy2098 · Thu Apr 30, 2015 11:20 am

Because earth is the only place with useful resources that also provides its own local workforce and has selfsustaining life support. Everywhere else in the solar system those last two have to be imported and maintained at sizeable resource outlay.

Unread post by **NMI** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 2:47 pm

In need of a resource we consider "common" that is rare for the invaders
Our horses
Our unique genetic stock

Daniel Stoker · Thu Apr 30, 2015 3:12 pm

They power their ships on stupidity and willful ignorance and we have the greatest supply of that in the galaxy.

Daniel Stoker

The Artist Formerly · Thu Apr 30, 2015 3:15 pm

Daniel Stoker wrote:They power their ships on stupidity and willful ignorance and we have the greatest supply of that in the galaxy.

Daniel Stoker

The source of all super powers, the willful suspension of disbelief.

Reagren Wright · Thu Apr 30, 2015 8:00 pm

Watch a season of Doctor Who (classic or current) and you will have several answers.

The Beast · Unread post by **The Beast** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 11:54 pm

Because you're a member of a species of genocidal xenophobes who want to play with the humans before eating their sun.

SpiritInterface · Fri May 01, 2015 5:09 am

Good question, don't invade.

Bomb the native population out of existence from space, then strip mine the planet into nothing and move on.

BookWyrm · Unread post by **BookWyrm** » Fri May 01, 2015 10:12 am

Humans breed relatively quickly, so there's a fast-source slave population right there. Just convince them they are coming out the winners in the deal & they'll keep quiet.
They are also vicious little blighters, so siccing them en-mass on someone should prove useful.
Couldn't say if they are viable as a food-source, though. The Kanamits swear by them, though.
Their home-planet's a bit out of the way, but fix it up a bit & it might make a nice vacation resort.

Pepsi Jedi · Unread post by **Pepsi Jedi** » Fri May 01, 2015 10:39 am

Quickly compared to what? It takes a minimum of what. 15, 16 years to get human breeding to a payoff point? and that's with at least one if not both parents contributing to the outcome.

If your species lives 5,000 years, Humans might breed 'quickly' but if they (Which most seem to) have humanish life spans, waiting 16+ years for breeding programs doesn't seem all that quick. More over that's just 16 years for basic slave labor.

If the aliens have intergalactic travel, wouldn't it just be much more simple to mine dead planets or what have you for metals and build droids/robots? If they're able of faster than light travel they can master a few droids. Seems alot more simple than 1) Invading, and conquering a people that at the very best are going to 'try' and fight back. 2) Incert some sort of infrastructure to keep those pesky humans under your thumb, 3) Start breeding programs for them as a slave race and 4) Train them to do what you want them to do and some how enforce their compliance.

Not to mention, you gotta feed um. I mean sure you fed um yesterday but they want more food today.. and probably tomorrow too.

"Slave race" just seems if absolutely nothing else, economically nonviable for those able to travel the stars. Robots/Droids what have you would seem to be cheeper and less prone to maintenance problems. As long as you're careful with the programming and keep out the AI's, you don't have to worry about Skynet. (Sure SOMEONE's Gonna do it but you can shoot that guy. And you have interstellar travel. You don't have to hang out if he does the stupid.)

Nightmask · Unread post by **Nightmask** » Fri May 01, 2015 6:36 pm

Daniel Stoker wrote:They power their ships on stupidity and willful ignorance and we have the greatest supply of that in the galaxy.

Daniel Stoker

There's at least one webcomic where aliens (as in all aliens in the galaxy) harvest the stupidity energy from earth to power galactic civilizations because Earth produces the most pure and plentiful amount of it in existence.

Pepsi Jedi · Unread post by **Pepsi Jedi** » Sat May 02, 2015 2:27 pm

The internet alone must be an unending font.... *Grins*

flatline · Unread post by **flatline** » Sat May 02, 2015 2:40 pm

The classic reason is that someone or something that they want has taken refuge on Earth. The SDF-1, for example.

--flatline

Warmaster40k · Unread post by **Warmaster40k** » Sun May 03, 2015 2:35 am

Alien mothership is a renegade faction that needs a base of operation, humans are one of the few beings with a unstable genetic material that allows expression of various ie all the superpowers, we are located at point where dimensional boundaries are thin.

say652 · Unread post by **say652** » Sun May 03, 2015 1:39 pm

I did an Alien invasion hu game.

The smoggers are an Alien that polluted their planet to death.
A starfaring race over the millennia several planets fell to them.
Earth was relatively clean, perfect place to set up factories.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun May 03, 2015 10:20 pm

To shut off all that damn noise those inconsiderate humans keep making and broadcasting out into space!
Or, to take the idea further into the past...there's just something about human minds, since the dawn of our sentience, that radiates a psychic 'stench' that the aliens pick up on. They just can't tune it out, humans can't shut it off, and it keeps radiating out from our world in a larger sphere of effect century after century. The aliens are here to put an end to the psychic miasma we're putting out.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun May 03, 2015 10:24 pm

say652 wrote:I did an Alien invasion hu game.

The smoggers are an Alien that polluted their planet to death.
A starfaring race over the millennia several planets fell to them.
Earth was relatively clean, perfect place to set up factories.

Conversely, we may be just polluted ENOUGH for the aliens to move in and comfortably finish up the miasma-forming of our environment.
The aliens invaded because our growing Green movement and switching to more environmentally-friendly technologies and philosophies threatens to derail the aliens' long-term plans to settle on Earth after we've choked ourselves to death.

glitterboy2098 · Mon May 04, 2015 1:13 am

how about "they need more living space, and habitable worlds without intelligent life on them are rare"?

Dark · Unread post by **Dark** » Mon May 04, 2015 5:45 pm

1.) Because they are from Earth, originally, before Humans came to be here. It is 'their' planet.

2.) Because there is a relic from their ruling dynasty / religion / enemy empire located on Earth that they need to find.

3.) Because 'Someone' ( or some MiB-like Agency? ) broke a bargain with them and they feel the need to set things 'right'.

4.) Because Human existence offends their sensibilities of being their race being the center of the universe. Humans must either cease to exist or become a subservient race, becoming reconciled with their race-centric worldview.

5.) The 'Formula' has determined that Earth is the optimal place for building a Mass-Relay/X/Y/Z giant thing, and therefore while regrettable, humankind needs to be removed to make room for the Venusian parking lot.

6.) A space-faring Human 'Hero' made such an enemy of the ruler of this race that they decided to come and wipe out their homeworld once they could find the backwater.

Ninja Trigger · Tue May 05, 2015 1:51 am

1. They believe that earth is the planet of Prophecy, and that their next leader has been born on earth. They proceed to abduct all world leaders for interviewing purposes, thinking that their messiah would have already started a conquest to take over the earth for them.

2. A member of their own race is seeking refuge on earth, and they demand that he/she comes out of hiding.

3. Earth is the only known planet to contain a certain, mineral, oil, or substance that is key to their survival; or the substance may be necessary for making a mega weapon to fight off another race of Aliens.

4. They are ass holes.

5. A Giant Meteor/strange Object has landed on earth months/weeks before their invasion. The Meteor/Strange object was sent as a warning to earth from another race of Aliens who were conquered by the invaders, the Meteor/Object may contain Intel on the invaders, or a weapon that will help earth fight off the invaders. Retrieving it is it absolutely necessary to fighting off the invasion. Also when the Meteor/Object landed it would have received massive news coverage with pictures of it being circulated like wild fire, but it is now being stored in a protected government site.

Daniel Stoker · Tue May 05, 2015 11:07 am

The alien force or being is only nominally space capable and hurls themselves out at worlds they think think are ripe for conquest and don't have the technology to deal with the homebound trip unless they do conquer Earth. (Cortez and the burning of the ships)

Daniel Stoker

Pepsi Jedi · Unread post by **Pepsi Jedi** » Tue May 05, 2015 12:39 pm

That's a pretty aggressive stance for a space fairing race that's basically marooning themselves on a hostile planet. lol. Pretty fun in the 'Oh crap, sudden mindless aggression from nowhere' sort of storyline though.

glitterboy2098 · Tue May 05, 2015 1:36 pm

actually, marooning themselves is a pretty fair way to describe realistic interstellar colonization plans.. unless you have some sort of uber-fantasy drive you generally don't have the ability to bring a large group of people and supplies more than one way. (not to mention, you save on space and cost if you can cannibalize the ship to help build the colony)

that it turns into invasion and attempted conquest would be an inevitable result of arriving somewhere with a hostile native population. much like european settlements (well anywhere really) it would likely go along the lines of "set down, build a colony. fight neighbors. infect neighbors with deadly [to them] illnesses while using advanced tech to kill them. take over neighbor's land. repeat until neighbors submit."

Daniel Stoker · Tue May 05, 2015 3:08 pm

Pepsi Jedi wrote:That's a pretty aggressive stance for a space fairing race that's basically marooning themselves on a hostile planet. lol. Pretty fun in the 'Oh crap, sudden mindless aggression from nowhere' sort of storyline though.

Hey now, give them some credit they thought Tosev 3 would be much easier to conquer and they still brought tanks and planes to take out guys in armor on horses with crappy steel swords.

Daniel Stoker

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue May 12, 2015 6:07 pm

-Because eons ago, a human-like species, or our forgotten ancestors, once dominated the galaxy with iron fists before being brought down. WE may be ignorant of this, or have racially forgotten it, but the rest of the inhabited galaxy cringes at the (human) boogiemen. The invaders are hitting us to stop us from ever re-emerging as a threat to the cosmos.

-Because the aliens have a convoluted plan meant to unify humanity by giving us a common enemy to unite against. This may be to force us to grow into our potential, or it may be to prepare us for some other nastiness that the aliens can't control(like a really really nasty bunch of planet-rapers). The aliens may feel/be so superior that once they get us totally unified, they allow us to 'win', and they back off thousands of lightyears to where we can't possibly follow them. The aliens may be Mulka-godlike, and are using the equivalent of 'puppets' to attack us.

eliakon · Unread post by **eliakon** » Tue May 12, 2015 9:11 pm

Because it is the moral duty of advanced cultures to absorb backwards civilizations into their empires so that they can be properly brought up as productive galactic citizens (The classical ethnocentric 'white mans burden' justification for European colonialisim)

Because they don't want some rival force to get the humans in their empire first

Because they realize that humans are too reckless and will play with (Artifical Intelligence/Nanotech/Sub-Space/fill in the blank boogyman technology here) and must be stopped before we do so. But they are merciful and instead of just bombing us from orbit with comets they care enough to go through the expensive bloody process of a full war so that they can save humanity....from itself

Their religion tells them that they must go forth and convert all the lost souls in the galaxy that do not know the One True Way

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Tue May 12, 2015 10:30 pm

Daniel Stoker wrote:There’s also the classic “Earth is in a strategic place” be it for a Hyperspace Bypass or on the bath for a Galactic War and they need a base here.

Daniel Stoker

It worked for lots of insignificant isles in the Pacific or other oceans during the WWII and many other wars, can certainly work for Earth in a space context.

Almost every other reason a human society/nation has used as excuse/justification to take over another, instead of settling on some piece of land in the middle of nowhere can serve as a motive with a little tweaking. Get a war or two for samples in the wiki and try to see what kind of funky ideas of your own come up.

As an aside, who says it has to be an actual star-nation invading? it could just as easily be:
- a bunch of space-pirates or criminal organization looking for unsettled places to hide/develop their crops.
- a private venture done with one's ruler tacit (but mostly unobservant) authorization (like all too many colonial enterprises)
- a group of alien guerillas or mercenary group trying to make up their own alternate society as a big personal adventure.
- an exiled dictator/noble and his loyalists (or robot army) looking for barbarian people among whom to build a new kingdom/revenge army.
- an undirected & desperate wave of refugees of an interestelar war/disaster looking for a new home, any home they can find.

Greater population and technology does not assure one's victory in every war, the 19th and 20th century both are full of examples of small well-placed groups defeating far more numerous low-tech enemies, big and well-equiped forces being ground to a halt by less equipped adversaries through psychologic warfare and exploiting one's greater familiarity with the terrain - and lots of cases where both those things were turned upside down.

Not every alien invasion scenario has to be the Empire coming to slag your planet into oblivion with star destroyers.

A bunch of alternative contexts can be cooked up to conveniently tweak up and down the actual degree of numbers, opposition, resources, limitations and complications a group of invaders has to deal with, adding a bunch of variety and possibilities in the process (what if the exile just wants to abduct the mutant/experiment rejects - those who were causing a bunch of problems in groups like the Church of Unity - to make its space army with? Or the people who took over its homeworld are also coming - and far more rapacious/genocidal than it?).

Razorwing · Unread post by **Razorwing** » Wed May 13, 2015 12:45 am

The Defiance series had the various alien species leave their doomed world for Earth because they believed Earth was uninhabited at the time (about 5000 years ago... long before we started broadcasting any signals that could be considered to be relatively advanced/technological in origin).

Maybe a species did the same thing... figured Earth was uninhabited when they left their world to colonize ours and for various reasons can't return home (no longer exists, a change in regimes that makes them "undesirable" back home... or something else). Now they can either try to negotiate with the beings that inhabit the planet (us) even though they are far more technologically advanced than we are... or take it by force (some may feel it is their birthright... and that we are just a vermin problem that needs to be dealt with before they can move in).

say652 · Unread post by **say652** » Wed May 13, 2015 1:06 am

The smoggers made hightech weapons, armor, vehicles etc.
Also all the Animal humanoid Alien types Toxic Home world.
Experiments were Combat Specialists
Super Soldiers were military specialists.

They arrive all pieces are gps locators.
As more arrive signal becomes stronger allowing them to Teleport in.
Once they start gaining ground the Smoggers establish Factories to make hightech weapons and Armor and Animal Humanoids and process the planet and battle the inhabitants when more than 1/2 a planet is concured a space gate opens directly to the homeworld.
Either a full planetary invasion or most times a retreat. All of their tech is teleported out, the factories are now silent the skies still grey and polluted and the landscape is ravaged by the constant processing of the planet for raw materials.

SolCannibal · Unread post by **SolCannibal** » Wed May 13, 2015 1:50 am

Razorwing wrote:The Defiance series had the various alien species leave their doomed world for Earth because they believed Earth was uninhabited at the time (about 5000 years ago... long before we started broadcasting any signals that could be considered to be relatively advanced/technological in origin).

Maybe a species did the same thing... figured Earth was uninhabited when they left their world to colonize ours and for various reasons can't return home (no longer exists, a change in regimes that makes them "undesirable" back home... or something else). Now they can either try to negotiate with the beings that inhabit the planet (us) even though they are far more technologically advanced than we are... or take it by force (some may feel it is their birthright... and that we are just a vermin problem that needs to be dealt with before they can move in).

These examples you describe call for pretty limited FTL travel or observation resources, otherwise most would proably be aware of indigenous intelligent lifeforms on Earth. That said, some might be in straits dire enough not to care, but the kind in such a bad situation might also be more open to negotiation &/or diplomacy.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed May 13, 2015 12:19 pm

-Because our emergence as an intelligent species contradicts everything held sacred in their cosmology. Our existence invalidates the holiest statutes of their belief and casts doubt on the existence of their god(s)(this is pretty much why the eetees hate us in David Brin's Uplift Universe).

-Because we abuse whales/gorillas/dogs/marmosets/trees...

And on the theme of SolCannibal's 'it doesn't have to be a whole nation/empire invading us', add 'bored and callous travelers'...so-called superior aliens stopping to amuse themselves with some well-placed shows of superior force to disrupt us, then watch as we panic, turn on each other, and fall apart in the face of apparently overwhelming superiority. The aliens could be the equivalent of rich decadent folks junketing about the universe, college kids on break, or redneck space truckers traversing regions of space where galactic law is sparsely enforced for whatever reason.

gaby · Unread post by **gaby** » Wed May 13, 2015 12:45 pm

Ther No here to invade us,but to buy weapons,ther enemy have made a device the interferes with high-tech weapons that are common in the Galaxy making them useless but have no effect on Earth weapons.

say652 · Unread post by **say652** » Wed May 13, 2015 12:48 pm

My fellow dm designed a single character a duel class Immortal:Golem, specifically for conquering and terrorizing solar systems.
The lesser god Desmond Moonshade arrives offering hope against the fiend by converting them to his religion.
Mock battle to "slay" The Armageddon Beast.
Powersurge is not part of this operation, Upper management believes he is not currently able to make the hard choices.

Stone Gargoyle · Wed May 13, 2015 4:40 pm

Razorwing wrote:The Defiance series had the various alien species leave their doomed world for Earth because they believed Earth was uninhabited at the time (about 5000 years ago... long before we started broadcasting any signals that could be considered to be relatively advanced/technological in origin).

Mankind has been around a lot longer than 5000 years. Try 15000 at the very least. If you are talking about radio signals, those have only been used less than 300 years.