Invasion!/Winterkin/One Pack/Big City/Human in Den

A trespasser on the den

While the rest of your pack worked on securing your den and the surrounding areas, you concentrated on the mind of the human that slept within the lot you had chosen as your den.

Unlike the Consciousness, where all Winterkin would share equally, trying to connect with the mind of an alien species was a bothersome and sometimes unpleasant chore. Most aliens had no experience sharing their thoughts, and as such had no care in having then ordered to either help or deter an intruder.

You had some experience dealing with alien minds, having worked as part of the diplomatic embassy in the Galactic Council, as such you knew care should be taken when dealing with a new species, even if reports suggested humans had no mental abilities, you had to be careful, there were reports of alien minds that could poison a Winterkin.

You dropped on four legs as you approached your target. It was still asleep, but you didn't want to risk exposing yourself.

This close you could sense many other beings surrounding the human, they were not conscious beings, just animals, and yet they were awake, aware or your presence and ready to defend the human if needed. Such loyalty on some mindless animals surprised you, few self aware species on the universe relied on lesser animals to the point of training them to such extent.

Still, mindless animals were easy to control, specially ones so domesticates as this ones. You simply copied the loyalty they felt for the human and imprinted it to you, now they would not only not attack you, but defend you with the same force they would their original owner, at least while you maintained that control over them.

When the Galactic Council first made contact with the Winterkin and realized your whole species was telepathic and share a single Consciousness they were a lot of voices against allowing you entrance to the Council, saying you could take control and bend them to your will.

In reality, while you could influence a mind by inserting ideas, those were ultimately extraneous elements in the subject's mind, and unless a Winterkin continuously kept putting them there, they would revert to their original mindset quite quickly.

Even further, the more advanced a mind was, the more complex the idea that should be inserted to make any influence at all. So while it was perfectly possible to "force" an animal to do almost anything, even things against it's nature; bending a conscious mind was much harder. With some training, most alien species could brush off any attempted attack by a single Winterkin.

You had been careful to make this known to the Council to appease their fears, and offered demonstrations in which they could see the limits of your "mind control". Still, you were also careful not to mention that a group of Winterkin could easily support each other and overtake a much more complex mind. It was in your best interest if the aliens didn't knew that once the Consciousness reached a few million individuals, you really could suppress even the more resilient of minds.

But that was a long dream right now. Now you had to test how the human's mind worked, how easy it was to understand, and therefore to control.

You asked the Consciousness to take over the animals surrounding the human, freeing your concentration for the real task at hand. Sofrig and Wirlig were close enough that they could maintain control, even if the rest of your pack was out exploring and securing the perimeter.

The animals turned our to be the so called dogs. You felt a little better knowing the creatures you would be posing as were at least loyal to a fault. It was a hit on your ego having to undergo this invasion as a "pet" animal, but at least these animals weren't without merit.

You smelled the human and it's pets well before seeing it. It wasn't a pleasant smell, you really hoped not all humans smelled like this, or mating with them could be quite unpleasant. The human was lying on the ground surrounded by three dogs, it wore baggy clothes, way too hot for this climate.

Without any further delay, you extended your mind into the human's, carefully testing if it would react to it, or if it's mindscape could be damaging to the Consciousness. You were pleased to find that the creature's thought processes were simple enough that there was no risk for the Consciousness. This was certainly a self aware mind, complex enough that you would have trouble influencing it on your own, but at least the ideas were easy to understand. These humans weren't so different from the rest of the aliens you had established links with.

Now that the first priority was fulfilled, you decided to see if you could move forward with creating your first hybrid. You dug a little in the human's mind and soon you had your answers. Unfortunately this was a male, not only that, but quite an old male, a pariah of society.

That was unfortunate, not only will you not be able to sire a hybrid in him, but he was not an optimal specimen to sire cubs with Sofrig. At least his mind told you the smell was not his own, but only the filth stuck to him.

Now the Consciousness had to decide what to do with him.

He might be useful:

• Keep him to experiment and extract more information.
• Keep him and use him as a cover "master" to trick other humans.
• Keep him to mate with Sofrig when her heat begins.

No reason to keep such filthy human:

• Kick him out of your den.
• Make his own dogs kill him, the Council won't object since you didn't kill him.

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: 90%		Personal: Human/Winterkin Reproductive Implant, Cooling Pack disguised as a collar On your den:Plasma weapons (not yet setup), Turned off computer, Recharging station, Hidden spaceship.
Political Progress	0%
Cultural Progress	0%
Technical Progress	0%
Overall Transformation	0%
Human Suspicion	3%
Human Resistance	0%