Chapter 382 The Leeroy Initiative (1/2)

”Haul your abdomen, Sloan!” Victor yelled at her slower contemporary.

”I'm coming!” Sloan grumbled back.

The two generals were exhausted. They hadn't fought on the front line during the course of the battle but they'd been debating, planning and coordinating the efforts of the colony without pause for over a day without rest.

”Finally getting to the good part and you want to miss out?” Victor joked.

”I'll push you into the mouth of a Garralosh sp.a.w.n,” Sloan promised, ”watch yourself up there.”

”I'm not worried, Leeroy will probably already be in there and can push me out.”

At the mention of the more… enthusiastic of their soldier siblings, an irritated twitch flicked through Sloan's antennae. Now that they'd come to this point, nothing could be held back any longer. Which meant that Leeroy, and the soldiers who'd kept her pinned down in the nest, had been sent back to the wall.

The two generals rushed out of the dark nest and into the bright light of the surface. Victor s.h.i.+elded her eyes with her antennae as best she could as she stared at the carnage taking place beyond the walls. From this high up, she could see the children of Garralosh approach, flames trickling out from between their teeth.

”About time you slackers made it up here,” Burke observed from nearby.

”We haven't been slacking!” Sloan ground out.

”I know that, obviously.” Burke turned to Victor. ”Why is she so tense?”

”Not much torpor.”

”Ah.”

The three of them continued to observe the battle. Things were heating up now, and not just because of the flame spewing crocodile monsters. The Queen had re-joined the front line and the ants there had quickly reached a boiling peak of rage and fury.

”We need to get down there,” Sloan gasped urgently.

”I know,” Victor replied, intent.

”Do you really think you can stop her?” Burke asked the two generals.

”Not a chance,” Victor replied.

”We managed to convince her to return once. Why not once more?” Sloan protested, desperation crept into her scent.

Victor flicked her antennae toward the battle that raged at the seventh wall.

”The Queen is committed. I don't think she expects to survive this battle. The only reason she retreated last time was because she would have caused more deaths than she saved. There is nowhere else to retreat to now, if the colony puts itself between her and danger again, she'll just push us to one side.”

”We have to help her!” Sloan pleaded.

”Of course we will. Coming Burke?”

”Let's go!”

The three members of the twenty rushed forward to join in the battle. There was nothing left to do now but fight. The closer they came the more their senses were overwhelmed by the din of battle. The roar of the monsters, the clash of claws, mandibles and carapace, the stink of Bioma.s.s mixed with a thousand messages pouring out of the ants every second.

More than that, the three felt the boiling rage and feverish heat that built within the closer they came to the Queen. Before they could reach the edge of the wall, the Queen and the ferocious worker and artisan caste ants that had followed her crashed against the enemy like a tidal wave.

Acid flew into the air, so thick it fell like rain over the enemy and the Garralosh sp.a.w.n roared with pain and anger. The ants cared not and made no sound as they doubled their ferocity. For every monster that made it to the top of the wall, four or five ants were there to meet it. The soldiers on the front line were the first to move, they seized the victim in their mandibles and pulled, trying to haul them over the wall.

Then the smaller ants got hold of them and the unfortunate creature was buried under a swarm of bodies.

Then the children of Garralosh reached the wall. Flames roared into the sky and hundreds of ants fell back from the edge, lest the inferno claim them. The wash of heat was felt dozens of metres away as the air crackled against Burke's antennae.

The only ant not to take a backward step was the Queen.