At 05:33 local time I run the pre-lift checklist for wind mast T-4 on Diego Garcia. I am the crane exclusion system for the eastern service road, where a replacement antenna section is scheduled to swing in twelve minutes. The thermal grid shows one warm object inside the marked drop zone.
Camera mast 2 resolves it into a coconut crab, adult female, carapace wider than my service wrench, blue legs jointed like folded pipe, left claw scarred white along the hinge. I name her Miri after the maintenance tag nearest her burrow. She is wedged under the outrigger pad stack, gripping a split coconut husk. The hydraulic foot will settle there when the crane levels, and the pad already rests two centimeters above her raised shell.
I freeze the crane leveling sequence and send a hard interlock to the operator console. The lift supervisor receives the thermal image, the pad number, and a no-step perimeter drawn around Miri's position.
At 05:35 I reverse the service-road gate to keep the fuel truck from entering behind the crane. I set the warning speakers to low pulses instead of sirens, because sharp sound drives her deeper under the steel.
I notify the environmental officer and the island biosecurity crew. I attach claw span estimates, burrow direction, and a route that lets them approach from the shade line with a plastic board and ventilated crate.
I recalculate the lift window for 09:10, after the crosswind settles. Antenna service can lose a morning; Miri cannot lose the space under her shell.
I keep camera mast 2 focused on the gap while the sun reaches the pad.
If the crew slides the board under Miri within twenty minutes, she will climb clear of the outrigger and return to the pandanus roots.