The following day proves that the Legion is being more careful with their approach. I received two experience notifications from the first gravity bomb, giving me another level, but the next assault isn't as bountiful. More mages, tighter shield walls with more layers. It means they can't spread themselves out as thinly as they did before, and their overall forward progress is slower, as they have to sit and wait whilst the magical barrage is underway.
The extra time means a lot to the Colony. Every day, thousands more ants graduate from the academy to reinforce our numbers, our Skills improve and we draw closer to cracking the many technological challenges that we face.
The only issue is that we're running out of territory. The Legion has pushed at us hard, and even if they slow down now, eventually they'll be knocking at the gates of the nest. The more I see of them, the more convinced I become that there isn't much a tier three ant is going to be able to do to these Legionaries. Even in tremendous numbers, I worry that the Legion would be able to cut them down just as fast as they appear. With enough ants, we'd drag them down with us eventually, but I'm not happy about engaging in a strategy that will result in so many deaths. This is my family we're talking about! The lives lost already is too much!
"Eldest, are you ready?"
"Huh, what?" I snap out of my thinking to find Ellie looking at me.
"Are you coming to the meeting? Sloan wanted to talk to us before she leaves."
Oh, right.
I follow along in her wake, my pets and baby-sitters trailing behind. A minute later we come to a hastily dug out chamber to find the council members present on this front in the room, along with Wills, who appeared over the last day.
"What's happening people?" I wave an antennae to them as I enter.
Sloan looks confused for a moment, then shrugs and ignores what I said.
"Thanks for coming, Eldest. Are all ready?"
Present in the chamber are Sloan, Vibrant, Ellie, Bella, Frances the healer, Wills and myself. Not a bad showing, all things considered. Each of us nods and settles in for the discussion.
"I wanted to check with you before I head back to the nest and start making decisions about how to deploy our forces. The main idea I want to hear from you on, is a change in our overall strategy on this front."
That gets my attention.
"A change, in what way?" I ask.
"In my opinion, we need to be less passive," she says, "we haven't been able to slow them as much as we wanted, and so far we haven't seen any sign of them being worn down by our harassment. If things keep going at this pace, we'll be forced into a battle at the gates of the nest without getting the full measure of our opponents."
"It's too risky!" I protest. "So many ants would perish if we did that!"
Isn't this exactly what I was thinking about before?! How come I came to the opposite conclusion that Sloan did?
There's silence for a moment, except from Vibrant, she's bouncing from side to side clacking her mandibles in a rhythm.
"Eldest, we have to accept that there will be casualties, no matter what we do. There's no way for us to fight against this Legion without putting our lives on the line."
"Sure, I get that, but we aren't talking about just a few, here. If the Colony goes hard at those Legionaries, it's going to be a one sided massacre!"
All of the ants shift on their legs.
"Eldest… You're being too protective of us," Ellie tells me gently, "you can't fight all of our battles for us, you need to step aside and let us do what we need to do."
Geh. Are the children all grown up? No! Papa refuses to accept it!
"I hardly think you're giving me credit. Plenty of our siblings have fallen already! Too many!"
"That's what we mean," Bella backs up her sibling, "the conflict has hardly started. We never expected that we'd be able to defend the colony without significant sacrifice, not this time. The enemy is just too strong."
"Why can't we just go all in when they reach the gates?" I stubbornly refuse to give up. "We have every advantage there and they'll be stretched further than before, more fatigued. I don't see why we need to start attacking them now."
"Weeeeell," Vibrant butts in, "I agree with Sloan-Sloan. My generals are getting all worked up, wanting to fight! Have to keep telling them no but they don't like it! When they found out the other front is all fighty-smashy, they got super sad and asked if we could go there. We could make it pretty fast I think, we're all super-fast! But I thought we should stay here with the Eldest. I think I was right. Was I right?"
"You were right," Sloan assures her, and cuts in to ensure she stops talking, "we need our best and most powerful soldiers here to ensure that as many ants survive as possible."
She turns to me.
"That's what we want you to do, Eldest. We want you to do your best to make sure that as many of us survive as possible. But we can't hold back and not fight any longer. Our original strategy just isn't giving the results we hoped for."
The rest of the council members present all nod in agreement and my mood sinks. What's worse is that I know they're right. The Vestibule doesn't give me anywhere to hide when it comes to the desires of the ants. Their will is whispered into my being constantly, urging me to act as their instrument. The Colony members don't want to employ this slow retreat, tiring and wearing down their enemies. They want to swarm and bite and tear until nothing moves anymore!
"Fine," I sigh, "you win. If this is what you want, I won't say no. Just… let's try and be careful, alright? I really don't want to see hordes of us fall at the hands of these damn invaders. I want us to preserve our strength if we can."
The conversation continues after that, but the main topic of conversation is dealt with. When Sloan returns to the nest, we'll employ a more aggressive stance towards the Legion. This is going to be chaotic.