The Field Mission Begins
The thick humidity of the jungle enveloped Team 32 as they made their way in the jungle. The sun was high, casting light across the jungle as they set up their base of operations. The mission was straightforward: explore, document, and study anything unusual.
Dr. Arjun Mehra, the team leader, stood on top of the rocky terrain with his eyes fixed on a piece of equipment—a ground-penetrating radar machine being operated by Jai, the team's specialist in underground geology. Jai's job is to pinpoint possible cave systems beneath the forest floor. The machine, set to its highest sensitivity, had been scanning deep into the earth, looking for hollow areas or unusual voids that could house species never before recorded.
Jai's voice broke through the static on the communication line. "Mehra, I've got something."
Dr. Mehra hurried over to him, his curiosity piqued. "What's up?"
"I picked up faint movement deep underground. It was there for a split second, but then it vanished," Jai said, his eyes scanning the machine's data screen. "The system's maxed out, but it couldn't identify what moved."
Dr. Mehra nodded, intrigued. "Can you pinpoint an entrance?"
Jai shook his head. "That's the problem. The readings show a massive hollow area deep beneath the surface, but there's no clear entrance."
"It might be an underground cave with no entrance." Jai said.
Dr. Mehra glanced at the rest of the team, who had gathered nearby, listening intently. "All right, we will split up. We'll be focusing on the cave underneath us while keeping an eye out for anything else worth investigating. Jai, keep tracing the cave, it must be big. Report back if the movement picks up again."
With the plan in place, the team set off in different directions. As they combed through the dense undergrowth, Meera, the team's zoologist, called out from ahead. "I think you'll want to see this."
The rest of the team hurried over, and Meera pointed to a cluster of large ants marching in tight formation. They were unlike anything the team had seen before—each ant was at least five times the size of a typical worker ant, its dark body gleaming in the sun.
"Find the nest" Dr. Mehra ordered, already kneeling down to examine the insects closely. "This might be a new species."
As the team recorded data, Advika, the teams entomologist, said she wanted to look around the area for the nest, the team said they're fine with it, so she went out not far from the team to look for any unusual insects. While walking, she noticed something unusual moving on the ground, like a centipede, she cautiously walk to it. "A second colony!" She shouted in her head, with ants that had distinctive striped patterns on their backs. They moved in swift, synchronized lines.
She was both surprised and in aw as they looked beautiful, She attempted to get closer, but before she could move closer, the ants started coming her direction.
As an entomologist, she didn't feel scared or panic when around insects, but this case was different, She Felt Panic!
For the first time in a while, she felt unsafe being around ants, which were one of her favourite insects.The ants were not very fast so she ran back to were she left the rest of the group. She felt relieve rushing over her seeing the group she left still there, studying the ants.
She shouted, " DON'T GET TOO CLOSE TO THE ANTS!"
But then she realised they were closer to the ants than she was to the other ants, which surprised her because she thought the ants were hostile.
The ants stopped chasing her when she got further away from the nest, which relieved her. She then walked up to the team panting and sweaty, like she ran a marathon, even though she was not far away from the team.
She then asked. "Have the ants chased you guys?"
The rest of the team looked at her in confusion, then Riya, who was one of the women in the team said, " No, but why did you say ants chased you? Are there more?"
Advika replied. "Yes, I was just chased by big black ants with red-ish stripes on their backs, I was scared for some reason."
Riya, with a surprised expression said, "Wow, they sound interesting but why did they chase you?"
Advika responded, "I think because I got too close to them, they completely ignored me until I got too close, I find that very interesting and it makes sense."
"Does anyone want to help me with the study of the striped ants?" She asked.
They Agreed.
A few team members moved to study the striped ants, observing their behavior and taking samples.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mehra along with Vishka were talking while observing a plant they discovered that seems different from every plant near it, he understood that not all of them are the same, he had hoped to find a new or rare plant,
"Do you smell that?" Vishka asked Dr. Menhra.
"It smells like fresh milk, doesn't it?" Vishka said
"Amazing" Dr. Menhra said while sniffing the plant.
"It very much does smell like milk" Dr. Mehra said.
Dr. Mehra turned his back to Jai, who was still operating the underground radar and wasn't too far away.
He walked to him.
"Any luck?" Mehra asked.
Jai's face was tense, his fingers flying over the controls as he scanned the readings. "The machine hasn't picked up anything, at all,I'm getting worried." Whatever's down there must be very fast and move alot, but it stays low, which had me thinking, could it have flown?"
"I don't see anyway it could have climbed something and got high enough to the machines radar to be picked up for a mere second before vanishing." He added.
"This cave must be absolutely massive then, keep at it," Mehra urged. "This could be bigger than we thought."
To be continued...