Chrysalis

Full of vim and vigour, we dash off to find Sarah toiling away helping to build walls. The great bear isn't much for digging, lacking the zen-like disposition that ants have towards it, or our powerful mandibles. You'd think hands would be great for shifting dirt, but nope, mandibles is where it's at. The two face-hands are excellent for both cutting into the unyielding rock, and gathering up loose soil into a clump.

[Hey Sarah!]

[Anthony? You're back already?]

[Yep! Ready to throw myself into unspeakable danger in the hopes of bringing a swifter conclusion to the war. You want in?]

The great bear looks at me and blinks a few times slowly.

[You want me to join you on one of your crazy suicide missions.]

[Why not? You make it sound like something a person wouldn't want to do.]

[Anthony, a normal person absolutely wouldn't want to do that.]

Who cares about normal people? I don't see any of them around here. All I see are the greatest and most incredible ant that ever crawled and a gigantic,

a long moment

says,

[I thought for sure you'd say no. I

suicide missions, just to be friendly? Actually, it doesn't matter. I want to help. I want to end this war before it gets out of hand. Then, hopefully, we

dealt with, we still have a burgeoning conflict with the Ka'armodo, the worrying demon movements to stress about and the industriousness of the Colony itself. Even without

our expansion in the third underway, it's only a matter of time until we get started on the fourth. As I understand it, free real estate is hard to come

recruited, it's

towards the main tunnel connecting the Colony on the path toward the termite mound. I don't intend to pull any tricks, we are going straight into

little luck, they'll come for us and we can hold out long enough for the Colony to take

forward, make as much of a mess as I can, and count on much smarter

moving, the silent ant guardians watch us with their unblinking eyes, until we leave the last wall behind. My antennae wave constantly as I take the lead, feeling my way forward, looking for traps. The stink of termite is constant in this section of tunnel, their filthy trails

dead silent, and dark, but that isn't