Brainstorming: Aliens Invade The UK

(Posted here because some might be interested)

I’m looking for a little help with one of my latest ideas.
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Basically, the Earth has been invaded by an alien empire for various reasons (Earth is in a strategic location and they want it for power-projection capabilities). The aliens are roughly 50 years ahead of us; their FTL system is ‘slow’ and while they can call for reinforcements, it takes several months for them to receive any from their homeworld.

The story itself is focused on Britain, as there are plenty of stories about the United States being invaded. (Obviously, the US, France, Russia, China, and so on are also getting invaded and clobbered by the aliens, but the story is set in the UK.) Having spent a few months prowling around the system, reading the Internet and surveying us from orbit, the aliens manage to hammer most of the military in the opening round. They then land in London and try to capture the PM, which doesn't work, before expanding out to occupy the remaining cities. The aliens are fairly brutal, which makes them even more unpopular than they were before.

Things I would like to brainstorm.

What happens to the UK if it gets effectively cut off from the rest of the world? The banking industry probably crashes hard, but that isn't the major issue. What about food and suchlike? The aliens will probably starve large parts of the population by accident.

How can an insurgency be fought and maintained in the UK? Britain is largely a disarmed society. What happens when – if – the aliens resort to brutal methods to keep the population in line? Or, for that matter, what happens if they feed people in return for submission?

What about the role of the Royal Family. If King Charles is killed, along with Willy, that makes Harry the King. Can he be used as an effective rallying point or not?

Can nukes be used as a last resort? The aliens can shoot down missiles launched from Earth, but tactical nukes could probably be slipped into their bases. What about chemical or biological warfare? Could Earth devise a way of infecting the aliens with a disease?

Are there any other issues that should be considered?

Chris

 

If the Aliens are ruthless, insurgency is the only choice over death, but if the Aliens treat there prisoners with some compassion recruting fighters could be harder. Weapons could be manufactured in an underground cave system? And if the Alien weapon system is electronics based may be an EMP would help to level the playing field.

 

Chris, have you ever read I believe its John Ringo's Posleen series? That might give ya ideas

 

I have. I've even written two peices of fanwork set in those universes.

This is going to be different, though.

Chris

 

Here...Change locations..and have them invade the bayous'...and meet up with a pack of rougarou's...Could be a movie deal in the future.?


http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7le_xfhOz0IAW3NXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1NGdibnFsBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA01TWTAxM18xODA-/SIG=11pbmjtmu/EXP=1324955199/**http%3a//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rougarou

 

Aliens and werewolves?

Chris

 

Aliens...not the ''domestic'' type...We have the rougarou's already...They live in the swamps...and as and added note...Have the guys from Son's of Guns do a battle with the aliens...You have just captured the 35% of the U.S.A. Bubba faction...

 

The only way Britain could mount an effective counterinsurgency would be if the aliens had a simultaneous attraction and fatal allergy to warm beer and ugly women.

 

This guy has been missing for about a week...Its not the gators that got him...something else has....


No sign yet of missing hunter | KATC.com | Acadiana-Lafayette, Louisiana

 

I'll play

The aliens are fairly brutal, which makes them even more unpopular than they were before.

*Before what?

Things I would like to brainstorm.

What happens to the UK if it gets effectively cut off from the rest of the world? The banking industry probably crashes hard, but that isn't the major issue. What about food and suchlike? The aliens will probably starve large parts of the population by accident.

*I can see large parts of the urban population perishing from hunger, but are the Aliens (and you need a name for them, Like Bugs or something)
able to bottle up the urban areas completely?
Other related issues - like with electricity gone, in turn means issues with water and sewer.

How can an insurgency be fought and maintained in the UK? Britain is largely a disarmed society. What happens when – if – the aliens resort to brutal methods to keep the population in line? Or, for that matter, what happens if they feed people in return for submission?

*The Bugs may have smashed the military, but some had to have survived, and are exfiltrating to the countryside. Why not have them form up as guerrillas? Hit and run raids, damage the Bugs ships and facilities. Those ray guns surly need spare parts ammo/batteries/anitmatter - something of a logistic tail Stomp on the tail, hard.


What about the role of the Royal Family. If King Charles is killed, along with Willy, that makes Harry the King. Can he be used as an effective rallying point or not?

*Dunno how the royals are viewed there - a Yank would politely tell them to pound sand. One of your Royals, Harry?,is a forward air controller. Might be a good point to rally on - An Officer, a Royal, knows commo- why not?,


Can nukes be used as a last resort? The aliens can shoot down missiles launched from Earth, but tactical nukes could probably be slipped into their bases. What about chemical or biological warfare? Could Earth devise a way of infecting the aliens with a disease?

*Are the Bugs still in and controlling the geound from orbit? "Cause if they landed, they are now on your turf.
Do the Bugs use DEW (directed energy weapons?) If not, then the odd bit of artillery could be employed when the Bugs are outside of their strong points. Use your imagination, salvaged 20mm aircraft cannon, IED made from mines, bombs even fertilizer. The Telly has just shown a group of new savages kick the sh** out of the Western military, mostly because they chose to NOT carpet bomb the AO.
DO the Bugs need whatever industry is left in the UK for their needs?

NBC warfare has the sad side-effect if killing everything not protected - can you live with the collateral damage?



Are there any other issues that should be considered?

Communication? How do the Bugs talk with/to us eartakins?
When you say brutal - do you mean line up resisters and ray them down in job lots, hang them in cages as an example, cut off their TV privileges?

They were in your interwebs - sic the Bulgarians on them, they have world class hackers.

Worse yet, sic the bureaucrats on them - they make a demand, the minister takes forever to answer... That might work to buy you some time - until you run out of mindless drones.

Any technology sufficiently advanced - so as to cross the vast reaches of space, should be pretty eay to bugger up, eh? Starship engine = a big bomb so to speak.

HAve fun, hope this helps a bit.
​

 

Hello Chris!

As far as weapons go: The Brits can have repeating and semi automatic .22´s and silencers for them. Silencers are easy to come by.

They can have centrefire Repeaters (Bolt action, Lever, Pump, straight pull like specially built straightpull AR 15´s that don´t have a gashole in the barrel). Even .50 BMG rifles.

They can have shotguns on a shotgun certificate and it´s, afaik, easy to get. So shotguns are very widespread. But with a shotgun certificate, the shotgun must hold less then two or three shots or something.

If you´d want a full capacity pump shotgun for example, that would also have to be on the "higher" permit where the rifles are on which is a bit less easy to get then a shotgun certificate, but still very achieveable.

Legally held handguns would be rare, they´ve been completely illegal for quite some time and you can only get them with a very special permit.

Other non firearms weapons that come to mind would be swords and bows. For all i know, these are pretty widespread there.

Lets not forget the black market. It´s HUGE in the UK. I´ve seen a show on TV once where they showed a reporter trying to buy an illegal handgun off the street and it took him like one or two hours to complete the deal and that includes finding someone who´d sell..... In the same show i think, they showed footage of a small podunk town out in the country where recently someone did a mag dump into an abandoned building with a full auto gun. IIRC: they showed empty 7,62x39 (AK 47) brass that was picked up in front of this building.

So, no, the Brits are not THAT unarmed.

I investigated this some time ago because it caught my interest and thought i´d join the board to share that, undoubtely little, knowledge i gathered. Hopefully i recalled everything correctly.


Depending on th physique of your alien race, they could be quietly taken out with silenced .22 rifles. You could make them vulnerable at one or more particular spots... like: it takes at least a .223 to shoot them in the upper body, but if you manage to sneek up behind them you can take them out with a shot into the area where the neck and head meat because their exoscelet is way weaker there or whatnot.


As far as the royals goes.... The older guy William is currently active service in the Army or something and i think he could get a portion of Brits behind him to mount resistance. I think his younger brother Harry could achieve that too.

After all, they´re under attack as a nation and even if someone didn´t think too much of these royals before, i think a common enemy could still make them all work together. I don´t think it´s much of a matter if the resistance leader is a royal or a gas station guy as far as that goes, but the Royal is of course a lot more plausible.

AFAIK, the royals don´t have anything at all to say politically nowadays, they´re a mere showtroop representing the country a bit. As long as any given Royal resistance leader wouldn´t openly plan a coup to re establish the Monarchy, i think people would fight with him. (you can work the doubts of some people about a coupe like that into the story nicely though)


TCM



ETA: something i forgot about UK gunlaws: you can only buy a certain amount of ammo!!

I think for shotguns, you can buy as much as you want, but i´ve seen a piece of paper before that listed how many rounds of any given caliber the shooter could buy (and legally possess at any time).

It read like: 300rds of .303 British, 2200rds of .22lr and stuff like that. (yeah, you can only buy ammo for guns that are registered on your permit there, and no other calibers...)

I don´t know if that represents average numbers of allotments but i recon it does.

Of course that will not prevent a Preparedness minded person from squirreling an impressive amount away anyway over time, but they´d probably hide that stuff quite well.

 

Cool! All advice and suggestions are welcome.

Chris

 

And i´d like to thank you for sharing your stories with us! They´re great!

 

As I remember brits are pretty good with bows. So low tech the aliens couldn't respond properly and I do believe a Scotch reenacting group with swords spears and battle axes might at first be looked at as a religious ceremony till it was to late of course

 

Chris, I am always interested in books being written about the UK, as I am a Scot who emigrated to Canada and it's like going "home" for me to read about the old familiar things and places.

As far as Food is concerned, it would be fairly easy to starve the British out. It's an Island, after all! If it hadn't been for the brave convoys of ships from places like Canada and the States, (and many were sunk by the German U-boats) the nation would have been very badly off, in fact we would probably have eventually starved. As it was, our rations were barely life sustaining and only the fact that fish, potatoes and veggies were unrationed, saved us. So....if the Aliens were able to control shipping access, Britain could not support herself food-wise. Sort of like a siege around a castle thing on a much larger scale. It also came to my mind that the incredible wartime story of the Island of Malta might have some helpful ideas on the food and supplies issue to a beleagured nation. I don't recall the details now (I was very young when it was all happening) but I seem to remember that the Germans tried to starve the Maltese out. I could be wrong though. The Maltese people were awarded the George Cross by King George for their incredible fortitude and courage.

Somebody else mentioned the British Black Market which no doubt would be very much alive. However, the Black Market can only flourish if there is food somewhere to put on sale and in a siege scenario, even the Black Market supply would gradually diminish and peter out. However, given the extensive miles of wild, rugged and unpatrolled coastline, especially in the north of Scotland, food could be brought in to the country in small boats but certainly not nearly enough to feed an entire country of many millions.

Regarding the Royal Family: yes, Prince Harry would be the next in line to the throne after the deaths of Princes Charles and William. He and his brother are military men with extensive skills and I am sure Harry would be a most popular rallying point. HOWEVER, in your timeline, William would no doubt have had children and these would take precedence over Harry. If they were still minors, however, Harry could be a Regent. Also, currently just being passed in Parliament, WOMEN are now permitted to be direct heirs to the throne instead of being passed over for their younger brother(s). That might be an interesting angle.....a girl Queen would be an incredible rallying point for the people. Trust me, there would be an underground resistance formed for sure. The Brits (although I expect they have become "soft" as so many of us are nowadays) would still not allow their freedom to be lost without a giant struggle. We are the nation that produced a man like Churchill (of course, he was half-American, let's not forget, lol) and he is the one who said .. "We will never surrender". I heard those words spoken by him, with my own ears over the radio..even as a child I knew such words should never be forgotten.

One more thing to keep in mind...the Scots will almost certainly be an independent nation by then. They are currently working towards that end. I am not taking sides one way or the other but in the kind of plot you are setting up, it could make a big difference. I have no idea as to whether they will keep the "English" monarch as their Head of State, it's anybody's guess at the moment, I expect. (Unless there is somebody else on the site who can give more input into this aspect of things???) Another thing.....Britain may have become a Republic by then, it's a possibility, although perhaps a slim one. Again, there is no way to tell what is coming along in that respect....some of it will no doubt depend on the "behaviour" of the current members of the Royal House of Windsor.

I am sorry I can't give you the kind of technical info you need but I see you are getting lots of input from other Monkeys so am just sharing what I do have. I don't expect it will be much help but you never know, eh! If you do have any questions that I could perhaps answer, please don't hesitate to write.

All the best with your new book and thanks loads for sharing your previous work. Very enjoyable!

 

Who you callin' Ugly, huh? Watch your mouth, sonny, or WeeGranny (FROM SCOTLAND) will wash it out with soap. I agree with you, however, about the Warm Beer, haha.....although given the Scottish climate, it's probably a good deal colder than the English beer, which may be the only stuff you ever tasted over there???? I know for sure that it is a good deal stronger and more potent than the English beer. When my dad went into an English pub and tasted English beer for the first time, he was disgusted and he couldn't figure out how they had the nerve to charge for such lukewarm weak stuff.

 

Remember the UK has at any given time 72 hours of food and fuel on hand, after that its riots and killings, i wonder how the "aliens" would taste?? there's an interesting angle, there have been many civilizations in our history that have "eaten the enemy". it has two advantages 1) food source 2) strikes fear into the heart of the enemy to know what happens to them if they are captured and or killed Very demoralizing!
Just a thought

 

Oh, I like that! Sounds like a plan....kill your enemies and use them to fill the freezer, lol. Hope they taste like Pizza and not something horrible. Lots of scope for the imagination in your idea!!

 

Timothy Zahn wrote an interesting series where Sling shots were used as a backup weapon for his "Black collars" interesting read that...

 

BLACK COLLARS WAS ONE OF MY EARILY SCI-FI FAVORITES.
Matt