The ships came silently in the pre-dawn hour, their hulls shimmering with mimicry of the clouds above the Blue Ridge, and cut an invisible arc down through the wilder, less-visited stretches of Virginia's foothills. Each craft delivered its payload—teams of operatives engineered for adaptation; their true forms concealed even from each other until mission protocols were met. Their leader, designated Klyxx, surveyed the valley below, nostrils flaring to catch the spectral residue of mammalian life. Their mission: Subvert the United States government as efficiently as possible, establishing a beachhead for the impending greater incursion.