The moment this Wallace guy revealed the locations of the gates, the Colony sprang into action. I could hear orders being snapped out as ants began to gather in teams, flooding away towards the fort on the outskirts of the city. Even my heart skipped a beat. This could be a major blunder! We'd anticipated the gates would be here, in the centre, and so they were, but we didn't foresee that there'd be more around the edge of the city! Almost all our forces are concentrated here for the final push! If those gates open and those Legion nutters come pouring out…
"One of us should go," I tell Mother, "those Legion soldiers are no joke, as I recall."
Though I was super weak back then. I have no idea what their relative strength would be now, realistically.
"Which of us should it be?" she asks me. "I'm willing to go where I'm most needed."
I hesitate. I need to stay here to help communicate, but I'm worried that the fort will prove to be the more dangerous of the options.
"Go to the fort," I tell her reluctantly, "as soon as I'm done here, I'll head up there as well, just in case. Make sure you take a few members of the council up there with you. If it turns serious, we'd rather have more firepower than we need than not enough."
The Queen's antennae twitch.
"What about you, child? Will you be alright here?"
I suspect she thinks I'm taking on too much here.
"Not to worry," I assure her, "I alone would be enough."
The Queen turns to leave and rushes to join the flow of ants marching into the distance as I focus back onto the idiot priest and the negotiations taking place with the guard captain, Wallace.
[We want to get in and dismantle that gate as soon as possible,] I urge Beyn, [no delays, we get in there, right now.]
The two humans continue to exchange their inefficient, noisy words as I wait, impatient to get moving. If I can smack this thing down fast enough, then maybe I'll be able to make it over to that fort in the event something nasty starts up over there. I think Beyn can sense my impatience as my mental communication becomes more and more curt. After a few more minutes, I run out of patience.
[Tell them we will have access to the gate within the next two minutes or we'll be charging over the wall and bringing it down ourselves, no more stalling.]
[He's worried about sending ants within the wall. The people are unlikely to react well.]
The priest sounds highly offended that our reception would be anything less than celebratory, but I can understand what the captain is worried about. If a riot breaks out inside, where I imagine people are densely packed, then the potential for fatalities will skyrocket. I harden my heart to the possibility.
[Tell him that's not our problem. If his people can't control themselves then they become another obstacle that we'll overcome. Those gates are coming down. Now.]
Injected with my determination, Beyn toughens his stance and delivers our ultimatum. Rather than sweat, flinch, or any of the other behaviours I would expect, he looks as if he's about to laugh before he turns back toward the walls. We give him a single minute to let the people on the other side of the wall know we're coming before we follow.
The waiting is unbearable. The Colony and I stand around, impatient as the seconds tick by.
"Do you really think they'll let us in?" Advant asks.
"They will if they know what's good for them!" Propellant cackles.
She really is getting more and more aggressive the higher her flame magic Skill rises. I wonder if Skills can have an impact on our personalities. Is it more than just knowledge that Gandalf the wise is slipping into our brains? Something to chew over later. Just to be careful, I task my sub-brains with whipping up another construct and preparing some gravity magic. Not the bomb, that might be a little overkill, but the domain will help keep me safe if the crowd turns hostile.
Despite my reservations, Wallace appears on the wall and waves us forward. Somewhat trepidatious, Beyn and ten of his followers lead a contingent of ants towards the gates which open wide to allow us inside. Inside we find masses of people, huddling together amongst truly elaborate buildings, terrified of the monsters that they find in their midst. The ants outside the wall move closer, increasing the pressure on those manning the parapet, pushing the whole situation closer to the brink of disaster. One idiot doing the wrong thing is all it's going to take for this to turn into a bloodbath.
As I stride into the square, the faces of the assembled humans, with a few golgari and possibly others mixed in, are a mixture of hatred, fear and disgust. Thankfully, a great deal of that emotion is deflected toward Beyn and his robed followers. Nice save, crazy people! Taking all the heat for us! I appreciate your sacrifice. Several large buildings loom within the square but the Captain wastes no time (for once) and directs us to the largest. Even though the centre of the city has become packed with people, this single building appears to be completely unoccupied which may have something to do with the thickly swirling magical energies around the building.
When we finally break in, we don't find a horde of enemy soldiers pouring through active gates, but rather three large archways, unpowered and dormant. Enchantments and runes built into the gates appear to be collecting mana and storing it, which leads me to believe that the gates need to be charged before being opened. Handy for us, they appear to have been mid-cycle when we launched our attack. What fortuitous timing!
In a jiffy, the ants move in, study everything they see and break the gates down into segments, shearing the stone with clean bites so it can be reassembled and studied back at the nest. Mission accomplished; we turn to exit the square as quickly as possible. I don't want to expose my family to danger any more than is necessary.
But that's when it happens.
I don't know what motivates the little kid, he could only be six or seven years old. Mature enough to know that us monsters had done something bad, but not enough to realise what provoking us might mean. I could see his face amongst the crowd, screwed up in anger and frustration, much like many of those around him. Unlike those adults, this child had the courage, or lack of understanding, to express that feeling. Winding back his little arm, he gripped hard onto something and threw it with all his might. Right at me.
With my senses, with my reflexes, there's not a chance that it will hit me, and honestly what could it do, even if it did? I understand all this, it's common sense for someone who'd been human, like me, to know that a little child isn't going to have some sort of mega-grenade to hurl at the biggest and baddest monster that he can see.
But there are members of my family who lack my level of understanding, young and foolish creatures that they are.
"IT'S AN ATTACK! GET DOWN!" screams an ant, appearing almost from thin air as she threw herself forward into the path of the projectile.
In an instant, more of them pop into existence, leaping onto my carapace to cover me from harm and forming a defensive wall around me.
"COVER DAMMIT! PROVIDE COVER!"
"CHECK THE ELDEST FOR WOUNDS! MEDIC!"
The first ant continues to glide gracefully through the air, my hyper-reflexes cause the entire scene to unfold in near slow motion as I become almost buried under these mystery ants. The projectile, a harmless toy ball, spins through the air and rebounds from the ant's carapace with a gentle 'tok!'. The ant in question continues her flight, legs a tangled mess, before she thuds into the ground completely unharmed.
Perhaps it's lucky that the humans seem far too shocked to react to this bizarre scene that's unfolded. The rest of the Colony also seems a touch surprised, staring at these newcomers with bewilderment in their eyes. Sadly, for them, I react the fastest.
[Crinis! Get them!]
So close to me, the ants have no chance of escape from the tentacles that sprout from my abdomen and wrap them tight. Crinis lifts each of the creatures into the air as they suddenly scrabble to try and escape her grasp. No chance! Glee builds within as I stalk over to the ant on the ground, using her antennae to check herself for injuries.
Just as I close in, she seems to realise what's happening and tries to scurry away like lightning, but I nab her in my mandibles and lift her up so she has no choice but to look into my eyes.
"Fooooound youuuuuuuu!"
