Grey

A Grey Alien.

Grey is a colloquial term used to describe the alien species that crashed at Roswell in 1947 and planned to colonize Earth in 2012. (TXF: "The Truth") They are also referred to as Reticulians, as they allegedly come from the binary star system Zeta Reticuli. In reality, Zeta Reticuli is where many supposed alien abductees report Greys originate from.

They worked with the Syndicate as part of the Project and were referred to as colonists until the Syndicate's demise in 1999.

Anatomy and Physical Characteristics

Grey alien after molting.

Although the relationship between the greys/colonists and the alien bounty hunters is unclear, they seem to be similar or possibly the same species, although this discrepancy was never addressed. They are able to reproduce through gestation in a human host and emergence as a long-clawed alien, which seeks heat and sheds its outer skin to become a true grey. The existence of alien fetuses indicates that they may be able to give birth in a manner similar to humans, although these fetuses may just be an early form of the gestation process.

Various comments indicate the black oil virus, gestation, and the effect of their toxic blood on human physiology are all extremely hampered by the cold, suggesting that greys may also be highly sensitive to the cold.

If the story told by Arthur Dales in "The Unnatural" is accurate, greys are not carbon based lifeforms, although little information was given on this. This story also suggests that colonists, greys, and bounty hunters are all the same, meaning the greys all possess the same shapeshifting and healing abilities.

According to comments made by The Cigarette-Smoking Man in "The Truth", the colonists/greys share the supersoldiers' weakness to Magnetite.

Use as Disinformation

A fake Grey Alien.

Several incidents throughout the series indicate that the government sometimes uses evidence of greys for disinformation purposes, to conceal the abductions and activity performed by the human members of the project. It should be noted that the fake greys often look notably different from the real ones, although they share the same basic appearance. Agent Mulder claims to have met with an Air Force pilot who often dressed as a grey alien, and an autopsy conducted by Dana Scully on an "alien body" confirmed that, in at least one case, the USAF was using the image of aliens for some sort of disinformation project.

Mulder went on to claim that two "men in black" informed him that such encounters were staged by the government and then intentionally revealed as false to discredit truth seekers who have fallen for a blatantly false deception. In 1997, Michael Kritschgau informed Mulder of similar operations, and Mulder encountered a dead grey whom Kritschgau claimed was actually a genetic chimera, carefully constructed to be very difficult to disprove.

Appearances

• TXF
  • "The Erlenmeyer Flask"
  • "Little Green Men"
  • "Duane Barry"
  • "Colony"
  • "End Game"
  • "Paper Clip"
  • "José Chung's From Outer Space"
  • "Talitha Cumi"
  • "Herrenvolk"
  • "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man"
  • "El Mundo Gira"
  • "Patient X"
  • "The Red and the Black"
  • The X-Files Movie
  • "The Beginning"
  • "Two Fathers"
  • "The Unnatural"
  • "Field Trip"
  • "Requiem"
  • "Without"
  • "This Is Not Happening"
  • "My Struggle"
  • "My Struggle III"

See also

• Hybrid
• Kindred
• Black oil
• Supersoldier
• Faceless alien
• Long-clawed alien