I Am The Swarm-Chapter 529: Escape

The eleventh Yuntu ship had just emerged from its warp bubble when the Swarm locked onto its position. Thousands of energy beams struck in an instant, reducing it to fragments.

The sudden action of the Swarm forces terrified the ten Yuntu ships that had already emerged. However, their radar systems showed no signs of being targeted, so they had no choice but to continue charging forward.

Behind them, flashes of explosions lit up the void as energy beams grew increasingly dense, painting the stars with a fiery glow. For the Swarm, due to the limitations of warp travel, the Yuntu ships emerged one by one from warp space. As long as they were dealt with quickly, they would never be able to form a cohesive force.

The Yuntu ships were like moths to a flame, appearing one after another. The number of ship wreckage quickly rose, and soon, over a hundred ships had been destroyed, while the Swarm had only expended a minimal amount of energy.

By this point, the fleeing Yuntu ships had approached the Swarm’s encirclement. The Swarm’s actions left them utterly baffled. Some Yuntu crew members naively wondered if the Swarm’s bio-weapons had malfunctioning friend-or-foe identification systems.

Otherwise, why would these terrifying bio-combat units ignore them?

Some crew members believed this was a Swarm trap, which was obvious given the fate of their companions behind them. But why were they being treated differently? The crew couldn’t explain it.

After a brief discussion, the crew decided that to avoid drawing the Swarm’s attention, they would proceed quietly, without making any noise.

Thus, the Yuntu ships silently charged toward the encirclement. Their weapon systems remained silent, and they even refrained from scanning with their radar systems, all to maintain their “invisibility” in front of the Swarm forces.

And the Swarm seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement with them, truly “failing to notice” them and allowing them to continue their approach.

“Be careful. We’ll slip through the gaps between them.” As the Yuntu ships approached the Swarm’s defensive line, their speed naturally decreased.

Nearly ten million Swarm units formed a ring, with layers inside and outside, interlocking to provide firing angles and lines of sight. While it seemed like there were large gaps between the Primordial Bodies, there was no straight path through. The Yuntu ships had to slow down, weaving left and right to navigate the gaps.

“Careful, be careful!”

“Move left a bit! Don’t get too close to that one!”

By now, the Yuntu crew were convinced that the Swarm’s friend-or-foe identification system had malfunctioned for some unknown reason. Although this belief was partly due to the influence of an “insider,” the fact that the rest of the crew believed it so quickly even surprised the Blades.

Perhaps it was the Swarm’s unique racial structure, with most of its forces being biological combat units while the true Swarm rarely appeared. This gave the foreign races the illusion that the Swarm was scarce, unwilling to venture far from their nests, and relied on mass-produced bio-weapons to fight on the front lines.

Thus, it was inevitable that bio-weapons, operating under remote control or their own logic, might encounter issues. However, this was only part of the reason. Later, the Blades analyzed that this was likely a psychological defense mechanism—a desperate attempt by intelligent beings to imagine a lifeline when faced with immense danger and fear. Perhaps they all knew it was a trap but refused to believe it.

By now, they had entered the Swarm’s defensive line, surrounded by Primordial Bodies. Their long tentacles swayed gently, and blue arcs of electricity flickered across their bodies, exuding a dangerous beauty.

To avoid provoking the Primordial Bodies and reactivating their friend-or-foe identification, the Yuntu ships turned off all radar systems, relying solely on visual observation to locate the surrounding bio-units.

Thus, all the Yuntu crew members stared out the windows, not daring to relax.

The Primordial Bodies weren’t too bad. Despite their massive size, their positions were fixed, and even their tentacle movements were relatively limited.

What troubled the Yuntu the most were the smaller Mature and Larval bodies. Since they weren’t in travel mode, some of these medium and small combat units had been released, darting between the Primordial Bodies. The Yuntu had no idea what they were doing.

Of course, they didn’t dare ask.

They could only carefully avoid them, but these small and medium-sized space octopuses darted around unpredictably, making it impossible to guard against them.

With the ship’s radar systems turned off, they could only rely on the windows and external panoramic devices to track the positions of the Mature and Larval bodies. This made evasion even more troublesome.

But a ship over three thousand meters long wasn’t that agile. A Larval body inevitably collided with the ship. The Yuntu crew’s hearts leapt into their throats, but the Larval body simply crawled along the ship for a while before taking off again and drifting away.

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“It seems the Swarm really has a problem. If we can escape and report this, it’ll be a huge achievement.”

“Exactly. If we can figure out how this issue arose and find a vulnerability in the Swarm’s friend-or-foe identification system, they won’t be a threat anymore.”

Their hopeful visions of the future slightly dispelled their fear, and they became less wary of the Mature and Larval bodies constantly flitting around them.

Unconsciously, as they ventured deeper, more and more Mature and Larval bodies approached the ship, even clinging to its hull. By now, the Yuntu crew had grown accustomed to “peacefully coexisting” with these bio-weapons.

But just then, a fifty-meter-long Mature body drifted over and, as if by coincidence, landed right on the ship’s bridge window. The Yuntu crew in the bridge initially screamed and hid under equipment or tables. But when they realized the Mature body showed no intention of attacking, they took the opportunity to observe these beautiful creatures up close. Some crew members even left their posts to approach the window.

As if disturbed, the Mature body took off, leaving the Yuntu crew who hadn’t gotten a close look feeling disappointed. But then they noticed that the Mature body had left them a “gift.”

Two humanoid creatures, never before seen in any records, appeared on the window. They were five to six meters tall, with wolf-like heads, sharp teeth, claws, and well-proportioned bodies covered in muscular armor, with key areas protected by keratinous plates.

They were Swarm bio-weapons!

The Yuntu crew immediately realized this. It was easy to identify—first, the Interstellar Technological Confederation’s racial database included similar beings, but none were this large. Second, they wore no protective gear, and only the Swarm could survive in the vacuum of space without any equipment.

What were they planning to do?