"Mr, Tyrelle, please understand, we of the military have recognised your value and would like you to help us out in this operation. As soon as you sign the non-discloser agreement, you will be briefed and given immediate authority over the analysis and possible direction of this incident. If you do not like the federation, think of it as saving this planet and humanity at large, by finding the function and hopefully the way to disable this object, this is our priority". The officer was truly practised in the arts of seduction, each of his words made Tyrelle squirm a bit, if he did not know how the federation worked, he might have been singing the anthem right now.
Tyrelle read the non-discloser agreement, it was the standard document, basically, keep it shut or you can expect a full tour of the gulags from the mother planet, naturally, he would have to sign a few more papers to make his transfer official, and he did, about a dozen of them, mostly related to military and recruitment due to special reasons.
Sometime later, at the briefing room, the atmosphere was boiling, the leader of the planetary government, the local bastion of the military, some other figures of worth and influence, Tyrelle among them was huffing and puffing at those who sat on the same table.
"Could you, please, at least, evacuate everyone in the radius of two kilometres? Using bots to deal with the sphere will be enough, sending any living being is liable to trigger the nightmare sphere, it has not been in touch with this planet from two weeks and it is already strong enough to conjure hell hounds, what would happen if it continued to stay, this is a city, it is tainted with the mental energies of Terrans, you know how Psionics refuse to land in our cities because of the pollution. That organ most assuredly can use that energy, and you want to send it humans? Are you out of your mind!".
"Chief analyst, your job is to tell me how to reduce casualties and mine is to take action after considering it, we will take your notes into consideration in handling the "nightmare sphere" as you call it, now shut up, we have to focus on the live feed".
Tyrelle really was starting to regret signing the paperwork, still, he calmed himself by focusing on the fact that he was right, they would return to his words sooner or later. By that time, he would no longer have the stomach to gloat, saving the Terran space would be his job, he was just regretful that these big wigs may be able to escape if things went south, they did not deserve to live while sending others to their death.
The live feed showed a squad of soldiers slowly approaching the helipad building, the data from the flying drone flashed on the hologram to indicate that no known energy signature was detected, the soldiers climbed the building using a combination of ropes and anti-gravity gear, soon enough, they were on the roof.
The drone suddenly alerted that a certain Psionic ability has been detected, specifically the ability called "hallucination". An ability that creates an object that can be used to scout through mental energy, it could emulate almost anything, the size of the conjured object depends on the amount of energy used by the caster, mental energy, something the humans produced to the point of pollution, and the Psionics excelled at manipulating.
According to Psionics, mental energies were basically brain waves, every living thing produces them to make sense of the surrounding world, the humans had somehow evolved to produce them without stop. the Terran Federation has been able to harness this energy by creating extremely sensitive soldiers called spectres, they were able to use some techniques that psychokinesis, mind-reading and whatever was psychic lash was.
These soldiers were trained so that one day they may be capable of using Psionic technology, to this day, they still fail, meanwhile, the powers they grant the soldiers got crueller, the latest rumours talk about a psychic scream, something that can rend your mind asunder, if you survive, then you too will become more sensitive to mental energies.
Tyrelle was watching how the squad would fare, suddenly he saw one of them scream, but no noise was registered as if the voice was not meant for humans to hear. But a visible shockwave spread from the soldier, shocking Tyrelle into falling from his chair. since when were Terrans capable of monitoring something like a mental blast wave.
He disregarded the sniggers and sat back again, this time a red alert came from the drone, the mental energy spike of the "hallucination" ability got above anything recorded from Psionics, and then the minotaurs walked out of thin air, this time for some reason, the nightmare sphere did not make portals and just conjured the legendary beings.
Nine-foot tall minotaurs, it looked like an armoured cow standing on two legs and holding into cudgels, four of them, the spectres used their abilities and successfully banished the minotaurs, it looked like candles being snuffed, the waves of mental attacks were capable fo forcing the "hallucinations" to disperse.
The team took hold of the case holding the nightmare sphere, they declared their mission successful as they made their way down the building, however, as soon as the approached the transport vehicle, a new hallucination alert rang up, this time, the energy spike was 5 times stronger than before, and a total of thirty minotaurs emerged from thin air, each minotaur was twice as big as the last version, they were wearing plate armour and held sharp claymores.
It only took a couple of swings to end the lives of a squad of spectres, then the minotaurs turned to the nearby soldiers, everyone within 50 metres was killed, the minotaurs returned to the sphere after cleaning the battlefield, and they vanished like that hell hound.