Chapter 642 Monkey Business (1/2)
The Storm rages in the sky
The Madness lurks in the dark
The Eye watches all
Whilst
Their Master sleeps
Until The Day
When All Become One in Him.
- Prayer of the Faithful
With reluctance I let the construct dissolve away and give my brains a chance to rest as the battle draws nearer. I'm still not proficient enough with it to employ the thing in battle, better to give my all to pump out a gravity bomb and then do what I can to support the ants around me. No matter how sneaky I get, the bombs haven't managed to inflict any casualties after the first, but if I stop throwing them then perhaps the Legion would start to spread their numbers thinner and push us harder on a wider front, something I don't want. So every fight starts with a bang, so to speak, as long as I'm around, just to keep them on their toes.
”Are you ready, Eldest?” Wills asks as my pets and I push our way to the front.
”Rested as I've ever been,” I lie, ”how about you? Manage to get a bit of torpor in between battles?”
My antennae poke forward in an accusatory manner as I ask my pointed question. The scout backs up defensively.
”There wasn't time, Eldest! I swear!” she continues to retreat as I move forward. ”I'll get some rest after this one, I promise! Two hours!”
I raise an antenna.
”Fine! Four hours! That's all I can spare!”
I lower the appendage.
”I'm not trying to bully you,” I tell the scout, ”but you have to remember that rest is a weapon. We need our decision makers to be sharp and thinking clearly, not fatigued and run off their feet. If we make mistakes, our family pays the price, don't forget it.”
I'll conveniently skip the fact that I just spent my allocated rest time practicing a fiendishly difficult mental construct and burned through my mental reserves just before showing up to a fight. Thankfully, I have the Vestibule in my back pocket, which means I'll be able to recover to nearly peak condition soon enough, even if the emotional fatigue is starting to weigh on me.
”I know, Eldest, it's just hard to find the time, there's a ton of stuff to do…”
”As if every member of the Colony isn't saying the same thing since the day they were born?” I ask sceptically. ”Find some scouts you can trust to help cover you for a few hours, it's not that hard. Get some d.a.m.n rest!”
Perhaps sensing the incoming 'THWACK!' the scout dashes away to help organise the artillery as the front line of ants begins to take shape around the defences. The closer we get to the nest, the more thorough and elaborate the preparations the carvers have been able to make. Where once were simple tunnels, walls and ambush points are now pit fall traps, rock falls, hardened rock stakes, reinforced compacted stone barricades and more. I can only imagine how irritating it is for the enemy to clear one set of walls after a tough fight, only to find an even more elaborate set of walls waiting a kilometre further up the tunnel.
Still, it hasn't been enough to stop them. Even as the ants form themselves into silent ranks, layer on layer of ferocious insect ready to fight, the Legion has begun to form up opposite us. Similar to us, they are strangely quiet as they arrange themselves in rows of heavily armed soldiers, their faces hidden behind the steel plating of their helmets.
Won't be long now.