Standard sci-fi smash up with a small twist

[sonofccn]

Setup: At precisly 12:01 AM Central time on a day in the near future Earth experiances the "Blip Event" where for precisly 6.66 seconds all electronics planet wide ceased to fuction. Following this, through small comfort to the thousands who died due to mechanical failures, all systems reboot flawlessly without any sign of damage relieving fears of certain Goverment security members had concerning a terrorist's EMP attack. The actual cause eludes the world through the various leaders take great pain to assure thier citizens that it won't occure again.

It is during this traumatic time that NASA firsts releases to the proper channels that the universe has "gone wonky" with stars not only appearing to have changed locations but the light itself seeming to have bypassed the normal light-year journey to reach us. Naturally this is ignored, as all other space agencies are, as the goverment focuses on keeping its populace calm and tracking down the cause of the "attack".

The world continues this for 24 hours following the Blip event, with panic slowing going back down to normal levels, before President Obama is roused from sleep at 3 AM by a very important phone call. NASA has found something else wrong with the cosmos through this time its much closer to home and is a wedge shaped alien space craft which "just appeared" less than 1 AU from Earth and is now approaching. All attempts to comunicate have been ignored, assuming the object even has a crew to began with as many experts in the field are quick to jump onto self-replicating drone ships.

Faced with little choice Obama puts the military on high alert, a move followed by Russia, China and the EU as they all eventually detect the object over the course of many hours it takes to reach Earth. Thier attempts to talk to the alien ship meet equally with futlity and the world is forced to simply wait it out.

When the vessel finally responds it does little to calm the nail biting tension gripping the world. The initial message consistes of little more than alien vector coordinates coupled with a orbital photo of a barren stretch of land in Australia plus the words, transmitted in many languages, you will watch. Precisly thirty minutes after the message, the alien craft repositioning itself in a stable orbit above Australia, much to the citizens terror, all intelligence agencies detect a thermal spike from the craft and shortly afterwards satellites confirm for all major nations the equivilent of a megaton yield nuclear blast on the specified landscape.

This demostration is followed by another longer message where the aliens, who have detected and monitered all broadcasts since landing in system, claim the world as part of their Empire and let us know that any violence against them will be punished heavily. They then inform the United States that as the single most powerful nation on thier puny world it would have the honor of hosting the formal treaty signings to make the whole affair "offical". The alien craft than takes up position above Washington D.C. and a small auxillery craft is soon detected detaching from the far larger vessel.

The world, minus some grumbling from a few from China and the EU, waits with trembled breath as news media capture the landing shuttle, the camera's fighting each other to catch the first glimpse of the otherworldy invaders. All are ultimatly disapointed when a human "Nazi refugee" steps out flanked by white armored shock troops and proceeds to have a "meeting" with the President. The alien leader, who claims his rank is Grand Moff or sector Govenor, is surprisingly charming apologizing for the "harden reflex action" of the Imperial captain who had ordered the needless display. He makes pains to say that the joining of the Empire is optional but equally stresses that a primitive world like ours could easily be devoured by "space pirates" or wiped from existence by the terrorist rebellion seeking to overthrow the order and peace of the Empire for thier own nefarious ends.

The meeting, which was not going well despite the Moff's attempt to white wash, was ultimatly interupted and ended when NASA, once again, reported more problems from space. This time from the presence of a second, larger, alien vessel which appeared "from the mouth of hell" according to the person who glimpsed its arrivial. Regardless to its origin the newer ship immeditly set onto attacking the previous Imperial one, of which every news channel had a live feed of within thirty seconds of its start, and the two vessels hammered each other to a draw with both limping away damaged. The second alien vessel stayed long enough to eject their own auxillery vessel which also made it to Earth.

The craft made landing inside Russian territory, well Russian/Ukrain territory but it was Russian wholey after the incident, and after as an intensive interrogation as the Russians dared these new second aliens were shown to the world. These "Holy Fanatical Crusaders" made thier demands to Earth very simple. Holy Terra belonged to their empire as did all of humanity. They did promise peace of prosperity in exchange for undying devotion to the Empire and the Emperor, whom they believed had caused all of this to be reborn and would show up if they looked hard enough, and death to those who rejected.

The world, suddenly envious of the old days where their only fears were nuclear obliteration, sat upon its collective haunches to decide its next move.

The question:Which genocidal, quasi fascism abiding galactic civilzation would Modern day Earth fair better under? Than upon the choice would Earth forever be under the heel of the power or would we eventually rise up and throw of the shackels. Could we play both sides against each other and come out stronger and stay independent?

[Cocytus]

Oh God, can't you just hear the pundits erupting over this? Hoo, boy :)

Anyway, I think Earth would probably fare better under the Galactic Empire, if for no other reason than because it appears largely secular. True, it has the element of quasi-religious mysticism in its Sith leaders, but for the most part it appears concerned mainly with maintaining military superiority, as opposed to the Imperium of Man which is concerned with religious and ideological purity, and is driven by fanatical hatred to extinguish anyone who does not conform to religious ideals, "consigning them to the purifying flame," as it were. This double dose of both governmental and religious fascism makes me fear the Imperium more than the Empire. The Empire would keep us around as long as we were in some way beneficial to them. The Imperium would torch us on the spot for not worshipping the Emperor.

And as far as eventually throwing off their rule, I again have to go with the Empire since, after all, if a ragtag band of rebels armed with weapons no more lethal than modern firearms and aided by fuzzy stone-age teddy bears can do it, so can we.