I Am The Swarm

Actually, this calculation was somewhat flawed. The Yuntu Race was able to maintain such a low casualty rate because their warships frequently rotated positions. Each warship would only endure one round of attacks before retreating to the inner circle for repairs, while a fresh warship would take its place in the outer circle as a shield.

However, this rotation had a limit. No matter how many warships they had, there would come a moment when they ran out of replacements. When that moment arrived, the hastily repaired warships would not have the same durability as intact warships, and casualties would inevitably rise.

By the third and fourth cycle, the debt accumulated earlier would have to be repaid. The Yuntu Race’s battle strategy was akin to a martial arts master delaying the onset of their injuries.

The key now was whether this martial arts master could eliminate their enemy within the limited time available. And whether their enemy could endure until the martial artist’s injuries erupted.

As for the Swarm, playing the role of the enemy, could they last until that moment? The answer was yes. But there were also some problems—if they continued this kind of attritional exchange with the Yuntu Race, the Swarm’s losses would be significant.

Most importantly, the time cycle was too long. If the Yuntu Race could consume a large number of the Swarm’s combat units while waiting for reinforcements, it would be a scenario the Swarm did not wish to see.

Behind the Swarm’s encirclement, in the dark void, mosaic-like patches suddenly appeared. These patches flickered and connected, and then, enormous figures disabled their stealth systems, revealing their forms.

Each of them was over fifty kilometers long, more than twenty kilometers high, and nearly thirty kilometers wide, resembling massive anglerfish swimming in the cosmic ocean.

They were formed from the space debris collected and absorbed from previous star systems, transformed by the fungal carpet, and evolved into their current form. Their outer armor contained a high concentration of metal, making their defense extremely strong. Combined with the fungal carpet templates inside them providing immense regenerative capabilities, and their massive size, even being hit by the Yuntu Race’s dark energy main cannons would not inflict much damage.

Their exteriors were covered in tentacles, with some extending over 200 meters long and others only a few meters in length. These could defend against close-range harassment and also help pull in surrounding debris for consumption.

This supermassive space combat unit was the Swarm’s latest Desolation-Class Mothership, designed to fill a gap in the Swarm’s combat roster. These were the units that had previously captured the Yuntu warships.

Originally, due to some remaining flaws and their failure to meet Luo Wen’s expectations, he had not planned to send them to the frontlines. After all, gathering large amounts of space debris wasn’t easy. Even after clearing out the entire star system’s fixed defenses, space factories, and similar structures, they had only managed to incubate around a thousand of these units, making them a rare breed.

However, in order to break through the Yuntu Race’s defensive perimeter more quickly, these units were deployed early. To keep them moving and capable of battle, their interiors housed over ten thousand large atomic furnaces, which occupied a significant portion of their internal space, squeezing out room for other facilities. For example, the original five-kilometer-thick defensive layer had been reduced to just three kilometers.

Once the defensive layer was breached, the ten thousand large atomic furnaces inside them would turn them into walking nuclear arsenals. If even one furnace was damaged, it could easily trigger a chain reaction, making them extremely dangerous. This was the main reason Luo Wen had been reluctant to deploy them.

Fortunately, even with just three kilometers of armor, at the strength of a Primordial Body, even if a Desolation-Class Mothership remained motionless, it would take at least ten days to break through. Even under concentrated fire from the Yuntu Race’s main cannons, they could last for several hours.

However, once the Swarm’s intelligent entities broke through the new dark energy power system, they could reduce the ten thousand large atomic furnaces down to just a few hundred dark energy furnaces, freeing up massive amounts of space for additional facilities. At that point, they would truly be complete.

For now, it was best not to let them charge in first. However, they could still play a vital role. Behind the Desolation-Class Motherships, an electromagnetic launch rail slowly rose.

This was a miniaturized version of the Megastructure Electromagnetic Launch Platform, and it was the core function of the Desolation-Class Motherships. The projectiles it launched were not ordinary rounds, but Primordial Bodies curled into tight spheres.

Each Primordial Body pulled its tentacles inward, compressing itself into a compact “ball.” Then, with the help of other Primordial Bodies, it was loaded into the launch tube.

Inside the Desolation-Class Motherships, over ten thousand large atomic furnaces operated at full capacity. The electromagnetic rail began to glow with brilliant blue light, and it seemed as if the void itself was humming. The tension escalated.

“Fire!”

There was no dramatic display. The Primordial Body projectiles were launched almost silently. If not for the slight tremor of the Desolation-Class Motherships, one might not have even noticed that a shot had been fired.

The Primordial Body projectiles required no long acceleration period. The moment they were fired, they were instantly propelled to an incredible speed, racing toward the Yuntu warships.

Due to the distance, from the Yuntu Race’s perspective, the Primordial Bodies appeared as tiny specks. However, among these specks, some suddenly seemed to be the size of plates. They stood out like lanterns in the night sky, immediately catching the Yuntu Race’s attention. Their computers and monitoring instruments quickly processed the data.

The analysis nearly made their jaws drop.

Fifty-kilometer-long, mobile combat units?

This was not something just any race could achieve.

The Yuntu Race instantly raised their guard. Just like the Modified Spider Combat Bugs from earlier, they were certain these supermassive combat units had a unique function.

Fortunately, they did not have to wonder for long, because the Desolation-Class Motherships were about to demonstrate their true purpose.

The Primordial Bodies hurtled toward them at an unbelievable speed, and the Yuntu Race immediately realized the Swarm’s intent. These massive, tentacled space creatures might have seemed slow and cumbersome from a distance, but any civilization that had faced them before knew the horror of letting them get too close.

“Stop them! Don’t let them through!” the Yuntu fleet commander shouted.

A portion of the Yuntu fleet immediately redirected their main cannons, locking onto the incoming projectiles. A full volley was fired, obliterating the first thousand Primordial Body projectiles into dust.

But before the Yuntu Race could even breathe a sigh of relief, the Desolation-Class Motherships began their real performance.

Thanks to the Swarm’s intelligent entities, the electromagnetic launch system had been refined multiple times. What once required long cooldowns had evolved into continuous-fire mode.

Thus, the Yuntu Race was confronted with a terrifying sight—

The Desolation-Class Motherships had turned into massive machine guns, unleashing an unrelenting storm of Primordial Body projectiles, forming an unstoppable barrage aimed directly at them.