The Brood Invasion of Earth:
Recap and Debrief, Auto-Generated Transcript [CM Eyes Only]

Part 1. Initial Scout Mission.

Sometimes the most important aspects of a battle are decided by dumb luck. By a completely unpredictable and fortunate coincidence, the quantum tunnel the Brood's scientists had established to the distant target planet had randomly opened into a disused agricultural utility structure. Even better, the Throat was first established during the local planet's nocturnal period, and the familial unit with prime authority over the local area was defended by very minimal security (a single guard quadruped armed only with sharp mandibles, rather than more technically advanced weapons).

To its credit, the quadruped almost immediately detected the presence of the first scout to transit, despite its attempts to conceal itself and await reinforcement. We subsequently learned that the olfactory senses of such animals were extremely acute, so it easily detected the unique smell of the scout. By the time the first additional scout exited the Throat, the quadruped had already sounded an auditory alarm and had gravely injured the first scout using its powerful mandibles. If this had been one of the equivalent predators from our home planet--which had adapted to the abilities of the Brood by armoring their mandibles--or if the heroic first scout had been less quick-witted, it is very likely the invasion would have been stopped then and there. Fortunately, despite its injuries, our brave and clever scout was able to plunge its stinger into the soft manipulator in the quadruped's mouth, stunning it before it could finish killing and consuming it.

By this point, the quadruped was paralyzed, but the scout was so incapacitated that it could not escape its jaws to reposition itself to make the animal its host. Fortunately, when the second scout finally arrived through the portal, it quickly sized up the situation and was able to position itself onto the back of the paralyzed animal and achieve full mastery of its neural systems. With the beast now fully controlled, it gently released the injured scout--designation Elto45aS1334GB--who unfortunately perished almost immediately thereafter from its injuries. At that point, the Throat was only secured by one scout in possession of a single controlled quadruped, but that tenuous hold was sufficient to continue the invasion.

Technical Note: Portal Communication Limitations

[CM: Note that this section is provided for technical context and is from a different part of the interrogation] This early victory was critically important because of the extreme difficulty we face communicating with the Hierarchy once we have transited the Throat: Matter and electromagnetic waves can only flow in only one direction through the portal. The obvious solution to this problem would be setting up another portal back to the home planet from the targeted planet; unfortunately, the advanced technology and massive resources to establish a return portal means that our invading packlets are unable to establish true two-way communication until the invasion has basically already succeeded: even then, subduing and redirecting the inhabitants of the subjugated world will still be insufficient without an advanced industrial base.

Fortunately, the Brood are quite adaptable. During the initial experiments with portaling technology, it was recognized that--while no matter or energy could be sent back through an active portal--the rate of transmission of matter sent through the Throat could be affected by physical manipulation on the receiving end. Basically, it was discovered that if someone on the receiving end pulled the emerging transmitted object, it would enable matter to be fed more rapidly into the portal on the transmitting planet. By carefully measuring changes in the speed at which the Throat accepted or resisted matter that was fed into it, very basic information could be encoded and communicated back to the point of origin.

At the earliest stages of an invasion, if the target end of the Throat had been successfully established and secured, that fact could be communicated to the origin planet simply by physically pulling our broodmates more quickly through the portal's event horizon. In the absence of such an acceleration of matter stream transmission rates, the number of scouts being sent through the portal would decrease and soon cease. If no acceleration had been detected by the end of the third planetary cycle, the Throat would be shut down and the invasion aborted. While most highly-rated invasion prospects would receive a second or even third attempt to establish a portal, in the absence of any positive feedback from the scouts on the target planet, it would be marked as presumed hostile and struck from the prospect list.

From information gleaned from planets successfully subjugated after one or even two prior failures, we have learned that they were often caused by the unlucky appearance of the Throat over unforgiving or deserted terrain (or water: while our species can actually swim for short distances along the surface, there have been no recorded instances of a foothold being successfully established over deep water). Fortunately, our systems have become sensitive enough to detect when objects on the receiving planet were partially or fully blocking the portal, so those attempts are abandoned immediately without being counted as a meaningful failure after a test object had been sent through and detected the blockage.

Elto45aS1334GB: First Hero of the Invasion

The heroic actions of brave and dedicated scout Elto45aS1334GB enabled the continuation of our invasion of Earth in three important ways: first, by preventing the guard quadruped from alerting the local authorities, who could have easily eliminated our defenseless scouts as they arrived. Second, by sacrificing itself to paralyze the quadruped, Elto45aS1334GB had allowed his broodmate to use the controlled beast to pull the next scout out of the Throat, signaling the Hierarchy that a foothold had been established. And third, the trusted guard animal provided an especially effective vector for the infection of the human residents of the estate without raising their suspicions or alarm.

In fact, when the scout soon used the animal to attempt to infect a human resident, the human detected the approach of the controlled quadruped while in his bedchamber, but immediately dismissed any possibility of danger and returned to his regeneration cycle... completely unaware that his trusted companion now served the Brood. Shortly thereafter, with the animal's assistance, one of our scouts had taken control of that human, making him the first member of the planet's (previously) dominant species to be enslaved by the Brood. By the close of that dark cycle, all of the humans present at the agricultural estate had been successfully subverted, further solidifying our presence on the planet. Next, we would use these humans to further spread our influence and secure our foothold.