Road to Hope

[Jakob]

This thread shall be my dumping ground for all things Kyanah, since I'm too lazy to write a real story with plot and characters and dialog and all that. Maybe some AI generated images will be included. If they're not trash.

FAQ

• What the hell are Kyanah?
  • Intelligent aliens from Tau Ceti e with the minimum tech level to invade Earth. You'll learn more about them after the lore dump, but the most important thing to know is that they're a pack society. Like seriously, their packs are everything to them.

• ACKSHUALLY Tau Ceti e doesn't exist/is like Venus!!11!
  • Hey shut up and let me have fun

• What kind of name is Kyanah anyway?
  • Oh excuse me, I mean the , but humans can't physically enunciate those sounds, nor type them on our keyboards, so that would be a pain

Anyway, let's get into the history of why they're invading Earth.

To fully understand it all the factors one must dive deep into Kyanah history, and it'll take a few posts to get to the modern world and the start of Project Hope. 300 of our years ago, Kyanah society was on the level of late 19th or early 20th century Earth. Railways and telegraphs, highways and radio were linking up city-states once separated by endless kilometers of uncharted desert, accelerating the global trade of goods and ideas. Scientific and technological progress was rapidly accelerating, with scientists examining the structure of atoms and galaxies alike, and the great mysteries of the universe toppling one by one. It was a deeply idealistic time, with many believing--perhaps slightly arrogantly--that the Kyanah civilizations would soon enough know everything there was to know. It was this mindset that led to the first Utopian thinkers. They believed that if the scientific method could create a perfect and correct model of the natural world, then surely it could too create a perfect and correct model of the Kyanah world, uncover the one true formula for good society and government, a solution to the Great Societal Equation if you will, and end all societal instability. Subsequent Utopian philosophers expanded on this idea, positing that such an idea was not merely possible in the abstract, but rulers had a duty to experiment and solve this great societal equation by any means necessary. Any cost, whether it be in money or blood, could be redeemed by the discovery of a solution, the second generation Utopian philosophers wrote. Perhaps you can see how things are going in a dangerous direction...

[Jakob]

The appeal of Utopianism was far reaching, and Utopian politicians rose to power across the world, a mix of true believers and self-serving opportunists and imperialists. Some genuinely useful reforms and innovative policies were discovered during this time period, but most of the radical social experiments did more harm than good. Some modern-day Futurist Utopians believe the problem was merely a lack of high-level AI (even computers were in their infancy back then) and an insufficient understanding of Kyanah psychology at the time, but this is a fringe view, any form of Utopianism is outside their Overton window. At the time, though, the third-generation Utopians arose and proposed that the problem was isolated implementation, that the solution to the great societal equation could only work if implemented everywhere in the world. Naturally this could only lead to one thing: global war.

Think "you guys are screwing up our perfect system by not implementing it, so we'll invade you and make you" times 1000. This was not like the human World Wars with two rigid power blocs fighting a continuous war, but thousands of smaller conflicts rippling across the world, each one ending quickly, but not before triggering several more, like an endless chain of falling dominoes. The Kyanah way of fighting war remained, as before and since, a quick show of fangs to assert dominance, ending in weeks or months once one side gained a decisive advantage, but even a quick war could kill thousands with the new technologies that were available: aircraft that could drop bombs from thousands of feet overhead, machine guns that could wipe out an entire pack in less than a second, even newfangled poison gas and dirty bombs.

[Jakob]

Over the equivalent of 30 Earth years, tens of millions died as the Utopian Wars circled the planet several times. However it would eventually come to a screeching halt as one city-state developed a weapon that could instantly end any war by simply wiping the enemy city-state off the map. The weapon, of course, was the atomic bomb, and the city-state that invented it was Ikun. By erasing two of their enemies in quick succession, Ikun disrupted the endless chain of falling dominoes, and the conflicts petered to a halt. But it was a tenuous peace. As Ikun expanded its nuclear arsenal, advanced city-states around the world rushed to develop their own nukes. For a few years, it seemed like the Utopian Wars would soon carry on, this time with nukes, until nothing was left. But it was not to be. Ikun struck first.

With new fusion bombs in the range of megatons, not kilotons, they obliterated all 13 other city-states with credible nuclear weapons programs in the span of one day. These city-states all instantly ceased to exist as political entities and were abandoned, with the surviving civilians emigrating to nearby city-states and starting anew. Ikun had sent a clear and resounding message to the rest of the world: all were free to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but no one else would be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Instead of mutually assured destruction, the Kyanah homeworld would have the Hegemony Era. Ikun already was a strong regional power before the wars, and rebuilt their city quickly in the following years. Large chunks of the city had been bombed in air raids, and enemy armies had come near to invading the city itself several times, but overall, they got off lighter than many of their large rivals. This, combined with their nuclear monopoly, allowed Ikun to emerge as the first undisputed military hyperpower in Kyanah history.

[Jakob]

Soon after the Hegemony Era began, a group of packs--most of them young adults who had grown up during the late stages of the Utopian Wars--from a broad array of city-states and cultures met up in a remote resort town to discuss strategies for avoiding future nuclear wars. Eventually, after much chaos and bickering, they had the idea to establish a neutral forum for city-states with differing sizes and strengths to negotiate, which they termed the Coalition of Cities Against Blowing Everything Up. This idea proved to be quite popular, hundreds more packs from across the world became involved, though in the early years, it wasn't widely agreed upon what exactly the organization should do, if anything. However, within a couple of years, major governments, Ikun included, recognized the utility of such a forum to further their own geopolitical aims, and began sending official ambassadors to join. As professional diplomats and bureaucrats outnumbered and pushed out the students, dreamers, and activists, the organization's name was shortened to Coalition of Cities and its procedures became more regularized and formalized, and took on a distinct pro-North slant, with Ikun in particular using it as a platform to coordinate its allies and suppress and sanction its enemies. Though many Far South city-states and other enemies of Ikun remained involved, perhaps believing that a suppressed voice was better than none at all.

Eventually over 3000 city-states would join, but many thousands more would not, either out of a desire for independence or because they were too small or remote to be interested and relevant in global affairs. Meanwhile, Ikun's military had been busy. Utopianism was still alive and well, though as far as anyone was concerned, it seemed that Ikun had won and solved the Great Societal Equation as a result. Across the world, the Ikun Army and Air Force toppled city regimes left and right, rebuilding them in their own image with impunity. Though they exhibited restraint against city-states without a nuclear weapons program (which none dared openly work on) the mere existence of their nuclear monopoly as enough to force key diplomatic and economic concessions around the world. Ikun would, however, frequently use nuclear bombs for peaceful mining and civil engineering projects, and also their nascent space program.

In the meantime, Ikun was taking its first shaky steps into space. With 40% higher gravity than Earth, the planet was close to the limit for chemical rockets--just 10% more gravity, and it would be impossible for such rockets to carry any payload to orbit. The Kyanah thus did what any serious spacefaring civilization does, and went nuclear. With Raiun-cannons, they were able to use the force from a nuclear detonation to launch payloads into space, where a small and simple rocket could push it into a stable orbit or beyond. Of course, no living creature could handle the tremendous acceleration of a Raiun-cannon launch, so for crewed missions, a Kyanah pack would squeeze into a regular old chemical rocket carrying nothing but them and their life support, squeak into orbit, and dock with a pre-launched capsule.

[Jakob]

Yet domestically, cracks were beginning to show in the Utopian ideology. Many packs had questions. If Ikun had truly found the solution to the Great Societal Equation and was now sharing it with the rest of the world at gunpoint, then why was Ikun not a utopia? Why did poverty, crime, and corruption still exist, when Utopian theory claimed that such things would become a relic of the past? Why were thousands of conscripts still dying in faraway lands, fighting enemies that posed little threat to Ikun's existence? By this point, Kyanah technology is approaching that of present day Earth, and with the rise of the internet and independent online media, it's becoming easier and easier for packs to see for themselves that things aren't as utopian as the government claims.

Utopian lawspeakers are being increasingly challenged by isolationist and anti-Utopian upstarts, with a certain Nyektak-pak gunning for the City Alpha position. Nyektak-pack is shockingly young for such a position, but became involved in the Coalition of Cities as university students, when their pack was still nascent, and rose to fame rapidly as one of the few amateurish activist types still in the Coalition. They spoke the message that many were beginning to think: Ikun has not found the solution to the Great Societal Equation because it simply doesn't exist, and all the blood shed in its name was in vain. Nyektak-pack gained enough signatures to challenge the incumbent City Alpha in record time and won on their first attempt, becoming the youngest City Alpha of Ikun in over two Earth centuries. Their reign would also go on to be the longest in Ikun's history, reigning all the way into the era of Project Hope. Kyanah have different lifespans than humans and their planet has a different year so direct numbers aren't illuminating, but if you imagine a human becoming a major world leader at like 27 and still holding office at 90, that's pretty much what happened with Nyektak-pack.

Development in space continued incrementally. There was no space race like on Earth, since Ikun had already destroyed any would-be competitors. And there was nowhere to go either, since the Kyanah homeworld had to moons. So progress in space was mostly limited to satellites (which many other city-states began launching too) and a small space station which Ikun began working on, along with robotic flybys of the Tau Ceti system's other planets.

[Jakob]

In their first years in office as City Alpha, Nyektak-pack made good on their promises to implement sweeping reforms. All the conscripts were released from duty, and Ikun pivoted to a less ambitious but still interventionist foreign policy. They still retained their nuclear hegemony--indeed it would be tested again, as Ikun destroyed one more city-state accused of developing nuclear weapons, though historians dispute whether they even had a nuclear weapons program, or whether this was merely retaliation for said city state pulling out of a lopsided trade deal and seizing the assets of Ikun-based corporations in its territory. Ikun would also still do the occasional counter-insurgency operation or regime change, but the regime changes were no longer a constant occurrence, and the number of foreign military bases was slashed from over 200 to just 50. Nyektak-pack insisted that Ikun no longer had any interest in turning other city-states into clones of itself, but would still protect its interests everywhere in the world. From a domestic perspective, Nyektak-pack announced that Ikun's government would no longer pursue nebulous ideologies or experiment on its populace, but instead focus on maximizing Ikun's wealth using tried and true methods. The remaining Utopians were gradually purged from the highest levels of government through both citizen challenges and various anti-corruption operations, with Utopianism becoming a fringe ideology and a failed experiment.

[Jakob]

In the early years of Nyektak-pack's reign, the economy boomed, taxes were lowered, and battle deaths dropped to levels not seen since before the Utopian Wars. They were naturally wildly popular and there were few challenges during their early years. Technology continued to advance, with robots and automation becoming more and more widespread, and Ikun continued to use nuclear bombs for peaceful mining and civil engineering projects. Such technologies were used to finally finish the Water Distribution System, an enormous network of pipes, wells, and water silos used to transport excess water to drought stricken regions, an important piece of infrastructure on a desert planet. This was a rather decentralized project with numerous city-states and corporations creating their own disjoint pieces of infrastructure, but Ikun-based technology and corporations were heavily involved in combining everything into a cohesive system and bridging gaps in strategic locations, thus giving them an outsized level of control over the whole system. One might think there were noble humanitarian motives behind this (and no doubt many of the organizations that worked on the system had good intentions), but Ikun saw it as an excellent opportunity to seize control over a crucial strategic resource, using the Water Distribution System to shore up its allies or as a weapon against its enemies, allowing them to keep the Hegemony going with less military brute force.

Meanwhile, the Kyanah would make great strides forward in space. The first crewed missions to Tau Ceti f--known to the Kyanah as Ryitu--took place, though due to technical limitations, these were one way missions of a flags and footprints character. Due to Tau Ceti f's even higher gravity and thicker atmosphere than Tau Ceti e, it simply wasn't possible to come back with the technology at the time. There was at this stage little commercial use of space aside from satellites and occasional tourism, but this would change with the discovery of a room temperature superconductor that could only be made in zero gravity. Such a discovery promised revolutionary new innovations, especially in computing, where the Kyanahs' mechanical computers had previously run up against hard physical limits and stagnated, as well as energy storage. Such superconductors could solve previously insurmountable heat dissipation problems in said computers.

With new incentives to develop in space, many corporations and city states rushed to expand further there. The crude, explosive nuclear cannons are gradually replaced with sleek SSTO nuclear spaceplanes, further accelerating space-based development, and Ikun develops its first real spaceport. The first large stations with spin gravity are built, and additional uses for zero-gravity manufacturing, such as special alloys, are discovered. Some city-states, including Ikun, begin building permanent infrastructure on Ryitu, similar to the human research bases in Antarctica, along with a cycler to reach it. The key technologies and infrastructure for Project Hope are now in place, though it still has yet to be conceived, methods for interstellar travel are at least being discussed seriously, instead of being pure fantasy. This is the heydey of Ikun's Hegemony Era, though it will be past its peak before any of the main characters even hatch.

[Jakob]

Eventually cracks started to appear in Ikun's hegemony. The industrialization of the Kyanah, while it had led to unprecedented population growth took its toll on the homeworld's biosphere and climate. The hot, arid equatorial regions, such as the Dunelands, were the hardest hit, and many fled northwards to more temperate and less corrupt city-states such as Ikun. Increasing use of robots and AI are leaving many packs struggling to find gainful employment, and the influx of Dunelander migrants willing to work for low pay makes the competition even tighter. Ethnic tensions simmer in Ikun, with gang wars and race riots reaching levels not seen in decades, while hostile foreign governments deliberately fan the flames, eagerly awaiting Ikun's downfall.

There are even more sinister threats in the southern hemisphere. The Far South was at the end of the Utopian Wars an impoverished backwater, but in the decades since, many city-states in the region have rapidly industrialized and become far wealthier, especially Koranah, the largest city-state in the region. They have a population over double that of Ikun, who are younger on average and far more patriotic, and with a far more centralized and authoritarian government, Koranah can ram through programs and infrastructure projects that would be endlessly delayed by negotiations, challenges, and red tape if attempted in Ikun. In addition to their economy--including large amounts of high-tech manufacturing that Ikun depends on, such as high-performance mechanical computer components and other nano-scale precision manufacturing--their military capabilities are advancing rapidly. They have no nukes, but all their conventional weapons are equal to Ikun's or closing in fast. They openly resent Ikun for its interventionism, including a brutal regime change in Koranah itself during the early Hegemony Era, and have begun to adopt a similarly aggressive foreign policy, establishing foreign military bases and overthrowing pro-Ikun regimes in the Far South; Koranah becomes a rallying point for many city-states displeased with Ikun's policies.

Ikun, with its volunteer-only military, is unable to defend all its allies, and a fair few are left out to dry. Even the Hegemony itself is slipping. The spread of anti-missile laser arrays mean that Ikun can no longer annihilate any city-state they want with absolute, 100% certainty. Ikun has developed alternative delivery systems that aren't affected by lasers, like ground based systems and orbital bombardment, as well as electronic warfare targeting sensors. Though many city-states are becoming bolder and less fearful of nuclear annihilation. Meanwhile, as more and more city-states in the South and West grow and industrialize, the environmental damage accelerates. The Water Distribution System becomes increasingly strained, with new innovations in prospecting, Ultra-Deep Water Wells, and dew collection not keeping up with the increased demand and reduced supply.

Geoengineering and weather control technologies are being developed, but Nyektak-pack recognizes that this won't solve all of Ikun's problems, and will create new ones. Koranah is ahead of Ikun in this field, so a hypothetical Climate Control System would likely be heavily developed and controlled by them, allowing them to use it as a diplomatic weapon much like Ikun uses the Water Distribution System, but even more powerful. Further, it would only create small numbers of highly educated jobs and Nyektak-pack would not get all or even most of the credit in such a globalized effort, meaning that the system of governance they spent their lives building might be torn down after their deaths--and Nyektak-pack is getting old and worrying a lot about their legacy. Thus, they move to suppress geoengineering ventures around the world to leave room for their solution: invading and colonizing a certain habitable world 12 light years away--Earth. To them, this is a win-win situation: Ikun's stagnant manufacturing sector will be boosted with huge numbers of accessible jobs, they will demonstrate their ability to project military force in a way that Koranah could never dream of, re-strengthening the Hegemony, and enshrining Nyektak-pack's system and their legacy indefinitely. But are things ever really that simple?

[Jakob]

Spoiler alert, no they are not that simple. The key problem is that Ikun actually has no way to pay for constructing and arming a fleet of starships, aside from crushing taxes and massive loans from hostile foreign governments such as Koranah. Which negates the economic benefits of all the job creation and then some. And none of this actually solves the problem of how their world is supposedly dying (there are problems, yes, but a lot of climate data is being exaggerated to drum up support for extreme initiatives like Project Hope). And it suppresses companies and city-states with actually useful solutions, like geoengineering. In some ways, the ironically named Project Hope is Nyektak-pack's worst blunder, undoing everything they worked for in a long and illustrious political career. In the end, they sacrificed Ikun for the idea of Ikun, much like the Utopians they rose to power by challenging. Kind of ironic in a way, how Nyektak-pack live long enough to become the very thing they swore to destroy. Not that they ever get their just deserts. They die peacefully, without being successfully challenged (though Ryen-pack comes close) leaving everyone else to clean up the mess. And their designated successor (actually also Nyektak-pack, because one of their young is the pack's alpha) finishes what they started and sends Project Hope on its way.

[Jakob]

If you had a picture of the Kyanah in your mind's eye, prepare to wipe it away, because I'm here with the definitive answers (but no AI art )!

They have the same general body plan as a human, with two legs, two arms, and a head connected to a torso, and a bipedal posture, but there are many key differences, including a thick and robust tail which is used for balance and plays a role in unarmed combat, often being used to trip up enemies. Average adult height of different ethnic populations ranges from 141-155 cm, while average mass ranges from 54-73 kg, groups from warmer climates tend to have taller and lankier frames, while those from cooler regions are shorter and more compact. There is no appreciable difference in either between males and females, although as with humans, nutrition, diet, and genetics induce considerable variation in height and weight. Kyanah have scaly skin and no hair, with populations in most of the northern hemisphere, including their original habitat, and some temperate regions in the south having a dull blue skin tone, which can be somewhat more vibrant with a slight indigo complexion in the very high northern latitudes, though this is rarely considered a separate racial group in modern Kyanah demography. Populations from the scorching hot and sunny equatorial regions have evolved elevated melanin levels, resulting in a deep brown skin tone, examples of this adaptation date back at least 15-18 thousand years. In the far south, many populations have evolved more opaque skin and a grayish complexion in the past 5-7 thousand years, though this is not universal.

Kyanah have four fingers and toes on each hand and foot, which end in claws; they are believed to have lost the ability to retract their claws around 5-6 million years ago, with the advent of bipedalism. The limbs are slightly shorter than a human of comparable size, but the head is proportionally about the same size, albeit with a broader and flatter skull and a protruding snout, and enlarged, floppy ears that sit higher on their head; these are believed to be used for both heat dissipation and display purposes. Kyanah are obligate carnivores, gaining all their caloric needs from meat, though they are willing to occasionally consume certain plant matter for taste or extra micronutrients--mostly tubers and nuts, they avoid their planets' analogues of leaves and grasses entirely. They can eat almost any non-toxic meat from their planet, but prefer medium to large game. Their dental structure reflects this, with 38 teeth, including 3 pairs of canines, the top-front "main" pair of which can reach 2.5 centimeters. Teeth take up to a year to grow in and can be continuously replaced until old age, though replacement can also take up to a year. Kyanah evolved to use these teeth, which curve inwards, to grip onto prey and tear out chunks of flesh using their powerful neck muscles. Kyanah eyes range from light yellow to dark brown and they have excellent color vision and movement detection, but poorer overall visual acuity than humans. On the contrary, their senses of hearing and smell are considerably stronger, up to 60 times better than humans in the latter case. Despite this, visual communications, including written language, are still broadly used. Being from a planet with 40% higher gravity, they have a considerably higher muscle and bone density than an equivalently sized human, making it impossible for most Kyanah to swim. They are considerably faster on land than a human; even a sedentary desk worker can easily exceed 30 km/h in short bursts, and world class athletes can be in the 60-70 km/h range, though they have far less endurance, partially due to an inability to sweat, forcing them to rely on panting and heat dissipation through their enlarged ears to thermoregulate--Kyanah are warm-blooded with a normal body temperature of 51.8 Celsius.

They are an egg laying species, laying elliptical eggs measuring 13x8 cm on average, in groups of two as a redundancy mechanism. Eggs typically hatch in 65-75 Earth days, resulting in a 400-gram hatchling. Due to their small size and limited brain matter available, their initial weeks and months they rely heavily on mimicry and hard-coded instinct to survive, and they require constant stimulation and socialization from adults for their higher brain functions to come online. As their teeth have not come in at this point, they consume chewed up and regurgitated meat provided by the adults in their pack. However, they grow rapidly, consuming nearly half their weight in food per day in the first few weeks after hatching, and by 1 Earth year, they have reached a more respectable 10 kilograms. Sexual maturity is typically reached around 9-10 Earth years, with typical lifespan being 50-60 without technological intervention.

Internally, the Kyanah body also holds some interesting surprises. They have an internal skeleton like Earth vertebrates, but their bone mineral of choice is silicon dioxide--they literally have quartz bones and teeth. They additionally have indigo-based blood, and use peptide chains to store genetic material--they have 0% DNA in common with humans, because they literally don't have DNA. While they do vocalize and have spoken language, their vocal cords aren't suited to replicate human speech (nor vice versa); their vocalizations have been described as vaguely crocodilian in nature, but with a higher pitch and cadence, and more complex patterns as they are actually speaking a language and not merely vocalizing. Despite this, most of their internal organs seem to have a fairly similar structure and placement to humans, with the exception of the brain, which is kind of out there, so deserves its own post.

[Jakob]

So the centerpiece of a Kyanah is a U-shaped stalk that runs from the top of the spinal cord around the rear and top of the skull before ending behind the forehead, and functions almost exactly as a generative neural network. Continuous electrochemical signals are multiplied by weights as they traverse between stalk cells, inputs to a stalk cell are summed and adjusted by the stalk cell using a complex activation function before being propagated down the chain to the next layer of stalk cells. When Kyanah hatch, the weights are already partly pretrained by evolution, so they aren't just a blank slate, but they continuously adjust throughout a Kyanah's life at a gradually decelerating rate. Between-stalk weights are adjusted based on comparing the "expected" stalk's output to the observed reality that results from the Kyanah's actions. While a stalk contains billions of stalk cells and even more weights, which is enough for low-level brain functioning, it's nowhere near enough for complex planning, social behavior, abstract reasoning, or any of the good stuff. Which is where the cores come in.

A core basically functions as a creator of prompts for the stalk's generator, but instead of writing prompts in natural language and getting a natural language output, it "writes" prompts using complex polymer chains that appear to encode high-level concepts, and the stalk generates output in the form of low-level nerve signals. The cores also contain a Kyanah's internal model of the world and their goals, encoded using these same polymer chains. It's believed that they're used over simple electrochemical pulses because they can hold larger volumes of structured data, making them more suitable for encoding complex ground truths and relationships between objects; cores calculate the optimal path to the goal state and produce prompts that will adjust the world in that direction. Incoming information from the senses can edit both internal models and goal states. It's currently unknown to science what process governs the creation of goal states (read: I can't figure it out). The exact physical meaning of particular polymer sequences is also unknown in most cases, and likely varies from individual to individual, being highly sensitive to internal and environmental conditions in the early hatchling stage.

While simple creatures, on the level of insects, have just a stalk, and most larger animals on their homeworld have 1, 2, or 4 cores in their brains, Kyanah have 6. They are not, however, the only organisms with 6 cores, the taxonomic order that is to Kyanah as primates are to humans also have 6. It appears that in organisms with multiple cores, they communicate with each other, producing exponentially larger and more information dense prompts. During deep sleep, the cores stop transmitting prompts entirely; the only activity in the cores includes repairing wear and tear and flushing out waste products. A side effect of this is that Kyanah (and any organisms on their homeworld) can't dream. However, they have some useful tricks to make up for this: except when in a coma, their stalk is continuously active and since low-level tasks like timekeeping and sensing movement are handled directly by the stalk, Kyanah can have uncanny (to a human) knowledge about events that happened while they were sleeping...like the human phenomenon of not knowing how long you slept for doesn't happen at all to them, because they automatically just know, and if they were moved while sleeping, they'll know fairly accurately where they are upon waking up.

[Jakob]

As mentioned, the most important aspect in understanding Kyanah psychology is understanding their packs. Packs are usually formed from 4-6 adults; >98% of packs fall in this range, though the legal minimum to be recognized as one is usually 1 male, 1 female, and 3 total members, and many city-states have set legal maximums. Packs will procreate with each other and cooperate to raise their young. It isn't seen as particularly relevant which specific pair of individuals are the biological parents, and may even be forgotten with time. Kyanah will usually separate from their birth-packs in early adulthood, between 10 and 15 Earth years, following a period of increasing independence and detachment, and strike out on their own. Kyanah in this stage of their life, unlike other stages, are much more gregarious and much more likely to seek out social interactions with strangers, as they are trying to quickly find a pack of their own. The median age of pack formation in Ikun is ~13.7 Earth years, and has been trending upwards in modern times.

Kyanah tend to form packs very quickly, they take only weeks or months to reach a level of commitment and attachment that would take a human couple years. Their bodies continuously pump out hormones to keep them in what we would call a "honeymoon phase" perpetually until old age. This is likely an adaptation to prevent infighting and incompatibilities between 4-6 individuals quickly tearing a pack apart. There tends to be a strong cultural expectation to ignore and power through any incompatibilities that do arise, and packs typically last for life. However, expulsion of individual members or dissolution of the whole pack do occasionally occur, as does importing new members, usually to replace dead or expelled ones. And old Kyanah will sometimes form "second packs" after their original packmates have died. Adults have varying levels of influence and participation in helping their young find packs, in Southern cultures they are (stereo)typically more involved, while young Kyanah in Northern city-states like Ikun will usually go it alone, though arrangements are beginning to catch on to a degree in the North. The internet and AI-driven matching services have been widely used for finding packs since the dawn of the planet's Information Age. Structured environments like military training and university preparatory centers have always been popular ways to find a pack, and remain so in the modern era. Packless individuals and pack fragments (a group too small to be a legal pack, but still legally and emotionally connected, which doesn't occur naturally, but result from deaths or breakups within a pack.) are mostly only able to access undesirable or dead-end jobs, and are at the bottom of the social ladder. For this reason, Kyanah packs don't "date" for extensive periods of time but instead rush to legally commit as quickly as possible to gain the social and economic opportunities that come with being a fully fledged member of society.

Kyanah packs will designate one of their members as the Alpha of their pack; this individual has some level of social authority and certain legal privileges. For instance, they can't be expelled from their own pack, nor leave it without a dissolution, and often have a large role in the pack's financial and career related decisions, though both legally and socially they don't have carte blanche to just do whatever they want at the expense of the rest of the pack. Younger or more liberal packs tend to take the Alpha role less seriously and view it as a formality most of the time, whereas it matters a lot more in everyday life for older and more conservative packs. Some very old-fashioned packs will have additional official labels for other pack members, and a formalized "pecking order", but the general trend across time has been towards flatter pack hierarchies and less unilateral influence for Alphas. Alphas have always statistically procreated more than non-Alphas, a trend that still holds true in the modern area.

Kyanah packs are extremely tight-knit and indivisible. They won't willingly separate or isolate from each other for extensive periods for any reason, except perhaps if their immediate survival is threatened by doing otherwise. In fact, separating packs is a highly effective torture method, causing significant distress within hours and noticeable cognitive decline and permanent psychological damage within days. Naturally, Kyanah society has been structured to prevent such separations from being a frequent occurrence, resulting in substantial deviations from the structure of human society. Packs are considered the atomic building block of society from a social, legal, and economic perspective. Employers typically offer jobs to packs, rather than individuals. While job openings do exist for packless Kyanah and pack fragments, these jobs are undesirable dead-end jobs, as the packless are at the bottom of the social ladder. Since separating developing and vulnerable children and leaving them in the hands of unknown adults is seen as even more monstrous than isolating adults, so institutions like schools and daycares simply don't exist--in fact they would be viewed as barbaric to Kyanah. Instead, each pack teaches their children reading, writing, math, and the basics of their jobs. The children accompany their birth-packs to work--even those who work in dangerous fields--and tend to help out with age-appropriate tasks as they get older. Because of this, issues such as child safety in mines, battlefields, and construction zones are the subject of significant political debate and policy proposals, which may seem nonsensical to an observer from Earth, where children aren't found in such areas unless no one cares about their safety in the first place. Universities do exist, unlike lower-level schools, as their students are adults who tend to have their own packs already.

The atomic nature of packs also extends to the justice system. Packs, rather than individuals, are considered morally and legally responsible for crimes (unless the victim is part of the same pack) and are sentenced together. Children are also imprisoned with their birth-packs--obviously the alternative is far worse for all parties involved--though in most cases, they are free to leave once they become adults and separate from their birth-packs, even if the adults remain behind in prison.

[Jakob]

Much can also be said about the dynamics between Kyanah packs. Kyanah will mostly interact within their own packs, Kyanah socially interacting with those outside their pack on an individual level, without the involvement of the rest of their pack, will be viewed with strong suspicion and jealousy. The bar for such interactions to be considered a breach of fidelity is very low. They don't exactly have our concept of friendships, but packs can participate in social relationships known as which roughly translates to an ally. Such alliances tend to be more explicitly transactional than human friendships, both parties will tend to state up front what they expect from social interaction and lose interest quickly if they don't get their end of the deal, or if they find another pack that's better suited to their interests. Alliances are mostly used for mutual assistance in navigating large and complex organizations, or elaborate/expensive recreational activities that require the resources of more than one pack. For simpler forms of recreation, Kyanah will usually just turn to their own pack. To Kyanah, the human conception of friendship would likely seem confusing, stressful, and ill-defined with unclear expectations from both sides.

(Stereo)typically, Kyanah from Northern cultures will form more rarely and prioritize shared interests, values, or professional goals in selecting allies. While those from Southern cultures will form these relationships more frequently and prioritize familial ties, such as the packs of their biological siblings, or their own birth-packs.In either case, it's rare to have more than one or two active alliances going on at any given time, and rare for packs to associate socially with packless Kyanah, unless they're looking to import someone.

[Jakob]

Kyanah also employ a significantly different conception of personal space from humans. They will try to keep their distance from non-pack members, and any touch from an outsider will likely be met with violence, even if accidental. Albeit likely mild violence if it's an obvious accident. It's quite common for Kyanah of equal social standing to trade a few punches or scratches in response to a real or perceived slight. Such behavior rarely leads to serious injury and will usually end quite quickly, once one party establishes dominance over the situation, they'll carry on with their business as if nothing happened. This is a normal and not particularly rare occurrence even in areas where a human observer might expect more composure and decorum, like corporate offices or courtrooms. They do, like humans, frown upon attacking others unprovoked (otherwise society would be very unstable...), they just have a looser definition of provocation, which can include merely entering a stranger's space. Though exactly how close one has to get varies by culture. Within packs, the opposite tends to apply, Kyanah tend to be extremely touchy and affectionate to their own (again, the exact norms vary by culture, but in most cases it's at a level that a human would find annoying and suffocating) and seem to have little or no concept or desire from personal space, a pack of 4-6 Kyanah will be quite comfortable living in a single small room, all they really need is enough space to move around without tripping over each other, even wealthy packs with larger homes will tend to congregate together in the same general area when not otherwise occupied. They seem not to mind engaging in sexual activity while others in their pack are just a few feet away, for instance, and home toilets are usually situated in an alcove rather than a fully fledged room.

Speaking of which, the Kyanah are, unlike humans, not sexually dimorphic, neither males nor females are significantly larger or stronger than the other. Which has interesting knock-on effects on certain aspects of their society. Egg-laying is also a much less dangerous and involved process than human pregnancy, it can be done at home in a matter of minutes and doesn't normally require the involvement of medical professionals. And either males or females can feed hatchlings (even older siblings sometimes help), since they consume chewed up and regurgitated meat. All these factors mean that, outside of reproduction, there's no real difference in roles between the two genders, and secondary sex characteristics are far less obvious than in humans. This means that gender is typically irrelevant to attraction, and any two adults in a pack may participate in sexual activity. Occasionally, whether through genetic or environmental factors, some Kyanah are attracted to neither. These asexuals are viewed with begrudging tolerance at best, and scorn and derision at worse, often stereotyped as being incapable of love. This prevailing view does not seem to have changed much as Kyanah society has modernized, and asexuals will often languish in the packless section of society for a long time, if not for life.

[Jakob]

The Kyanah do not have a world government like so many stereotypical alien civilizations, nor even large nation-states like Earth. The vast majority of the Kyanah population live inside city-states. There is no exact count of the number of sovereign city-states on their Homeworld. The Coalition of Cities has 3,407 member states represented, with a combined population of approximately 3.8 billion Kyanah. However, unlike the human UN, this doesn't include all or even most states on the planet, and there are many large and diplomatically relevant city-states that are non-members. Getting reliable population estimates is difficult when not all city-states conduct censuses and release the results to the public, and even if they did, there is, as mentioned, no definitive list of all city-states. To complicate matters, a small but nonzero number of Kyanah live in tribal societies outside the control of any state. However, demographers estimate that around 20-25% of all living Kyanah are from a Coalition member state, the majority of which are large city-states in the 1-million plus range.

Coalition member states include a few dozen behemoths in the 10-million plus range, including Ikun (13 million, not counting independent satellite city-states surrounding it and occupying the same metropolitan area, which would bring it to 18-19 million); Koranah (29 million) and East Anweri (35 million). Kyanah city-states invariably experience a breakdown in government control, infighting, and civil war if they tried to get much bigger than this. The few attempts at nation-states and colonial empires have also met similar fates, and the idea of combining multiple cities under the same government is regarded as impractical and a failed experiment. Most Kyanah--probably 55-60%--live in city-states with populations in the 100k-1 million range, most of which are not members of the Coalition, though they may be part of various regional organizations. About 15-20% live in towns under 100k population, the vast majority of which are not Coalition members unless they hold some strategic significance. A vanishingly small percentage of the population still lead traditional lives as hunter-gatherers or nomadic herders; they are not citizens of any city-state, and not protected by any city-state. Climate change, endangerment and extinction of their prey animals, and clashes with city-state militaries have chipped away at this segment of the population; it is in the single digit millions and declining.

The Kyanah homeworld being a desert planet, city states in historic times were mostly established along oases, points where the deep water table rises to intersect the surface due to local geology. Oases can be much larger than Earth oases, up to several thousand square miles, allowing them to support large city-states. As Kyanah technology has advanced, technologies such as the Water Distribution System, Ultra-Deep Water Wells that can reach depths over 3 kilometers, dew collection machines, and even the use of nuclear bombs to create artificial oases, have given them a much broader latitude on where to construct new cities, and the number of city-states has boomed in the century leading up to Project Hope.

[Jakob]

While there is significant diversity in the political systems of Kyanah city-states, the majority of them do follow a particular system devised in the same region of the planet as Ikun, and of which Ikun was an early adopter. The most important position is the City Alpha, a pack whose key responsibility is to acquire funding for the state's various agencies and issue them their annual budget and instructions. The Lawspeakers essentially determine the laws of the city and also create an annual agenda of tasks the state's agencies are to complete, and constraints they must operate under. The City Alpha has broad discretion in setting a budget and acquiring the funds, especially as the agenda is often written vaguely to appease clashing political factions. They can for instance, collect taxes, use profits from state-owned corporations, or even their own personal wealth, or any other source that hasn't been declared illegal by the Lawspeakers (Project Hope and the subsequent invasion of Earth has required massive loans from hostile foreign governments, which has naturally been highly controversial), as long as the conditions laid out in the agenda are met.

The City Alpha has no fixed term, but doesn't necessarily rule for life--another pack may challenge them at any time, and if the challenge is successful , then the challenger becomes the new City Alpha. In the past, a challenge consisted of ritualized combat, but in recent times, being a skilled administrator and negotiator has come to be viewed as a more important trait for a leader than being a skilled fighter, and by the time the Kyanah's tech level had reached the equivalent of mid-19th century Earth, the vast majority of city-states had phased out challenge by combat in favor of legalistic challenges, wherein wining requires the challenger to demonstrate to a judge that the incumbent City Alpha has violated the law and/or failed to fulfill the agenda, and that the challenger is capable of rectifying the errors. Many authoritarian city-states impose strict limits on who can challenge their City Alpha, making almost no one eligible to file a challenge, but in Ikun, it's at least theoretically simple, only requiring a petition with a certain number of signatures from citizen packs. Though in practice, corrupt and biased judges often block outsiders--especially those without money--from reaching high level political positions.

Should a reigning pack resign or undergo dissolution--a process roughly analogous to human divorce--the position automatically passes to the most recent challenger. However, if enough members of a City Alpha pack die that it is no longer considered a valid pack, then their mandate is presumed to remain unbroken, and they are entitled to designate a successor. Naturally all of these apply to legislative and judicial positions as well, Lawspeakers and Arbiters can also be challenged by members of the public for their positions. A pack can even challenge the Lawspeakers Association (or the Arbiters Association) itself to create a new seat and become a Lawspeaker or judge without replacing an existing one, though this seat can be removed via subsequent challenge from the relevant Association, and ceases to exist if the pack holding it dies, resigns, or dissolves.

This sort of challenge system is quite versatile, it's also used for criminal and civil proceedings, and certain matters involving certain types of corporations; agencies and corporations often employ one or more packs known as Champions, experts in the legal system who initiate or defend them from challenges on their behalf since an organization is not a pack and thus cannot participate in a challenge; this term likely stems from historic times when so-called Champions were skilled warriors who would represent members of the nobility who were incapable of fighting in duels or combat challenges. Though this meaning is obsolete, as nobility no longer exists under Ikun law, and hasn't for a few centuries.

Of course, a lot of these minutiae only apply to Ikun, other city states have different rules and procedures. That being said, a good 75% of the planet's population live under similar systems, with varying levels of corruption and political freedom. The rest include systems where religious authorities, academia, and/or the bureaucracy have official roles within the state, as well as some (mostly small and obscure) city-states having systems similar to absolute monarchy or direct democracy. Though even in monarchies and dictatorships, hereditary transfer of power is rare due to weak ties between packs and their adult children, while children and their packs are likely to gain positions of influence and wealth, they aren't guaranteed to be rulers, power is usually transferred to one of the ruler's close alliances. Though again, most Kyanah live under systems with a City Alpha, Lawspeakers, judges, and challenges. Finally, politicians accused of breaking laws can be challenged by the government itself and sent to prison. Curiously, this doesn't directly negate their public office, but in practice, it's fairly easy to challenge an incarcerated pack on the grounds that they can't fulfill their responsibilities from prison.

[Jakob]

I think we need to establish a Kyanah timekeeping system and anchor it to Earth time in some way. The year on their homeworld is about 0.46 Earth years (yay Wikipedia!), or about 168 Earth days; alternatively an Earth year is 2.17 Kyanah years. This corresponds to 256 days on their homeworld, which by a nice coincidence works well with their base-8 numbering system. Their planet has no moon, and since our months and weeks come from the Lunar cycle, they don't have a direct analogue. Years are divided into "Eighths" of 32 days each, which are further divided into 8 "day blocks" of 4 days each. The day is 15.75 hours, and is divided into 16 parts, imaginatively named "Sixteenths", though if you do the math, it's coincidencially close enough to an hour--59 minutes and 3 seconds--that it can be safely translated as "hour" in most cases. The hour is divided into 64 parts of 55.37 seconds each, which may as well be translated to "minute" and the "minute" is divided into 64 parts of 0.86 seconds, which can be called a "second", it's not like anyone can tell the difference without a clock anyway. It's unclear whether this is simply a coincidence or if units of time similar to human hours, minutes, and seconds are simply useful for beings who perceive time at about the same rate.

Under standard Ikun timekeeping, the year changes at the summer solstice. The date changes at the time that would be sunrise in Ikun on the equinox; this time is considered 0. Of course, since their planet has an axial tilt, actual sunrise in Ikun can vary from about -1,32 to +1,32. During the day, the hours go +1, +2, +3 etc. up to +8, which is when the sun sets during the equinox in Ikun. At this point, time rolls over to -8 and during the night goes -7, -6, -5 etc. until reaching 0 again. Kyanah are diurnal and will thus typically sleep during the minus hours, though there are exceptions. Many Dunelander cultures are nocturnal and sleep during the plus hours instead to avoid the scorching daytime heat in their native land; this is likely the explanation for the "lazy Dunelander" stereotype in Ikun. Kyanah tend to require 6 or 7 hours of sleep per day. Proportionally this is actually slightly more than humans, equivalent to 9-10.5 hours in a 24 hour day--Kyanah on Earth eventually adjust their circadian rhythm to match Earth's day-night cycle within a few months and sleep for around this amount of time per Earth day. A typical working day will go from +0 to +8, leaving little time for anything but working and sleeping; to balance this, they will tend to alternate and only work every other day block; most employers stagger their employees' shifts so that half the packs are working at any given time; there's no period like a weekend where businesses shut down entirely. Of course, there are industries where this is impractical; for instance it's not practical to shuttle the construction crews working on Project Hope to and from space every few days, so they typically work for half a year at a time in orbit with only one or two day blocks off, where they stay in space, and then spend the other half of the year back home, doing whatever they want.

The year zero of Ikun's calendar coincides with the unification of the various independent villages and small city-states on the Ikun oasis into a singular city-state, an event which occurred in roughly AD 1413; the year in which Project Hope is launched towards earth is Y976, or AD 1863, and it arrives at Earth in Y1323/AD 2023. To put a few other notable events in Kyanah history on the timeline, the Utopian Wars lasted from around Y750 until Ikun's nuclear destruction of Taktan and Rtn Kortok in Y824. The Day of Tower Clouds (their term for a mushroom cloud, since they obviously don't know about Earth mushrooms), when Ikun preemtively nuked every other city-state with nuclear weapon programs, occured in Y831, signaling the start of the Hegemony Era, with the Coalition of Cities being founded in Y833. Work began on Project Hope in Y934, around 19-20 Earth years before its launch. Nyektak-pack, whose members hatched between Y827 and Y830, became City Alpha of Ikun in Y864, an office they remained in until Y971, when Nyektak Nyak died, making the two remaining members no longer a valid pack, and thus no longer eligible for office. References to "the present" or "modern times" in relation to the Kyanah world are relative to Y976, when Project Hope launched. Nyektak-pack's successor Nyektak-pack would oversee Project Hope from Y971 until Y979, when they were challenged and removed from office, and Project Hope was cancelled. As a result, the second wave of starships were never finished or launched, leaving the first wave to somehow figure out how to handle Earth on their own.

While Ikun's calendar and timekeeping system became a standard for science, diplomacy, and inter-city commerce during the Hegemony Era, citizens of other city-states usually use their own local systems in everyday life.

[Jakob]

Other assorted Kyanah trivia.

Tears aren't related to emotion in Kyanah, they only show up as a response to dry or irritated eyes. As for smiling, it's a show of aggression rather than happiness, but perhaps that's understandable considering that they're packing 25 millimeter canines. Emotion is most expressed through moving their ears, which have quite a broad array of movement.

The linguistic situation on their homeworld is somewhere in between the cliche of having one universal language, and the human linguistic environment of thousands of distinct languages. It isn't like Kyanah in one city-state speak one language, and in the next they speak a different language with a different name. Instead as you move from city-state to city-state, the local vernacular changes slightly, maybe a few slang terms or some spelling changes or a different approach to certain grammatical edge cases. But the further away you go from home, the harder it becomes to understand other Kyanah, until eventually they're mutually unintelligible entirely. Thus linguistic aptitude isn't measured in terms of the number of languages one knows, but how big of a range one is able to communicate in. With Ikun being a dominant hyperpower with global military, economic, and cultural influence, educated Kyanah in most parts of the world tend to learn some of the basic vocabulary and grammar used in Ikun, either in university or from consuming Ikun media, or picking it up from tourists.

Religion follows similar patterns to language. Instead of having specific distinct religious traditions, different gods just tend to have different geographical ranges where they are popular. In some Southern cultures, mass worship sessions led by priests are a regular occurrence, while in the North packs tend to worship alone and in private, if they are religious. In the Northern world, religious involvement has been declining in recent centuries, especially in large city-states; most Kyanah in Ikun for instance most Kyanah are either casually religious or outright non-believers, though in southern cities like Koranah, Kanenhah, or East Anweri, it still plays a large role in everyday life and the government. Monotheism seems to have never really caught on anywhere in the world.

[Jakob]

An analysis of Kyanah military tech used in Project Hope.

Space: the Kyanah launched five starships during the first wave; the four starships of the second wave were cancelled. Their antimatter catalyzed fusion engines are capable of reaching 15% of light speed, though the need to slow down again caps them to 7.5%. These put a considerable strain on Kyanah industry on their homeworld, as all of Ikun's industrial might was only capable of producing about a milligram per day during Project Hope. These engines are spectacularly powerful; human astronomers notice them immediately when they turn on for the final approach to Earth, even though they are 2000 AU away. By the time they approach to within a couple AU, they outshine the full moon and can be seen with the naked eye on a clear day. Naturally, defense against interstellar objects was a crucial factor in their design, with self-repairing alloys being used to mitigate impacts by microscopic particles. Though even something the size of a grain of sand could easily do irreparable damage to one of the starships and kill everyone on board...fortunately for the Kyanah, they didn't run into any such particles on their way to Earth, and by the time they entered the Solar System proper, they had shed most of their velocity. As for defense against missiles and other deliberate attacks, this was mostly accomplished with lasers, and maintaining distance from anything the Earth could hit them with. Starship 5, holding the senior officers, scientists, and their staff, in particular maintained an eccentric orbit with an perigee of over 24,000 kilometers to strike a balance between being out of reach of human ICBMs and being close enough to not be affected by light speed delay in time-sensitive operations. Though the starships don't really play a direct role in the fight, as there's not much space-to-space combat.

Each of the starships is equipped with a compliment of single stage to orbit nuclear spaceplanes, each around 200 meters long and capable of delivering 500+ tons of equipment to Earth's surface. Though getting them back to orbit again to bring more troops and equipment requires the first wave of soldiers to first construct ISRU infrastructure to make and store liquid hydrogen and refuel the shuttles. Naturally this is pretty much the first thing the Kyanah advance troops start doing on Earth. They also have an extensive array of satellites, some for mundane purposes like navigation, observation, and communication, but others for more advanced purposes. There are the Kessler canisters, large cylinders rigged to explode and fill targeted orbital planes with shrapnel, causing a chain reaction that takes out the vast majority of Earth satellites (including GPS, so human military forces have to revert back to systems like LORAN). They also have the rods from god, but with a twist: they're propelled by nuclear explosions, sort of like an inverted Wang bullet that shoots payloads at Earth instead of into space, reaching its target within seconds where a normal missile--even a hypersonic one--would take minutes; as a result, the rods are pretty much completely impossible to intercept and pack a considerable punch of 4 kilotons apiece. And there are also the nuclear pumped lasers in orbit to defend against any pesky ICBMs. They've even set up some mining and manufacturing on the moon to replace damaged or destroyed space based infrastructure, and replenish their rods from god.

Air: Kyanah aircraft are a cut above anything that humans have ever built, going as far beyond a fifth-generation fighter as a fifth-generation fighter is beyond a WW1 biplane. With nuclear-powered scramjets they are capable of reaching hypersonic velocities with ease, and can stay aloft for weeks at a time without refueling, though in practice need to land every few days to swap pilots and bring on fresh food and water. Liquid breathing suits enable them to perform maneuvers that would crush a human pilot, and they are additionally almost invisible to radar. They also carry multiple autonomous drones to distract and harass enemy aircraft with both physical and electronic attacks. During the initial stage of the invasion, it only takes four fighters to maintain air superiority in a broad radius around their base and shoot down any human aircraft that get within 500 kilometers. Though they are helped by ground based laser arrays, as well as rods from god systematically destroying any airport they detect.

Many of their bombers and transport aircraft have similar capabilities. The shuttles are also sometimes used as transport aircraft for rapidly moving large masses around, though they tend to avoid landing in areas where propellant plants haven't been set up yet. Numerous autonomous helicopters and drones of varying sizes are utilized for reconnaissance, swarm attacks, and evacuations; if a Kyanah soldier gets hit and isn't instantly killed, a medical drone will almost immediately swoop in to evacuate them, allowing for their likely recovery.

Sea: Interestingly a bit of a blind spot for the Kyanah, who come from a desert planet. Though to be fair, their shuttles don't even have to carrying capacity to transport naval ships to Earth. The Kyanah are initially unaware of the purpose of the US carrier fleet and initially ignore it, but quickly catch on and are able to sink most of them with rods from god. They have little use for carriers themselves, as their aircraft can independently get to almost any point on Earth from base in a couple of hours, but do in the late stages of the invasion, experiment with a couple of drone arsenal ships.

Land: Kyanah seem to have figured out the energy storage requirements for handheld railguns and man-portable hypersonic missiles, which they use extensively. These guns have aimbot capabilities that can automatically fire when pointing at predicted hostiles, reducing the need to manually aim. Many of their large ground vehicles are nuclear-powered, freeing them from concerns about fuel, and rather than wheels or tracks, have a six-legged configuration powered by artificial muscle tech, allowing them to traverse virtually any terrain, navigate anti-tank obstacles with ease, and even climb cliffs and vertical walls; the legs of these vehicles--termed "spiders" by human soldiers--also contain tools to perform fine grained manipulation of their environment and surrounding objects. Like their aircraft, the spiders carry an assortment of smaller bots, which can scout the surroundings, distract enemy forces, and attack in swarms. Similar bots accompany infantry units, also carrying heavy loads and providing supporting fire. Railgun artillery is also used extensively, with ranges up to 500 kilometers. Combined with the Kyanahs' advanced AI and data gathering systems, massed artillery fire is rarely needed, they can pinpoint exactly where and when they need to strike, and strike there, and nowhere else. Though when this doesn't suffice, they have artillery shells with tactical nukes that they use occasionally.

All the Kyanah troops are equipped with body armor and helmets made from self-repairing alloys, which can take up to 20 hits from standard human anti-personnel rounds before needing to be replaced. This armor is further coated with "chameleon tech" camo that mimics the color and texture of its surroundings in real time, making them very difficult to spot with the naked eye; this is also used on most of their ground vehicles. Their equipment also includes specialized AR goggles that overlay critical information about battlefield conditions into their field of view. They have some limited use of nanobots, either in the form of weaponized utility fog that can chew through enemy electronics systems, and lungs alike, and intelligently chew through or navigate around gas masks, though its rarity and expense limits it to occasional assassinations and stealth operations. There are also medical nanobots that can stabilize injuries in the field faster and more precisely than normal surgical tools, though these can't self-replicate nor be easily produced on Earth with Kyanah ISRU tech alone. Speaking of ISRU, mass and space constraints mean that the Kyanah use construction robots to convert Terran regolith into strong composite materials and assemble, barracks, fortifications, and autonomous factories for producing fresh supplies and munitions. Essentially, they can literally 3D print entire military bases on the fly; this tech is also used on the Moon to replenish space-based materiel and satellites.

Information: every piece of equipment the Kyanah have is embedded with sensors that constantly collect data about battlefield conditions, and broadcast it to the rest of their army. And everything is constantly being fed to the apartment building sized supercomputers aboard the starships, which use it, along with constant high-resolution satellite data from hundreds of Kyanah spy satellites orbiting Earth, to predict human operations and optimize the Kyanah response to them. With the level of AI they're fielding, they almost know where every soldier is at all times, and know what humanity is going to do next before humanity does. Combined with the high mobility of their ground and air vehicles, they basically get to unilaterally decide where and when to engage with human forces, simply retreating and leaving them in the dust whenever humans have the upper hand, then returning with overwhelming force when the Kyanah have the upper hand.

Weaknesses: The Kyanah's key weakness is their low numbers, they only have 30,000 combat troops, and only 8-10 thousand in the American theater--and that's once they get their propellant plant working so the shuttles can bring all the troops down to Earth. Their advance force is only 500 strong. They are in general less motivated for total war and less cohesive than humans, though by not as much as one would think, as when the Kyanah arrive, America is in the middle of a severe recession, and trust in the government is very low due to an incompetent president and numerous scandals. The Kynaah also assume that they are attacking a disparate collection of city-states, as on their homeworld, rather than a unified nation-state, which leads to several strategic errors in the early part of the war, until they figure out what's going on. Humanity for their part also adapts and begins using strategies such as mass human wave attacks to overwhelm the Kyanahs' limited numbers, as well as trying to trick their AI systems by impersonating civilians, using human shields and child soldiers, and adversarial machine learning techniques to disguise military assets as civilian targets. There are also efforts underway to find out what misunderstandings the Kyanah have about human psychology and socio-political structures in order to leverage them, but this is hampered by the difficulty in capturing any Kyanah personnel or assets. Medical drones quickly whisk away dead soldiers to prevent their bodies or tech from being studied by humans, and capturing live Kyanah is more difficult still.

[Jakob]

Icen Tau

Icen Tau hatched in Y946 along with his other half Razlok ("other half" refers to the other half of the clutch, rather than being a romantic term as it is on Earth, referencing the fact that Kyanah lay eggs in pairs). Kyanah put their pack name before the given name, so he's actually called , with his given name being likely a diminuitive of an old word for a shooting star, since his birth-pack observed one right before he hatched. His pack Icen-pack are construction workers in Ikun, initially they are strongly in support of Project Hope, as it's jump started Ikun's economy and led to projects being plentiful and pay being high. The first time we encounter them, when Tau is very young they're working on refurbishing the Water Distribution System. However, this project is soon canceled and they and many dozens of other packs are laid off. Finding a new job is proving to be very difficult; Project Hope initially jump-started the economy and led to a construction bubble in other sectors, but now it's bursting as Project Hope begins to take its toll and many projects are being canceled or abandoned. Those that aren't are increasingly using robots and cheap labor from the Dunelands to cut costs; finding a solid and long-term job to replace the one they had is proving extremely difficult.

Their pack's alpha Icen Naiun, suggests that they look to space, as Project Hope itself still hires native workers with solid pay. Her birth-pack were civil engineers working on the Water Distribution System, while the rest of Icen-pack (with the exception of Karok, who comes from a software engineering background and joined Icen-pack via a matching app) come from construction worker packs; Naiun met them on-site and fell for them, deciding to pursue love over higher education and a higher-power career. She deep down sometimes questions her choices and feels like her skills are going to waste not being an engineer, but sees Project Hope as a more skilled position that what she's been doing her entire adult life, and a chance to get back to that. But she keeps most of that to herself, instead pointing out the obvious: that Project Hope is still hiring, the project isn't going anywhere, and they offer high pay and benefits that few other positions are offering. Korak thinks it's a great idea, but Karok and Kei object strongly, feeling as though growing up spending half their lives on a space station won't be good for Tau and Razlok, nor their older sisters Noxen and Tai, and their teenaged brothers Raktan and Tyorek. Nuyu, normally a quiet and reserved member of the pack, proves to be kingmaker as he comes out in favor of them taking the job. Karok eventually comes around but Kei never feels truly comfortable with the idea.

After getting training and certifications, Icen-pack gets fast-tracked for the starship construction crew in Y953, as sensor data and AI reports from their past jobs indicate to management that they will likely do well in the role. They taking the summer shift amidst many complaints from Noxen and Tai about missing out on their summer hobbies. Tau and Razlok are initially super excited to go to space, though they're too young to really understand much, while their older siblings continue to have misgivings, though Raktan and Tyorek are mature enough to recognize that it has to be done to support the pack. The next few years go by quietly, as Icen-pack works on the hull of Starship 3 and their young grow up slowly but surely. Raktan and Tyorek leave to find packs of their own within a few years and never return to the station. As Tau and Razlok get older, the novelty of being in space starts to wear off, especially as they're expected to help out more as they get older, and the long months in the claustrophobic space station become monotonous. Noxen and Tai are still kind of bitter about the whole thing, but have become less vocal about it now that they're in the "older sibling" role and have to be mature about it, though Noxen is still more vocal about hating it in orbit than Tai, who tends to be quieter and go along with the flow. Karok, feeling guilty that their young are spending their childhoods in a space construction zone, works especially hard to educate them in the pack's free time.

In the Y960s, things begin to go downhill. Increasingly, Icen-pack's break periods in Ikun become harder and harder to enjoy with constant smog and sandstorms making going outside difficult. Getting outside of the city for a vacation is getting more and more difficult too, as fuel prices are rising, and so is the cost of food and living, and there is frequent coverage of riots and rising unemployment on the news. A lot of business owners of stores they frequent are increasingly on edge. The adults are still on board with Project Hope, as it provides stable employment, and believe the official messaging that the economy would be even worse without it. Razlok is increasingly doubtful that Project Hope is a force for good, and has taken an interest in environmentalism, geoengineering, and political philosophy, often reading hefty tomes late into the night. Tau, on the other hand, still believes in Project Hope and sees it as an impressive work of Kyanah ingenuity, especially as the hull of Starship 3 nears completion and he becomes old enough to actually help out for himself. Their arguments about Project Hope interweave themselves into their typical dominance struggles of teenage Kyanah.

In their Y964 shift, the hull is finally finished on Starship 3, but the starship is still just an empty shell with no internals, engines, crew areas, or point defense systems installed. In other words, the visually impressive stuff is done, but all the actually difficult and delicate work hasn't even started yet. And it is far over budget and behind schedule, the foremen are instructed by Ikoin Corporation executives and some of Ikun's Lawspeakers to cut costs and accelerate construction. Working hours are expanded and rest days are cut, much to the annoyance of the crew, including Icen-pack. Safety protocols are relaxed in the name of efficiency. Starting with the Y965 shift, the lowest performs are replaced with lower-paid Dunelander laborers, many of whom are poorly trained and don't speak the language well. Fortunately, Icen-pack has avoided this fate, but the reduced safety standards combined with the language and culture barriers, mean that tensions simmer, fights and accidents become more frequent, and deaths pile up. The new Dunelanders are especially at risk due to their unfamiliarity with the site's working language and management's tendency to send them into the most dangerous areas. Kei once again insists that they need to find a less hazardous job for the sake of their children, and this time Karok and Nuyu both agree with her. Korak concedes that the situation is not ideal but points out that finding another job could take months or years in the current economy and they don't have the savings for that. Naiun adds that the more they can make now, the better chance the kids have of getting to a better life, and overrules the other three. There's always a bit of bitterness between Kei and Naiun after this point, though Kei still lavishes their young with lots of love and affection. As does Naiun, to be fair. And the guys as well. They try not to drag their young into their own personal animosity.

As the years continue, work accelerates on Starship 3, but it remains behind schedule. Kei is slightly injured during their Y966 shift, due to making a critical error induced by exhaustion, but recovers soon enough. As wages fail to rise to match inflation for the 10th year in a row, Icen-pack is faced with the dilemma of either moving to a cheaper apartment in Ikun's crime-ridden slums, or taking on a second job during what is supposed to be their free time. Naiun ultimately settles on the latter option and they take a few small gigs during the break period, but nothing sustainable. Working outside in Ikun's worsening winter smog and increasingly hot and erratic weather is it's own kind of hazard, and none of their young are pleased about it. Naiun decides to make it up to them with a trip to get away from Ikun and relax for a few days, but these plans are put on hold when the government begins imposing rationing of critical resources, including fuel, electricity, and water. Police presence increases around stores and fuel stations in Ikun, and riots and protests are stamped out with increasing levels of violence. Noxen becomes increasingly agitated and detatched from the rest of the pack; she's clearly not happy about the situation, and she's nearing adulthood anyway. However, she still comes with them to one more shift in orbit. Korak ramps up his drinking to concerning levels in an attempt to find some form of escape from the situation. During the Y967 shift, things come to a head: an asteroid mining team reports that they've accidentally brought the wrong sort of asteroid to the construction site and it won't be useful for production on the starships, but management insists they process whatever materials they can from it anyway. The asteroid miners' attempts to do so cause the asteroid to collapse into rubble, some of which goes flying towards the construction zone at orbital velocities. The foremen keep the workers, including Icen-pack, working up until the last minute before ordering an evacuation, which predictably leaves plenty of workers in the cross-fire. More than twenty are killed and Noxen's spacesuit is punctured by a piece of flying shrapnel, causing critical injuries, and she barely survives. Additionally, the space debris creates a huge mess in the construction zone, delaying the starships' completion by almost a year again.

After the incident, many of the workers are angry and have decided to start a mutiny where they will take over the space station, take the managers hostage, and use them as bargaining chips to negotiate for a raise and safer working conditions. Icen-pack is invited to join. Razlok and Noxen want to, whereas Tai and Tau do not; Tai just wants to keep her head down and not draw attention to herself, whereas Tau despite everything believes the whole incident was an unavoidable mistake and still trusts the institutions and believes in Project Hope. Partially because he's online a lot and there is a lot of pro-Hope propaganda in his favorite shows and video games. The adults defer to Naiun, who shuts down the idea of joining the mutiny, believing that any changes must be done by the book, and violence will only make things worse in the long run, and also refuses to let the pack's children be put in the crossfire in a protracted battle between the workers and station security. However, Naiun has some sympathy for the mutineers and decides not to report them. Nevertheless, the mutiny goes forward without them at the end of the shift, but just barely fails due to a lack of manpower. Almost as soon as Icen-pack is home, Noxen decides she's had enough and decides to go look for her own pack; a few days before they are scheduled to start their Y968 shift, Tai speaks up as well and announces that she will do the same and that she never wants to return to space again, a move which blindsides the rest of the pack; they weren't expecting her to leave for at least a year.

They return to space in a very subdued mood, very much missing Noxen and Tai and find that security has been massively beefed up; the guards are far more numerous, better armed, and more hostile than last year. And even more of the crew has been replaced with Dunelanders, including, naturally, all the mutineers. However, corporate was clearly spooked by the mutiny because they've finally decided to give the Ikun crew a small raise. Naiun decides that regardless of any other financial concerns, they owe Tau and Razlok (and, to be honest, themselves as well) the vacation they were promised 2 years ago and insists that they will make it work. Korak objects to this, claiming it will be too expensive, but Naiun retorts that Korak's drinking is what's too expensive. Meanwhile, some of the remaining native packs have been emboldened by the raise secured by last year's mutineers and want to try again to secure some real change, but the plot gets caught this time before it even gets off the ground, and the entire crew is sent home early in retaliation. They land in Ikun's spaceport on the same date that the crews working on Starship 4 are exchanging, leading to an unusually high occupancy. The radical eco-terrorist and anti-Project Hope group Kyakenadak decides to take advantage of this by setting off a dirty bomb in the spaceport, killing hundreds of construction workers and spaceport personnel, and causing significant damage to the spaceport. Naiun and Karok are among those immediately killed, and Kei is hospitalized with radiation poisoning. Her condition does not improve and so what remains of Icen-pack stays with her in the hospital, barely leaving for any reason. But their next shift is about to begin and Kei is in no condition to work. Korak drunkenly suggests euthanizing Kei and importing someone into their pack so they can return to work, which Kei actually agrees to, partly recognizing that she's dragging the rest of them down, and partly just tired that she's in constant pain. However, Tau violently intervenes, starting a huge fight between the members of Icen-pack, and Kei and Korak both end up dead in the commotion, leaving Tau, Razlok, and Nuyu a pack fragment. Nuyu, as the last surviving adult of Icen-pack, finishes the paperwork for Tau and Razlok to separate, gives them the pack's remaining savings, and decides he's done living. Tau and Razlok build a cairn for him together before going their own way in a cold and unforgiving world.

Tau's experiences as a packless Kyanah, joining the Ikun Army, and finding his own pack, are for another post. This one is too long already.