I Am The Swarm

The abundance of enemy units allowed each Riken fighter squadron to find its own targets, engaging in one-on-one dogfights and forming countless small battle zones.

However, the battlefield had limited space, and these smaller zones overlapped and intertwined, creating a chaotic larger battleground.

In such a frenzied arena, fair one-on-one duels were impossible.

A primary fighter jet was skillfully keeping more than ten Larval bodies at bay, maneuvering in evasive patterns under the cover of its drones, while simultaneously launching attacks at the pursuing enemies.

Although the fighter’s firepower was somewhat underwhelming, with enough time and persistence, even the strongest opponents could be worn down.

“Watch out!” a sudden warning came through the channel. The pilot didn’t recognize the voice—it wasn’t someone he knew personally. But in a war between species, alien organisms didn’t speak the Riken language. Reacting instinctively, he veered his fighter off its original course, performing a standard evasive maneuver.

A tentacle crackling with blue arcs of electricity slashed past the side of his cockpit, grazing the surface of his craft heavily enough to knock it off balance. Fortunately, the pilot had participated in simulated bombardment drills for Planet Raze and had decent technical skills and nerves of steel. He quickly regained control of his fighter.

Running a systems diagnostic, he found that only the external armor had sustained minor damage. This allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief. However, his drone hadn’t been so lucky. The artificial intelligence controlling the support drone failed to evade the attack, and the drone exploded into fragments amidst flashes of fire.

The loss of the drone soured the pilot’s mood considerably.

Each Riken pilot was allocated nine drones, which assisted in attacks and served as shields in critical moments.

More drones meant better survivability. But now, mere moments into the battle, he had already lost one. In wartime conditions, it would be nearly impossible to replace a lost drone.

To make matters worse, this loss wasn’t even his fault.

The chaotic battlefield generated an overwhelming amount of data. Most of the Riken’s supercomputers prioritized calculations for the long-range fleet’s bombardments and evasive maneuvers, leaving insufficient computational resources to monitor every aspect of close-quarters combat.

Each Riken pilot could designate up to three groups of enemies for prioritization. The supercomputers would allocate processing power to calculate interactions with these designated enemies first.

Given the rapid movement of both sides, with hundreds of other small battle zones intersecting every few seconds, only the designated enemy group remained consistently tracked. Other nearby threats shifted too quickly for the system to provide timely warnings.

As a result, pilots usually only marked the group they were actively engaging, leaving the remaining slots unused. However, this approach introduced a slight delay in warnings for sudden attacks from other sources.

This was the primary reason the pilot’s drone had been destroyed.

His teammates had failed to pin down their own targets, leaving them free to attack passing fighter squadrons. The pilot, meanwhile, hadn’t detected the attack in time due to the delayed warnings from the supercomputer.

Luckily, with a teammate’s timely warning, the pilot narrowly escaped disaster. However, the frustration of losing his drone left him eager to lash out at his unknown ally.

Just as he was about to hurl some choice words, the stranger’s voice echoed through the comms once more.

“Watch out!”

The Riken pilot immediately shut his mouth and reflexively performed another evasive maneuver.

Unfortunately, his luck had run out. His maneuver was too predictable, repeating the exact same angle and direction as before.

Through his transparent cockpit canopy, he saw the rapidly approaching, electrified tentacle. He didn’t even have time to scream before it struck. The impact was devastating—the cockpit cracked, and the fighter spun out of control, crashing into one of his nearby drones.

A brief flash of fire lit up before both the fighter and drone were reduced to debris. Even if the pilot wasn’t killed instantly, his chances of survival in the chaotic battlefield were slim.

The loss of the main fighter was immediately reported to the battlefield’s supercomputer center, where it was processed and relayed back. The original squadron—now missing its main fighter and two drones—had its remaining seven drones reassigned to other nearby squadrons.

As the battle demonstrated, in such a complex and chaotic environment, luck was just as vital as skill. Even a near-complete formation of drones couldn’t guarantee survival.

Scenes like this were common across the battlefield. If the Riken’s fighter squadrons had been using their old configurations, their entire strategy might have fallen apart.

Fortunately, the Missile Drones had been introduced.

The Riken’s new small missile-armed drones, referred to as Missile Drones, performed surprisingly well in this war.

The Larval bodies, unfamiliar with this new weapon, were caught off guard. While pursuing enemy fighters, they suddenly encountered these small drones approaching them head-on.

Although the drones’ machine guns weren’t particularly powerful, concentrated fire from multiple drones posed a real threat to the Larval bodies. Faced with this, the Larval bodies prioritized eliminating the drones.

However, when they latched onto the Missile Drones with their tentacles and attempted to dismantle them, the drones exploded without warning.

At two meters long, these drones packed a substantial payload. For the Larval bodies—most of which were only around ten meters in size—the explosions were devastating. Within just a few minutes of engagement, the Swarm lost nearly 10,000 Larval bodies to these drones.

The Larval bodies, having previously been hit by missiles, quickly adapted. Realizing that these small, winged machines with machine guns weren’t true fighters, they immediately began avoiding them.

This created a new dilemma. The Missile Drones effectively blocked the pursuit routes of enemy fighters, while the Larval bodies lacked sufficient long-range attack capabilities to counter them.

Engaging in melee combat with the drones was tantamount to suicide.

Ignoring them wasn’t a great option either. While the Missile Drones’ machine guns had small calibers, sustained fire was both annoying and increasingly dangerous. Moreover, leaving the Riken’s main fighters unthreatened allowed them to rain fire from afar.

The large-caliber machine guns mounted on those fighters posed a significant threat to the Larval bodies.

The introduction of this new unit had changed the dynamics of the battlefield, making things far more challenging for the Larval bodies while giving the Riken’s main fighters and drones more room to operate.

“Heh, bombs combined with machine guns—what an interesting idea. Order the Larval bodies to ignore these nuisances and focus on all-out assaults. Let the Riken showcase their tactics for a bit,” Sarah Kerrigan said, observing the battle.

She showed little concern for the Larval bodies’ struggles. In her view, the outcome of the war wouldn’t be decided by one or two local skirmishes but by the broader strategy.

This battlefield had exposed some weaknesses in the Swarm’s Larval bodies, but the Swarm had already devised solutions for such flaws. All they needed now was the right opportunity to implement them.

Upon receiving Sarah’s orders, the Larval bodies ceased pursuing the Riken’s main fighters and drones and ignored the interference of the Missile Drones. Instead, they charged directly at the Riken’s warship formations.

“They’re going for a last-ditch assault! Hold the line!” Hamis roared, his voice filled with urgency.

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