I Am The Swarm

A behemoth with a length of 3,000 meters might not stand out within an asteroid belt, but the Swarm’s Observer Bugs were everywhere.

The Blades had already discovered the Daqi ships hidden within the asteroid belt. Through various analyses, they speculated about its general purpose. Besides the two supply ships, the Daqi Empire had another vessel concealed here.

This vessel, though not particularly peculiar in appearance, measured nearly 2,000 meters in length and looked unremarkable. To anyone unfamiliar with the Daqi fleet, it would simply be mistaken for a warship.

However, its presence alongside the two supply ships hinted at something different. At first, the Blades assumed it was a warship protecting the supply ships. Later, they considered that, for breaking apart asteroids, the supply ships’ own cannons would suffice. And in the event of an attack, having one more or less warship wouldn’t make much difference.

Furthermore, this act of concealment added an extra target and increased the risk of exposure, so the likelihood of it being a warship was slim. Additionally, the ship, at 2,000 meters long, only had four main cannons, fewer than the main cannons on a 1,500-meter-class warship.

Due to the limited information available, the Blades could only surmise that it was a functional ship, though its exact purpose remained unknown.

To avoid alerting the enemy, the Swarm employed the ancient orbital sling. The Swarm had developed considerable expertise in low-velocity launches, demonstrating remarkable accuracy.

Even at low speeds, these projectiles matched the velocity of the Primordial bodies flying with their plasma propulsion organs. The advantage of this purely physical launching method was that it generated almost no energy fluctuations.

Combined with the stealth system of the Primordial bodies, at this stage, they were challenging to detect by any means other than gravitational-wave radar.

Thus, while using a planet to block the Daqi fleet’s line of sight, several orbital slings were secretly “grown” on the fungal carpet on the far side of Planet Raze. A few Primordial bodies set off silently.

After months of travel, while Prince Diallo was still leisurely touring the GAI, he suddenly received news that their supply ships had been attacked.

[T/N: No clue what GAI is. Hopefully the author explains what it is soon.]

“XXX! How did they find us?” Prince Diallo cursed.

The Swarm had numerous units, and after the Riken people surrendered, the Riken star system had essentially become the Swarm’s stronghold. The Daqi Empire lacked any noteworthy stealth technology. A 3,000-meter-long behemoth being discovered wasn’t unexpected.

What truly puzzled Diallo was how the Swarm had evaded his surveillance. At this stage of interstellar warfare, when opposing forces engaged, they would detect each other from hundreds of millions of kilometers away and then spend ten days or so flying at full speed to reach firing range. As a result, ambushes were virtually non-existent.

But the message he received described the Swarm’s Space Octopuses suddenly appearing and attacking the supply ships. He knew the Swarm’s Space Octopuses could achieve optical invisibility, but even while cloaked, their plasma propulsion would still produce energy fluctuations. At the technological level of the Daqi civilization, such energy fluctuations were difficult to hide within a star system.

“Damn it!” Diallo cursed again, unwilling to accept the situation.

Aslit, standing nearby, pondered for a moment before saying, “Your Highness, do you remember the information provided by the Suzerain mentioning that the Swarm possesses a very traditional launching tool that generates no energy fluctuations?”

“You mean…?”

“Exactly. I suspect the Swarm used that launching tool to send their Space Octopuses to the supply ships. While the Swarm has ignored our fleet, they’ve been relentlessly targeting our surveillance equipment, sparing no expense. This behavior seemed suspicious before, but at the time, we couldn’t figure out their intentions. Now it’s clear…”

Prince Diallo nodded, accepting this explanation. It made sense now, but understanding it after the fact was of no use. Time couldn’t be reversed. Although the supply ships immediately sent him an alert after the attack, by the time he received it, half an hour had already passed.

Diallo was well aware of the Space Octopuses’ close combat capabilities. The supply ships, with their poor combat capabilities, didn’t stand a chance once the creatures got close. Half an hour was more than enough time for the Space Octopuses to crush and dismantle them several times over.

The two supply ships were one thing, but the real issue was the communications vessel, which was exceedingly valuable.

The Daqi Empire’s homeworld was over ten light-years away from the Riken star system. Using conventional communication methods, a single exchange of messages would take more than twenty years. Additionally, transmitting signals over such long distances made concealment difficult and consumed vast amounts of energy.

However, the communications vessel was equipped with a highly advanced quantum communication system. This system could facilitate nearly instantaneous communication across ten light-years.

Its unique transmission mechanism provided exceptional stealth and encryption. While it consumed more energy than conventional communication methods for short-range use, the energy expenditure didn’t significantly increase over long distances. Beyond a certain range, conventional communication became more energy-intensive, and over interstellar distances, the difference grew exponentially.

This quantum communication system consisted of a transmission unit and a reception unit, both highly sophisticated. Some critical components were still beyond the Daqi Empire’s technological capability, forcing them to rely on imports. As a result, these systems were extraordinarily expensive, given their inability to be domestically manufactured.

Diallo had been permitted to bring such a system only because of a mission assigned by the Suzerain, as well as the vast distance involved. It was meant to facilitate real-time communication with the home system.

Frankly speaking, the functional ship itself wasn’t particularly valuable, but the quantum communication system aboard it was worth far more than many of Diallo’s siblings combined.

This was also why the communications ship hadn’t used the system to contact Diallo—it was useless since none of the warships on Diallo’s side were equipped with quantum signal receivers.

Still, even timely notification would have been futile. Diallo’s fleet, even at maximum speed, would take hours to reach the site. By then, the Space Octopuses would have already crushed and dismantled the communications ship and perhaps built a tower with the wreckage.

“Your Highness, what do we do now?” Aslit asked, having reached the same conclusion.

To prevent critical technology from being compromised, vital vessels were equipped with self-destruct systems. If the situation escalated to a certain point and the Daqi captain failed to initiate the self-destruct, the onboard artificial intelligence would activate it autonomously. This was one of the rare high-level permissions granted to AI by the Daqi Empire.

Unless the AI was remotely disabled and the captain was cowardly enough to avoid triggering self-destruct, the communication equipment was as good as gone.

However, based on the Swarm’s past actions and behavior, they didn’t appear to possess the ability to remotely disable artificial intelligence.

Still, whether the equipment was destroyed or captured by the Swarm, it was no longer in the hands of the Daqi Empire.

The loss of such high-value equipment was a massive headache, even for a crown prince like Diallo.

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