"All five of you teams will cover the mound of the enemy black ants from the five sides, forming a Pentagon of radar across them. This way we'll be able to keep our eyes on all of their activities no matter which side they go.”

Then one of the team leaders raised his hand before asking, “Sit what are we spying for? I mean what is our objective?”

And the squad leader looked deeply and explained the mission, before addressing a very serious problem.

"Our objective in this mission is to keep a look out for the black ants. Not only do I need hourly update on the amount of ants that leave the mound, but also the ants that return back. What we need to really find about is the time their scavengers leave for their daily missions. We’ll continue the spying for three days, and then if the timing of their missions provided by you all seems relevant enough then we’ll time an attack at their mound while they are absent.

And then he explained the problem. The big who.

“But we have a problem. The thing is, it is possible to keep a lookout for them while hiding at some distance, but the real work is to trail them and find out about the usual route they take. Now, you leaders know your team’s best and it is your duty to decide who would trail them.”

He then looked at all of us scavengers and said in serious tone, “Now, no matter who gets chosen you have to make sure that you don’t get caught, and if somehow you do get caught… kill yourself. We don’t want to risk letting the whole operation leak to them. Understood?”

“Yes!” We all collectively shouted and then our team leader raised her hand and asked, “Do we also need to mark and find a safe path to the enemy mound?”

But he simply shook his head hearing that.

"No, little one. Your mission has already been given to you. Scouting for paths will be done by the scouting team. Okay, any more questions?"

And seeing that no one asked anything more he nodded his head.

"Okay, then the discussions ends here, as for the schematics..."

And he pulled out a giant map from under the table. The map was similar to the one which the captain of the ant army had shown me before. The one which had the various landmarks marked with stones and tree barks.

Having seen the map before, I understood that the hill in the middle depicted our mound and on the east almost five hundred meters away, and past a raging river drawn with a ravine in the soil, was the enemy base.

The map explained all of these things, and then the squad leader drew a Pentagon across the enemy base.

"This is the formation in which you teams will keep an eye on them.

Team Green, you will stay to the north of their mound and hide in the grasslands.

Team Red, will stay hidden in the rat burrow to the south east.

Team Yellow on the small hill across the river on the north west.

Team four will keep an eye on them from the south west direction and ..."

He looked at our team leader and pointed at the trees.

"Because your team has the most experience travelling on the trees, you will spy on them from there. Remember, stay vigilant and stay focused. There is a high chance to get discovered because you’ll be in the enemy territory. Don’t do anything stupid and concentrate on your mission.”

Seeing some of the team leaders flinching he added.

"Now there is no need to engage with them on the mission. All you need to do is to take note of the time they leave, the place they go to and the amount of ants that leave the mound. So, questions anyone?"

And because no one asked anything else that concluded the meeting.

"Okay, then be safe, be vigilant and bring back glory to our queen. You will leave in one hour and until then you are dismissed."

And giving the squad leader a properly timed salute, we walked out of the room and the various team leaders met to discuss the plan with each other.

"So how do you want to do it?"

"I am actually alright with however you all decide. I’ll follow."

"Me too. I think the plan proposed inside is already enough. Or we could share a distress signal of some kind, in case one of the parties was discovered by the enemies. And the signal could tell us whether to help the team or not."

And our team leader nodded her head to the suggestion before adding, "And while we are doing it, why don’t we try to probe the enemies too. We could try to send a big eater toward their mound or something."

But two of the other team leader shot down her suggestion. One of them shook her head before saying, "We’ll attract unwanted attention by doing so. Not only will a sudden attack make them more vigilant, but also decrease their activities and decrease the time they leave their mound."

"Sorry, I didn't think about it." And she shyly apologized for not thinking her plan thoroughly before saying.

The team leaders then talked about the various dangers on the path and ultimately decided to not take the risk of being discovered by retaliating, and the plan to bypass everything was made.

And while they talked with each other, I looked at the members of the other teams.

And to me it looked as if no two teams were the same.

They felt strong. No, a single glance told me they were better than our team.

My team leader looked like a kid standing with the adults, and she was the only common second rank ant in the bunch too.

While the other four included a Green Spike ant, a Buffalo ant, a Red streaked black ant and a controversial shadow ant.

While our team was more balanced and composed of ants from different jobs, the others were more like a specialized team of ops, rather than being the Jack of all trades.

The team of that green spike ant was entirely composed of green ants. Green scouts, green soldiers, green carriers. I thought that maybe the reason they were chosen for the mission was because of their natural camouflage abilities, which was later proved to be true.

The one hour passed in a moment, and the teams converged at the central hub.

We followed our squad leader and stood at the very front of the ants, for the purpose of running at our top speed at the end of the speech by the captain.

Looking around I saw that all the scavengers, and the various leaders of the ant army were present at the hub.

“Silence!” The captain of the regional activities shouted and when he saw that everyone was paying attention to the podium, he nodded his head and stood at the side.

And another ant came up on the podium. His exoskeleton shining with black luster, his wings silently tucked behind his back. He stood at the podium and looked at everyone.

But every single one of us stared at him with wide opened eyes, when we saw the commander standing in front of us.

It was a great deal. The mission which some of us still felt to be a dream, with just his appearance became real.

"Everyone..."

His wisdom filled voice reached the far corners of the hall, and made everyone perked their ears to listen to everything that he had to say.

"We are not a cult, not a convenient, and we don't have a hierarchy. We are all brothers and sisters. We are a family. And some time ago those black ant’s destroyed our calm life by invading our home and killed our brothers in pursuit of illogical pride. And they didn’t stop at that, because they couldn’t harass us at our home, they started ambushing our ants on their missions outside. They attacked us and we didn’t retaliate, and I think we made a mistake there, not only did they gained the courage to enter our borders, but also start skirmishes with our ants. But no more. Now, it's our turn. But we aren't going to simply reply back to their taunt..."

The hype was real, with the ten thousand ants standing in the jam packed hall, the commander finished his speech by saying, "This is not a fight! This is revenge. We are going to annihilate them all! You are all allowed to kill everyone be it a soldier, worker, kid, larvae, their queen or their princesses. No one is allowed to live. Kill them all."

“KILL THEM ALL……!”

“Hoo! THAT’S RIGHT……!”

And the hall blew up with the roars of ten thousand ants.

Shouts similar to a dragons roar made the hall tremble, and pumped everyone with enough chemicals to get them ready for the fight.

The commander than nodded his head to the captain standing behind him. Who came to the front, stood in front of all the ants and shouted, "Did you hear the commander? Did you all hear his words! This is revenge. Annihilate!”

“Hooo!!”

And my comrades started repeating the word ‘Annihilate’ again and again. The soldiers started it and soon all the ants were repeating behind them.

Everyone present became excited and made me anticipate the future.

{Anticipation has risen to lv 10}

{Anticipation has reached its maximum level.}

And is presenting you with the option to:

Forecast or evaluate

*Ting*

[Skill: Prediction gained.]

And then the captain raised his hand.

“Squads! Get ready to move out! Squad black and squad yellow ... go."

And that started the war.

And hearing the announcement we started running. After all, black was the code for spies, which meant the shadows, which were our five teams.

A quick look behind, and I saw the scouts following behind us. While the ten thousand large army waited inside.

And finally I understood why we were given the time of three days to spy the enemies. It wasn’t only to find the right timing to attack their base, but also to give the less agile soldiers enough time to easily and comfortably reach there.

Moving out we all moved together with the team leaders at the helm.

The path we took was to the south of our mound. And as we travelled forward and through the unexplored region, the black edges of my map started gaining life.

We travelled through the grass forest, and saw many choppers on the way, but they didn't fight with us or rather they ran away just as they saw our squad travelling through.

We moved fast and the grass forest soon got left behind, and we came across a very pretty flower garden.

And for the first time in my life I understood how beautiful nature could be.

The scout nudged me and said, “Pretty isn't it?"

To which I could only nod my head.

"You know team leader loves those red flowers.”

And at that I felt something coming our way, and even the scouts roared out.

“Incoming!”