Chrysalis

“Hah! I like the way you think. What do you reckon, Sloan? Fancy adding a floating fortress to our arsenal?”

The general looks a little sour, but can’t quite manage to conceal the excitement quivering through her antennae.

“It would allow us to do a lot. A mobile defensive platform. We could use it to fend off other islands that attack the mountain, or launch attacks against our enemies. I can’t deny it would be extremely useful to have, Eldest.”

“It sure would. Shame we can’t get one for the moment.”

Both Solant and Sloan droop at my words, their antennae slumping to the ground.

“Be a little realistic, you two,” I scold them. “That dragon has a stronger core than I do, and in case you don’t remember, it flies. I can get up there, but I’m not exactly graceful. There’s no guarantee that I’d be able to win and seize the island for us. Besides all of that, don’t we have enough on our plates right now without having to take and operate our own flying castle?”

“The carvers would kill us if we asked them to fortify an entire island right now,” Sloan sighs. “They still haven’t completed work on this mountain to anything like their own satisfaction. There’s whole sections which haven’t been touched since the termite occupation.”

“Right. It’s a great idea, Solant, but we need to put things in order. Finish work on the mountain, fend off the wave, then we can look toward getting into the skies.”

The little general nods as if agreeing with me, but I can tell her little brain is still ticking over. Good. She’s meant to be an independent thinker. Doing whatever the ‘Eldest’ tells them is a weakness the rest of the Colony has fallen into a little too readily for my taste.

as well repeat our previous exercise a couple times. We’ll rotate around the mountain, doing a different segment with each run. Just like before, I’ll flatten stuff, we run out and get some goodies, scope out

you say, Eldest,” Solant agrees, a little absent-mindedly, and I’m tempted to administer a

me a break in between to recharge my

out, I can see Solant soaking in everything like a little sponge, constantly twitching this way and that as thoughts spark in her mind. She seems particularly interested in the monsters, taking

Know thy enemy, eh?

a circuit of the mountain. What are

“... You’re very strong.”

already knew that, right? Nono,

I want to think on

idea, but we don’t have

don’t? Aren’t we

crazy? There’s no such thing as done when there’s a wave on! Besides, did you think this was the only place where fighting

The monsters climbing up the mountainside are only a portion of those the Colony is fighting off, the rest are swarming below ground, filling up the tunnels and caverns carved by the termites and spawning in the deep passages that

Eventually, we’re going to see an assault by the toxic

real battle is! As it should be! Tunnel fighting is what we ants were made

the fortress until we arrive at a grand, central chamber in the bowels of the mountain. From here, Victor has been overseeing an omni-directional war, managing the hundreds of chokepoints, fortified tunnels and approaches to the

friendly antenna as messenger scouts rush between my legs. “What can I do to help

way! Go!” The beleaguered general points with one antenna and I turn