Chrysalis

Down in the darkness we plunge. It’s strange. Normally this kind of environment would be so familiar, so welcoming to me, it’s a social insect nest after all, but it just… doesn’t. Instead, it feels alien, and twisted from everything it should be.

There are no comforting pheromones of my family spread across the walls and floor, no warm messages or encouragement or friendly reminders to get some rest or they’ll come for you. Instead there’s an omnipresent, suffocating stink that coats my antennae and makes me twitch in discomfort. The design of the nest is also not what I would expect. Despite being similar(ish) creatures, the construction of an ant nest isn’t all that similar to a termite nest, depending on the variety of termite and ant you choose to compare.

The flow of air through the tunnels isn’t what I would expect, the complex ventilation systems these cockroach descended mugs build are all about temperature control, ensuring that exactly two places inside their fortress are always kept at the perfect temp: the fungus garden and the queen’s chamber.

Which means if I follow the warm air current… I should be able to find the royal family…

And of course, the other unwelcoming and disconcerting aspect of this nest is the neverending hordes of termites and their desperate attempts to rip me limb from limb. Naturally, that goes without saying.

The four of us continue our push, advancing steadily into the nest and refusing to allow ourselves to get surrounded. With the Colony warring on the surface, the termite forces are divided, allowing our small team, with its overwhelming, concentrated power, to dive deep without being overwhelmed.

[Crinis, do you sense anything?] I call to the writhing mass of tentacles flowing along behind me.

[I sense too many of them to be sure of anything. They’re all around us, the disgusting filth! How dare they lay a single claw on Master…]

[I mean… we are trying to kill them.]

[Our cause is just!]

[Going to leave that well enough alone. How about you Invidia?]

[Thisssss wealth. I shall havesssss it all!]

wealth? Are you talking about the

bulging eye

[Yesssssss.]

don’t have time to eat! We need to find the queen’s

too,]

for concentrations

He looks

stuff, Tiny. You’re doing

grins and continues to do just that. I know I can’t depend on him for anything requiring any more brainpower than that. I swear to goodness

something, another hundred metres down, on

what

heavily warded. I can’t stretch my

Maybe we’ll find what we’re looking for, or maybe we’ll find the

got words for

Pull

behind me I unleash the gravity bomb i’d been preparing with a flex of my will. The small sphere of slowly rotating doom howls down the tunnel, dragging termites to their unfortunate crushing demise. That’ll slow the speed of reinforcements from this

warn the others. [I

would completely break the thing. Having virtually endless amounts of stamina and replenishing my other organs, such as acid

depth. I

have all

and the panicked chittering of mandibles can be heard. We cling to the wall, our claws, tentacles and fingers lodged deep into

we leap down, throwing ourselves out into the almost vertical shaft and plummeting through the air. The termites behind us thrash wildly, but catch themselves before they join us in our fall, putting a gap between us and

before we catch hold of the wall again, our huge mass