This short chapter is the first that is not connected to the travelers. I don't really have anything else to say, so here goes.
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The wall crumbled in front of them. The two workers went about their tasks for a second more before noticing the hole. The only thoughts in their brains were those being relayed to them: Workers, solidify the tunnels.
When the hole appeared, though, armored hides and heads with curved, sharp jaws came through. They were not listening to the same orders. They set upon the workers, smashing and biting. They did not use their stingers, for they knew that their relatives were immune.
In very little time, most of the workers had been struck down, their carcasses lying on the tunnel's floor as more invaders poured through the hole, trampling the corpses. Throughout the colony, holes were shattering tunnels and the invaders poured in, unhampered.
A new thought spread through the minds of the surviving workers. Workers, retreat towards the inner tunnels. Soldiers, suppress the attackers and protect the workers.
Of course, the workers paid the commands meant for soldiers no heed, just as the soldiers paid the workers' orders no heed. The surviving workers moved away from the holes as fast as their six legs could carry them, heading deeper into the tunnel network. The invaders followed after them, spreading through the tunnels quickly and efficiently. Many workers who had been injured—a broken foot, a missing antenna—proved too slow, and could not outrun the invading insects.
The workers who did prove fast enough continued on their way, but now budged past larger insects heading in the other direction; soldiers.
The invaders clashed with the soldiers, but the soldiers proved tougher; mandibles snapping and breaking invaders' bodies like toothpicks, spiked carapaces stabbing into invaders in the way, they smashed back towards the holes. Many invaders got past them and continued down the tunnels, following the workers.
However, there were simply too many invaders for the defenders to handle; more and more of the invaders began to break through, and the hordes were soon crushing soldier bodies, former foes and allies, under their legs.
The invaders had their own set of orders: sweep through the hive, kill all targets, and make your way to the center of the colony.
And they did just that; soon, the defenders were completely overrun, and their orders once again switched: soldiers, fall back towards the center of the hive. They fled, but some were brought down by the hordes of invaders. Defend the birthing chambers. The defenders came together inside the birthing chambers, where many workers were passing through to get closer and closer to the center of the hive. Soon, the massive hordes began to pour into the birthing chamber as well, and the defenders had no chance. They were cut down, and the eggs and larvae inside the chamber were destroyed as the invaders proceeded onward.
The tunnels were soon swarming with invaders, which were all headed to the same destination; and workers caught in the stampede were mopped up and then trodden into the ground.
The last of the soldiers defending the hive had been killed in the birthing chambers; once they had fallen, the invaders were free to run amuck and kill all in their path…As long as that path took them to their destination.
It wasn't long until the first batch of invaders, who had a head start on the others, reached the center of the hive. It was a large, open room with many entrances, and was at least three feet tall and four feet long. In the very center of the room was their target.
Kill the Queen.
They charged at the large, fleshy blob with faces similar to their own. The Queen rolled towards them, using her massive body to move across the room quickly. Several of the invaders were crushed underneath her as he rolled, but she had to stop when she hit a wall. The invaders scrambled onto her and began biting and stabbing with their stingers (not to poison, but merely to pierce her unarmored skin). She rolled towards the other wall, flattening more of the invaders, but one managed to crawl up to her large, bloated head, double the size of the invader itself. With his scythe-like jaws, the invader bit down at the head.
As the body continued to roll in one direction, the head did not roll with it. It lay on the ground nearby, still opening and closing its jaws and wiggling its antennas for a brief moment before ending all movement.
Throughout the hive, any surviving workers suddenly froze, not moving. A few seconds later, they began to wander aimlessly through the hive's many tunnels, no thought in their heads. They seemed in a trance, though not the one that they had been in when the Queen was alive. Many walked right towards awaiting invaders, who cut them down in an instant.
New orders were received by the invaders. Kill any more targets alive in the hive, and spread through it. Bring me the Queen.
It took many invaders to heft the Queen's massive body into the air and carry it; her two foot long body was very heavy. The procession lead the carriers past droves of other invaders who were moving through the hive, ending the lives of thoughtless, brainless survivors. Behind the invaders toting the body was another invader with the head clamped between his jaws.
They made their way through one of the gaping holes, moving over the many worker bodies underfoot, and back into their own tunnel network—or at least the tunnels that had been built to break into the attacked colony. They passed through their own hive, moving past the many workers that paid them no mind as they set about menial tasks.
The carriers soon entered a chamber similar to the one where they had found and killed the Queen of the other hive; in the center of the room was another Queen, and this one looked almost exactly the same. The invaders set down the body near the Queen, and then left through the tunnel that they had entered through.
The Queen lumbered over to the carcass, and opened her jaws. She took a bite out of the fleshy skin that had been the deceased Queen's body, and prepared to take another bite as she ate the Queen's unborn children, not killing them, but merely swallowing them and their genetic makeup. Soon she would be giving birth to a new batch of warriors that would look exactly the same as the hulking soldiers that had fought her smaller invaders.
The largest hive of the Barrens now had another class of warrior under its command.
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So, as you can see, these guys are all connected by caste to the Queen, who relays them orders that are by caste only. How does she react to stuff so quickly so that she can relay new orders? That will be explained in the future. Until then, read n' review, please!