Prior Relationships

UFO videos (and interviews with anonymous SETI and government insiders, and autopsy footage, and reports from abductees, and...) have been a perennial favorite among **Network Zero** ever since the Secret Frequency was people with ham radios and access to AV equipment. Recording aliens has been out of fashion for a while, but is beginning to see a resurgence.

**The Barrett Commission** (*Night Stalkers*) seeks to prevent any supernatural influence within the United States Government, and the strange plans that aliens set in motion are certainly no exception. They will not tolerate any influences on public policy even by strictly American monsters, let alone monsters from another solar system.

**The Union** holds a similar view to the Barrett Commission. The social-engineering plans that aliens carry out can have devastating consequences, and the General Strike in particular is prone to calling for aliens to be thrown out or killed upon discovery.

**Utopia Now** (*Mortal Remains*) is on polite if not actually friendly terms with the alien community. Their appetite for alien Tech isn't quite as massive as their appetite for God-Machine components (for one thing, the God-Machine is easier to understand), and the aliens are willing to oblige it as long as they cover the costs of making the things and share their findings; whether this would continue if Utopia Now could actually find anything is unknown and currently an academic point.

**Null Mysteris** tends to like aliens, though their efforts at reverse-engineering alien tech are no more successful than those of Utopia Now and frequently less so, and alien psychology is so diverse that no general theories seem to apply. Even the Rationalists have few problems with them; life on other planets is easier to fit into existing theories than vampires or shapeshifters.

The debaucheries of **Ashwood Abbey** sometimes include aliens, though this is considered a niche taste since their powers are only rarely more interesting than an exotic toy. On the other hand, an alien separated from its hover drive provides a hunt with a finish line, and a jump gate can allow for hunts in strange and distant places.

**The Long Night** has had many and loud debates about aliens: how the existence of extraterrestrial life fits with a God who created humanity with a special place in the universe, whether original sin applies to something that isn't even from Earth, whether the Empire some aliens talk about is compatible with a young Earth (or rather, a young Universe), and all the other religious implications of life on other planets. These debates have accomplished little beyond the occasional theological fistfight, and the Tribulation Militia currently has no standing doctrines on extraterrestrials.

The **Malleus Maleficarum**, on the other hand, does have a standing doctrine: Life throughout the Universe was corrupted by the Fall of Man, and all intelligent life is in need of salvation. The Shadow Congregation brings the Word of the Lord to all unbelievers, Earthly and otherwise; and when necessary uses fire and the sword.

The **Chieron Group** loves aliens. What's not to love about having an entire universe of pseudo-biological diversity? Sure, most of the more interesting ones are made of sound, or have ammonia-based biochemistry, or need special equipment to survive outside a cyanide atmosphere; but that's no challenge to a surgeon who can transplant a bit of soul into an eye.

The **Baker Street Irregulars** also like aliens. When they're bored matching wits with mere vampire masterminds or building locked rooms around spirits, the Defective Detectives enjoy getting into the mind of something that has no relation to anything from Earth; aliens have their own criminal element, whether that is measured by human or alien standards, and the Irregulars are in no danger of running out of work.

The **Office of the Lord Stewards** (*Dream Catchers*) are the British government's specialists in supernatural diplomacy. As such, they consider it a priority to find out what aliens are up to and negotiate a peace if necessary. If it comes down to it, they're willing to consider "ungentlemanly" solutions; but with aliens as with everything else, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Various other organizations exist, from Conspiracies to individual Cells. In general, the reaction of a given Cell to encountering an alien depends on the first group of aliens that Cell encountered: a Cell that met an alien that was using a small town as a snack pantry is unlikely to deal gently with any other aliens, while a Cell that helped a stranded alien get back off-planet is likely to see aliens as people to be protected like anyone else.