I Am The Swarm-Chapter 647: The Situation

The tentacle that had been hiding in the wall and attacked Kari was in a semi-fixed state. Its base was bonded to the wall, but since it had been completely obliterated, the tactical squad didn’t know how it moved.

Although B-3 was a repair robot, it was still equipped with some basic combat tools as it served aboard the battleship. For example, its heat welding gun, used for metalwork, possessed significant offensive capabilities.

As for the Swarm tentacle, even though its attack speed was so fast that it could only be seen clearly when slowed down hundreds of times, no matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like the type capable of rapid movement.

If the Swarm tentacle had moved to attack B-3, there’s no way it could have destroyed B-3 before the latter reacted. There would inevitably have been traces of a struggle, and the built-in image-capturing function of the robot should have provided more intelligence.

But whether from the scene itself or the received footage, the only explanation was that the Swarm tentacle had already been lying in wait along B-3’s path and ambushed it.

Judging from the traces left by the destroyed Swarm tentacle, it had corroded part of the wall and replaced it with itself, using powerful camouflage to deceive all their detection instruments. However, the corroded area wouldn’t repair itself, and once the tentacle was destroyed, obvious signs would remain behind.

Gwendolyn had already pinpointed the location where B-3 was attacked based on its last moments of footage and marked it with a red zone on the team’s visual display.

However, the team members found nothing unusual there—no signs of combat, no wreckage of B-3, nothing at all. This was highly abnormal.

If the Swarm tentacle had been lying in ambush, it would have had to corrode a section of the floor. Yet, the floor there remained perfectly intact.

“Be careful. If our assumptions aren’t wrong, it means that thing is still there.”

“Open fire directly!” Although they were inside the ship’s cabin, permission to fire on suspicious targets had already been granted. In this situation, Knox couldn’t order his team members to physically investigate.

Though these bodies were temporary and could be replaced later if destroyed, doing so would take time. Given the current uncertainty, he needed to ensure the team maintained sufficient numbers and combat effectiveness. One member had already been taken out of action; he couldn’t afford any more reckless losses.

The Z-R-2 model didn’t engage, but the other two models deployed their mounted Vulcan cannons. These single-operator weapons, designed for suppressing firepower, had an extremely high rate of fire, though their individual bullets lacked power and had limited destructive capability against metal alloys—making them ideal for use inside the cabin.

Aside from Kari, who had been destroyed, and Gale, who was providing aerial vision, the remaining six Vulcan cannons unleashed their full firepower. Their incredibly fast firing rate created a dazzling barrage of bullets.

At such close range—less than a hundred meters—and with the support of modern warfare technology, there was no chance of missing. The red zone marked by artificial intelligence was thoroughly covered. The heat-melting rounds from the Vulcan cannons scorched the metal alloy floor, leaving it blackened and pockmarked.

However, one irregular area began oozing liquid and emitted the smell of roasted meat.

“@#￥%*, there really was one there!”

“When I passed by earlier, why didn’t it attack me? If it had attacked, I probably wouldn’t have been able to dodge.”

“Don’t overestimate yourself, buddy. Remove the word ‘probably,’ or you’ll hurt Kari’s feelings.”

“I’m guessing it’s because this thing has poor mobility, and when you passed by, your main body height was three meters—beyond its attack range.”

“Oh~ So Kari was just unlucky.”

“Reputation is earned, not given. The Swarm’s stealth technology truly lives up to its name.”

“This isn’t stealth tech at all! But this kind of camouflage is far superior to our metallic mimicry. I think we need to report this to the Confederation.”

“Hmph, that’s not something for a lowly soldier like you to worry about. The Captain is watching us right now. He’ll decide what to do.”

“Enough, let’s focus on our tasks.” Knox cut off the discussion and continued, “For now, we’re unsure how many of these things are left. Everyone stay alert.”

“The captain’s right. Where there’s one, there’s two, and where there’s two, there’s three. There might be a lot of them.”

“Maybe there are only two. Once we deal with them, our mission will be complete, and we can call it a day.”

“Shut up, idiot! Have you thought about how they got onto our battleship?”

“True. These things have almost no mobility. Their presence on the ship suggests there’s at least one transport-type unit lurking around.”

“It looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us. A ship this big can’t possibly be searched by just our squad alone.”

“This is a massive undertaking. Even if all squads participate in the search, it won’t be finished anytime soon, and who knows what complications might arise in the meantime.”

“The situation may be even worse. We’ve already seen that even when one of those things is right in front of us, we can’t detect it. We can’t sweep every corner of the ship with Vulcan cannons. In my opinion, the detection issue remains unresolved. No matter how many teams are deployed, it won’t make much difference.”

“I agree. And the current situation is very dangerous. If we can’t locate them beforehand, given their attack speed and strength, we won’t be able to dodge. It’ll be a one-for-one exchange. If there are many of them, we don’t have enough spare robots to replace the ones we lose.”

“That is indeed a problem, but those are matters for the Captain and his team to consider. Until there’s a new conclusion, we need to focus on our own tasks.”

“Captain, what should we do now?”

“First, neutralize the danger on Deck B5!”

The squad regrouped, maintaining a relatively safe distance between each other. They positioned themselves so that no single tentacle could attack more than one robot at a time, while still being able to provide rapid mutual support.

Since the Swarm tentacles’ attack speed far exceeded human reaction limits, even though artificial intelligence could react in time, the material and performance of the robots couldn’t handle such extreme variable operations within an ultra-short timeframe.

Thus, once they entered the attack range of a Swarm tentacle, it would inevitably result in a one-for-one exchange. Whether this trade-off was advantageous or disadvantageous depended on who had more troops and could outlast the other.

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Fortunately, the entire Z-series squad operated their robots remotely. Even if a robot was damaged, the operators would only suffer a scare and face no real harm. By linking their control devices to a new robot, they could rejoin the battlefield.