Chrysalis

The twenty young ants depart the chamber of the eldest in silence, allowing their Senior the rest and quiet that they seem to crave. They don't quite understand it, this desire for solitude and a reprieve from work, an unnatural concept for an ant, but due to the individual making the request, they respect it.

Without communicating they move as one, through the Queens chamber and towards the upper chambers. Now there are six hundred of their kind waiting to be born here, the Queen has been pushing herself towards full production as fast as possible and only yesterday another clutch was laid. It will be one day, maybe a little more, before the first wave of two hundred is born. There is much to do.

Filing into an unoccupied upper chamber, the twenty arranged themselves into a rough circle. They haven't planned or discussed this council, but by some instinct they knew it would occur. The mantle of leadership does not belong to any one ant, all members of the colony understand this, but the twenty, despite being so young, understood that after the eldest and the Senior known as Vibrant, they were the eldest of their race, thus they were expected to lead.

"Much to be done" the Carver known as Cobalt was the first speak.

"Indeed" several others answered.

The general Victor waved their antennae in a gesture of frustration. "The Eldest has many ideas, but the implementation has not been carried through."

"You speak of the farms?" Burke the scout asked.

Victor nodded. "I do. Their capacity is woefully inadequate."

Shaper stepped forward to speak. "If the Queen is laying at full capacity then we can expect two hundred new hatchlings every few days. Currently, the colony is woefully underprepared to feed and groom that many workers, certainly not

puzzle to them. As their Senior and indeed, the Eldest of their race, they revered and respected that individual as every member of the colony did, but they were frequently confused by them. Un antlike concepts and behaviour, such as the insistence on the nurture of each individual to the best of the colony's capacity, went against their instincts, even

all agreed that the farms must be dramatically expanded. At least double, perhaps as much as five times the size" she offered

Biomass and cores they would need to fuel the rapid expansion of

workforce moving forward" rumbled Grant, "I would

themselves had been quite conflicted upon being told they would need to decide for themselves what to evolve into. Only after a lengthy discussion had they decided that what would best serve the colony was for

hatchlings would be desperate to know what it was the colony required,

soldiers more than anything else. We have pressing need for strength in combat, scouts and leaders in order to

that the young are given the best start to

twenty all nodded. This was reasonable, and also ran into the other problem that

to experiment and research skills as quickly as possible" Cobalt spoke their thoughts. "The Eldest has procured information from a source outside the colony but we should not trust that source implicitly. Each skill unlock and fusion combination needs to be tested. Not to mention" Cobalt continued wryly, "some castes do not have a clear purpose as of yet. We will need to discover

produce, was completely nebulous at present. Not understanding, with exacting precision, their purpose in the colony was unnatural and intolerable to the ants. It was unlikely they would rest for a moment until they were

all skill options, fusions and mutations as quickly as possible. For all

and that with seemingly little thought to future possibilities and consequences, yet still managed to become the most powerful individual