Well, imagine an entire planet like that, and you can start to picture the conditions our brave soldiers faced on Geles IV! The surface of the whole planet shifts constantly, and the few native species have adapted to this regular motion.

When they saw the roaming herds of the Gelesians, our scientists naturally thought they would make good food stock, just like our Earth cows. As it turns out, the Gelesians have some rudimentary sentience (they call themselves Kasnootie and communicate by scent). An understandable oversight. The Gelesians went over the line, however, when they held several of our civil advisors hostage and demanded the return of the steaks already shipped to our colonies. War was inevitable, even on the ever-shifting Geles terrain.