Chapter 611 A hive of activity (1/2)

Deep in the second strata, a furious scout was running as if all the demons of the third were after its delicious abdomen. She had left her relay station thirty minutes ago and was almost out of gas, her mutations specialised in speed, not so much endurance. It was a close run thing, she staggered the last few steps, her stamina finally spent, but that was as intended. The Colony knew exactly how far she could run, just as far as every other scout in the chain, and she pa.s.sed on her message successfully before being taken to a chamber to rest, another ant dispatched to take her place in the relay.

Word spread quickly, the pheromones filling the nest within minutes. There was no fear, only grim determination, and in the case of Leeroy, desperate hope.

”The Golgari are coming,” Victor announced.

”Those rock-heads are late, I was almost getting bored,” Burke said.

”We've got a lot to do,” Victor shook her antennae, ”almost too much. Even with the extra time, we still aren't ready. The new nests aren't fully fortified, our number of tier four combat castes isn't high enough and the core shapers aren't back yet. I'm worried.”

”What about the Eldest?” Coolant asked, ”what do we know about their status?”

”Runner came in a few minutes ago,” Burke told her sister, ”Eldest got tangled with something in the depths and is on the way back. Next runner should have better information.”

”If it's a second invasion force,” Victor muttered.

”Plan for the worst, hope for the best,” Burke slapped her on the thorax with one antenna, ”that's what we keep you generals around for, right?”

”Thanks,” Victor grumbled, ”leave all the planning to us, as usual. How did this happen anyway? It's not like the generals have the highest Cunning stat of the castes…”

The three council members turned to look at the corner of the grand meeting chamber. As if sensing their gaze, Cobalt looked up from the stone model she'd been crafting in the stone.

”Don't look at me!” she protested. ”We've got enough on our plate trying sh.o.r.e up the defences! These things don't just invent themselves you know!”

”What are you working on right now?” Victor asked.

”A system that can relay pheromones long distances at rapid speed that we can place in the relay stations. That way we won't need runners, giving us a faster response time and freeing up those scouts for more important work…”

Victor considered for a moment.

”I can't argue with that. Keep up the good work.” She turned to the other two. ”I'll get back to planning then. No way in heck I could work something like that out.”

”Stick to what you're good at,” Burke replied, ”speaking of, I'd better check in with the stations. If things go according to plan, we should be getting more detailed reports over the next ten minutes.”

Her words proved to be prophetic, as several exhausted scouts sprinted into the outer edges of the nest, pa.s.sing on their intelligence before staggering away to rest. Everything confirmed what they already knew, and drew a more detailed picture of the attacking force. Within thirty minutes, all available council members had gathered, putting their collective minds to studying the war map a.s.sembled on the council table.

”Did it have to be three dimensional?” Victoriant wondered.

”No,” Cobalt replied.

”So why is it?”

”Because we could,” the carver said.

”Forget that,” Sloan snapped, ”we need to focus here. From our reports so far, we're looking at a Golgari force that's five times the size of what pursued us when we rescued the Eldest. Not to mention, initial scout reports state that from what they've seen, these troops look significantly higher level.”