Cultivators

‘Your first aid leg pouch is made from beautiful timber. What kind?’

‘The yamala tree originated on the crabs' home planet. Its fibres have useful properties including being airtight and virtually fireproof and they release oily vapours that keep my scalpels, stapler and cauterizing gun rustproof. Very useful when we hunt. The crabs use metal and ceramics but I prefer the yamala. It's a very rare plant; rare mostly because they hunted their own biosphere bare.’

‘A pity to kill one, then.’

‘You know the ecosystem the crabs evolved to hunt in: either the yamala tree or I would survive.’

Adaptation

Bullets don’t work.

Your training won’t work: trusting the Chain of Command; the Table of Organisation; Command and Control; Intel won’t work because Command ordered Intel to interpret data in the old way: to defend against Earth’s erstwhile apex predator - Command’s peers. By the time undeniable proof arrived with Command and rejection proved futile, leadership was down to a single madman shrieking ancient truths over all remaining channels. But all of our ancestors survived the fledgling enemy so long ago - at least to the age of parenthood. Trust to Whom your ancestors prayed and follow Its Commandments.

Run.