The trick to being a good ant was to have no ego. You needed to be ready to sacrifice yourself at a moments notice, and you needed to do everything for the colony’s better. Joe realized the statement made sense in more than one way.

This was going to put real trust issues in their relationships. If nothing was done about this, there would always be the worry that this would happen again, except then, it might be the last time. Hell, it might be the last time right now.

“Ego,” Joe said. “I’m sending you all of the units. Do not die.”

There could be no clue that lead back to them. Uxyx put so many different measuring tools on him because he didn’t have any intrinsic information about them. One of the tools gave him information about his unit’s location.

If he came here, and checked that one, and saw that his ants had traveled to one location. And that in the same location a bunch of units had died, than he was sure to die. There would be no question about it. He hoped that it wouldn’t get to that.

“Don’t worry Great One,” Ego said. He’d excited the body through the stomach, eating straight through. Joe almost felt bad for the opposing unit. Almost, really, he didn’t care that much.

There were nearly ten units around him, and they looked pissed off. Fortunately, none of them looked like an elite, otherwise, whomever these units belonged to’s core, would know that it was him that had attacked.

His other insects came into the picture.

The battle was bloody. The insects really had no problem with dissecting another creature. Their bites shredded right through skin, sinew, and flesh, snapping bones like sticks. Blood shot out in all directions.

One of the goblins ran away. Joe cursed, remembering that he didn’t have a breath to curse under. Such were the pains of being a core. He sent the poisonous ladybug behind the goblin, but it seemed the goblin was much faster then it could keep up with. He recalled it, so that it wouldn’t get killed or worse, captured.

They’d won the fight, but there was a lot of signs of there having been a fight. That wasn’t good. If they saw the insect bodies, especially the ladybugs and ants, than it would be clear who it was. Getting his participation in this event leaked was the last thing he wanted.

He ordered all of his ants to eat, and clean up the spot. The ants basically swallowed the goblins whole. It was shocking how quickly they ate up the bodies, considering their slow rate at chopping up the rock. The ladybugs dealt with the finer parts, like the blood scattered about, and the brain bits and organs that were too small to be accurately dealt with by the large ants.

After a couple of minutes, it didn’t seem like there had been a fight there in the first place. Jeez, if a serial killer had an army of insects nobody would catch him. They’d devour all of the evidence, but then again, they’d also devour all of the body too. Maybe the serial killer didn’t want his heard earned art to be insect food. That would be pretty annoying.

“Alright Ego, march everybody back here, you and me need to have a talk,” Joe said. He took a moment to think how Ego heard his voice. They never communicated through air, but through thought, so his voice must have came through as a voice in his head. The louder he got, the more dominant the thought became, and right now he was pretty loud.

Ego marched the insect army back to the BOP. Instead of feeling full of pride, how Joe would assume Ego would feel with an army behind him, he was beset with shame. It was something Joe could feel through their link. The insects moved through the tunnels unhindered. There wasn’t another disruption, and due to the tunnels flatness, the moving was easy. Ego glanced back a few times from his spot up in the air, and the sight of a bunch of insect rushing through a small tunnel terrified Joe, even though he was nowhere near the place.

A mass of insects would terrify him anyday, but these ones were on his side, and forced to follow each one of his commands. That was good. Maybe he should have some sort of failsafe though. A flamethrower in case things got out of hand. Maybe the other core’s already had a flamethrower, or something similar?

Perhaps he could evolve his firebug into flamethrower. He’d need to acquire a spitbug and give it the breedable perk. He’d need to get the flames into the spitbug’s, spit. That should be doable. It was something he took note of.

The army arrived back at the BOP, all of them going back into their respective spots, mainly the jawed ant flying back to its spot and perching on the ceiling. The poisonous ladybug decided to fly around the space. The ants swarmed back into their holes and continued mining like the tireless workers they were. Ego had popped out of the jawed ant and floated silently in front of Joe’s core, awaiting punishment.

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Ego was silent. He knew he had messed up, royally this time, and that ceiling touches or spins around the core wasn’t going to cut it. His hope was that Joe would come up with something that wasn’t the death-penalty, but if that was the case, then he’d gladly do it.

“First off,” Joe said. “Why the hell did you do it?”

“I.. I don’t know. My instincts just took over,” Ego said.

“Your instincts?” Joe said. “I didn’t know you had those.” Could it perhaps have been the jawed-ants doing? Perhaps he could control its mind, but lacked the ability to control anything else, leading to this fiasco. Hmm, I’ll make sure to use ladybugs from now on.

“Me neither.”

“Well, don’t do it again,” Joe said solemnly.

“Is there no punishment, Great One?”

“No,” Joe said.

“Am I not good enough for a punishment! This one does not deserve to be in your presence.”

“No, Ego, you’re misunderstanding me. Sometimes punishments don’t do anything. We’ve got to be logical.”

“Nonsense! Punishments are a necessary part of life, and clearly I’m so shameful that I don’t deserve them anymore! This can not do.”

“Ego, you’ve got things twisted.”

“I will train my mind. I will meditate for one thousand moments! My mind will be harder than steel. Never again will I lose control.”

“There really isn’t a need to.”

“I see,”

“Thanks for understanding.”

“One hundred thousand moments!”

“Nooooo.”

Ego flew to a corner of the room, still a ball of light, and froze. No callings or orders from Joe made him move. It was as if he’d entered his own little space, far away from the BOP. Not knowing what else to do, Joe set his mind to the current affairs.

There was little he could do about the preceding events. He’d played his cards, and now he just needed to see how it would turn out. He expected a visit from Uxyx soon, and it would determine if he would get to live for tomorrow.

He hadn’t taken things seriously enough. He should have been able to predict that a fight would break out of he sent Ego out to scout for ore. That was a miscalculation on his part, and if he was going to survive in this new world that would be utterly unacceptable.

Nearly thirty minutes later the expected arrival had come. Uxyx’s elite walked into the place as if it was his, and he had a nasty glare on his face. Unwelcoming, scornful, filthy. Standing there, in the doorway, he towered over Joe.

His hand shot out and crushed the ladybug.

“I do not want to see another ladybug,” he said. “With a scorpion’s tail. I do not know what perks you have purchased, but they were a waste of truemass.”

You piece of shit. One day I’m going to crush you just how you crushed that ladybug just you watch.

“Of course,” Joe said. “I would never dare go against the decree.”

Uxyx’s unit scoffed. “It’s good that your elite is silent. It shows you have learnt.”

Despite being in a meditative stance, Joe felt a flash of anger come from Ego. It quickly dissipated, and he turned back to an emotional void. Maybe this intense meditative session would pay off somehow.

“Thank you,” Joe said.

“I have come, “Uxyx’s said, “to issue a warning. If my lord wasn’t hell bent on being a just lord.” 50% tax really goes to show how fair your lord is. “Then you’d be dead. We know your units visited the place our units died.”

So it was their units.

“We know that,” he continued. “But another, troublesome, core seemed to have also been there. Since we can not ascertain which one of you two it was, we will leave you with a warning. Any more suspicious acts however, and you will face the great one’s wrath.”

Another core. A troublesome one at that. I might have found me an ally.

“This is too just of you,” Joe said sarcastically.

“It is,” Uxyx’s elite agreed.