wait until a snake gets tired and stops choking you so it can be picked up and used as a item
you then use it on a man that is choking to squeeze the obstruction out.
Apparently the clues you were supposed to get was that he had a pet snake so he was "hug" resistant
that the ships collapse forming a bridge to the self exiled nation of high tech that was trying to kill them. They dont stop the empire, they dont do anything, they just stay around staring at each other.