Every human who watched the broadcast of the CFA warfleet witnessed the planet coming to life!
Not only that, they saw how quickly the enormous mass of sand and other substances engulfed the majestic battleship and her powerful escorts without being stopped!
Though the CFA's desperate, AI-driven counterattack managed to wipe out enough sandmen to constitute two standard planets, the sandmen had plenty left to complete their sneak attack!
"How could the CFA have failed to detect that the planet consisted entirely of sandmen?!" Miles Tovar wailed. "Their scanners are cutting edge! The sandmen are too primitive! Such a huge mass of sandmen should have never been able to hide their energy signatures!"
"Maybe you aren't giving the sandman enough credit." Ves replied in a muted tone. "Since the sandmen were willing to provoke our race, they should have been prepared for our response! We should never underestimate our enemies no matter how weak they appear!"