I Am The Swarm

Amid the swirling dust and debris, more members of the escort team were overwhelmed by the bugs. The grenades, instead of achieving their intended effect, disrupted their own formation, compounding the chaos.

After a barrage of desperate gunfire, the assault was momentarily repelled.

In the aftermath, a grim inventory revealed five more casualties.

“Captain, it feels like they’re toying with us.”

“Or trying to exhaust our ammo.”

“But why? They could have wiped us out earlier.”

“Yeah, I noticed too—it wasn’t us driving them back just now. They retreated on their own.”

“Shut up!” Hasmu snapped. “Whatever they’re planning, it’s not inviting us for a meal. Set the timers on all our bombs to five minutes and move faster!”

Realizing they would be gradually picked apart if they lingered, Hasmu decided to use the bugs’ temporary retreat to accelerate their withdrawal.

The team quickly set their explosives, tossing them haphazardly onto the ground. Without the extra weight, they felt slightly lighter and, after checking their remaining ammunition, began a fighting retreat.

The passage gradually narrowed to about 20 meters wide, concentrating their firepower. In the tighter space, their defensive line seemed to hold stronger, giving the team a sliver of hope for escape.

That hope was dashed after retreating another fifty meters, where they unexpectedly encountered Sneva’s advance team.

“Sneva, what’s going on?” Hasmu called without turning, too preoccupied with the bugs’ renewed charge to look back.

“Captain, the rear is completely blocked! The passage is swarming with bugs—we can’t get through!” Conis, the communications officer, shouted, his voice strained with panic. Sneva himself was too embroiled in battle to respond.

“Damn it! What are these bugs trying to do?” Hasmu cursed. He’d uttered more expletives in one day than in the past year combined.

Before he could devise a plan, a series of explosions rocked the tunnel, their concussive force hurling the team through the air.

Each soldier had carried several pounds of adhesive explosives; collectively, over two hundred pounds of ordnance detonated within the confined space. The destruction was catastrophic.

Massive chunks of rock and clouds of dust rained down, partially sealing the tunnel. The entire cavern trembled for what felt like half a minute before settling.

Hasmu groaned as he pushed away the rubble pinning him down, shaking his head to clear the disorientation. Dust covered his visor, and after wiping it clean, it quickly became obscured again.

Switching his helmet to thermal imaging mode, he spotted humanoid heat signatures nearby.

After a moment’s pause, he struggled to his feet. His rifle was nowhere to be found, likely lost in the blast, so he reluctantly drew the pistol strapped to his back and cautiously approached the heat sources.

On the way, he encountered several bugs, either stunned or dead from the explosion. Though lacking expertise in biology, Hasmu didn’t take any chances, stabbing each one to ensure it wouldn’t rise again.

The bugs’ leg armor was incredibly tough, resisting even his alloy knife, but their backs and abdomens were more vulnerable, allowing him to dispatch them with relative ease.

Gradually, he uncovered a few teammates from the debris. As some regained consciousness and regrouped, their search efforts quickened.

After several minutes, Hasmu conducted a headcount. Of the original team, only 32 remained. They found three bodies, but the others—over a dozen—were missing.

At this depth, anyone unaccounted for was likely either buried under rubble or taken by the bugs, their survival slim to none.

Fortunately, the blocked tunnel now reduced the number of directions from which the bugs could attack, slightly improving the survivors’ chances.

However, with much of their equipment lost and no time to recover it, Hasmu ordered a rapid retreat toward their original entry point.

Unbeknownst to them, the bugs in the rear passage had suffered minimal damage from the explosion. Even if affected, their recovery was far quicker than that of the humans.

If the bugs had wanted to eliminate the team, they could have done so several times over during the brief period the soldiers lay unconscious. But instead, they waited. Observing.

This realization made Hasmu feel like a clown performing a grim dance for an audience.

Yet, he knew there was no choice but to keep moving forward. Survival demanded it, even though he suspected the bugs would not allow them to escape. The closer they got to the exit, the closer they would come to death.

On the way, a few soldiers were tackled by bugs. Their comrades no longer stopped to help; survival instincts overrode camaraderie.

As they neared the vertical shaft, fear took root among the survivors. The air grew thick with despair, as if the darkness itself pressed down on them.

The passage narrowed to just five meters wide, and at last, they reached the 500-meter vertical shaft.

Remarkably, the reconnaissance specialist Angulo was still alive, and his equipment was intact. He almost wished it wasn’t.

The instruments displayed countless red dots above them. His hands trembled as he adjusted a set of helmet-mounted probes and looked upward into the shaft.

What he saw drained the last vestiges of hope from him. Angulo collapsed, his legs giving out beneath him.

“Angulo, what’s wrong? Are you injured?”

“Captain… it’s over. We’re finished,” Angulo muttered, his voice hollow.

“What’s going on?”

“Above us… above us…” Angulo stammered, his once-steady demeanor shattered by the psychological torment of their ordeal.

“Spit it out! What’s above us?” Hasmu shouted, shaking Angulo violently by the shoulders.

Hasmu was no fool. He had already suspected the truth but clung to a shred of hope that he might be wrong.

But there was no miracle.

“They’re everywhere! Those magnetic-field creatures! The entire shaft is filled with them!” Angulo screamed, his eyes momentarily regaining focus before his voice broke into despair.

His words didn’t bring clarity or courage; instead, they crushed what little resolve the team had left. One by one, the soldiers slumped to the ground, consumed by an overwhelming sense of doom.

Despair hung heavy in the air.

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