I Am The Swarm

Although electromagnetic cannons had the disadvantage of slow projectile speed, they had the advantage of extremely long firing ranges. At this moment, while the coalition forces were out of range of energy weapons, the electromagnetic cannons could easily target them.

The only condition was that they didn’t dodge.

But of course, that was impossible! What kind of creature wouldn’t dodge an attack that could severely damage them?

However, at this moment, the coalition fleet truly couldn’t dodge these electromagnetic projectiles.

Their formation was too dense, leaving them little room to maneuver. If they focused solely on dodging, they might end up colliding with their allies.@@novelbin@@

Moreover, dodging would inevitably cause them to stop advancing, disrupting the overall formation.

But even if they didn’t dodge, they had a way to deal with such attacks. The Daqi Empire, for example, had repulsion field generators, and now, with forces far stronger than the Daqi Empire present, it was natural that they would have such devices.

Even if they didn’t, after studying the Swarm’s tactics and knowing their preference for electromagnetic cannons, they would have installed such devices before the battle.

Sure enough, as the electromagnetic projectiles were still en route, the coalition warships at the forefront activated their repulsion fields. The interconnected repulsion fields were more than enough to neutralize the Swarm’s attacks.

Repulsion fields were extremely energy-intensive devices and were not typically kept active during normal operations. Most civilizations wouldn’t set up dedicated power systems for them.

Thus, when the repulsion fields were activated, over 70% of the warships, except for those of the Troi and a few other races, saw a reduction in engine output, and their speed inevitably slowed.

This revealed a weakness of the coalition: it was composed of a mix of forces from various civilizations, each with different performance parameters for their warships. Combined with a complex and factionalized command system, their coordination was very poor.

For example, Viller’s flagship was positioned in the center of the formation, surrounded by a few Troi escort ships, while the rest were warships from weaker civilizations.

When the repulsion fields were activated, those warships hesitated, their speed slowing, but Viller’s ships were unaffected.

It’s important to note that the fleet was traveling at sub-light speeds. While the warships appeared to be hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart, they could close that distance in an instant. The momentary hesitation caused one of Viller’s escort ships to nearly collide with a foreign warship.

Similar incidents occurred in multiple parts of the formation, causing some chaos. In one case, an actual collision occurred. These accidents disrupted what had been a relatively cohesive formation.

This was exactly what the Swarm intended. After two more waves of electromagnetic cannon fire, the unaffected Troi warships surged forward, further advancing their position as the “blade” of the formation and even risking separation from the flanks.

The coalition commander quickly noticed this and ordered them to stop accelerating, but these maneuvers further degraded the formation.

Shortly after, the vanguard of the coalition entered the range of both sides’ energy weapons. In an instant, both sides opened fire simultaneously. Countless red energy beams filled the dark void, adding another color to the dark void. 𝖗áΝÖꞖΕ𝙎

Just like with the electromagnetic cannons, the dense formations left little room for evasion. However, the Swarm fared slightly better.

First, their pre-arranged formation had a more rational layout, while the coalition, despite starting with a similar layout, had lost it during the charge.

Second, the Swarm’s units were all Space Octopuses, living creatures. Like humans, as long as the force was within a certain limit, a collision between them wouldn’t cause any issues.

In contrast, the coalition’s steel warships were like cars. While a minor scrape might not be a problem, their rigid structures made them much clumsier, and it was difficult to control the degree of impact.

Thus, while the Space Octopuses could make small evasive maneuvers in response to the coalition’s fire, the coalition warships could only take the hits head-on.

Since the coalition’s vanguard was charging forward while the Swarm was lying in wait, the Swarm’s attacks far outnumbered the coalition’s when they entered firing range.

The coalition commanders had anticipated this issue during tactical rehearsals. As a result, they had equipped the vanguard warships with thick reactive armor.

As long as the vanguard could withstand two rounds of concentrated fire, the flanks and wings of the coalition could move into firing range and share the pressure.

However, the earlier coordination errors had caused the vanguard to advance too far, forcing them to endure four rounds of concentrated fire.

The coalition’s calculations were fairly accurate. After two rounds of fire exchange, most of the vanguard’s warships had severely damaged reactive armor and minor hull damage. A few unlucky ones that had suffered attacks beyond their limits in a short time had their armor penetrated. But these were few in number. Out of the over three million warships in the vanguard, less than ten thousand had been forced to withdraw after two rounds of fire exchange.

But the third and fourth rounds of fire took a heavy toll on the so-called vanguard. Although the warships of the Troi and other advanced civilizations were highly advanced, in battles of this scale, quantity led to a qualitative change. Unless there was a generational gap of several levels, a slight technological edge was useless.

After four rounds of fire exchange, the vanguard’s casualty rate skyrocketed from 0.3% to over 40%. Moreover, the surviving ships were heavily damaged, and their combat effectiveness was questionable.

——

It could be said that a simple command and coordination error had nearly halved the vanguard’s strength, and this was the most elite part of the coalition.

Now, with the tip of the blade broken, the vanguard was unlikely to complete its mission of cutting through the Swarm’s formation.

“Damn it, what are the flanks doing?!” The coalition commander’s heart was bleeding. The vanguard was mostly composed of Troi warships, the strongest and sharpest fleet in the alliance. Yet, they had suffered heavy losses right at the start of the battle.

This mistake would lead to accusations of dereliction of duty from within his own race. If the accusations came from foreign races, given his status, he wouldn’t care, as the Troi were his backing. But now, the accusations came from his own backing, which was a serious problem for him.

However, the future was not his immediate concern. He had to survive the current crisis first.

When Viller led the fleet to invite the Swarm to join the Interstellar Technological Confederation, there were already multiple voices within the fleet of several hundred thousand warships, representing various interests.

Now, with nearly twenty races involved, each with its own internal divisions, the complexity of the relationships could tie a knot that would last ten thousand years.

In the past, the coalition commander could rely on overwhelming strength to suppress these tangled threads. But now, with the losses to his main fleet, his authority within the coalition would rapidly decline.