I Am The Swarm-Chapter 711: The Tilt

“This is a trap!”

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“As a staff officer, it’s embarrassing to hear you say something so naive. Our previous objectives were practically common knowledge. It’s only natural that the Swarm would prepare for it.”

“Exactly. Did you really think the Swarm Empress would just surrender without a fight?”

“What’s our next move?”

“Proceed as planned. Now it’s a matter of who’s better prepared—us or the Swarm.”

On the battlefield, more and more drop pods were breaking through the Swarm’s anti-air defenses, which meant more Ji soldiers were landing on the ground. As their numbers grew, the scale of the ground battle expanded. Within a hundred-kilometer radius of the ceremonial site, there were now over a thousand battlefields of varying sizes. Even beyond the hundred-kilometer mark, sporadic skirmishes were breaking out.

With more Ji soldiers on the ground, they began to form groups, which allowed them to cover more defensive angles. When a group exceeded fifty soldiers, they could even use air cannons to block attacks from all directions.

Air cannons were particularly effective against physical projectiles. Even the tenfold-sonic poison pellets fired by the flying artillery bugs couldn’t penetrate their defenses. The cannons also had considerable offensive power. The flying artillery bugs and spider combat bugs, due to their small size, could be taken down with one or two shots. Even the massive Vulturehawks couldn’t withstand sustained air cannon fire.

With the Ji soldiers now airborne, the ambushers hidden underground lost their effectiveness. Even with their tentacle-enhanced attacks, they couldn’t reach beyond a hundred meters. Moreover, while their attacks were fast, they were nowhere near ten times the speed of sound. With the assistance of their combat systems, the Ji soldiers could accurately intercept even the poison pellets, let alone the tentacle spikes.

With their safety secured, the remaining Ji soldiers began to unleash a barrage of attacks on the Swarm units. Their standard-issue anti-matter rifles were not only powerful and precise but also had an absurdly long range. Even the Vulturehawks, which could ascend to altitudes of ten thousand meters, would be shot down if they were marked and exposed.

The advantage seemed to be shifting toward the Ji. But at that moment, a new Swarm unit entered the fray. Eyeball-like creatures began to rise into the air, firing dark gray beams from their massive eyes.

These dark gray beams, being energy-based weapons, were not only extremely fast but also unaffected by the ultrasonic cannons and air cannons. Worse, their destructive power was immense. Even a Ji soldier in a combat suit would have the targeted area instantly vaporized upon being hit.

“Laser-Eye Bugs!” the Ji soldiers shouted. This unit was documented in the Ji’s archives on the Swarm. They had appeared in large numbers during the Swarm’s early wars.

However, due to the high energy consumption of energy-based weapons, these Laser-Eye Bugs were typically used as defensive units to intercept enemy electromagnetic cannon fire.

Later, as the civilizations involved in the wars advanced rapidly, kinetic weapons like electromagnetic cannons gradually fell out of favor, and the Laser-Eye Bugs disappeared from the Swarm’s standard units. No one expected the Swarm to upgrade the Laser-Eye Bugs’ offensive capabilities and deploy them for planetary defense.

Of course, this surprise was only for the Ji soldiers. Given the importance of this operation, the Ji’s staff headquarters had prepared countermeasures for every Swarm unit and tactic ever recorded.

Some Ji soldiers pulled out new firearm components and then retrieved several cylindrical ammunition rounds, about ten centimeters long and five centimeters in diameter, from their backpacks. They launched these into the air.

The cylindrical rounds exploded, scattering crystalline fragments. These reflective interference materials were extremely lightweight and could float in the battlefield for a long time. Their unique structure and composition not only weakened the power of energy-based weapons but also greatly disrupted their accuracy.

Additionally, the Ji soldiers’ combat suits underwent a transformation, shifting from their original camouflage colors to a mirror-like, reflective surface. This significantly weakened or even reflected the Laser-Eye Bugs’ attacks.

While this change cost them their stealth capability, it didn’t matter much during open combat. Firing their weapons already made stealth irrelevant, so switching to anti-energy mode was the better choice.

As a result, the Laser-Eye Bugs’ effectiveness was greatly reduced. However, the upgraded Laser-Eye Bugs’ beams were still incredibly powerful. Even after being weakened by multiple layers of defense, some unlucky soldiers were hit. Although the mirror mode of their combat suits absorbed most of the damage, the residual energy could still breach the suits and injure the soldiers inside.

Fortunately, the Ji’s countermeasures did provide significant protection. Soldiers who were hit went from being instantly vaporized to suffering partial body damage. While painful, these injuries weren’t immediately fatal. If the battle ended quickly, they could return to the warships and potentially recover.

Although the Laser-Eye Bugs’ attacks were severely weakened, their presence still shifted the balance of power slightly in favor of the Swarm. However, at that moment, the slower-moving Ji gunboats began to break through the Swarm’s anti-air defenses and land on the ground.

The arrival of the gunboats brought even more Ji soldiers. While these reinforcements weren’t as elite as those from the drop pods, their numbers were far greater. Each gunboat could carry over a hundred soldiers, far exceeding the capacity of the drop pods.

Moreover, the gunboats not only provided more troops but also delivered heavy firepower support—hence their name.

The roar of anti-matter energy cannons filled the air. While the gunboats’ weapons were insignificant compared to those of warships, their targets weren’t hundred-meter-long behemoths either. The Swarm units, measuring only a meter or less in length, were wiped out in droves.

Meanwhile, in space, the newly arrived Ji fleet had gained a slight upper hand in the near-orbit battle. They could now provide limited but powerful artillery support to the ground. Some Ji soldiers reported the coordinates of Swarm anti-air installations, and beams of light descended from the sky, obliterating them.

With the Swarm’s anti-air defenses under attack, their firepower defense network began to thin. More gunboats broke through, deploying small vehicles like anti-gravity motorcycles and small assault vehicles.

These vehicles, while lacking in defense, were much faster. Some Ji soldiers rode them, spreading out in all directions. Their mission was to locate and mark more Swarm anti-air installations, providing coordinates for the warships’ main cannons in near-orbit.

With heavy firepower support, the Ji soldiers momentarily gained the upper hand, and the scales of victory began to tilt in their favor once again.