I Am The Swarm-Chapter 713: Standoff

The electromagnetic projectile, far faster than the poison pellets fired by the flying artillery bugs, maintained its incredible speed despite the air resistance of the life-bearing planet. This spoke volumes about the projectile’s hardness.

With a deafening explosion, the Ji gunboat was blown to pieces. This was because the gunboat itself was extremely hard, which intercepted the electromagnetic projectile. Otherwise, the projectile would have simply pierced through it.

However, the Ji soldiers on the gunboat likely didn’t consider this a good thing. If the gunboat had been pierced, they might have had a chance of survival. But now, with the gunboat shattered into fragments, their chances of survival were extremely low.

The reason electromagnetic cannons had fallen out of favor in space battles was twofold: first, their speed was no longer sufficient, and second, deflection fields had become standard on large warships in mid-to-high-level civilizations. Originally designed to clear small obstacles during sub-light speed travel, these devices were also highly effective against electromagnetic projectiles.

Deflection field generators were typically bulky and massive, which was why they were only installed on warships. However, as mentioned earlier, this operation was of utmost importance to the Ji. They had studied and countered all of the Swarm’s tactics.

Although they hadn’t prioritized it before, the Ji were still the Ji. In a short time, they had miniaturized the deflection field generator. While it wasn’t yet portable for individual soldiers, they had successfully installed it on their gunboats.

Thus, the boar-like beasts’ electromagnetic cannon attacks, aside from taking out a few slow-witted fools, didn’t achieve much.

Seeing that the Ji gunboats had activated their deflection fields, the boar-like beasts stopped wasting their efforts and instead aimed their cannons at the Ji soldiers hovering in mid-air.

Using a ten-meter-long electromagnetic cannon to target individual soldiers was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Moreover, with the Ji soldiers on alert, hitting them was difficult. And since they were floating in mid-air, the shockwave damage was also mitigated.

But the electromagnetic cannon’s effectiveness wasn’t in direct killing. The Ji soldiers had formed tight formations to block the dense swarm and firepower around them. This allowed their air cannons and ultrasonic cannons to provide full-coverage defense.

However, even the more effective air cannons were useless against the harder, faster electromagnetic projectiles. And if the Ji soldiers dodged, gaps would appear in their formation, creating vulnerabilities that the Swarm units, already watching intently, could exploit.

The two sides continued their battle of spear versus shield. With the boar-like beasts joining the fray, the Ji began suffering heavy casualties again. The rapidly deteriorating situation forced the Ji gunboats to focus their firepower on these new threats.

“These are a new type of Swarm unit. We don’t have any data on them.”

“Look at their stubby limbs and bulky bodies. They don’t seem like agile units and probably can’t dodge our attacks.”

“Then let’s take them out first.”

The anti-matter cannons roared, firing energy beams at the boar-like beasts. As the Ji had guessed, these massive creatures were indeed slow-moving.

However, the fact that the boar-like beasts were equipped with electromagnetic cannons indicated they had their own power systems—a hallmark of advanced Swarm units. Remember, even the hundreds-of-meters-long mature bodies mostly lacked independent power systems.

Advanced units meant high production costs. Such resource-intensive creations wouldn’t have obvious flaws. Thus, while the boar-like beasts couldn’t fly and moved slowly, they possessed the strongest shield.

The negative energy shield was a game-changer in current combat. This energy, representing the opposite of the universe’s positive energy, could neutralize any form of positive energy matter.

Whether it was anti-matter cannons, thermonuclear attacks, or pure energy and beam attacks, all fell under the category of positive energy. Based on the Ji’s current weapon systems, none could penetrate this defense.

The dark gray anti-matter projectiles struck the boar-like beasts and vanished as if erased by an invisible hand.

“It’s the Swarm’s negative energy shield!” Having encountered the Red Fang Breakers multiple times, the Ji had documented their attack methods. Thus, the soldiers immediately recognized this defense mechanism.

Fear stems from the unknown, but since they knew what it was, the Ji soldiers weren’t afraid. While the negative energy shield was powerful, it wasn’t without flaws.

First, its energy consumption was extremely high. Although the boar-like beasts were large compared to smaller units, they were insignificant next to space-based units. Thus, their energy sources couldn’t be very large. And the Swarm’s current energy tech level was only at the dark energy stage.

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Using this energy level to power the more advanced negative energy weapons was like using a small horse to pull a heavy cart. In other words, the boar-like beasts would struggle to sustain the negative energy shield for long.

Therefore, if the Ji continuously bombarded the boar-like beasts, forcing them to keep the shield active, they would soon run out of energy. At that point, destroying them would be easy.

Second, also due to energy constraints, the boar-like beasts could only use the negative energy shield to defend a specific sector, not provide full, omnidirectional coverage. Thus, using troops to engage them head-on while sending others to flank them was a viable strategy.

However, the Swarm had also anticipated these weaknesses. The boar-like beasts never strayed more than a hundred meters from the tunnels they had emerged from. This allowed them to retreat and replenish their energy when nearing depletion.

As for splitting forces, thanks to the nature of their weapon systems, ten Ji soldiers could hold their own against dozens of Swarm units, while a hundred Ji soldiers could take on a thousand.

But if only one or two Ji soldiers were left, they couldn’t form an effective offensive or defensive system. In that case, just one or two Swarm units could eliminate them.

Thus, the Swarm would be delighted if the Ji soldiers split up—it would be suicide. The Ji understood this as well, so they realized they had no quick way to deal with the boar-like beasts.

“Damn it!” A Ji soldier narrowly dodged an electromagnetic cannon shot. Although the projectile missed him, the intense wind pressure it generated threw their formation into chaos.