I Am The Swarm

On Great Dawn Planet, the Swarm shifted its strategic focus to the oceans. The production of the Odd-Headed Fish scouting units skyrocketed, with Storm Gods tirelessly ferrying their eggs to the seas.

Luo Wen intended to thoroughly survey the planet’s oceans in the years leading up to his primary body’s arrival. The appearance of Godzilla suggested the potential existence of other monsters, like a Skull Island kaiju or King Ghidorah.

But as time passed, it became clear his fears were unfounded. Thanks to the low production cost and compact size of Odd-Headed Fish eggs, their numbers grew to hundreds of thousands.

These marine scouts, working tirelessly, mapped the ocean floor. Whenever they detected anomalous radiation, a fungal carpet seed was sent to “stir up trouble.”

Unfortunately, they found no trace of monsters akin to Ghidorah—or even a second Godzilla.

Meanwhile, the continent where the Swarm’s base was located had been thoroughly explored, along with the other four continents, thanks to large numbers of Scout Bugs ferried over by Storm Gods.

These smaller, cheaper flying scouts worked diligently like their aquatic counterparts. Sadly, the land yielded no significant discoveries either—aside from some large primates that fell woefully short of kaiju status.

With her “toys” annihilated by two nuclear breaths, Sarah could no longer train new units since the production sequences were filled with scout orders. Left with little to do, she turned her focus to monitoring Godzilla, waiting for Luo Wen’s arrival.

Since its rampage years ago, Godzilla had returned to its resting place. It seemed to survive solely on radiation and only killed to vent its frustration.

Having recently awakened, Godzilla appeared unable to resume hibernation immediately. Instead, it emerged periodically, seemingly holding a grudge against the purple-gray fungal carpet that had disturbed it. Each time it surfaced, it destroyed large patches of the carpet along the coastline.

However, its rampages only damaged the surface layers of the fungal carpet. The roots remained mostly intact, allowing the carpet to regrow swiftly once Godzilla retreated.

Luo Wen shifted his focus away from Great Dawn Planet, leaving the “Visit” team to oversee operations. Confident no major issues would arise, he concentrated on self-improvement.

As the pool of gene templates available for adaptation dwindled, the Swarm’s technological advancements increasingly relied on Luo Wen’s ingenuity. He needed to bolster his knowledge base to sustain progress.

Life settled into a peaceful routine.

Luo Wen assumed this calm would last until his primary body arrived on the Great Dawn Planet in over a decade. But an unexpected development disrupted all his plans.

A previously lost Swarm Meteor suddenly reconnected to the network.

During its initial flight, it had collided with a piece of space dust weighing only a few grams. Yet the high velocity of the collision caused severe damage to both sides.

The dust disintegrated into finer particles, while the Swarm Meteor shattered into fragments.

A larger spore capsule fragment decelerated and altered its trajectory, eventually captured by the gravitational pull of a passing comet.

The comet consisted primarily of solid ice with a substantial amount of gaseous water on its surface. This provided the spore capsule with enough moisture to sustain its biological form.

As the comet traveled, it entered the communication range of a secondary-generation Swarm Meteor launched later. The lost capsule, after decades of drifting, was finally reintegrated into the Swarm’s network.

Upon inspection, the spore capsule’s Brood Queen egg was missing. However, the fungal carpet seed remained intact and functional. Unfortunately, the nearby Swarm Meteor relied on hydrogen-oxygen propulsion and was over a light-year away, making direct assistance impossible.

Luo Wen decided to activate the fungal carpet seed, allowing it to establish itself on the comet. The spore capsule would remain concealed and act as a mobile surveillance unit and network node as the comet roamed through space.

Initially, Luo Wen viewed this as a minor event, unworthy of further attention. But during a study break, curiosity prompted him to review the spore capsule’s records, particularly the high-speed collision—the only instance where a Swarm unit had survived such an event.

Though much of the spore capsule was gone, several observation devices remained operational. After considerable tinkering, Luo Wen retrieved its historical data.

What he found was astonishing.

The records revealed that an alien spaceship had once passed within a few million kilometers of the comet.

The spore capsule’s surviving optical systems, designed as highly advanced “super-telescopic eyes,” typically struggled to discern distant objects.

But this spaceship was impossible to miss.

It was blindingly bright, radiating immense light like a miniature sun, demanding the attention of the observation systems.

Shocked, Luo Wen convened an emergency meeting of the Intelligent Entities. In addition to the standby “Visit” team, specialists in sociology, psychology, and other fields were summoned, amassing nearly 3,000 participants. With the “Visit” team included, the total number of Intelligent Entities neared 30,000—an indication of how seriously Luo Wen regarded this matter.

This marked the Swarm’s first encounter with an alien civilization. Judging by the ship’s capacity for interstellar travel, its technological level was undoubtedly advanced.

Analysis of the video footage suggested their technology might even surpass the Swarm’s. Calculations based on the spore capsule’s observational distance and the size of the luminous object indicated that the alien ship was at least tens of kilometers long and capable of traveling at over one-tenth the speed of light.

While the Swarm could achieve such speeds for small Bio-ships using electromagnetic launch platforms or traditional orbital slingshots, it was incapable of propelling larger ships at those velocities.

Moreover, the footage showed the alien vessel utilizing its own propulsion system, unlike the Swarm’s reliance on external accelerators.

The Swarm’s Bio-ships, even with their electromagnetic propulsion, could neither sustain such speeds nor maintain interstellar travel outside their home star system.

The alien ship’s location—between two star systems in interstellar space—indicated it had likely originated from at least a neighboring star system.

If it had come from a distant system, the implications were even more concerning.

Even considering just the ship’s size, propulsion, and range, the alien civilization’s technological capabilities far exceeded those of the Swarm. If the technological gap spanned several generations, a single one of their ships could annihilate the Swarm’s current forces.

And that was a scenario Luo Wen could not afford to let unfold.

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