I Am The Swarm

“Hmph, I already know that,” Major General Porter snapped, his tone sharp as he finally addressed General Masai, who had been ‘resting’ for so long. “But the longer this drags on, the slimmer Cross’s chances of survival become. If she dies, none of us will have an easy time explaining it.”

Although General Masai outranked Major General Porter by a level, Porter was a general with real authority. If he decided to make an issue out of it, Masai would still have to give him some face.

“So, what do you suggest? We’ve already deployed nearly a hundred thousand personnel to search the area. Yet this nest is bizarre—we haven’t even found their food storage to this day.”

The rescue efforts for other bases had been proceeding smoothly. Not only were numerous personnel saved, but the operations were also carried out with minimal losses.

The various units dispersed across the bases didn’t rest after completing their missions. Given the retaliatory tendencies of the Swarm, evidenced by the Cross base incident, it was clear that digging up so many “granaries” would likely provoke more retaliation.

Thus, some forces returned to guard their respective bases, while the rest converged to conduct a grid search of the area where Cross had disappeared.

Over the past two days, the forces had advanced over a thousand meters through underground tunnels and excavated pits over a hundred meters deep, all in search of hidden passageways. Yet oddly enough, they still hadn’t found this Swarm nest’s granary.

Of course, they couldn’t find it—this nest’s food storage hadn’t even been built yet. The overwhelming response of the Riken forces had greatly startled the swarm.

For the Riken to mobilize such massive resources over a missing base commander, this young Riken female must be far more important than the swarm initially thought.

Fortunately, Cross’s conversion site was deeply hidden underground, and the Riken forces wouldn’t find it anytime soon. However, how to endure the seven-day conversion period became a pressing challenge.

In just two days, the Riken forces had created such a stir. Under normal circumstances, they should have discovered the “granary” by now. Left with no other options, the swarm decided to stall for time. Any anomalies would have to be explained away by the Riken experts’ “reasonable” deductions.

At a meeting, biologist Dr. Balt presented findings and provided some constructive suggestions based on their ongoing research.

Beyond classifying the acid-spitting and reconnaissance Swarm units as new combat types, he also shared some intriguing observations.

“Although we still haven’t located the granary of Nest C13 (the designation for the Swarm nest where Cross went missing), our study of the food storage in the previous 12 nests has revealed some interesting patterns,” Dr. Balt began, pausing slightly as the others watched him with curiosity.

Smiling faintly, he continued, “The Swarm seem to prefer storing small, fresh prey. In every granary we’ve examined, there were no corpses. All the creatures encased in cocoons were alive, albeit weakened, but in surprisingly healthy condition.”

“From satellite footage—though not very clear—we’ve observed that the Swarm’s diet isn’t limited to small prey. Larger creatures over three meters long are also on their menu.”

“Why, then, do we never find large creatures stored in their granaries? Because transporting them is inconvenient. Among all the Swarm units we’ve identified so far, regardless of their roles, none are particularly large. Transporting whole large creatures would be difficult for them. So when they capture large prey, they likely butcher it on-site and then transport the pieces back to their nest.”

“And how does that help our operations?” one captain couldn’t help but interject.

“Don’t rush—let me finish,” Dr. Balt replied. “Because of the high temperatures on T853, these meat chunks are not easy to preserve. Thus, the Swarm prioritize consuming them quickly. The smaller prey, however, is stored for times when hunting isn’t as successful. When food supplies dwindle, they’ll select smaller, dying creatures to consume.”

“While we haven’t yet found Lieutenant Colonel Cross’s location, this insight could improve her chances of survival. We can air-drop large quantities of fresh food into the target area. The food must be perishable and preferably injured, such as wounded Bull Demons. With an ample food supply, the Swarm won’t need to kill the small prey in their granaries.”

The logic resonated with everyone. To increase Cross’s survival odds, the Riken forces began capturing large creatures daily and, before the Swarm’s regular hunting times, deposited them near the nest. To ensure the Swarm could easily capture them, the creatures were left gravely wounded.

This behavior left Luo Wen and the other intelligent entities puzzled. What kind of narrative had the Riken experts concocted this time? After some analysis, they guessed the Riken reasoning.

Luo Wen had been fretting over how to ensure Cross’s survival without raising suspicion. Since the Riken forces had devised a justification themselves, the swarm decided to cooperate.

Thus, during the day, the Riken forces continued their relentless digging and blasting, while at night, the swarm emerged to hunt and carried the butchered remains of the large prey back to their nest.

With this unspoken coordination between both sides, seven days passed swiftly.

“So that’s how it is.” After listening to Cross’s account, Luo Wen fell into deep thought. The Riken had no real backing; their technological surge had been triggered by reverse-engineering an ancient spaceship of unknown origin.

Cross had a unique background—she had a sister who was involved in reverse-engineering the ancient vessel. While her sister hadn’t divulged many details, even the scraps she knew exceeded the knowledge of most of the Riken expedition fleet’s captains.

According to Cross, the unearthed spaceship was a relic tens of thousands of years old. At that time, although life existed on Riken, civilization had yet to emerge.

Why had this spaceship appeared on Riken’s moon during such a time? Its purpose was unclear. The ship’s technological level was incredibly advanced, and according to Cross, the Riken had barely scratched the surface in their reverse-engineering efforts.

Was this truly an accident? Considering how the swarm orchestrated what the Riken perceived as accidents, it was evident that surface appearances weren’t everything. Although the swarm’s methods were sometimes flawed, they revealed enough for discerning eyes to spot.

Based on the technology described by Cross, a spaceship from such an advanced civilization would travel at incredible speeds. If it had indeed crashed by accident, the impact alone would have obliterated most of Riken’s moon, triggering chain reactions capable of wiping out life on Riken.

However, Riken’s archaeological studies had found no evidence of such an event. Moreover, without external interference, natural evolution alone would likely be insufficient to produce a high-intelligence civilization within tens of thousands of years.

This analysis suggested that the spaceship had deliberately landed on the moon. But why had it not landed directly on Riken? Was it due to the atmosphere?

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