Neanderthals

The resurrected neanderthal population began small, little more than feral children experiments that bypassed laws on human rights. It took three decades and a concerted campaign for the United Nations to expand their aegis over the fledgling race of empaths, who exhibited the expected defects of first and second generation cloning, genetic disease, low fertility and premature aging. By then, the Neanderthal population numbered in the low thousands and was spread throughout the G10 nations.

Awesome

“We have sufficient physical and anecdotal evidence to suggest that the Zrr’gbk dedicated an entire branch of their civilizations to, for lack of a better term, being awesome.” – Maxoltl von Powers, Action Psychologist

Cannibalization Taboos

“They didn’t eat like we did. Some chemicals, some proteins didn’t break down, they could be passed on from one living thing to another. It’s very efficient, from a biological standpoint – no energy wasted – but it also opens up tremendous risks in that poisons and harmful bacteria can be readily passed on. The Greys’ cannibalization taboo is centered around the potential for spreading debilitating illness, but it must be weighed against an instinctive desire to re-acquire those specific chemicals, proteins and antibodies possessed by the dead.” – Jean-Paul Goodwill, Xenobiochemist

Fungus Cairn (ii)

A fungus cairn is a persistent colony of symbiotic and parasitic fungus and moss species that are based on the partially mineralized pseudo-endoskeletons of the original Greys – the closest earth-based biological system is a coral reef. In this case, the individual cells within the Grey’s skeletal systems continue to live and thrive after the death of the original organism, feeding a system of Earth-native fungus species.

Shepherds

“My granda was a shepherd, same as his da and his da and so on back to when some English prick probably chased us away for rustling sheep. Granda spent a lot of quiet time out among the sheep, thinking. There’s lots of different sheep, he used to say, and there’s lots of different ways to raise ’em. The grass, the water, the cycles of day and night – everything leaves its mark on the wool, the meat, the lambs. The sheep get funny when he’d drive ’em south to market. An’ if you mixed two sheep from different farms, the lambs would have a bit of both in ’em. That’s the way I reckon we Rishti are. Two different sheep. Biological clocks buggered to hell and gone; we’re on something like a 27-hour cycle by default. Not that it matters much, we’re earthborn folk, not born under no alien skies. Earth grass, earth water, earth time. That’s how we’re raised.” – Colm Butler

ETransgenic Cats

“ETransgenic cats were a mistake. The only thing the furry little sociopaths were lacking to become the dominant species on the planet were psychic powers, so what does some Korean lab give ’em? If the damned things weren’t so adorable, I’d hunt them for food.” – Xie Xie Nyugen

More Blasphemy

“Religion is a disease of the mind, but like most diseases you need to be exposed before you’re innocculated against it. I see sex as a form of worship. Care to build up your immune system?” – Blashephmy Kirkpatrick

Damned Kids

“They’ve got it so the kids can make themselves look like aliens now – my damned nurse has a scalloped skull, skin washed out to greyish brown, rorschach eye tattoos…why is it that just when we can make ourselves look like anythng we damn please, all the body artists on the planet decide Greys are it?” – Jerry Hollis, 97

Psychotropic Weapons

Psychotropic weapons have their origins in DARPA-fueled research grants for nonlethal crowd control. Infrasonic sound can affect structures in the brain, microwaves can simulate an auditory efect directly in someone’s head – electromagnetic hearing, also known as the Frey effect. Some bright young grad students at MIT tried to put them together for a rave and two generations later the Russians were using flash-rape devices against insurgents in Georgia.

Fungus Cairn

The first fungus cairn arose spontaneously from Grey-289 when he drowned in a puddle outside Ulster, the first alien to die of a human yeast infection. Most Terran viruses and bacteria didn’t quite work on the original crew, but for some reason the initial Greys were particularly prone to fungal infections.