Jasmine had, of course, been aware of the swarm’s presence since she set foot in Rocky’s domain. She was willing to let sleeping dogs lie, as it were, until the Alates began to encroach upon the Foothills and The Plains in general. She’d received reports from her own people of giant flying insectoids destroying whole groves of fruit trees in the southern orchards. Now, she was receiving corroborative reports from the Eidolon, via Juniper. Before she’d arrived, Rocky’s little safezone had a built-in bug repellant in the form of the System’s protective barrier. Now, however, her people were at risk of food shortages. The entire Plains of Eidolon were at risk of ecological catastrophe, if the swarm was allowed to persist.
So, Jasmine would have a talk with the colony’s queen. A little tête-à-tête, one matriarch to another. She was certain she could talk some sense into the resident Termite Queen.
Urz and some of her fiercer defenders argued they should accompany Jasmine on her expedition to the colony’s lair beneath the mountain they had come to call “Sharkfin”. The unique shape of the mountain, curved on one side with a sheer cliff on the other, rose above the rest of the mountain range resembling a shark swimming through choppy waters. Jasmine, however, rejected any such request before the discussion could gain traction. She wasn’t going to risk any of her people getting injured or killed. Besides, they would likely be more hindrance than help, in this particular outing.
Early one morning, long before sunrise, Jasmine set out toward the colony’s entrance. She had Juniper scout around the edge of the foothills to see if she could suss out where the swarm seemed to be making their hive. Juniper, being the little ghost that she was, happened to be the perfect scout. She could disappear completely, undetectable to even the swarm’s ultra-sensitive antennae. It didn’t take Juniper long to find the hive. It wasn’t as though the swarm were being secretive about it, and the Alates weren’t exactly what one might call inconspicuous.
The sun was just beginning to rise when Jasmine reached the hive entrance. It was as Juniper had described – a large cave mouth at the base of a craggy mountainside. There were already a few swarmers scurrying about the entrance, and it took them almost no time at all to spot Jasmine. Their twitchy antennae jerked in her direction and their heads turned to look at her one after the other, in quick succession. She counted roughly a dozen of the creatures…and surely the rest of the hive would come to greet her soon, if these giant insectoid beasts behaved anything like their miniature counterparts. She was still one hundred yards or so from their cave entrance when she started to allow a bit of her aura to surround her. She imbued it with her sense of purpose, hoping that the beasts’ antennae would pick up on the intent.
When she was within thirty yards of the entrance, she let out a disappointed sigh. The swarmers, it seemed, were not the intelligent monsters she’d hoped they’d be. They, true to their name, flew toward her with the intent to overwhelm her with swarming tactics. It’s a fairly common method that she’d seen plenty of smaller insects use on large threats, so she couldn’t really blame them. They were just being true to their nature. And so she would be true to hers. Ten Alates fell to her weaponized aura before they could come within ten feet of her. The two stragglers, confused by their compatriots’ sudden demise, turned tail and ran back to the hive…likely to call reinforcements.
Good, Jasmine thought. The faster the swarm knew of her presence, the faster she’d get face to face with their queen and could be done with this filthy business. She continued walking, entering the cave mouth with only her aura lighting the way. It was more than enough. The cave mouth and initial hundred feet or so of the entrance was relatively narrow compared to the actual tunnels. Once she’d stepped into the proper tunnel network, the stone floor and walls gave way to soil.
A low-pitched humming sound began to reverberate through the tunnels. The vibrations grew louder and clearer as millions of carapace-clad feet skittered toward her through various tunnelways. Soon, the noise was so cacophonous that it shook the very air around her. In the distance, the roaring stampede of swarmers and workers rushed her way like an incoming wave. It was difficult to tell one individual from another. The entire colony seemed to have been mobilized into a single entity made entirely of gnashing mandibles and chittering claws.
Jasmine extended her aura as a warning. It was a courtesy she’d learned to extend to people and beasts she didn’t particularly have any animosity toward. The target would feel her strength and make their own decision on how they’d prefer to proceed. Unfortunately, the insectoid race living under the mountain decided to throw bodies at her rather than be sensible about it. Jasmine mentally shrugged. If they saw themselves as nothing more than disposable fodder then she would treat them as such.
She unleashed her aura fully, and bright green energy poured off of her, flooding the entire tunnel system. Her hair fluttered around this way and that, a slave to the torrent of energy whipping wildly around her. Thousands of souls were instantly extinguished. Raising her hand with her palm pointing forward, she let loose an attack imbued with the very essence of annihilation. The bodies of the termites she’d killed were blasted into nothingness, along with several hundred live beasts behind them.
Another wave came crashing in, only to meet the same fate as the wave that came before it. The ocean waves may erode a mountain over millions of years, she knew. The colony did not have nearly so long to wait. Nor as many waves to send splashing against her aura. That fact appeared, finally, to be dawning upon the colony as well. The writhing swarm began to recede back into whatever holes they could. Then, a new wave. Not writhing. Not swarming. Marching. In sync and in formation. Like the good little soldier ants they were.
Jasmine extended them the same courtesy as she gave the swarmers. She gave them a warning shot of aura distilled in her purpose and intent. This soldier caste was a bit more intelligent than their swarming counterparts, but not by much. All they saw was a competitor Queen, and so they did what any good soldiers would do. They attacked the threat. She did not wipe them out with her aura, as she felt that would be disrespectful to them as warriors. They were stupid, and impertinent in the face of their betters, but they were soldiers. So, she would give them the dignity of a soldier’s death.
They attacked in groups of four, and Jasmine had to admit that their speed was impressive. Their tactics were basic, but defensible for most cases. Jasmine, however, was not like most cases. Two soldiers shot past her, taking positions behind her while two stood in front. They were clearly looking to box her in, and she was more than happy to allow them to do so. The soldiers were nearly her size, with skinny bodies and large heads with huge mandibles that could probably pierce most any armor. They held spears with obsidian tips, each emitting a soft purplish glow. Jasmine was surprised to find that even species such as this were capable of enchanting their weapons.
She ducked the first spear thrust from the soldier behind and to her left. Reaching up, she took hold of the spear shaft, twisted her wrist, and the soldier was helplessly flipped onto its back. Jasmine stabbed it through the face with its own weapon, pinning it to the ground. The other three soldiers attacked in unison and were just as quickly dispatched. She looked at the remainder of the formation and grinned. As if reading her mind, the entirety of their ranks attacked as one.
She had to admit, it was good to be back in action. It had been too long since she’d had a decent fight…and while these creatures were weak, they at least offered her a chance to go through the motions. To get her engine running again, so to speak. She moved through the horde with the practiced competence of a woman who had fought in over a hundred battles over a handful of wars. One soldier thrust a spear at her head while another simultaneously swung at her calf. Jasmine calmly lifted her leg, delivering a side kick to the ant who swept low. In the same movement, as she was bent over to deliver the kick, she grabbed the torso of the ant who stabbed high. The natural movement of standing back up straight let her lift that ant up over her head and hurl it through the ranks of its comrades. The poor insectoid became a makeshift missile, launched against its own people.
The fight was brutally short. By the end, Jasmine had nearly broken a sweat. Not quite, but almost. She’d certainly admit to a slight glistening of the brow, but definitely no more than that. She took a moment to adjust her armor and smooth out her hair before she continued on to the throne room. It wouldn’t be very respectful for her to kill so many of the Queen’s people and then show up all disheveled and out of sorts, after all. With that out of the way, she folded her arms calmly behind her back and casually strolled once more through the tunnels…which were now littered with the broken bodies of the Queen’s entire army.
The tunnels were a bit of a maze, but it wasn’t that difficult to find the Queen’s room. All Jasmine had to do was to follow the stench of the Queen’s pheromones. Apparently, the smell of rotting wood and burning pitch was all it took to set the termite males alust. As she entered the birthing chamber, Jasmine finally laid eyes upon the Queen.
The termite matriarch was massive. The front of her was a tall insectoid body, from the head to the thorax. Connected to the bottom of her slender thorax was an enormous abdomen that looked to Jasmine like the body of a house-sized slug. She realized, to her misfortune, that the slug-body was actually the Queen’s egg production parts. The realization came as the queen deposited several thousand eggs into the room behind her. Myriad workers immediately scurried to attend to the eggs, just as dozens of males attended to the queen. Jasmine bit back the disgust she was feeling and straightened her posture as she approached.
“You are the one killing my children,” the Queen accused, without actually speaking the words aloud.
“I tried to warn them not to attack me,” Jasmine said, calmly. “They would not listen.”
“Nor should they have. I am the swarm mother. They obey only me. You are trespassing.”
“I could say the same about you,” Jasmine retorted. “Your children come to my land and eat my children’s food.”
“The children must eat.”
“So they must. Mine, as well.”
“And so you will kill mine to protect your own?”
“I could,” Jasmine said, “but then I would have to kill you too, and I don’t want to do that. I have a better idea, if you are more willing to listen than your children were.”
The two matriarchs talked for hours, discussing Jasmine’s plans for the Queen’s hive. It took some creative explanation on Jasmine’s part to make the Queen understand what she wanted the hive to do. Even then, the Queen was reluctant to agree to Jasmine’s terms. In the end, however, the choice was between life and death…and even an insect Queen was intelligent enough to know that much. The terms were agreed upon, and Jasmine took her leave.
It was relieving on many levels. She really didn’t want to have to kill an entire society if she could avoid it. But more than that, she was developing a proof of concept that even the Council could not ignore. They tolerated her marriage to an outsider, because of her position as a Clan Matriarch. The fact that Rocky was a human went against everything orc culture espoused – isolation, purity of the bloodlines, and supremacy over the other species of the world. Jasmine, the adopted daughter of two human homesteaders, knew that there was a better way. Her people would be hard to convince. But they would be convinced. By any means necessary.