INVASION APOCALYPSE!!! FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE VISITOR
What do we know about the Visitor?
The alien vessel known as the Visitor is a large saucer-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.
What about the landing pods that were dropped?
About five days after its arrival in orbit, the Visitor began dropping giant landing craft around the globe. The vessels descended under power to the surface of the Earth and settled in various locations. The vessels have not moved since landing. Each vessel emits levels of radiation deadly to human beings, creating a large zone of uninhabitability around the vessel. Electronic devices also become inoperable within the zone. The zones are roughly circular, approximately 300 miles in diameter, and centered on the giant landing pods. Though the total number of landing vessels is not known, at least nineteen of the craft landed in North America. The exact purpose of the landing pods is unknown.
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 causes the mutations that occur in some people?
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 who are infected with it. Scientists have speculated that the verity of mutations caused by the virus indicate it is a nanovirus, capable of altering itself to “custom fit” each infected individual. This feature makes the virus impossible to defeat using ordinary biotechnology.
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