Chrysalis

It takes a little while to figure out where Solant is. Whenever I turn up in a tunnel looking for her, someone tells me she was just there, but left not long ago. Well, where was she going? She was heading over to that tunnel in order to talk to so and so. Alright, no problems, I’ll head over there.

Except, when I get there, I hear the exact same thing. A picture clearly emerges that Solant is running around from place to place, but not like a chicken with its head cut off, more like an agent of organisation and order, crashing down wherever she senses chaos, straightening out everything and leaving only clean, functional lines of precision and logistics behind. It seems like the army of the Colony functions like a well-oiled machine wherever she happens to go.

It was actually insanely impressive to see. Us ants are naturally a well-organised group by definition. Someone wants to do something, they lay down a trail, start getting others on board and things happen. Now, the Colony isn't like any other ant colony. There’s layers of intelligence here that normal ants can’t imagine, obviously. We have layers of authority, decision makers, and groups whose entire role is to make sure we’re all pulling in the same direction. There’s literally millions of us, and I can feel the Will rolling off each of them, and everyone wants nothing but the best for the family, but they don’t necessarily all agree on how that’s supposed to be achieved.

Discrepancies pop up. Things don’t always happen as smoothly as they should. Information at the front doesn’t necessarily match what is reaching the back. Even for creatures who communicate with scent, it's possible for someone to misunderstand what was being said to them. Small little things, but when it happens just a few times every thousand interactions, considering there are billions of interactions a day… mistakes happen.

Solant just seems to… swoop in and straighten them all out. I have no idea how she even knows what she’s looking for. It’s like she can just sense when things aren’t working perfectly and knows how to fix it.

I’m hugely impressed.

When I finally catch up with the general, I get to see her in action personally. Oftentimes, I see a scrum of ants appear around whoever is in charge, messengers arriving or waiting for replies, advisors, soldiers, mages, each responsible for their own slice of the decision-making process.

goes to them, with only a few of her personal team following her. When she reaches a new group, she listens, she watches, she thinks, then she talks. In just a few minutes, she’s

story has been taken without authorization. Report

on getting her Level pumped up. She’s going to be an important

help but wonder what they’re designed

following you around for a while, and everywhere I go, you leave

looks up at me, her

between order and disorder lies in logistics, Senior,” she tells me. “It is impossible to ensure everything runs perfectly, but if we aim for perfection, we will come

I’m not exactly the

our logistics are working

are planning to embark upon a grand campaign, are we

invasion of the fifth? Heck yeah, we

war is decided long before they begin. We have been training, testing, checking, double checking, triple checking every aspect of our approach. When the time comes, we will act as one entity, with one, unified mind and purpose. From what we know of the Krath,

I’m hearing. The potential I saw in the little general has done some serious blossoming. What the heck has been going on

going so well! Is there anything I can do