Firstly the results from scanning the shields and armour, and this is definitely eyeglow raising. The material composition is [i]ludicrously[/i] advanced. The data from analyzing these alloys is incredible. It's not even that they've just got access to some unobtainium either - there is an inner layer of a metallic liquid in each plate which will expand and harden on breaches, and the mesh joints flow around muscles like water. This is craftwork. And what's more surprising is that those same alloy readings can be detected in the skin and bones of the aliens. The baseline level of durability for the aliens is [i]incredibly[/i] high. Whatever else is going on with them they appear to have mastered materials science to a level that significantly outstrips what even the Aotrs is capable of.

This isn't a 'don't even bother shooting' situation, though. While this material is tough and the soldiers are highly biologically augmented, this is still breachable with sufficient firepower. The analysis also suggests that the armour is particularly well designed for countering kinetic impacts; a coldbeam sidearm has a better chance of penetrating than a direct rocket launcher hit, and a physical slug won't even scratch the paint. 

The melee weapons are made of similarly advanced material, but the readings from the grenades is particularly interesting. The chemical compounds within also defy easy analysis, but the gist seems to be that it is a combination nerve agent and highly vicious acid gas. That follows - if their armour plating is so good as to render projectile weapons harmless then using a weapon that can corrode armour and incapacitate a warrior directly is a neat bypass. This stuff is [i]nasty[/i] - it'll kill unaugmented humans and can corrode vehicle armour. The aliens don't even bother with gas masks because it'll go right through them. You'd need full environmental sealing, and that seems incompatible with the no-electronics vibe of the aliens.

So what you're looking at, then, is incredibly tough, durable, and superhumanly strong bio-engineered super-soldiers armoured in high tech metal plating. They seem to be clueless about any form of electronics - there are no robots, no comms uplinks, when they want to talk to each other they need to yell. There's something curiously post-apocalyptic about all this. This is starting to read more like a high technology species that has, for whatever reason, lost or abandoned entire scientific concepts.

So for the material assets. Now for the magic. Now that you've got a chance to examine the hoop structure in more detail you can see that those glowing glyphs are a form of potent divine magic, highly correlated to gravity control. You can see the leader snake directing the floating carriage spheres with precise gestures they seem to move with his intentions. The circular and spherical shapes seem important for this spell matrix; the alien aircraft and sphere-tech are all as close to exactly circular as they can be made. There's a lot of advanced and idiosyncratic design to this, no doubt directly relating to the god or gods who provide the magic. In a way it's comparable to Gate technology, although it's followed an extremely different path.

This isn't a portal, then. This is actually more like a booster. If a grav-drive ship flies through this hoop then the localized gravity pulse will allow it to accelerate massively in speed. What the aliens are setting up seems to be some combination of a rail gun and a train track. 

The other thing, surprisingly, is those spikes on their armour. It takes a while to work out what those are. They don't seem to have any sort of known blessing or enchantment on them, no communication spells, nothing that makes sense as a thing to voluntarily put on a soldier. It's not until the field is widened that it abruptly becomes clear that those are [i]curses[/i]. 

Not a curse like might make up part of a weapon. This is a curse like a divinity might put on a species it particularly dislikes. Physically, those things are basically just dead metal, but they're also vectors for some terrible dark magic and it's directed against the aliens - you can see where the blight attaches to their very souls. There is no way to tell what exactly they do, just that whatever it is, it's going to be [i]bad[/i]. 

The final bit of information from this work party is related to the biology of the canids. While they can and do speak to each other, often quite casually, in their native language, there does seem to be some more subtle information flow between them through pheromones. Oftentimes they will demonstrate an uncanny synchronicity of action following the release of olfactory agents from glands in the neck. Pack instinct, dialed up as far as biotech can take it.

The leader snake is surprisingly similar to the wolves on a basic biological level. This is a case where both species were upgraded to a baseline of strength and durability using the same biotechnology. If they perform differently in combat it will be due to training and social factors, not because they are different orders of being - though notably the snake lacks any sense of the pack instinct that directs the canids. It does seem to be able to direct the spheres, though, so it is quite possible that it is a divine spellcaster of some kind.