I Am The Swarm-Chapter 795: Continuation
The dozen or so civilizations within the Inner-circle Alliance each controlled over two hundred star systems—together, it would add up to a very impressive number. In fact, their total territory exceeded not only that of the Ji Race but also the Swarm’s holdings within this galaxy by a large margin.
However, these lands had been exploited for hundreds of thousands of years. Many of the resources were already exhausted. Their neighbors, aside from the Ji Race, were powerful upper mid-ring civilizations—regions that were similarly depleted. Raiding or extracting anything substantial from them would be futile.
Unlike the Ji Race, the Inner-circle Alliance did not possess vast external production centers. Even if they added in the Star Gates captured by the Swarm, they had access to only about thirty interstellar transit points—a mere fraction compared to the Ji Race.
Moreover, their warships couldn’t reach the same level of automation. They still required massive manpower for operation. Although they could conscript soldiers from mid-ring civilizations, they had to tread carefully. If they were too aggressive, these bordering mid-ring powers—though usually docile—could launch attacks from behind while they were focused on the Ji, a situation the Alliance could ill afford.
As a result, the Alliance was forced to ruthlessly extract resources from the few star systems still linked via Star Gates. But everyone knew this was unsustainable.
The Swarm, by comparison, had the smallest territorial footprint. They hadn’t been developing in this galaxy for very long and still bordered the Interstellar Technological Confederation, limiting their ability to expand in all directions.
Fortunately, Swarm troops were extremely cheap to produce. Once grown, many could mature just by basking in stellar radiation near stars. Though special resources were still necessary, their mineral demands were far lower than the other two sides.
And so, the war dragged on, marked by cold daily casualty reports.
The situation developed as expected: the Ji Race, supported by over a hundred Battle Stars, leveraged their superior and highly specialized weaponry to gain increasing control over local fronts.
Eventually, they even began consolidating Battle Stars, concentrating over a hundred of them in specific areas. The resulting firepower was horrifying. The Swarm’s Primordial body defensive chains were breached multiple times. With their barriers gone, Inner-circle Alliance fleets suffered their greatest single-day losses since the war began—and that number continued to grow.
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The pressure forced Alliance troops facing these Battle Stars to continuously retreat, trying to escape their weapon range. Thankfully, Battle Stars were so cumbersome that the Ji Race dared not send them charging forward. After all, the frontline spanned entire light-years. If a Battle Star plunged too deep, it could be encircled and destroyed.
The Anti-Ji Alliance constantly agonized over how to deal with these monstrous weapons. So long as the Battle Stars stayed behind the lines, they were nearly untouchable. But if they ever dared charge forward, the Alliance would gladly spring a trap. As powerful as they were, even Battle Stars couldn’t survive an encirclement.
Still, they were a strategic deterrent. Wherever they appeared, the Alliance was forced to withdraw. And every retreat came at a heavy cost.
Over time, the once-straight front line became jagged, full of protrusions and recesses—toothed like a sawblade. Each indentation marked a point where the Alliance had been forced back under pressure from Battle Stars.
To maintain unified defense, isolated bulges often had to retreat voluntarily, trying to reform a straight line. But this cycle would simply repeat. Unless the Alliance could find a way to defeat the Battle Stars, this pattern would never end.
Mounting losses left the Inner-circle Alliance scratching their heads. Even the Swarm was beginning to feel the pinch. Their unit consumption skyrocketed, and their single available Star Gate near the front was no longer enough to sustain the pressure.
This continued for over a decade.
It wasn’t until the Swarm’s new Star Gates came online that the situation improved.
The addition of several Star Gates suddenly gave the Swarm surplus troops. They quickly reestablished their Primordial body defensive chains, and the influx of Puffer Cannonfish helped patch up the Inner-circle Alliance’s weakened firepower.
At the same time, Desolation-class Motherships—larger and more powerful than anything the Swarm had previously fielded—entered the battlefield. Thanks to their years of close contact with the Ji Race and the Inner-circle Alliance, the Swarm’s infiltration units had gathered immense intelligence, expanding their network of bases and converting numerous intelligent entities to their cause.
With the help of their ever-growing team of intelligent entities, the Swarm absorbed a great deal of new technology and theoretical knowledge, and much of it had already been converted into biological components usable by the Swarm.
Thanks to this progress, the new Desolation-class Motherships were equipped with upgraded weapon systems. Though the Ji Battle Stars had two terrifying main weapons—neutron cannons and photon cannons—both were immensely energy-intensive.
Even though the Desolation-class Motherships were tens of kilometers long—far larger than standard warships—they were still tiny compared to Battle Stars. Their energy systems, while vastly superior to warships, still couldn’t support both weapons at once.
After thorough evaluation, Luo Wen opted to outfit the motherships with neutron cannons. Though photon cannons were more destructive, neutron cannons not only inflicted substantial damage but also delivered powerful EMP pulses—a potential weakness in the highly automated Ji fleets.
Even with strong EMP shielding on their ships and Battle Stars, in the chaos of war, no system is perfect. The Swarm hoped these electromagnetic strikes might occasionally exploit a gap in the armor.
With enough Desolation-class Motherships on the battlefield, the Swarm finally neutralized the Battle Star threat, bringing the situation back into relative balance.
By New Era Year 260—thirty-five years after the war began—the total troop count had reached 1.5 trillion. Over the years, this battlefield had become a monstrous engine of death, swallowing over 200 billion units from both sides.
Yet despite three decades of brutal warfare, a precarious equilibrium persisted, thanks to both sides constantly feeding the flames with fresh troops.
But in other regions, significant changes had taken place.
Ten years earlier, the Swarm had completed construction of fifty new Star Gates in their territory. These not only helped the Alliance regain control over this main front, but also disrupted the balance across other zones.
Ancient, star-scale Swarm units that had lain dormant for millennia now emerged in full force, surging through the tripled number of Star Gates, flooding the long Inner-circle Alliance and Ji border.
With their strength surging, the Alliance saw no reason to sit idle. Part of their army launched raids into Ji territory. Though the Ji had prepared for such moves, using space mines to slow the attackers, they still found themselves forced to divert considerable forces.
