I Am The Swarm-Chapter 803: Cooperation
Just as the Confederation races had discussed—while the Swarm might not be an entirely benevolent force, their methods were far less brutal. Between a fast-acting poison and a slow-boiling pot, the choice wasn’t really that hard.
Especially under the guidance and persuasion of certain influential individuals, the races—both openly and covertly—began leaning toward the Swarm’s camp. But they quickly ran into a different problem.
The Swarm had always been an extremely insular species. Now that things had come to a head, the races realized—to their dismay—that they had no way to contact the Swarm remotely.
“I don’t think that’s such a big issue. The Swarm has bases everywhere these days. If we approach them with friendliness and humility, I believe they’ll be willing to cooperate,” one Confederation race representative suggested, albeit uncertainly.
Fortunately, this theory was easy to test. As the representative noted, the Swarm’s presence throughout the Interstellar Technological Confederation was no longer rare.
“If you’re lucky,” as they joked, “you might dig a pit in your own backyard and uncover a Swarm base.”
The results came back quickly. The Swarm proved very interested in cooperation with the races. Not only did they happily provide contact methods, they even assigned dedicated liaisons for each region.
Moreover, they addressed the races’ primary concern: the purpose of the Swarm’s scattered bases. The Swarm explained that these bases existed only to curb the Ji Race’s expansion. They had no intention of infringing on the living space of other races. Their resource consumption was low, as most of their needs could be met by absorbing stellar energy and converting it internally.
The races initially reacted with caution and skepticism, but they couldn’t find any solid evidence to disprove the Swarm’s claim. Their own investigations confirmed that Swarm-controlled planets did, indeed, retain their pristine ecosystems. The Swarm didn’t interfere with local lifeforms; their planets merely served as nurseries for new Swarm units—who were swiftly transported to close stellar orbit after birth.
Compared to the environmental damage wrought by mechanical civilizations, the Swarm’s impact was remarkably minimal. If one had to name the most eco-friendly power in the Galaxy, the Swarm would be the undisputed champion.
Most importantly, the Swarm had maintained this approach consistently for hundreds of years. If this were all just a long-term deception, it seemed far too elaborate to be necessary.
Gradually, the races began to believe the Swarm.
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With that obstacle cleared, there was no more hesitation.
In the earlier battles, the Ji Race’s Star Gate garrisons had destroyed their gates and scattered in all directions, releasing nanobots in the process.
Though the Swarm had promptly organized pursuit teams, the stealth and tenacity of the Ji’s nanobots made them difficult to eliminate entirely.
Now, with local cooperation, the Swarm promised to shield the Confederation races from Ji retaliation, while the local civilizations would be responsible for rooting out the nanobot infestations.
These powers had operated in their territories for countless years. They might not be able to defeat a Ji fleet, but hunting nanobots was well within their capabilities. And if any nanobot clusters did manage to grow in strength, Swarm reinforcements would eliminate them swiftly.
As a result, the Ji Race’s operational space shrank even further. All their Star Gates were destroyed, and the space factories around them were, of course, also obliterated.
While the remaining Ji remnants still numbered in the billions and were capable of waging a prolonged guerrilla campaign, they could not be ignored. The Swarm had to commit several times more troops just to keep them on the run.
But even with so much tied up by the Ji remnants, the Swarm had support from multiple external bases. This level of expenditure was negligible.
“Overlord, Ji forces around Star Gate XM267 have been mostly eliminated.”
“Overlord, we’ve intercepted two Ji armies heading toward the XM310 gate.”
“Overlord, the Komok Race has requested aid—Ji forces have appeared in their territory. Three Swarm armies have already been dispatched.”
Reports flowed to Luo Wen in a steady stream. The Ji Race’s tactics relied on either numerical parity or a slight advantage to work effectively.
But facing an opponent like the Swarm—who could infinitely reinforce—their strategies began to falter.
Many of the races had been deeply influenced by the Ji Race for generations. Despite seeing news reports of the Swarm standing toe-to-toe with the Ji, they still doubted a species with only a thousand-year history could really be a match.
Yet when the Swarm, right before their eyes, utterly crushed several Ji units in coordinated surround-and-destroy operations, they finally felt reassured—and fully committed to the alliance.
Now armed with both its own intelligence network and those of its allies, the Swarm became even more efficient in its operations. Reports streamed into Luo Wen’s ears like a constant barrage of notifications.
“Very good. Don’t let the main front go idle either. Full assault!” Luo Wen commanded calmly.
The Ji Race’s vast border zones, once guarded by Inner-circle civilization troops, had since been vacated. The Swarm swiftly filled these gaps.
And now, with the Overlord’s directive, every unit surged into Ji territory at once. The sheer scale of the advance—seen even from a sliver of perspective—was enough to shake generations with awe.
The Ji Race had spent centuries constructing massive minefields across its borders. Aside from a few systems where stars had been detonated, most minefields remained fully active.
Previously, these minefields could stall an enemy force for over a century—buying the Ji Race time to shift troops toward higher-priority warzones.
But that era was over.
Luo Wen had no interest in slow, layered advances. With the Ji’s external factories destroyed, their reinforcement capacity had plummeted several orders of magnitude. There was no longer any need to worry about casualties.
The war had entered its decisive phase—and many of the Swarm’s most potent abilities no longer needed to be hidden.
The Primordial bodies, once seen as rare elite units, were now the baseline template. Each one could mutate into other combat units, as had already been demonstrated during the construction of the Swarm’s fusion Star Gates. Now, even greater transformations began.
Their cores shrunk, while their tentacles elongated, multiplying rapidly. Almost invisible silken threads spread from each tentacle, allowing them to detect even the faintest traces of concealed threats.
These units linked with each other, weaving into a colossal, net-like formation, pushing ever deeper into Ji territory like an unstoppable, biological web of conquest.
