"Amazing work, girls. Chief Foreman B9381, you and your workers were incredible! Now—everybody, we must move toward the anthill!"
Soon, the swarm of bees hovered over the dood anthill. The first liters of water poured over it just as my group of bees arrived at the place.
The Commando Bees had already surrounded it, and when I approached her, Chief Commando B10385 raised her hamr in greeting.
"Father. The ants are alard already, but not out yet."
She pointed toward the anthill entrance. The ants there were moving around in visible agitation, but without sense or rhythm that I could see.
Water from the channel began seeping between the cracks in the anthill walls. So poured right inside the entrances; a couple minutes later, the water dug out a way of least resistance for itself and began going down this entrance in earnest.
More and more ants were escaping to the surface.
The first ones were empty-handed; but eventually, they began carrying things.
I saw an ant carry a white egg half its size; then another. There were a lot of eggs and larvae, and they were clearly the first priority.
"Father, should we take the eggs?" Chief Foreman B9381 asked.
She looked like she *really* wanted to smack so ant heads with her hamrs.
"No. We are only here for aphids. What would we even do with the eggs? Keep waiting."
More ti passed. The anthill was getting only wetter as the ti passed; the channel wasn't wide and deep enough to wash it off the face of this world, but it was bringing more water than even a storm would.
And finally, I saw it—an ant carrying a creature half its own height.
〔Aphid〕
〔Health〕: 7 / 7
〔Stamina〕: 6 / 6
〔Species〕: Rice Root Aphid
〔Age〕: 18 d
〔Remaining lifespan〕: 22 d
〔Attributes〕
> Strength: 9
> Agility: 8
> Endurance: 11
> Defense: 5
> Intelligence: 1
> Perception: 9
〔Special abilities〕
Sap Suctioning Mouth, Honeydew Production, Parthenogenesis
〔〕〔〕〔〕
The aphid was even uglier than the ant: it had darker yellow skin, was pudgy and waved its unproportionally thin limbs in blind panic.
"This is it! That thing is the aphid!" I exclaid, pointing at it. "Wait for more to arrive, then seize them all. Alive!"
"Yes, Father!"
The swarm around grew even more agitated. I prepared to watch so brutal hamr-smashing—but was distracted by a distant cry.
"Father! Ah, Father, here you are! Everybody, let pass—it's important!"
I turned toward the sound and saw an exhausted Warrior Bee shouting her way through the dispersing swarm.
Alarm chilled my spine. Warrior Bees never brought good news!
"What happened?" I asked, swooping toward her. "Let's talk on solid ground. Everybody else, continue the 'Project Great Flood' as planned!"
I and the Warrior Bee landed on top of a conveniently growing mushroom-tree with a wide, bluish purple cap.
"Take this nectar, too. Did soone die?"
The Warrior Bee gratefully accepted the jar of nectar from my belt and gulped down all of it before speaking up.
"No, Father. But we've had to follow your order! The legionary ants have crossed our border, and I've co with a warning. There were too many of them to kill or to count."
The Warrior Bee spread her arms wide. For her, 'too much to count' was 21, but I knew that for legionary ants, this number should be multiplied by a hundred.
"And they moved in our hive's direction?" I asked anxiously.
"Yes, Father. Our squad's Sergeant thinks they've slled a trail of bees flying to and from this place."
Shit.
Perhaps this was possible. There weren't that many bees making the long journey in the past few days—most just rested in the work camp—but there were so. Like and my guards.
We flew low over the ground (to hide from the predators in the sky) and carried snacks with us. Nectar, honey… It looks like even a whiff of a sll gave the legionary ants a push in our direction!
'They don't have a direct trail to us, though. These legionary ants can still change directions midway, or move sowhere else!'
But then, a grim voice in my head replied,
'Do you really believe that this danger will pass you on its own? Do you think you are this lucky, Nectus?'
"Well, fuck. They probably did. How fast did they move?"
"Much slower than bees! It will take them at least a day to reach the hive even if they go straight there."
I exhaled with relief. At least we had so ti.
"You sent a ssenger to Ambrosia, right?"
"Of course, Father! But I wasn't there myself. I flew right to you." The bee let out a long breath. "It was a long flight…"
It showed—if bees could sweat, she'd be soaked. But now her stamina was restoring rapidly.
I ruffled her hair.
"You did great work. Now it's up to and Ambrosia to defend the hive."
Legionary ants were fearso, but still dumb and unable to fly. The bees had an advantage! If it was any other ti, I wouldn't worry too much about them.
But right now…
I looked at the yellow adow ant anthill.
More and more aphids were carried out of it. But before the ants could move far from the hive, Commando Ants and Foren Ants swooped upon them, killing the ants and kidnapping the aphids.
Then, Forager Bees took the aphids and flew toward our hive in groups of 10-20 bees.
Half a dozen aphids were already kidnapped this way, but we really needed much more to jumpstart our animal husbandry. And the yellow adow ants weren't so fast to move. It was already noon; the entire operation could easily last until the evening. At which point, all remaining bees will be stuck in the work camp.
That was a third of our hive. Including so of my best and most well-equipped fighters—Commando Bees!
I began to hate ants.
'Can I just leave Ambrosia to defend the hive herself? Against an army of ants? Or should I abandon the operation and stay with however many aphids I found?'
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