The First Martian Invasion fell to earth in 1898. The Second Martian Invasion happened twenty four years latter in 1922 and was a far more substantial force. In total some two hundred Cylinders were launched from Mars, landing in ten clusters around the world: three in North America, one in South America, two in Africa, four in Europe and two in Asia. It came as a considerable relief to The British Empire that the invaders had chosen new beach heads for their invasion than the Home Islands, though the same could not be said for the people of Virginia, Paraguay, Bavaria, Southern Italy or the Dominion of India as dozens of Fighting Machines strode over the landscape laying waste to cities and railways as they went carving out their territories. Hopes that disease would claim this invasion force withered over the initial month rolled by. By that point a stalemate had been established in which the martians had secured. For the first few months a stalemate was achieved. The Martians established defensive perimeters around their hubs of activity, sending out flying machines to perform sorties against human military and industrial targets and sow the Red Weed. At the same time, human armies occasionally made their moves to dislodge the invading force. It was presumed (with a certain degree of accuracy) that the invaders were holding out for reinforcements during the next opposition. Attrition was seen as the best strategy. There were only around twenty two hundred martians in the volley and a joint British/French/Spanish offensive was able to cripple the Portugal Bastion during the early stages of the Martian Invasion and the Bavarian Bastion (unusually large as it was with thirty clinders) was hard pressed even with air support from Italy in those early phases. Even so, in a few months the Martians soon had fresh meat for the grinder.







Each cluster had with it at least one cylinder (usually the last) which carried in it (among other cargo) of thousands of watermelon sized eggs in gel lined transport containers, with a few more store in the general cylinders to fill up negative space. These were soon transported to the main bastions where work would proceed on storage for these biological items. The first they would put together would be similar to those used by human poultry farmers: heated environments conducive to incubation with some egg rotating systems and armored exteriors as secure storage. The second were far more complex mechanisms designed to accelerate the process of development, large tube shaped mechanisms with gear for taking eggs and extracting the embryo (or in latter cases cases a hatching) inside so it could be rapidly matured. The systems were complex and sets of 32 such machines required constant oversight by Martian Technicians to manage them as well as a steady supply of Red Weed. Never the less, these mechanisms could in ten months could rapidly grow to adulthood beings which were soon be dubbed in English as Manstalkers.





Standing over three meters tall and weighing more than 250 kilos on average, Manstalkers are of green skinned semi humanoids with six limbs. Two legs and four arms, the central of which can serve as arms. They are similar to the vaguely humanoid livestock that the Martians had brought along as provisions, but are of a much more formidable breed. Acclimatization and the process of rapid growth employed by the martians has strengthened their skeletons along with metallic frameworks installed towards the last stages of development. The result was that these lanky giants were deceptively fast and agile. They were outfitted with armor of an advanced aluminum alloy resistant to rifle fire as well as a specialized helmet. These bore no marking save for what is generally believed to be a serial number which was also branded into their flesh. While torso and limb armor could and were routinely removed on regular occasions the helmet never was. Among it's features was a radio transceiver and an electronic eye similar to those found in several as well as complicated electronics and nodes for direct interface with the brain. It is generally believed that such systems rendered the Manstalkers as effectively biological robots, instructed and managed by their martian masters remotely. Their behavior was fully functional and they never spoke beyond grunts of pain and explains on how beings less than a quarter of a year old could be put into service as infantry.





Manstalkers were generally armed with compact Heat Rays, less powerful than those carried by fighting machines but still able to burn a man to death at a thousand meters. This was supplemented with explosive grenades, mortar like launchers, knives and electric stun batons. As powerful as a Fighting Machine (including the refined heavier models used during the Second Invasion) could be and it's ability to exert power over a large area it could only be in one place at a time. Along with automated Heat Ray emplacements to secure their bastions, the creation of thousands of soldiers which could subsist on cakes of Processed Red Weed allowed them to resume the offensive seven months after the. As a general rule Fighting Machines and Flying Machines would lead the advance with Manstalkers and their logistics train following suit for major battles and to secure territory and to round up humans. Manstalkers were fast on their feet and capable fighters, even if they were easier to dispatch than their masters. Even with the Manstalkers and their attempts to breed them, the Martians were still badly outnumbered by humanity but the Second Martian Invasion was still a long and costly offensive.





Among the most unusual developments happened after the destruction of the Portugese Bastion in 1923 was the release of feral Manstalkers. Without instructions from their masters helmeted Manstalkers simply would sit about eating red weed, relieve themselves in at least marginally sanitary way and defending themselves from obvious human attackers. The fabrication of Accelerated Development incubators set back due to early casualties inflicted by the Royal Navy and Marine Nationale meant that few Manstalkers were flash matured and during the destruction of their main bastion north of Lisbon the pens in which hatchlings were stored in were opened. In the confusion, a group of between 1,500 and 2,000 infant Manstalkers scattered into the Iberian Wilderness along with about a dozen half matured manstalkers prematurely decanted (these would last for about five years of sicky life). While some of these were picked off in the following months, many of these feral aliens would survive in Iberia and would in time grow to maturity, forming several nomadic tribes with no interest in their would be masters but fearful of men. It was only in 1945 that French Scientist Marie Cugnot managed to make peaceful contact with these newcomers.

