"Are you sure this is going to work?" Sloan asked Cobalt tentatively.
"Sure? Of course I'm sure?! Did you think I sat around here crunching numbers between my mandibles for twenty hours just for the heck of it?!"
"All right! I just wanted to check, please, keep working," the general made a tactical retreat to where several other council members were standing at a safe distance.
"Gotta be careful around the carvers right now," Wills greeted her, "they are more than a little touchy."
"Can't really say I blame them," Sloan muttered, "considering how hard they've been working, and the constant threat of being dragged off for torpor."
"That reminds me," Bella chipped in, "didn't Cobalt get dragged away yesterday?"
"She did. The moment she woke up, she was back at it," Wills confirmed.
They all fell silent as they internally paid tribute to the incredible fortitude of the carvers, the great buildings of the Colony. To face down not only an insurmountable amount of work, but the torpor police at the same time, it took more courage than most soldiers would dream of claiming.
Wills took another look at the huge steel constructs being assembled in front of them.
"Just so I get this straight in my mind," she said, "they want to drop these down and drive them into the plate that holds the city so we can run down the cables in order to assault the city?"
"That sums it up," Sloan said.
"I don't know… that doesn't seem… nuts? To any of you?"
"It's a bit extreme," Sloan agreed, "but when you think about it, there aren't really any safe ways to assault the city from up here. You either climb down the pillar, an idea that I've ruled out since our enemy is likely prepared for such an approach. Although we doubt they expect a serious assault from above at all. Or, you make your own way down. We considered creating a unit of flying soldiers or scouts to secure a landing ground for us, but the evolutionary costs are prohibitive."
"We're looking at it as a possibility for tier six scouts," Wills said absently, still staring at the huge 'spears', "but that'll be a while off happening yet."
The number of tier five members of the Colony was slowly increasing, but there weren't many, barely more than a thousand, each and every one of which would be participating in this assault. To counterbalance that, the fact that the eldest had reached tier six had inspired the ants to reach for that next threshold. Indeed, another member of the Colony had already crossed it.
A level of strength that had once only belonged to the Queen was now being shared amongst a select few of her children. Hopefully soon it would be more of them!
"HeythereguyshowareyouallahwhoopsIdidn'tstopfastenoughnoooooooo!!!"
A blast of pheromones washed over the small group before a detonation sounded from a nearby wall which raised a storm of cursing from exhausted construction workers. When the dust cleared the second ant to reach the sixth tier was revealed, upside down, her six legs flailing in the air.
"I'mnotusedtomyspeedyetheeeeeeeeelp!" she laughed.
It took a few seconds for Sloan to translate what she could smell, only then did they move over and try to right the new arrival.
"Vibrant. I've told you before that we can't understand what you're trying to say when you talk that fast! You have to slow it down for us!"
"Kay-kay!" the soldier cheered as her legs started to flex the moment they were beneath her again.
From the moment she'd woken up after achieving her evolution there'd barely been a solitary moment when she hadn't been running. If her previous speed had been absurd, then at tier six she was practically lightning. If the ants who saw her didn't have decently mutated vision, she was nothing but a blur, if that.
"I'm moving so fast now that I just can't quite get used to it! I think I'll need to mutate my brain again before I'll be able to handle this much speed! Anyway, how are all of you doing? You look tired! Are you working too hard? Don't let the torpor police catch you! If you want to keep away from them, my advice is to be fast! The faster the better! Though it doesn't always help when Crin-Crin is involved, but it's better than nothing! Hey what are those huge metal things! They look amazing! Is anyone else getting a little bored standing here? I know I am! I might go for a run then, bye!"
Before anyone could squeeze a scent in edgeways, she was gone, accelerating so fast she left an afterimage in her wake.
"Damn it! I had questions!" Sloan grumbled. "I need to know what she's capable of now that she's evolved so I can factor it into our plans!"
"Good luck getting her to sit down and explain it to you," Wills laughed. "Best bet is you wait for the Eldest to get back. They can probably pin her down long enough to take a peek at her core and then let you know what the story is."
"That'll be after the assault," the general fretted, "I don't like having unknown factors in a battle, even if they're on my side. Maybe especially when they're on my side."
"Vibrant will be fine, you shouldn't stress about her," Wills brushed her concerns aside, "having more power on our side can only be a good thing, right?"
"All right, prepare for the drop! Make sure you double check your prescribed angles! We start tunnelling in ten minutes!" Cobalt called from the construction floor.
Looking back, Sloan could indeed see the last segment of the four giant spearheads had been slotted into place and the enormous kilometers long cables attached at the base.
"Oh snap! She's just going to start in ten minutes?! The troops aren't in place!" Sloan scrambled away, rushing to let the generals know what was happening.
"Do you need speed lessons from Vibrant?" Wills laughed.
Bella looked steadily at her sibling until the scout was forced to ask.
"What? Are my antennae crooked or something?"
"Don't you have to get your scouts into position as well? They're an integral part of the assault plan, are they not?"
"Ah… right."
In a flash, the scout was gone, rushing into the distance and calling to all scouts within scent range. Bella could only shake her head at this level of incompetence, her caste members had been in position for hours, expecting that something like this might happen. So she relaxed and watched as the carvers prepared for the final act. After all their meticulous preparation, the work progressed swiftly until Cobalt ordered the earth mages to begin work.
They grit their mandibles and focused their minds, working in harmony as they had practiced to work with incredible precision. Meter by meter, the huge metal blades drove down, shimmering with the hardening enchantments that had been lavished upon each of them.
All around them, the ten staging grounds began to be flooded with ants as hordes of soldiers, scouts, mages and generals rushed to get into place. Every minute, thousands poured into the vast staging area, silently watching as more of the cable vanished into the holes the spearheads had left behind.
"FINAL CHECK!" Cobalt roared.
A pause.
"CLEAR! DROP! DROP! DROP!"
With a final burst of effort, the mages forced the metal and dug away at the final section of rock, after which the steel constructs broke through, dropping with rapid acceleration to the city below.
The sound of the cables uncoiling and plunging through the hole was almost deafening, but the ants watched it unfold in silence, their eyes focused. The impact of the spears on the city couldn't be heard this far away, but the sudden stillness of the rope told the ants all they needed to know. A prepared team of mighty soldiers hauled, drawing tight the slack in moments.
"ADVANCE!" Sloan called.
Silent and with purpose, the first battalions of ants stepped forward, one for each cable. In short order they attached themselves and began to descend, followed by the next, then the next, then the next.
