I Am The Swarm-Chapter 783: Mobilization

Of course, the Inner-circle Alliance didn’t put all their hopes into this one operation. While they searched for breakthroughs, they also prepared for a prolonged war.

Star Gates Nine through Sixteen were now being constructed in Swarm territory. Within the Inner-circle Alliance itself, plans for nearly twenty new Star Gates had been placed on the agenda.

Meanwhile, over the past years, Alliance fleets had reached many Mid-ring and Outer-ring civilizations, where they held “warm, and friendly discussions” and recruited large numbers of troops.

As for the Swarm, although they had been steadily supplying troops to the anti-Ji frontlines, their development hadn’t slowed. With vast unclaimed star systems behind them, they now occupied nearly five hundred star systems across the galaxy.

However, most of these newly acquired systems were still in the resource-gathering phase. They weren’t yet capable of sustaining mass military output for frontline deployment.

Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye. Sarah had now been stationed near Star Gate XM768 for one hundred and twenty years—a span longer than the entire Swarm vs Confederation war had lasted.

“Are we really going through with this?”

“It’s time. We’ve been preparing for this for twenty years.”

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In those years, the vanguard had successfully captured the target star system. Even the Alliance’s own systems that would be affected by the blast had undergone aggressive resource extraction to speed up the operation. With so much already invested, there was no turning back.

“In that case… let’s begin.”

A blinding light. Endless heat. For the first time in nearly one hundred and thirty years, the roar of a star echoed across the region.

Detonating a star was no small feat—but it was not beyond the capabilities of an alliance comprising over a dozen Inner-circle civilizations.

The anti-Ji Alliance had been well-prepared. The troops that had captured the star system had long since pulled back to two light-years away, giving them ample time to retreat. Naturally, the Ji race had been observing all of this, and so the blast, aside from destroying countless space mines, didn’t damage any Ji warships—at least not yet.

But the Alliance hadn’t expected the slow-propagating explosion to hit Ji fleets. Clearing the minefield was their true objective—and that goal had been achieved.

As the star burst into brilliance, a colossal force, built up over decades, surged forward. Countless high-power propulsion systems lit up, their combined radiance forming a dazzling ribbon of light across the dark expanse of space.

At the head of this radiant formation, a dense tide of Primordial bodies surged like a living flood.

This twenty-billion-strong super army would flank the Ji defense line by advancing along the path of the shockwave. Though their speed was only at sublight speeds, it was still twice as fast as their earlier pace, which required clearing mines as they went.

“Their advance is too fast. We have to stop them.” On the Ji side, emergency meetings were already underway.

“There are too many of them. With that energy wave clearing the way, stopping them will be difficult.”

“This isn’t about what’s ‘difficult.’ If we don’t stop them now, we’ll be caught in an endless retreat.”

“Exactly! In the face of a threat, we need to strike back. These past years of so-called ‘strategies’ have been nothing but passive.”

“True, but these were decisions made by the Council of Elders.”

“And what’s the Council saying now?”

“They’ve acknowledged we’ve reached a point where there’s no retreat. This time, they’ve given us broad authority. The objective is to stop them at all costs.”

“Sigh… Ever since this war with the so-called anti-Ji Alliance began, I’ve felt like the Ji race has changed. It’s… not the Ji race I knew.”

“Oh? You feel that way too? Did you notice anything?”

The first speaker shook their head. “Nothing concrete. Just a sense that… something’s changed across the board.”

“Yeah… even people I used to know seem… different.”

“Forget it. Focus on what we must do. Suggestions for dealing with this threat?”

“What suggestions could we possibly give? A fleet that stretches nearly a light-year across—in the vastness of space, tricks do not matter. To stop them, we have to meet them head-on.”

“Then we’ll need a massive force. I hope the Council’s authorization lets us gather enough troops. Otherwise, I’d rather not fight at all than send soldiers on a suicide mission.”

“Don’t worry. The Council’s tone may have changed, but they’re not joking around on matters like this. We’ve been given full operational authority—short of the border garrisons, we can mobilize every available unit.”