I Am The Swarm

As the Ji squad remained tense, the room’s door chime sounded, interrupting Keller’s thoughts. He scratched his head and got up to answer. Outside were two Rat Folk who exchanged a few words with Keller.

The team’s audio capture system recorded the conversation, revealing that Keller was being summoned to the laboratory. After a brief discussion, the three Rat Folk left the room.

“Phew…” The Ji squad collectively exhaled in relief. Blanca opened her mouth to speak, but the Captain raised a hand to stop her. “Back to base first. Warwick, report.”

“All clear,” Warwick’s voice came through the communicator.

With the all-clear, the team worked together to remove the wall panel again. After another round of careful operations, they restored the room to its original state and activated their cloaking devices. Under Warwick’s guidance, they returned to their quarters without incident.

“Blanca, what did you discover earlier?” the Captain asked eagerly once everyone was safely back and the team had cleaned up.

“The name of the First Empress—it’s the same as the Swarm Empress’s name: Sarah Kerrigan,” Blanca said softly, wasting no time revealing the shocking information.

“What!” the team exclaimed in unison.

“Are you sure? How do you know the Swarm Empress’s name?” the Captain asked. Their official briefings described the Swarm Empress as the supreme leader of the Swarm, but her name was listed as unknown, simply referred to as the Empress.

“Because of the upcoming mission, I steered our conversation toward the Swarm once I learned he had interacted with them. That’s when he shared an important piece of information. My friend has an extraordinary memory—not only can he recall visuals perfectly, but he can also retain sounds with remarkable accuracy. During their mission, he overheard two Swarm officers conversing. Although the officers left immediately after noticing him, he managed to remember a sentence.”

“At the time, the Swarm was still using Riken as their diplomatic language for negotiations. However, the two officers were speaking in the Swarm’s native tongue. My friend didn’t understand the meaning of the sentence then. He mentioned it in his mission report, but it was dismissed due to a lack of actionable details.”

“Even so, my friend couldn’t forget the exact pronunciation of that Swarm phrase. Later, when the Swarm language was partially deciphered, he painstakingly matched the sounds to words. Finally, he uncovered the meaning of that sentence.”

Blanca paused for effect as her teammates leaned in, listening intently. She continued in a hushed tone, “The sentence was: ‘I will report this to Empress Sarah.’ If the Swarm doesn’t have two empresses, then Sarah must be the name of their Empress.”

The team collectively gasped. The complexity of the intel’s discovery made it all the more astonishing. While the information seemed minor on the surface, its implications were monumental.

“If the Swarm Empress and the Rat Folk’s First Empress are the same person, it’s incredible but would explain so much.”

“Why the Rat Folk elite so rigorously uphold and protect their secrets. Why the Rat Folk impose strict information controls. Their peculiar relationship with the Swarm, the staged breakup, and the feigned conflicts—it all makes sense now. It’s all to conceal this truth.”

“Hah! Looks like we outsmarted them. No matter how well they hid it, we’ve found plenty of cracks in their story,” one of the team members remarked with a triumphant smile.

The team, now brimming with excitement, began piecing together their findings, connecting the dots from prior intelligence. Unearthing such a significant revelation was a monumental achievement—one that would secure their reputations and careers for the rest of their lives.@@novelbin@@

“Wait a second,” Wright interjected, scratching his head. “We’ve all seen the Swarm. They’re completely different from the Rat Folk—appearance, genetics, everything. They’re clearly two distinct species.”

Blanca pondered for a moment before replying, “I recall reading in the intel that our race discovered Swarm bodies have genetic locks, making it impossible to dissect them or obtain detailed information. This trait is identical to that found in their biological weapons. It didn’t seem significant at the time, but now I’m wondering—what if the Swarm found a way to transfer consciousnesses originally housed in Rat Folk bodies into Swarm bodies? Those Swarm bodies could very well be specialized bioweapons.”

“That’s ridiculous! Even we Ji can’t do something like that,” Wright objected, finding the idea of consciousness transfer too far-fetched.

“Tch! How much of the Swarm’s technology do we even understand? We can’t even break their genetic locks,” Blanca retorted with a dismissive snort.

“Blanca’s theory isn’t implausible,” another teammate added. “The intelligence we’ve gathered mentions that the Swarm Empress and several of her ministers have shown no physical changes over time, leading us to suspect they’ve mastered advanced life extension technology. But if they’ve truly achieved consciousness transfer, that would essentially be the equivalent of immortality.”

A collective hiss of astonishment spread among the group. Lifespan extension was a matter of utmost concern for all intelligent species. If the Swarm had indeed mastered such technology, it would represent an achievement surpassing even the original Ji race.

“No wonder the Rat Folk elite are so committed to guarding this secret. That Keller resisted even under the effects of interrogation drugs. If I had a chance at immortality, trust me, I’d protect the secret too,” one team member remarked.

“Haha, dreaming big, are we? Maybe you should go ask that Rat Folk administrative officer if he’s taking applications for godsons,” another joked.

“Get lost!” Wright barked back, though the group’s conversation had unwittingly shifted to a tone of envy toward the very Rat Folk they once looked down upon. 𝙍ᴀŊ𝖔BÈṤ

“I used to think the connection between the Swarm and the Rat Folk might have been some grand experiment initiated by the original Ji race. But now, I’m starting to doubt that. If the original Ji had created the Swarm, they wouldn’t have gone extinct. There wouldn’t even be a ‘new’ Ji race like us.”

The original Ji had excelled in both mechanical and biological technology. They had conducted large-scale experiments throughout this galaxy, seeding countless planets with “life seeds.” This explained why the density of civilizations in this region was far higher than in others.

“Not necessarily,” someone countered. “Perhaps the original Ji did create the Swarm. Otherwise, why would the Swarm exist here in the first place?”

Previously, the Swarm was believed to be an alien species. No matter how strange their technology, it could be attributed to countless years of unknown development. But now, learning that the Rat Folk and the Swarm were intrinsically connected only complicated matters further.

“I think the most pressing question is how this First Empress became the Swarm Empress.”

“Exactly. If you’re telling me the Rat Folk developed the Swarm’s technological path on their own, I wouldn’t believe it in a million years.”

“So where do we start? Right now, we don’t have a clue.”

“Perhaps we should revisit the historical records and see if there’s anything we missed,” someone suggested.