Following the map in his Helmet, Little Slick led the squad to the first Portal. It stood behind a mass of Worker Bees hauling all sorts of supplies, their sheer numbers clogging the entire Webway.
They might have made way for Male Bugs, but they paid no heed to Warrior Bug pheromones. Warrior Bugs had to go around them.
Earlier, Little Slick would have led the Special Operations Bosses straight over them, trampling his way through. But remembering that they could not afford to expose themselves again, he refrained from violence.
Every dead Tyranid would release alarm pheromones. With Tyranids covering the ground, that made things rather tricky.
Then Little Slick noticed that these small Worker Bees would move aside for a larger kind of Beetle. Heavy yellow crystals were piled on their backs.
While Little Slick was pondering this, a large Beetle approached his squad and crouched down.
"?" Little Slick was baffled.
When Little Slick and the others failed to respond, the large Beetle shook the yellow crystals off its back and let out a strange chirping sound.
Little Slick reached out and touched a yellow crystal. It was sugar...
"Is it tryin' to feed us? Is it stupid or what?" Little Slick could not understand it at all. Angrily, he threw the yellow crystal away.
The small Worker Bees quickly swarmed around the yellow crystal, struggling to lift it and put it back on the large Beetle's back.
Just like that, the problem of the small Worker Bees blocking their path was resolved in an absurd fashion. The Hrud's internal workings really were meticulous, with every Tyranid performing its own role like a component in a machine.
Little Slick led the Special Operations Bosses past the growing mass of small Worker Bees gathering around the crystal, approached