I Am The Swarm

An older Riken reclined on a beach chair, a patterned fisherman’s hat shielding his weathered face from the harsh light of the star above.

He had clearly spent a long time here; his pale blue Riken skin had darkened to a bluish-brown under the relentless sun.

The faint hum of engines broke the serene ambiance. The elderly Riken tilted his hat slightly to peer at the sky and caught sight of two gunships flying overhead. A flicker of confusion crossed his mind. This secluded retreat was no place for military gunships—had something happened?

He chuckled to himself, brushing the thought away. What did it matter to him? He had been retired for years. The events of his term had drained him even while he was still in his prime. After stepping down, he resigned from all other roles, opting for a life of quiet solitude.

For a long time, he had deliberately avoided news from the outside world, finding comfort in ignorance. He reasoned that it was better this way—he had gone from a tall figure of authority to a humble retiree. Why burden himself with cares? Sunbathing was far more pleasant.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps approached. On this beach, Rikens either went barefoot or wore sandals, neither of which made such weighty noises.

The sound grew closer, his unease mounting. In this deserted stretch of sand, he was the only Riken present. Coupled with the earlier sighting of military gunships, a sense of foreboding crept over him.

The footsteps stopped next to his chair.

“Of course,” he muttered to himself. Although his eyes remained hidden beneath the brim of his hat, he knew the visitors had come for him.

He lifted his hat, sat upright, and gazed at the three fully armed Riken soldiers standing beside him. A wry smile curled his lips as he said, half-jokingly, “So soon? What monumental crisis has occurred that even Antonio couldn’t handle without calling on this old man?”

“President Derlin, please come with us,” said the leading officer. He did not answer Derlin’s question, instead gesturing politely but firmly for him to follow.

Derlin sighed. Asking further was pointless; these soldiers weren’t going to talk. He would find out soon enough.

Rising from his chair, he brushed the sand off his clothes, adjusted his fisherman’s hat, and nodded at the lead officer. Without hesitation, he began walking toward the waiting gunships.

Yes, this older Riken was none other than Derlin, Antonio’s predecessor’s predecessor. He had already resigned himself to his fate and accepted it with calm resolve.

After stepping down, Derlin had relinquished all his positions. While his tenure as President had allowed him to accumulate modest savings, his extravagant, carefree lifestyle had long since drained his coffers.

Just as he was on the brink of destitution, the newly inaugurated Antonio had reached out to him, offering a well-paying ceremonial position—a sinecure with minimal duties, granting him six months of leave twice a year.

[T/N: Sinecure is a position requiring little or no work but gives the holder status or wealth. Save you the benefit of searching it up.]

The job allowed Derlin to sustain his indulgent lifestyle, but he understood full well that Antonio’s aid wasn’t motivated by any personal sentiment. It was simply a way for Antonio to keep a useful card in his hand.

Both men, having ascended to the heights of power, understood this unspoken arrangement perfectly. While nothing was explicitly stated, everything was tacitly understood. Thus, Derlin had accepted the job and its benefits without hesitation.

Now, it was time for Antonio to play that card.

—

Antonio took to the airwaves for a nationwide televised address. He openly admitted the events outlined in the leaked documents, acknowledging their occurrence and announcing a three-day mourning period to commemorate the innocent victims of the Trinbrian District tragedy.

The incident, which had claimed millions of Riken lives, was one of the most horrific in their history. For perspective, the decades-long conflict with the Swarm had caused fewer Riken deaths—less than 20% of the toll from that single event.

After expressing his sorrow and regret, Antonio shifted his tone sharply, placing all the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Council from Derlin’s administration. He claimed that the documents had been deliberately hidden and asserted that he had been completely unaware of them until they were exposed online and verified through internal investigations.

Antonio’s carefully crafted narrative was clear: he was an unwitting inheritor of a concealed history, not a perpetrator of its sins.

Antonio’s speech deftly distanced himself from all responsibility, subtly but thoroughly shifting blame elsewhere.

One of the scapegoats presented was General Monroe, a key figure directly implicated in the Trinbrian District incident. Whether fortunate or unfortunate, General Monroe had gone missing during the Second Defense of Planet Raze. His ship was among the first destroyed in the retreat, shattered into debris with no survivors found. It was assumed he had perished.

This left former President Derlin as the highest-ranking individual still alive to bear the brunt of public outrage. While the enraged populace clamored for his immediate execution, protocol dictated that he would face a fair trial to determine his fate.

Of course, the trial would be broadcast publicly.

The spectacle of accountability managed to calm the fury of the Riken people—if only slightly—and gave Antonio a momentary reprieve from the crisis. But the true challenge lay ahead.

New revelations were leaked.

The Rikens only victory in the conflict with the Swarm—the First Defense of Planet Raze—was now being questioned. Post-war analyses had long suggested that the victory was intentional on the part of the Swarm, serving their strategic purposes. Whether it was truly a Riken success or a calculated move by the Swarm had always been a matter of debate.

Still, the Riken military had clung to this lone triumph as a vital propaganda tool. With no other victories to speak of, this dubious achievement had been exalted and used to overshadow countless defeats.

Now even that narrative was unraveling.

Previously, the military had been able to gloss over failures with rationalizations:

The loss of Planet Raze was attributed to logistical challenges. The supply line was too long and resource-intensive, making it a strategic decision to abandon the planet to conserve funds and military strength.

The withdrawal from Planet Izumo was framed as pragmatic. Its hostile environment made constructing a robust defense system infeasible, and expending resources or risking soldiers’ lives there was deemed irresponsible.

Meanwhile, the First Defense of Planet Raze continued to be glorified in documentaries, which highlighted the so-called “Iron Defense” of the Twin Star System. Entire series of videos extolled the invincible steel barrier protecting Riken space, fostering a sense of pride among the populace.

If the Swarm were a conventional foe, perhaps this defense system could have performed as advertised—repelling enemies from billions of kilometers away. Unfortunately, despite the Riken’s reverse-engineering of ancient spacecraft technology giving them a protagonist-like edge, Luo Wen was playing on an entirely different level.

The Swarm’s buildup at Planet Izumo wasn’t impeded by the vaunted “Iron Defense.” Instead, the Swarm was quietly amassing forces, biding their time for the opportune moment to strike.

While Rikens were vaguely aware of these truths, they lacked concrete details—until now. The opposition’s latest release of classified data provided exhaustive statistics, presented alongside explanatory videos designed to leave no room for misinterpretation.

And the Rikens understood.

What little hope or outrage remained after the revelation of the asteroid conspiracy was now drowned in icy fear. As the chilling reality set in, panic spread from the Twin Star Defensive Zone to the Riken homeworld itself.

If this were a fantasy world where malevolent gods thrived on negative emotions, the deluge of despair from the Riken people might have propelled such an entity to unimaginable heights. Thankfully, this was not that kind of world.

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