I Am The Swarm

War between civilizations is a process of mutual learning and adaptation, each borrowing from the other’s strengths to overcome weaknesses.

Just as the Swarm had studied and adopted the Riken’s propulsion systems, observation technologies, and computer hardware and software, the Rikens, too, sought to learn from the Swarm.

On this historic day, the Riken electromagnetic railguns were fired at an extraterrestrial force for the first time, marking a new chapter in the war’s turning point.

“Is this what the Overlord meant by using the strengths of the enemy against them?” Sarah Kerrigan remarked with a casual laugh, watching the Riken side unleash a barrage of thousands of railgun rounds.

Morgan, feeling a bit awkward, whispered, “Your Majesty, while the meaning fits, if we view it from the Riken perspective, it doesn’t put us in the best light.”

“Haha, they’ll soon discover that we can use the same trick against them,” Sarah replied confidently.

The electromagnetic projectiles emitted only a faint spark of electricity as they left the barrels, their subsequent flight through the void utterly silent. Over 2,000 rounds streaked across the vastness of space, heading toward Satellite 14 of Planet Izumo.

The Primordial bodies stationed in orbit around Planet Izumo lay motionless, seemingly indifferent. However, much like warships, they could easily evade such projectiles by making slight movements during the rounds’ long travel time. Targeting them was not cost-effective.

Among Izumo’s many moons, Satellite 14 was the most favorable target due to its position within the Rikens’ firing range and line of sight.

Given the immense distance between the two sides—over a hundred million kilometers—a slight deviation of just a millimeter at launch could result in significant inaccuracy over such a range. Satellite 14, with a diameter of just over a thousand kilometers, saw half of the Riken’s initial barrage miss it entirely.

The Swarm paid no attention to such wildly inaccurate attacks, and the Rikens didn’t mind either—this volley was merely for calibration.

After analyzing the feedback, the Rikens adjusted their targeting and unleashed a second volley.

This round proved far more accurate and significantly more threatening. However, the Swarm had anticipated this development.

New combat units ascended into the skies, hovering at altitudes of several thousand kilometers. Their round, eyeball-like appearance earned them the name “Laser-Eye Bugs.”

As the electromagnetic rounds approached, these units quickly adjusted their angles, emitting beams of red laser light from apertures in their bodies to melt the incoming projectiles.

For the Swarm, creating such laser-based defensive units based on existing laser generation theories was relatively simple. However, due to the limitations of biological materials, these Swarm versions of laser defense weapons had a much shorter effective range than their Riken counterparts, maxing out at just 50 kilometers.

Fortunately, the Swarm’s versions were far more mobile. Unlike the Rikens’ immobile, massive installations, the Swarm’s units were small and agile. They began life as box-like objects just over ten centimeters in size, growing like fruits on specialized fungal carpets, drawing nutrients to develop.

Upon reaching a size of 10 meters, they were considered mature, achieving the standard 50-kilometer effective range. Though they could continue growing, doing so consumed excessive resources and offered diminishing returns, making it an inefficient investment.

These units could operate independently or integrate with propulsion modules for mobility, allowing them to intercept projectiles along calculated trajectories. When integrated with Space Octopuses, they became a critical component of the Primordial bodies.

Thus, the Riken’s long-coveted ship-mounted laser defense array was first achieved by the Swarm.

“Fire!” commanded Hamis, Fleet Commander of the First Space Fleet and one of the most powerful figures in the Riken military. He relished the honor of initiating the first barrage of their new weapon, his voice heralding a shift in the tides of war.

But while the Riken railguns roared, the Swarm remained unperturbed, their evolutionary adaptability ever a step ahead.

However, apart from its short range, the Laser-Eye Bug shares a common flaw with all laser-based weapons: high energy consumption. An independent Laser-Eye Bug, after being fully charged, can only fire three shots before requiring a recharge. In other words, it can intercept at most three electromagnetic projectiles before needing to replenish its energy.

For recharging, the bugs can rely on self-sustained “dormant” charging, but this process is slow, taking several days to fully recharge. The only way to recharge rapidly is by linking to the fungal carpet.

This limitation explains why the Laser-Eye Bugs are currently only integrated into Primordial bodies. These massive entities are equipped with Atomic Furnaces, providing the bugs with the energy needed to maintain their operational consumption.

The Swarm’s strategy of learning from the Rikens and turning their technology back against them left the Riken high-ranking officers dumbfounded.

“They must have reverse-engineered our laser defense array on Planet Raze and created these knockoffs.”

“This proves it beyond a doubt—they’re definitely not a native species.”

“I’ve always said that theory was nonsense!”

“Hmph, their defensive array is much smaller than ours. They might have had the technology for some time but chose not to reveal it until now.”

“That makes sense. Our energy beam weapons couldn’t be intercepted before, so even if they had this weapon type, they had no opportunity to showcase it.”

“All right, enough speculation. This isn’t some advanced technology; it’s no surprise they possess it. Let’s focus.”

“Should we continue attacking?”

“Of course. If they won’t let us rest, we won’t let them rest either.”

And so, the Swarm and the Rikens entered a daily cycle of attack and interception.

While it appeared on the surface that both sides were evenly matched, the actual rate of resource depletion was anything but equal. Take, for example, the wear and tear on critical components.

The Rikens could only replace damaged parts with new ones, while the Swarm’s units could simply regenerate through biological metabolism. Over time, the Rikens were at risk of being worn down.

Although the Riken language lacks a direct equivalent to the phrase “boiling a frog in warm water,” they fully understood the concept. Faced with this slow attrition, they were deeply troubled but had no clear solution.

The Riken warships were produced through efficient assembly lines. Their advanced automated industry allowed for streamlined and effective production: various modules were cast into shape, assembled in space factories, and then deployed into the battle. The entire process was incredibly efficient.

In contrast, the Swarm’s production of Space Octopuses was far cruder yet equally effective. A mature Brood Queen could lay several half-meter-tall Space Octopus eggs daily.

These eggs, after a period of incubation, would hatch into larvae about half a meter long. Adjacent to the Brood Chambers, the Swarm maintained heavily protected Nursery Chambers constructed from irradiated metal. These critical facilities, buried thousands of meters underground, were fortified and highly secure.

Within the safety of the Nursery Chambers, the larvae absorbed radiation and grew to two meters in length. At this stage, they were expelled to the planet’s surface, where they continued to absorb cosmic radiation for further growth.

Upon reaching a size of five meters, these young Octopuses earned their place as expendable cannon fodder and were granted the privilege of moving to the low orbit of gas giants like Izumo to continue maturing.

Here, their growth persisted. If untouched by war or death, these creatures would, over time, develop into fully-fledged Primordial bodies.

This biological manufacturing system meant that while the Rikens’ assembly-line fleets could achieve combat readiness much faster in the early stages, given enough time, the Swarm’s exponential growth capabilities would astound and overwhelm anyone.

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