I Am The Swarm

The battle had raged on for over a hundred hours, yet the Riken fleet still couldn’t get within their effective firing range.

If the Riken were to blindly charge forward, they might reach the target position, but by then, their fleet would likely be almost depleted. Once they were in position, retreating would be nearly impossible—nothing short of a fool’s dream.

However, they hadn’t been completely fruitless. Although they couldn’t hit the Swarm fleet, the Swarm fleet also didn’t actively approach them. As a result, the Swarm fleet had been confined to maneuvering within a small area.

Even though more than fifty warships had withdrawn from the battle sequence, the retreat had been timely, and not a single warship was completely destroyed.

After such prolonged bombardment, the Swarm fleet wasn’t entirely without losses.

“Your Majesty, the metallic reserves inside our Primordial bodies are running low. If we keep up this level of fighting, it won’t be long before the railguns are out of ammunition,” Tella said. She was once the chief bodyguard during the reign of Empress Sarah Kerrigan, but after becoming an Intelligent Entity, their relationship had become one of equals.

Even after they were integrated into the Blades, forming a hierarchical bond, Tella continued to address Sarah by name. However, due to Luo Wen’s influence, Tella still referred to Sarah as “Your Majesty.” This was also the case for other Intelligent Entities.

Since Luo Wen wanted to completely withdraw into the shadows, the Swarm needed a visible leader. As a former Empress, Sarah was perfectly suited for the role.

Sarah was among the first to be transformed into an Intelligent Entity. Among those who preceded her, some were her teachers, others her subjects. Thus, this shift in identity felt natural and logical.

“Reduce the frequency of our bombardments. Give the Riken some hope—we mustn’t scare them off,” Sarah replied calmly. Compared to her role as a queen, she enjoyed the thrill of commanding fleets in battle, especially in such vast interstellar engagements with railguns exchanging fire. The mere thought of it exhilarated her.

“Understood, Your Majesty!” If you’re going to act, you must play the part fully, and the formalities could not be neglected.

The reduced Swarm bombardment was immediately detected by the Riken.

It was exceedingly obvious. With advanced instruments monitoring constantly, even ordinary soldiers could tell the difference. After enduring over a hundred hours of shelling, they noticed that the intensity of the bombardment had significantly diminished.

“They’ve used up too much ammunition; they can no longer fire as recklessly as before,” an excited captain shouted.

“According to calculations, although the frequency of bombardment remains unchanged, the quantity of shells has dropped to only 47% of what it was before,” a staff officer reported, presenting freshly gathered data.

“Excellent! Keep it up. If we can exhaust all of their ammunition before reinforcements arrive, even if we don’t destroy a single one of their units, the top honors will still belong to us!” Hamis loudly encouraged, while discreetly wiping the cold sweat from his brow.

Having been under bombardment without the ability to return fire, the morale of the fleet had plummeted. After all, no one knew whether the next second would see their own ship struck by a shell.

Under such conditions, every second felt like an eternity to the Riken, an excruciating torment.

And yet, despite the Swarm’s significant ammunition expenditure, the Riken fleet was not without its own heavy consumption.

Over seven hundred warships had been operating at full speed for more than a hundred hours, consuming an astonishing amount of energy. Additionally, the constant need to change directions and angles kept the crew in a state of high mental strain. Even though each warship had three teams rotating shifts for rest, the oppressive atmosphere had pushed everyone to their limits.

Ironically, the ordinary armed personnel had the easiest job—they only needed to pray that they wouldn’t get hit by a shell.

Now, with the news that the enemy might be faltering, everyone realized their efforts hadn’t been in vain, greatly boosting morale.

Although the frequency of bombardment had decreased, the wave patterns of attacks remained unchanged. The only difference was that the coverage area had become more sparse.

In statistical terms, the hit rate had dropped from 2% to 1%. Practically, this made little difference and depended more on luck. However, this change felt monumental to the Riken forces. The numbers showed a dramatic decline, effectively halved.

For the next several days, the two sides maintained this standoff. The Riken fleet circled the Swarm forces, while the Swarm’s bombardment continued to keep the Riken at bay.

Now, the intensity of the Swarm’s bombardment had further diminished, with only about 2,000 railguns firing—less than 30% of their full capacity. Meanwhile, the Riken forces experienced a new development: several oddly designed utility ships arrived from the star system’s interior to join the battle.

Thirty-two of these utility ships appeared in total. Their overall structure was similar to that of warships, but they carried very few weapons. Each had only two main cannons and eight secondary cannons, making their external appearance less intimidating.

These were space mine-layers, a recent addition to the battle sequence. They were specialized for laying mines in space quickly. These mines came in various models, ranging from half a meter to two meters in size, with their power directly correlating to their size—the larger the mine, the greater the power.

The mines were equipped with external solar panels, allowing them to remain on standby in space for extended periods. They also had automated targeting systems. When an enemy unit approached within a three-kilometer radius, the mine’s thrusters would activate, propelling it rapidly toward the target, where it would attach itself and detonate.

Furthermore, the mines were coated with a layer of stealth material that could absorb and refract radar waves. Although they could be detected with optical systems or even the naked eye, space combat occurred over vast distances, often spanning thousands of kilometers in mere moments. Radar was the primary method of detection, and by the time a mine was spotted visually, it was often too late to evade. As a result, their stealth coating retained a degree of effectiveness.

These mine-layers could rapidly deploy mines in specific regions. Hamis had summoned these ships to help restrict the movement of the Swarm forces.

In a few more days, Planet Raze would reach its nearby orbital path. Without an atmosphere to obscure observations, even though the Riken had made some efforts to conceal their activities, advanced optical observation systems could still detect abnormalities on the planet’s surface.

There were certain unnatural protrusions that defied natural laws.

However, the Swarm fleet remained unresponsive to these signs. This led Hamis and other senior commanders to conclude that the enemy’s observational technology was likely outdated, prompting the deployment of the mine-layers.

The goal was twofold. First, to prevent the Swarm forces from escaping. After all, the Riken had engaged in this prolonged artillery duel, and it would be a disaster if the enemy withdrew at the critical moment.

Second, if the enemy’s observation equipment was indeed lacking, they might accidentally stumble into the minefield. Not only would this save considerable effort, but it would also earn the Riken forces significant merit.

Thus, under the cover of the First Space Fleet, the mine-layers circled the Swarm fleet alongside the main Riken forces, deploying mines in specific regions.

Due to the limited number of mines they carried, it was impossible to cover such a vast area entirely. Instead, the minefields were strategically positioned in key areas, while leaving safe passages for their own fleet to navigate.

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