Alien invasion.. Why, and how?

[valkyrie013]

I have been reading a few book series as of late and some of them have dealt with aliens invading Earth.
One was that there here to get our water and that just struck me is stupid because there are thousands of comet's, dwarf planets , and everything that are easier to get water from then from Earth.
So I was just thinking what reason would an alien species invade usand possibly kill us, and what are the best options of how to do it?

Some options would be they are very religious or xenophobic and just want every other intelligent species to die
2 they want our planet because it is habitable but they don't want us here
3 they need slaves for a war or some other thing

So just wondering what y'all think?

 

[Mysterion]

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/eve...h-to-fake-moon-landings.301373/#post-13102447

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[diankra]

A Stainless Steel Rat book starts out by observing that invading another planet was pointless as it would cost more resources than you could gain... (invading a neighbouring country is basically a ponzi scheme, upfront cost but allows you to keep the plan afloat by exploiting the conquered territory)... and then follows the idea of the psychology of people who would do it anyway.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Whatever the reason to come here, we can assume it was urgent enough to send an invasion force thousands of light years or more at relativistic speeds on a one way trip on spec they’d even find what they need here.

Also we can assume they did not know intelligent life was here, because given the most optimistic location of their home planet, the most recent information they could possibly have is that hairless apes who were great at hunting were running around. Much more likely they saw a planet on telescopes that seemed to check all the boxes in terms of atmosphere, temperature, etc.

Therefore, we can assume they came here to relocate, and found a need to destroy us only when they got here and to their surprise found organized enough creatures to stop them.

They could try diplomacy and hope they’ll be accepted and (Takes a brief look around) nope.

And they would do it by bombarding us from orbit before we saw any more than a few shadows in the sky.

Then they’d be like “What the hell? These people destroyed their planet almost as bad as we destroyed ours!” Then rail off alien profanities.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well the thing of some movies, books is that.. There here for our resources, Water etc... Well.. there's more water in the Ort cloud and Kieper belt than there is on Earth many times over.. and you don't even need to ask.. we wouldn't know!! Even if you get into the asteroid belt, or just the Trojans from Jupiter and Saturn, hell even whole moons.. Its Stupid to come here for water.. Its Liquid in a gravity well! ugh..
The only "resource" we have is.. well humans.. So the only reason to come here for "resources" is that A. They need slaves for there empire, or cannon fodder for a war. Or B. They want the planet, Minus Us.. because life giving planets may be rare, and the aliens either A. F'd up there world and trying to find another, or B. looking for a colony or expansion, and were' the only world local enough that supports life. So we have a big target on our back.
I'm more of a mind that Some alien speices comes along, and they are nice, but we being ourselves, either say No you can't move here or some misunderstanding starts a war.

A story I've been tinkering on, We have Planet A, this planet is habitable, has life, and a civilization about equal to ours, maybe 2100 ish.. Problem occurs, there sun, usually stable, goes into a heavy flare activity, Scientists find that the sun goes through an unstable period every so often, and this one is predicted to last over 1000 years. They decided to build ships and leave the system. They start with 2 Oneill cylinders with 5 million people, as they travel trying to look for a good system, the populaion grows, they go system to system, building more cylinders from the resources of the systems they find, no habitable planets found, so they move on, system to system, sub light taking hundreds of years between systems, and they find our system after a long period in space, systems are breaking down, population control. They come in, find us, and try to negotiate, etc.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If the period of uninhabitability is temporary though, and you have the ability to travel between worlds, why not use time dilation to skip it and just go straight home?

Using us for war only makes sense if they have found a solution to time dilation.

Aliens could certainly try to negotiate first but if they came all that way they wouldn’t take no for an answer. So it’d be an “Offer you can’t refuse”. You can either take this deal that gives us everything we want on our terms, or boom!

I picture an alien sitting at the table with the President, “We’re not going to just give you all these things when you offer us so little in return!” (Uninhabited island blows up spectacularly in background). Alien “We hope that you will reconsider our terms.”

 

[Crystalline Entity]

A Stainless Steel Rat book starts out by observing that invading another planet was pointless as it would cost more resources than you could gain... (invading a neighbouring country is basically a ponzi scheme, upfront cost but allows you to keep the plan afloat by exploiting the conquered territory)... and then follows the idea of the psychology of people who would do it anyway.

War of the Worlds (the novel) gave the Martians a plausible motive for invading Earth - Mars was becoming uninhabitable, so they had no choice but to try to colonzie Earth. Interestingly, from what we think we know of the history of liquid water on Mars, this scenario may have actually unfolded on Mars over a billion years ago, when Mars lost its liquid water oceans. Fortunately for us, if there ever were Martians, they weren't able to leave their planet.

Bottom line, there's nothing that would make an alien civilization have to invade Earth. One could imagine a random ship that had to crashland on our planet and the crew trying to take the resources needed to get back to space (eh, Star Trek IV lol), but that's about it.

Any hypothetical invader of Earth would do so because they want to. Since there would be no rational imperative, one can think of any number of possibilities - cultural, religious, etc. Referring the "Day in the Strife" episode of Babylon 5, an alien civilzation might invade or eradicate us if it had a policy of wiping out any other civilizations that could be a future threat to it. Of course, our current civilization would not be any threat to a true interstellar species. And instead of invading us, they could just wipe us out Footfall style. Not exactly sporting like Battle: Los Angeles or Edge of Tomorrow.

(I too am working on a story along these lines. Someday I may finish it... someday...)

Ironically, the first Predator movie may have had the most plausible alien invasion scenario: an advanced civilization coming to our planet for hunting safaris!

 

[kitik]

Ironically, the first Predator movie may have had the most plausible alien invasion scenario: an advanced civilization coming to our planet for hunting safaris!

Yep. Or maybe some creatures like the Crites staging a jailbreak and crash-landing on Earth.

Much more believable than Spaceball One transforming into Mega Maid to suck all the air or water off of a planet.


Of course, the actual most plausible alien invasion scenario is simply one where some microbes or whatever are on a rock that smacks into Earth. Unplanned invasion, but invasion nonetheless. Possibly with dire consequences for us. (Though if you're a fan of the "we're all Martians" theory, then maybe it already has happened and the consequences were the opposite of dire.)

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

I wrote an intricate outline about the suppressed 1983 alien invasion from Bastardius XIII.

Some of these events sound familiar. Has your work been used by others without your permission?

It possessed all but seven students 44 hours later, after infecting 2224 others, ten teachers and six guards, one nurse, one librarian, the vice-principal and the cafeteria cook.

Not long ago on this very BBS the 1998 film The Faculty was discussed. It has a plot about aliens taking over the humans at a high school.

Then a government nuke wiped all of them out,

I recently rewatched Invasion Earth (1998) and it ends with the government trying nukes against the alien invaders.

Everybody in the US including Julia Roberts were taken over by the end of the fourth day

I would've thought Julia could have held out along with Chuck Norris and Mr. T.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think, if you assume that there is in fact no way to break the light barrier, you can rule out anything but need. Even the most virulent hatred bows to business interests.

If warp exists, and you can get to another planet and back in your loved ones lifetime, then you can open up motives like religious hatred and profiteering and such.

 

[XCV330]

Planets are common and therefore resources needed for any starfaring civilization would be far easier to obtain than going to the trouble to conquer. Also, it would be unlikely that Earth would suit the needs exactly in the same way that species would want. It's far easier to just build giant O'Neil cylinders, Bernal spheres, Stanford tori, etc.

If there are multiple dimensions, an inter-dimensional invasion sounds more likely and more troubling. Then you're dealing with a species that has adapted to life on a world very much like your own. They may want to take over for various reasons, overpopulation, the ruin of their own world forcing them to make a hostile migration or the needs to spread beliefs by force.

But back to the aliens from space thing: commerce. If Earth was involved in space commerce and debts were accrued and unpaid, I could see Earth being taken as collateral as a lesson to other dead-beat species.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The only realistic invasion scenario, I think, would be settlers or refugees who are on a one-way trip and didn't expect to find an inhabited planet. Out of desperation, they invade. This would also have the benefit, for story purposes, of giving the aliens limited resources and abilities (no fleet, no ability to move asteroids, et cetera), so their advanced knowledge and technology would be less of an advantage.

Then there are the Berserker scenarios, which are certainly possible, but that's more obliteration than invasion, and less interesting.

 

[EmoBorg]

The only realistic invasion scenario, I think, would be settlers or refugees who are on a one-way trip and didn't expect to find an inhabited planet. Out of desperation, they invade. This would also have the benefit, for story purposes, of giving the aliens limited resources and abilities (no fleet, no ability to move asteroids, et cetera), so their advanced knowledge and technology would be less of an advantage.

Sounds like the backstory to the Defiance TV series.

 

[Gov Kodos]

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/eve...h-to-fake-moon-landings.301373/#post-13102447

On the other hand it could be this:

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There's little other reason, not just the women, but wanting the biological specimens and their transitional materials like coal and oil. Everything else is pretty much available on all the other planets. Heck, assuming life can start elsewhere, there's probably plenty of other life bearing planets that don't have civilizations capable of fighting back if it's the biological elements that are desired. Then again, maybe the aliens just like a good punch up.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

We can probably assume the aliens had no way to know Earth had intelligent life until they were most of the way there.

So they probably determined Earth had a high probability of supporting their life based on its chemical composition, distance from the sun, etc and expected to find a planet of plants and bacteria.

 

[JD]

We could just be the closest planet with the resources that the aliens need, or maybe if the galaxy is like Star Trek, or Babylon 5 with dozens of interstellar empires out there that control big chunks of the galaxy, then Earth could be the only one that isn't claimed by a rival.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Sounds like the backstory to the Defiance TV series.

Interesting. I don't believe I've heard of that one.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

They invade:

• To stop us broadcasting reality TV shows
• To save us from ourselves
• Because they just don't like us
• Because they are religious zealots
• Because they hate religious zealots
• Because they are machines that hate organic creatures
• Because we are on the cusp of developing AIs
• Because we are a potential existential threat to them
• Because we show signs of collective delusional paranoia and have a long history of using violence to achieve ends
• Because they invade planets for sport

Take your pick. They probably wouldn't want our resources or our organs or to breed with us.

Thankfully, interstellar travel is prohibitively expensive and difficult.

 

[Kirk Prime]

Simple reasons could be conquest. Maybe they have interstellar travel like Star Trek, so they need our planet as a foothold in the galaxy.

Another reason could be simply that their planet ran out of materials needed to survive, and they need our planet to live. It's habitable for them.

Think Avatar. Earth was in trouble and the alien planet had what was needed to save it. You do what you have to do.

 

[EmoBorg]

For all intents and purposes, they could be interested in Gold. I don't know where in the universe, Gold can be found except on earth. We use gold for electronic equipments because of it's conductivity. Maybe aliens would need our gold for their own technological uses.