I Am The Swarm

“So, is there anything else you’ve been hiding?” Morgan asked.

Reggie, still adjusting to his newly implanted memories, furrowed his brow and pondered for a while before replying, “I did withhold some information, but I’m unclear about the most critical details.”

Morgan nodded knowingly. “As expected. Fortunately, we still have plenty of time. When the enemy comes, we’ll meet them head-on. Even if the Riken people have backing, the Swarm is not to be trifled with. When the time comes, we may need your body to help your former kin understand the greatness of our Overlord.”

“Ha, they should consider it an honor,” Reggie replied with a smirk.

Reggie then integrated into the Blade system. As a former elite of the Riken people, with a systematic education, he and Major Camis, who had arrived earlier, brought new insights to the Blades. The clash of knowledge from two civilizations was bound to spark brilliant results.

The arrival of the Riken fleet was faster and far larger in scale than the Swarm had anticipated. This revealed that their external support was much greater than initially estimated, forcing the Swarm to remain hidden until they understood the reason behind this assistance.

Still, the Swarm had its own advantages. Luo Wen’s original form was an extraordinary being from another world. He had carved a unique path in this universe, granting him unparalleled abilities and a bizarre life form.

Another advantage of the Swarm was the concealment of its true capabilities.

The Riken, following their technological and cultural paradigms, underestimated the “indigenous” civilizations in the neighboring star system due to the lack of large-scale artificial constructs or scientific activity in space.

First, they ambushed a detachment of Riken soldiers. Although some unexpected developments led to the plan being discovered slightly ahead of schedule, the timeline shifted only minimally, causing no significant impact on the Swarm’s overall strategy.

The captured soldiers were transformed into intelligent entities over the next seven days. Identical bodies were prepared during this period to replace their originals.

These newly converted Riken soldiers provided some intelligence, but none explained the sudden technological leaps of their civilization. Even if such information had surfaced, its reliability would have been questionable—likely known only to a select few among the fleet’s captains.

Thankfully, the Swarm had never pinned its hopes on such an easy acquisition of knowledge.

Instead, they unearthed another crucial piece of information: the Riken expedition fleet was rife with factions, a fact well-known even to ordinary soldiers. The initial fortresses and bases established on the ground were controlled by the fleet’s elite.

Each base’s highest commander was likely to be a fleet captain, and these individuals were most likely privy to the real reason behind the Riken’s technological advancements.

This aligned with the Swarm’s prior assumptions, setting the stage for the next phase of the plan.

During the seven-day transformation process, the Swarm kept the Riken occupied without revealing anything extraordinary.

The Blades predicted that the Riken would opt for a cautious approach to explore the mysterious species they had encountered. Far from their homeworld, with limited resources, they were unlikely to squander manpower and materials on a seemingly primitive species. ɌἈΝÖΒÈṤ

To them, the Swarm was merely a nuisance impeding the terraforming of T853, while the T855 civilization, capable of space-based attacks on the Cat’s Ear Spaceship, posed a greater threat.

As predicted, the Riken decided to uncover a way to counter the Swarm by excavating underground nests.

Upon realizing this, the Swarm launched regular “hunting” operations, sacrificing countless expendable bugs to feign low intelligence and harmlessness.

The Swarm’s flawless “performance” allowed the seven days to pass swiftly.

Once the transformation of the intelligent entities was complete, the challenge became reintegrating them seamlessly into the Riken forces.

To achieve this, the Swarm retrofitted large underground caverns near each ambushed base into grain storage facilities, carefully aged to appear authentic. The attention to detail ensured the deception’s success.

Yet, the Riken’s methodical digging progress lagged behind the script. At their pace, it would take several more days to reach the grain stores.

As each day passed, the number of “prisoners” in the grain storehouses needed to diminish logically. Otherwise, their prolonged survival would raise suspicion.

Attention to detail was paramount. Against a civilization, even minor flaws could lead to catastrophic failure. The Swarm could not allow such mistakes.

With the Riken’s sluggish progress, the Swarm staged a desperate counterattack, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of bugs to mislead the Riken into believing they had uncovered the cause of the bug “retaliation.”

This ultimately led the Riken to “discover” the remaining “operatives.”

The operatives’ original bodies had long since been consumed by the fungal carpet transformation. Their new bodies, meticulously crafted by the Brood Nest from their genetic templates, were indistinguishable from the originals. No Riken inspection could detect any anomalies.

Thus, the operatives successfully infiltrated the bases.

With operatives in place, the next phase of the plan could proceed smoothly.

Thanks to the prior attacks on base patrols, the Swarm had already gathered substantial intelligence on the bases’ layouts.

One infiltrated base, known as Cross Base, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Cross, the youngest captain in the Riken expedition fleet. Holding authority over one of the few dozen ground bases indicated her significant status.

For the Swarm, she was a prime target. Capturing her—even without obtaining key information—would allow her conversion into an intelligent entity, enabling deep infiltration of the Riken leadership and benefiting future Swarm operations.

However, Cross was protected by a heavily fortified base, with ships ready to evacuate her at any moment.

The Swarm had yet to reveal its aerial units, and even if it did, the physical limitations of wild organisms made it difficult to pose a threat to Riken airships.

Thus, capturing Cross within reasonable constraints was a daunting challenge.

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