NOVPUBON THE MORNING BEFORE THE PLANNED BATTLE, WHISPER WAS ONE STRESSED AND TIRED AGENT.
On the surface, Whisper's current life was something others could dream about. Being a personal agent of human Farini was a lavish position.
Farini treated all the bee soldiers like royalty, sharing with them food from his own table, but they were often away on missions and forced to feed off rations.
Whisper, however, could enjoy the best of human foods any time she wanted. And they have invented some incredible things, like pure sugar.
But in reality, Whisper's life was pretty stressful, since she had to coordinate Farini's actions with those of thousands of bees working in the entire region.
And she wasn't even officially a Chief—just someone who communicated between Bloodimina and the actual Chief Agent Mindvoice…
For the last two days, Whisper was exchanging messages between Mindvoice and Bloodimina, because of an unfortunate situation that happened during a mission to assassinate one of the High King's generals.
Bloodimina's Beemarines were attacked on their way by evolved paper wasps. Normal paper wasps wouldn't have been a danger to Beemarines, but these paper wasps were immune to venom, ten times tougher than usual, and had claws that could pierce through a solid plate of chitin.
The nest of these paper wasps was built on a pillar mountain right near the High King's army camp, and the paper wasps were hunting out and attacking all bees who tried to get near the camp.
It was as if these wasps specifically evolved to interrupt the bees' plans! Bloodimina's Beehounds did their best trying to fend them off, but a few attempts were met with only an ever-increasing resistance from wasps. 𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙥𝒖𝒃.𝒄𝒐𝒎
This required a force of a full army to deal with, but bees couldn't stay unnoticed if they went to the enemy army's positions in such numbers. And their stealthiness was too precious to lose!
Now Chief Mindvoice was telling Whisper that their last line of spying on the actions of the remaining enemy leaders, because the paper wasps forced them to flee.
'Agents complain that it's like these wasps can smell bees a day's flight away,' Mindvoice said. 'Farini will have to fight without knowing what the enemy's plans are. But since there's only one good general left in their army right now, as far as we know, he should be able to do it. As for these wasps—they should be destroyed to prevent the spread of their genes. Humans can do it later, after we win.'
Whisper passed Mindvoice's words to Farini (in a religion-wrapped way, of course), hoping to hear something like, 'Don't worry, we will surely crush our enemies even without knowing their plans!'
Instead, Farini looked tiredly at his battle plans and thought,
'Our numbers are equal to theirs… But theirs is still a High King's army. Although the morale of the soldiers is low, they are trained and well equipped, while my army is half-full of yesterday's farmers and hunters! Plus, the enemy's position is advantageous.'
Whisper flew to stand on Farini's head and looked at the distant map on the table below. It was such a massive sheet of thin leather that if drawings on it were bee-sized, this map would've fit the entire world in detail.
'Is it?' she asked.
'Yes. Although we are stationed in the village and they are on the open plain, the living mountain forests around us block our army in a chokepoint. If the enemy attacks first, we won't have enough space to place our battle formations properly, and our flanks will be open to attacks from anyone who decides to hide in the forest.'
'And if you attack first, Farini?'
'They will see us coming from a mile away! And their cavalry will be able to run circles around us. There aren't many of them, but just enough to hit our back line while their arches put arrows in our front…'
Farini tapped the tips of his fingers on the map.
'Since you were distracted by your holy mission, esteemed Whisper, you didn't hear what Gresch said earlier. His tactical and strategic expertise is much higher than mine—even now, I'm just repeating his words. And about this entire situation he said two things: it's unlikely that the enemy general will wait any longer than this day before doing something, and that our victory depends on countering his approach.'
'His approach is to attack. So you just counter-attack. Simple!' Whisper said.
Farini clicked his jaws… He was chuckling at her!
'You are not a soldier among the holy guardians, clearly—I mean… With all respect, holy Whisper! But they have at least two main ways of attack. They can try a direct cavalry charge, hoping to smash our lines. Or they can leave the cavalry in reserve and attack with their infantry. There are pros and cons on both approaches, and most importantly, we can't defend reliably against both at once. Not with our barely trained recruits. Even if we win in an unfavorable battle, the losses might end our crusade there and then.'
Whisper scratched her cheek.
Although she really wasn't a strategist, she could imagine this situation in her mind's eye. For Farini and Gresch, this was a gamble.
'Our human spies didn't have success in finding out the enemy's plans, either… Perhaps if we retreat and leave the High King's army in this chokepoint—but then, our morale will plummet. Our supplies aren't infinite, either…' Farini continued to muse, but his thoughts were directed mostly to himself now.
Whisper huffed.
Well, she didn't need to ask Father to know what he would've wanted!
Farini had to succeed, and if this required getting those damned battle plans, Whisper will do it herself if she needs to!
There *had* to be a way to sneak past the wasps. Or perhaps…
Whisper closed her eyes and focused. Whether or not she had enough authority, she was about to organize this mission.
'The Beemarines failed only because their plan wasn't good enough!'
