I Am The Swarm

When the decision was made by the Koya Alliance to dismantle and abandon the Daqi civilization, the alliance fleet originally assembled at the Daqi border also received orders to withdraw. To buy time for the Daqi civilization’s relocation, they were instructed to deploy all loaded smart mines into the void beyond the star system.

One type of smart mine, specifically targeting warp travel, though limited in number, caused some trouble when first encountered by the Swarm. In standard warfare, these smart mines are considered to be of little tactical advantage, neither significant enough to keep nor negligible enough to discard. To achieve any success, they must be deployed over a large area, hoping for the accidental interception of enemy forces.

However, these mines are by no means cheap to produce, making mass deployment difficult. Yet, when this seemingly useless weapon encountered the Swarm’s massive forces, unexpected results emerged.

In the history of the Koya Alliance, there had never been a war measured in billions of ships. It should be noted that before this, the Daqi civilization operated only half a million warships in regular service. When the Troi civilization exerted pressure on the Swarm, they also mobilized a force of several hundred thousand warships.

At their level, tens of thousands of warships constituted a large-scale operation. Even in the history of the Interstellar Technological Confederation, wars with over a hundred million combat units are rare. And those few warfare instances only met such standards due to the extensive scope of engagement.

In reality, the troop engagements in these wars were more often in the millions, with tens of millions being rare. The Swarm, however, concentrated hundreds of millions of troops within a single star system, which was unprecedented in Alliance history. The density of forces could be imagined.

Thus, warp-bubble smart mines, a weapon relying on passive engagement, performed exceptionally well due to the high concentration of targets. Over a hundred of these mines destroyed dozens of primordial bodies and severely damaged nearly two hundred, achieving a significant outcome.

Of course, this success also stemmed from the Swarm’s lack of experience with these devices. And considering the cost of a primordial body, it’s hard to say definitively who suffered a net loss. Nonetheless, this novel situation attracted Luo Wen’s attention.

Upon his command, the primordial cluster voluntarily ceased warp travel, cautiously proceeding while deploying numerous larval and mature bodies to clear the smart mines in the void.

As a result, their advance naturally slowed. This was actually Luo Wen’s intention, because the implementation of warp propulsion modules had significantly increased the deployment speed of the primordial bodies. The distance between adjacent star systems could be crossed in just two to three years. Even accounting for troop deployment and rallying time, it wouldn’t take more than five years.

However, even five years is far from sufficient for the migration efforts of the Daqi civilization. Luo Wen had been pondering how to ease up without being too obvious or arousing enemy suspicion.

Honestly, this was a considerable test of the Swarm’s acting prowess. Just as he was revisiting the art of self-cultivation in acting and brainstorming methods, the opposing side conveniently handed him the script, allowing Luo Wen to slow the Swarm’s advance.

Moreover, the novel smart mines, or rather the application of their energy, genuinely piqued his interest. The actions of the Swarm were continuously monitored; for those small devices with minimal mobility, the Swarm could locate and clear them one by one.

However, surrounding the Swarm forces were numerous reconnaissance ships. These vessels, highly specialized in their roles, may lack offensive capabilities but excel in sensory acuity, vision, and speed. Utilizing these traits, they patrolled just outside the security line of the primordial cluster. The Swarm had very few effective measures against these pesky observers.

Fortunately, the billion-strong primordial cluster couldn’t achieve invisibility, and opting for a frontal breakthrough strategy meant being surveilled was inconsequential. Intelligence warfare is unavoidable at any time.

The encounters of the primordial cluster were captured by these ships and relayed back. In response, the Interstellar Technological Confederation could only marvel at there being no useless weapons, only improperly used ones. There was no suspicion regarding the Swarm forces’ slowed advance and cautious bypassing of the mines.

Most factions secretly let out a sigh of relief, especially the Koya Alliance and the Locke Mutual Aid Society, which had already come into contact with the Swarm. Since warp mines could restrain the Swarm’s cluster attacks, they could produce more to buy themselves more time.

The slower the Swarm’s progress, the fewer their losses. As long as they could delay until the big players from the inner and middle circles entered the battlefield, they could escape their current precarious situation.

As for the Daqi civilization, their relief was anything but simple. With the primordial cluster’s previous approach, they had barely completed thirty percent of their migration efforts. If the Swarm had attacked then, they would have faced certain annihilation.

This situation caused significant panic and led to unrest. Fortunately, divine providence intervened, and the abhorrent Swarm was obstructed by mighty technological creations, allowing them another chance at survival. Furthermore, following this event, the previously uncooperative Daqi, for various reasons, became much more compliant, greatly enhancing the efficiency of the migration efforts.

Luo Wen did not concern himself with these developments; his focus was already on analyzing the warp mines. Beyond their high cost and limited operational range, these mines had another flaw.

The mines were secured with multiple protocols controlling the special energy but had a single triggering mechanism, making them ineffective against units not engaged in warp travel.

Moreover, targeting high-speed warp units meant any delay caused by remote control could lead to failure, so they didn’t even have remote triggering systems. Therefore, when ordinary smart mines activated and injured the probing larval and mature bodies, these more advanced mines were inert like stones, easily captured by the Swarm.

Luo Wen organized a large group of intelligent entities to commence the disassembly work. The Swarm’s current technological level was already advanced; such smart mines, which would be incomprehensible to civilizations without the requisite technology, were manageable for the Swarm.

The functional design was quickly analyzed by the intelligent entities, and, according to their understanding, the mines were dismantled systematically. Failures led to discussions and reattempts.

Despite the limited number of these special mines, the Swarm had already captured dozens. With sufficient test samples, the intelligent entities operated more boldly, resulting in some rapid progress.

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