Chapter 1425 – Adaptable

Solant had built her entire campaign around one central principle: adaptability. The fifth was an unknown quantity. Who could say what the Krath were capable of, or what conditions may arise down there?

That didn’t mean playing it safe, moving slow, absolutely not. That approach would only give their enemies time, time to gather and organise, time to muster their forces. If the Colony didn’t establish an impregnable clawhold within the fifth before that happened, all would be lost.

Strike hard, strike fast, and adapt to whatever came their way. The vents had caused enormous headaches to the invasion, and ground their expansion to a halt, but that didn’t mean that progress would stop too.

“Do we have an update from this section of tunnel in quadrant seventeen?”

“Scout came in a few minutes ago, general, the gap has widened, but hasn’t been opened completely.”

“Is it wide enough for the soldiers to get through?”

This was the key question.

“Y… yes it is, general. Just.”

“That’s enough. Send word to cease work on that section of tunnel. We don’t need to eliminate the pocket created by the vent, we just need to be able to get around it.”

Scouts ran to deliver her instructions as Solant fell into silent contemplation, staring at the model of the surrounding territory. It wasn’t even the tunnels and intersections she was looking at, but something deeper, something larger. She was trying to sense the ebb and flow of the campaign, to see what was, and imagine what could be.

Many options were considered, but after examining each with due care, she dismissed all but one.

“Send orders to all quadrants. Order ** is cancelled, we return to standard organisation, and begin operation Happy Meal.”

“That’s much earlier than planned,” Leonidant observed from nearby.

“The situation has changed,” Solant said simply.

And it had, of course it had, but they had to make the most of a difficult situation.

“I authorise the use of the blue lure method as well,” she stated.

More runners dashed away to deliver the orders, and Solant settled back to contemplate the model once more. Given their current plight, this was perhaps the best they could do. For the time being, they were in a holding pattern. Construction continued on the fortified nest, of course, and the build teams had adjusted to the new schedule brilliantly, as should be expected from them.

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