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Return of the 'Original' Terrans

Mak Taru

Mak Taru

Stop hugging me
Location
Somewhere
Premise for a story: A massive fleet of interstellar spaceships shows up in Earth orbit one day. The 'aliens' (who look like giant crustacean/arthropods, think a mix of a grasshopper and a lobster) explain that they are actually native to Earth, having evolved hundreds of millions years in the past. Their ancestors fled the planet to escape from the Permian-Triassic extinction event, putting themselves in suspended animation on a solar sail powered vessel that eventually reached a habitable planet in another star system.

They reestablished their civilization but the location of their original homeworld was forgotten and only rediscovered recently. Now they find that another civilization of strange, warm-blooded creatures has occupied their home.

Scientists establish the validity of this claim: their DNA is related to life on earth, showing signs that it diverged at the time they say that they left the planet. They are able to point out several barely - intact artifacts and signs of their civilization around the solar system, such as an underground bunker on the moon.

Their demands are simple: They want their planet back. The human race is given 2 years to evacuate the Earth. Ships will be provided for this exodus, and the human population will be deposited on another world chosen by the original Earthlings. We will be able to take advantage of their technology, giving us perfect health and extended lifespans, as well as a post-scarcity society with access to virtually unlimited resources. In exchange, though, we will be vassals, ruled by the bug-lobsters, and prohibited from developing space travel or weapons of any real significance. We will only be able to travel through space on their ships, if they allow it. If we wish, up to 100 million humans will be allowed to stay on Earth, but they will be confined to a reserve in Antarctica.

To demonstrate that they mean business, they detonate an antimatter weapon powerful enough to shatter Jupiter's moon Ganymede. If we do not agree to accept their generous offer, they will wipe us out and retake the Earth by force.

How do you think society would respond, and what would be your personal reaction?
 
Society would be freaking out. A lot of society would be scared. Some of society would fight. Many would make comparisons to the Doctor Who reptilians. Most politicians would urge people to take the offer but surely a few would not. I personally would be indifferent and willing to die when the planet does.
 
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Mak Taru said:
Premise for a story: A massive fleet of interstellar spaceships shows up in Earth orbit one day. The 'aliens' (who look like giant crustacean/arthropods, think a mix of a grasshopper and a lobster) explain that they are actually native to Earth, having evolved hundreds of millions years in the past. Their ancestors fled the planet to escape from the Permian-Triassic extinction event, putting themselves in suspended animation on a solar sail powered vessel that eventually reached a habitable planet in another star system.

They reestablished their civilization but the location of their original homeworld was forgotten and only rediscovered recently. Now they find that another civilization of strange, warm-blooded creatures has occupied their home.

Scientists establish the validity of this claim: their DNA is related to life on earth, showing signs that it diverged at the time they say that they left the planet. They are able to point out several barely - intact artifacts and signs of their civilization around the solar system, such as an underground bunker on the moon.

Their demands are simple: They want their planet back. The human race is given 2 years to evacuate the Earth. Ships will be provided for this exodus, and the human population will be deposited on another world chosen by the original Earthlings. We will be able to take advantage of their technology, giving us perfect health and extended lifespans, as well as a post-scarcity society with access to virtually unlimited resources. In exchange, though, we will be vassals, ruled by the bug-lobsters, and prohibited from developing space travel or weapons of any real significance. We will only be able to travel through space on their ships, if they allow it. If we wish, up to 100 million humans will be allowed to stay on Earth, but they will be confined to a reserve in Antarctica.

To demonstrate that they mean business, they detonate an antimatter weapon powerful enough to shatter Jupiter's moon Ganymede. If we do not agree to accept their generous offer, they will wipe us out and retake the Earth by force.

How do you think society would respond, and what would be your personal reaction?
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They've really only given us one option. The smartest thing to do would be to take their offer and hope that over the years they change their mind and let us develop on their own without being vassals. I really wouldn't have anything to say about it other than "Yikes!" and "Wow!"
 
I expect there's not one path taken. There'll be a lot of panic and suicides. Some nations will take their offer, others offer defiance; at least some of the nuclear powers will probably try some sort of take-the-planet hostage plan, since that's the only real leverage humanity has.

The latter might well be the sensible ones, given that there's zero reason to assume the "Original Terrans" will keep their word. It's quite possible - even likely judging from human history - that once humans are off Earth and no longer in a position to threaten it that they'll just kill us all. Ask the surviving Native Americans just how the kind of "deal" being offered here tends to turn out.
 
Avernus said:
I expect there's not one path taken. There'll be a lot of panic and suicides. Some nations will take their offer, others offer defiance; at least some of the nuclear powers will probably try some sort of take-the-planet hostage plan, since that's the only real leverage humanity has.

The latter might well be the sensible ones, given that there's zero reason to assume the "Original Terrans" will keep their word. It's quite possible - even likely judging from human history - that once humans are off Earth and no longer in a position to threaten it that they'll just kill us all. Ask the surviving Native Americans just how the kind of "deal" being offered here tends to turn out.
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BTW, for those who intend to fight them, here is a description of the weapon they deploy to quell resistance on Earth:

Nicknamed 'meteorballs' by humans (as they resemble meteors in flight, when they can be perceived), these are spherical drones slightly larger than baseballs, equipped with some type of antigravity propulsion that lets them accelerate to hundreds of times the speed of sound in seconds and stop and change direction on a dime. They have a structural integrity field and a forcefield surrounding them which makes them essentially indestructible to anything short of a nuclear proximity detonation within a few meters. They can fly straight through tanks, planes, ships, reinforced bunkers, etc. like a bullet through tissue paper. They can also deliver an electric shock at range to incapacitate a human or other living being, similar to the effect of a taser.

They aren't vulnerable to EMP or any known type of jamming (in fact it is unknown how they communicate and coordinate with each other). They can track and target heat and EM signatures, and one of them can operate for hours on end before needing to return to an orbiting vessel to refuel.

The Original Terrans use them to quickly crush armed resistance and have never deployed more than a thousand at once, but they claim to be able to produce hundreds of billions on short notice. They also claim that they are merely a crowd control device, and not military grade weapons.
 
Mak Taru said:
BTW, for those who intend to fight them, here is a description of the weapon they deploy to quell resistance on Earth:
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Doesn't matter. The only likely defense to work would be nuclear "doomsday weapons" designed to spread as much radioactive garbage as possible. Not trying to fight them directly.

If nothing else nuking the planet would serve as a last act of spite before humanity probably goes extinct. Because yes; the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that accepting their offer just leads to genocide once we are out of range of the planet. Or worse than genocide.
 
Avernus said:
Doesn't matter. The only likely defense to work would be nuclear "doomsday weapons" designed to spread as much radioactive garbage as possible. Not trying to fight them directly.

If nothing else nuking the planet would serve as a last act of spite before humanity probably goes extinct. Because yes; the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that accepting their offer just leads to genocide once we are out of range of the planet. Or worse than genocide.
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Yet it should be noted that they are giving the human race lots of chances. They could have just attacked immediately with no warning.
 
Mak Taru said:
Yet it should be noted that they are giving the human race lots of chances. They could have just attacked immediately with no warning.
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Like I said, we know from our own history how this sort of offer usually turns out. Why damage the planet they want in the process of killing us when they can just get us to leave and then kill us once we are away from anything they care about?
 
Avernus said:
Like I said, we know from our own history how this sort of offer usually turns out. Why damage the planet they want in the process of killing us when they can just get us to leave and then kill us once we are away from anything they care about?
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So it's better to ensure extinction than to choose possible survival?
 
Avernus has the right of it. This is a scenario where humanity gets massively fucked over, and we've got no reason whatsoever to trust these people. Literally our only leverage amounts to "Fuck off or we burn the entire biosphere to radioactive ash and we both lose."

After all, it's not much of a planet if it's totally uninhabitable.
 
The capacity of the human nuclear arsenal is grossly exaggerated. We do not actually have the power to ""burn the entire atmosphere to radioactive ash."" Not even close. At best we can give the biosphere a temporary cough and a fever for a few decades.

Also, the technology for

Mak Taru said:
perfect health and extended lifespans
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Sounds like a pretty damn sweet deal. A lot of people will disbelieve it at first, but once it turns out that yes, you can get to live forever, there will be a stampede for the stuff.

@Mak Taru Do the Original Terrans negotiate strictly with human governments? How do they define a government, given that we have a lot of edge cases for states/governments/countries? Do they try to negotiate with all of humankind as a unitary unit (forcing the governments to try to respond as one, and resulting in a lot of knife fighting behind closed doors)? Do they use billions of sophisticated AI delegates to communicate with humans on an individual basis, answering each single human's questions, wants, and fears, and offering a place on the ships to any Joe Bob Human willing to take one up?
 
Mechasaurian said:
The capacity of the human nuclear arsenal is grossly exaggerated. We do not actually have the power to ""burn the entire atmosphere to radioactive ash."" Not even close. At best we can give the biosphere a temporary cough and a fever for a few decades.

Also, the technology for



Sounds like a pretty damn sweet deal. A lot of people will disbelieve it at first, but once it turns out that yes, you can get to live forever, there will be a stampede for the stuff.

@Mak Taru Do the Original Terrans negotiate strictly with human governments? How do they define a government, given that we have a lot of edge cases for states/governments/countries? Do they try to negotiate with all of humankind as a unitary unit (forcing the governments to try to respond as one, and resulting in a lot of knife fighting behind closed doors)? Do they use billions of sophisticated AI delegates to communicate with humans on an individual basis, answering each single human's questions, wants, and fears, and offering a place on the ships to any Joe Bob Human willing to take one up?
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They attempt negotiations with any government willing to listen. They will take any large (2000+) group of humans that accept the offer and gather in one place. If any governments try to use force to prevent their citizens from leaving, they will deploy the meteorballs to defend the asylum seekers.
 
You really want humans to bow down to their alien overlords now don't you? If they want to live here they can come down here and fucking share it like civilized folk, the fact that they don't want to share living space with us mere "primitives" doesn't give me much hope...
 
TBH "Having to share Earth with a bunch of pushy elder-thing lobster" sounds far too good of a premise for a thread like this.
 
GabeC1997 said:
You really want humans to bow down to their alien overlords now don't you? If they want to live here they can come down here and fucking share it like civilized folk, the fact that they don't want to share living space with us mere "primitives" doesn't give me much hope...
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They're not aliens though. They were here first, and for much longer.
 
Mak Taru said:
They're not aliens though. They were here first, and for much longer.
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They were here first, a long ass time ago, probably to the point that most of their history occurred after they left. Currently they're sentient beings from another solar system that have traveled here in spaceships because they want to kick us off our homeworld while also turning us into a vassal species (as opposed to a vassal state), thus why people call them aliens.

And it also sound like they're aquatic, so them refusing to share is just them being dicks. Which, to me, equals being untrustworthy enough I wouldn't hand them the fate of my entire species.
 
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GabeC1997 said:
They were here first, a long ass time ago, probably to the point that most of their history occurred after they left. Currently they're sentient beings from another solar system that have traveled here in spaceships because they want to kick us off our homeworld while also turning us into a vassal species (as opposed to a vassal state), thus why people call them aliens.

And it also sound like they're aquatic, so them refusing to share is just them being dicks. Which, to me, equals being untrustworthy enough I wouldn't hand them the fate of my entire species.
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They are amphibious actually.

And I think they are being far more reasonable than many humans would be if their situations were reversed.
 
Mak Taru said:
They are amphibious actually.

And I think they are being far more reasonable than many humans would be if their situations were reversed.
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They blew up the largest moon in the solar system, as a threat. Because they don't want to share a gravity well with people that are also from their (apparently) oh so precious home world that they didn't give a shit about until a half a year ago. Does that sound reasonable to you? Don't answer, that was rhetorical. I'd love to believe them, but I'm not stupid enough to ignore all the warning signs based on their own actions to risk the lives of me, my family, my friends, and the fate of my species on.
 
Generally speaking people need more data points to write an interesting response to this. Otherwise they'd rightfully default to action-as-character, in which case yes, the lobsters come across as insufferably smug dicklords on so many levels.
 
Well it's interesting that you would choose certain death over a potentially quite comfortable lifestyle.
 
About society I can only make wild guesses. Well, of course, there will be a lot of xenophobia in this case. As I think, society will be really divided on this topic. Some people will definitely be swayed by the promises of the perfect health, while other people will see these not-aliens as monsters and their promises as the evil temptation.

My reaction in this situation would heavily depend on the cultural development of this not-aliens. If they don't share with humanity any of their literary, artistic or other works, I will deem them as invaders who desire to destroy us and I will do everything that I can to oppose them.
If they give us insight into their culture, I will make my opinion of them based on their fiction. If they have strong and reasonable moral standards, I will support them. But if they have strange and totally alien worldview, I will be scared of them and completely not sure what to do.
 
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