I Am The Swarm

The first wave of Primordial Bodies had now reached the wreckage zone. As the Confederation forces had predicted, even the highly impact-resistant biological armor of the Primordial Bodies couldn’t withstand the extreme-speed collisions.

The splattered fluids spread across the void, propelled by inertia toward the Confederation forces’ positions. However, due to the deceleration from the impact, these fluids no longer posed a significant threat.

Some of the wreckage was struck, either shifting from its original position or being blown apart, creating gaps. The Confederation forces had the opportunity and capability to repair these gaps, but in order to give the Swarm hope, they deliberately left them untouched.

Soon, the second wave of Primordial Bodies arrived. After passing through the main and secondary cannon fire, only a few lucky ones managed to navigate the wreckage zone and reach the Confederation forces’ ships.

But before they could showcase their abilities, they were obliterated by Unmanned Fighter Drones carrying high-yield bombs.

While most of the Confederation forces intentionally went easy on the Swarm, they didn’t actually want the Primordial Bodies to get too close. At close range, they had no effective way to deal with these agile octopus-like creatures. If their ships were damaged as a result, it would be a net loss, especially since they hadn’t requested the Ji race’s artificial intelligence to intervene.

Therefore, they chose to use Unmanned Fighter Drones to trade blows with the Primordial Bodies. Since the Primordial Bodies were much larger than the Unmanned Fighter Drones and could release mature and larval bodies from their storage pods, each Primordial Body was targeted by a swarm of Unmanned Fighter Drones.

From the outside, it looked as though the Swarm had breached the defenses and caused losses to the Confederation forces. They hoped this would encourage the Swarm to continue their troop-dumping behavior.

The Daibo civilization, however, presented a different scene. Tens of thousands of humanoid mecha surged out from their ships. Compared to the Daibo civilization’s fleet of fifty million ships, these tens of thousands of mecha seemed insignificant.

The mecha stood nearly sixty meters tall, with long arms and legs and perfect proportions. However, these mecha were based on large, highly detailed figurines, resulting in colorful and extravagant paint jobs that made them look like exquisite works of art.

In terms of weaponry, since the mecha were designed for close combat with the Swarm, they were equipped with melee weapons. The right arm wielded a twenty-meter-long high-molecular blade, while the left arm carried a reinforced metal shield nearly forty meters long and twenty meters wide.

For ranged weapons, the mecha had multiple close-defense cannons on their heads and chests to deal with small harassing targets. Hidden in the right thigh was an energy gun, which, due to its caliber, was only slightly more powerful than the weapons of Unmanned Fighter Drones, providing a minimal amount of ranged firepower.

On the right side of the mecha’s back was a large-caliber energy cannon. When in use, the cannon would rise and mount on the mecha’s shoulder. Due to the rushed production and design, the mecha’s right hand was needed to stabilize the cannon when firing.

However, the “large caliber” of this energy cannon was only relative to the mecha itself. Its power was barely on par with a ship’s secondary cannons, serving as the mecha’s primary ranged attack method.

The mecha’s head featured a reinforced ruby-red glass panel, behind which lay the cockpit. Since there had never been a mecha warrior unit before and time was short, the pilots were recruited from among figurine enthusiasts. Surprisingly, these enthusiasts were more than willing to take on the role, eager for the chance to pilot mecha in real combat.

Previously, the figurine community had hosted various strange competitions, such as mecha sports tournaments and mecha combat tournaments. As a result, these enthusiasts, though not professional soldiers, had more experience piloting mecha than most soldiers.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints and data limitations, these mecha were still primitive models with many shortcomings. However, with the combat data collected from this battle, the Daibo civilization might refine and improve them, potentially developing specialized mecha tailored to different enemies.

Thanks to the Daibo civilization’s extra leniency, over twenty Primordial Bodies from the second wave managed to pass through the wreckage zone and reach their fleet.

Hundreds of mecha eagerly rushed forward. The high-power thrusters on their backs gave them decent speed in space. However, despite their impressive size, the mecha were dwarfed by the Primordial Bodies, which were dozens of times larger.

The first civilization the Swarm encountered that used mecha was the Botian civilization, located in another star system. Fortunately, their star system only had the Botian civilization. Unfortunately, a wormhole inexplicably appeared on their planet, periodically releasing one or more small monsters.

This forced them to develop mecha nearly a hundred meters tall to combat these creatures.

It’s worth noting that even the Daibo civilization, a mid-ring civilization, could only produce mecha under sixty meters tall. While the Daibo civilization could technically create larger mecha, the corresponding designs and equipment would require extensive time and effort to develop.

Otherwise, they could have simply built a five-hundred-meter-tall mecha to go one-on-one with a Primordial Body, rather than having multiple mecha gang up on a single Primordial Body.

This highlights the difficulty of creating larger mecha. Even a hundred-meter-tall mecha, if it were to simply stand on a planet’s surface without moving, would require terrifyingly advanced technology.

The Botian hadn’t even left their home planet. If not for their bizarrely skewed technological development, they might have already achieved interstellar travel.

But this was unavoidable. Their skewed technological development wasn’t a conscious choice, like the Daibo civilization’s decision to lie flat and seek personal enjoyment. Instead, it was a forced deviation due to the constant threat of monsters. If they hadn’t developed combat mecha, they would have been wiped out long ago.

Fortunately, the Swarm discovered them. They even kindly helped some of them transform into immortal intelligent entities. In return, the Swarm gained access to their home planet, which was a treasure trove in itself.

The other side of the wormhole also held a treasure trove. When the Swarm began developing it, the confederation’s war against the Swarm had just begun. Over the past century, the resources from that place had greatly aided the Swarm. Once fully utilized, they would surely give the confederation a few surprises.