Brood

The Broods are a race of evil sapient insectoids from the planet Sleazeworld.

The Brood aren't just savage, they're evil, intentionally enjoying the suffering they cause others, especially the terror their infection causes their hosts. They've been compared to demons. Given the incident with the Acanti Soulforce it may be that they have a supernatural origin.

Culture and Civilization
The Broods have a civilization based on the typical communal insect societies, such as those of the bees and ants. The Queens are the absolute rulers, while the Sleazoids do all the work; despite their evil, they never rebel against their Queens, perhaps due to the latters' telepathic abilities. It must be noted, however, that the Queens have no alliegance to each other. They also have developed advanced technology.

Origins, Infestation and the Acantis
Their true planet of origin is Sleazeworld. They arrived in the Shi'ar galaxy long ago, and began infesting many worlds, becoming deadly enemies to the Sh'iar. In this galaxy they found certain large space-dwelling creatures that they decided to use as living starships. These include the whale-like Acanti, and the shark-like Starsharks. The Brood use a virus that effectively lobotomizes the creatures, then they use bionics to control them. The Brood hollow out part of the creatures (by eating them) and use the space created to live in, like termites eating a tree. This of course eventually kills the living ships, requiring them to capture new ones.

One of the Acanti they captured was of unusual size (its rib cage alone was the size of a mountain range.) They used it as their main base, and, when it died and crashed onto a planet, used it as their main city. (The corpse was so large, it took centuries just to rot halfway.) However, predators from the planet they landed on infested the area of the dead Acanti's brain, so the Brood avoided it.

Appearance
Despite their resemblance to insects, the Brood have endoskeletons as well as exoskeletons. Also unlike insects, they have fanged jaws instead of mandibles. Their skulls are triangular and flat (almost like a Zerg), with a birthmark (different for each Brood) between their large eyes. Their two front legs are actually long tentacles they can use to manipulate objects.

Racial Abilities and Reproduction
Due to their natural body armor and teeth, the Brood are very dangerous in combat. In addition, they have stingers that can deliver either paralyzing or killing poison. Sleazoids can fly, while the Queens have the ability to implant Brood embryos in other beings. The Queens can also communicate with their spawn by telepathy, even across interstellar distances.

The Brood are parasitic and must steal the bodies of others to reproduce, making them one of the most insidious alien menaces in the universe. Unlike other parasitic creatures, these embryos do not grow their own bodies, but rather take over the host's, changing it into their appropriate form. The embryos are also fully intelligent even before they are "born". Apparently they pass on a racial memory to their descendants, possibly including some from their hosts. It takes some time for the embryo to gain the ability to take over its host; in the meantime, the embryo can gain control of the host occasionally, often without the host noticing (since they remember nothing while they're under the embryo's control.) If the host possesses any genetic powers, the resultant Brood will inherit them. What happens to the persona of the host once the Brood is "born" is not clear; it appears that it is extinguished, but in some cases, it survives and coexists with the Brood's. Some Brood have been shown as being able to switch back-and-forth between their host's form and their true one, even changing form only partially if they wish.

Types
There are two basic types of Brood: the smaller, winged ones, (who were nicknamed Sleazoids) and the larger Brood Queens. The Sleazoids have flexible abdomens that they need to coil most of the time, and have transparent wings. The Queens are wingless and have round abdomens.