Watch the Skies Turbo

Prompt for the Baltimore Game:

From the Earthling Side

First Contact

The existence of extraterrestrial aliens has been known since the late Cold War.  In April 1945, both Western and Soviet militaries saw a spacecraft crash land in Berlin. Nazi soldiers captured, tortured, and killed the aliens, thinking it was an allied attack.  Upon discovery by Allied forces, five badly injured humanoid bodies were discovered.  The alien bodies were completely passable for earthling human beings.

A repeated broadcast of a signal was eventually discovered and disconnected, only after ten years of communicating telemetry data about Earth’s key characteristics – including its ability to be inhabited by humanoid life.

Current Status

Despite the constant drumbeat of conspiracy theorists where people claim to have been abducted by flying saucers, there has complete silence from deep space.  It is unclear if anyone received the beacon about our beloved Earth, but the growing concern that we may be visited soon remains.

Our spy agencies have stolen artifacts from our rival nations, only to have them stolen in an espionage version of hot potato.  Despite our scientists’ best efforts, we are unable to decipher what much of the work means.  One particularly concerning thought is the Terra Rasa Thesis, which focuses on what appears to be a star map of traveled systems.  There appears to only be one inhabitable planet, ours.

In response to the perceived threat from a potential extraterrestrial race, our military has shifted its wargaming drills from the well worn path of international conflicts to a potential interstellar conflict.  This practice is essentially impossible, as we do not know who is coming, what they want, how to communicate with them, or if they are already here.

Prompt for the New York City Game

First Observation

Despite the constant drumbeat of conspiracy theorists where people claim to have been abducted by flying saucers, there has been no evidence of extraterrestrial presence.  That was the case, at least until about two weeks ago.

Scientists leveraging multiple large telescopes noticed a previously undetected object traveling towards the moon.  Alarmingly, the object slowed down and changed directions before it entered Earth’s orbit – conveniently placed behind the far side of the moon.  We have been keeping close watch on the moon, hoping to see if the object moves, emits a communication, or really anything.  So far, there are no signals that we can understand.  Every so often, we do catch a unique radio wave pattern coming from the moon, but we currently have no idea what it means or how to translate it.

Current Status

We are fairly certain that there is some form of extraterrestrial life on our planet’s doorstep, but we have no idea who they are or what they want.  Luckily, we have kept the secret from public.  Only our leadership’s inner circle knows of the aliens’ presence.  We fear how the general populace might react to the stark reality that we are not alone.