Chrysalis

As I watch the disc containing Brixin and her cohort of demons fly back to Orpule I breathe a sigh of relief. That was close, too close! We might have been able to win, but most likely only with the sacrifice of many, many lives and that is a price I am simply not willing to tolerate.

My siblings will fight for the Colony and in that process some of them will perish, I've come to terms with that, somewhat, but I will never accept my sisters utilising traditional ant tactics and choking the enemy with our own dead. I’ve worked hard to make it so that would never be necessary, and I'll be damned if I allow them to go back to it now.

Not after we've come so far.

Determined to move quickly, I do something I usually hesitate to do and start issuing orders.

"Get this Biomass stored away and make sure that the core is secured. I want to have a good, hard look at it later and it will be valuable as heck, so make sure it isn't lost. Secure the city and I want to see every council member within ten kilometres of this location before an hour is out. Just point them to wherever I happen to be."

The ants around me all salute quickly before rushing to complete their tasks. This whole situation has put another deadline on us and I'm not particularly happy about it. Of course, I knew that we had to move fast, I was just hoping that we could set the clock ourselves, rather than have it be set for us.

Wanting to make sure that me and mine are out of the way of the individuals doing the actual work, I take my pets and Allocrix closer to the pillar and wait for the council to arrive. As time passes, more and more ants flood down the four huge wires they constructed, how they'd managed it I have no idea. The city became flooded with healers and carvers and huge groups of core shapers and their pets who immediately descended to the plains below to establish a perimeter around the base of the city.

The moment they arrived, the healers rushed to render aid to all who had been injured during the fighting, ant, demon or human. The carvers set to repairing the damage that had been done with their usual gusto, the city echoed with the constant rumble of earth magic as buildings were reset and roads smoothed out once more. Through it all I could see the remaining local demon population watch it all happen with somewhat bewildered faces.

[How do you think the demons will react to being managed by ants?] I ask Al, my only resident expert.

He ponders for a long moment before he replies.

[I don't know,] he says with that odd note of hunger in his voice.

he's very keen to find out and slide that

encourage the

I get the impression that they don't particularly want to

guys are powerful monsters who can think for yourselves, good allies to

certainly. If you understand what our obsession is then it isn't hard to come to an arrangement that will involve a fair exchange for a particular demon’s

demons like particularly weird mercenaries, but won't actually try to

a slaughter demon follows its nature and kills a human, they tend to get upset

going to be a challenge to

Looks like the Colony wasn't mucking around when they decided to launch this invasion, all hands were

everyone?" I greet them all when they've

I suppose," Advant

I CAN!" I spray

invasion happen, and it was successful, well done, but now you've got another demon city wanting a conflict within a week

glare at them

sustainable!"

the resources and territory that we need to fight off those who

sharp antenna at the much smaller

don't know that, Sloan?! You think you're giving

power of THWACK, but I restrain myself

attacked at some point. A nest will be infiltrated, our defences will get tested, Golgari will sneak in and destroy our brood, the legions comes back and siege a new nest. It WILL happen. Nothing goes right all the time. And when it does happen, what state are you going to be in? Is every single one of you going to be

stare at them