I Am The Swarm

“Target the remaining mobile Swarm units and eliminate them first!” Diallo ordered as the Daqi fleet continued its spiraling retreat from Planet Izumo.

With the Swarm’s Primordial bodies increasingly reduced to stationary defensive turrets, fewer of them had the firing angles necessary to maintain pressure on the retreating fleet.

Still, before losing their functionality entirely, many of them pushed their limits. By overloading their cellular structures and destroying their weapon mechanisms in the process, they achieved a final burst of firepower.

By this stage of the battle, over 800 Daqi warships had been left behind on the front lines. Among these, more than 300 were completely destroyed, while the rest were disabled and unable to follow the fleet’s retreat.

Initially, the Daqi had attempted to rescue some of their stranded comrades. However, once the fleet began withdrawing in earnest, small vessels and escape pods from the disabled ships began heading toward the Riken Twin Star Defensive Zone instead.

This retreat was far from orderly. Diallo’s fleet, which had made space for the Crimson Kiss missiles by partially clearing out their drone bays, still carried a significant number of drones—about 500 per warship.

The Daqi drones were elliptical and flat, resembling an enlarged first-generation Swarm Combat Beetle. Measuring 5 meters in length, 3 meters in width, and 2 meters in height, they were designed to be stored compactly. The drones were slotted into racks within their hangars, looking like rows of oversized USB drives.

Even after accommodating the bulky Crimson Kiss missiles, each warship retained room for over 500 drones.

The primary role of these drones was breaching and harassment. Armed with two small energy cannons concealed on either side of their chassis, the drones posed little threat to the reactive armor of enemy warships. However, their compact size allowed them to exploit gaps, targeting exposed components such as radar arrays, main and secondary turrets, and even penetrating hangar bays to wreak havoc inside enemy ships.

Against the Swarm, however, Diallo had refrained from deploying the drones early in the battle. He knew from his research that the Swarm excelled at close-quarters combat. Sending out the drones would have been futile, serving only to inflate the Swarm’s kill count.

However, while completely destroyed warships lost their drones, those left behind due to mobility issues often still had functioning drone bays. Before triggering self-destruction protocols, the Daqi ensured their drones were evacuated.

Since these drones might still prove useful later, they couldn’t be sent to the Rikens along with the escape pods. This created an unusual scene on the battlefield.

From the disabled Daqi warships emerged two distinct groups of craft. Escape pods and small vessels headed for the Twin Star Defensive Zone, while swarms of drones flew back toward the main fleet, seeking refuge in the now partially emptied hangars.

As the number of disabled warships grew, the scale of these dual evacuations increased dramatically. By the end, the flow of craft was almost overwhelming.

While the Rikens had ample capacity to accommodate incoming escape pods, the Daqi fleet’s hangars quickly filled up. Compounding the issue, several warships that had taken in drones were themselves destroyed shortly afterward. The crowded hangars became a liability, further complicating retreat operations.

Eventually, the Daqi were forced to halt drone recoveries entirely. Newly arriving drone swarms were redirected to linger behind the retreating fleet, clustered in vulnerable formations.

As disposable assets, the drones had minimal protective armor. Against the Swarm’s high-penetration energy weapons, they couldn’t even serve as effective shields. Had they been suitable for such a role, Diallo would have deployed them to block incoming fire long ago. Instead, they were left to trail behind, waiting for their next opportunity to contribute.

After two more rounds of volley exchanges, the Daqi fleet left behind over 50 additional warships. However, they finally managed to shake off most of the immobilized Primordial bodies. Only about 2,000 remained in pursuit, sluggishly adjusting their orbital positions to keep pace with the Daqi fleet’s maneuvers.

At this point, these remaining Primordial bodies posed little threat. The Daqi fleet still had over 1,300 warships, collectively outweighing the Primordial bodies by several dozen times and outnumbering their main cannons by multiples. Destroying the remnants was merely a matter of time.

The Primordial bodies seemed to understand their grim fate. They began overloading their weapon systems, seeking to maximize their attacks in their final moments.

“Fire at will! Finish them off quickly! Begin loading the drones into the hangars—don’t waste any more time!” Diallo finally exhaled in relief.

The reckless charge had been costly, but as long as they broke through, there was still hope for a turnaround. If necessary, he could even request reinforcements from the Empire. He had no aspirations of becoming king and was prepared to relinquish his command upon returning. A quiet title as a prince was far more appealing than pursuing hollow military achievements.

“Yes, Your Highness,” Aslit replied.

This was a battle of unequal firepower, evident from the overwhelming volume of energy beams emanating from the Daqi fleet compared to the Swarm’s output. The remaining Primordial bodies capable of firing dwindled rapidly, soon dropping below 1,000. Meanwhile, they had managed to destroy fewer than ten Daqi warships—an abysmal performance.

The poor results were due to the Daqi warships’ tactical adaptability. Their firepower density had declined significantly, and unless a single volley could overwhelm a warship entirely, the Daqi vessels were able to reposition and rotate different sections of reactive armor to absorb subsequent attacks.

“Adjust heading! Preheat the main engines! Activate the repulsion fields! Leave the remaining Swarm units behind—we’re retreating!” Diallo commanded sharply.

Though the battle was nearing a decisive victory, an ominous feeling gnawed at him. Something critical seemed forgotten, just out of reach in his thoughts.

Whatever it was, it was better to retreat now than to risk lingering on the battlefield. The fewer than 1,000 remaining Primordial bodies were insignificant to the larger picture.

Suddenly, a shrill alarm pierced the air, its rhythmic beep-beep-beep cutting through the commotion.

“What’s going on?” Diallo demanded.

Aslit quickly reviewed the incoming data. “Your Highness, energy accumulation detected on Planet Izumo! Based on the readings, it’s the Swarm’s electromagnetic cannons!”

“Damn it! Forget the formation—scatter! Don’t block each other’s paths! Everyone retreat on their own! Regroup at 157 degrees, 50 million kilometers out!” Diallo barked out the emergency orders.

At that moment, he realized what he had overlooked.

While the Daqi fleet had neutralized the Swarm’s front-facing defenses with their Crimson Kiss missiles, the Swarm’s planetary defensive emplacements were distributed across the entire surface of Izumo. Though they had escaped the firing arcs of the forward-positioned Primordial bodies, they had unwittingly drifted into the range of the planetary defenses on the opposite side.

While their repulsion fields were effective counters against electromagnetic cannons, the warships were currently oriented incorrectly. Having pivoted their vessels to prepare for a retreat, the repulsion fields no longer covered their exposed sides and rear. Reorienting their ships to protect against the threat would be time-consuming and leave them vulnerable.

Diallo cursed inwardly, feeling the urge to bang his head against the console. If he had known this would happen, he would have risked pushing through the diminished firepower of the remaining Primordial bodies rather than facing this new predicament.

This would have been better than the current situation.

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