Chapter 1580 – Return of the Slug

Every platform was under siege by the Krath. Solant stood in the centre of the command post as messages came thick and fast, a flurry of information that she needed to process rapidly so she could slot every puzzle-piece into its appointed place before making a decision.

It wasn’t easy. There was so much going on around the fortress that even her message-relay network was struggling to keep up with the demand. Construction crews were still hard at work at all levels of the fortress as mana continued to spew out of the vents, stressing the mana channels to their breaking point. There were still failures occurring as the carvers fought a constant battle of managing the extreme pressures while shutting off sections for emergency repairs.

Tons and tons of highly engineered channel components were being brought into the fortress in a steady flow, but it was still hard to keep up with demand. Even traversing the fortress was a problem, since no one could know which sections would be cut off next.

To make matters worse, the Krath were active again, working against all of the platforms, except one.

Solant would dearly love to know what the Legion had done to make the Krath both hate and fear them to such a degree. Goszi had loathed the Abyssal Legion on a deep, almost fundamental level. The Krath hated everyone, but they really hated the Legion. Such a level of animosity should cause them to seek out the small army that was here in the fifth, but, for whatever reason, they avoided it, refusing to engage even now.

At least that was one platform that she knew wasn’t going to go down. The reserves within the heart of the fortress were steadily filling, the torrent of mana pouring in being converted at incredible speeds. If things continued at this pace, they would have enough at the point when the wave ended. They just had to last that long.

“Order the reserves to move forward,” she told the gathered generals. “We have to commit more troops to the platforms.”

“Doesn’t that just increase the risk of capture?” one asked, clacking her mandibles nervously.

“We have measures in place to combat their attempted abductions. There are worse things they could do to us than take a few of our siblings.”

“Like what?”

“What could possibly be worse?”

“You would abandon your siblings?”

Solant looked at the gathered generals, a little surprised by their collective outburst. She slowly cleaned her antennae, the gesture soothing her and bringing a sense of calm to the room. The generals were clearly on edge.

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“They could destroy the fortress and kill all of us,” she pointed out mildly. “That would be worse.”

There wasn’t much arguing with that.

“Of course we have measures in place to try and prevent abductions, but they aren’t foolproof. The best method to stop any of our siblings being taken by the Krath is to never come to the fifth in the first place. Since we have thrown that option away, we will need to do the best we can.”

Solant watched each of the generals, trying to impress on them the importance of the situation.

“If we hold, we will win. Keep that in mind at all times. No matter the cost, we must hold.”