The planet looks like an ideal spot for colonization from a distance. Covered with a range of biomes, from lush forest to long coastlines to roaring rivers. However, when the Amentans arrive they quickly notice anomalies on their scans.
A population of humanoids lives on the planet, scattered - sometimes individuals are spotted alone and other times they appear in groups of up to a few thousand. They appear similar to child Amentans, except for a general lack of bright hair colors. Civilization appears primitive - in some cases so primitive that it's confusing how they survive at all, with small groups managing to survive in environments as harsh arctic tundra huddled around campfires, in sandy villages in a desert with a single well. A small number of cities exist, most without obvious sources of sufficient food to support them.
As the Amentans investigate further they notice more anomalies of a far less consistent nature. There's an aurora in the northern hemisphere that shines continuously, day and night. One of the cities appear to change subtly in composition and position constantly, with no obvious construction visible. A group of the humanoids appear to live underwater, alongside a gigantic manta ray, hundreds of feet in breadth. A giant skeleton statue of green crystal seems to be moving. A blur of feathers and wings zooms across the planet like a missile at one point. Except for the humanoid species, none of the anomalies repeat.
These are just the anomalies they notice easily from orbit, more may be found on closer inspection.
They don't have helicopters here right now! They will have to bring some over. Would possible rail-obstructing monsters be deterred if the rails were electrified?
Yeah, it usually hurts a bit but less than being hit by a train and if a monster showed up while a train was already going really fast it might not be possible to stop in time.
Oh. Could they make it so the rails were only electric when the train is coming so it doesn't hurt monsters the rest of the time?
(He's a bit confused why they jumped to something that would hurt monsters so fast but maybe they've tried a bunch of things and they didn't work and also they don't look sad cause they're aliens and they have different looking faces then amaliens?)
Yep, they can do that! They don't want it to be impossible for monsters and animals and, for that matter, amaliens, to comfortably cross the tracks when nothing's coming. Usually on Amenta trains can make noises if the track is obstructed, but monsters wouldn't know what that meant.
A little bit of electricity would work then if they can't delay the train that time and don't have enough fuel for the helicopter.