I Am The Swarm

Chapter 355: Oversight

“Target the remaining mobile Swarm units and eliminate them first!” Diallo ordered as the Daqi fleet continued its spiraling retreat from Planet Izumo.

With the Swarm’s Primordial bodies increasingly reduced to stationary defensive turrets, fewer of them had the firing angles necessary to maintain pressure on the retreating fleet.

Still, before losing their functionality entirely, many of them pushed their limits. By overloading their cellular structures and destroying their weapon mechanisms in the process, they achieved a final burst of firepower.

By this stage of the battle, over 800 Daqi warships had been left behind on the front lines. Among these, more than 300 were completely destroyed, while the rest were disabled and unable to follow the fleet’s retreat.

Initially, the Daqi had attempted to rescue some of their stranded comrades. However, once the fleet began withdrawing in earnest, small vessels and escape pods from the disabled ships began heading toward the Riken Twin Star Defensive Zone instead.

This retreat was far from orderly. Diallo’s fleet, which had made space for the Crimson Kiss missiles by partially clearing out their drone bays, still carried a significant number of drones—about 500 per warship.

The Daqi drones were elliptical and flat, resembling an enlarged first-generation Swarm Combat Beetle. Measuring 5 meters in length, 3 meters in width, and 2 meters in height, they were designed to be stored compactly. The drones were slotted into racks within their hangars, looking like rows of oversized USB drives.

Even after accommodating the bulky Crimson Kiss missiles, each warship retained room for over 500 drones.

The primary role of these drones was breaching and harassment. Armed with two small energy cannons concealed on either side of their chassis, the drones posed little threat to the reactive armor of enemy warships. However, their compact size allowed them to exploit gaps, targeting exposed components such as radar arrays, main and secondary turrets, and even penetrating hangar bays to wreak havoc inside enemy ships.

Against the Swarm, however, Diallo had refrained from deploying the drones early in the battle. He knew from his re

“Adjust heading! Preheat the main engines! Activate the repulsion fields! Leave the remaining Swarm units behind—we’re retreating!” Diallo commanded sharply.

Though the battle was nearing a decisive victory, an ominous feeling gnawed at him. Something critical seemed forgotten, just out of reach in his thoughts.

Whatever it was, it was better to retreat now than to risk lingering on the battlefield. The fewer than 1,000 remaining Primordial bodies were insignificant to the larger picture.

Suddenly, a shrill alarm pierced the air, its rhythmic beep-beep-beep cutting through the commotion.

“What’s going on?” Diallo demanded.

Aslit quickly reviewed the incoming data. “Your Highness, energy accumulation detected on Planet Izumo! Based on the readings, it’s the Swarm’s electromagnetic cannons!”

“Damn it! Forget the formation—scatter! Don’t block each other’s paths! Everyone retreat on their own! Regroup at 157 degrees, 50 million kilometers out!” Diallo barked out the emergency orders.

At that moment, he realized what he had overlooked.

While the Daqi fleet had neutralized the Swarm’s front-facing defenses with their Crimson Kiss missiles, the Swarm’s planetary defensive emplacements were distributed across the entire surface of Izumo. Though they had escaped the firing arcs of the forward-positioned Primordial bodies, they had unwittingly drifted into the range of the planetary defenses on the opposite side.

While their repulsion fields were effective counters against electromagnetic cannons, the warships were currently oriented incorrectly. Having pivoted their vessels to prepare for a retreat, the repulsion fields no longer covered their exposed sides and rear. Reorienting their ships to protect against the threat would be time-consuming and leave them vulnerable.

Diallo cursed inwardly, feeling the urge to bang his head against the console. If he had known this would happen, he would have risked pushing through the diminished firepower of the remaining Primordial bodies rather than facing this new predicament.

This would have been better than the current situation.