Chrysalis

"Something isn't right," Sloan suddenly scented out loud.

Coolant looked askance at her sister as the two of them continued to hang outside the second gate facing the golgari invasion. She could tell the general wasn't discussing with her but thinking out loud, so she remained silent and waited.

"They've formed up, but they aren't approaching us, why is that?"

One of the two ants most central to the Colony's planning of this siege was more than a little off-put when she saw something so out of her expectations. The force from the Empire of Stone had behaved almost exactly as expected right up until they started demanding honor duels in front of the gates. With the bizarre rituals of their people disposed with, Sloan had expected the golgari to return to their expected behavior and assault the gate. They were here to exterminate her family, were they not? How was that going to be achieved if they didn't attack? They were on the clock, after all. The entire strategy that Sloan and Victor had hammered out centered on the concept of their enemies working within a limited time frame. If the wave started before they had finished their task, they would be forced to retreat. They couldn't possibly hope to stand against both the Colony and a raging Dungeon filled with desperate monsters? Surely?!

Yet before her eyes, something inexplicable was taking place. Once their leader had been collected and returned to his troops behind the first gate, the golgari had forced the gate open wider and formed ranks, their soldiers imposing in their sheer size and mass. Not wanting to be caught unprepared, the Colony had deployed their own troops, along with the human volunteers and prepared for the confrontation. Except it hadn't come. According to her understanding of the situation, it should have begun immediately, yet here they were, several minutes later, still waiting for the enemy to take a forward step.

"Perhaps they're waiting for their leader to awaken? They seem quite rigid in their authority structures," Coolant suggested.

Sloan shook her antennae.

"They are an organised semi-military force who pride themselves on martial skills. I refuse to believe they don't have a second in command willing to issue orders to complete the mission. It would be insane to arrange the command structure in any other way. This is something else…"

The general stared, her twin compound eyes focused on the unmoving ranks of the golgari in the distance as if trying to penetrate their thoughts.

"Do you think their ranks looks thin?" she asked.

surprise by the change in topic, Coolant could only go still as she tried to assess the 'thickness' of the enemy

seem well fed to

the way. It doesn't make sense to create a choke point for their own troops there. It only makes it take longer to bring their soldiers to bear against ours. It only

She was instantly more

predict?" This was one of the council's greatest fears. They were young as a people and it was certain that those races and groups

her eyes still scanning the

Coolant was confused.

"Then what?" she said.

I think we've been

saying the general turned and dashed back within the nest as if a hundred golgari soldiers

Within the nest.

that kept her out of the fighting altogether. If the battle came to the brood chambers, then it was already lost, she understood that much just from having the plans explained to her by one of the soldiers who stood guard. Still, she had agreed, only to find now how chafed she felt not being able to fight alongside her children. She felt as if her carapace were being scratched from the inside. A constant,

bulk from the floor, only for to her to slowly lower herself back down. She had given her word she would remain and defend the brood, so she would. No matter how much it grated her. Internally she vowed that her children would never extract

the battle is

and then produced their maximum daily quota of brood. The brood tenders cared for and raised the young in the chambers, much as they had before. The only real difference in their environment was the huge chambers carved beneath the egg-laying space to house the hatchling who couldn't be transported to the surface nest for their academy training. Obviously, the Queen hadn't been able to leave on her regular hunting expeditions, another imposition that chafed her, but otherwise the

head with an antenna, "trust that they will work hard

off, her

at high alert. A scout moved away from the others and approached

in this area, moving fast. Really fast. We aren’t sure what’s going