I Am The Swarm-Chapter 525: Discussion

“According to the intelligence gathered, the coalition has mobilized 93 civilizations for this campaign, with a total of 3 billion warships. They are divided into 90 routes, advancing towards us based on their respective races and alliance factions,” a Blade reported the collected intelligence.

“90 routes? That averages out to just over 30 million ships per route. There’s a lot of room for manipulation here.”

“They didn’t consolidate their forces. They must be quite confident.”

“As mentioned earlier, they are advancing by race and alliance, with 93 civilizations divided into 90 routes. It’s to be expected.”

“Perhaps they didn’t anticipate that we would decide to take the initiative and strike first.”

“Let’s not be overconfident. With 90 routes attacking 9 star systems, that’s 10 routes per star system. If their starting points are close, their flight paths will likely overlap, making it almost the same as consolidating their forces. Maybe they’re waiting for us to take the initiative and attack them.”

“Currently, out of the 90 coalition routes, we have gathered information on all their flight paths, but we can only monitor about half of them in real-time. Our influence hasn’t penetrated the mid-rim civilizations yet.”

“This is somewhat troublesome. If they change course midway and set up traps without our knowledge, we could be at a disadvantage.”

“There’s no need to worry about that. Although the mid-rim civilizations’ fleets have been hidden in warp bubbles for decades and have just emerged, the Swarm’s seeds have already been planted during their rest period. I will request the Overlord to accelerate the incubation of these seeds,” Sarah interjected. This issue was beyond the capabilities of the Blades; only the Overlord could resolve it.

“If that’s the case, things will be much easier. This galaxy has long been filled with node units, covering the Swarm Network. As long as there’s even one of our own in those fleets, we can mark their positions on the map.”

“Once we grasp their movements, we can leverage the information and time gaps to make some strategic moves.”

“Indeed, according to previous intelligence, most of the mid-rim civilizations providing support are concentrated at the two ends of the frontlines. Some of them have been assigned to the central routes, but it will take them a long time to get there. Perhaps we can concentrate our forces and first crush the outer-rim civilizations’ forces there.”

The coalition forces’ departure points span 11 star systems. If we number them 1-11 in a straight line, they form the entire frontline of confrontation.

These 11 star systems are all territories of the Koya Alliance and the Locke Mutual Aid Society. If we consider this area as a support point, the reinforcements from the Interstellar Technological Confederation are continuously arriving here in a fan-shaped pattern.

Although some reinforcements pass through the entire territories of the Koya Alliance and the Locke Mutual Aid Society to reach the support point, most arrive from the flanks, where they are stationed in star systems 1-3 and 9-11.

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The forces in star systems 4-8 are primarily composed of troops from the two alliances, supplemented by a small number of external reinforcements.

From this perspective, the forces stationed in star systems 4-8 are significantly inferior in both quality and quantity compared to those on the flanks.

However, on the Swarm’s side, there are 9 star systems along the border where we are in a standoff. Since the Swarm is the only force here, the quality of the troops is uniform, and there’s not much disparity in numbers.

This means that for the confederation to advance along the entire frontline, they must enhance the quality of the forces emerging from star systems 4-8. To achieve this, they can only redistribute some troops from the flanking star systems.

However, while the width of the frontline is only about five light-years, its length spans nearly fifty light-years. Even if the reinforcements from the flanks take a middle route, they would still have to traverse about twenty light-years. Even if these forces are from mid-rim civilizations with faster fleets, it would still take at least five years.

On the other hand, the outer-rim civilizations’ fleets in the central routes, even with only basic warp propulsion, would take just over two years to cover the five-light-year distance.

Fortunately, this grand war is bound to be a protracted stalemate, so it won’t be over anytime soon. Otherwise, the reinforcements would arrive too late to be of any use.

The Intelligent Entity who spoke earlier suggested taking advantage of this significant time gap to launch a preemptive strike and eliminate the outer-rim civilizations’ fleets emerging from star systems 4-8.

Based on various intelligence reports and data, the feasibility and success rate of this plan are very high. However, it immediately faced opposition.

“That’s not a good idea. Although your plan has a high chance of wiping out those outer-rim civilizations’ fleets, their role in the coalition is likely just as cannon fodder. Even if we eliminate them, it won’t have much impact on the overall situation.”

“The outer-rim civilizations’ technology lags behind, and their ships are slow. If we want to intercept them, we’ll have to venture far out. If we get bogged down, the coalition forces from the flanks could change course and encircle us. We’d essentially be walking into a trap.”

“Exactly. The mid-rim civilizations’ ships are quite fast. Given a little time, they could cut off our retreat. Maybe the central route forces are just bait to lure us out.”

“To quickly annihilate the coalition’s central route forces, we’d likely need to gather all our frontline troops.”

“That’s impossible. There’s simply not enough time.”

“Right. Even if they don’t encircle us but stick to their original plan, they’d only need a little over a year to cover the five-light-year distance. By the time we finish gathering our forces, the flanks might already be at our doorstep.”

Watching some of the Blades argue fervently, Sarah frowned. She clapped her hands and said, “Everyone, perhaps you’ve forgotten what the core issue we’re facing right now is!”

Upon Sarah’s reminder, some of the Blades quickly snapped out of their misguided train of thought, while others fell into deep contemplation. At this point, a Blade who hadn’t participated in the earlier discussion spoke up, “Her Majesty means that our current problem is a shortage of troops. We must buy time for more reinforcements to arrive.”

“Exactly. Eliminating the enemy’s active forces is not our main task right now. Delaying them is the top priority. Some of you have gotten your priorities mixed up.”

Those who were still pondering where they had gone wrong now realized how far the discussion had strayed from the main issue. They lowered their heads in shame.

Seeing this, Sarah didn’t say much more. She simply nodded, signaling for the discussion to continue.

With a clear understanding of the Swarm’s current dilemma, the discussion shifted to focus on that.

“Since the coalition’s central route is the slowest, we can appropriately redeploy some of the troops stationed in the corresponding star systems to reinforce the flanks. The defenses there can temporarily be handled by fixed defense systems and subsequent reinforcements. This will give us more flexibility on the flanks.”