Life leads him.

Time was up. He saw the carnivorous insect creatures approaching the rover. The ground started to shake left and right. The rover rocked side to side before the monsters even touched it. This time the earthquake in the hills felt every bit as rough as it did in the snowy plains, maybe worse. Snipher suddenly recognized the moment where the rover's balanced left-right wobble changed to a motion, a rotation. It was tipping over. He realized it was too late to fasten a safety belt and landed on the side window as it cracked against the rough ground. The metal roof supports had already been strained too much, and gave way. Deciding how to overpower a superior army of wild animals was close enough to a no-win situation, but an earthquake? That was too much for him. He gave up. He knew this would be a good time for a higher power to give him a sign. Time was up.

He leapt out of the openings in the cracked windshield and began swinging his two new weapons in figure-eights on either side. The spikey carnivores backed up from him. He shouted and growled at them. An opening appeared, and he took it.

Fighting for his life, maximum shrinkage

He followed the opening they were giving him. His arms soon became too tired to keep swinging his weapons. He noticed they were routing him, like a pack of wolves might do to prey for their next meal. He followed where they allowed him for a short distance along a familiar path. He found himself at the hollow tree with the colony of large but less aggressive bugs. It looked like they wanted him to stay there. The arachnid insect beasts did not want to have anything to do with those bugs, it appeared. That struck him odd, considering he was certain he saw them eat the bugs he had tossed at them minutes ago. What did it mean?

It looked like he was pinned down, surrounded by aggressive (often bipedal) insectoid beasts which looked to be dramatically different species, yet they hunted as a pack. That was another stark difference from any living things Snipher had known before landing on this world. He had to admit he did not understand what these creatures wanted of him, if not to eat him.

The third party in this tense standoff made the first move. In the sunrise the bugs started to leave the nest. Thy seemed much smaller this time, like they were missing their tail abdomens.

Snipher kicked one at his adversaries. They kicked it back, uninterested in eating it. Strange.

Arms tiring, Snipher dropped the joggle tool and reached blindly into the hole. A couple of bugs took the opportunity to bite his hand, allowing him to pull them out. It was painful but did not draw blood. The two door guard bugs were full size, like he had seen earlier. It was time for experimentation again. He flung them at the carnivorous beasts. They (gladly?) devoured them.

It was time for experimentation again.

But there was more to it than just gulp and swallow. He had the time and inclination to watch the process closely in between trying to appear threatening with his crowbar. One crustacean thing lunged for the large abdomen but seemed to fear the pincers and mandibles on the front end of the bug. With a cautious flick, it broke the bug in half, not quite in half. The top half scampered right to Snipher, between his legs, and disappeared into the nest behind him. The bottom half was then gobbled like a plum or a grape.

Repetition of the process gave the same results, except with the insect creatures taking turns in a pecking order from largest to smallest in the pack.

Then Snipher saw what was happening. He had heard that on his home world skunks were immune to bee stings. He realized he was now a metaphorical skunk robbing a beehive and tossing the honeycomb to the bears.

"Fast learners you are," he told the insectoid crustacean monsters. The light gravity of this planet did not reward great structural strength. Their thin skin and shells (no matter how sturdy their carapaces looked) was little defense against the bugs' sharp weaponry. Just as Snipher's thicker skin was no match for the mandibles and claws of the larger beasts. Unlike himself, they were eggshells with hammers, all offense, no defense. A deadly game of paper - scissors - rock might also be a proper analogy.

Now that he understood, what could he do about the situation?