Chrysalis

"How long have you got?" Advant asked, her scent distracted and her antennae wavering busily back and forth.

"Not long," replied Brendant, similarly occupied, "I'm only off shift for under an hour and I had to travel to get here."

"I also have a lot of places to be," Victor looked tired but a determined light sparkled in her eyes.

"I don't know why you don't have that much time, I usually have heaps of time. Although I suppose I do move a lot faster than you. Maybe you just need to move faster? Or talk faster? You all talk reeaaaaallly slow and it's quite annoying, you know? I'm here waiting for you to finish waaay after I've worked out what your trying to say but it would be rude to interrupt, right? Is that a monster? No… Anyway. What was I saying? Oh yeah! You're all too slow! Try being faster!"

Advant wavered in the face of the onslaught of pheromones from Vibrant before she firmed her stance and managed to process half of what her older sister had said.

"We aren't too slow, you're just too fast!" she retorted and the others each nodded their heads.

Vibrant’s evolution had only exacerbated her need for speed, and the combination of mutations and organs she had allowed her mind and reactions to keep up with her speed, which meant that quite literally she was operating on a faster pace than the rest of them.

faster, just to help Vibrant keep track of things," suggested Victor and the others agreed. Maybe

the groundwork for our intentions once the wave is complete," intoned Victor, calling the semi-council meeting to order. "Obviously we don't want to make any final decisions now, but we can work out how each of us feel the next steps should be and

back and gave the others space to voice their opinions. Surprisingly, it was the healer, Mendant, who stepped forward

isn't necessarily, 'what will the Colony do?', but 'what should the Colony prioritise'. Our family will continue to grow and expand, even without our input from this point forward. There have been protocols and norms established for most basic processes, and despite our sophistication, we are still monstrous ants.

others to digest her words. Advant was the

able to be aware of everything that goes on and influence every decision. Instead, we need to place ourselves on the forefront of the Colony's most

in the future. Indeed, the Colony had grown in size to the point where it was much too difficult for the twenty of them to adequately be in touch with all of the goings on of their own caste. Even for the Queens, who were the

Colony would be able to handle itself.

idea for a moment

have sufficient strength to defend ourselves. That means we must be aggressive in seeking that strength for ourselves. The third strata is the natural evolution of this quest. Even without our influence, there will be expeditions launched down there, so we should commit ourselves to guiding this

sort of expeditions will be sent? Resource gathering? Scouting? Biomass harvesting? What exactly are we hoping to achieve down there?" Coolant asked, stepping forward for the first time. "We need to be clear about our goals otherwise we will be at cross

now, but it was an important moment nonetheless. What was the plan of action? What were their intentions? The Colony

minutes before Advant

"War," she said.