Photo by: Al Forbes
Everyone was relaxed after the alien invasion.
Colonel Harrigan stepped out of the vehicle carrier. Major Park joined him to chat.
“I still can’t believe we crushed the alien invasion in only three weeks,” said Park.
“Our scientists explained why,” said Harrigan. “Apparently, different societies don’t develop at the same rate in every scientific field. Maybe the aliens developed FTL travel to get here, but developed poorly in other areas.”
Park pointed back at the truck. “Where’d you get those antique cars?”
“From the aliens.”
“Really? What are they? Staff cars?”
Harrigan smirked. “Nope. Those are alien Main Battle Tanks.”
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Written for the Friday Fictineers: https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/2017/01/25/27-january-2017/
EagleAye
Momus News 
So much for “War of the Worlds.” This time, poor battle tech rather than germs sunk the invasion. Nice twist.
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No doubt. Instead of the aliens conquering “us,” they just inadvertently handed us their FTL drive. We’ll have even more easy victories taking over the aliens’ previous conquests! š
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Now we’ll load up those FTL ships with real military grade equipment, go to their home planet, and wipe them out. Colonization made all too easy.
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They seriously opened a really big can of worms didn’t they? š
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Indeed, though truth be told, people have been invading and colonizing other people’s places for quite some time.
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Very true. The Philippines is a fine example. Ethnicity there isn’t as simple as “I’m Filipino.” Looking back through history, Filipinos are nearly as ethnically mixed as us Americans, and that’s due to frequent invasions.
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I know. I took my first bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University. There were a lot of Filipino students and they taught me quite a lot.
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Hehe. Fun story. Thanks.
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Happy to oblige. Thank you much! š
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What fun!
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Well thank you! š
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Fun take on the prompt!
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Glad you liked it. Thanks so much! š
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Ha! Their technology does leave something to be desired.
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No doubt. We aren’t going to learn much from their fighting tanks. Their spaceships though, with Faster Than Light (FTL) technology, are another story. They’re a very welcome, “gift.” š
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That doesn’t surprise me at all. I mean, look at the car Dr Who (Jon Pertwee’s version) drove. Good old Bessie. She was a bit hard to hide though, bright yellow as she was š
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Yeah, yellow isn’t the best camouflage when driving across a dark background. Dr. Who was clever, but he was no general. š
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I’m sure you can still use the FTL technology to defeat the Earth with its modern tanks. You just need to take some relatively small rocks, speed them up to light speed, and aim them at Earth – a one pound rock would make an equivalent of a 5 megaton nuclear bomb, I think, although they’d need bigger rocks to go through the atmosphere. A few rocks and we’ll all surrender, not just the French. š
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Well on depends on how the FTL tech works. If they used hyperspace, travel outside normal space would impart no velocity in normal space. But if they used warp propulsion, we’d be in trouble. They’d have to use nickel-iron asteroids to insure they survive re-entry. We’d just have to hope they’d be confused when they saw our nuclear ICBMs headed their way. š
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I wonder if an object has a certain velocity when entering the wormhole maintains its speed in relative to the wormhole when exiting… if yes, it can also be turned into a weapon, but will require much bigger rocks. š
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Yeah, that’s the way I’ve heard it. Velocity (relative to normal space) doesn’t change upon entering/exiting hyperspace or wormholes. So you can’t launch a rock at FTL speeds, but you can “get into position” to launch it very quickly. That trip to get a big rock in the asteroid belt could at least be shortened with an FTL drive. It wouldn’t be hard to find one the size of Mt. Everest either. š
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This might be too late to bring this up, but there aren’t any aliens following your blog, are there?
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OMG! Good point. There’s only three that I know of, but they’re refugees from Thyaree Pismo. Total pacifists as you probably know. Still, it’s unwise to give up Earth’s military secrets by using unsecure comm channels. š
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Now I am really worried, that was to easy, perhaps the aliens were testing us.
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True. You always have to wonder if your enemy is sandbagging. Sun-Tzu warned to never underestimate your enemy. This is probably why we’ll reverse-engineer their FTL tech and attack their home world post-haste!
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Their bureaucrats probably had something to do with it. Great story, E.A.! I really enjoyed it! Fun stuff.
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You have to wonder if their Congress works anything like ours or, unbelievably, is even worse. š Glad you had fun, and thanks very much! š
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Hahaha! You’re MOST welcome.
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I’m worried about how easy that was. I can just see the aliens, having pretended to be conquered while they wait to ambush us once our defenses are down, snickering behind their.. tentacles, or whatever…. about how we actually *believed* they thought these were tanks!
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Yikers! That’s a frightening idea. You think in scary ways, Joy…I like it! What if their old fashioned, unimpressive tanks are actually alien trojan horses? Once we bring them back to headquarters for study, a virus is released. It makes us wanton, mindless consumers buying ourselves into economic oblivion just to keep up with our neighbors and…Hey wait a minute! š
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Uh-oh, don’t let them know that you’re onto their diabolical plan or they’ll…. Oh no, it’s too late, they’re here! Run!
š
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š š
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haha, good one š
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Thank you so much! š
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Dear Eric,
There’s technology and then there’s technology. As has been said before, I echo, “Great fun.”
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Ah, fun is what I enjoy sharing most of all. Glad to hear it. Thanks very much, Rochelle! š
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Interesting take on the prompt. I loved the thought that alien societies don’t develop at the same rate in scientific fields, very thought provoking. But it is blasphemy to use those cars as tanks.
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They are beautiful cars aren’t they? A shame to see them harmed in any way.
This idea of different technological rates has been explored often in scifi. Some great stories have been written around it. It’s one of my favorite scenarios.
Thanks very much!
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How cool to end up with all those antique cars.
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Definitely. They look great and are freshly manufactured. It’s another kind “gift” from the aliens. š
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Humurous piece. Looks like the aliens had too much confidence in their technology and failed to plan effctively
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Yeah, it seems they lacked critical intelligence about us. They must have Entertainment News too much to get their information. š Thanks much, Michael! š
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Liked it. š
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Glad to hear it. Thank you! š
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We’ve seen the aliens and they are us, give or take a hundred and twenty years or so. Funny stuff, Eric. š — Suzanne
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Haha! That’s about right. Thanks so much, Suzanne! š
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