I Am The Swarm-Chapter 649: The Mole

The feedback that came in shocked the Captain. Their situation wasn’t an isolated case—almost all races within the Confederation forces had reported Swarm invasions aboard their battleships, and the number of incidents was increasing.

Not long after he submitted his report, a second battleship from their own race detected a Swarm intrusion. Then a third, fourth, fifth…

More and more battleships were reporting Swarm invasions, and it wasn’t just their race—this was happening across all the Confederation races. This revelation stunned everyone, as it indicated the situation was far worse than anticipated.

At first, when Swarm invasions were sporadic, no one was overly alarmed. Everyone assumed these were isolated incidents where the Swarm had somehow managed to deliver combat units onto their ships.

The operational command staff initially concluded that a few individuals within their ranks had been compromised by the Swarm. These traitors likely assisted the Swarm in smuggling some units aboard during the fleet’s preparation phase while still docked at the starport.

As for why they were compromised or what benefits enticed them, no conclusions had yet been reached. However, investigations could proceed slowly to root out these bad apples.

But as the number of invaded battleships skyrocketed, this hypothesis fell apart. If it were just a few individuals, that would be manageable. After all, this was the Swarm’s border region, where they had waged war for a century without a single defeat, influencing countless neighboring civilizations.

Among the workforce at the starports of the Confederation frontlines, ninety percent hailed from nearby civilizations. There were always individuals who sought to stand out, idolizing strength. Due to their limited perspective, they revered the undefeated Swarm and wished to serve—or even join—them.

Unfortunately for them, the Swarm never accepted foreign immigrants. To date, there wasn’t a single non-Swarm individual legally residing in their territory. Still, some persisted in trying to ingratiate themselves, easily swayed into betrayal.

However, the current situation couldn’t be explained by such reasoning. Eccentrics were rare, and bypassing the Confederation’s vetting system to smuggle contraband aboard ten or eight ships was already pushing the limits.

Given the present circumstances, if this explanation held, it would mean the entire Confederation had gone insane, rushing to the Swarm’s starports to prepare for war, resulting in the current mess.

The number of affected battleships continued to grow exponentially. Soon, the minority of ships not yet invaded became exceedingly rare, rapidly approaching extinction.

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This sudden shift in the situation left the Confederation races bewildered. While the invading Swarm units didn’t seem particularly destructive, capable only of ambushing passing Confederation units, this was merely their current manifestation.

The Swarm’s demonstrated mimicry ability caught the Confederation off guard. In the complex environment of a ship’s interior, this ability was practically invincible. Even the Rashudia race, considered the pinnacle of Mid-ring civilizations, was powerless against it.

This placed immense psychological pressure on the Confederation races. Anyone would feel destabilized knowing they were in an environment riddled with traps, where attacks could occur at any moment.

What made matters worse was that they were currently aboard battleships, far from the rear lines. These ships felt like massive metal cages, restricting their movements. For the time being, they were trapped in this environment.

The terrifying part was that these traps couldn’t be detected beforehand—they could only be cleared using machines or living beings as bait. What further crushed the Confederation races was that aside from its one-hit capability, the Swarm’s tentacle traps had no other notable features.

But that one hit alone granted the tentacles an unparalleled one-for-one exchange rate. Their lightning-fast attacks left most units active within the ship’s cabins unable to withstand the blow—except for heavily armored robotic soldiers and those equipped with reactive armor shields.

Yet, this was the space age. While everyone carried heavy robotic soldiers and reactive armor shields, the quantities were limited. No one had foreseen the situation escalating to this extent.

Originally, they thought the Swarm was surrounded on all sides. Who would have guessed the joke was on them?

Moreover, no one knew how many of these tentacle traps existed or how much territory they had infiltrated. As a result, most areas aboard each battleship became restricted zones, solidifying the ships’ reputation as metal cages.

What worried the Confederation high command even more was that they still had no idea how the Swarm had managed to deploy these units on such a massive scale within the Confederation fleet.

The earlier theory about moles smuggling units aboard had long been debunked. A breach of this magnitude went far beyond what smuggling could achieve. The only remaining possibility was that the Swarm had deployed these units directly during the war.

Many immediately recalled the Swarm’s inexplicable troop delivery at the start of the conflict. At the time, they assumed the Swarm simply followed outdated battle doctrines or acted recklessly due to arrogance.

Now, reflecting on it, they realized the truth. Those troops weren’t sent aimlessly—they were here to secure the Swarm’s first victory against the Confederation forces! What did that mean? It meant that for all these years, the Swarm had never lost a single battle against the Interstellar Confederation!

They regretted their earlier assumptions. Had their minds been clouded by stupidity to think that an undefeated general would make such an obvious and childish move?

Though the exact method remained unknown, most believed that the mysterious troop deployment at the start of the war had facilitated this invasion.

The Confederation forces’ guess wasn’t wrong—the Swarm didn’t do anything without purpose, let alone engage in costly troop deliveries. Those Primordial body projectiles delivered earlier had all been tampered with by Luo Wen.

Here, we must revisit one of Luo Wen’s peak creations from a certain period of time—the Micro-Seed. This invention was originally designed to infiltrate the Interstellar Confederation.

Compared to the Swarm’s earliest infiltration units, the Swarm Meteors, the Micro-Seed had a clear advantage: its size was minuscule, making it extremely difficult to detect. This allowed it to penetrate even the most heavily defended areas, including the highest-security homeworlds of foreign races.

However, its drawbacks were equally apparent. Like the Swarm Meteors, it relied on electromagnetic launchers for sub-light-speed travel. Moreover, due to its small size, it couldn’t be launched independently but required a carrier vessel to transport it before detaching post-launch.