I Am The Swarm-Chapter 716: Interception

“We must pick up the pace!” On the map display, though the fog of war was gradually clearing, the path representing the Ji Clan’s marines was growing farther and farther from the marked location of the Swarm Empress.

“There’s no helping it. This is their territory—they know it better and can flee at full speed. Meanwhile, our soldiers have to stay alert for Swarm ambushes, so they can’t move as quickly.”

“I don’t care what methods you use—speed must be increased!”

“But according to previous intel, the Swarm excels at combat in these environments. They’ve undoubtedly set traps in these tunnels. Charging recklessly would be gambling with our soldiers’ lives.”

“Am I joking, or are you joking?! We don’t know how long the marker on the Swarm Empress will last. If it disappears, won’t all the sacrifices our soldiers made be in vain?”

The assembled staff officers fell silent. This was a difficult choice. They understood the commander’s intent, but whoever spoke up first would inevitably shoulder the blame later.

“Cat got your tongues? Give me a viable plan now, or do those dead soldiers mean nothing to you?”

“But, sir, even if we push our soldiers to take risks and speed up, catching the Swarm Empress will still be nearly impossible.”

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“Why?”

“Because we don’t know the terrain. Right now, we’ve split our forces at every fork in the tunnels, covering all possible routes. But the Swarm are experts at excavation—if they block or reroute key passages, it’ll cost us precious time. Meanwhile, the Swarm Empress is moving fast. With our current one-directional approach, we can’t catch her.”

“So what, you want me to call the Swarm Empress and ask her to stop running and wait for us?”

“While your suggestion isn’t feasible, we do need the Swarm Empress to pause.”

Seeing the staff officer’s serious expression, the commander fell silent. None of them were fools, and the logic was simple—this was the core problem they needed to solve.

“Any ideas?”

“One, but it carries some risk.”

“Our soldiers?”

The staff officer shook his head. “No. The Swarm Empress—she needs to take the risk. Merge the current underground tunnel map with our sand table.”

As he spoke, he gestured, and a 3D holographic projection of a sand table appeared before them. The display showed a topographical model of the area within a 300-kilometer radius of the conference site, including underground structures.

The surface—mountains, hills, plains, and grasslands—was clearly visible, but the underground was mostly shrouded in darkness, save for a few illuminated sections. In that darkness, a red dot pulsed conspicuously.

“That’s the Swarm Empress’s location. Though we can’t see the exact layout there, we can measure the depth.” As the staff officer spoke, an altitude scale appeared, showing that Sarah Kerrigan was roughly 500 meters underground.

“We can drop a Type B5 bunker buster bomb here. Based on geological samples from our marines, it can penetrate 200 to 300 meters before detonating. The blast would be powerful enough to collapse or seal all nearby tunnels—including the one the Swarm Empress is in.”

The commander nodded. He understood the risk. A high-yield bomb exploding 200-plus meters above the Swarm Empress, collapsing the surrounding tunnels, would indeed hinder her escape.

But the question was—how could they ensure her survival?

Forget the bomb’s direct damage—just the geological collapse at 500 meters underground would exert immense pressure. Could the Swarm Empress withstand that?

If their goal was simply to kill her, they could’ve done so the moment they confirmed her presence at the conference site. The Ji Clan had a hundred ways to make her disappear.

But they were going through all this trouble to capture her alive. The commander didn’t know why the Council of Elders wanted her alive—maybe there was some higher purpose beyond his clearance level. But orders were orders.

If, after all this effort, they accidentally killed her… Forget promotions, raises, or marrying into wealth—he’d be lucky if he wasn’t scapegoated for every casualty and blamed for initiating the attack.

So, no matter what, the Swarm Empress’s safety was non-negotiable. In his eyes, within a one-light-year radius, his life was the top priority—followed closely by hers.

As for the Ji Clan elders and the other leaders? To avoid future complications, it’d be best if they “heroically fell in battle.”

But given the current situation, not taking risks might mean losing even her corpse—and total mission failure.

If he had more time—say, five years instead of five days—he could’ve let the Swarm Empress run for half a month. With the planet locked down, he could’ve played this cat-and-mouse game slowly. Ji Clan technology could breach even a planet’s crust.

But that was just a dream. After their last major battle, the Confederation’s frontline forces had been decimated. It had taken decades to assemble that multi-species coalition of over a hundred races.

The Ji Clan still had some reserves, but not enough to hold off the Swarm’s endless reinforcements. The Swarm Empress had likely realized this—hence her boldness in attending the summit.

Too bad she’d underestimated how low the Ji Clan would go. She hadn’t expected them to strike so fast, skipping even the formalities. Then again, given how prepared the Swarm was, as long as she escaped this planet, they’d come out ahead no matter what.

Looks like risks were necessary.

“Success probability?”

“We’ve reviewed the footage of the Swarm Empress’s escape from the conference site repeatedly. Her personal bio-armor far exceeds our initial estimates. Based on the latest data, she has at least a 70% chance of surviving the blast.”

“70%?” That number surprised the commander—not because it was too low, but because it was too high. Clearly, the Swarm Empress’s personal gear was leagues ahead of their export models.

“Then proceed. Make sure the strike is precise—unless you want a court-martial.”

The order was given. A fighter drone squadron mobilized toward the target. The B5 bunker buster wasn’t standard equipment—out of nearly five million fighters, fewer than a hundred carried it.