INVASION APOCALYPSE!!! FAQ

What happened?

In the summer of 2016, a massive alien vessel entered Earth orbit, shorting out all electronics in a 5,000 mile area as it passed overhead. The United States and other nations launched coordinated attacks but their missiles and aircraft fell from the sky before they could even approach the alien vessel. The alien vessel took three days to orbit Earth, soon leaving the entire planet without electricity. The sudden appearance of powerful extraterrestrials and the loss of electricity were too much for human society to bear. Populations rioted, cities erupted in flame, and governments fell as human civilization descended into conflict and chaos. Thirty years later, the tattered remnants of human civilization endure numerous hardships as they struggle to survive and prevail. The giant ship now known as The Visitor continues to orbit, its purpose as mysterious as they day it arrived.

What do we know about the Visitor?

Only known photograph of the Visitor.

The alien vessel known as the Visitor is a large triangular-shaped craft approximately 93 miles wide and six miles tall. It appears to be made from a dull, dark-grey metal. There are no visible windows, joins, centers of control, communication arrays, or means of propulsion. The Visitor orbits at the lower edge of the mesosphere, about 31 miles above Earth. It takes three days to circle the world, generally moving from North America down to Africa and then back up again through Asia in a steady pattern. As it orbits, the Visitor emits strange energies that interfere with the operation of electronics. Anything with wires will be shorted out when the Visitor gets within 5,000 miles. Even simple flashlights fail when the Visitor comes back into range. It is also believed the energies emitted by the Visitor affect local weather patterns as the arrival of the Visitor is usually preceded and followed by severe thunderstorms.

What about the landing vessels?

About three days after its arrival in orbit, several large vessels left the Visitor and descended under power to the surface of the Earth in various locations. The vessels remain on the surface for a period of time, usually not longer than 48 hours, before returning to the mother ship. Each of these vessels emits levels of radiation deadly to human beings, creating a large zone of uninhabitability approximately 30 miles in diameter around the vessel. Electronic devices also become inoperable within this zone. These vessels, commonly known as landers, continue to make these trips. The exact purpose of the landers is unknown and there is no apparent schedule or other discernible pattern to their operations.

Is it true they leave alien technology behind?

Those who have ventured into the zone after the departure of a lander are said to have discovered various bits of alien technology. Most of these devices have been non-functional. Many emit high levels of radiation or possess other features that often prove fatal to those attempting to operate or disassemble them. In spite of these serious dangers, there is a market for such items and some desperate scavengers are known to venture into the zones in search of these artifacts. Some communities have banned alien technology for safety reasons.

What are these food pods I’ve heard so much about?

Around the same time the landing vessels began appearing, the Visitor began dispensing what came to be known as food pods. Food pods are six-foot long cylinders that contain an edible, orange, flour-like powder that smells like freshly baked bread. Many people refer to this substance as “manna” in reference to a Biblical tale. These food pods descend to random locations, sometimes coming down close to remaining population centers, and sometimes landing far away in the middle of nowhere. The average pod lays about 100 balls of food substance within two hours, then returns to the Visitor. Each food ball contains twelve servings; one serving provides enough basic nutrients for one day. The powder is usually used to make bread or gruel, which must be eaten within an hour after preparation or it begins to mold. Food pods are prized by scavengers, who will sometimes enter the uninhabitable zones in search of these and other valuable alien artifacts.

What are these things called Grotesques?

One year after the arrival of [the Visitor], some survivors began to change into hideous, vicious aberrations. Over a period of days, they shifted into cunning and greedy mutants who took what they wanted, attacking anyone who got in their way. They were branded Grotesques and driven out. In the wastelands, they joined roving gangs (or formed their own) and came back “home” in droves to harass the unchanged. Grotesques can manifest at any time, making it hard to count on anyone or anything.

What causes these mutations?

It is believed that the alien visitors either deliberately or inadvertently released a type of virus into Earth’s biosphere. This virus causes extreme neurological and physiological changes in those creatures who are infected with it. Scientists have speculated that the variety of mutations caused by the virus indicate it is a nanovirus, capable of altering itself to “custom fit” each infected individual's genetic structure. This feature makes the virus impossible to defeat using ordinary biotechnology. This is believed to be the explanation for the number and variety of mutations that occur. The nanovirus may affect the genetic material of any living creature , including plants, insects, and animals. There have been unconfirmed reports that that the nanovirus is able to cause post-mortem changes in some organisms, including reanimation of dead tissue and reactivation of motor neurons.

Why would aliens visit or invade Earth?

The motivations of the Visitor are not known. If space travel is difficult and expensive for the Visitor as it is for humans, something important must compel aliens to come all this way and take over the Earth. Some possible reasons include:

• Earth has unique resources. “Rare earth elements” such as scandium, which is essential to the creation of light alloys for aerospace applications.
• Enslavement or domestication of humans.
• DNA splicing experiments.
• Habitable planets are rare.
• Earth is inconvenient.
• Weapons testing.
• Amusement.
• Vengeance.
• Fear.

Where are the Aliens from?

No one is certain where the visitors came from. There are multiple theories based on variety of conjectures, many as notably crackpot as the suggestion that the Visitors are actually humans from the distant future. The most popular theories as well as leading scientific conjecture suggest the visitors originate from one of the following star systems:

• Alpha Centauri, 4.3 ly
• Barnard’s Star, 5.9 ly
• Wolf 359, 7.8 ly
• Lalande 21185, 8.3 ly
• Sirius, 8.6 ly

See also

• INVASION APOCALYPSE!!! Campaign. Information for creating player characters for INVASION APOCALYSPE!!!