Yet we keep trying and the tapes rolling (Part II))

"I hope this isn't too embarrassing to ask, but do citizens wear clothes? I mean, we never see you without that power armor."
"Of course we wear clothes Mr. Hobbes. The upper parts are rather similar to your own. Of course the other half goes on rather diffeREntly than how you wear them with two sets of legs. Most things have fabric hook and loop faster strips to allow a little pressure to couple Even where we can't quite reach. Generally over the back and tail is one garmEnt that fits around the belly and tail, with leg coverings Either omitted or separate garmEnts, depending on the weather."
"If you don't mind the comparison, it sounds like a combination of shirts and a something akin to a horse's saddle, with optional leg warmers."
"Reference: Horse not in database - see Mustang, 57. No, No [squeal!]... I will say yes, then move on to my question. How many humans were there before we arrived?"
"Somewhere between nine and ten billion people. The national area we are in had about 450 million. At least 80% of the USA was urban or suburban, though its a large country, and thus not as crowded as some of the others. Single family homes were still common, though apartment towers, or even single building cities were becoming far more the norm.Continuing the clothing questions - is there much difference between what males and females wear? For that matter, is it common for females to be using those power armors?"
"Clothing is rather similar, more a matter of traditional colors and symbols asso-ciated with each gender, age, and rank rather than diffERent cut or cloth. FE-males tend to be kept at home due to slow rate of re-production and thus need to protect them, though this is more historical. FE-males using Eekaidie is com-mon. These units are more gen-eral pur-pose used in con-struction though can be weapon-ized. Military mostly male, but there is little difference in ability. Is there much division between human genders?"
"By law, there is no difference, women can hold any position a man can for equal compensation by law - though in some places older habits of discrimination exist."
"Who is the leader of the human government?"
"We never had a single world leader, the United Nations tried to work out differences between governments peaceful, to some extent. The United States was a democracy of elected leaders, the last election for president being in 2052, and the next one scheduled for 2056. If you hadn't arrived right now we would be in a rather heated contest because the incumbent had served two turns, and thus it would be a contest between two new people. As is, its supposedly under martial law. However your disruptions of communication, large scale mutiny by certain parts of the military, and groups of survivors declaring independence means only a little of the country is nominally under control. Parts of California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Illinois seems loyal, as are NEST arcos along the coast - but generally they act alone, and simply are under contract to rejoin the union no questions asked when that happens, then actually following central directives."
"That is distressingly similar to our current government situation. We are loyal to home-world, and nominally the fleet, but individual settlements are dealing with humans as they see fit." 
"Certainly explains why sometimes the aliens help and others they attack. Is there something we can do to foster better relations?"
"Try to communicate before attacking for one, and listen to directives a patrol might give you."
"You hear that loyal listeners? Use some common sense and courtesy, and and you might have make a laser wielding friend!"
"How many people listen to you anyway?"
"I really don't know. We've got a big tower, plenty of power, and we're using lower fidelity but longer ranged AM channels - depending on weather, you could probably hear us over most of the country. Getting feedback or play-list requests however, is rather problematic."
"Are your transmissions typical compared to a pre-arrival broadcast."
"Not in the least. AM, or for that matter signals weren't used much compared to either satellite or Internet based communication, and we don't play much in the way of what would be called "contemporary" music -  from our individual tastes, and because we feel that modern music will be rather associated with the tragedy of the last few years - so we want something more up-beat. It was also common for stations to specialize in certain formats, while we have music, interviews, news - or what counts as such."
"Some of our leaders are worried your transmissions are used to organize attacks, but I for one am impressed that you chose to do this."
"Thank You. We are quite grateful you agree to these interviews to clear up these sorts of misunderstandings."