The Siege pt 25

Brendant dashed into the depths of the nest, the emergency pheromone trails screaming against her antennae with every step. The brood was in danger! The Queens were under assault! Every nerve in her body was on fire with desperate rage. There wasn't a single ant in the Colony who wouldn't put their life down to protect the brood, including the Eldest, and now they flooded from every inch of the nest toward the breach.

She burst into the egg-laying chamber to find a scene of utter chaos. Without any plan or strategy, the ants were racing forward to throw themselves upon the enemy any way they could. Brood Tenders raced up the walls and dropped down on the golgari from above, biting and tearing with their feeble jaws until they were dispatched by the stone people in short order. That didn't stop others from repeating the action and already the piles of dead and dying ants being dragged out by exhausted medics were growing into hills.

A member of the Council and graduate of the Eldest's own training program, Brendant knew she needed to be calm, needed to take control of the situation and establish some order, only then would the chances of a successful defense be maximized. She knew that. But when she saw the Queen, covered in wounds, thrashing and biting in the midst of the battle, she lost it. Her reasoning fled, replaced by her instinct and the next thing she knew she was face to face with the golgari, her mandibles cracked as she bit again and again.

What had happened?! Where was the Queen!?

She pulled back a moment and lifted her head, desperately seeking her mother amidst the heaving bodies still locked in battle. There! She was there! Somehow, someone had managed to get her to retreat. In glimpses caught through the legs and segments of ants that crawled over the top of each other to grapple with the invaders, she saw the Queen being tended to by healers as she stood, wounded heavily and dripping ichor on the floor.

"Hey-hey! You awake now Brendy?" A scent managed to cut through the chaos long enough for Brendant to catch the meaning.

Vibrant?

"You gotta do better than that Brendy!" her sister chided, "can't go losing your temper just because Mother had to fight. Not like she didn't want to anyway."

Suddenly she was there at her side, the massive and absurdly quick soldier who talked just as fast as she moved.

"Hi-hi! You look a little beat up, let me getcha!"

Those massive mandibles reached out to grasp hold of her thorax and before she knew what was happening, Brendant was being dragged away from the fighting.

"Hey! Vibrant, let me go! I can still fight."

"Hummmm," Vibrant released a meaningless, musical scent as she continued to haul her wayward sibling out of the fight before dumping her in front of a small team of medics and generals. "Got her out of there finally!" Vibrant cheered, "Get her fixed up alright? She couldn't bite a cheese wheel with her mandibles like that! What have you been doing Brendy? Trying to chomp their swords in half?"

Bewildered and confused, the soldier could barely process the rapid fire words coming out of Vibrant as the healers stepped forward, applying magic and regeneration fluid to her many injuries. Her carapace began to tickle as it started to stretch and flex, the damaged sections stitching shut at a visible pace.

"Vibrant?" she finally muttered, "when did you get here?"

"Pretty fast! We got word over at the gate so me and my team raced over here to help out. Everyone was pretty mad so we ran-ran super fast, I don't think I've ever run like that before. Good thing others did such a good job holding the breach, but the time we got here, the stony people hadn't gotten far at all!"

"What about the brood?" Brendant was desperate, "What about the young?"

This chamber was directly connected to the chambers above where the eggs were kept before hatching, and then above those were the myriad rooms reserved for the larvae. For a brief moment, even the irrepressible Vibrant was at a loss for words and she knew something was wrong.

"Tell me," she said.

Vibrant sighed, a scent rarely detected in her vicinity.

"We weren't fast enough," she said softly, "several groups of golgari were able to invade the upper chambers, they're still fighting up there."

A crushing feeling of despair and rage seized Brendant's heart as she thought of the young lives lost, but after a few seconds, the anger won.

"Come on, let's scour these scum from our home!" she declared.

"No-no you don't!" Vibrant said, tapping the wounded soldier on her still mending carapace. "You're in no shape to still fight. Me though? I'm still good to go!"

With a savage clack of her mandibles, the speedy soldier was gone, back into the thick of the fray and where she went, her loyal troops followed. Filled with righteous anger and the need for speed, they ploughed into the fight, leaping over the backs of their own allies to ensure they crashed into the golgari lines at full speed.

"FOR THE COLONY!" Vibrant roared and her followers echoed her cry as they impacted the front lines like a thunderclap.

The resurgence of Vibrant and her allies gave the Colony the little bit of breathing room they needed. Once Brendant stabilised her condition, she kept a cool head and began to organise the defense, a job that sorely needed doing. Gradually, the Brood Tenders were taken out of the battle, replaced by soldiers. Mage and scout support arrived and began to pepper the enemy from range. The medics were given more space to work and proper paths established for the transport of the wounded.

The battle still raged, but the Colony were starting to hold the line.