Invasion!/Winterkin

The First Pack

Even after all these months of training, you still feel alone sensing only your other four pack mates in your mind. Back home the Consciousness encompassed millions of minds, and even during off-planet diplomatic meetings a pack of at least twenty was selected to maintain a strong link. Still, this mission is too important to focus on your discomfort.

Your target is on sight, a small gray planet that will become the second bastion of the Consciousness, Soil, if you recall what the locals called it.

"Earth," comes the mental correction from Sofrig, the alpha female, and only female, of the pack. You turn to look at her, her light blue fur and slender build exalts her beauty, and once more you regret not mating earlier with her, but now both your sperm and her womb belong to a greater cause.

"More likely Sauna," jokes Wirlig, with his snout stuck to a screen that details the conditions of the planet. He's the youngest of the pack, still a cub in many aspects, but his affinity for the alien technologies made him an invaluable member, "I can't imagine how they live among so much hot water."

Indeed, the planet's general weather is not ideal for the pack, but after DNA analysis showed that hu-man/Winterkin hybrids should be able to join the Consciousness, you could not let this chance for expansion get away. Your descendants should be able to acclimate easy enough, anyways.

"There's already at least three others here," growls Tarjurg, showing you the ships orbiting the planet's moon. With only the five of you, the Consciousness cannot reach the minds on those ships, so you have to rely on inaccurate sensors to tell you almost nothing about them. A Markovik and a Varselavesh cruiser injects Wirlig into the Consciousness, also letting you know the third ship is of unknown denomination.

But it's the forth ship, the Galactic Enforcer Frigate, who hauls you first, demanding something. It's an effort to translate the message your ship's computer spews; being telepathic, you have little to no problem both transmitting and receiving ideas regardless of the language, but the aliens' spoken languages are a chore, and the five of you have to concentrate to make sense of the message and then construct a "spoken" reply for the computer to transmit.

As expected, the Galactic Enforcers can't stop you, since you aren't doing anything forbidden; so after sending a lengthy list of possible offenses they will enforce, they let you pass.

Unlike the other ships orbiting the moon, yours is much smaller, both because your species doesn't care that much about technology, and because there are only the five of you on board. The Consciousness considered sending a bigger pack to maintain a space presence, but being forced into isolation in such restrictive space for years at a time would drive anyone crazy.

Thus you enable the cloak on the ship and proceed directly to the planet. You call your four companions into the Consciousness in order to decide the first approach to your mission:

• If we capture a Varselavesh we can force them to upgrade our reproductive implants and other technology.

• We need to find and destroy the other invaders soon, before they start to consolidate their position.

• We should be able to influence hu-mans to see us as just big dogs, we can pass ourselves as pets in human cities.

• We can blend better rural areas, hu-mans in rural areas have a heavy dependency on dogs already.

• We must establish a bigger pack and start creating hybrids for the Consciousness.

• We should create several packs, it will be much faster to expand that way.

• Being isolated from the Consciousness would diminish our ability to manipulate hu-mans, though.

• Most of the planet is too hot, our cooling packs will only last a couple days before need of recharging in those situations.

• We need to secure a local source of titanium, our provisions will only last us for a couple weeks.

• Hu-mans technology uses titanium, creating a pack near a developed settlement will make it easier to acquire it.

All these ideas are shared and discussed over the Consciousness almost at the same time, while Wirlig and Tarjurg prompt the computer to give more details when needed. After a lengthy and slow deliberation, since there are only five of you in the Consciousness, you finally reach an agreement.

You will form a single pack:

• Small City on the North: a small town away from the equator, where your cooling packs will last longer and you can easily blend with the rural hu-mans. Getting a stable supply of titanium will be harder, though.

• Big City: a big hu-man settlement. Hu-mans prefer hotter climates, so you will heavily depend on you cooling packs. The high hu-man concentration can help your pack grow quicker, and you will have no problem procuring titanium, but you will have more trouble blending in. Request Foalpoots (talk) 20:02, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

• South Pole: there is a hu-man research settlement in the nice weather of the south pole. It will be just like back home, plus the hu-mans already have channels to get titanium down there. Getting the pack to grow from there would require creativity, though.

You will form separate packs all over the world:

• Follow Tandrig's pack: follow the alpha male as he builds his pack. Tandrig's will try to replicate his home world traditions as much as possible.

• Follow Sofrig's pack: follow the alpha female as she builds her pack. Sofrig's path will be slower, since she will have to birth the first generation of her pack.

• Follow Tarjurg's pack: Tarjurg will focus on hunting the other invaders as he grows his pack.

• Follow Wirlig's pack: Young Wirlig smaller complexion will make it easier to pass for a pet and mate with younger females.

• Follow Yomelg's pack: follow Yomelg's as he builds his pack.

Invasion Stage: One			Winterkin Abilities		Equipment
Human-Winterkin Hybrids	0		Telepathy, Telekinesis, Limited Visual Range, Low Light Vision, Ultrasonic Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Hard Bones, Sharp Teeth, Fast Runner, Heat Intolerant* *Cooling Pack energy: 100%		Personal: Human/Winterkin Reproductive Implant, Cooling Pack disguised as a collar On the space ship (closing to Earth): Computer for navigation and life support, Combat Armor with a Hot/Cold Plasma Field, Plasma Weapons, Basic MiniFac - A miniature factory that uses 3D printing to build a handful of blueprinted items given the proper raw elements to build it with.
Political Progress	0%
Cultural Progress	0%
Technical Progress	0%
Overall Transformation	0%
Human Suspicion	0%
Human Resistance	0%