I Am The Swarm

In a massive command center, the cold metallic walls shimmered under artificial light. Dozens of large screens hung suspended in the air, while countless smaller screens were arranged below. Nearly every small screen had a humanoid figure seated in front of it, busily working.

The shrill sound of alarms echoed throughout the room. Amidst the chaos, the personnel hurriedly checked their assigned instruments, fingers darting across input devices in an attempt to quickly gather the necessary data.

Several humanoid figures rushed into the command center’s bridge. Before they had even steadied themselves, the leader spoke sharply. “What’s the situation?”

“Commander, we’re detecting energy-level fluctuations at the wormhole’s exit—it’s about to open!” shouted one of the operators below.

“What?!” The commander’s disbelief was palpable. “According to Dr. Benba’s calculations, the next activation wasn’t supposed to occur for another 15 months!”

“We don’t know, sir, but it’s happening now.”

“Where is Dr. Benba?”

“He’s been notified and is on his way. He’ll be here in about five minutes.”

“There’s no time! The wormhole is opening. Who’s on duty?”

“Dispatch them immediately to investigate. Recall all off-duty teams as well!”

“Yes, Commander!”

—

Outside the command center, a vast metallic base loomed. A massive 60-meter-high side hatch began to open slowly, revealing two towering mechas, each just slightly shorter than the hatch itself.

The mechas strode forward, their steel frames colliding with the metal ground beneath them, creating deep reverberations that caused a faint tremor throughout the base.

On the expansive plaza before the hatch, two equally enormous missiles—each over 50 meters tall—rose from their launch silos.

“Hey, Rooney?”

“Signal is stable. I can hear you.”

“Don’t be so serious, man,” the speaker teased before adding, “Looking at those two big sticks gives me a bad feeling.”

“With the wormhole activating out of nowhere, no one was prepared for this. We need to move as quickly as possible to find out what’s going on.”

“I knew pulling duty with you wouldn’t bring me any luck. Here’s hoping those engineers had time to disarm the warheads on those missiles.”

“Unfortunately, time clearly isn’t on our side.”

“Do you know why I hate you, Rooney?”

Inside the cockpit, Rooney shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, Zeki. Just keep yourself in check while we’re en route. I don’t want my partner screwing up.”

Zeki was about to fire back when the commander’s voice suddenly crackled through the communication channel: “Focus, soldiers! For your sake—and ours—don’t waste time. Get moving!” Ṝå𐌽ỌΒËS̩

The concept of mecha pilots was a relatively new one within the Federation. About ten years ago, an incident shook their civilization to its core. In the depths of the Jane Obak Trench, an undersea region, an extraordinarily powerful energy wave was detected, heralding the sudden appearance of a wormhole.

The wormhole closed shortly after it opened, and despite months of painstaking searches, the Botians, limited by their technological capabilities, found nothing unusual.

But then, the wormhole opened again, and from it emerged a massive creature over 50 meters long. The beast was extraordinarily fast, immensely strong, and wreaked catastrophic havoc on the Botians.

Conventional weaponry proved nearly useless against it. In the end, the Botians resorted to a desperate measure: setting a trap and detonating three medium-yield nuclear warheads at close range. This managed to eliminate the creature.

However, as the Botians prepared to clean up the resulting nuclear contamination, they discovered something even more terrifying. The creature’s corpse had reacted with the radiation, intensifying the contamination and causing it to spread slowly but steadily.

To this day, the Botians had no way of completely neutralizing this pollution. They could only seal off the area and attempt to slow its spread.

Months later, while debates raged over who was responsible for the ecological disaster, the wormhole reopened. A second monster appeared, bringing with it yet another area of contamination.

It was only at this point that the Botians fully grasped the magnitude of the threat. Scientific projections revealed that if 20 such polluted zones appeared on their planet, the entire ecosystem would collapse. While the Botians might not face outright extinction, over 90% of their population would perish.

This apocalyptic scenario galvanized the Botians into action. They pooled their global resources and developed a plan. The Mecha Warrior Project.

The plan was straightforward: construct mechas equal in size to the monsters and use them to physically kill the creatures, thus preventing their bodies from coming into contact with nuclear radiation.

The challenges of building such colossal mechas were quickly overcome thanks to global collaboration. However, the original idea of using artificial intelligence to pilot the mechas fell short. The AI systems struggled with the unpredictable and fast-paced nature of combat due to overly complex algorithms and limited adaptability.

Thus, the Botians pivoted to Botian pilots. However, the humanoid design of the mechas made them extraordinarily difficult to operate. To ensure real-time responsiveness, the possibility of distributing the controls among a team was ruled out, which meant the pilot had to manage everything solo.

This required individuals with exceptional vision, lightning-fast reflexes, precise hand-eye coordination, and a solid physical constitution. Moreover, the pilots couldn’t suffer from acrophobia and needed a strong sense of spatial awareness and strategic thinking.

When the military conducted initial screenings, the number of suitable candidates was far too low to meet the needs of the mecha program. During this time, the wormhole opened twice more, bringing two additional contaminated zones to the planet.

Time was running out. To find enough qualified pilots in the shortest time possible, the Federation developed a simulated training system and opened recruitment to everyone, regardless of background.

Office workers, housewives, students, recluses—even petty criminals—could become mecha warriors if they passed the initial selection and met training standards. Past mistakes were forgiven in favor of future survival.

This unconventional approach finally provided the mecha corps with enough pilots, though their diverse backgrounds resulted in varying levels of quality, creating headaches for their commanding officers.

Zeki was one of those headaches. Before joining the program, he had been a professional esports player with a flamboyant personality. He loved his new role, finding these massive “toys” far more exhilarating than virtual games.

His extraordinary reflexes and hand speed allowed him to execute flashy and extreme maneuvers, even with the cumbersome mechas. Zeki thrived on individual performance and enjoyed being the center of attention.

Rooney, in contrast, was far more mature and composed. Formerly a senior executive at a large corporation, he lacked Zeki’s raw reflexes but excelled in meticulous planning and keen observational skills. Rooney consistently completed his missions with precision and demonstrated exceptional team coordination.

Though Zeki often claimed to “hate” Rooney, their complementary personalities made them an incredibly effective team. Their synergy was undeniable, earning them a reputation as one of the most reliable pairs in the mecha corps.

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