I Am The Swarm

In sheer numbers, the Swarm’s losses appeared to be several times greater than the Daqi’s. However, when analyzed from a damage assessment perspective, the Swarm had actually fared well—even profited significantly.

The Swarm primarily lost 500 to 700 meter Space Octopuses, while the Daqi lost 2,000 meter giant warships. Although their lengths seemed comparable, the tonnage of the Daqi warships was tens or even hundreds of times greater than that of the Swarm’s units.

From a tonnage perspective, the Daqi had taken a severe beating.

This outcome wasn’t a fluke. It was the result of a combination of elements.

Surprise tactics played a part, but without the raw strength to match, no amount of trickery would have made a difference.

The external reactive armor of Daqi warships was specially designed to counter energy-based weapons, boasting exceptionally high resistance. This was why they could endure barrages of thousands of energy cannons.

The Swarm, by contrast, relied solely on their armor’s resilience, with no clever tricks involved. If this battle had taken place decades earlier, the losses among the Primordial bodies would have been exponentially higher. In fact, the Daqi might have obliterated the Swarm’s Izumo base at minimal cost.

The turning point came over a decade ago during the First Battle of Planet Raze. In that conflict, the Swarm managed to breach the Riken defenses and successfully establish fungal carpets on the surface of Planet Raze. These mats endured relentless bombardment from the Rikens, day and night.

During this period, the Swarm gathered an abundance of data, prompting genetic modifications to their fungal carpets. The immediate effect was that Riken energy beam attacks became progressively less effective. Ultimately, the Rikens resorted to deploying Radiance of Rikens, vaporizing the fungal carpets entirely.

However, by then, all the relevant data had been uploaded to the Swarm Network. This spurred a comprehensive upgrade of the armor on Swarm combat units.

Luo Wen even allocated Intelligent Entities specifically for testing and improving space combat armor. These efforts were conducted in dedicated underground facilities located deep within the Swarm’s rear territories.

Over the years, the armor of Space Octopuses underwent several minor upgrades. Lacking large-scale combat feedback, however, the effectiveness of these enhancements remained untested in real battle conditions.

The Second Battle of Planet Raze, while intense, featured forces that had been pre-deployed from a neighboring system. These units hadn’t undergone the most recent armor upgrades due to limited energy and resources.

After that war, the Rikens retreated to the Twin Star Defensive Zone. With access to new resource-rich systems, the Swarm upgraded its combat units. Yet, with both sides settling into a stalemate, there were no large-scale conflicts—or even minor skirmishes—to put the new armor to the test.

Thus, while the Swarm hadn’t deliberately concealed these armor upgrades, the lack of combat meant their effectiveness remained unnoticed. That is, until now, when the Daqi stumbled headfirst into a rude awakening.

For the Daqi, this was their first engagement with the Swarm. While they noted that the Swarm’s defensive capabilities far exceeded expectations, they dismissed it as an intelligence oversight rather than anything extraordinary. Little did they realize they had underestimated their adversary’s true strength.

The Riken observers, watching the spectacle unfold, began to suspect they had underestimated certain developments. They couldn’t help but wonder: had the world changed too quickly, or had the Swarm been holding back all along? They dared not delve too deeply into the question, knowing such thoughts could lead to unpleasant realizations.

One undeniable observation, however, was that synthetic materials outperformed biological armor in resisting energy-based attacks—a natural limitation for the Swarm. Still, there was significant room for improvement.

With the anticipated capture of several Daqi warships, reverse-engineering their reactive armor materials could spur a new wave of advancements in the Swarm’s biological defenses.

Of course, combat was about more than just comparing weapons and armor. For the Daqi, a destroyed warship was truly lost. Fully obliterated vessels aside, even those that were structurally intact but had engines disabled or lost maneuverability were effectively out of the fight, destined for self-destruction or dismantling—each loss a tangible blow.

The Swarm’s losses, by contrast, were far less absolute. Units that withdrew from the battlefield were often only temporarily incapacitated. Unless every fungal node spread throughout their bodies was completely destroyed, there was always a chance of recovery—sometimes sooner, sometimes later.

Some units, even with most of their mass punctured or systems like engines and radars rendered inoperable, could still resume combat roles after basic repairs, provided their weapon systems remained functional.

Diallo was acutely aware of the Swarm’s regenerative traits. He knew he needed to create as much distance as possible to regain control of the engagement.

Amid the cacophony of fire, both sides exchanged several more volleys, with the Daqi maintaining a firing ratio of three salvos for every two from the Swarm.

Losses on both sides mounted. During this phase, the Daqi fleet sacrificed over 200 additional warships, while the Swarm saw over 1,000 Primordial bodies withdraw from battle.

For Diallo, such an exchange was unacceptable. Fortunately, the fleet was nearing the far side of Planet Izumo. Once behind the gas giant’s shadow, they could use it as cover to replot their trajectory and accelerate their retreat. 𐍂αŊóBËŠ

“Your Majesty, while our Primordial bodies continue to provide firepower, over 70% of their engines have sustained significant damage, severely limiting their mobility. If the enemy retreats behind Izumo, we won’t have enough mobile units to pursue effectively,” a Blade warned.

Sarah gazed at the battlefield, performed some quick calculations, and then issued her command. “Order all functional Primordial bodies to lock onto their fleet and maintain pursuit. The rest are to enter overload mode. Ignore damage constraints—focus on delivering as many additional volleys as possible.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

—

“Your Highness, the Swarm is pursuing us, but reports indicate their losses are far heavier than expected. Over 70% of their units appear to be immobilized, likely due to engine failures,” Aslit reported, consolidating data from across the fleet.

“Hah… I knew they couldn’t have suffered so little. But even so, these numbers are vastly different from the intelligence we received. Do you think the suzerain is deliberately trying to set us up?” Diallo speculated, letting his imagination run wild.

“I doubt it,” Aslit replied softly, though inwardly rolling her eyes. If the suzerain wanted to harm us, they wouldn’t need to go through such convoluted schemes.

“It’s more likely a case of outdated or incorrect information. Alternatively, the Swarm might have intentionally concealed its true capabilities, inflating its losses against the Rikens to mislead us.”

“You’re probably right. How infuriating. What exactly was this Swarm so afraid of before? Why did they need to be so cautious?” Diallo fumed, frustrated by the chain of events.

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