The Xochtil: Unity Alien Report

Unity Alien Report #06Xochitl
Planet of Origin: Earth*
Sentience Level: Low Human
Temperament: Extremely hostile**
Tech Level: 3/6
Trade Products: None
Terran Goals: Mass murder and colonization.
Estimated Power Levels:
Strength: 5
Intellect: 2-3
Speed: 5
Offense: 6
Defense: 6
Versatility: 3
Popularity: -10%

Abilities: The greatest threat the Xochitl pose is their technology, (see Xochitl History below), but they are formidable opponents in their own right. Their great bulk, (8' tall and weighing and average of 400 lbs.) is constructed largely of muscle and this, combined with their claws, make them lethal hand to hand fighters. They also have an unusual degree of stealth for being such large creatures and this natural talent is enhanced by an ability to change the color of their fur to match their surroundings. The change is not perfect and is readily apparent upon close inspection, but few stop for a second look and fewer yet have a chance to. A number of the Xochitl, (although not all), have the ability to descend into a kind berserk fury in times of battle. During this frenzy their already superhuman strength is enhanced to a level comparable to some supers. In addition to this, the claws of these berzerkers exude an acidic poison which can inflict terrible wounds upon their adversaries. All Xochitl so far encountered have also been skilled in the Xochitl equivalent of various human military techniques, and they tend to be skilled in guerilla warfare.

Background: The Xochitl have the dubious honor of having led the first major alien invasion force against earth, (1958), in nearly eighty years and the second one in recorded history. Their arrival also started the greatest case of world panic since the earlier invasion. There were few citizens of Earth not familiar with the history of the Martian attack of 1873 and the thought of another such assault drove millions mad with terror. In point of fact, the Xochitl posed nothing like the threat of the earlier invasion. Their technology, while advanced, was not insuperable and there were only a hundred thousand or so Xochitl on the planet, scattered in a wide variety of locations and engaging in a rather dubious military strategy. The allocation of major resources to assure the destruction of Denver and their attempts to destroy the world's dolphin population being two examples of this.

But despite their shortcomings it seems likely that the Xochitl would have done great harm and damage had it not been for the coming of the Supers. For, as nearly the entire world population knows, it was this crisis that brought about the first major emergence of Supers into the public eye. There had been isolated reports of humans with unusual abilities before, but when flying men destroyed the alien devastator lying waste to Denver, the world cheered in one voice. Thanks to the Novas the Xochitl invasion force was completely routed and the world was saved.

Since that time, Earth has been attacked on eight separate occasions by fragments of the great Xochitl invasion fleet, (see Xochitl background below). Each time the Xochitl have been defeated, although there have been times that they have come close to doing great damage to the citizens of the Earth, (the time one of their attacks coincided with an invasion of the Morlocks being the most dangerous). The last such invasion in 1996 was destroyed by Unity in orbit before the Xochitl could even reach the Earth, (just in time to give the UN a motivator to increase Unity funding, some cynics claimed).

Xochitl History: Until fairly recently, little was known of the Xochitl and the reasons for their interest in the Earth. The Xochitl were savage fighters and never surrendered. The tendency of some Xochitl to enter the blood rage insured that the forces of humanity kept their distance and tried to deal with the Xochitl with ranged attacks that left few survivors to question after their application. Indeed, it seemed impossible to communicate with the Xochitl for the aliens seemed to have no interest in humanity past destroying it. Mentalists have always had a hard time dealing with the Xochitl, as their alien minds are a bizarre and frightening place to walk.

But the one thing that was readily apparent was that the Xochitl were not the ones that had built their weapons, ships and other various bits and pieces of technology. The similarities between Xochitl and those individuals was limited to their size and their usage of long, narrow appendages to work their equipment, (for which the Xochitl use their claws). The Xochitl never attempt to repair damaged tech, and beyond a basic knowledge of knowing what switch to depress to produce a certain effect, have no idea how they work. The technology the Xochitl do produce is off roughly human industrial age technology, (primitive guns, the sending of tap messages through stands of hung wire, the steam engine etc.,) which they use on occasion due to a lack on the part of their borrowed technology. Human understanding of the borrowed technology is rather lacking as the stuff has a strong tendency to blow up when humans are around and victorious. This evidence, combined with the Xochitl tendency to yell at their borrowed technology and get various results thereby, leads many scientists to believe some sort advanced interactive program or artificial intelligence is involved, but no one knows for sure. This disadvantage applied mainly to their starships and major siege weapons, however, and a great deal was learned from the energy weapons, personal force field generators, and other various bits and pieces that the Xochitl carried into combat. Indeed, Xochitl blaster technology is the basis for most energy weapons used in the world today.

But to return to Xochitl motivations, it was the work of the Super scientist Alexis Musawa of the Unity Research center in Ethiopia whose breakthrough in cross species communication allowed a basic understanding of the Xochitl behavioral patterns, (although it should be noted that Alexis received some assistance from the Harradi in this). What it can be boiled down to is this: it is an evolutionary imperative of the Xochitl to destroy all other sentient life forms. Their definition of sentience is rather different than humans, as they also destroy on contact all dolphins, the various types of apes, and parrots that they encounter. Why their evolution should develop in such a peculiar manner is unknown, but what is known is that this biological imperative is quite strong in the Xochitl, being roughly equivalent to three times the human urge to engage in procreational activities. A Xochitl is quite literally unable to stand being in the same room as a being displaying a basic level of sentience. This intolerance does not extend to what the Xochitl perceive as unintelligent creatures and in those rare occurrences where Xochitl are able to engage in basic colonization activity, they quickly make use of local domestic animals, (dogs, cats, and various types of livestock) in their operations.

Shortly before Dr. Musawa went insane and killed three hundred and forty-three people before Unity Supers dropped a building on him, he made telepathic contact with a captive Xochitl. *** The basic gist of his findings have been roughly pieced together from the rambling notes he left painted in blood on the walls of a Unity orphanage. Apparently the Xochitl were driven from their home world by an unstoppable force of horrific form and intent. Over half the world had been destroyed by this enemy and the Xochitl were helpless to stop it. At this point, the water spoke to the Xochitl and told them of a flying bird that would take some of them to Paradise where they could get other flying birds so that all could go to a new and better place. But the birds were stupid and some of them didn't fly right. So now while they will all go to (uncertain destination reference here, but not the Paradise mentioned earlier), they won't all reach it at the same time. And now there are demons in the soup! Stick them with your claws and make them bleed so the soup will have a better flavor!

And that's where Dr. Musawa's notes get a little odd.

But the general gist of the matter seems to be that the Xochitl, (all of them) are on their way here. How great a percentage of these have arrived and how many have yet to come is unknown, (it is approximated that about 1.5 million Xochitl have entered the star system at one time or another). But it is guessed that's Earth's problem with the Xochitl may be an ongoing for quite some time.

*Earth, (or "the substance from which the ground is made") is apparently what they call their home planet.

** To humans, dolphins, apes and parrots. They appear neutral to all other terrestrial creatures.

***There are a number of Xochitl prison camps and research centers around the world, constructed for a variety of reasons ranging from basic humanitarianism to a selfish desire to find out how to use the Xochitl borrowed technology. Oddly enough Xochitl are relatively passive prisoners, provided that there is no indications that their captors are sentient beings. Since the Xochitl have no particular aversion to robots or A.I.'s these are the usual jailers in such institutions.