I Am The Swarm

The three main fleets sustained heavy losses in this battle, with nearly 500 warships rendered incapable of long-range travel, over 80 of which were completely destroyed. Most of these losses occurred during the final stages, in the exchange of fire between orbiting Riken warships and the Swarm’s Primordial bodies on Planet Raze’s surface.

Other warships also suffered varying degrees of damage, though none were critically impaired.

After the war, the relatively intact Third Fleet was assigned to monitor the Swarm’s follow-up forces. Taking advantage of the smaller number of Swarm units, they sought opportunities to exploit the situation.

Even if they couldn’t destroy a significant amount of the Swarm’s forces, depleting the Swarm’s ammunition stockpiles would be a worthwhile effort. In the Riken’s understanding, the Swarm lacked logistical bases, making replenishments difficult.

The Second Fleet, which sustained moderate losses, was stationed on Planet Raze to defend the logistical engineering units and the damaged warships. Once the orbital shipyards on Planet Raze were fully operational, the Second Fleet would undergo repairs and then relieve the Third Fleet, allowing them to return for maintenance.

Planet Raze’s orbital shipyards were also tasked with repairing heavily damaged warships, salvaging the remains of destroyed ships, and constructing new warships to replenish the main fleets as needed.

The First Fleet, which had battled the Swarm for over ten days, suffered the heaviest losses. Including the warships grounded on Planet Raze, the First Fleet had lost nearly half of its operational strength.

They would return to the Twin Star Defensive Zone of the Riken home system for repairs, receive reinforcements to restore their composition, and prepare for future engagements. At the same time, Vice Admiral Hamis, who had participated in the entire campaign, would return to the Riken homeworld to report on the war.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion—for both the Riken and the Swarm.

Time flew by. The Riken and the Swarm maintained a relative peace, with only low-intensity skirmishes occurring in the asteroid belt on the outskirts of the Riken star system.

Initially, the Riken capitalized on the destruction of the Swarm’s first wave of 5,000 Primordial bodies at Planet Raze. Before the Swarm could regroup, the Riken leveraged their numerical superiority, securing significant advantages. At one point, the Swarm forces even retreated to a position farther from the Riken star system to regroup.

However, the Swarm had initially deployed 30,000 Primordial bodies toward the Riken star system. Despite losing 5,000, over 20,000 remained.

In less than a year, the Swarm’s Primordial bodies in the Riken star system had replenished their numbers, once again surpassing 1,000. This made it difficult for any single Riken fleet to achieve further tactical victories.

The Riken then shifted their strategy to circling the Swarm forces’ perimeter, feigning advances to exhaust the Swarm’s ammunition, mimicking the earlier attritional battles between the First Fleet and the Swarm.

However, the current positions of both sides were vastly different, and this strategy no longer yielded the desired results.

By now, the Swarm had grown significantly stronger. They no longer feared the approach of Riken warships.

For the Riken, closing into range of the Swarm’s main cannons also meant placing themselves dangerously close to the Swarm’s forces. At such distances, victory was uncertain. If they managed to win, all would be well. But if they lost, they would find themselves in an inescapable dilemma.

Advancing meant inevitable defeat, while retreating along predetermined routes drastically reduced maneuverability and increased the likelihood of being hit. How many ships could escape after retreating was anyone’s guess.

Thus, after the Riken feigned several advances and noticed no reaction from the Swarm forces, they awkwardly withdrew.

From then on, the two sides simply stared at each other across the void, as the Swarm forces continued to grow in size. Apart from feeling anxious, the Riken had no better solutions.

Years passed, and as Primordial bodies from the Neighboring Star System arrived one after another, the Swarm forces regrouped, their numbers exceeding 10,000.

“They’re becoming active again. It seems war is about to break out,” Hamis sighed as he watched the video feed before him.

The First Fleet was stationed on Planet Raze’s outer orbit for repairs. This area, being near the front line, had been fortified into a forward stronghold against the Swarm. ℞αΝÖ𐌱Êş

After completing repairs and receiving newly constructed warships, the First Fleet grew to over 1,000 vessels. When Hamis returned to the front line brimming with confidence to relieve the Second Fleet and harass the Swarm forces, he had hoped for a decisive victory.

Unfortunately, by then, the number of Primordial bodies had already exceeded 3,000. With only 1,000 Riken warships, a direct confrontation would have resulted in mutual destruction at best.

In the end, after losing dozens of warships, Hamis retreated in defeat.

This poor decision, though costly, did not result in harsh punishment due to wartime circumstances. However, Hamis lost the chance to command offensive operations.

As a result, the First Fleet became a permanent fixture at the Planet Raze base—a status quo that had persisted until now.

But now, after years of relative quiet, the Swarm forces seemed to have awakened from their slumber and grown active once more.

As Hamis expected, the new Swarm contingent was over twice as large as the previous force, with more than 10,000 units. From the moment they stirred to their departure, the process took merely a month.

Meanwhile, the Third Fleet, tasked with long-range monitoring of the Swarm forces, dared not make any aggressive moves and maintained their distance beyond the Swarm’s firing range, shadowing them cautiously.

The Riken were not panicked by this Swarm offensive, as they had long anticipated it.

Over the past decade, Planet Raze’s defensive systems had recovered to 80% of their pre-war capacity. Despite this partial recovery, the dense array of ground-based cannons still provided formidable firepower for the Riken.

Along the Swarm’s anticipated advance route, the Riken had deployed a large number of smart mines, hoping to slow the Swarm’s advance and perhaps eliminate part of their force.

While this plan was sound in theory, it proved difficult to execute in practice. The Swarm appeared to have overcome their previous “poor eyesight” issues. The stealth coating on the smart mines was no longer effective, and the Swarm forces dispatched small- and medium-sized combat units to clear the minefields as they advanced.

Although the smart mines were equipped with remote detonation capabilities and propulsion systems, they were unable to evade the close-range electromagnetic railgun fire from the Swarm. The small Mature bodies proved to be the perfect units for mine clearance.

From a safe distance—typically around 10 kilometers—these units targeted the smart mines, remaining just outside their active detection range while using their electromagnetic cannons to destroy them.

At such distances, the smart mines’ propulsion systems had no chance of evading the artillery shells.

Small explosions, like bursts of fireworks, dotted the Swarm’s advance path, almost as if celebrating their march. Watching this, the Riken forces’ morale began to crumble.

“Novaul, under normal circumstances, if flaws in your fleet’s design were exposed during combat, what would you do?” Hamis, stationed in the frontline command center on Planet Raze, furrowed his brow as he suddenly posed this question to Novaul, the Second Fleet’s commander standing beside him.

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