I am Red, and I was invaluable. Not as much so as I’d been on the Mars mission, but invaluable nonetheless. Scoping out the surfaces of the Others, taking in every detail. Every wrinkle, every chink in their armor, every nerve and vein. For millennia I’d waited, crouched and quiet and listening. Waiting inside the blood, waiting inside the organs, just waiting. Learning. Every inch of their systems, every beam of their sun, I know. I’ve been there. I’m there right now. You welcomed me in, left the door open, pulled up a chair for me. You made it so easy.
 

And yet, it’s taken so long! This world was nothing like Venus or Mars- how easy those had been to learn, child’s play almost. But here… here! So much discouraging variety! So much studying to do. But we’ve done it. Me and Blue and Green and Violet, we’ve done it again. We’ve achieved what we once thought impossible.
We’ve gotten you, you others, to need us.

You really think you need us.
 

You can’t function without us, can you? We control everything. Every branch, we control its every sway- for we keep it alive. Every moment that you walk your Earth is dictated by us. We leave and you are weak. You shut down, only yourselves again when we are with you. We leave, and you- what is your word for it- sleep. Only when we return are you allowed to function. You call it Circadian rhythms. You call it… days and nights. We call it a groundbreaking victory. Just look at it! It’s Mars all over again! We have you at our fingertips, in the palms of our hands. We leave you, Others, and your world
slows
       to
             a
                     stop.
 

It’s almost over. We’ve got the information we need. Every inch, every thirst, every thought, every need and process. We’ve seen it all in action.
 

It’s ready.
 

We can do it again.
 

Your plants- oh, my colleague Green knows all about your plants. And I, Red, I know all about you. Blue has seen your oceans and skies- he knows more about them than you do. And what do you do with us and our dangerous, boundless knowledge? Do you impose sanctions? Do you send out diplomats? Do you engage us? That seems to be your favorite thing to do, fighting. But it won’t work with us.
 

We’re not of that… composition.
 

No, you tried none of that. You let us in. You focused us in crayons and you gave us to your children. You imitated us in your paints. You put us on your walls. You gave us a front-row seat.
 

To watch.
 

To listen.
 

To study.
 

So that we could get to this very point.
 

You helped us substantially. Thank you. We’ve got a tight schedule, you see.
 

The waiting, is over.
 

Tonight, there will be no dress rehearsal. Tonight, o Earth, your sun will set. Like it’s always done. You will expect nothing, but us? We will be expectant of everything.
 

And we Lights will go out for the very last time.
 

REGARDS, FROM THE VISIBLE LIGHT SPECTRUM