The aliens turned up in the Earth's time of greatest need. A group of robots from some obscure laboratory in Japan had gained sentience, and promptly decided to annihilate the human race using poisoned fencing foils.

Since the vast majority of humankind had no idea how to properly hold a foil, let alone parry a fencing attack, they were extraordinarily vulnerable. The aliens, however, had much superior fencing knowledge, and promptly disposed of all the robots in a little under a month.

"We tried to warn you," the alien leader told the humans, a look of extreme exasperation on their face. "Didn't you ever read Hamlet?" Responding to the humans' confused expressions, they rolled their multiple sets of eyes and tried again. "I mean, you surely aren't dumb enough to think Hamlet is a complicated play about death and vengeance, are you? It's literally a warning about the dangers of fencing. After all, fencing foils kill three of the characters!"