Alpha stared down at the corpse of the creatures he had affectionately dubbed "Nitropot Ants". Over the past few days he'd observed three varieties or possibly castes of the large insects. The first, which he had named "Bait Ants", seemed to act as a strange combination of Scout and Suicide Bomber. These cat-sized Ants had a round, bulbous abdomen filled with some kind of extremely volatile and explosive mixture. Despite this, the top of abdomen was heavily armored, and was used both as a shield and a weapon.
The Bait Ants employed several methods of attack, depending on what it was they were attacking and how it responded to them. Against large targets many times their size, the Bait Ants would try to antagonize or attract the target's attention. Often times this would lead to the Ant being bitten or swallowed... all according to keikaku*
Once attacked, the Bait Ant will detonate its lower abdomen, producing a terrifyingly powerful explosion. While the ant itself seems to be immune to this explosion (possibly due to the aforementioned heavy plating acting as blast proofing), this almost always results in its attacker's death. At which point, the Bait Ant will return to the nest and summon more of its kind to dismantle the body.
In the rare instances where the target is not killed by the initial blast, or the target remains passive or unaggressive to the first ant, the Bait ant will summon the next caste, the Solider.
Solider Ants are much larger, roughly the size of a large dog, and come equipped with two weapons. The large, powerful mandibles in the front and in the back, an abdomen filled with a sticky chemical concoction similar to Napalm, which can be sprayed several meters, and will ignite on contact with the air, sticking to their target even as it burns with a fierce heat. Once summoned, the soldiers will attack the target, using both weapons and their sheer numbers to quickly overwhelm them.
No matter who makes the kill, the final observed caste takes over once the target stops moving. These, Alpha named "Drones" or "Workers" for their similar role to ants in an Earth colony. Somewhere in size between the Bait Ants and the Soldiers, Worker Ants would swarm over the fallen enemy and begin to dismantle it with surprising efficiency, as Soldiers stood guard on the perimeter, chasing away any scavengers that might approach.
The issue that Alpha was running across boiled down to a nasty habit (or maybe Instinct?) that all three Castes seemed to share.
When presented with an overwhelming force, wounded beyond recovery, or trapped in such a way that prevented any means of escape, each caste would instead chose to detonate an internal chamber in their thorax, killing the ant instantly and causing great harm to the target. The Bait Ants would obviously explode as usual, while the Soldiers would unleash all of the stored Napalm directly onto the offender. Finally, when the Worker Ants detonated, they seemed to unleash some kind of pheromone that drove the other ants into a frenzy, pushing them to fight harder and more fiercely.
Suffice to say, all three attempts to capture a Bait Ant (or at least a Worker) so far had failed miserably. Still, Alpha couldn't give up. Unlocking the secrets of this strange insect would put him one step closer to his goals. At the very least, if he could somehow extract the explosive biochemicals, it would go a long way towards rearming himself.
After a day of failed experiments and frustrating cleaning (Alpha maintained his stance that Biologicals were disgusting creatures), Alpha came to a conclusion... that he needed more information. And the best way to do that was to find the Nitropot's nest. Now the question was, "How"?
Taking some time to run the simulations, Alpha formalized his plan and searched for his new target. An hour later, the AI flew high over the marsh, looking down at the scene of a large group of Nitropot Ants dismantling a massive Snake.
Perfect.
Alpha disengaged a small chunk of nanobots, wincing internally at the (yet necessary) loss. He then shaped them into the form of a small fly and directed it to the group.
Hidden by the gathering of swarming insects attracted to the ant's kill, the Nano-Fly went unnoticed by the Ants. It slowly approached a lone worker and then launched itself at the creature. The worker screeched and bucked as the Nano-fly latched onto its neck, quickly shifting forms into a small collar-like strap that blended perfectly into its exoskeleton.
The thrashing worker soon righted itself, only to find itself surrounded by Solider Ants. The larger ants swiftly swept their antennae over the smaller worker, searching for the attacker or any other irregularity, but finding nothing, they dispersed, leaving the traumatized worker to go back to its work.
High above the group, an AI grinned in the way that only an AI could.
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Several Hours Later
Alpha peered through the optical sensor that formed on the collar of his unsuspecting Spy. The worker ant and its group had finished dismantling the snake and swiftly carried it through an underground series of tunnels that seemed to stretch for kilometer beneath the marches. Well, that explained how they could pop up anywhere at any time.
As the group delved deeper and deeper, they began to encounter more Ants; then, the tunnels opened up into a large, cavernous expanse after a long time. Tens of Thousands of Ants milled about performing various tasks.
A steady stream of workers chewed on a gargantuan pile of rotting meat and bone in one corner. They weren't eating it; however, Instead, they seemed to be mixing it with the water from a nearby stream, turning it into a meaty jelly or paste. This paste was passed to even more workers, who would bring it to a large forest of glowing mushrooms.
The paste was then spread around the area, creating a thick, crusty "soil" of sorts. Other Ants worked as teams, cutting down the larger mushrooms, some as tall as evergreens, which were swiftly cut into smaller chunks and transported through tunnels to parts of the nest unseen.
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It seemed the Nitropots weren't carnivorous as it would first appear. Instead, they were farmers... grisly, terrifying farmers.
Alpha's Spy Ant dropped its meaty load near the pile and moved over to the Mushroom forest. It picked up several chunks of mushroom before making its way through the tunnels and into another, smaller cave. This one appeared to be some kind of nursery, as it was filled with thousands of larvae, pupa, and unhatched eggs. The Spy Ant approached a group of larva, then chewing up the mushroom mass, it carefully fed each larva until they were stuffed full, going from long worms to football-shaped in a matter of moments.
The worker then returned to the mushroom farm and repeated this several times. After an hour or so of this, the worker returned to the mushroom cave one last time, this time picking up a much larger chunk of mushroom and merged into a constantly moving line down another tunnel. After a few moments, this one opened up into yet another chamber.
However, instead of more larva, the sight here made Alpha sit on the edge of his proverbial seat.
[Alpha] - "Jackpot!"
In the middle of the large chamber sat 3 massive Ants the size of small houses, presumably the "Queens" of this colony. The large ants were being fed a constant stream of mushrooms from the line of workers; smaller workers crawled over their massive bodies, maliciously cleaning and maintaining them. Every few dozen minutes or so, an egg would pop out of the large, swollen abdomen at the business end, which was quickly collected and brought down a tunnel that Alpha assumed led to the nursery.
However, what caught Alpha's attention the most were the dozens of Bait Ants and Soldiers attached to the Queens at their sides. As he watched, a deflated Bait Ant approached one of the Queens and bit down on some kind of protrusion. Over the next 30 minutes or so, the Bait Ant visibly swelled, as its own abdomen filled with something, before it detached and made room for the next deflated Bait Ant in line.
Alpha's main body shook with excitement as he watched Ant after Ant "top off" at their living Explosives Factory. Well, that explained why these Queen's "Egg sacs" were so extremely engorged. They weren't just making eggs in there.
Alpha stared at the creatures in amazement, feeling a metaphorical tear well up in his optical sensor.
They were... beautiful.
Alpha began to laugh maniacally as dozens of plans began forming in his mind. This was good, this was very, very good. Now it was just a matter of figure out how to collect on his find. He contemplated simply burrowing his way in and kidnapping a Queen but immediately dismissed the idea. Not only was the Queen's chamber almost a kilometer underground, but the sheer number of Soldiers and the size of the Queens made that plan unlikely to bear fruit.
Next, he thought about somehow communicating with them, possibly bartering in some way. If giant fire-breathing snakes and living rocks on this world could be Sapient, who was to say that Ant's couldn't be either? However, he'd yet to see anything that suggested any form of proper higher thought processes from these creatures so far. And their extreme aggression made merely walking up to one and asking an awful idea.
Racking his processors, Alpha finally came up with a plan. If he couldn't beat them and he couldn't barter with them, then maybe a bit of good old fashioned infiltration was in order. Breaking off another small batch of Nanobots, Alpha formed them into the shape of a small Bait ant, though an utterly hollow one. He directed his new puppet towards the nearest party and tried to blend in with the group.
It was immediately set upon by Soldiers and torn to bits.
Alpha grumbled in frustration as he collected his nanobots and reformed the dummy ant. A few more attempts confirmed his fears; while the ants didn't appear to be sapient, they also weren't stupid enough to not recognize a stranger among them.
What he wouldn't do for some conveniently placed Vents.
Alpha would spend the next two weeks meticulously studying the Ants, both dissecting several samples and observing how the creatures interacted both outside and inside the nest. Slowly but surely, his understanding of the Insects increased, and the lifespan of his Dummy Ant was increasing little by little. Until one day, on the eve of the third week, the Dummy Ant finally broke into the Queen's chamber.
Alpha nervously maneuvered the construct, careful to observe all of the nest's proper social cues that he had learned over the past few weeks. When the Dummy Ant finally latched on to the spout on the side of one of the Queens, Alpha shouted in triumph! A few hours later, Alpha stared at the Dummy Ant in front of him, filled to the brim with the explosive concoction that gave the Bait Ants their "kick."
The next step was a little more complicated. With such a volatile substance, it wasn't something that could simply be stored anywhere. While the Nitropots, and by extension, his Dummy Ant, were designed to do so, he couldn't just leave it in the Dummy. Not if he wanted to use it to collect more. No, a storage device would be needed.
To that end, Alpha picked up his Dummy Ant and headed back to the battlefield mountain. Once there, Alpha took a week to dig out a large cave near the mountain's top. It wasn't massive, but for now, it would do. He then burrowed a bit farther into the mountain, opening up another section. He built this section (Sector 2) a reasonable distance away from the main chamber (Sector 1). Sector 2 would act as the storage chamber for the substance Alpha had jokingly labeled "Bug Juice" (though the name was growing on him). This way, if something... explosive occurred in this section, the damage would be kept to a minimum.
The next step of his plan was to build the actual containment device for the Bug Juice. Thankfully, the massive influx of mundane copper and iron from the battlefield was perfect for this project. Though it took nearly a week of work, soon, ten large silos, capable of holding nearly 300 gallons each, were completed and installed into Sector 2. The Silos were a straightforward thing, pressure sealed and reinforced so that even if one were to rupture and explode, the others would be (relatively) unharmed. Granted, this meant they were far more extensive than they might typically have to be, given their capacity, but safety first and all that.
Besides, these were only temporary measures. Once he got a hold of the Spiritual Copper, he could design more reliable and compact designs. For now, Alpha simply crafted a small automated Nano-Drone to maintain and monitor the Silos.
Finally, after nearly a month and a half, since he'd found the Ants, they were ready to start serious collection.
Alpha giggled like a child with a new toy as he programed a simple AI with everything he'd learned so far and sent it back into the nest. The Dummy Ant would return to the nest, collect as much Bug Juice as possible, and then return to the Base and deposit what it had stolen. It would then return to the nest with a "cooldown period" (just in case the Ants were smarter than Alpha gave them credit for) before repeating the process.
Just for the heck of it, he even programmed the AI to routinely scan the massive pile of creature parts the Ants used to feed their mushrooms. If the AI detected anything of interest, it would collect a sample and bring it back to the Base as well. It would take a while to build up a decent supply of Bug Juice, but he didn't need much for the immediate future.
All in all, between the more sophisticated parts needs for the Silo, the Maintenance Drone, and the Dummy Ant, Alpha had to sacrifice nearly 20% of his current nanobot Mass. Without a dedicated Nano-Factory up and running, it would take nearly three months to replace all of them, but Alpha felt that for what he got in return, it was worth it.
Collecting a small amount of Bug Juice that had already been stored, Alpha prepared to move on to the next stage of the plan.
This one would be much more... explosive.