Chrysalis

When word finally came back from the satellite nests the sense of relief in the Colony was noticeable. Burke herself was the first to receive the message and made sure to pass it on as quickly as she could. The smaller nests had held up well, suffering no more than a few probing attacks intended to keep them in place. They hadn't been able to stock away Biomass as the main nest had though, the lack of food growing into a real problem over the course of the siege. Now that the wave was underway, that problem was in the process of rapidly rectifying itself.

The Eldest and their pets continued to guard the most vulnerable points of entry into the nest itself whilst a flurry of activity continued behind them. Burke and Wills where everywhere, running messages, coordinating scouting parties and doing the legwork that kept the Colony running as one efficient unit. The two bumped into each other sprinting in opposite directions down a long tunnel and decided to take a short break to catch up on news.

"I heard about the satellites, that's good news," Wills told her, "from the sounds of things, the Queens haven't been able to maintain production over there. Our need for graduated hatchlings is dire."

"We could double the number of scouts and I'd still have work for them to do," Burke agreed, "but there's little we can do about it right now. Once the nests are secure, we can move forward from there."

"Agreed. Have you seen what the mages are up to in the brood chambers?"

Burke indicated to the negative and Wills quickly filled her in on the new technique and the massive scale of the earthworks taking place in the heart of the nest.

"That's a big deal," the scout clacked, "if they can do that for the entire nest…"

highly trained, they both turned as one and snapped at the creature, ending its existence in

easier to manage around

Wills nodded.

about it. The constant spawns are making it almost impossible to do any sort of industrial work. Their workshops are crowded as is and now they need to cram

and generally made a mess of the place as the soldiers and scouts charged forward to battle them. The only group of production style ants that weren't too perturbed by the whole thing were the core shapers. Maintaining their concentration was hard, but the never ending monster spawns provided an endless stream of experience and biomass for their weaker

section of the nest, Victor and Sloan huddled together, along with dozens of other high level generals working together in teams. The enormous scale model of

status at the gate?" Sloan

there, very little has managed

their defences and get some control back. The two generals were determined to make the most of the opportunity. It wouldn't last, they both understood that. How could it? Right now the Eldest and their guardians would be holding off the monsters with ease since they were level one, tier one creatures springing into the tunnels the moment they were spawned. Although the constant 'waves' of spawns were draining, disrupting and all around irritating, the Colony had grown to a point where even in the second strata, they weren't much of a threat. The real danger of the wave had only just begun to take shape and was yet to appear. It was the survivors, the winners, the monsters who, for

after that, would come the creatures from below. They hadn't had to experience it during the first wave, apparently the Legion had been holding off the beasties from the depths, unintentionally saving the Colony a great deal of pain. Perhaps even saving their lives. This time, there would be no such protection. The creatures from the third strata would come screaming up from below

here?" Sloan indicated a particular section of

Victor leaned closer.