I Am The Swarm-Chapter 641: Repairs

Crew members who could enter the command bridge, even if their mental resilience wasn’t the strongest, were mostly highly skilled and knowledgeable. In an instant, many of them reached the same conclusion as Segal had earlier.

“It seems like an electromagnetic pulse. In the last frame, I think I saw sparks from a short circuit.”

“I saw it too, on camera eleven.”

“I didn’t notice. I was watching cameras three and five, and there was nothing unusual before they suddenly went dark.”

“It must have been an EMP. There’s a high-magnetic instrument in that area. I just checked, and it had reported an error before, but it was only briefly inspected and repaired. Now it might have malfunctioned again.”

“That scared the hell out of me. Who’s responsible for this? Is this considered negligence?”

“It’s not exactly negligence. The error was reported and repaired before. You can’t dismantle the machine for every minor issue, right?”

“True, but what do we do now? There’s a small energy field forming in that area, and the repair robots can’t get in.”

“We’ll have to request the B-3 model repair robots.”

The B-3 model repair robots were designed for space operations. They were more powerful, with higher output capacity, and equipped with larger tools, capable of even welding the ship’s hull.

Additionally, their armor was thick enough to withstand various forms of radiation in outer space, allowing them to perform emergency repairs outside the ship in even harsher battlefield conditions.

On the battlefield, due to explosions from various weapons and the ship’s own detonations, electromagnetic fields were highly complex. The B-3 repair robots could operate normally in such environments, so dealing with electromagnetic fields caused by energy leaks from internal instruments would be no problem.

However, space-grade repair robots were significantly larger than their smaller, in-cabin counterparts. The B-3 model was the smallest among over a dozen space-grade repair robot models, but it still stood nearly three meters tall.

This size made it prone to collisions or other damage in the narrow corridors of the ship, so space-grade repair robots were generally not allowed to operate inside the ship.

To put it bluntly, this civilization’s technological level was somewhat lacking. Not to mention the Inner Circle civilizations or even the Rashudia, a top-tier Mid-Ring civilization, even the Yuntu and Ketou—mid-tier Mid-Ring civilizations—could miniaturize space robots, eliminating the need for separate in-cabin and out-of-cabin models, allowing them to handle almost all repair tasks.

The discovery that it was just an instrument malfunction eased the tension in the room, but no one resumed their earlier casual chatter. Their feigned calm had been shattered by the slightest disturbance.

The request to deploy the B-3 repair robots was quickly approved, as expected. After all, if they didn’t send repair robots, they’d have to send people to fix it manually. But the situation in that area was complex and potentially dangerous, and no one wanted to take that risk if there were other options.

However, unexpected news arrived again: the two B-3 repair robots sent to fix the equipment had also lost contact after entering the target area.

“Impossible! The B-3 robots can operate in outer space. How could it not withstand a little electromagnetic pulse inside the ship?”

“But that’s the reality. They didn’t make it.”

“According to the specs, this shouldn’t be possible unless there’s a quality issue.”

“It’s not a quality issue. I just checked the history of both B-3 units. They’re not new; they’ve been in service for over a hundred years, with more than twenty thousand hours of operation. If there were quality issues, they would’ve been scrapped long ago.”

“Could they both have malfunctioned at the same time?”

“The odds of that are minuscule, even lower than winning the lottery.”

“I’ve carefully reviewed the last footage they transmitted three times. This time, it doesn’t look like an electromagnetic pulse. I’ve had Gwendolyn analyze it frame by frame.”

The B-3 repair robots were one of the few humanoid robots in their fleet. Their unique design allowed them to operate in special environments, including inside the ship.

Therefore, it was unlikely that they had lost contact due to collisions or similar accidents. Moreover, even if that were the case, it was highly improbable for two robots to experience such accidents almost simultaneously.

However, due to their unique design, they had numerous locations where visual instruments could be installed. In their standard configuration, they had 360-degree rotating cameras on their heads and shoulders, as well as fixed-direction cameras on their eyes, chest, back, waist, and knees, providing comprehensive, dead-angle-free monitoring of their surroundings.

The two B-3 robots that had been damaged were standard models, and all their monitoring devices had been functioning normally before they lost contact.

The crew member who had just spoken had quickly reviewed footage from multiple camera feeds but hadn’t seen anything resembling the earlier in-cabin repair robots being destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse.

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However, due to time constraints, he couldn’t examine the footage in detail, so he had requested the AI to re-examine it. He believed the results would be available soon.

The crew’s recently eased tension was now back in full force. The series of unexpected events gave them a bad feeling. Even Segal, who had been nonchalant earlier, was now on edge, as these incidents could no longer be explained away as accidents.

The AI’s analysis was indeed more thorough. In the transmitted footage, it found evidence of an electromagnetic pulse attack. Using complex algorithms, it concluded that there was over a 90% chance the B-3 robots had been destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse.

The result was both unexpected and expected. After all, many of the B-3’s modules operated independently. Even if it were attacked and instantly disabled, unless it was completely crushed, a purely physical attack couldn’t simultaneously disable all its monitoring devices.

After much consideration, it seemed that only an electromagnetic pulse could simultaneously short-circuit all the circuits, causing all the monitors to go dark at once.

However, this only proved that the B-3 robots had been destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse. It didn’t rule out the possibility that they had been attacked. After all, attributing this to an accident would be stretching the imagination.

As expected, the AI Gwendolyn, while confirming that the B-3 robots had indeed been destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse, also provided another piece of information.

A group of crew members gathered around the screen, watching a video slowed down by 128 times. Even at this speed, the B-3’s movements were nearly frozen, but they could still see a fleeting shadow strike it.