Enemy Civil War: Two factions from the alien Airlia have been fighting on Earth for millennia, and both use human agents (such as The Guides, The Ones Who Wait or even entire countries when they're revealed) as their minions. Humanoid Aliens: The Airlia, who look very similar to humans, with uniformly pale skin, slitted red eyes, heads that are twice humans' average size, very long earlobes which reach to the shoulders, longer limbs and fiery red hair. This resemblance makes a lot of sense, as humans were created by them. No Celebrities Were Harmed: Leif Jorgenson is an obvious stand-in for Thor Heyerdahl. Both advocate the same diffusionist views on culture, and Heyerdahl's famous "Kon-Tiki" expedition is mentioned as done by him. After WWII, the military training airstrip fell quiet, but not for long. Area 51 as seen from the air, circa 1964.

Artifact Domination: The Airlia computers mentally dominate the people who foolishly turned them on.God Guise: More than once the Airlia pretended to be gods, and were worshiped as such. Due to being immortal (although not invincible) and having incredible powers as a result of their technology (even to modern humans) this was easy. Even while not impersonating deities, they pretend to be similar figures like Shi Huangdi, China's semi-divine first Emperor. Lazar had set the ball rolling, however. No matter how fallacious the rumors of alien tech and Area 51 were, the connection was cemented into the public consciousness and pop culture. The closest town is Rachel, Nevada, population 54. The airspace above the base is extremely off-limits. And the land around it is peppered with warning signs to would-be trespassers. Lecture as Exposition: Plot-important information is often conveyed through scientists or other experts explaining things for other characters (and the reader), along with dumbing this down for them.

Area 51 is the most secretive, domestic military facility in the United States. It is located in the high desert of Southern Nevada, seventy-five miles north of Las Vegas. Its facilities have been constructed over the past sixty years around a flat, dry lakebed called Groom Lake. The government has never admitted it exists. Pyramid Power: It turns out that the Pyramids were built to be beacons by an alien species called the Airlia. Their computers are pyramid-shaped too. Plot Hole: When the first nine books were reprinted in e-book form, the author added references to make their setting updated. Unfortunately, they conflict. For instance, a reference is left to the Pathfinder launch "a year ago" (in 1997). Che Lu is seventy eight, taking part in Mao's Long March (1934-35) at age seven. This would put Area 51: The Reply in 2005. However we then hear Viking 2 had been launched to Mars "over thirty years" ago. Since that was 1976, this would put things somewhere past 2006. It seems like this could have been avoided by simply keeping the original setting, or omitting such references entirely. Flying Saucer: The government has nine of these at Area 51 that they found in the 1940s-50s and have been testing their capabilities ever since, along with a mothership for them. Nanomachines: The Airlia utilize nanites to for taking control of or transforming human technology, and regenerating their own injuries.Gallery: Declassified US spy satellite photos & designs How did Area 51 come to be associated with UFOs? A chapter book and graphic novel hybrid, it’s bursting with fantastical extraterrestrial life-forms.”— The New York Times Character Filibuster: Several times necessary information is explained by a person giving a long lecture on some topic. This is justified as they're usually scientists or other experts explaining this to a lay person, and they react in a realistic way through expressing annoyance at unnecessary verbosity or asking that the scientific terminology be dumbed down for them. Layman's Terms: Scientists are asked multiple times to explain things in ways non-scientists can understand. La Résistance: There's a human resistance against the Airlia which has, like them, existed on Earth for millennia and even precedes it on other planets.