Lore - Phase 3

This is the phase of secretly infiltrating human society to finalize the takeover plans. Phase 3 starts around 2022.

The phase of preparation.

Eventually during Phase 2, the beings left behind in the other dimension figured out a way to improve the entry process. They started Phase 3.

They finalized the design of their bodies - one that allows them to lift up their turret to reveal a partial face with a functional mouth.

The Improved Tankheads

While the turret is still attached to the head of phase 3s, they have muscles and a second jaw that allow them to lift it up to a certain degree. Underneath, the lower part of their head becomes visible - it features a mouth with sharp teeth and fangs that regrow similar to shark teeth, as well as the visible part of the cannon breech.

Other than their older "cousins", the phase 3s are perfectly able to process food and drink. They don't need "conventional" human nutrition to survive, but some find themselves becoming almost addicted to eating and drinking because the sensation of taste is something they didn't know before their entry. However, they will start to deteriorate if they don't feed on other living beings for a long time. They believe that their key to immortality is consuming humans. As long as they keep doing this, their bodies heal faster and don't age.

To be able to keep their existence a secret for the time being, they can lower their turret to the "default" state, which makes them almost indistinguishable from the phase 2s.

A whole different species and culture

The phase 3s completely skip the memories stealing process, so they keep their memories of their life in their home dimension. To humans, this previous life is almost incomprehensible.

Phase 3s still call themselves "tankheads" to keep the pretense of being phase 2s, but in their own culture, they call themselves "perennials", or the equivalent in their own language: "vezny". In their home dimension, there are several cultural subgroups who speak their own dialects, but they all understand the "standard" version of their language.

A drawback from not stealing memories is that perennials who just entered the human dimension don't speak any human languages. There are attempts to study human languages "on the other side", but with very mediocre success. Therefore, a phase 3 has to learn the language(s) of the human country they spawn into. One way of spotting a phase 3 is therefore a strange, foreign accent and trouble with the local language(s) to varying degrees; they tend to play this down as "being from another country".

Phase 3 Doctrine

To make sure the eventual takeover will run as smoothly as possible, the perennials agreed on a handful of "rules" for their kind. Not all of them are doing a good job at sticking to them.

  1. Relationships with humans are discouraged. Perennials musn't get attached to them.
  2. Positions of power are desired - politicians, army leaders.
  3. The daily life must also be infiltrated - nurses, police, administrative jobs.
  4. Take charge of the associations, use them to indoctrinate. (See point 5.)
  5. Get the Phase 2s on board with Us vs. Them rhetoric: Make them aware that tankheads are being oppressed by humans. Get Phase 2s to distance themselves from the humans by making them aware that they are being treated badly and exploited. Denounce relationships between humans and Phase 2s because the power dynamics are unequal. Spread this ideology over the internet and in communities.
  6. There should be efforts to arm citizens. Perennials should gain the right to own weapons.

The ultimate goal of phase 3 is to get all perennials into the human dimension and then start Phase 4, the phase of consumption.