Brainsucker

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Brainsuckers are a fictional alien race in the computer game X-COM: Apocalypse. They are small, yellow critters that are unarmed but highly agile and capable of making great jumps. In combat, they will blindly rush and jump towards the agents, aiming for the head. On contact, a Brainsucker latches on and attempts a process that most often results in the irreversible conversion of the victim into a drone of the aliens. Failure leaves no ill effects to the target, but both outcomes are fatal to the attacker.

The creatures are remarkable in that they are outside the usual alien life cycle. Serving as living weaponry far more literally than even the Poppers, Brainsucker pods are fired from specialized hand-held launchers. Mature specimens emerge within seconds and attack immediately. They have no way of acquiring nutrition and cannot survive in the wild.

While Brainsuckers are feeble and very vulnerable to weapons fire, a converted agent retains all capabilities and gear, especially high-explosives. The tactical implications are therefore profound and the race is the biggest single reason to move in groups. A Brainsucker attack will incapacitate the victim but take several seconds, long enough for others present to aim and shoot. Armored soldiers have the last-ditch option of dropping live grenades immediately before an assault.

The perfect way to kill these things are baiting one to attack,and dropping stun grenades,and protecting the volunteer agent while he sleeps with the critter on its head,which is also put to slumber.Standing on a stunned Brainsucker incapacitates it indefinitely.

When advanced biochemistry research uncovers the real alien threat, Brainsuckers suddenly become that much more terrifying. They are an integral part of the alien attack. The vast majority of invaders are non-viable on Earth, but Micronoids, the microscopic hive mind race that controls the rest, are perfectly capable of suborning and using human hosts. These are the active ingredient in a Brainsucker attack.

Luckily, this discovery also opens up the way for great advances in chemical warfare.