a comparable disadvantage. They had to travel almost the entire distance between the two nests in order to continue the tournaments. With the lines of communication stretched so far, the adjustments made by the Streamsider force were slow and inaccurate. The weaker Trailheaders, by retreating slowly, were close to striking a balance. If that occurred, they might hold their opponents in place indefinitely, perhaps all the way to the end of the foraging season. The loss of part of their territory would be an acceptable price to a colony with a declining population.
The Trailheaders had now surrendered all their territory to the east of their nest in the direction of the Streamsider nest. There was a possibility that this conquest would be enough for the Streamsiders. They had achieved a great victory without the loss of a single life on either side. If they called off the tournaments now, a long standoff peace--a Pax Formicana, so to speak--might come to the two domains.
Peace with honor was not, however, the way of the Nokobee anthills. After three weeks of advance, culminating finally when the tournaments were held at the edge of the Trailheader nest mound, the Streamsider dancers suddenly switched to an all-out attack on the Trailhead Colony. No more propaganda for them, no more bluffing.
The assault began as an unplanned chain reaction among the Streamsider players. They had grown increasingly excited during each day's event. They seemed to be approaching the threshold that separates hostile display from overt combat. They circled around the Trailheaders more tightly, bumping harder and more frequently.
Finally, near the beginning of one tournament when the Trailheaders had been crowded into a space only several feet wide in front of their nest mound, a Streamsider worker--the elite scout and tournament veteran--crossed the threshold of aggression and single-handedly began the war. She attacked the first Trailheader she encountered, spraying it with a combination of alarm pheromones and poisonous secretions. The odor of these materials galvanized the nestmates closest to her. They crossed the aggression threshold also and launched an attack of their own. Two workers in combat quickly led to three, three to four, and on upward, spreading violence exponentially through the assembled Streamsider ranks. Some of the Trailheaders quickly broke away from the battle and rushed back to their nest to recruit reinforcements. Others responded to the attack by standing their ground and fighting back.
Soon the battle turned into a furious and deadly melee. The Trailheaders were too weak to hold their ground. The Streamsiders drove through the dissolving mass of defenders, attacking each one they could catch. All the ants on both sides now abandoned the tournament mode. They deflated their abdomens to normal size and relaxed the stiltlike stiffness of their legs. Fighters on both sides instead climbed on top of their opponents, seizing legs and antennae with their sawtooth jaws, gnashing and stinging whatever vulnerable body parts they could reach. When two or more Streamsider fighters managed to take hold of a Trailheader at the same time, they spread-eagled her, exposing her body to a fatal bite or sting by others who charged in. Soon dead and dying workers from both sides littered the battlefield. Most of the casualties were Trailheaders. Among them was the elite scout and former nurse, who was stung to death and dismembered.
More of the surviving Trailheaders gave up combat and retreated into the nest entrance. Those who hesitated were run down and killed as though they were insect prey.
They were in fact insect prey. Their bodies were treated the same as those of subdued grasshoppers and caterpillars. After battle the dead and injured would be collected and eaten by their conquerors. Cannibalism was more than just the fruit of conquest. The conquest turned into a foraging expedition.
The defense of the Trailhead Colony completely collapsed within a half hour. A few of the survivors, dodging their pursuers, ran back and forth between their nest and the main battle site, somehow measuring the magnitude of the disaster. The last among them finally pulled back into the nest entirely. As they neared the entrance, a few turned and continued the fight, keeping the area immediately around it clear of the enemy. With the help of others, they dragged in nearby pieces of soil, charcoal, and leaf litter, and piled them up to form a plug in and on top of the nest entrance.
The Trailheader nest was now a sealed and hidden bunker. The victorious Streamsider army poured over its mound surface, and