I Am The Swarm

Thus, this meeting ended quickly under an atmosphere of solemnity. Both sides merely introduced themselves, with Sarah making herself known to Luo Wen.

“Teacher, the Overlord is truly awe-inspiring. Compared to him, I, as the former Empress of the Ratfolk, am far inferior,” Sarah remarked.

Morgan appeared puzzled as he replied, “I’m not sure what’s going on with the Overlord today. He’s usually much more approachable. But there’s plenty of time in the future; once you get to know him better, you’ll understand.”

Sarah chose not to pursue the topic. “Teacher, what’s next?”

“Since you don’t plan to return, why not focus on a career within the Swarm? Right now, we have plenty of personnel in management, but we’re severely lacking in military commanders. Perhaps you could give that a try,” Morgan suggested after some thought.

“But I only have experience in games,” Sarah replied. Since the unification of the Ratfolk, and under the deterrence of “unexpected events,” no skirmishes involving more than 100 individuals had occurred for years. Even if Sarah had wanted to hone her skills, she couldn’t find the opportunity and had to resort to practicing through games.

“It doesn’t matter. The Swarm’s combat strategies are entirely different from those of the Ratfolk. Besides, the Swarm currently has no enemies, so there’s plenty of time to learn. As long as you’re interested, it won’t be an issue.”

After considering for a moment, Sarah said, “I’ll take your suggestion, Teacher.” In her younger days as the eldest daughter, she had led small-scale skirmishes against the Kingdom of Merrican. She had enjoyed those days of commanding far more than her time as Empress, though the later years of peace had left her with no opportunities to shine.

The two chatted as they walked. Due to the weak gravity of the Moon, every step they took sent them soaring a considerable distance. Before long, they exited the underground base and arrived on the Red Moon’s surface.

Looking at the vast expanse of purple-gray Fungal Carpet and the towering launchers scattered across the landscape, Sarah remarked wryly, “The empire’s observatories must have been completely taken over by the Swarm. Otherwise, how could I, as the Empress, have been unaware that the Moon had transformed into this?”

“This is the far side of the Moon, invisible from the Genesis Planet. Moreover, the empire’s observatories are indeed under the Swarm’s control. Don’t dwell on it, Sarah—it’s for the Ratfolk’s protection,” Morgan said seriously.

“You’re probably right, Teacher,” Sarah said after some thought, quickly grasping the underlying logic. The Ratfolk’s safety depended on their harmlessness. If they stumbled upon something that caused unrest, given the disparity in strength between the two sides, it would be the Ratfolk who suffered in the end.

Soon, she adjusted her mindset. After all, she was already dead, so there was no point in worrying about such things. Shifting focus, she asked curiously, “Teacher, what are those giant structures?”

She had already asked about the purple-gray Fungal Carpet back in the spore capsule room. Now, her interest was piqued by the massive launchers rising from it.

“Those are our Swarm Meteor Launchers. The smaller ones handle precise launches within the solar system, while the larger ones are used for random launches toward other star systems. We have a batch of meteors nearing contact with Planet A7. Perhaps that’s why the Overlord is so serious today—another planet is about to reveal its secrets to the Swarm, which is always an exciting prospect.”

Indeed, Luo Wen was closely monitoring developments concerning Planet A7. Over the coming days, 31 Spore Capsules would make contact with the planetary system.

To oversee the operation, Luo Wen had deployed 300 Blades and over 100 Intelligent Entities, dividing them into 31 teams to manage the capsules’ landings one by one.

This was only the vanguard. Due to A7’s immense size and its numerous satellites with varying orbital speeds, capsules could only land when the satellites rotated to face the Genesis Planet.

Launching the capsules had taken nearly a year. Likewise, over the year following the vanguard’s arrival, an additional 81 capsules would gradually reach A7’s satellites.

Of the 31 capsules in this batch, 15 were directed at A7’s primary planet, while the remainder targeted its satellites. Depending on satellite size, two capsules each were assigned to A7B3, A7B9, A7B15, A7B23, and A7B25. The larger satellites, A7B7 and A7B21, were allocated three capsules each.

Two hours later, it was estimated that within just over an hour, the first two Spore Capsules would make contact with A7B25. Luo Wen and the team responsible for these capsules were on high alert.

Although this was a slow-speed launch within the star system, the Spore Capsules still traveled at speeds of 30 km/s. With the Swarm’s current technological capabilities, no armor could guarantee the survival of the seeds and eggs inside upon collision with a planet at such velocity.

Thus, deceleration procedures needed to begin an hour before contact.

For hyper-speed random launches aimed at targets outside the system, deceleration had to start a year or two in advance. At speeds of one-tenth the speed of light, collisions would obliterate the capsules regardless of the target’s condition.

One must remember that the asteroid that struck the Genesis Planet and caused mass extinction—and vaporized Luo Wen’s original body—had a speed of only 19.5 km/s, far slower than even the “slow” Swarm launches. Yet its impact was devastating.

If the Swarm could ensure accuracy and craft projectiles of unparalleled durability, it might one day create planet-penetrating weapons capable of obliterating smaller celestial bodies with a single shot—far surpassing the destructive power of nuclear weapons.

However, while the Swarm had mastered slow-speed hyperbolic launches, their maximum velocity remained at 30 km/s. Hyper-speed random launches reached one-tenth the speed of light—30,000 km/s. The numerical difference alone was a thousandfold, but the technological gap was exponentially greater. Each incremental speed increase required exponentially more effort.

Consider the difficulty of increasing a bicycle’s speed from 5 km/h to 50 km/h versus increasing it from 50 km/h to 500 km/h. Both represent a tenfold increase, yet they are worlds apart.

Moreover, developing materials capable of withstanding planetary penetration required unparalleled advancements in material science, rivaling the challenges of creating hyper-speed launch systems.

Thus, for the foreseeable future, hyperbolic planetary annihilators remained a distant dream for Luo Wen. By the time such weapons were developed, the Swarm might have grown to a scale where they were no longer necessary.

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