I Am The Swarm

If this continued, the momentum of the Yuntu Race’s charge would eventually be ground down by the Swarm. At that point, they would once again fall into the encirclement, rendering all their previous efforts and sacrifices meaningless.

The Yuntu commanders were acutely aware of this. They had neither the time nor the conditions to regroup and launch another assault. They had to break through in one go.

From an extreme distance, the battlefield resembled a scene from a tower defense game. The Swarm had established defenses on both sides of a corridor, relentlessly firing upon the Yuntu fleet trapped within. Meanwhile, the Yuntu fleet pressed forward with determination, but the energy storm and the wreckage of destroyed warships acted like decelerators, severely slowing their advance.

Suddenly, the Yuntu fleet, previously focused on pushing forward, changed tactics. Their formation split down the middle, with part of their forces actively engaging the Swarm units on both flanks. With the Swarm now occupied, their rate of fire faltered slightly, allowing the remaining Yuntu warships to surge toward the storm zone.

This time, the Yuntu Race had learned from their past experiences and adopted a new strategy. Instead of using their main cannons, they took the risk of activating their Repulsion Fields.

Though the Repulsion Fields were affected by interference in the storm zone, the Yuntu engineers made rapid parameter adjustments to stabilize them.

The frontline warships pushed forward with their Repulsion Fields active, bulldozing through the storm zone. The results were immediately apparent—not only did they clear out the wreckage in their path, but they also turned the debris into makeshift shields that blocked some of the incoming Swarm attacks.

Though they continued to suffer losses, they were no longer making futile sacrifices. Their forces advanced rapidly, unimpeded by obstacles, while the Swarm’s firepower was largely distracted. The remaining attacks were no longer enough to halt the Yuntu fleet’s passage through the storm.

Finally, the first row of warships, their Repulsion Fields active, broke through the storm zone. The sense of rebirth filled their hearts as they emerged into open space. At last, they had escaped the Swarm’s encirclement.

There weren’t many Swarm units stationed at the storm’s edge. With the escaped Yuntu warships now holding them in check, the safety of the following units improved significantly—at the very least, they no longer had to worry about frontal assaults.

The Swarm units at this position had borne the brunt of the Yuntu fleet’s main cannon fire throughout the battle. If not for their pilots being Knights, they would have long been wiped out.

However, even with their resilience, their numbers had dwindled to the point where only a handful of units remained combat-ready. As more Yuntu warships burst free, the Swarm forces were swiftly suppressed and eliminated.

With the remaining Swarm units dealt with, the Yuntu fleet did not continue their retreat. Instead, they spread out, leaving an open path in the center for the rest of their forces to escape. The heavily damaged warships moved to safe zones for emergency repairs, while those still capable of fighting turned back to strike the Swarm.

The Swarm units positioned on either side of the breakthrough point were already entangled with the Yuntu fleet that had charged in earlier. Now, with the newly escaped Yuntu warships attacking from behind, they found themselves caught in a deadly pincer. Their forces were rapidly whittled down.

With the path ahead cleared, the Yuntu fleet, previously clustered together, went to full throttle and surged toward the gap. However, the sudden acceleration stretched their formation, creating small but exploitable gaps.

The Swarm did not react immediately, maintaining their current pace of attack while discreetly adjusting their troop deployments. As the Yuntu formation stretched further and gaps widened, a pre-prepared Primordial body fleet burst from the Swarm ranks, striking directly at the weakest section.

In space warfare, large-scale ambushes were rare due to the vast distances involved. Though the Swarm’s Primordial body fleet had an element of surprise, it still took them several minutes to reach their target. That was more than enough time for the Yuntu forces to react.

A formation of nearly ten thousand Yuntu warships pivoted to intercept the Primordial body fleet. However, their maneuver further widened the gaps in their formation.

“Rear units, accelerate! Close those gaps now!” The Yuntu fleet’s supreme commander bellowed. The situation was far too delicate for even a single mistake. Every soldier had to understand their role and their designated position—hesitation or delay could doom them all.

But the Yuntu Race was not the Swarm. Even the most elite Yuntu forces could not achieve the Swarm’s seamless, limb-like coordination in such a chaotic battlefield. For reasons unknown, the trailing units hesitated for just a moment—just long enough for another Primordial body fleet to exploit the gap.

A Yuntu fleet that had already accelerated to full speed was now forced to decelerate and turn to intercept the new intruders.

“@&%&…!” The supreme commander cursed under his breath. But he knew now was not the time for blame. As the central commander, he had access to all intelligence, compiled by supercomputers and artificial intelligence into a visualized battlefield map. This allowed him to grasp the entire battlefield situation at a glance.

However, the other warships, each a part of the battlefield, lacked such an advantage. They could only see the limited area around them. Their judgments, constrained by their perspectives and experience, could never be as precise as his. Some confusion and hesitation were inevitable when facing incomprehensible orders.

Silently, the commander marked the identification codes and unit leaders of the ships responsible for the delay. If they managed to escape the encirclement, he would personally have a long conversation with them—or, at the very least, make them copy the military code a hundred times.

If they didn’t make it out… then it didn’t matter.

Age had made him sentimental. The supreme commander shook his head, refocusing his mind. Under his direction, the reinforcement units pushed forward again, but the gaps in their formation had grown dangerously wide. The Yuntu Race had to respond accordingly.

“We must eliminate those two infiltrating Swarm fleets immediately!”

The two Swarm assault fleets weren’t large, numbering only a few tens of thousands in total. However, they were merely vanguards, meant to probe the Yuntu defenses. If the Yuntu fleet failed to destroy them quickly, they would become beachheads, attracting more Swarm reinforcements. If that happened, the growing numbers would turn into a major crisis.

Time was the Yuntu Race’s scarcest resource. Any delay was intolerable.

A full-scale bombardment followed. The Yuntu fleet’s main cannons unleashed indiscriminate destruction, obliterating both Swarm vanguard fleets along with the Yuntu warships entangled in melee combat with them.

“You won’t need to write those military codes after all…” The supreme commander thought to himself as he watched the explosion-ridden battlefield on his screen.