An unknown "gift package"
"What the hell is this thing?"
An armed police officer pinned a writhing branch to the ground with long-handled steel tongs, then clamped down hard on it.
Two companions beside him carried a metal container. They immediately unlocked its lid so the officer in front could put the branch inside, then closed it and pressed a confirmation switch.
A faint mechanical whir came from inside the container, and the green "ready to open" light lit up again. The next time they needed to collect a branch, the receiving compartment would be empty, just as it was now.
This compartmentalized design effectively prevented anything already inside from escaping when they opened the container to put something else in.
"Probably aliens, seriously."
The soldier beside him cracked a joke.
"Say, wouldn't guys like us be the first to bite it in a sci-fi blockbuster...?"
The soldier carrying a flamethrower behind them added with a grin.
"Cut the bullshit! You think that thing in your hands is just for show?"
Groups like these, each consisting of five or six men, were spaced roughly five meters apart. They advanced the encirclement to within fifty meters of the entire shantytown.
From here, they could clearly see the huge crater blasted out by the bunker-buster missile, with wisps of smoke still rising from it.
Several teams in heavy protective gear were filming with equipment near the crater's edge.
Drones circled continuously overhead.
The situation inside the crater was clear at a glance. Aside from a few vines that kept writhing and struggling, the most conspicuous thing was a strange plant that had been blasted open.
Covered in barbs, it resembled an enormous Thorn. The strange plant had apparently tried to avoid the bunker-buster missile, so it had not been at the center