The first attack was an EMP blast that covered nearly the whole of North America,
plunging the world's sole superpower into the darkness of the late industrial revolution.
Power systems across the US were immediately knocked out, and nearly every community in the
nation was plunged into darkness. A few special places, mostly military facilities, managed to
either avoid the worst of the EMP blast through a quirk of the terrain, or were hardened against it.
Civilian planes dropped out of the sky, their onboard electronics completely fried. Military
jets however continued to be operational, as were the US's large fleet of ground combat vehicles-
all of which had been designed for war on a nuclear battlefield
against the Soviet Union or Russia. High up in the atmosphere, the EMP
blast simply wasn't close enough to destroy the electronics on their shielded hardware.
The US had had a few weeks to prepare though, and almost immediately engineering crews moved into
position to fix what power systems they could. Restoring the entire national grid would take
years, so their efforts were focused on critical civilian and military infrastructure. Even then,
it would be weeks at minimum before power could be restored to even a tiny fraction of the US.
The alien spacecraft had been observed a little over a month and a half ago, first drawing the
curiosity of astronomers using computers to search the night sky. The computers noticed the
tiny dip in starlight as the giant craft crossed space and blocked out stars behind it, and soon
deep space reconnaissance radar was turned on the phenomenon confirming that a solid object
was indeed on an intercept course with earth. Any doubts on the object's true nature were squashed a
few days later when the object began decelerating from its current speed at 5% the speed of light.
Now with the object parked in high orbit over the earth,
the President of the United States along with the Joint Chiefs and his top advisors
discuss their strategy for repelling a hostile invasion of the earth by an alien species.
The first to speak is the chief science advisor, confirming that the EMP pulse was an expected
first strike option against the United States, which as the world's sole superpower was the
likeliest target to be struck first. The advisor then pulls up images of the object
made by combining direct visual observation from ground telescopes and radar telemetry,
revealing a long cylinder shape with a giant almost mushroom style dome at the front.
The advisor points at the dome. This is good news,
he says, because this is exactly how we would cross space at very high speeds. The
Joint Chiefs are confused, how exactly is this strange feature of the spacecraft good news?
The advisor clears his throat and explains. Reaching velocities of a few percentage points
of the speed of light is something well within our grasp today, but the biggest problem is shielding
a spacecraft from debris encountered in space. At such incredibly high speeds,
a pebble can strike a spacecraft with the force of hundreds of tons of TNT,
and while debris is extremely rare in the vacuum of space, it is not non-existent. Therefore,
a large shield at the front of a large, thin spacecraft is the best way to shield your vehicle.
And because this is how we would do it, the advisor explains, then this means that our
alien invader's technology cannot be too far ahead of our own. We have a fighting chance.
The men and women who'll decide the fate of the United States, and possibly the earth,
all look around the room at each other. A chance- any chance- is more than they had hoped for.
The advisor once more clears his throat. Because their technology isn't too far advanced from ours,
and they obviously want our planet intact since they are reluctant to simply drop
asteroids on our head from orbit, then I have a plan to win this war. Let me explain...
A day after the EMP blast, ground based radar confirms activity along the main body of the
spacecraft. Several components are detaching from it and breaking up into smaller objects- transport
craft of some sort. Some though, are obviously combat craft, and these move to new orbits. The
US military however has already guessed what the aliens might do next, and they're ready.
From several hundred miles up, metal rods half the size of telephone poles
rain down on military installations across the US. The rods pack no explosives, instead relying
on the kinetic energy of their fall from space to deliver devastation on the scale of mankind's
largest non-nuclear weapons. Military airfields, hangars, command and control nodes, supply depots-
metal rods rain down on these and other strategic targets, completely obliterating them.
But the US was ready, and following protocols established long ago for a nuclear war,
had already widely dispersed its personnel and equipment. Many military aircraft and ground
combat vehicles are destroyed in the attack, but many more survive, widely dispersed into the
surrounding areas and on the thousands of civilian and makeshift airfields all across the US.
As the attack takes place, the President and his advisors,
secure in an underground bunker over a mile deep, monitor the situation through
dozens of redundant command and control networks. The US's plans for a nuclear
showdown with the Soviet Union have created one of the most resilient nations on earth.
The science advisor predicted this attack, and works to reassure his fellow colleagues. Because
the aliens aren't too far advanced from us, he explains, they have many of the same limitations
in space travel that we do- even if they are much better at dealing with them than us. The economy
of space travel makes moving large amounts of equipment, like an invasion fleet, extremely
expensive, so the aliens are dealing with very limited assets. Our plan for victory is to simply
bleed the aliens dry, making an invasion of our nation so expensive in terms of manpower and
resources that the aliens are unable to continue the fight or it simply isn't worth it anymore.
The plan is solid, after all, the aliens had to bring everything to invade our world with them-
including their troops- while we here on earth can regenerate every soldier killed on the spot.
The war will be one of long, ongoing resistance.
The aliens may be limited in resources due to having to ferry them across interstellar space,
but they are still much superior to our own forces. The US military thus makes the best use
of its assets in the short time that it will still be able to before they are inevitably destroyed.
Within hours of the kinetic strikes, the troop transports and combat aircraft
begin to enter the atmosphere. Here, with their sensors blinded by the incredible heat of reentry,
is humanity's best chance at striking with all available air and missile forces.
All across the world combat aircraft and air defense batteries move into action.
Over the skies of the US, squadrons of F-22s, F-35s, F-16s,
and every other plane capable of taking on an interceptor role move to intercept
the incoming alien spacecraft. Heat-guided ground-based interceptors fire in large volleys,
guided to their targets by the unmistakable heat signature of the alien spacecraft entering the
earth's atmosphere. The combat aircraft are next, firing radar and heat-guided missiles
in rapid succession at swarms of alien craft screaming through the atmosphere.
The President had considered using nuclear weapons, but was talked down
by his advisors- the aliens had yet used weapons of mass destruction,
and using a nuke may be an invitation to a type of war the earth couldn't hope to win.
Conventional weapons are having a spectacular effect on the incoming alien craft though, and
cheers erupt in the President's secure facility as the reports trickle in from all over the US.
Moving at such high speeds, the superior alien craft simply can't avoid the incoming volleys,
or they'd risk tearing themselves apart, and despite whatever type of propulsion or
radar-absorbent materials they may be using, the signature of incoming spacecraft at high
speeds through the atmosphere is almost too easy a target for earth's weapons.
The victory however is extremely short lived.
America's combat pilots were warned to immediately break off their attacks
once the spacecraft punched through the atmosphere, but for many it's still
too late. Now within the atmosphere, the alien combat aircraft easily outmaneuver
and outrun even America's best fighter aircraft, and casualties are in the hundreds within minutes.
Next, the combat aircraft strike at air defense batteries all over the US, easily destroying any
they encounter and calling in orbital strikes on those they can't reach. More metal rods from
space obliterate air defense batteries across America- though their crews are long gone.
The aliens now rule not just space, but the skies too.
With alien transports disgorging combat troops by the thousands, America's ground response is
mostly infantry-based. With space firmly in the alien's grasp, more kinetic strikes would easily
obliterate large formations of armored vehicles. For the first time in modern history, the United
States doesn't rule the skies, and has to fight much in the same way its adversaries have.
In some places though, commanders are able to manuever combat vehicles to within very close
range of the enemy. Hugging the enemy, so to speak, forces the aliens to not use kinetic
strikes for fear of hitting their own troops. Forced to ferry all of their invasion equipment
from space, the alien forces are fielding very few combat vehicles of their own,
despite their infantry weapons being superior to man's. Without combat vehicles,
American Abrams tanks and M2 Bradleys decimate alien forces where they encounter
them. No matter their level of technology, even aliens must obey the laws of physics,
and despite their advanced construction, the anti-tank silver bullet rounds of an
Abrams or lethal missiles of a Bradley, are extremely effective against the alien vehicles.
Once more though, victories are short lived
as alien air forces who now have uncontested dominance of the sky,
do the job of close air support that orbital kinetic strikes simply can't do.
The alien's numbers build by the day, and by the end of the week they have disgorged several
million troops on US soil. Then the shuttle flights slow down considerably. With the
ability to only bring a limited number of troops and equipment across the vast distances of space,
the aliens have clearly disgorged nearly all of their combat assets.
Their advanced technology will make up the shortfall in personnel.
Or at least that was the plan. The aliens hail from a planet a hundred light years from earth,
making their observations of our planet a hundred years old, and their invasion
plans are based on fighting a civilization who's planet exhibited the techno signature
of a late industrial age civilization. Then, moving at 5% the speed of light,
it took the invasion fleet another twenty years to arrive. That means the best knowledge the aliens
had on Earth's level of technology was based on distant observations of Earth in the year 1900,
when the most advanced techno signature detectable was weak radio transmissions.
Now they face humanity armed with automatic machine guns, man-portable anti-tank missiles,
electronic warfare suites, and extremely stealthy combat drones.
The war of occupation is indeed costly, but the technological disparity still favors the aliens.
To offset their lack of manpower, the aliens turn to manufacturing combat drones of their own,
who can quickly self-replicate and overwhelm human forces. Within a few weeks,
the conventional war is over, and the US military is roundly defeated, unable to fight any longer.
This is when phase 2 of the US's victory plan over the aliens takes effect.
Seasoned combat troops are ordered to disperse widely into the countryside, taking with them
as much military equipment as they can carry. American special forces operatives are amongst
those ordered to flee for the wilderness or the ruins of cities, and there they link up with other
military personnel and civilian survivors. Special forces operators initiate phase 2,
and begin training surviving combat troops and civilians in the art of resistance.
American forces are taught to hide from and fight a technologically superior enemy the same way
that the Taliban and the Vietcong resisted US might. A guerrilla war begins overnight,
with American survivors striking at alien supply depots and personnel barracks.
The goal is simple: destroy as much equipment as possible and kill as many aliens as possible
so that the invasion becomes too costly in the terms of lives and finances to continue.
The guerrilla resistance lasts for years, despite horrific losses incurred by the human survivors.
Yet, humanity can quickly replace its losses, though it does mean that the traditional
societal norms of relationships have to be temporarily redefined. Men and women cannot
have a single sexual partner, and must have multiple in order to ensure genetic diversity,
and healthy women must produce children as often as possible.
The losses incurred by human guerrillas are staggering, and must be replaced.
The aliens on the other hand must travel twenty years to bring fresh troops to the fight,
and each individual soldier transported over a hundred light years of space
costs their civilization a small fortune. The first wave of reinforcements costs the
aliens as much as the entire economic output of earth over an entire decade.
There is no second wave of reinforcements. The trip is too long,
the cost far too great. Even a rescue mission to their forces stranded on earth
would be too expensive, and come far too late. What aliens are able to,
retreat back to their orbiting spacecraft, but most simply surrender to human forces.
For earth, the cost has been staggering and humanity has gone from a population of almost
8 billion to just over one billion. But the war has been won. Earth is free of invaders for the
first time in thirty years, and the survivors can once more rebuild their shattered nations.
Much as it has many times before, humanity will rise from the ashes, and should the aliens send
another invasion force in the future, they'll meet a planet armed with their own advanced technology,
reverse-engineered for human use, and determined to remain free.
Want to learn about a real alien military encounter? Check out Iran Military Intercepts UFO,
or check out this other video instead!