The two boys teleported outside of the shield and quickly deployed the plasma thrower in its dome configuration. They listen to the voice of the universe hoping they could locate the source of the effect. Yet they were having no luck the effect didn't seem like it had an origin source.
The plasma thrower was doing its job and prevented the insect like swarm from entering the area but the swarm was quick to adapt and started to evolve. The insects merged creating a larger version of themselves. The boys' didn't want to give them any more chance to evolve and were not getting any results so they teleported back to the battleship.
"So did you locate the source?" asked Chris
Null shook his head. "No, The effect seems to be global and not originating from any specific location"
Chris took on this new information and put it together with the other information.
"I think we need to go old school and physically map out the world. Using your, Jania and Kikei unique vision plus advanced scanning technology we should get a complete view of the planet"
Null and Infy agreed with Chris's idea because they didn't have any better themselves. This time they took Jania and Kikei with them to survey over 1000 locations. In each location, Kikei would collect all the data and send it back to Chris to collate. Each location offered the same level of resistance which was well within tolerance. It took the group more than 24 hours to complete and by the time they had returned, they were exhausted.
While the rest of the party caught up on sleep Chris spent the night analysing the results. Trying to find anything that would be a good location to investigate and he believed he had found a good target for their first mission. It was a large underground bunker near the northern pole of the planet.
"Analysing the data from the fights yesterday I think we can say that each swarm is only connected locally. There was no variation in their routine at each stop. If they were connected by a hive mind we should have seen the evolution of their strategy after each battle" Chris started the briefing and then continued.
"We plan to investigate the underground bunker identified near the northern pole of the planet. Given the size of the bunker I am worried about the time, it will take to investigate and how much the swarm will be able to adapt to our countermeasures."
Null and Infy didn't want to share with the rest of the group as they believed the planet could eavesdrop on their mental connection but they believed Chris was wrong. They couldn't explain the feeling but they believed the planet was testing them. They had developed a few countermeasures of their own.
Infy now in his spirit projection form interjected. "We have upgraded our recall spell so that it can be triggered mentally. If anything goes wrong I want you all to use it straight away to return to the ship." The rest of the party nodded their head. They didn't know that Null and Infy had developed an override so that they could send them back at any time.
The boys were willing to implode the planet if it became a clear threat to the party. They had confidence in their ship to survive the implosion. They would let other deal with the consequences as they shouldn't even be here.
They also didn't tell the others that they feared that the personal shields might become ineffective soon. They could already sense the outside effect subtly changing as if it was probing the shields for a weakness.
The party got ready for its mission, they flew and landed the ship close to the location of the bunker. Once they landed they extended the shielding to the maximum range. This allowed the party to set up a beachhead inside the bunker. The party entered the bunker and were shocked at how similar it looked to a martian military building with its wall made of prefab metal panels placed together.
They inched forward, looking for any indications of the purpose of the building. They had found signs but they were in an alien language so they didn't provide any assistance. They reach the end of the ship shield.
Null and Infy entered their hybrid mode. "Remember the plan, Jania you lead using the mushroom configuration on the plasma thrower, Myself and Infy will cover the back. Kikei get ready to use stasis on any that pass by Jania or us. Chris, you play clean up using the standard configuration"
The plan like all good plans only lasted until they made contact. Unlike all previous attacks, the swarm instantly adapted to the situation. Instead of creating larger insects, they created nested insects. Like a Russian doll, they packed smaller insects inside of larger ones. They used the larger insects as a sacrifice to get past both plasma beams.
Chris and Kikei were soon overwhelmed, and they couldn't use the plasma throwers without risking friendly fire. At the same time, they had started to hear the voices again. The ghosts had managed to slip past the personal shields and get into their heads.
The situation was getting out of control but no one wanted to be the first to abandon the mission. In the end, they weren't given an option. Infy and Null teleported everyone but themselves back to the ship.
Their aura had completely changed into its black form. Anything that was touched by the aura died.
They shouted mentally "I think it's about time you show yourself"