I Am The Swarm

“Ah!” The harsh static transitioned into an even more piercing buzzing sound. Several Daqi team members couldn’t bear it any longer, hastily removing their helmets and throwing them to the ground. Fortunately, since they were on a life planet, removing their helmets didn’t cause any discomfort from the environment.

They shook their heads, trying to clear the disorientation caused by the sudden noise. The intense buzzing had inflicted significant harm, leaving some team members retching, while others already had blood seeping from their noses and mouths.

After a while, they began to recover slightly.

“Ugh… Captain, it’s an EMP!” shouted one of the Daqi soldiers. However, the deafening sound had left most of them temporarily hearing-impaired. The team leader, still dizzy and disoriented, couldn’t make out what was being said.

The captain struggled against the lingering effects, tapping his own helmeted head, but the noise and disorientation rendered him unable to hear anything clearly.

The soldier, physically sturdier than the captain and having been positioned further back during the EMP detonation, had recovered more quickly. He dragged himself closer to the captain and used his weapon to draw the letters “EMP” in the dirt.

The captain rubbed his eyes, focusing on the roughly scrawled letters. He nodded grimly. Although the Swarm predominantly relied on biotechnology, their mastery of controlled fusion and magnetic field technology was highly advanced. Deploying an EMP device was well within their capabilities.

What puzzled him, however, was why the Swarm would place an EMP here instead of a high-yield explosive. Wouldn’t a bomb have been far more effective? The all-terrain robots that had been leading the way were now disabled, their circuits sparking as they lay inert.@@novelbin@@

The Daqi had taken most of their valuable assets with them during their evacuation. Large defensive installations had to be left behind due to size, but smaller equipment, such as advanced robots, had been taken wherever possible. The robots left behind were older models, which, though equipped with basic EMP shielding, had failed to withstand such a close-range detonation.

He picked up his discarded helmet and tested it. The communications system was damaged, leaving them completely cut off from the command center. For a veteran accustomed to modern warfare with constant access to remote intelligence support, the absence of such resources was unsettling.

Stifling his unease, the captain gestured for his team to press on toward the Swarm’s spore pod impact site. If the Swarm hadn’t destroyed the area with a bomb, they must have had a specific purpose, and the crash site might hold some clues.

Suddenly, he looked up into the distance. Several small black dots were rapidly approaching. Using the binocular function on his helmet, he recognized the familiar shapes and markings—they were drones from their own forces, dispatched as reinforcements by the command center.

Just as he began to feel a sliver of relief, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air, growing louder by the second. The Daqi soldiers instinctively looked up, spotting a small black dot hurtling toward them, rapidly growing larger.

The captain only had time to shout a curse before the black dot transformed into a metallic rod. In an instant, the rod slammed into the ground with unimaginable force, launching the team into the air and knocking them unconscious.

The impact shattered the crust of the planet, sending a shockwave rippling outward, carrying debris and dirt far into the distance. The arriving Daqi drones wobbled midair in the aftermath of the shockwave, struggling to stabilize themselves before finally regaining their composure.

At this point, the site of the Swarm’s spore pod impact—and the Daqi squad—had completely disappeared, leaving nothing but a small lava pool. Dark red magma seeped from fissures in the ground.

From the EMP detonation to the current state of the area, only a few minutes had passed. The Swarm’s EMP blast had a limited range, covering less than 100 meters. While the strike team was completely cut off, monitoring systems further away remained unaffected. ℝÅ𝐍օβĘṡ

Thus, the Daqi command center and the hidden observers watched the entire sequence of events unfold in real-time. The EMP detonation and the orbital rod strike had occurred almost simultaneously.

From the moment the strike team stepped into the blast radius, their fate was sealed. Even if they had attempted to retreat immediately, the destruction of their airships’ electronic systems ensured they would not have escaped the subsequent devastation.

“This was a trap!”

“You think? Even an idiot could see that. The question is—why would the Swarm go to such lengths?”

“Exactly. They had countless simpler ways to eliminate that squad, yet they chose such an elaborate method.”

“Maybe someone in the Daqi squad was an important figure,” suggested one observer.

“Impossible!” A Daqi representative retorted, “If anyone of value had stayed behind, they would’ve been forcibly evacuated long ago, even against their will.”

“Then what if someone impersonated an ordinary soldier and defected to the Swarm? The Swarm could be staging this scene to make us think they’re dead, while secretly taking them away,” proposed another.

“That’s absurd. If they wanted to take someone, they could do it openly. Do you think the scraps the Daqi left behind could stop them?”

“Not necessarily. Perhaps their goal wasn’t those individuals at all. Maybe this was just a rehearsal, testing whether we could uncover their real intentions. Next time, it might be you or me they plan to deceive.”

“While your idea sounds far-fetched, I agree they’re conducting some sort of exercise or experiment. Elena, analyze the data from earlier.”

Elena, the artificial intelligence sent by the Ji for support, lacked emotions and couldn’t grasp the concept of absurdity. But data analysis was its forte.

A moment later, its mechanical voice responded: “All 191 video data streams from the incident have been reviewed. The identities of all participants are verified as authentic. Behavioral patterns from the past 72 hours were analyzed, with no indications of falsification. Frames surrounding the Swarm weapon’s impact with the ground—spanning 30 seconds before and after—were slowed by a factor of 1,000 and scrutinized. No signs of Swarm interference were detected. All squad members confirmed deceased.”

The analysts nodded, accepting Elena’s report without question.

“So, why would the Swarm go to such lengths?”

“Maybe they simply didn’t want us to know what was inside that projectile.”

“But if that were the case, why not just destroy it themselves after it landed?”

“Perhaps they’re trying to mislead us.”

“…”

The Swarm had always presented itself as an efficient and goal-oriented species. It didn’t take unnecessary actions; everything it did served a purpose. Luo Wen, however, often sought to obfuscate his enemies by performing seemingly meaningless actions to confuse their observations.

But in this case, the action was far from meaningless.

The opponent currently facing the Swarm was the Ji’s artificial intelligence, commanding a hodgepodge of second-rate forces.

This was a prime opportunity to test and document the AI’s responses to various scenarios in a highly controlled and low-risk environment.