I Am The Swarm

If the Rikens had abundant resources, they wouldn’t have hesitated to delay the Swarm with defensive actions, even at significant cost. But the current reality left no room for such luxuries.

“Don’t worry. We anticipated this situation long ago,” one officer said reassuringly. “We’ve already deployed solar sails across near-stellar orbits, covering an area of tens of millions of square kilometers, and we’re continuing to expand them. As long as we can keep the Swarm outside the Twin Star Defensive Zone, we won’t have to worry about energy supplies.”

The Rikens’ earliest interstellar navigation systems had been built on the foundation of solar sails. These sails not only provided propulsion for their ships but also enabled energy conversion to sustain their daily operational needs.

Harvesting energy from a star was an inevitable milestone for any advanced civilization. With shared theoretical principles, many civilizations gravitated toward the concept of Dyson Spheres.

For the Rikens, enclosing a star and harnessing its energy had no better candidate than solar sails. The technology was mature and relatively cost-effective. Using a special material with a thickness of only 0.0005 millimeters, the sails could cover vast areas. Even with low energy conversion rates, their advantages in other aspects were undeniable.

As a highly intelligent civilization, the Rikens always crafted interconnected contingency plans. The loss of Planet Izumo had long been accounted for, with stellar energy collection as the replacement strategy.

The Rikens gathered for the meeting were high-ranking officers and strategists, most of whom were already aware of the solar sail initiative. Yet the decision to abandon Planet Izumo left a bitter taste in their mouths, a lingering sense of frustration and helplessness.

The Swarm, however, remained utterly unaffected by the Rikens’ internal struggles. The 8,000 Primordial bodies pressed forward. Despite the complexities of the star system’s environment slowing them somewhat, they covered the distance in just over a month, advancing to within 10 million kilometers of Planet Izumo.

The Blades, aware from prior intelligence that the Rikens had abandoned the planet, still pretended ignorance, carrying out token reconnaissance.

As the Swarm closed the gap, the moons of Planet Izumo, lacking atmospheric cover, were easily observable by optical detection systems.

The moons presented a desolate scene. Within the observable areas, there was no sign of units that could pose a threat to the Swarm.

When the distance narrowed to 2 million kilometers, the Primordial bodies slowed to a cautious 10 km/s. At this speed, they would reach Planet Izumo’s orbit within two days.

Several hundred-meter mature bodies, their surfaces crawling with larval bodies, broke off from the main fleet and sped toward Planet Izumo ahead of the rest.

The Rikens’ evacuation seemed remarkably thorough. Not a single smart mine had been left in space to hinder the Swarm, an extreme measure of resource conservation.

In the orbital paths around Planet Izumo, space factories originally used for energy production, along with orbital refineries and shipyards, had been hauled away by tug ships. These facilities had been designed with relocation in mind, a consideration drawn from earlier experience with the Planet Raze Defensive Zone, where numerous logistics factories had also been moved at the outset of hostilities.

The relocation process required tug ships equipped with over ten high-power engines to drag the structures out of Izumo’s orbit. Once freed from the planet’s gravitational pull, the factories were linked to tractor ships, each boasting an even number of high-power engines.

Without planetary gravity, a single tractor ship could tow hundreds of space factories, resembling an interstellar freight train from afar.

This high-efficiency process ensured that the combined total of over 10,000 space factories from the Planet Raze Defensive Zone and those originally stationed in Izumo’s orbit were evacuated in just a few rounds.

The relocation of factories and equipment on Izumo’s moons proved more challenging. Most of these facilities were modular in design, enabling dismantling by specialized machinery. The modules were then launched into space using makeshift electromagnetic launchers, where they were retrieved and transported by waiting ships.

The electromagnetic launchers constructed by the Rikens bore a striking resemblance to the biological megastructures of the Swarm. Resembling enormous roller coaster tracks, these hastily assembled systems were crude but effective. Each launch could hurl modular structures weighing tens of tons into space.

Once their transport tasks were complete, the electromagnetic launchers were dismantled and hauled away by swarms of small transport ships.

The star system named after the Rikens was their home turf, where their operational efficiency reached its peak. Within this domain, their forces exhibited exceptional coordination and synergy, far surpassing the performance of their expeditionary fleets.

On the moons of Planet Izumo, all significant structures had long been dismantled and evacuated, leaving behind only gaping craters. Most of the Riken installations on the moons had underground components, which were predominantly modular in design but fused tightly with the surrounding rock and soil.

These underground structures were harder to disassemble, and logistical constraints further limited their evacuation. As a result, only the most critical underground facilities were removed, while the remainder were destroyed. The moons were left pockmarked with craters.

Since the onset of war, both sides had gone to great lengths to protect the secrets of their technological systems. For example, the Swarm’s creations were safeguarded by genetic locks, while the Rikens, even during emergency retreats, prioritized destroying any ships or facilities they couldn’t take with them.

What the Rikens didn’t know, however, was that the Swarm didn’t require intact Riken technology to extract value. Even if a structure were reduced to rubble or dissolved into liquid using specialized chemical agents, the Swarm could still harvest it for nutrients to fuel their growth. ꞦαℕǑ𐌱ĚS

The mature bodies and larval bodies sent ahead for reconnaissance dispersed across the moons of Planet Izumo, carefully inspecting for any hidden Riken surveillance devices.

These devices undoubtedly existed. The Rikens wouldn’t miss any opportunity to study the Swarm. The cost of these monitoring systems was negligible, and their loss wasn’t significant. But if any of them managed to capture critical Swarm data, the Rikens would gain invaluable insights.

The Swarm, aware of this, refused to allow such a possibility. Multiple waves of mature and larval bodies were dispatched, meticulously sweeping the moons. Only after thorough inspections confirmed the destruction of every surveillance device did the larval bodies burrow underground and transform into fungal carpet seeds.

“They’re incredibly cautious. All of our surveillance systems have been destroyed without exception,” one Riken officer reported.

“Damn it!” another cursed.

“As expected. Stop being misled by their appearance. The battles we’ve fought so far have proven that their intelligence is on par with our own, if not greater,” a third officer interjected.

Even after repeated losses, Riken arrogance only allowed them to grudgingly acknowledge the Swarm’s intelligence as equal to their own—something they regarded as an extraordinary concession.

“Fortunately, our contingency measures remain undiscovered. We might still delay their advance.”

“The enemy is being uncharacteristically cautious. Those 500-meter-class Space Octopuses are still maintaining their distance from Planet Izumo.”

“We must act now! If this continues, our hidden measures might be exposed!”

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