A Self-inflicted Disaster
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Food would be another resource. It would depend on the Ophiuroids diet. If they get calories from the same cereal grains that we do or feed cereal grains to their livestock, then Ukraine, the US Midwest, Australia, and China's Huang He river will become battlefields. You could look up commodity markets
to see what are Earth's important natural resources. You may look at the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the Six-day War to see how wars over resources play out.
MAGIC MISSILE SWEEP
Is our technology on par with theirs'? If not we most likely wouldn't win, unless we had many tactical geniuses on our side that could predict several moves ahead of them.
Another question would be if other aliens exist or if it's just us two? Because allies would play a major factor in winning a war.
Some call it stalking, I say walking just extremely close behind
A Self-inflicted Disaster
Yeah, if the aliens have much more advanced technology, then the humans would be in a guerilla war. If humanity can build fortifications to hold isolated pockets of territory, it is going to be similar to Attack on Titan. If the physiologies of the two species are sufficiently different, expect chemical and biological warfare.
"Enshittification truly is how platforms die"-Cory Doctorow
Otaku
The physiologies between the Ophiuroids and humans are similar, so Ophiuroids can consume human foods with little effect. However, the Ophiuroids have a lower metabolic rate compared to humans due to their small size and certain compounds are inedible or even toxic to Ophiuroids as a result of different biology.
The technology level of the Ophiuroids is far more advanced than current human technology of the time.
The Ophiuroids have mastered a multitude of plasma-based weaponry and tools, vehicles utilizing room-temperature quantum levitation, mass-production of piloted combat drones constructed with advanced materials science, miniature nuclear reactors and power cells, and facilities that extract and refine natural resources with low energy costs.
The sheer technological difference, coupled with the combat doctrine of the Superordinates, led to the near-decimation of military forces during the initial wave and the slow, brutal war attrition that characterized the following years. But over time, the effectiveness of the Ophiuroid invasion force deteriorated as a result of the troops scrambling to secure and defend the resources, and the human military's research on the drones and their weaknesses.
MAGIC MISSILE SWEEP
Honestly the way you described makes it sound like a war of attrition for us. Of course should they secure and rebuild then we would be done for. Unless humans managed to secure some of their technology, or we had allies with technology similar to theirs' (by which I mean just as strong)
Some call it stalking, I say walking just extremely close behind
And what if the human race becomes a resource for the aliens during this?
Edited by TitanJump on May 11th 2022 at 5:19:50 PM
Otaku
The reason why the war between the Ophiuroids and humanity is the result of a last-ditch, desperate measures stemming from environmental crises besetting the Ophiuroid homeworld - Gliese 667 Cc.
The Gliese 667 Cc is an exoplanet that orbits the red dwarf Gliese 667. It is a dying world on the verge becoming a dead planet that is inhospitable to life. Centuries of rapacious resource extraction and perpetual warfare left the surface desolate and barren, in which resources were heavily depleted and unimaginable damage to the environment on a massive scale, coupled with an Overpopulation Crisis of the dominant species.
A runaway climate change event altered the climate systems of the planet in horrific ways. The global temperatures soared so high that a normal day would be similar to a day in Death Valley, California. Freak weather events like heat waves and droughts happen regularly which wreck the agricultural output. The Ozone layer of the planet have completely depleted, leaving the entire planet bombarded heavily with intense UV radiation.
The native lifeforms on the planet suffered a mass-extinction event greater than the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. There are little flora and fauna left, mostly species used in agriculture, ornamental plants, pets, and a few pockets of biodiversity spared. The photosynthetic microorganisms that support the oxygen supply is long-dead by this point.
In the face of the final collapse, the Ophiuroid scientists discovered a method of planetary travel via wormholes. They discovered a lush, vibrant planet teeming with abundant resources and a habitable environment.
The Ophiuroid leaders banded together, pooling together available resources and war machines to instigate a massive invasion of Earth in order to ensure the survival of the Ophiuroids by securing resources and providing elbow room via the establishment of colonies and factories on Earth's surface.
Yeah, reading this, mankind have every right to exterminate this hoard of alien locusts into complete extinction.
These aliens clearly haven't learned their lesson regarding why their own planet is gasping its final breath on them.
Doesn't expect them to learn it now on earth.
Complete annihilation is the only proper option here.
Otaku
The Divisionary Resource Securement Task Force (DRSTF), or the Bandit Brigades, are division-level task force established to secure and defend natural resources. The division is composed of 27 brigades, each named after bandits, thieves, outlaws, marauders and robbers in history.
The moniker 'Bandit Brigades' comes from the infamy for their high death rate and their willingness to commit brutal, unethical actions for the sake of semblance of operational success. The average survival time of a recruit is 5-10 days, and only half of the recruits will survive their first mission.
The main equipment of the brigades are conventional propellant-based weaponry and experimental plasma-based weaponry. The vehicles used by the brigades are tankettes, half-track infantry fighting vehicles, armed motorcycles, and armored personnel carriers.
The Bandit Brigades accompany the Expeditionary Branch's invasions to secure resources for the humans at Archipelago. The Bandit Brigades destroy MFD unit formations deep in Ophiuroid territory with VTOL air support from the Expeditionary Air Service and secure resources.
What do you think?
State of Mind
People.
The World War series by Harry Turtledove and Out of the Dark by David Weber have similar storylines, and in both of them the technologically superior invading aliens face complications related to military strength. To make a long story short, they're winning on paper, but the casualties they're taking to secure those wins are unsustainable in the long run.
In a war than spans decades, both sides have to take into consideration whether a campaign to take this location for that reason is worth it if the end result means super high casualties and a more brittle overall fighting force as a result.
"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim
Background During my free time, I irregularly thought of the Depicting life under extraterrestrial siege
worldbuilding scenario I previously posted a few months ago. Then, I decided to drop the sillier aspects from the original premise such as a collective of alien races invading Earth in favor of expanding the premise of a war over Earth's resources and space.
I wanted the setting to become a heavy Deconstruction as well thematic opposite of science fiction action/war films such as Star Wars, Independence Day, Avatar and The Tomorrow War. The setting will deal with the horrors of war usually overlooked in such media.
Premise
The setting centers on a war of attrition between humanity and the Ophiuroids over natural resources on Earth. The war lasted for 25 years, which humanity lost approximately 5.5 billion as a result of relentless, intense fighting to secure resources coupled with deaths from starvation, disease and indirect damage.
The remaining 1.5 billion humans are forced to retreat into the Archipelago, a chain of highly-fortified and heavily-armed artificial islands capable of self-sustainability and provide a refuge for humanity. It is located at Point Nemo, also known as the Oceanic Point of Inaccessibility, where it is of little value to the Ophiuroids due to the lack of natural resources and its marine setting.
The remnants of human militaries are consolidated to form the Terrestrial Defense Forces, divided into Expeditionary, Merchant Marines and Intelligence. Expeditionary deals with fighting the Ophiuroids, Merchant Marines deals with logistics and supply transportation, and Intelligence deals with studying and analyzing the nature of the Ophiuroids.
The Divisionary Resource Securement Task Force (DRSTF) are division-level task force that accompanies the Expeditionary Branch in its operations to secure and defend natural resources. The division is composed of 27 brigades, each named after bandits, thieves, outlaws, marauders and robbers in history. The division is infamous for its high death rate and the brutal, unethical measures for operational success during missions.
The Ophiuroids are a carbon-based alien species resembling brittle stars found in Earth's marine environments with copper-based blood. The average specimen measures 1.6 meters in height and weighs 40.3 kilograms. Analysis on the morphology and anatomy of Ophiuroids suggest the species are similar to echinoderms with terrestrial adaptations.
The bulk of Ophiuroid invasion force consists of Mechanized Fighter Drones (MFD). These are essentially Mini-Mecha Walking Tank piloted by Ophiuroids in cockpits located inside the machines. This allows Ophiuroids to survive and fight in the harsh, high-pressure environment of Earth compared to their homeworld.
The war is, at its core, a resource war. The human militaries and the Ophiuroid invasion force fight intensely to secure the available resources that can be extracted and refined, as humans and Ophiuroids need resources to keep themselves alive. The human militaries invade Ophiuroid territory to secure resources while the Ophiuroids defend the resources from human assault.
The five main campaigns of the resource war are:
The resource war initiated when an interdimensional breach manifested in the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility at the Antarctic, leading to the the entry of the first wave of the Ophiuroid invasion force into Earth followed by the opening of more interdimensional portals across the globe. In the initial wave, the Ophiuroids overran the human military response through their advanced technology and sheer numbers. The Ophiuroids secured several important resource sites, as a primary objective, while decimating humans as a periphery objective.
How would such a resource of war attrition play out? What other resources would be valuable to the belligerents? What tactics would be used in this war over resources?