"Okay, listen up. Most of you have been on boarding parties before. This is going to be different. We are going against a much graver threat. And you can throw any preconceptions right out. You must not rely on your previous experience. This. Is. New. For all of us."

The slide showed a bipedal creature that reached about two thirds the height of a standard warrior. It was covered in some sort of cloth-based armor, though another picture showed it removed - its actual skin was just a thin layer of flexible tissue wrapped around its flesh. It also seemed to come in a variety of colors and sizes. Though the overall shape stayed the same - with two legs, two manipulators on long arms and a head containing seemingly all the sensory organs. It did not look dangerous.

Around me, I heard a few of my brothers chuckle. I knocked my own hide to feel the thick layer of protection every warrior naturally had. My two stronger arms were massive compared to the ones from the creature and they also lacked a second pair. They seemed to have some biological specialisation too, judging their varying sizes, but none of them showed any attack capabilities.

"I see some of you not taking this seriously. Think about the council's decision to begin the extermination protocols, it was unanimous. And I am now allowed to tell you why."

A new slide came up. A piece of document describing - a massacre?

"This was first contact. Planet YKN-3 of the Argoanita system. You might have heard the rumors. It is true and much worse than you think. We did not expect the planet to contain intelligent life and our brave sisters from the gatherers were attacked viciously while routinely extracting biological matter. Their Protector-Warriors were quickly sent. But like I said, this new enemy is deadly. Two waves were lost completely and another was decimated. They were opposed by less than seven hundred."

This made me sit up. A wave was at least six flanks, that would come to 252 warriors. Times two. That had to be impossible.

"These creatures are extremely fast. Their bodies are made up of mostly muscle affixed to a stiff internal structure that limits their range of movement but enhances strength through leverage. It's also protection for organs in their upper torso and head."

Slides now displayed pictures of the creatures' innards. Many layers of muscle tissue and beneath, the strange frame that gave them shape. It looked like a cheap wooden puppet. Only three joints in the arms and legs. There were many more in the manipulators on the ends of the extremities, but they were tiny.

I rolled my right small arm. Twisted it. Flexed it side by side and up and down. It would be weird not being able to move my body whichever way I desired. These creatures had to move stilted like puppets as well.

"They are very hard to kill. We have reports of them losing extremities completely and continuing to fight. And they can keep going even if their torsos are damaged severely. I advise anyone not to spare ammunition and to aim for the center of mass."

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Short clips of combat footage played. They seemed pierced together from different gun cams. What was obvious was the creatures did not move like puppets. They were incredibly fast - changing positions from cover to cover, popping up and fleeing or attacking when pressed into close quarters combat. First in an area of foliage and later on around flimsy housing structures made of canvas. The clips showed our warriors falling out of rank, moving chaotically and firing wildly in an effort to hit them. It was horrible to watch - I had never seen any act so frantic and undisciplined. I imagined these troops to be freshlings on their very first mission. Or scared to the point of panic.

"Reports also warn us about their sensitivity towards sounds. They can notice us approaching from great distances. That's why we have to be vigilant about traps and ambushes. I cannot reiterate it enough. This enemy is dangerous."

A picture showed an assortment of items. Besides intricately engineered devices of unknown use were spears, slings and bows made from wood, plant fibre, metallic scrap and stone.

"The spaceship we found was badly damaged, probably from an unplanned deorbit. Judging from that and their armament, these seven hundred were not meant to be an invading force. Still they were extremely resourceful and managed to craft deadly tools from surrounding foliage and materials."

Now a new slide displayed a wreck. It had to be their spaceship, though it was hard to tell its former shape as it had dug into a hillside and lost large chunks of its fuselage. Blackened parts of it told of the re-entry heat and possible secondary fires. A zoomed-in picture followed, on a somewhat intact piece that flaunted an unicolored symbol that looked like three plant leaves tied together and six alien symbols beneath it.

"We have analyzed their language patterns and translated the writing to mean explorer or possibly pioneer. We do not know what they were looking for. I only hope we will never see one of these ships on a brood world. That's why we need to attack preemptively. Any questions?"

"What about the big ones?", I heard from a brother from a different flank a few rows back.

"I had hoped we would not directly jump into baseless rumors. But yes, the explorers had put into the archives data about coming upon biological matter that we now identify to be remains of these creatures. The data suggested them to be larger and much more massive, but we believe that to be false information. Nothing like it was observed during combat."

Strange, how the briefing was the last thing I thought about while lying in the dirt, bleeding from multiple wounds that my hide had been unable to protect me from. These things. The warnings about their danger was completely warranted. After we landed on the homeworld of theirs and formed up for the attack on a small settlement, we were immediately engaged by them from multiple directions. They hit us hard and I barely got a glimpse of any of the attackers.

Now the fire had already died down around me. Probably because all my brothers had been slain. The attackers' strange noisy weapons were silent. The air was filled with the smell of blood.

I heard heavy footsteps approaching and shifted my body to look at the creature that was probably coming to finish me. And it was huge. Much taller than I would be and with a significantly broader frame and stronger extremities than the briefing had foretold. It held a device in its hands, probably the noisy weapon, and lifted it up to point it at me. I did not understand the strange sounds it made.

"That's for killing the children."

A bright flash.