I Am The Swarm

The measures taken by the Moto indeed had some effect. In the following days, the number of attacks on sentry posts decreased significantly. However, the patrol teams still suffered attacks due to the complex terrain and obstacles encountered during their patrols.

The Ambushers often hid in trees or on walls, waiting for the patrols to approach before extending their limbs and gliding down using their membranous wings to ambush them.

The Moto analysts failed to discover this characteristic of the Ambushers, and as a result, they paid a heavy price.

A few days later, the Moto still hadn’t found a better way to counter the Swarm, and patrolling became a dreaded task. Soldiers preferred to stay in the safety of their sentry posts, using various excuses to avoid participating in patrols.

During this time, the Moto also sent out their main forces to conduct sweeping operations, but they found nothing. During the day, the Swarm seemed to vanish into thin air. They speculated that the Swarm might be hiding underground, but despite trying numerous methods, they found no trace of them.

They also set traps at night, but the Swarm seemed to know about them in advance. Attacks continued everywhere except near the traps, which remained untouched.

As time went on, the number of Moto patrols dwindled, and the frequency of attacks increased until eventually, no patrols were seen at all.

In space, the intense battles had caused significant losses on both sides. However, the coalition forces, lacking much room for maneuver, suffered greater losses overall.

The situation on the Moto life planet was now known to the coalition forces. While they were relieved to hear that the Moto defenders still had the situation under control, they could only offer verbal support. The coalition forces were already stretched thin and could hardly provide any substantial assistance.@@novelbin@@

At night, the fierce battles in space continued unabated. Even during the day, the bursts of explosions could be seen through telescopes. However, at night, it was even more convenient to observe the tragic beauty of the explosions without any tools.

In recent days, due to the dangers outdoors, the Moto had constructed many glass rooms for their sentry posts. These provided better protection for the soldiers while also offering a good view.

Several Moto soldiers lay in these rooms, looking up through the transparent roofs at the distant sky. Their eyes were filled with confusion, unsure of what the future held. The situation in space had been kept under wraps by the Moto high command.

But this was merely an ostrich-like strategy, as everyone knew that if their side were winning in space, it would have been widely publicized. The current silence clearly indicated the opposite.

Moreover, this was the Moto life planet, home to a large population of Moto. Yet, after such a long period of Swarm invasion, the fleet had not provided any support.

All signs pointed to a grim situation. If the space battle were lost, the ships might still have a chance to escape, but what about those living on the planet? Where could they go?

A few years ago, when the Daqi Empire was overrun by the Swarm, the Moto had extensively covered the event, emphasizing the tragic state of the Daqi. They claimed that the Daqi had been abandoned by the Koya Alliance and were now divided into countless fragments, scattered across a dozen civilizations. The stories of their suffering were heart-wrenching and brought tears to the eyes of those who heard them.

Back then, the Moto had thought that the Daqi’s situation was the worst possible, and that nothing could be more tragic. But now, they realized that there was indeed a possibility of something even worse.

The wheel of fortune had turned, and now it was the Moto’s turn. While the Locke Mutual Aid Society hadn’t abandoned them, the current situation suggested that the Moto might face an even more tragic fate. 𝐫ἈŊÔBƐṤ

At least the Daqi had only lost their territory, while their people survived. Regardless of the separations and hardships, as long as people were alive, there was hope. If the Swarm were ever defeated, they could still return to their homeland and reunite.

But for the Moto, they had already missed the best opportunity to escape. If the space fleet were defeated and the life planet fell to the Swarm, they would lose both their land and their people, making their situation the most tragic of all.

However, even if the future seemed hopeless, they didn’t want to give up now. After all, a miserable life was still better than death. They would live day by day, hoping for some unforeseen change that might turn the situation around.

As these Moto soldiers were lost in their thoughts, the alarm in the room suddenly blared. They were momentarily stunned before scrambling to their feet.

Although nothing had happened for several days, no one could sleep peacefully at night. Soldiers from other rooms began to pour out.

“What’s going on?” asked a commander, his uniform slightly wrinkled, hair disheveled, and eyes bloodshot, showing signs of extreme stress.

“Sir, something is approaching us!” a soldier reported, then added, “And there are a lot of them!”

The civilizations in this star sector, after joining the Interstellar Technological Confederation, often found their technological development skewed due to various influences. They needed to rapidly advance in areas like propulsion, spacecraft, space metallurgy, and modular technology, often neglecting the development of ground forces.

This hadn’t been a problem in the past, as joining the Confederation meant security. While conflicts in space were common, they rarely involved life planets, which were considered fundamental to a civilization’s survival.

Perhaps only those long-established civilizations, having reached a bottleneck in space technology, had the time and interest to research and update their ground forces’ equipment.

But the Moto were not such a civilization. Their equipment hadn’t been updated in over a thousand years, and many devices were outdated. Even the sonic sensors installed in the sentry posts had been hastily repurposed from other machinery.

These devices had never triggered an alarm since their deployment, leading some Moto to wonder if they were even functional.

But now, their first warning not only proved their functionality but also delivered a massive “surprise” to the Moto.

The instrument screen was filled with dense red dots, so many that the entire display was dyed red, indicating an unimaginable number of enemies.

“Everyone, check your weapons and take your positions! Fire flares! You! Report our situation immediately and request reinforcements!” the commander shouted, recovering from his shock and issuing urgent orders.

Bright lights trailed smoke as they shot into the sky, exploding at a certain height and illuminating the area like a small sun, turning the night into day.