Rareth did not back away, at least not at first. The creatures seemed to have their own passageways, likely dug themselves, that branched off from the main passages. It was an important detail to remember, though the insects in front of her were more of a concern at the moment. She also scanned them as much as possible and made note of what she could observe of their morphology. They were long, slender, and seemed equipped to deal with tough prey. In any case, Rareth still stayed calm regardless of the numbers in front of her. 

In an elongated bubble around Rareth, the Agent would be able to see her energy shield become visible in the air as it turned translucent and started to refract the light passing through it. She had modulated it to allow it to protect against lower velocity attacks. In normal use, an energy shield would protect against high energy or high velocity projectiles, while slower moving objects could pass through it. They could, however, be modulated to become more like solid walls blocking any object attempting to pass. The disadvantage in this state was that the shield would block attacks in either direction, so Rareth would need to lower it whenever she made any attacks herself. 

“Are you mere animals, or are you intelligent?” Rareth questioned towards the insects. After the worm had turned out to be an intelligent entity, it was plausible that any creature they encountered could be sapient. “If you are, we have no intention to hurt you. If not…” Her voice trailed off as she glanced down at 595. “Let’s start backing away and return to the first passage. If they let us go, we will leave them be.”