I Am The Swarm

The battlefield was no child’s play, and the situation was not something that could be unilaterally decided. Although the central commander of the coalition had issued the order to retreat, whether it could be successfully executed depended on whether the Swarm would cooperate.

But the answer was obvious. The Swarm had sacrificed many Primordial bodies to achieve the current situation. How could they easily let the coalition forces leave?

The Swarm’s central forces, which had been retreating step by step, now fiercely counterattacked as the coalition forces turned around, forcing them to abandon ships with damaged propulsion systems.

On the other side, the coalition commander was as anxious as an ant on a hot stove. The central forces were the elite of the coalition. If they were lost here, the remaining ragtag forces wouldn’t just determine the outcome of this battle—they might not even be able to defend the surrounding star systems.

“The rear forces must push forward and extract the central forces! If anyone dares to falter, I’ll skin them alive when this is over!” The coalition commander raged in the command room, while the other commanders and staff remained silent.

If this were a single race, the hierarchical relationships would be clear, and even internal disagreements could be resolved relatively easily. But in a joint operation involving many civilizations, things worked fine when the battle was going well. However, once the tide turned, all sorts of problems would arise.

At this point, the coalition commander found it extremely difficult to coordinate the relationships between the fleets of different civilizations. Factors such as closeness, the strength of the civilizations themselves, and the number of troops each civilization had on the field would all influence his judgment and decisions.

But in the current situation, which civilization’s forces should be sent forward? His own Troi civilization’s fleet was mostly trapped in the central forces, so they certainly didn’t have enough troops to mount a rescue.

As for the fleets of other races, when faced with his orders, they all responded with various issues, but the underlying message was the same: they refused to go.

Indeed, the Swarm had gone to great lengths, sacrificing so many units, to encircle the central forces. Now, breaking through the Swarm’s encirclement to extract the central forces would inevitably face the Swarm’s frenzied attacks.

If they accepted this task now, it was unclear how many troops they would lose in the process. In this situation, everyone was in a “better you than me” mindset.

Especially those members far from the battlefield, who felt that sending troops to help was already a huge favor. Asking them to risk their lives was simply impossible.

And those farther away were closer to the inner circle, representing civilizations with longer histories and greater strength. Their fleets were concentrated in the rear forces and were the main force for breaking through the Swarm’s encirclement.

The coalition commander couldn’t actually skin them alive. If he did, it would undoubtedly cause internal conflicts within the Locke Mutual Aid Society. It was possible that before they could repel the Swarm, they would end up fighting among themselves.

Helpless, he could only report the current situation back to his own race. Fortunately, quantum communication had no delay, and the Troi civilization was also closely monitoring the battle, having formed a remote advisory group.

The coalition commander’s report was immediately taken seriously. After a discussion among the group of advisors, they quickly came up with a plan.

The trapped central forces not only included the Troi fleet as the vanguard but also the fleets of two other civilizations serving as the flanks.

These two civilizations were the most powerful after the Troi, and they were also anxious about their trapped forces. Thus, the three most powerful members of the Locke Mutual Aid Society held an emergency meeting and reached some agreements.

The Troi alone, while formidable, couldn’t stand against the entire Locke Mutual Aid Society. But with the top three races together, they had the necessary influence.

Under their pressure, several races in the rear forces, after extracting sufficient benefits, took the opportunity to send their decisions to the front lines.

Decisions from their own races carried far more weight at this point than orders from the coalition commander. After all, offending other races could be backed by their own civilization, but displeasing their own race would mean losing their foundation for survival.

The rear forces’ decline was halted. Not only did they hold off the Swarm’s pursuit, but they also began to assault the Swarm’s lines.

The change in the rear forces put immense pressure on the Swarm units that had cut in from the flanks, now sandwiched between the central and rear forces. They were being attacked from both sides by the most powerful members of the Locke Mutual Aid Society, and the situation became critical.

This area became the key point of the entire battle. If the Swarm forces held off the pincer attack, the coalition’s central forces would be devoured, and the coalition would lose its most elite troops. Conversely, if the central and rear forces broke through the Swarm’s lines and joined forces, the Swarm would suffer heavy losses, and their tactical objective would fail.

Unfortunately, although the two sides were locked in a stalemate in the central battlefield, the coalition’s flanks were simply too weak.

If the Swarm forces could hold their ground against the advanced members of the Locke Mutual Aid Society in the front, then the same forces would naturally have a significant advantage against the weaker members.

And if the side at a disadvantage also had a chaotic command system, their collapse was inevitable.

The coalition commander had no good solution for this. The situation on the flanks had already descended into chaos. Unless he could use overwhelming force to suppress it, it would be difficult to regroup. The problem was, he couldn’t spare any troops to do this, and even if he could, it was almost impossible.

Thus, the already collapsing flanks fell into complete disarray, with Swarm forces chasing them for millions of kilometers. Some member fleets had completely given up resistance, using the loss of combat capability as an excuse to withdraw from the battle early and return to their territories.

But this move effectively screwed over the coalition’s rear forces. Faced with the fleeing flank forces, the Swarm didn’t pursue. Instead, they regrouped, replenished some energy, and then turned to attack the central forces.

In the central battlefield, facing attacks from both front and rear, the clusters of Primordial bodies had already released all their Mature and Larval bodies to buy time, but they were nearly exhausted.

——

But at this moment, reinforcements arrived. The coalition’s rear forces, which had only needed to attack before, now found themselves under attack from both sides.

Reluctantly, they had to divert some of their firepower to defend against the attacks from the flanks. As a result, their frontal firepower inevitably weakened.

Previously, the coalition’s central forces had been surrounded on all sides. Because they had to suppress attacks from three directions, their firepower against the Swarm’s inserted forces was minimal. The main firepower against these forces had come from the coalition’s rear forces.

Now, with the rear forces under attack from both sides, their firepower weakened, and the Swarm’s inserted forces, which had been on the brink of collapse, suddenly found relief. Taking advantage of this, more Swarm forces reinforced the inserted line, strengthening it.

The coalition’s front and rear forces, which had almost been within sight of each other, were now once again separated by the dense Swarm forces. This situation filled the front forces with despair.

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