I Am The Swarm

With the loss of the land-based cannons on Planet Raze and the near-total destruction of the orbital cannons due to their slow maneuverability, the Riken firepower had been reduced by over half.

Without their firepower advantage, the pressure on the Swarm’s Primordial bodies greatly diminished. Their evasion time shortened, and their firing rate increased. Faced with the Swarm’s intensified bombardment, the previously steady output of the three Riken fleets faltered. Their firing rate decreased, and as this chain reaction unfolded, the Swarm seemed to have gained the upper hand, pressing the Rikens into a defensive posture.

The fleet commanders recognized this awkward situation, pinning their hopes on this being the Swarm’s final frenzy.

Based on their data, they believed the Swarm’s ammunition reserves were no longer sufficient to sustain such intense firepower.

Their assumption wasn’t entirely wrong. The Swarm’s forces had traveled from the outer planetary belt without any resupply. Even with new tactics, they had consumed significant metal reserves during skirmishes with the Riken fleets along the way.

Now, after such prolonged high-intensity bombardments, their metal reserves were nearly depleted.

However, the Riken fleet was also on its last legs. The planetary orbit and surface defense systems had collapsed, leaving only the fleet’s firepower to maintain a fragile standstill.

Despite their predicament, the Rikens believed that as the defending force, they held the advantage. Theoretically, they could leverage the cover of Planet Raze and its moons to outlast the Swarm’s dwindling ammunition reserves.

But they underestimated the Swarm’s deployments on Planet Raze.

Had the Rikens understood the Swarm’s biological capabilities, they might already have begun their retreat.

Under Luo Wen’s mastery of genetic mutation, the Swarm’s ability to establish outposts had advanced by orders of magnitude. In the past, even if the Swarm managed to send a few Brood Queen eggs to Planet Raze, ten years wouldn’t have been enough to make a significant impact.

But things were different now. As long as a single larval body breached the defenses, its continuous mutations could spawn an endless supply of Brood Queens, given time.

During the earlier invasion of Planet Raze, countless larval bodies had landed. To accelerate progress, over 100,000 Brood Queens had been spawned in later mutations.

For perspective, after occupying the Genesis Planet and the Neighboring Star System, the total number of Brood Queens across both star systems had just exceeded one million—a result of centuries of development.

Now, the equivalent of one-tenth of that number was concentrated on a single planet. The sheer power the Swarm could unleash was unimaginable.

Each Brood Queen acted as a sub-hive, and the 100,000 sub-hives spread across Planet Raze’s underground network had produced countless combat units over the past decade.

Even if every Radiance of the Rikens bomb could flawlessly destroy one Swarm hive, with only slightly over a thousand of them available, the Rikens could barely scratch the surface of the Swarm’s numbers.

As the Rikens watched in stunned disbelief, purple-gray fungal carpets appeared en masse on the surface of Planet Raze. These patches quickly expanded and merged, blanketing nearly half the planet in a matter of moments.

And this was the Swarm holding back.

The Swarm’s Blades, thoroughly trained in Luo Wen’s doctrine of “concealing strength,” ensured that their true capabilities and numbers were masked whenever the battle had already been decided.

Yes, the outcome was already certain.

The Swarm’s conquest of Planet Raze was only a matter of time. All it needed now was a final “straw” to break the Rikens’ last vestige of resistance.

On the surface of Planet Raze, as the purple-gray fungal carpet spread, the Rikens found themselves in an impossible dilemma, unsure of which region to strike first. Their hesitation, however, would soon give way to true despair.

The fungal carpet squirmed and writhed as chunks of fleshy tissue emerged from within. These fragments fused and morphed, gradually taking shape.

Finally, they locked into a form all too familiar to the Rikens.

The elongated cylindrical shapes that materialized bore an uncanny resemblance to the electromagnetic railguns mounted on the Primordial bodies.

Not only did their exteriors mimic the railguns perfectly, but their functionality was identical as well.

After all, the railgun organ was originally a derivative component of the fungal carpet.

This scene had, in fact, occurred once before on T855 Planet in the Neighboring Star System, but at that time, the Rikens’ satellites around the planet had already been destroyed. Forced to rely on long-range observation, the Rikens had only witnessed T855 slowly changing color without understanding how the electromagnetic railguns had appeared.

This time, however, they were close enough to see everything clearly.

“What is that? It looks… familiar,” one Riken observer murmured as they stared at the detection screen, puzzled.

“It does seem familiar, but I can’t quite recall where I’ve seen it before,” another Riken said, furrowing his brow. The shape tugged at his memory, as if recognition were just out of reach.

“Look! Don’t they resemble—” Another Riken suddenly spoke up.

He pulled up a high-resolution image of a Primordial body and compared it side-by-side with the cylindrical structures forming on Planet Raze’s fungal carpet.

“They’re identical.”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Report to the captain immediately!”

The observers scrambled in panic, but at least the information was quickly relayed up the chain of command.

“General, we’re detecting electromagnetic strikes—originating from directly beneath us!”

“What!?” General Hamis, who had been focused on the battlefront, was stunned by the report.

The Space Octopuses responsible for long-range attacks were all in front of the fleet. Beneath the fleet lay Planet Raze—what could be attacking them from below?

Initially, the crew suspected a sensor malfunction. The surrounding area was saturated with intense electromagnetic pulses, and data errors seemed plausible.

However, after repeated verification, the crew confirmed the readings were accurate.

By then, the observers’ report had also arrived.

“Evade!” Realizing the gravity of the situation, Hamis ordered an emergency fleet-wide maneuver.

But it was too late. The proximity was simply too close. At such a distance, electromagnetic projectiles struck almost instantaneously.

Worse still, since the shots came from below, they hit the fleet’s undersides—its most vulnerable area. The damage inflicted in this single strike far exceeded what the Primordial bodies had achieved after hours of bombardment.

The First Fleet, consisting of 1,000 warships, had already lost nearly 200 ships earlier and was down to just over 800 vessels. In this assault, more than 50 ships were instantly obliterated, and over half the remaining fleet sustained varying levels of damage.

The Rikens had not suffered such catastrophic losses since the war began. These were not just disabled ships retreating from battle—these were fully destroyed vessels. Taking out a warship with electromagnetic projectiles, even after traveling for over ten minutes, was no easy feat.

If it weren’t for the limited number of initial railguns and the suboptimal firing angles, this barrage might have annihilated over half the Riken fleet in one fell swoop.

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