I Am The Swarm

The massive forces originally stockpiled at the frontline, combined with reinforcements arriving from multiple directions, and bolstered further by the royal court’s former garrison—these combined into a staggering total force of approximately Fifty Billion troops.

All of these units were to gradually circumvent the blast zone of the exploded star and arrive at Star Gate XM1209 over the next ten years. From there, they would be transported through various Inner-circle Alliance Star Gates and then dispersed along the frontline.

Of course, the Swarm’s actions weren’t motivated by pure, selfless loyalty. A single Star Gate project wasn’t nearly enough to justify such a heavy commitment from the Swarm.

The truth was, if the Swarm was so eager to fulfill their allied obligations, it was because they had their own calculations in mind.

Previously, the Swarm had indeed sent a batch of reinforcements to the Inner-circle Alliance, but the troop count had been so small that once scattered, it would inevitably raise suspicions.

After all, with so few troops being spread across so many locations, any reasonable person would find it strange. But the Swarm’s original goal had been to light up the map. Under those conditions, their previous deployment didn’t align with their purpose.

That’s why the Swarm decided to dispatch a large enough force all at once. Under the pretense of assisting with regional defense, they could then scatter across the frontline—achieving their goal of “map illumination.”

The plan had been finalized, awaiting only gradual execution. In space warfare, the time scale was immense. Marches were measured in years, and one could only wait patiently.

As time passed and the Swarm units reached their designated areas, the Swarm proposed dispersing their troops further to help reduce the pressure across the front.

After all, they were merely allies. The moment their common enemy was eliminated, there was a very real risk they would turn on each other. So, suppressing the other side’s development while cooperating had become an art form for the leadership on both sides.

However, the current situation didn’t allow the Inner-circle Alliance to refuse. Pressure was mounting on every front, and Swarm forces were desperately needed as cannon fodder. Left with no better option, they had to approve the proposal.

But precautions were inevitable. After all, the Swarm had a history of infiltrating enemy warships with nano-scale units. Even if you knew about them, they were still nearly impossible to guard against. No wonder the Inner-circle Alliance was reluctant to let the Swarm roam freely.

Was Luo Wen the kind of person who would pull tricks behind his allies’ backs? At first glance, it seemed unlikely—after all, no one could say for sure what Luo Wen truly was or what he was capable of.

Yet, along the routes where Swarm units marched toward the front lines, countless “things” were casually discarded along the way. Despite their stealth, these nano-scale infiltration units didn’t go entirely unnoticed by a well-prepared Inner-circle Alliance.

When questioned by the Alliance, the Swarm simply laughed it off, hoping to gloss over the issue. But clearly, that wasn’t going to fly.

Left with no other choice, the Swarm revealed some secrets: all of their combat units were based on technology inherited from a high-level civilization. They merely imitated the designs and had no capability to modify them.

As for certain units’ habit of scattering seed-like components wherever they went—well, that was just a feature of those particular species. The Swarm had no way to change that.

When the Inner-circle Alliance requested restrictions on those units, the Swarm responded by stating that their combat units, after all, were still biological in nature. Certain biological needs were unavoidable. Removing seed-scattering units would impact the overall combat effectiveness of the forces.

They went on with this “big reasoning” and theoretical talk for so long that even the Swarm almost believed themselves. Let alone the Inner-circle Alliance, who didn’t understand what high-level biological tech even involved. In the end, the Swarm successfully bluffed their way through.

The Inner-circle Alliance had no choice but to hold their noses and assign personnel to follow behind the Swarm units, cleaning up any scattered “seeds.”

But how could nano-scale units be so easily cleaned up? The Inner-circle Alliance understood this as well. Eventually, they gave up trailing the Swarm units and instead enhanced the defenses of every planet along the routes.

In their minds, as long as those things weren’t given room to grow or evolve, there wouldn’t be a problem. To this, the Swarm could only quietly compliment them, “Brilliant.”

Time continued to pass. As Swarm forces dispersed along the frontline, Luo Wen finally illuminated most of the map along the line of confrontation, greatly increasing his grasp of the evolving situation.

During the standoff, the two sides were far from peaceful. Conflicts broke out frequently. What surprised Luo Wen was that most of the time, the Inner-circle Alliance was the one initiating the clashes.

The reason for this was that the Ji race was still trying to purge internal instability among its forces. But how could the Inner-circle Alliance allow that to happen?

So whenever the Ji race launched internal investigations, the Inner-circle Alliance would take the opportunity to strike, forcing them to abandon their efforts.

And as long as the Ji race couldn’t root out these internal threats, the Inner-circle Alliance would maintain a certain advantage during engagements. In this way, the Inner-circle civilizations gained some tactical benefits.

But this trend began to change as time went on. From the very beginning of the standoff, the Ji race had already established large-scale military factories at numerous external Star Gates.

Although the Inner-circle Alliance had managed to destroy or capture several Star Gates through various means over the years, the Ji race still held control of several hundred.

As these military factories came online and began operation, the number of Star Gates visible to the Inner-circle Alliance steadily decreased. With secure rear defenses, an endless stream of fully automated warships poured through the Star Gates back to the Ji homeland and were swiftly deployed to the standoff at the frontline.

As the number of these fully automated warships surged—so much so that even crewed warships could conduct self-inspections without fear for their defense—the number of Inner-circle moles being eliminated began to rise significantly.

“…I’m a little worried.”

“I know what you’re worried about. The Ji race’s unrestrained deployment of fully automated warships definitely has Lumina’s hand behind it.”

“Exactly. The Ji race already had a high level of automation. Now it’s being pushed to extremes. I fear the elders who passed these resolutions don’t fully grasp what this means.”

“Heh… How could they not know? Don’t forget—they live and breathe alongside Lumina.”

“If that’s the case, why didn’t they resist?”

“In my view, perhaps we’ve been wrong all along. Lumina didn’t just recently gain sentience—she’s been lurking for a long time. By now, I suspect few of the Ji elders are even still alive.”

“Good point. Only that would explain how they’re pinpointing our people so precisely and passing these outrageous resolutions.”

“It seems even our infiltrators can’t be trusted anymore. At the very least, those Ji elders know who they are. From now on, any intelligence coming from those who are still ‘safe’… we’ll need to scrutinize it very carefully.”