For: "Price of the Guilty"
The imposters belong to an alien race that has been watching humanity
for a very long time. They know of the strife that has long plagued the race.
Generations of hatred that would boil over, turning them against their friends,
their neighbors. What were once border conflicts over resources would grow
along with the human race into planet spanning wars of attrition where no
thought was given before sending millions of their fittest in the prime of their
youth to their deaths tearing away at each other... and often over such
trivialities as who would even pretend to rule over whom. Imaginary lines drawn
out on paper meant to represent the land. They had long infiltrated the human
race, tracking their advances. Technologically, their pace was actually quite
impressive. But culturally... it was concerning. They still fought among
themselves, even as they reached as one towards the stars... they were still
given to bouts of paranoia over inconveniences such as differing opinions. And
when it was learned that a mission was to be launched towards their home
world, the Imposters feared that these savage brutes who were so quick to
judge each other over as minor a physiological difference as melanin content in
the skin, they'd surely declare a holy war of sorts against something so different
as the Imposters were.
And so a campaign was started to prevent the human race from ever
encountering the Imposter homeworld, by feeding on human Paranoia. A large
sector of space around the homeworld was drawn up, and any ship scheduled
to pass through or near enough to detour it under emergency situations would
have one or two imposters smuggled to join the crew... remaining dormant in
the vents until that line was crossed, at which point they'd immediately eliminate
and replace crewmembers who had been carefully observed to aid in
infiltration. The Imposters would then work to kill the crews and destroy the
