Overview #
The age old question about whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answered definitively. Aliens have arrived on Earth and they aren’t here to share their vast knowledge or to teach us to live in peace. Quite the opposite.
It came to pass that in the year 2011 we humans discovered that we were not alone.
Unfortunately at the same time we also discovered that we are not the only ones who have a penchant for war.
An alien race called the Dinarri swooped down over an unprepared Earth and blasted most of the worlds military facilities, as well as hundreds of small cities, into ash. They then proceeded to assault and occupy the larger cities, rounding up prisoners and shipping them off-planet as they went, for use as slave labour.
This move was supposed to crush the spirit of the Terrans…
It failed. It’s time humans taught these aliens what war is really all about.
Journey to a world on the brink of destruction, a world very much like our own, a world with the same places and people, a world that could very well become our own.
What Has Gone Before #
It has been the belief of many that in 1947 an alien craft crash landed near a small town in New Mexico called Roswell. Furthermore, it is purported that the United States government was a party to the cover up of this incident. Popular belief almost had it right.
As is the case with many things, the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
An extra-terrestrial craft did in fact crash land near Roswell in 1947. It had no little green men inside of it though. It was in fact an unmanned probe. The strangest part though was evidence that seemed to indicate that it had been manufactured on Earth… though the technology involved was far beyond anything even being theorized in the day.
The military technicians and scientists struggled to understand the device. But it might as well have been manufactured by aliens… a few technological breakthroughs were a result of the work done on the probe, but little more was discovered.
A super secret organization, known only as Majestic, was formed to continue studying the probe. Only a handful of people in the US military and government knew of it’s existence. For the most part it operated outside of regular government or military hierarchies. Funding was provided through dummy corporations, and later through the patenting and sale of technologies developed from study of the probe.
In the 1970’s computer technology was sophisticated enough to allow Majestic to truly interface with the probe and download the data contained in it’s memory banks. The only definite thing that could be gleaned from the probe was its mission and the circumstances leading to its having been deployed. And the fact that it had been manufactured sometime in Earth’s future… how it had travelled back in time was a mystery.
The probe was designed to scout deep space for the whereabouts of an alien life form, and to report back to Earth on it’s findings. The alien life form in question seemed to be hostile to Earth and quite possibly had once invaded the planet. In addition there were hints that humanity was assisted in their fight against these invaders by a third race, obviously allied with Earth.
With this discovery the leaders of Majestic realized that they would have to alter their initial mandate. They could no longer just study the artefact that had been recovered in the crash, it was clearly that their duty to prepare Earth for the coming invasion. Though they had no idea exactly when that would take place.
While Majestic slowly prepared humanity for a coming invasion several questions kept being asked. Who where the alien invaders? Where did they come from? When would the invasion take place? And who was the third race hinted at in the probes memories? And could they be found in time to be of assistance?
The other alien race for which the Terrans were desperately searching was in fact a race of pacifists. Which was a part of their downfall; that and the fact that their planet resided in the same star system as the race of invaders.
The invaders where known as the Dinarri. They evolved on a desert world with an oxygen atmosphere with a slightly higher than Earth normal gravity. Their most prominent feature was their seeming lack of patience and the way they revelled in violence.
The Dinarri were a headstrong, impatient, short tempered, and violent race. Their history is full of blood feuds, riots, wars, and mass murder. In fact in the end only one of the many ‘races’ of Dinarri survived. So in the end the entire planet was united under one ruler.
This was when they looked to the stars to satisfy their thirst for blood and conquest.
Inevitably their eyes found their neighbours the Rakarri.
It took many centuries for the Dinarri to achieved space flight, and it was many decades after that before they were able to conquer the Rakarri home world. They did this with technology roughly equivalent to that achieved by the USA in the 1970’s.
The fact that the Rakarri were pacifists made the whole campaign practical with that level of technology. The Rakarri were scientifically more advanced than the Dinarri, but their nature’s were more inward turned and so they had not even thought that life beyond their planet might exist. Coupled with the fact that the concept of war was utterly foreign to their peaceful society and you can see why they had not thought to prepare for an invasion.
Having conquered the Rakarri, the invaders quickly saw an advantage to keeping the scientifically inclined beings around as slaves. After only a few Earth-decades the Rakarri had become a vital part of the Dinarri civilization. The Rakarri were so much better at pursuits that the Dinarri found distasteful, such as research and development, designing and repairing the infrastructure of the Empire. They were delegated to perform these tasks for their masters with direction from an overseer.
This left the majority of the Dinarri race to do what it did best, prepare for their next wave of violence.
The Rakarri handled all technical and scientific jobs including: medicine, design and manufacturing, engineering, architecture, accounting, and all other menial labours. While nearly all Dinarri were either overseers, soldiers or construction workers (while they disliked the brainy pursuits of actually designing things, the Dinarri take a perverse delight in creating weapons of destruction).
The Dinarri were impatient to find another race to conquer and enslave (and the Emperor was even more so, since he didn’t think he could hold his minions in check for long without another target to aim them at). They had their Rakarri slaves build probes to launch out into the galaxy and report on any promising targets.
Within a couple of decades the first batch of reports started to come in. The surrounding star systems didn’t seem to contain any planets with life on them. This was a great disappointment to the Dinarri.
Just when the strain of relative peace almost became to much for the Dinarri to bear, a favourable report was received indicating that a planet had been found several light years away that supported life. And by the reports not just any life, but sentient life. Primitive yes, but with definite indications of culture.
Initial probes could pick up no major energy emissions coming from the planet and no artificial satellites in orbit. The Dinarri finally had a target to launch the colossal invasion fleet that they had been building during the search.
They plotted their intercept course towards the target planet. A blue-white world that the inhabitants liked to call Earth…
Here and Now #
Deep space scans showed a large spatial anomaly heading into the Solar system. But Terran astronomers weren’t worried, mostly they were just curious. After all, the anomaly wasn’t going to pass anywhere near Earth. But it was going to come close enough to get some very good observations of it.
As the anomaly got closer to Earth, more and more scientists became interested in the stellar mass. The object was difficult to track, it seemed to partially absorb light and other radiation, almost as if it was a singularity or micro black hole.
A deep space probe that had just done a scan of Jupiter was redirected to intercept the approaching mass. After several months of holding their breathes the scientists on Earth prepared to have get a closer look at the mass as the probe closed within range of its sensors.
Initial scans revealed nothing conclusive. The composition of the object was unattainable and its size was indeterminate. It was decided to expend the rest of the probes fuel to send it in closer to the object. There was a high probability that the probe would be sucked in by the anomaly and be destroyed, but it was hoped that before that happened some detailed information could be ascertained.
The probes new course was plotted and the world held its breathe in anticipation of what it would reveal.
Some initial data started to flow in as the probe sped on its collision course… high concentrations of metals, radiation emissions of an unknown type, and some other strange readings…
Then the probe stopped sending data… the ground crews tried to re-establish a link but to no avail. After analyzing the data no sign of a system failure could be detected. It was concluded that a micro-fragment had shattered the probe.
However there were a few who doubted this conclusion. They drew a different conclusion from the evidence. Of course these few had knowledge that was not well known. The members of Majestic concluded that the long awaited threat was now rapidly approaching.
Over the decades Majestic had infiltrated all walks of life with its members. It’s main mandate is to prepare Earth for invasion from an unknown hostile extraterrestrial species. It has done this very successfully and totally anonymously. Using movies and literature, Majestic inundated modern culture with the idea of aliens invading Earth.
As the 20th century came to a close Majestic was able to unravel some more of the secrets concealed in the probe. They were able to ascertain that the invasion would be by a race of aliens known as the Dinarri, and that Earth could find an ally in the form of a race of aliens known as the Rakarri.
The technology of the probe was not that much more advanced than what Earth possessed at that moment; at least for the most part. So it was that Majestic determined that the invasion could come at any time now.
It stepped up its influence on the movie and TV industries to create more Sci-Fi shows and movies about aliens coming to Earth. They tried to condition the public to want to fight against an invader, and not to be stunned by the shock of it all.
The secondary goal of Majestic has been to accelerate the discovery of new technology and weapons that could be used to detect and fight an invading enemy force. Of course they were hampered by the necessity of trying to keep humanity from annihilating itself with the advanced weapons that were being developed.
For the most part Majestic has been successful in its mandates.
When the stellar object suddenly, and unnaturally, changed course and started to decelerate most of the world jumped to the inevitable conclusion. Aliens were out there and they were coming to Earth for a little visit.
When the UFO’s course was extrapolated and it was found that a direct intercept course with Earth was the most likely result there was no doubt left in the military’s mind that an invasion was probable.
Of course this conclusion had been planted by Majestic for just such an occurrence.
It was estimated that at their present velocity and deceleration the UFO would reach Earth in just less than 3 months. Not a lot of time.
Unfortunately due to the Dinarri’s jamming systems, no one had previously observed a fleet of smaller craft separating from the larger mothership. So while it would be months before it reached Earth, the other warships would be here much sooner.
At first the governments and military tried to keep the situation under raps. But to many people had to know in order to prepare and so inevitably rumours began to spread.
The UN was finally informed of the situation and was preparing to broadcast a statement concerning the impending catastrophe, when disaster struck.
The previously undetected advance force was visually spotted as it crossed the moon’s orbit. The military’s of the world scrambled to setup a defence, police and other emergency response units were put on high alert.
If only the attack could have been delayed a few hours, but it was not to be. The battleships lumbered into Earth orbit and began to drop hundreds of shuttlecraft.
However all was not lost, military satellites in orbit suddenly unleashed their deadly payloads: Multi-megaton nuclear missiles. Almost two dozen of the invader’s cruisers and their host of landing craft were vaporized before the rest of the fleet’s point defence systems could react fast enough to destroy the rest of the missiles and the platforms that had launched them. These relics of the Cold War had served a purpose it’s creators had never suspected.
The alien fleet was just getting organized again when hundreds of nuclear missiles streaked up from the planets surface to engage the enemy. The aliens managed to destroy most of the incoming missiles this time, but they still lost a couple of warships, and nearly a hundred more troop shuttles, to this assault.
As the remaining landing craft entered the upper atmosphere, hastily scrambled jet fighters roared into their teeth to harass them. Thousands of human pilots died in that first melee, but again the alien’s suffered losses. Many of their ships were badly holed and fell into uncontrolled falls, in almost all cases the impact finished them off.
Unfortunately, the alien ships still kept coming. Low attitude aircraft and helicopters engaged them now as they approached the Earth’s surface. Ground batteries hammered away relentlessly.
Unprepared for the defence that they had encountered, the Dinarri were briefly stunned; but once they shook that off they responded in kind. The orbiting battleships began to bombard the planet, they vaporized the pesky Earth craft and blasted ground emplacements to rubble. Earth’s air forces were virtually destroyed and it’s ground emplacements and bases burned to a crisp. The alien ships of the first wave finally made it to the ground, mostly near the major cities, and their troops rolled forth to meet the humans. Meanwhile a second wave of shuttles launched from the ships in orbit.
But again the humans surprised the Dinarri. Airborne bombers held in reserve began plastering the alien troops as soon as they hit the dirt. Thousands were lost before the enemy could respond with anti-aircraft fire and neutralize the new threat.
Then it was time for the land forces of the world to engage the assault force. The forces of Earth really didn’t stand a chance though. But they went down fighting and managed to take out more than their share of the enemy. But waves and waves of them dropped from the skies, and when the smoke finally cleared the armies of the world were badly bloodied.
They had held though. The remaining Dinarri forces retreated back into orbit to lick their wounds. The battleships in orbit continued to blast any target on the planet that looked to be a military one. This continued for a tortuous month and more, and then the gigantic mothership finally arrived in orbit. It spat thousands more shuttles to combine with those that remained from the battleships. The pitiful remaining forces of Earth tried to repulse them, but in most places they failed. The aliens established beachheads and then the huge space freighters dropped from orbit, each holding thousands of troops and supplies.
The Dinarri forces marched into some of the largest cities of the world and began to take their prisoners. The people of Earth fought back in anyway they could, but the Dinarri forces had the upper hand. Hundreds of thousands of people were herded onto the freighters that first day and whisked away into space. With every return trip that the landing craft made more alien troops were deposited and more humans were taken away.
It is now some two years later and the Dinarri virtually conquered all of the Earth. Small pockets of organized resistance remain in the most inhospitable places and even in the midst of enemy occupied land resistance groups are at work. Hundreds of millions were lost in the initial confrontation, and millions more each year since then. The majority of the remaining population is enslaved by the Dinarri and put to work building their fortresses and providing them with raw materials.
Millions of Human’s were taken off world and set to work mining the asteroid belts and other planets and moons of the system for their alien masters. The conditions are brutal and attrition is high, but this is of no importance the cruel alien conquerors. After all, their are millions of replacements just waiting on Earth.
Is the salvation of Earth to be realized in this generations lifetime? Where are the race known as the Rakarri, and can Majestic operatives contact them and form an alliance? Only you can answer these questions… prepare to enter the world of Alien Invasion!
Races #
Terrans #
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Otherwise known as humans, natives of the planet Earth (known also as Terra, or Terra Firma) located in the Solar system.
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The Terrans are the defenders in this alternate reality. Their world has been invaded by the ruthless Dinarri Empire and they have been enslaved as workers.
Dinarri #
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Natives of the planet Dinar located in the Epsilon Eridani system (or so it is called by human astronomers).
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They have conquered and enslaved their neighbours the Rakarri and have now set their sights on Earth and its people.
Rakarri #
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Natives of the planet Rakar also located in the Epsilon Eridani system.
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They have been subjugated by the Dinarri for almost a century now,though they dream of their freedom, they are incapable of fightingfor it. However the Terrans may be the key to their salvation.
The Rakarri are an amorphous, amphibious amoeba-like lifeform with the ability to morph into any form they desire. They possess psionic abilities in the form of telepathy as well as an almost supernatural technical ability, although they lack the imagination to make full use of these talents.
In their natural form the Rakarri are nothing more than a giant blob, however eons ago when they left the ocean the Rakarri developed the ability to manipulate their bodies into other forms. They discovered that by mimicking the shapes of other land animals they could more easily adapt. So when necessary they can constrict and meld their forms into any shape they desire. They found that on land a bipedal form provided the most stable of working forms, so a roughly humanoid shape is their favourite alternate form.
The Rakarri are native to a 0.98-G world that can best be described as a lush greenhouse with over 90 percent of the surface covered in water and an average temperature of 90 degrees. What dry land exists is heavily forested and covered in other forms of tropical vegetation. They are equally comfortable on land or water, though they prefer the natural mobility that aquatic life affords so most of their cities are built under or in the water.
Racial Template #
The Rakarri have an IQ +2 (20 points), DX –1 (-10 points), ST –1 (-10 points), HT –1 (-10 points), and Move –1 (-5 points).
They have the advantages Gadgeteer “realistic” (25 points), Cultural Adaptability (25 points), Eidetic Memory 1 (30 points), Reduced Sleep (10 points), Amphibious (10 points), Doesn’t Breathe (20 points), Extended Lifespan ´1 (5 points), Injury Tolerance – No Blood (5 points), Injury Tolerance – No Brain (5 points), Injury Tolerance – No Neck (5 points), Injury Tolerance – No Vitals (5 points), Morph (40 points), Pressure Support – 10 atmospheres (5 points), Regrowth (40 points), and Cool (1 point).
They have the disadvantages Subjugated by the Dinarri (-20 points), Invertebrate (-20 points), Fragile (-20 points), Self Destruct (-20 points), Pacifism: Self Defence Only (-15 points), Combat Paralysis (-15 points), Slow Eater (-10 points), Cyber-Rejection (-10 points), Low Pain Threshold (-10 points), Sense of Duty to the Rakarri Race (-10 points), Compulsive Generosity (-5 points), Easy to Read (-10 points), Acceleration Weakness (-5 points), Strong Xenophilia (-15 points), Charitable (-15 points), Curious (-5 points), Unusual Biochemistry (-5 points), Susceptibility to Poison (-5 points), Chummy (-5 points), Humble (-1 point), Dull (-1 point), Alcohol Intolerance (-1 point), Horrible Hangovers (-1 point), Like to Work (-1 point) and Attentive (-1 point).
In addition the Rakarri have innate Telepathic abilities (Power 8; 40 points), as well as the racially bestowed skills to use them: Telesend skill at IQ (4 points), Telereceive skill at IQ-2 (1 point), Telescan skill at IQ-2 (1 point), and Emotion Sense skill at IQ (4 points).
It costs 40 points to be a Rakarri.
Names #
Since the primary mode of communication among the Rakarri is telepathy they did not begin to use vocal speech until well after their discovery of shape shifting. Once they discovered how to manipulate their physical forms they soon learn to also form vocal cords to make audible noises. Once this was achieved they learned how to add vocal utterances to enhance their telepathic communication.
Hence a Rakarri has two names, a vocal one and a mental algorithm describing their physical characteristics and mental personality, the latter is transmitted telepathically the former vocal.
As such their telepathic names are incomprehensible to non-psionic races and individuals, their audible names however are only slightly less confusing. To the human ear they sound like high pitched squeaks and whines, this is because they need to be transmitted as easily through water as air.
When the Dinarri subjugated the Rakarri they forced them to adopt serial numbers as names and made them form those serial numbers on their foreheads. When the Rakarri defected to the human side they chose human names for themselves, though their choices tend to be strange at best.
Psychology #
The Rakarri are a peaceful, non-violent race by nature, if necessary though they can defend themselves but it is psychologically traumatic for them. They are an unassuming charitable race that is most at ease when in groups as opposed to being by their selves. They are calm under most forms of pressure except in situations of combat and other violence, in these situations they tend to freeze up.
Because of the rigid control needed to hold alternate forms their body language tends to betray their true intentions thus making it difficult for them to lie successfully.
They are very fascinated and attracted by strangers and aliens, no matter how dangerous or frightening. They also possess an instinctive curiosity and are compulsively charitable. This deadly combination combined with their innate pacifism made it nearly impossible for them to resist the Dinarri takeover of their world. However it does give them an instinctive ability to get along with everybody, no matter how culturally, physically or psychologically alien.
This cultural adaptability combined with their unassuming and charitable natures as well as their shape shifting abilities and preference for working in groups allows them to fit into other cultures almost perfectly.
All Rakarri possess a limited degree of photographic memory and a natural facility with machines and other technical pursuits. This makes the natural inventors, scientists, and technicians. However they possess and imagination below the human norm, so are not able to fully utilize the gift that nature gave them.
All Rakarri are guided by a strong sense of duty to their own race and its preservation. Because of this and their high social solidarity (which results in low individuality) it is common for individual Rakarri to sacrifice their lives for the benefit of the group. They strongly believe in the survival of the many outweighing the needs of the few.
Rakarri art is bizarre by both human and Dinarri standards, their sculptures and paintings are convoluted collages of confusing lattices and matrices, their poetry and prose is filled with elaborate mind games and word problems. By Rakarri rating standards the average human mystery novel is nothing more than children’s primer.
Crime among the Rakarri is totally unheard of due to their telepathic natures, high social solidarity, charitable tendencies, and sense of duty to their race. Although this did not stop them from forming a secret underground to resist their Dinarri masters after they had been subjugated. They will utilize criminal behavior if it does not go against the well being of their social group. In their quiet resistance of the Dinarri the Rakarri have stolen from, lied to, cheated, and even murdered their slave masters.
The Rakarri have no real intense religion of any kind. Their only semi religious belief is in that of ‘The Great Circle’. Simply put, they believe that when an individual dies their component particles are recycled to provide life for other species and individuals. While this is a highly scientific and rational belief it conveys no awe or mystical element. Because of this they feel no need to push their beliefs on to others.
Ecology #
The Rakarri home world is a lovely water world, with a greenhouse climate and shallow oceans.
The Rakarri are the highest form of life on their planet, no other native life form has even evolved anything close to a rudimentary intelligence. The Rakarri have no predators, in fact there are very few carnivorous creatures on their planet at all. For the most part native life is herbivorous, although the Rakarri are omnivorous as are several other animals. Although they are omnivorous the Rakarri have simplistic digestive systems. To feed they must return to their natural states and immerse themselves in a plankton rich fluid, from that the absorbent their nutritional material through osmosis.
The Rakarri require very little sleep, only about 7 hours in a standard Earth Week However, because of the nature of their feeding they required six hours every day to eat. But during this time they can perform some other simplistic tasks such as listening to vocal reports, reading, and conversing with other individuals. The Rakarri feeding is often a source of amusement for humans as it appears to be nothing more than swimming around in oversized fish tanks eating goldfish food. In fact the consistency of processed Rakarri food is just that, fish food.
The Rakarri descended from single celled amoeba. Over the aeons they have gradually graduated towards the land, but they are still a fully amphibious lifeform, equally at home on land and in the water. Because of this evolution they have developed a resistance to the intense pressures in the depths of their oceans as well as the ability to separate and absorb oxygen from the surrounding medium. This makes it impossible for them to be strangled.
Additionally they have no central brain or nervous system, instead their consciousness and muscular control are scattered throughout their bodies. This makes it nearly impossible to make it hit on their brains or other vital organs. Unfortunately because of this the different nodes must vote on response to any given situation, much like a computer network. This results in a somewhat slow reaction time and occasional clumsiness compared to humans. The Rakarri and not rely upon a vital bodily fluid for survival (like blood) and so never have to make the leading roles. However as a side effect of this the body’s immune system is not as durable as the average humans are. They are especially susceptible to poisons, although not blood borne ones.
But because of their amorphous nature they have the ability to regrow any lost parts. It may take days or months but a hacked off limb will go back.
One of the most baffling aspects of the Rakarri is how they see and hear. As it turns out the entire surface of their bodies are extremely sensitive to tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli. This makes it impossible to “poke a Rakarri’s eye out” but they can still be blinded, at least partially, by bright light.
They can be deafened just as easily as humans can, although it is not permanent as it mainly results in a temporary shock to their nervous systems. Unfortunately this large surface area that is receptive to external stimuli makes them intolerant to sudden acceleration and other applications of rapid g-forces.
Because their bodies or so unusual their reaction to drugs and other chemicals intended for humans can be unpredictable. It has been discovered, to their embarrassment, that they suffer some extreme reactions to alcohol. In human terms there any the epitome of cheap drunks with horrible hangovers.
It is important to note that the current state of life on the Rakarri home planet is very young. A series of meteor impacts utterly destroyed the previous life that had evolved on the planet, much as a similar catastrophe once destroyed the dinosaurs on earth. In the galactic scheme of things the Rakarri are young race, the modern adaptation of the race appeared only 15,000 years ago. They developed writing and agriculture roughly 8,000 years ago. It is important to note that while the Rakarri evolved technologically faster overall than humans did, they have slowed down significantly in their progress since attaining their Industrial Revolution stage. Meanwhile, since its industrial revolution humanity has steadily accelerated in its technological achievements.
The Rakarri mating practices are quite unusual by most standards. Individuals have no discernible sex, and so do not feel the biological urge to form partnerships. They do however have the biological urge to procreate. When this urge sets upon them they will search out a compatible mating partner and then proceed to consume excessive amounts of food to increase their mass by up to 30 percent. After both partners have reached this threshold they will begin the mating ritual, which must be done in an aquatic environment. This stage of mating can take up to several hours and involves both beings to bond, and then both split, leaving their excess joined together as a single new being.
While both parents will take an active role in raising their child they are not the sole parents.
Instead the community raises all children, and while they acknowledge their biological parents, the children are not encouraged to feel any more strongly about them than they do to their other elders.
The Rakarri way of life is very much a communal one, which explains their high racial solidarity and can even be stretched to explain their welcoming and fascination of strangers. In a Rakarri community with their innate telepathic abilities a stranger would be a welcome source of novelty and diversity.
The Rakarri have an extended life span compared to humans, they reach physical and mental maturity at age 36 (in human years), and begin aging at age 100. At this point the individual will be in a rapid decline into infirmity and then death, they must make aging roles everyday (at a –3 to HT) as their organs and immune system self-destruct. After reaching age 100 it is very rare for a Rakarri to survive more than a week or two. Thus they find it very difficult to comprehend the geriatrics of humanity. The Rakarri view the slow and steady torture of aging that human’s must endure with great remorse. Thus they have made it their secret goal to find a cure for this malady that afflicts their newfound allies.
Politics #
Rakarri’s politics are an example of the perfect implementation of democracy. Every citizen, even children who have not reached maturity, gets a vote on important decisions. This can be implemented due to their telepathic nature. In fact they come close in many ways to duplicating a hive mind environment, at least they did before the Dinarri subjugated them. However since that time, for reasons of security, the Rakarri resistance has needed to restrict the access of information and making of decisions to a select few. However, those few are still selected democratically by the people as a whole.
The Rakarri have a very lax justice system, punishment for aberrant behavior among their own kind is restricted to a shunning of the individual by their peers. This is very effective among their own kind but when dealing with criminals of other races they have no concept of where to begin. At this point though this problem has not really occurred, unless one counts invasion by the Dinarri.
Organizations #
After the invasion force had fully occupied Earth and the rest of the Solar system there are only three forces that remain that can be considered large enough to be classified as organizations. These are Majestic, the Unified Naval Forces of Earth (also known as the UNFE, or “The Navy”), and of course the occupational forces of the Dinarri Empire.
Majestic #
Having prepared for such an invasion, Majestic was well able to sustain it’s chain of command throughout the initial assault and into the occupation. It’s forces are split into “cells” spread out across the world and even among the space labour forces. It’s main mission is to attempt to add some coordination to the widespread guerrilla resistance forces.
Knowing that it would eventually come down to this, Majestic stockpiled hidden caches of weapons, food, and other supplies in preparation for the drawn out conflict.
Among it’s operatives are many strike teams, assassin’s and spies. However the bulk of it’s forces are logistics and engineering personnel who seek to aid any force trying to combat the invaders. It is rumoured that they have secret fortified bases with science staff’s attempting to puzzle through the alien technology in hopes of using it against the Dinarri.
They continue to try to make contact with the third race of aliens they believe could be their allies in this fight. There have been many reports of a species that is obviously different from the Dinarri, but which is a part of their forces sometimes. To date however no successful contact has been made with this other race to determine if they could be the allies the Earth desperately needs.
The Navy #
The Dinarri’s world is dry and parched, though accustomed to the large oceans of the Rakarri’s home world, the Dinarri forces cannot truly comprehend the tactical significance of such large bodies of water. Although they destroyed many naval ships in the initial invasion they always seemed to turn a blind eye to them if they weren’t actually showing hostile intent.
Realizing that the forces of Earth had fallen, and noticing the enemies blindside to water power, the navies of the world pulled back and regrouped. Agents from Majestic worked hard to convince the naval forces of the world to unite and provide support for the resistance forces on the land. And thus the UNFE or Unified Naval Forces of Earth was formed.
Over the past couple years the UNFE has been responsible for many bold surprise attacks that came just when ground forces needed support. Battleships and other large warships provided much needed artillery support, aircraft carriers where able to deploy air support at key moments, transports and their escorts were able to deploy troops where the Dinarri did not expect it. Time and again the Dinarri showed a major psychological weakness to the concept and uses of naval power, and as such it is still a force to be reckoned with today.
That is not to say they haven’t taken losses. Since the unification they have lost over 60% of their forces. Most of what remains today are the submersible vehicles which the Dinarri don’t even seem to suspect exist, even though they have caused some of their nastiest surprises.
The Main bases of operation for the Navy are the islands of Hawaii, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, and Iceland, as well as the continent of Antarctica. Here are the last remaining repair and supply stations for the great naval ships of the world. The Dinarri seem to totally dismiss the strategic value of these small or inhospitable locations, but they act as perfect staging grounds for naval ships.
The Dinarri Empire #
Composed of the Dinarri and their Rakarri slaves, the forces of the Empire have completely occupied Earth and effectively control the rest of the star system as well. The Dinarri warriors are constantly frustrated by the continued resistance of the Human’s, almost as frustrated as they were surprised to discover that in the time since their probe scouted their world Human’s had advanced to a level of technology almost equal to their own!
While the Dinarri warriors deeply respect the tenacity of their foes, they do not respect their foes themselves. They see the Human’s as sub-creatures, not worthy of their attention, and thus they constantly underestimate their opponents even when they should know better.
The fact that the Rakarri have been trying, covertly, to hinder the Dinarri is not helping either, though the Dinarri have not discovered this duplicity yet.
With the Mothership in high Earth orbit, and a force of cruisers surrounding the planet in low Earth orbit the Empire effectively has total air superiority. They can drop troops and fire support anywhere on the world in a few minutes notice. However most of their planet side forces are to arrogant to call in this support until they realize they desperately need it, and this is usually when the Human forces fade back into the wilderness, which causes no end of frustration to the Dinarri warriors.
Combat & Tactics #
There are only two fighting races out of the three in the known universe, and neither of them are the Rakarri. Psychologically incapable of being effective in combat they will forever be relegated to the sidelines, and so this section deals with only the differences between Dinarri and Terran mindsets when it comes to battle.
First, it is important to realize that the Dinarri are a very aggressive race, almost to aggressive. It is sometimes puzzling as to why they hadn’t long since wiped themselves out millennia ago. Though possibly they just aren’t imaginative to have developed any true weapons of mass destruction like the humans have. In combat it is important to note that most Dinarri will eventually go into a rage (whether they are winning or losing) and thus destroy any carefully laid plans they might have. Their response to this is not to even really bother. To them the only major tactic is to pick the target, and throw as many warriors as possible at it. Up until they encountered Earth it had always worked, so they didn’t think much about it.
The Earthlings have caused the Dinarri to reassess many things when it comes to combat. For instance, while they used explosives to destroy enemy fortifications and blast large objects, it had never occurred to them that you could use them as anything other than demolitions. The concept of the simple hand grenade psychologically had no favour with them, they much preferred to get to close range with their targets and personally dispatch them. Because the grenade never occurred to them things like infantry support artillery, missiles, mobile cannon, grenade launchers, rockets, and bombers just never occurred to them. In fact the very concept of these devices is repugnant to the Dinarri psyche. They barely see the need for orbital bombardment, and only the incredible resistance of the human race has even caused them to use it. The armaments of their star ships are not very effective at orbital bombardment (they are optimized for ship to ship), but the sheer weight of fire they can concentrate on a target pretty much guarantees that when they do use it everything in the target area is virtually wiped out.
Because Dinarri prefer to get right into the thick of it in battle they much prefer the use of hand weapons such as swords and such. Guns are just an opener for them, once combat begins they strive to get into point blank range as quick as possible. This is disconcerting to humans who, for obvious reasons, prefer to take their opponents out at extreme range. Thus human weapons tend to have high accuracy compared to Dinarri weapons, and you won’t really be able to find anything longer ranged than a carbine in the Dinarri’s arsenal. Comparatively the humans enjoy taking their invaders out at extreme range. High powered rifles, rocket launchers, and artillery are all the preferred form of resistance. Since this is so the Dinarri have learned that they are never truly safe, they view the ease at which the humans are able to pick them off at range, without being previously detected, downright disconcerting.
Bodies of water bigger than a small pond were not common on the Dinarri home world, in fact the largest body of water on the planet is laughably small compared to the average lake on Earth. As such sea power was never and issue with the Dinarri. When they invaded the Rakarri (whose planet is even more watery than Earth) they weren’t sure what to make of it. In fact they constantly underestimate the Rakarri’s total population by an factor of at least a hundred because they psychologically can’t consider that the Rakarri primarily live underwater. Even though the Rakarri’s world is mostly one giant ocean they don’t build floating vessels or platforms of any kind. The Rakarri primarily live under the water, if they need to be above land for some reason they will use a convenient island, and thus the Dinarri don’t see all that water as a strategic resource. Which is definitely to bad for them, because the humans have been ruthlessly utilizing it as such for most of their history. Time and again they just don’t even bother scanning the surfaces of the oceans for threats, even though intellectually they have learned that the humans can deploy devastating strikes from their surface (it hasn’t occurred to them yet what might be going on below the surface).
And thus the era of the great battleship has returned to Earth. Previously rendered obsolete in Earth’s petty squabbles they have again become the major powers of the sea. The Dinarri deploy complex, automated antiaircraft platforms that will take out all airborne targets that are more than a hundred or so feet off the ground, and they have a range of several miles. So the aircraft carrier and submarine launched missiles have been rendered nearly useless in all but the most carefully planned attack. The battleship however has come into it’s own again. The Dinarri just don’t consider something floating on the water to be a threat, and they can’t even imagine the force a floating fortress can exert. Time and again the mighty cannon of these great ships, the descendents of Dreadnought, have lofted their stupendous payloads to smash the forces of the invaders miles and miles away. Every time the Dinarri have been stunned speechless and at an utter loss as to where the devastating rain of fire came from. This success has led many humans to wonder what could be achieved were they to build submersible battleships…
Several other subtle differences mark the combat between Human and Dinarri. The Dinarri are an extremely proud race, as such they do not like to admit any kind of physical weakness. They find honour in demonstrating how far they can march wearing their heavy armour and carrying their heavy weapons. Admittedly Earth’s gravity is significantly lighter than what they are used to, however this goes quickly to their heads and makes them feel even more arrogant than is even their norm. On the flip side the humans have realized that in a lot of situations personal body armour is only an impediment, and while marching is a necessity of war, there are faster means of transport available. So will have themselves dropped miles outside of their target area and march the rest of the way in, the humans prefer to use armoured personnel carriers and other ground vehicles to get them quickly to the edge of combat, and engage from there. This allows the Terran’s to execute hit and run strikes that the Dinarri consider uncanny. A force of humans will engage one of their bases, and then fade into cover, only for another force to appear many miles away not long after and stage another attack. To the Dinarri this seems like the work of multiple elements of a much larger force, the Human’s meanwhile just can’t understand how the Dinarri can be so gullible.
And gullible they are, and in more ways than one. Leaving aside the fact that the Rakarri have been hiding their true numbers and full extent of their technologies from their Dinarri masters for centuries, they still manage to fall for most ploys that even the greenest human tactician would see as obvious. It’s just not in their nature to be sneaky, they are a forceful and direct race, deception and subtly are not part of their mental makeup. Espionage is mostly unused by them, and as such they don’t fully consider it’s benefit. Human special op forces find it painfully easy to infiltrate most Dinarri outposts, and many a small garrison has vanished in the rippling detonation of well planted C4. Meanwhile the Rakarri see the deception that the Humans practise and rejoice in their hearts that their cruel overlords might have finally met their match.
Technology #
The technology of the Alien Invasion universe is limited by the “Hard Science” rules found on GURPS Ultra-Tech 2, page 6. The “Real Life Ultratech” section on page 12 of Ultra-Tech 2 is also in effect. In addition the different races have several differences in their relative tech levels, as outlined below.
The Dinarri #
The Dinarri are an old species, much older than humans and ancient compared to the Rakarri. Their technological progress has been painfully slow compared to the other races though. Mostly because in the past they spent so much time fighting each other. Humans have achieved many technological advances through war, but in the case of the Dinarri it wasn’t nations warring it was small cities or clans. And they were always short, bloody and very final. This kind of conflict was not conducive to scientific breakthroughs… not when Dinarri scientists were more likely to kill each other than argue over a difference of opinion.
Gradually though, they managed to get past several hundred Dark Ages and achieve a level of technology roughly equivalent to the late Industrial Age on Earth. Most of this is due to the fact that one tyrannical leader finally achieved a dictatorship over a large segment of the race, and then proceeded to systematically annihilate all opposition.
The Emperor, as he proclaimed himself, and his descendants were fascinated with life beyond their own planet. They also seemed to possess an unusually high level of imagination for their race. Unfortunately for the rest of the galaxy their dreams where bent on discovering new life so that they could conquer and enslave it, or failing that hunt it for sport. So it was that the Dinarri were driven to attain a level of technology sufficient to thrust them into space.
And when they discovered that there was another planet in their star system that had life, they redoubled their efforts. Upon conquering their Rakarri neighbours they were able to increase their technological level dramatically by claiming the skills and achievements of the brilliant Rakarri.
When the Dinarri conquered the Rakarri they were at approximately TL7 in most areas with the exception of medicine and life sciences. Their medical technology was backward, at best it was low TL6 but in most cases was only TL5!
The Rakarri #
As a sentient species the Rakarri are actually much younger than Humans (which means they are very young by comparison to the Dinarri), however their ability to brilliantly devise new theories and cobble together prototypes has given them the jump technologically on the other two races.
Unfortunately they are just as unimaginative as the Dinarri and they are not big risk takers to boot. So advances that require a certain amount of dangerous experimentation were somewhat retarded (i.e. flight, all weaponry, explosives, rocketry, and especially nuclear power). That’s not to say that the Rakarri haven’t formulated brilliant theories in some of these areas, and may have even put together a prototype or two. However since an accident in any of these areas can result in loss of life and injury they haven’t developed these technologies as completely as humans have.
Until the Dinarri arrived they had not even conceived of attempting space travel. And since they were very hesitant of flight in general it had not even occurred to them that they should worry about the skies above them.
At the time of their conquest the Rakarri had achieved the rough equivalent of TL9, in theory at least. In the area of weaponry you could almost say that their technical expertise was non-existent. They used knives to cut things, but that was their most advanced achievement. In one area of science though they had achieved unprecedented breakthroughs. That area was in the field of gravity manipulation. Their world was the source of a rare mineral that, when aligned properly and the right power applied, could actually manipulate gravity fields. This allowed them to develop gravity manipulation technology much earlier than the norm. Of course without a source of the mineral (predictably dubbed “gravitonite”) the whole science is impossible.
The Empire #
The fusion of the Dinarri and Rakarri tech base has produced something like low TL9, but with many gaps. Of course the mineral gravitonite has advanced the Empire’s gravity technology, it is well beyond what it should be, see the special section devoted to Gravitic Technology.
One of the major gaps is in the area of weapons technology, while it is considered to be at TL9 they do not possess any type of gun that you would not see at TL7. Electromagnetic and beam weapons do not exist and they show no sign of developing them anytime soon, this is probably a result of the Rakarri’s total failure to develop advanced weapons of any kind. They possess laser technology in other aspects of their infrastructure, however it seems they haven’t thought to develop them into weapons.
Also the concept of multiple barrels on a gun (i.e. a gatling style weapon) also seems to have escaped them, as have advanced ammunition types such as plastic-cased, caseless, liquid propellant, or electrothermal. All their weapons still seem to use smoothbore barrels as well, not a single instance of rifling has been found. This of course means that their weapons tend to be less accurate than the Human equivalent. The general poor design of their weapons essentially gives them the “cheap” disadvantage.
Missiles are unheard of in the Dinarri’s arsenal, they just don’t seem to see the benefits of a self propelled weapon system. All of their munitions are delivered by cannon, they have no launchers or aerial bombing systems, this includes their space craft.
Nuclear weapons are another oddity, the Dinarri possess them, but without missiles or aerial bombers their options for deploying them are limited. They are capable of launching them from cannon, but again it either hasn’t occurred to them, or there is some technical reason they do not use this method. Thus the only way they field nukes is to transport them to the detonation site the hard way and then retreat to remotely detonate them. Needless to say this is very ineffective.
There are many other examples of serious gaps in the Empires technology that could not logically be explained by the humans. In some respects much can be attributed to the close minded psyche of the Dinarri, however not all of it, and humans are at a lack to explain most of the oversights. But that is because most do not suspect the role the Rakarri slaves play in this matter.
The Rakarri were not at all happy about being conquered, and were deeply troubled that their research was to be used to cause pain to the galaxy in general. They all vowed to retard the future development of the Empire as much as possible (they are however limited by their desire not to bring down the wrath of their masters). Although they feared that the advances they had already made, and that the Dinarri had stolen, were bad enough.
The Humans #
At the time that the Dinarri finally invade Earth had reached the equivalent of low TL8 in the more technologically advanced countries, with one exception. Development of computers had hurtled forward over the last couple of decades and Earth had almost achieved TL9 in that area by the time of the invasion. Once examples of the Dinarri’s computer systems fell into the hands of human engineers they were easily able to reverse engineer them and even improve on them with only minimal effort.
It’s important to note however that while the Dinarri Empire was technologically more advanced than Earth neither of the component races making up the Empire are very imaginative. Therefore Earth possessed devices that neither of the other races had ever imagined a need for. Also because Human’s are more imaginative and competitive in all pursuits, the devices that they produced tended to be more efficient than the equivalent used by the Empire.
A prime example of this would be aircraft. While for the most part the military aircraft of Earth were only high TL7, with the odd limited production run of TL8 designs, their equivalents in the invading Dinarri army were very rough TL9 designs that weren’t all that more effective in combat. This clearly illustrated the difference between technical superiority and design superiority, something humans had generally treated as one and the same before the Dinarri Empire illustrated the difference.
In addition, human firearms had a tendency to be much more reliable than the Dinarri’s. Previously this hadn’t bothered the Dinarri, since they vastly preferred to engage hand to hand with their opponents. However when faced with Human weapons they often were at a severe disadvantage in a protracted firefight where the incredibly reliable human weapons often proved the deciding factor.
Characters (NPC’s) #
Character Creation #
Dinarri Equipment #
Although the Dinarri’s equipment is technologically superior compared to the best that Earth can offer, it is often inferior. Most electronic equipment tends to be about the same size as the inferior gear that Human’s carry, and while their hand weapons are a bit more powerful they are far less reliable than an Earth equivalent.
The Dinarri’s main advantage is their capability to bombard any surface of the planet using their ships in orbit. Given the chance the Dinarri can call in an artillery strike for anywhere in the world in only a matter of minutes.
Dinarri Personal Weapons #
The Empire is very set in it’s ways when it comes to weapons. Even if it was technically possible to arm it’s troops with laser weapons there has been much debate about whether the Dinarri would even think to do it. They have used chemical slug throwers for so many centuries that it seems possible that they can’t envision any other type of weapon.
The arsenal of the Dinarri warriors is rather limited, they have an assault rifle, a heavy pistol, and a selection of vibroblades. Apparently it never occurred to them that a grenade launcher or man portable missile launcher would be useful. Or for that matter a man or squad portable light or medium machine gun.
Also a rifled barrel hasn’t occurred to the Empire either, all their projectile weapons still utilize smooth bores, which reduces the accuracy of their weapons even further that it already is.
Every soldier seems to be armed the same, a pistol, a rifle, and a personal choice of vibroblade.
The Dinarri Assault Rifle #
Apparently bigger is better in the mind of a Dinarri, and this is very well illustrated by their choice of design in an assault rifle. The weapon is a brute (treat it as a Storm Carbine, see GURPS Ultra-Tech 2 page 50) firing 10mm rounds, and their general choice of ammunition is Armour Piercing (AP) or Explosive (EX), sometimes they mix the two in their clips.
The weapon isn’t as reliable or accurate, Malf is reduced to 16, and Acc is reduced by 3.
The Dinarri Pistol #
Equivalent to the Heavy Pistol found on page 49 of GURPS Ultra-Tech 2, with the following alterations, reduce Malf to 16 and Acc by 3. This weapon also fires 10mm rounds similar to the Assault Rifle above, however ammunition is always regular kinetic rounds instead of AP or Explosive.
Vibroblades #
See page 24 of GURPS Ultra-Tech for complete description and rules. A typical Dinarri soldier will generally carry a couple of knives and probably a small sword. Officers and Overseer’s are known to carry large two handed weapons strapped to their backs as a sign of their rank, though they know how to use them with deadly efficiency as well.
Dinarri Body Armour #
Unlike most human combat soldiers, who eschew heavy armour in favour of mobility to keep them alive in combat, the Dinarri place great faith in their armour. They have to, since their combat style most closely resembles that of 18th century Europe.
They walk boldly forward, shooting in formation at anything they deem to be an enemy, never trying to seek cover. They seem to view shelter of any kind to be an act of cowardice, and as the human’s have observed they avoid cowardice at all cost.
The typical armour worn by a Dinarri soldier is often indicative of their rank. All soldiers wear a full suit of heavy monocrys (GURPS Ultra-Tech) and a Light Infantry Helmet (GURPS Ultra-Tech 2). Pilots and other combat vehicle operators tend to wear full Combat Helmet’s instead (GURPS Ultra-Tech, page 30, sidebar).
Infantry include a Light Clamshell Cuirass (GURPS Ultra-Tech 2) on top of the monocrys and the Light Infantry Helmet. Upper echelon warriors in the infantry have Medium Clamshell Cuirass instead, and full Combat Helmets. Officers and Overseer’s have Heavy Clamshell Cuirass and full Combat Helmets.
Terran Equipment #
In the categories of efficiency and effectiveness Terran equipment had a decided advantage over the Dinarri’s, even though it was not as technologically advanced. When combatants met in battle the Terrans usually had the upper hand… at least until the orbital spaceships started raining fire…
Terran Personal Weapons #
Although the human’s overall technology is severally lacking compared to that of the Dinarri, weaponry is one area where they are almost on par. Given that Terran weaponry also tends to be more reliable it has given the Human’s a chance at resistance that they otherwise never would have had.
There are rare instances of crack Majestic strike teams carrying low TL8 chemical projectile weapons (there has even been experimentation with prototype Gyroc type weapons), but for the most part the weaponry used to combat the Dinarri is good old TL7 firearms, although if you can get a hold of armour piercing bullets it’s a decided plus. Heavier weapons are more effective, but since the Dinarri aren’t very well armoured accuracy with a light weapon can be just as effective. The Dinarri vehicles are armoured against pretty much all small arms fire, but TL7 anti-tank weapons are effective at taking down all but the biggest vehicle.
The most feared weapon by the Dinarri are the large calibre sniper weapons employed by the treacherous Humans (the Barret Model 82, found in GURPS High-Tech is an example of this). Human sharpshooters will place themselves outside of Dinarri outposts or along supply routes and systematically terrorize their enemies. While the casualties are never great, the effect on morale is devastating.
Guerrilla forces are often armed with captured Dinarri weapons as well. The humans find the reliability of them distressing though, so if they do carry them they have generally been tweaked to fix this alarming deficiency (increase Malf to Crit).
Dinarri Vehicles #
The vehicles used by the Dinarri are an odd lot. Conceptualized by the Dinarri but designed and built by their Rakarri slaves. As such they have an ‘unfinished’ look to most humans. They lack any finesse or artistry, and they tend to lumpy inefficiency. This could hardly be helped since the Dinarri and Rakarri have totally incompatible thought processes and so any collaborative effort between them is doomed to be mediocre at best.
In addition, for personal attack craft the Dinarri prefer fast and agile vehicles that eschew armour in favour of speed. The thought of developing something like a tank is foreign to their mentalities and the need for such a vehicle has never arisen.
Even with these weaknesses though, the Rakarri built vehicles are much more stable and efficient in comparison to what the Dinarri would create all on their own. So the Dinarri are proud of their fleet of behemoths, while the Rakarri cringe at what they have been forced to create and dream of the days they can build more carefully.
Still, a few common design traits should be noted. The first of which is that all Dinarri small craft are powered by energy cells for the most part. This is probably due to the overwhelming caution of the Rakarri. The main reason that species hadn’t achieved space flight by themselves was that they couldn’t rationalize using combusting fuel to propel themselves there. To them it was unthinkable to embrace the risks such a system entailed.
In the case of the Empire’s space shuttles though, the Rakarri were forced against there better judgement to design them with fusion thrusters. After all, the grav drive was an even bigger risk near to a planet so there was really no alternative.
In the case of the cruisers and mothership the Rakarri would have loved to find a way to use some kind of safer power source than a sustained fusion reaction, but nothing safer (such as solar power) could possibly generate enough power, or provide the needed endurance.
Terran Vehicles #
At the time of the Invasion the nations of Earth had achieved some remarkable things. The first ever submersible Aircraft Carrier had been built by the U.S. Navy and was undergoing sea trials. A new breed of fighter jet was just coming into production, it was faster and stealthier than any previous design, and was armed with the latest in projectile and missile weapons. And the most amazing of all was the development and testing of prototype powered armour and robot vehicles. Once only relegated to Japanese Anime these creations were actually being considered as frontline weapons.
But the Invasion put a stop to such ambitious engineering masterpieces. With the major industries of Earth under the control of the invading Dinarri, the Terrans can mostly only use what they have and modify what they can capture. In the area of modification though they have worked wonders with the Dinarri’s equipment.
Most Dinarri craft are multi-role, which does give them flexibility, but makes them only half-decent at any one task. The forces of Earth have captured and created some effective specialty craft out of the Dinarri’s vehicles. In addition the Human engineers tend to be more imaginative than either of the other two races, and more willing to take risks in the designs than the Rakarri..