I Am The Swarm

The exterior of the entire base was constructed from an extremely sturdy metal and a transparent glass-like material, forming a sealed structure with an independent air circulation system.

The glass-like material, despite appearing fragile, was astonishingly hard and thick. Even concentrated artillery fire would struggle to breach it in a short period. Ironically, the seemingly sturdier metal sections were weaker in certain areas due to functional requirements.

For example, several exits used by maintenance personnel to repair instruments and equipment were only one-half to one-third the thickness of the fortress walls.

The Swarm quickly identified these weak points. Raiders maneuvered cautiously into the blind spots of surveillance equipment near the doors and destroyed them.

Some bugs, slightly different in appearance from the Raiders, crawled forward and raised their abdomens, spraying viscous liquid onto the doors. This was the oldest and most basic acid-spraying mechanism. After subsequent improvements, the strength of the acid increased by hundreds of times, enough to corrode these tough metal barriers.

Even the inner walls of the emission tubes within the bugs’ bodies had been enhanced, allowing them to spray acid as far as twenty meters.

In the base’s monitoring room, one of the screens suddenly turned to static.

“Damn it! This piece of junk broke again. Whoever procured these things ought to be court-martialed,” complained a Riken soldier.

He picked up a communicator. “Team Three, Team Three, the camera in front of Maintenance Passage Seven is down. Go check it out.”

Unfortunately, despite waiting for some time, he received no response. He tapped the communication device in frustration and suddenly noticed several more cameras going dark. Alarmed, a foreboding sense of danger struck him.

Before he could call on another team to investigate, the sharp wail of an alarm filled the air.

On another monitor displaying the internal layout of the base, several rooms connected to maintenance passages turned red one after another, indicating structural damage and the intrusion of external air.

The soldier quickly looked to another wall filled with screens showing footage from within the base. The video feeds for the rooms connected to the passages had gone dark, and the linked passage cameras were also rapidly being taken offline.

Before one of the screens blacked out, he caught a glimpse of an endless swarm of bugs surging forward.

Shocked, he immediately called his colleagues and sounded the alarm.

Soon, the warning, initially confined to the monitoring room, reverberated throughout the entire base.

At this moment, Lieutenant Colonel Cross, the base’s commanding officer, was in the middle of a video conference.

The piercing alarm startled the high-ranking participants, who quickly checked to ensure the alert wasn’t coming from their own ships.

“Cross, what’s going on over there?” Major General Porter, noticing the sound originating from Cross’s video feed, was the first to voice his concern. As her senior, he was quick to ask about the situation.

Cross was equally bewildered. She had no idea why the alarms in her supposedly secure fortress base were blaring.

Just then, her adjutant whispered a few words to her, and her expression shifted to one of utter disbelief.

“What is it, Cross?!” Porter pressed, sensing she now knew something critical.

“The bugs… they’ve invaded my base?!” Cross stammered, still struggling to comprehend the reality.

Not only was she incredulous, but the other commanders in the meeting also found it hard to believe.

“Impossible! Based on the bugs’ demonstrated combat capabilities, even ignoring how they bypassed detection systems, they shouldn’t be able to breach the fortress defenses,” a captain interjected, his skeptical gaze directed at Cross. It was clear he viewed her as a privileged upstart and was eager to challenge her competence.

“Silence!” General Masai, the supreme commander of the expedition fleet, cut through the noise. “Cross, organize your defenses immediately and determine if you need reinforcements. Also, grant us access to your base’s surveillance feed. I want to see what’s happening on-site.”

Cross felt a pang of helplessness. While the surveillance footage within the base didn’t offer much visibility, the idea of granting others access to her domain was uncomfortable. However, with her base compromised, she had no choice.

After summoning the base’s AI to grant the requested access, the surveillance footage was soon displayed in the meeting.

Regrettably, the live feed revealed little as most functioning cameras had already been destroyed. Still, the fleeting images before the screens went dark showed glimpses of the endless tide of Swarm forces surging through.

Cross no longer cared about preserving the base’s privacy. Initially, she thought a few stray bugs had found their way inside. Now, she realized the situation was far more dire.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. With the base at its most vulnerable, the Swarm’s calculated assault didn’t seem coincidental. Yet, her superior intellect made her reluctant to believe the bugs could orchestrate such a precise attack.

But there was no time to dwell on such thoughts. The crisis was unfolding. She quickly ordered all airlocks sealed to delay the Swarm’s advance.

Meanwhile, she issued a plea for help. Fortunately, the other commanders, now watching the surveillance footage, recognized the gravity of the situation.

Yet, with forces currently committed to attacking various Swarm nests, redeploying and arranging rescue teams would take at least thirty minutes—even with the Riken ships’ exceptional speed.

The nearby garrison stationed in the pit zone could reach the base within five minutes. But before Cross could order them back, she received a distress call from that area.

The pit defenses were under siege. Raiders had appeared from nowhere, launching suicide charges against the garrison. With most of their forces drawn away, the remaining troops, gunboats, and transports were struggling to hold out under the relentless Swarm assault.

Pit zone, other nests, and now the fortress base—cold sweat trickled down Cross’s back. The interconnected attacks reeked of a calculated scheme.

Though she couldn’t yet discern the Swarm’s true objective, it was undoubtedly ambitious.

For now, she could only hope the reinforced airlocks would hold long enough. The base’s massive size, countless rooms, and nearly identical layout could disorient even its Riken inhabitants without their personal navigational terminals.

Combined with the sturdy doors, the bugs’ primitive bodies would have difficulty breaking through. Additionally, the hallways were equipped with a few automated defense weapons controlled by the AI, all functioning as expected. She believed these measures could hold the Swarm at bay for thirty minutes—at least, she hoped so.

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