Chitauri (Earth-5180)

"We are legion."

- - Chitauri

The Chitauri were a shape-shifting race of parasitic beings who feast upon other sapient species. They were responsible for the mass extinction on Skrullos' thousands of years in the past.

History
The Chitauri came from an unknown planet, and invaded Skrullos soil in 1983. The Skrulls were curious about the lifeforms, but soon found they could shapeshift much like their own race, taking the form of other Skrulls. They decided to study them, even sending some specimens to their underground base on the Moon. Although they kept studying the Chitauri, Skrullos' interface AI, Ultron, found about their hostility after finding a record of an alien civilization that was destroyed by them. He chose to hide the information, however, as Ultron grew with animosity towards the Skrulls and their treatment of their own culture.

This led to the Skrulls only noticing the dangers of the Chitauri extremely late, and the extraterrestrials started killing the inhabitants of Skrullos one by one. Quarantines were set around Skrullos, and the planet's lead scientist M'yrnn J'onzz attempted to halt the threat by placing defense bubbles across the biggest cities. However, the Chitauri hivemind proved too difficult to stop, and they soon had consumed most of the world, infecting and killing 90% of the Skrull population.

M'yrnn was then quick to find out about Ultron's betrayal, but was not able to confront him when he realized the Chitauri had already succeeded; they elimited all of Skrullos' leadership by infecting them, and hoped to spread through other worlds using stolen ships. Unable to contact the Green Lantern Corps, M'yrnn and his wife M'yri'ah decided to go to the planet's reactor cores within its core to destroy it and stop the Chitauri from invading other worlds. Before they did so, they decided to send their only son, J'onn, to a distant planet where he could survive, in an effort to save their child and the last of their race.