Antelligent Design

76. War Council, Part 2

“With your permission, eldest, I will leave the council and begin to organise a workforce to prepare our initial fortifications,” Tungstant says.

I wave an antenna in approval, and the small, dextrous ant climbs up the wall and out the roof of the chamber.

“Alright then. Pitfall traps, tunnels to attack, I like all of these ideas. What else have we got? How is our magic firepower coming along?” I ask.

The two mages in the room, Propellant and Coolant, shift on their feet as they become the centre of attention for the council. The mage caste hasn’t had a lot of time to build up their raw magic-handling Skills, and are without the benefit of my own extensive spending on brain power when it came to evolutions. Having said that, they’re no slouches in the brain game and were able to choose their own elemental gland on evolution. So there has to be some juice there.

“The number of mage ants we have to work with is still limited,” Coolant hedges.

There are over a thousand ants in the colony at this time, there are like a hundred new ants being born every day. How few mages could there be?

“How many are we talking about?” I ask.

“Five,” Coolant said flatly.

“Five!” I sputter.

“Oh, seven including Coolant and I,” Propellant offers helpfully.

Holy moly.

“Why do we have so few mages? When fighting against a huge horde, like the one coming to kill us right now, more mage ants would be indispensable!”

I can see it in my mind’s eye already. Tunnel entrances falling in to reveal teams of mage ants who blast the front ranks of the horde with deadly fire, torching dozens of monsters with flamethrower-like magic before retreating through the tunnels which collapse behind them, leaving decimated and crispy ranks of enemies in their wake.

A few members of the council shift uncomfortably. “We’ve had most of the hatchlings move into the soldier caste recently,” Antionette informs me. “Large numbers of scouts and soldiers have been born. Our more specialised castes have had slower recruitment rates.”

Slower I could understand, but five?

“Coolant and I have been doing our best to map out the Skill paths from scratch and explore methods to raise up the future generations of mage ants,” Propellant tells me ruefully. “We didn’t anticipate a need for a large number of mages at this stage and wanted to take more time with our preparation.”

Makes sense. Still, I would have loved to have more mages to clear away large amounts of weak enemies. There may be a use for the mages we have, of course, but there is a lot that can be said for quantity.

As they say: Quantity is a quality all of its own. That’s practically the ant’s motto.

“Ok then. We have two main objectives, we need to whittle down the horde that’s coming our way, I need to help with that so I can reach my second objective, which is to Level up so I can evolve.”

“You’re close to your next evolution, eldest?” Victoriant asks, sounding oddly excited.

“I am,” I affirm with a dip of my antennae. “I only need six more Levels. If we’re going to battle against creatures as strong as those coming our way, we’re going to need every little advantage we can get.”

“I agree,” Sloan the general pipes up. “We may have the ability to chip away at the number of weaker monsters, but tackling anything stronger is going to be beyond us for a time. If the eldest can evolve, then that task will be in capable hands.”

You just wanted to dump all of the hard work onto me, didn’t you? She’s technically correct, but that doesn’t serve to soothe my irritation.

“I think we can agree that we don’t need to prioritise food gathering or egg laying to a high extent in leading up to this crisis?” I ask the gathered council. “If we don’t survive the upcoming battle, then the colony will cease to exist.”

“We shouldn’t shut down food gathering entirely, surely?” protests Florence, the up-to-this-point-silent Brood Tender. “Without food the larvae will starve.”

“I don’t think anyone is suggesting we cease food gathering operations completely,” Sloan assures her. “But rather that we divert a significant portion of the soldiers currently acting to gather food to prepare for the defence.”

Somewhat mollified, Florence settles back, though she and her fellow Brood Tender are clearly not happy. I understand it, less food coming in means less brood. What else is a Brood Tender going to do?

“We also need to keep enough senior workers here to ensure that the hatchling training program continues to run unabated. Each new hatchling deserves the best possible start we can give them, don’t forget that!”

I eyeball each of them at the same time, something you can only do with extensively upgraded compound eyes, one of the benefits of being an insect monster.

They nod in agreement, more to appease me than anything else. My insistence on equal treatment for the hatchlings still makes little sense to them, I suspect. Thankfully, by virtue of being old, they have to listen to me. Hooray for strict respect for the elders!

“You won’t be ready to move out for a few hours, will you, senior?” Sloan asks.

“That’s right. Crinis needs to evolve, and we all need some rest. We’ve been pretty flat out for the last few days, and I suspect it’s going to be hectic for a week or so after this.”

“Right,” Sloan agrees. “I propose we send out a large-scale hunting party immediately. We could stockpile enough Biomass that egg production doesn’t noticeably suffer over the next few days. The worker and artisan castes can devote their attention to the brood and constructing the initial defences whilst the soldier caste hunts. Once the eldest has rested sufficiently, they can join the digging teams on the frontlines and begin to harass the enemy.”

The rest of the council nods in agreement. This does seem like a reasonable proposal.

“I’ll need a favour, though…” I speak reluctantly. “Can someone get a hold of Vibrant and tell her I need some Biomass hunted for my own personal consumption? I want to finish my mutations before I evolve, and I need a ton of Biomass to do it.”

Taking resources from the colony at a time like this feels bad, but deep down, I know it’s necessary. In my mind, the hulking figure of Garralosh, her incredible mass and the overwhelming aura she emitted, are weighing on me. Even after evolving, there’s little chance I’ll have any hope of matching up against her. I need to make sure I do everything possible to increase my strength before she arrives.

Advant tips her antennae. “I’ll be able to take care of that. Vibrant has been hunting in the Dungeon actively with her squad. It’s thanks to her efforts the egg production rate has increased as quickly as it has. I’m sure she’ll be able to provide the Biomass you need in no time.”

“That’s great,” I say, relieved of a burden. I really didn’t want to have to go hunting for that Biomass. I simply don’t have the time. “I think we have the first stage of our plan in place. I’ll leave the details to you to work out. Can some soldiers stay down here so we can rest without being attacked? We can’t waste time sleeping in shifts.”

The soldiers nod and the council gives me a friendly wave as they disperse to their undoubted mountain of tasks that need to be organised. They’re better at taking care of that kind of stuff than me. I have my own responsibilities to look to.

[Ready to evolve, Crinis?]

[Yes, Master!]