[ WP ] A tattoo of earth suddenly appears on every living thing on earth . A rival planet declares war on earth and a voice is heard from the ground `` you have lived on me for a long time , now fight for your home '' .

A week ago, we all heard the call. Man or beast., it did not matter. We all heard the words `` You've taken of my flesh and blood, you've lived in relative safety as I have willed it, and it is now you return the favor. You WILL fight for me or we will all die. There is no other choice'' 
 
 The words trembled in the souls of man and beast. The words were like an echo in our soul of a voice of unimaginable power that did not cease. They forced whoever heard to acknowledge the words with no other recourse. Men and beast looked to eachother and realized that the voice heard was not a bout of insanity. They all suddenly had the mutual understanding that their existence was threatened... but by what? 
 
 Humanity immediatey notice they now had the ability to communicate with beasts, not necessarily telepathy or verbal. Just an.... understanding. Scientists could not explain it -- and sorely wanted to -- but the extraterrestrial threat took priority. 
 
 The nations of men turned toward preparing all means of war machine and hybrid units of men and beast. No soul knew the nature of the threat and no timeline was given. Research into more advanced materials and weaponry became the focus, the civilization of man driving their economies to the breaking point and stretching resources to their limit. Beasts helped wherever they could, large, powerful land and sea dwellers providing muscle for construction of fortified bunkers on both land and sea, mice voluntarily giving their lives to aid in the development of gene therapy treatments to make better human soldiers. Insects providing insights into small unit tactics, increasing combat effectiveness of human units by leaps and bounds. 
 
 Routine space travel was achieved in remarkably short time. With fully weaponized fighter and frigate prototypes up in 70 years. It turned out that the creatures of the deep were not immune to the call, and aided in the construction of large sea complexes for staging points. The things that these creatures knew fascinated even the most knowledgeable that mankind had to offer, and these secrets were put to good use. As for fleet control, birds that flew in swarms provided invaluable info on how to avoid ship to ship collisions in the inevitable chaos of battle. 
 
 Spaceships now had crack boarding parties of supersoldiers and the most fearsome beasts that had once been man's adversary. Bears would fight alongside humans, as would lions and panthers. Crows and ravens served as frontline tacticians along with their human counterparts. Their ability to fly and above average intellect would prove wonders for gathering intel on first contact. 
 
 Space Fighters also had mobility akin to what humanity envisioned in sci fi movies of yore thanks to squid share their knowledge of delta-V. While fighters constrained to atmosphere mimicked the slender bodies of dragonflies and birds, with the wings being independently articulating as well a special polymer allowing for unparalleled mobility. 
 
 Soldiers now had unparalleled melee capabilities never before seen by human kind, the mantis shrimp sharing their secrets and being willing to be fully dissected by expert scientists in biomimetics. Insects showed the powers of hydraulic actuation in spiders and the benefits of chitinous armor in crustaceans. Every beast had something to contribute. 
 
 A newfound respect was garnered between man and beast. In the unknown nature of the enemy, man and beast were forced to prepare as best they could for any and all imagined first contact scenarios. The insights offered by beast were invaluable and the beasts admired the resolve and singular focus with which humanity worked toward incorporating all the useful information given. Whether all this preparation would be in vain, no one would know... 
 
 That is, until early warning orbital stations detected an anomaly out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. 
 

