Chrysalis

“We aim to advance in ten minutes. Make sure your squads are ready.”

They had spent a week preparing for this expedition, training, theorising, testing. Bella and Ellie had worked overtime, stretching their knowledge of monster anatomy to the very limits, studying the cores of fifth stratum monsters with intense focus.

Solant’s broodmates acknowledged her instructions and rushed off to carry out her word, only Leonidant remaining behind.

“How confident are you?” the scout asked.

“That’s an unusually direct question.”

“These are unusual times.”

“Very true words.”

Solant reflected for a moment.

“We really have come a long way, haven’t we?” she said, cleaning her antennae carefully. “It wasn’t that long ago the only thing we had to worry about was Tunnel Ball and completing our training exercises.”

“The Eldest certainly changed that in a hurry.”

The giant ant had thrown Solant and her broodmates into the thick of the conflict at the earliest possible opportunity. It had been a brutal learning curve, for all of them, but they had grown so fast as a result of the change, it was difficult to view it as a bad thing.

“I believe the Eldest was wise to place us here,” Solant decided. “It’s been an excellent opportunity to develop ourselves and be of use to the family.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. How confident are you?”

Solant considered the question for a moment.

“About half,” she said finally. “It’s lower than I would like, but we need to start testing our ideas sooner rather than later. More certainty will be hard to come by without taking a few risks now.”

you,” the scout reassured her general.

Solant nodded,

to it. She needed to focus on the bigger picture, not spend her time fussing over the minor details before they set out. No matter how much she wanted to. The more she tried to look over their thorax and check their work, the more her broodmates pushed back and told

believed in their capabilities, but it was

are

see Ellie and Bella, the two core shaper Council members, approaching from the nest. Each looked visibly worried, antennae twitching and legs

you and your caste members have completed to this point. Without proper assessment, we won’t

we were working on solutions for the toxic

somehow looking far beyond. “For now, that is

signalled from her place in the column and Solant turned

time to depart. I’ll give you a full report

the pets will

“I’m sure they will.”

pace as the thousands of ants slotted into line. A constant stream of scouts ran forward and back, alerting Solant and the other generals as to

was grim, as

planned to move ten kilometres beyond the defensive line held by the Colony, moving out and down, closer to the fifth, but as reports rolled in, it seemed

into their journey, the column ground

to stretch themselves. If things go according to plan, we won’t be here long,” Solant

the front of the long line of ants, running a keen eye along the troops as she passed.

worse than we predicted,” Sumant said, indicating forward with one

but the distance had grown shorter and shorter as the wave went on. Now, barely a single kilometre from where they’d started, Solant was confronted with the full scope of what they were

the floor of the tunnel, fibrous strands stretched every which way, forming a spider web of goop. It dripped from the ceiling, slid down the walls. Even the air was contaminated, dense with poisonous, acidic gases that made it difficult to

the fortress until it spilled out into the waters that surrounded the mountain. At that point, it would become someone else’s

wouldn’t come to that, of

“Any monster sightings?”

“None, thankfully.”

“Then we can deploy.”