I Am The Swarm-Chapter 755: Cleanup

Since the accompanying starport hadn’t been completed, the Ji fleet had no plans to resupply here. Moreover, although this location was a full twenty light-years away from Swarm territory, it wasn’t necessarily a safe distance.

Thus, to leave this troublesome area as quickly as possible, even if there were a fully equipped starport, they wouldn’t linger here.

Thanks to their advanced artificial intelligence, the Ji race excelled in coordination. As soon as this fleet departed from the battlefield, the starport had already sealed itself and begun charging to prepare for transmitting this massive force. By the time the fleet arrived, the stargate was fully charged.

When the arriving Ji fleet was still some distance from the stargate, they began adjusting their formation. Ji warships were large vessels, and this stargate was of a very standard model, capable of accommodating only five ships of the Ji fleet’s size at a time.

Therefore, the Ji fleet formed an extremely elongated formation. This way, they wouldn’t need to decelerate or stop in front of the stargate but could pass through more quickly.

The formation was long. Even with pre-arranged formations and increased speed, it would still take a considerable amount of time for the entire fleet to pass through the stargate. And that was after the Ji fleet had split in half; otherwise, it would have taken even longer.

This Ji fleet’s mission was to protect the Swarm Empress and safely deliver her to the designated location. With such an elongated formation, where to place the Swarm Empress became a topic of discussion.

“I believe the target should be placed in the middle of the formation. That would be the safest option,” suggested a Ji staff officer, stroking his chin.

“Why the middle? If the Swarm attacks, wouldn’t we be crippling ourselves?”

“How could that happen? How would the Swarm come? Their only infiltrating force was wiped out over a year ago!”

“That’s not necessarily true. With the Swarm’s stealth and mimicry technology, if they entered our territory from another direction, given the defenses in those areas, it would be hard to detect them.”

“Indeed, we must be cautious. And haven’t you forgotten how the earlier Confederation forces, despite having the upper hand, were suddenly overcome?”

“Do you mean the possibility of extremely small infiltration units?” The battle between the Swarm and the Confederation forces led by the Rashudia race was considered a miraculous turnaround in military history and had been studied by many races.

They listed various hypotheses, such as the Swarm bribing key personnel among the Confederation, but this was quickly dismissed. Even if the Swarm had bribed some individuals, it would be impossible to smuggle so many combat units onto almost all the Confederation warships.

Although the number of Swarm units on each ship wasn’t large, the cumulative total across billions of ships was substantial. Moreover, the frontline base was heavily guarded, making it impossible for such a large-scale infiltration to go unnoticed.

Even if all the allies were bribed, the Ji race’s artificial intelligence responsible for the frontline base’s security could never be infiltrated by the Swarm.

Thus, many hypotheses could be ruled out. In the end, all the studying races reached similar conclusions: those Swarm units were delivered into the warships during the battle.

Given the level of technology displayed by the Swarm, something like miniature pinpoint wormholes was impossible. Even if the Swarm possessed such technology, the energy required to activate so many wormholes would be astronomical, and the Confederation forces would have surely noticed.

Therefore, suspicion turned to the seemingly inexplicable actions taken by the Swarm at the beginning of the war—the mass suicidal charges of Primordial Bodies mocked by the Confederation commanders.

Although the Swarm’s emergence and development years ranked them as juniors in the Confederation, their combat achievements were among the top. Throughout these solid records, the Swarm had never made foolish moves.

Thus, the Swarm’s seemingly abnormal actions must have had special significance. This was previously speculated by the Confederation forces, and although no concrete evidence had been found so far, all investigators believed this hypothesis. The Swarm used units of extremely small mass and size, possibly nano-level, which could enter the Confederation warships due to their size advantage, absorb ambient energy to rapidly develop and split, then mutate into combat units.

Though certain aspects still somewhat challenged the Confederation’s understanding, combined with the Swarm’s situation, this was indeed the most plausible hypothesis.

So, when did the Swarm develop these infiltration units? From previous battles, it was evident that these infiltration units were already highly mature in the Swarm’s combat system. The Swarm had even developed specific tactics for them.

Thus, they must have started testing these units early on, and they had likely been part of the operational lineup for some time.

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Had these units been utilized by the Swarm before? Based on the inferred data about these units, the investigators found that their primary use wasn’t just for infiltrating enemy warships during battles.

After all, these units had significant drawbacks. While their small size granted them strong infiltration capabilities, it also left them with almost no energy storage or mobility. With precautions, they were very easy to counter. It could be said that after using this tactic once, the Swarm couldn’t succeed again.

Although this one-time success yielded rich results, the investigators remained skeptical that the Swarm had developed an entire unit specifically for this purpose. They believed that this unit originally served a different function and had other applicable battlefields.

This wasn’t hard to guess. After all, small size meant fewer functional organs and thus limited functionality. Therefore, the investigators quickly deduced their original purpose and reported it.

“Exactly. The star systems bordering the Swarm might already have been infiltrated. There could be countless Swarm units hidden deep underground. Thus, our fleet isn’t absolutely safe right now.”

“Perhaps it’s not as severe as you imagine. The Swarm hasn’t occupied those star systems for long. And those tiny things aren’t very fast. Perhaps they’re still floating in space and haven’t reached their designated positions yet.”