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Undercover Aliens

Started by Locke, January 21, 2011, 07:57:47 AM

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Elva

The tactic of blending into human society as a "mutant" relies strongly on the ignorance of those it is meant to fool. Its not perfect, hence the cloak and even a mask if necessary would work best as a first line of defense against inquiry.

Not perfect, but I think it could do the job effectively. Also in my case, the Prawn-like Xeno would be used to being treated like scum(at least the way I'm writing his backstory, which has a lot of parallels with D9, though that disappears pretty quickly once he becomes involved with the Inquisition).
"Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!!"

Alyster Wick

DISCLAIMER: I started writing this about 4 days ago before I started moving but never got to hit the "post" button.  I have about 15 minutes before internet is going down so before I lose anyone with an irrelevant explanation, I apologize if any of this was covered in the last few days (no time to read new replies).

There are many different ways to approach this idea (and I think it's great).  I absolutely side with Marco though in that having a "lone wolf" type Inquisitor just get drunk and replaced is a little silly.  Here are a couple questions along with some ideas that can be used alone or together to actually create a warband, hope they're helpful!

First, we need to know more about the alien species.  While the specifics of how and who gets replaced by them is still up in the air I think the most important aspect of your character is going to be what they're story is.  As such you need to create a background for the race that they're part of.  So, here's a quick list:

1) What race is your character?  Give a full background, how they look, what they eat, what planet are they from, etc.

2) How does this race disguise themselves as other races?  I'm assuming that this is a common racial ploy they use so how have they utilized it before? Do they use technology, psychic trickery, some kind of super-species ability for guile or some combination/something I haven't even listed?

3) How unified is this group?  Do they operate in cells or do they have a galactic empire?  Is this empire a loosely connected group that operates underground or do they have larger ambitions?

4) What is the end-game of infiltrating other species?  Do they observe and balance or attempt to divide and conquer?  If they're conquerors then what keeps them from attacking outright?

Okay, so there are probably TONS more questions to ask but those are the ones that come to mind.  Taking those into account, here are some ideas I have that can be used independently or in combination.

Agents from birth:  This species trains their young starting at an extremely early age (it's also convenient that it takes them about 50 human years to reach full maturation) to be infiltrators. As such they replace incredibly young imperial children (too young to have a defined personality) and do so en masse.  Many go on to live incredibly normal lives by human standards, doing little more than reporting periodically on menial details of their society and planet.  Others gain posts of modest importance, able to subtly shift local events or provide important intelligence occasionally.  But every now and again one of their ranks will ascend to a key post as an adviser to a planetary governor or high ranking official in the military.  The real question is, how often are individuals randomly screened for being xenos in disguise, how well can these aliens disguise themselves and is there some aspect of their alien-ness that they cannot hide (psychic signature, energy they emit, perhaps they smell like almonds and there are no almonds within 500 light years of that location)?

Indoctrinate and replace: These aliens utilize the skins of fully formed adults and arrive on planets in waves.  The first wave is large enough to gather intelligence but small enough to not arouse suspicion.  When they have enough details they send a smaller second wave which tries to ingratiate themselves with important locals (the "benefactor"), eeking their way into their minds (psychologically) and slowly turning them.  They utilize a philosophy similar to the Tau's "greater good" which appeals to their logic and sentiment.  By the time the aliens reveal their true nature to their benefactor they would be willing to do anything in the name of their enlightenment.  Depending on the benefactor, how much they trust their indoctrination and how thoroughly the infiltration has been the aliens may or may not replace them but will certainly start their next step: large term replacement of key figures in order to facilitate an invasion.

Puppet Masters:  This one is kind of cheating (and not all that different from the others, but with an important twist).  Unlike the other two strategies, this one can be achieved with a minimal effort.  The aliens send only a few infiltrators who gradually work their way up.  They can begin as a hobo, slowly moving up the food chain and utilizing their psychic abilities to "read" and replace individuals until they have a position of power.  Only the most powerful alien is able to immediately ingest and "read" an unwillingly host to a degree that would allow them to replace the individual.  More often they must become familiar with them and their habits and sometimes even need to establish a rapport along with a certain degree of trust before they can mine their brains enough to replace them reliably.  Of course there is always the challenge of keeping straight all the personalities the alien has bouncing around in their parasitic heads...



So those are three different options for plausible ways (in my opinion) that this could be done.  You could even use combinations of them, they aren't mutually exclusive! In closing, let me offer a hybrid scenario that could achieve something you're thinking of...

The alien race is interested in taking over the sector.  Their young are (relatively) numerous but often die before they can reach the age to reproduce due to a gene-virus.  While the oldest (and they can live VERY long) can still reproduce they are slowly dying off due to eventual old age.  After three centuries they are able to attain respectable psychic abilities but they don't even begin to manifest until 250 or so (most are dying off well in advance).  Only an ample supply of genetic material (it has to be specific) can inoculate the young against the gene-virus.  Humans just so happen to have that material but it takes A LOT to cure them.

So the aliens send their numerous impotent (psychically and sexually) young to research an area by replacing infants/prepubescents.  Once they have a combination of information and agents with status, the ancients come in to take on the identities of key individuals in the area.  From there they systematically create a smorgasbord or genetic material to ensure the survival of their race, at least for a time.

In the Carlax sector strange things have become to happen.  The reclusive but brilliant Inquisitor Lord Sirius recently took on a new adviser after the mysterious death of his old council and his actions have been erratic as of late.  Slowly the other active Inquisitors in the area begin to follow suit with the dissenters going underground or disappearing all together. 

One of his intermediary agents are confused and he contacts some of Sirius's old allies from out of the sector to investigate. When they arrive they find the intermediary is missing, but coincidentally they are in time to attend Sirius's calling of the XXth Carlaxian Conclave as esteemed guests.  Who shows up on the guest list is anyone's guess...

Hmm, me thinks I may have the basis of a campaign...

Locke

Alright so Ive been thinking of changing the way the aliens(now called Quentyllians) come into contact with the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor is ordo Xenos and comes to a dead world with his entourage investigating ancient alien ruins. Turns out the Quentyllians have been watching him for a while and ambushed him and his team and replaced them. The only problem I have now is trying to find how they get off world(they couldnt use the craft they used to get there because the crew onboard would know somethings up).

For the rough history of the Quentyllians I was thinking of this:
Quentyllians originate from a swamp planet in the Veruno sub-sector. Originally they were large reptilians but after contact with humans they decided the only way they can beat humanity is through infiltration and self destruction(theres cultural reasons to this, they dont think the galaxy is bigger than the sub-sector so dont realize how vast humanity is, and their numbers arent very high at the present) so they undergo extensive selective breeding to create a subspecies thats slightly smaller than an average human. They then wear a artifical skin thats been grown using the dna from the person theyve been trying to impersonate.

Traits for pointing them out include them having slits at the end of their fingers for their claws to come out, they cant wear contacts so they have to wear glasses or bionics over their eyes to hide their obvious repltilian nature.  Also they have to take the human skin off once every few days in order to stretch and shed.

Inquisitor Octavian Lars

I like that idea for an alien
very imaginative
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