I Am The Swarm

Facing the mechs of the Daibo Civilization, the size advantage of the Primordial Bodies was overwhelmingly evident. Watching the tiny figure charging toward it, the Primordial Body raised one of its massive tentacles and swung it forward.

The tentacle, over two hundred meters in length and nearly thirty meters in diameter at its thickest point, carried an earth-shattering force as it lashed through the void toward the mech.

Blue arcs of electricity crackled along the tentacle, not only enhancing its defense but also increasing its destructive power and speed. The speed of this strike was so immense that, if it had occurred within an atmosphere, it would have easily created a sonic boom.

Facing this attack, the mech pilot remained relatively calm. During the years of travel from the Daibo Civilization’s territory to the frontlines, their home base had continuously upgraded the technology of their mechs.

Although they couldn’t replace the equipment of the mechs already on the frontlines, they had developed a simulation program based on the Swarm’s previous combat data, collaborating with other civilizations obsessed with virtual worlds.

This simulation program was simple in function: it created virtual mechs identical to those on the frontlines and pitted them against the Swarm’s Primordial Bodies in a virtual environment.

Unlike hardware, this program could be transmitted directly to the fleet via quantum communication devices during their journey.

In the first few years after arriving at the battlefield, these mech pilots—or rather, model enthusiasts—were awakened from hibernation and began training in the virtual program.

Then, upon reaching the frontlines, they expected to engage in battle immediately. However, the Yuntu Civilization’s defeat and Mowei’s efforts to buy ten years for the Rashudia Race meant that the Daibo mech pilots had an additional decade to train.

The tentacle swing, being one of the most basic attacks of the Primordial Body, had long been recorded by the Interstellar Technological Confederation. Every mech pilot had died to this move thousands of times in the virtual world.

But in the virtual world, everything could be reset. The countless deaths had given them a deep familiarity with this attack, and they had memorized countless ways to counter it.

Therefore, even though the Primordial Body’s strike was incredibly fast and enhanced by electromagnetic acceleration, the mech pilot’s reflexes—or rather, muscle memory—were even faster.

However, the performance of the Daibo mechs wasn’t sufficient to allow for any flashy maneuvers. So, in the split second before impact, the targeted mech quickly raised its left arm, holding a large metal shield in front of it.

At the same time, the mech’s right arm crossed over its chest, providing a second layer of defense. Finally, the mech leaned its body backward, tilting its head upward.

“Boom!” Although sound couldn’t travel in the vacuum of space, the deafening impact resonated through the metal hull and into the cockpit. The massive metal shield shattered into pieces under the immense force.

Next, the mech’s arms were torn apart, sending debris flying toward its body. Under this barrage of shrapnel, the mech’s body was riddled with holes.

Finally, the force reached the mech’s main body, causing the reactive armor on its surface to be blown off. The entire mech was sent flying like a ball, tumbling through space.

Fortunately, after all these layers of damage reduction, the cockpit in the mech’s head remained relatively intact. The upward tilt of the head had protected the relatively fragile ruby-colored observation window.

The mech was severely damaged, and its energy generator was critically damaged, with the risk of explosion at any moment. However, aside from being disoriented by the sudden acceleration, feeling nauseous, and suffering a few broken bones, the pilot had managed to survive.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pressed a red button on the control panel. Instantly, the pilot’s seat folded inward, and the overhead panel opened, ejecting the seat into space.

This was the integrated single-person escape pod, the last line of defense for a mech pilot. This pilot would go down in history as the first Daibo to engage the Swarm in real combat, the first member of the Interstellar Technological Confederation to do so. He was also the first to withdraw from combat, the first to lose a mech, the first to…

In short, he had achieved many firsts—many, many firsts.

Although this pilot, having lost his mech and suffered injuries, would likely be unable to return to combat for some time, the battle between the Primordial Body and the Daibo mechs was just beginning.

After swatting away the first enemy, the Primordial Body turned its attention to the other mechs that had closed in. However, the Primordial Body had more than one tentacle, and swinging multiple tentacles to attack several enemies simultaneously was child’s play for it.

The first pilot’s strategy of taking the hit head-on was the worst possible option, only slightly better than self-destruction. With preparation, the remaining mechs chose not to take the hits directly.

The Daibo Civilization had the capability to build larger mechs, but they had chosen a height of sixty meters. This was because, after calculations, sixty meters was determined to be the optimal size for balancing firepower and agility with their current technology.

A smaller mech meant weaker weapons. The already underwhelming ranged weapons would have even smaller calibers, and the size of melee weapons would also be reduced accordingly.

A thirty-meter-long ship-cutting blade would be perfect for slicing through a twenty-meter-thick tentacle. With good accuracy and skill, a few strikes could sever it. But a twenty-meter-long blade would be far less effective, and even if the Primordial Body remained stationary, it would take a long time to cut through a single tentacle.

Now, the agility of the smaller mechs came into play. The mechs were equipped with nearly a hundred small thrusters distributed across their bodies, allowing for multi-directional movement.

Facing the incoming tentacle strikes, they dodged in all directions—up, down, left, and right—while occasionally landing a slash. The high-molecular blades, specifically designed to counter the Swarm’s biological armor, left massive wounds on the Primordial Body’s tentacles with each strike.

However, while these injuries looked severe, they were little more than scratches to the Primordial Body, whose body was constructed from the fungal carpet template.

But the mech pilots didn’t know this. Due to the Swarm’s gene lock, the Interstellar Technological Confederation had been unable to fully analyze the Primordial Body’s physiology, and thus, they didn’t know where its vital points were.

In the eyes of most civilizations, the vital points of a biological organism were limited to two places: the head and the heart. Since the Primordial Body was a biological weapon of the Swarm, it was likely to have these two vital points.

Therefore, while dodging the tentacle strikes, the mech pilots attempted to close in on the Primordial Body’s main body. Although the soft-bodied structure of the Primordial Body made it difficult to distinguish its front from its back, it was unlikely that its head or heart would be located in its tentacles.

However, closing the distance also meant less reaction time to dodge the tentacle strikes. Before long, several mechs were sent flying. One of them even exploded before its escape pod could be deployed.