capture some of them, to study their hive-mind to see if they could weaponize them and use them against rival empires, they were forced to deemed them a failure due to their advanced adaptivity. Their fleet consists of a variety of types of ships including cruisers and warships, which they use to invade the space regions of spacefaring civilizations. When they reach a populated planet, they inspect its society first. If the society is judged unworthy, the Phalanx invade by way of seeding the planet with the Techno-Organic Virus which compels the victims to infect each other until reaching critical mass. At that time, by hard-wired instruction, the victims build a "Babel Spire" to contact and attract the Technarchy. Once a Technarch arrives, they invariably destroy the Phalanx "nest", usually by converting the entire planet into techno-organic matter and draining its energy. However, if the society is found worthy, an Ascension occurs by way of assimilation, the society's tangible forms and world will be destroyed as fodder for the Phalanx, but the population's minds, memories and intelligence will be assimilated and live forever on within the Phalanx's hive-mind. Phalanx on Earth The Phalanx on Earth were initially formed by a group of human mutant haters who voluntarily infected themselves with the Transmode virus, taken from the ashes of Warlock, a renegade Technarch who had joined the New Mutants, in an attempt to turn them into "living Sentinels". Steven Lang, the man who had used the Sentinels against the X-Men many years before, was recruited from a mental hospital to become an "interface". Uninfected by the Transmode virus, Lang was meant to be a buffer, keeping the Phalanx "on track" for its intended purpose. Lang was assisted by Cameron Hodge, a fellow anti-mutant with immortality obtained from the demon N'astirh. Years ago, in a failed effort to contract the Transmode virus, Hodge had killed Warlock. In an attempt to destroy Archangel, Hodge used a Phalanx construct of Candy Southern. Phalanx' initial attempt to assimilate mutants into its collective was thwarted by the natural resistance of mutants to the Transmode virus. In a scheme to subvert the X-Men's mutant genome knowledge base, Phalanx attacked the X-Mansion, kidnapped most of the X-Men and replaced them with disguised Phalanx members. Banshee returned to the school after the attack and kidnappings. The imposters' ignorance of Professor X's inability to walk alerted Banshee to their deception.