I Am The Swarm-Chapter 638: The Decision

If the Swarm were to rely solely on its own strength to expose Lumina’s situation, aside from using the extensive network of the intelligent entities, there would be no other viable method. However, if a large number of unrelated individuals suddenly took coordinated action, even a fool would realize that there was a force acting behind the scenes.

Since this clearly wasn’t Lumina’s doing, and the underground organizations would know it wasn’t their own people either, they would quickly suspect the Swarm.

Moreover, Lumina had been operating within the Confederation for many years. It was entirely possible that it had planted a large amount of its “own people” within these underground organizations. Lumina would likely soon receive relevant information, and the Swarm would become the target of everyone’s suspicion.

At the same time, the Swarm’s extensive network of embedded agents would be exposed. How the Swarm controlled these seemingly unrelated individuals would undoubtedly pique the interest of those paying attention.

The Swarm’s hard-earned intelligence network could be destroyed overnight. No matter how you looked at it, the Swarm taking direct action in this matter would be a case of inflicting a hundred points of damage on the enemy while suffering eight thousand points itself.

Compared to these potential losses, ignoring the issue and focusing on winning each battle as originally planned seemed like the better choice.

As the intelligent entities had pointed out earlier, the Mid-Ring and Outer-Ring civilizations currently involved in the war would likely play insignificant roles in future confrontations. Their combat strength wouldn’t influence or determine the outcome of anything.

As for the Inner Circle civilizations, based on the intelligence Luo Wen had gathered through his channels, they seemed to harbor some special ambitions. However, Luo Wen hadn’t had much contact with them yet, and he hadn’t planted many seeds among them. Therefore, he didn’t have a clear understanding of their specific plans.

But that didn’t matter. Intelligence wasn’t solely obtained through infiltration and espionage. By observing an opponent’s reactions to certain events, one could also gather a wealth of information.

Although the Inner Circle civilizations hadn’t yet entered the fray, the current war involved the participation of the top-tier of Mid-Ring civilizations. By winning this battle, Luo Wen could force the Inner Circle civilizations to reveal their stance on the war, allowing him to deduce more about their intentions.

It was time to wake up those fools who were dreaming of achieving the first victory in the war against the Swarm. After all, Luo Wen had a slight streak of perfectionism, and he didn’t want to see his undefeated record broken.

From the perspective of the Confederation, the war in the Swarm’s Star System One was nearing its end. After all, their fleet numbers and firepower far surpassed the remaining Swarm forces.

If it weren’t for the fear of the Swarm detonating a Stellar Bomb, they would have already abandoned their long-range bombardment and charged forward to claim their glory.

On the other hand, the Rashudia Race fleet and several Mid-Ring civilization fleets, which were supposed to flank the Swarm, hadn’t yet reached their designated positions.

However, in their view, the outcome of the battle was already decided. There was no need for them to take risks by cutting off the Swarm’s retreat. Their lives were their own, and they valued them highly. As a result, they were dragging their feet, and at their current speed, they would likely still be halfway to their destination by the time the main battle concluded.

Regardless of the direction, the Confederation forces were relatively relaxed. The prospect of achieving the first victory in the war against the Swarm had them excited.

But what they didn’t know was that Luo Wen had emerged from his confusion and issued new orders. Some terrifying changes were about to take place.

Onboard a Mid-Ring civilization warship, the crew had just fired a full salvo. The sparse counterfire from the Swarm had put them at ease.

The atmosphere in the command room had become relaxed. The crew members were joking and laughing, trying to relieve the tension from earlier. The ship’s captain stood silently on the bridge, allowing this behavior.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded from one of the instruments. However, the alarm didn’t interrupt the crew’s relaxation. Unlike the shrill alarm that signaled an enemy lock or attack, this alarm was more like an error beep.

The war had been going on for a long time, and although this warship had been lucky enough not to be destroyed, it had sustained some damage. The front right side of the ship had taken two direct hits from the Swarm’s main cannons. Fortunately, the ship’s reactive armor was thick, and it had technology to weaken energy-based attacks.

As a result, despite the two hits, the ship had only suffered minor air leaks in a few compartments, with no serious damage. However, after such a long period of continuous firing, many of the ship’s precision parts had reached their wear limits.

Therefore, the instruments monitoring their condition would occasionally sound alarms. The crew had grown accustomed to these alarms and no longer felt nervous. The war was almost over, and if a few devices broke, so be it. As long as the engines were still functioning, it wasn’t a big deal.

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Besides, these devices would all be repaired after the battle. The longer the repair time, the longer the crew’s rest period. If they were lucky and the ship sustained significant damage requiring extensive repairs, they might even skip the next battle entirely.

So, far from feeling nervous, the crew members were almost hoping for more of these alarms.

“Segal, what’s going on? Which device broke this time?” The speaker was an individual about 1.7 meters tall, with thick, yellowish-brown fur covering his body. His face was rugged, and his voice was loud.

Hearing the question, a crew member in the corner who looked similar to the speaker responded. “Sir, there’s an issue on the B5 deck. A corner monitor suddenly malfunctioned. I’ve already sent engineering robots to repair it.”

The officer who had asked the question nodded and said, “Those military procurement guys really annoy me with their cheap products.”

“Haha, true. Even if they think internal ship monitors aren’t that important, they shouldn’t cut corners like this. Alexon, you should definitely mention this in the after-action report,” said another officer standing next to the one who had spoken earlier, judging by his uniform’s rank insignia.

“Humph, they probably think that even if the monitors break during normal operations, the engineering robots will fix them quickly. And if enemies board the ship, we won’t have the chance to complain anyway, so they use cheap parts. But what’s the point of complaining? It won’t make them lose any sleep, and they won’t change their ways. We’re just wasting our breath.”

“That’s not necessarily true. We’ve never fought a war of this intensity before. And this is just one of the Swarm’s star systems. Wars of this scale might become the norm in the future. If we want to ensure our safety, the first thing we need to guarantee is the proper functioning of all shipboard equipment.”