I Am The Swarm

In the war against the Rikens, Luo Wen had already achieved his basic strategic objectives.

If no third party interfered, events would continue to unfold predictably. Once the Swarm established infrastructure near the system’s star, the next step would be to destroy the Riken solar sail facilities.

These primitive Dyson sphere-like structures provided the Rikens with abundant clean energy. Without them, the high-energy weapons of the Riken homeworld’s defensive line could only sustain a few days of intense combat before over 60% would become useless scrap metal. The Twin Star Defensive Zone would also be significantly impacted.

Once the Rikens’ firepower was depleted, the Swarm would neither annihilate them outright nor engage in negotiations. Instead, routine patrols near the Riken homeworld would become the norm.

This sustained close proximity by an alien species would exacerbate the Rikens’ sense of helplessness and escalate their already mounting fear. They might attempt a desperate counterattack, but the overwhelming strength of the Swarm would crush their efforts, driving home their futility.

Given the earlier surrender overtures, the Rikens, finding themselves with no alternatives, would likely implore their council to negotiate with the Swarm. However, the Swarm’s unresponsive stance would leave the Rikens baffled and adrift.

The council’s inaction would transform the Rikens’ fear into anger, creating a need for an outlet. President Antonio, previously a symbol of centralized authority, would find his perceived power worthless, becoming a scapegoat for the people’s wrath.

A new Riken leader would be elected, one who would succeed in making contact with the Swarm. The Swarm’s relatively lenient terms for capitulation would elevate the new leader’s popularity to unprecedented heights.

Unbeknownst to the Rikens, this leadership transition would already mark a fundamental shift. Nearly half of the Riken leadership would be replaced with Swarm-controlled Intelligent Entities.

These individuals, cultivated over decades by the Clirey family, had been carefully embedded into Riken society. The Swarm’s mandatory seven-day quarantine protocol had limited their numbers thus far, but this was only the beginning.

The real operation would follow.

The first recipients of longevity serums in Riken society were invariably high-ranking officials and wealthy elites. These serums extended their lifespans by fifty years. Upon their eventual deaths, they would be converted into Intelligent Entities and reintroduced into Riken society through carefully orchestrated means.

These individuals would “rebirth” into Riken families as children, carrying the memories and experiences of their previous lives. Their accumulated knowledge and expertise would allow them to excel in all fields, quickly rising to prominence once more.

The scale of this operation far exceeded that of the seven-day forced conversion protocol.

A century later, these Intelligent Entities would reclaim positions of power. More than half of the Riken leadership in government, military, and commerce would consist of disguised Swarm agents. By this point, complete Swarm control over the Rikens would be a foregone conclusion.

Naturally, this process could be accelerated. Through forced conversion and more aggressive methods, control could be achieved in just a few centuries. However, under natural evolution, due to the Rikens’ longer lifespans, total integration might take a millennium.

At that point, the Rikens would resemble the Ratfolk civilization, with their upper echelons entirely dominated by Intelligent Entities, while ordinary Rikens became mere tools for reproduction and the provision of raw materials for the Swarm.

For an immortal being, either timeline was acceptable.

Initially, Luo Wen had deliberated over which path to take. The allure of rapid domination through forced conversion was tempting. However, the looming presence of a third party observing from the shadows swayed his decision toward a more gradual approach.

While immediate control was appealing, the risks of exposure through excessive forced conversions were too great, particularly under the watchful eyes of the mysterious Watchers. ṜΑꞐŏʙĘŚ

A gradual infiltration and assimilation strategy, while more time-consuming, is significantly safer and virtually undetectable. As long as the Watchers deem the Rikens necessary for their purposes, the plan is all but guaranteed to succeed.

Following the outlined strategy, the Swarm had occupied the Riken star system’s first and second planets along with their orbital zones, preparing to dismantle the solar sail energy grid. This would cripple the Rikens’ energy supplies and significantly weaken their defensive capabilities. However, a new discovery caused the Swarm to halt all operations.

In the void beyond the Riken star system, Observer Bugs camouflaged as asteroids detected an approaching fleet.

The Observer Bugs absorbed radiation only for minimal sustenance and relied on simple optical observation to monitor their surroundings. This low-energy operation rendered them indistinguishable from actual space debris, ensuring they wouldn’t attract attention.

However, this simplicity came at the cost of limited detection range; they could only spot objects at a distance of roughly one light-year. As a result, the fleet they detected was already within five months of reaching their position.

The approaching fleet exhibited technology levels far surpassing those of both the Rikens and the Swarm. Notably, their ships traveled at over half the speed of light through the void, a velocity that pushed the limits of conventional propulsion systems.

The high speed and stealth technology of this third party allowed them to avoid detection until they were relatively close. Their stealth coating, composed of unknown materials, rendered them invisible to the radars of both the Rikens and the Swarm. While this prevented earlier detection, their proximity provided Luo Wen’s forces with an abundance of information.

Certain aspects of their technology could be concealed, such as energy systems, circuitry, and software, but others were impossible to hide. Their technological lineage was immediately apparent: cold, elegant, and unmistakably mechanical.

Their warships ranged from 1,500 meters in length to over 2,000 meters, with some even exceeding this.

Such massive constructs reflected their advanced capabilities. Building ships of this size posed immense challenges; as vessels increased in scale, the complexity of construction rose exponentially. Without adequate technological foundations, such ships would risk structural failure during high-speed travel or intense combat, even without external attacks.

While the fleet’s weapon systems featured visible cannon-like structures, their specific type was unclear. Observations of certain design details led Swarm Intelligent Entities specializing in weaponry to theorize that these ships likely used energy-based armaments. This would be logical, as carrying energy cells for long-distance travel was far more practical than transporting physical ammunition.

In terms of propulsion, the third party’s engines bore striking similarities to those used by the Rikens. Their external structure, exhaust characteristics, and general layout suggested an advanced version of existing Riken technology rather than an entirely novel theoretical framework.

As for radar and observational systems, their design was entirely concealed, leaving little room for analysis.

Despite their advanced capabilities and imposing fleet, the newcomers didn’t align with Luo Wen’s conception of the Watchers.

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