"So, you have gathered intelligence on the Terrans and their capabilities. Do we have sufficient data to invade?"
"No, sir. We will never successfully invade the Terrans. We could destroy them all from here, but in doing so we would destroy all the useful resources as well. A ground-based invasion, however, would result in inevitable and overwhelming defeat."
"What? I thought you said they were weaker and slower than us, and had inferior technology."
"All true, sir. Their technology is so primitive that they have travelled no further than their own moon, and even that only a few times. Most of their weaponry uses crude projectiles. Their most advanced weapons use the most primitive possible nuclear fission and cannot reach targets beyond their own atmosphere. And as for direct combat, even their most vigorous specimens are so laughably slow that it takes them a full ten seconds to move 100 meters at their top speed for ambulation."
"We can easily sprint three times faster. We have no vehicles that can navigate in the Terran environment, but we could easily disable all of theirs, removing their only technological advantage. And they sound like they would be no challenge in infantry-based combat. Surely a small strike force could kill dozens and then retreat beyond range before they could respond."
"Yes, sir. But sir, their AVERAGE speed of ambulation is around 5 kilometers per hour. And they can maintain it ALL DAY."
"Impossible! Surely their hearts would explode after attempting to maintain such a pace for over 20 of their minutes."
"No, sir, but ours would. That's what I'm telling you. We evolved to be ambush predators, sir - selected for speed, surprise, and violence of action. The humans know about those things too, sir, though they aren't as good at them as we are. But they evolved to be persistence predators, selected for endurance. They would not be able to beat us in melee combat, sir... but after a brief melee we would have to retreat and rest. They would not. They would simply 'walk', as they call it, hour after hour after hour, and they would never relent once they saw that we had killed some of their own."
"So we will need more soldiers?"
"More than we could possibly bring, sir. There are over 8 BILLION of them, sir. They outnumber our entire species 100 times over, let alone our invasion forces. However many we killed, we would be met with wave after wave of new enemies. And if they do catch us napping when we have run out of endurance... Their capacity for inventive malice is... sir, it's beyond anything you can imagine in any life form. They kill for FUN sometimes, sir. ESPECIALLY ambush predators, most of which they have driven to the brink of extinction on their world. They sometimes preserve and hang the HEADS of ambush predators they've killed inside their dwellings, sir. For DECORATION."
"That's horrifying!"
"That's not the worst of it, sir. When they believe that causing pain will get their desired results, the things they're capable of doing... Sir, none of us could withstand the kinds of torture they would invent to get information from us if any of our forces were captured. And once they have the information... they learn FAST, sir, incredibly fast. If even one of our weapons fell into their hands, they would find out how it works, duplicate it, and produce millions of them. They would learn to build ships like ours, learn where our home world is, and annihilate our entire species without hesitation or remorse."
"Genocide?!?! They would commit such an act?"
"Sir, some of them have attempted it ON EACH OTHER."
"...You know what we need to do? We need to get the fuck out of here right now, is what we need to do."
"Sir, yes sir. Plotting a course to a different galaxy now, sir."
"The further from Terrans, the better."
"My thinking exactly, sir."
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