They boarded the shuttle and headed to the dwarven jump gate and jumped to the location of the planet. Null wanted to bring either the Aethon or the Eous for support but Bolat said that there would be council enforcer ships in orbit while our party and all the other parties explored their assigned cities.
The council had designated the planet DW12Z2. The indigenous name for the planet was lost to time. It was considerably smaller than Earth and has a result only had a gravity of 0.7g which suited the humans who had grown up in low gravity environments. The atmosphere even centuries later was still toxic to most life forms so the party would need to use respirators.
The city they had been assigned was on the southern hemisphere in a section of the planet that was constantly ravaged by strong storms. The meteorite collision had made the planet weather system unstable but it was nothing that they couldn't handle.
The party had finally landed in a clearing in the center of the city. Null was first off the ship.
"he he he he he he" was all everyone could hear over the mental link while Null ran around in the rain. The boys had added Bolat to their private group link so that Chris would be able to link with everyone and they could also talk while wearing the respirators.
This was the first time any of the members of the party had seen or been in the rain. They understood it on an intellectual level but on a practical and emotional level they had never experienced it. Growing up in space or in colony domes that had no weather had caused them to miss many of the experiences offered by habitable planets. Even feeling the wind was a new experience to them.
It took a while for the excitement of being in a new environment to wear off. It was now time for them to start the mission proper. They had decided to use the shuttle as the forward operating base and this was where Chris would remain to keep track of everyone movements and discoveries. He would make sure the paperwork for the mission was completed. He also ensured that they covered the city in an orderly fashion. Null, Infy and Jania would act as the scouts and would confirm each location was safe before Bolat and Lisa would follow up to scan and report their findings back to Chris.
The indigenous species to the planet were humanoid but had lived by a completely different social structure to humans. Each city was made up of circular buildings that appeared to be the sole residents for the Individuals they would have worked, lived and slept there. Each building was dedicated to a single task and contained a large group of sleeping berths, each with just enough space to sleep in standing up, a meals area and some form of a workshop environment.
The indigenous life of this planet had taken a completely different technology tree than the humans were used to seeing. All the races they had interacted with so far had gone down the path of using machines and technology made from inorganic components. The indigenous lifeforms of this planet had taken the organic route. All of their technology was alive and had self-maintenance built into it, so some of the buildings had survived and were still operable.
It was difficult for the party to work out the level of technology shown as it was so different but if they had to guess they would say they were about 200 years behind the humans. They had flight but had not progressed to space flight. Their organic power generators weren't as powerful as fusion generators.
They had also possessed technology that was more advanced than current human technology. They had inventions like bioluminescent walls that produced light and heat or computers that used organic neural networks.
The party focused on the operational building first. They had cleared a few of the buildings this way but they hadn't gathered anything useful. It appeared that the race had no discernible art or culture. All the buildings they had cleared were factories for building more organic machines. Lisa suggested that these buildings had been deemed more important hence had more redundancies which is why they survived.
Null was getting bored they hadn't even run into any wild animals or anything of interest. Eventually, they decided to call it a day and headed back to the forward operating base. On the way back Infy and Null transformed as they wanted to see if they could fly on a planet. No matter how much they wished for it they couldn't achieve any semblance of flight. It appears that their wings were just decorative at the moment.
"This mission is so boring, we haven't found anything useful" Null had become disappointed he had been hoping he would have to fight off all kinds of animals and monsters.
"This mission has been a real boon for us. The living walls, organic computers and organic power generators. This is a completely different technological evolution from our own. I could spend my life studying this planet" Lisa was ecstatic at the gains she was making from this fieldwork excursion but she wished they just had more bodies to help.
They ate some food and rested up. Tomorrow they would be resuming their exploration. As the red sun started to set. Both Null and Infy felt that something wasn't quite right, something was off.
"I think we should sleep in the shuttle and take it back into orbit. Bolat can you set up some surveillance drones?" Infy couldn't shake the feeling that something was definitely wrong with this place, especially now that nighttime was approaching.
The others were going to make fun of them for being afraid of the dark but could sense how serious the two boys mood had become. They didn't hesitate to agree with Infy proposal to sleep up in orbit even if it meant they would have to sleep standing up.
A couple of hours later everyone was asleep except for Null and Infy.
"can you hear that?" Null was shivering, the voice of the universe had changed something was affecting the whole planet and its orbit.
"of course I can hear it, it is the life field but it seems wrong, so very wrong. We have to move to higher orbit" Infy didn't know how to describe the emotion he and Null were feeling. They quickly set the ship to get into a higher orbit.
Lisa had noticed the motion and woke up to see Null with the pilot helmet on. "Hey what.." she had stopped mid-sentence as she could see a look of terror on Null face. "What going on, are we under attack?"
"Can you feel it? The planet is wrong we shouldn't be here" Infy couldn't calm down. Now the rest of the party had woken up and Bolat had checked his drones footage and sensors reading but couldn't detect anything abnormal.
The rest of the party couldn't feel what the boys could feel but they wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. The twins were more sensitive than the rest of them. Chris walked over and hugged them hoping to help calm them down.
"Hey, I know whatever you two are feeling is scary, but what can you tell us? And can you identify where it coming from?"
"We have already found its centre, it from a building we haven't checked yet. We can't describe it, the voice of the universe has changed and there is this feeling in my head that we are being watched and if we don't leave we will forever be in darkness. Every part of me wants, no needs to get away from here. It is like the universe is telling us something is very wrong and unnatural here."
It wasn't just the words that Null said that surprised them, it was the fact he was trembling and had already entered the hybrid form and had wrapped his wings around Chris to continue the hug.