I Am The Swarm-Chapter 737: Discovery

Though the Swarm’s tactics were causing some headaches for the Ji race, there was a silver lining—they now had a rough idea of the Swarm Empress’s hiding range.

The dispersed soldiers were recalled and concentrated on the central area of the battlefield. This region had already been combed through multiple times. However, this area wasn’t flat; when accounting for height, it was actually quite large. Even after multiple searches, there were bound to be spots that had been overlooked.

At any moment, the Swarm could complete their preparations, withdraw the Burrowing Worms from below, and collapse the entire region into the depths. The Ji race had to race against time to locate the Swarm Empress before that happened.

All K2N9 units, smaller excavation machines, were mobilized, and their digging methods became much more aggressive and unrestrained. The Ji race had finally let go of their earlier caution—or perhaps they had come to terms with reality.

If the Swarm Empress lacked her exoskeletal bio-armor, she would have perished during the X-576 explosion. If she did have the armor, then the physical damage caused by the K2N9’s digging wouldn’t harm her. Given this logic, gentle excavation would only slow them down.

“The Swarm has noticed our movements. The Burrowing Worms have entered the detection range and are consuming soil layers.”

“That’s expected given how obvious our actions are.”

“It seems they’re trying to minimize the intervening soil layer to drop the Swarm Empress as deep underground as possible.”

“I’m worried we won’t have enough time. They’re moving fast, but our frontline setup is ill-suited for underground combat.”

“Never thought the situation would come to this—someone like the Swarm Empress resorting to hide-and-seek.”

“Let’s speed up as much as possible, and also expedite the deployment of the Hercules. We need it.”

“We’ve already pushed for urgency. Fortunately, the Swarm likely hasn’t realized what the Hercules truly is yet. Its assembly is proceeding smoothly and should be completed in time.”

“That’s good!”

Both sides were racing against time. In the target area, due to the Ji race’s destructive search efforts, reinforcement work couldn’t keep up, and small-scale collapses were occurring in many places. But at this point, the Ji race didn’t care. Selina had calculated the most efficient cross-digging routes. The K2N9s’ current objective was to cover as large an area as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Meanwhile, the Swarm’s activities below intensified significantly. A large number of Burrowing Worms entered the Ji race’s detection range. Keep in mind that countless Burrowing Worms were already immobilized as structural supports. Despite this, numerous Burrowing Worms still roamed freely, indicating just how many the Swarm had recklessly gathered here.

At the same time, the Swarm forces on the periphery finally launched their attack. Since the Ji race had recalled nearly all their soldiers, the defenses at various outposts were critically understaffed.

On the Swarm’s side, space-based war beasts based on the fungal carpet template made their appearance. These creatures weren’t just formidable in attack; their defensive attributes and regenerative capabilities far surpassed those of the disposable native-gene units. Coupled with stronger energy sources enabling access to more advanced weapon systems, the under-defended Ji outposts stood no chance and were systematically overrun.

Even their surface observation stations were undermined from below by the Swarm, drastically reducing the Ji race’s early warning coverage.

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Although the Ji race had now pinpointed the general area where the Swarm Empress was hiding, and with time running short, losing the peripheral warning outposts was an acceptable loss. Nevertheless, the sea of space-based war beasts continued to exert significant pressure, forcing them to divert some of their already scarce manpower to establish a defensive line around the core area to hold off the Swarm’s assault.

The good news was that with the contraction of the frontlines and reduced defensive zones, the intensity of the Ji race’s defensive firepower increased. Even a sea of space-based Swarm units would struggle to breach this level of defense in the short term.

Sarah Kerrigan’s hiding spot wasn’t particularly strategic—it was just a random location she had chosen to hole up in. Her luck in remaining undiscovered by the Ji race until now even surprised herself.

However, as more K2N9 units were deployed and guided by scientifically planned excavation routes, they gradually uncovered previously missed blind spots. Time was running out for Sarah.

Finally, a K2N9 bulldozed its way over, directly colliding with Sarah in her camouflaged state. The high-speed rotating drill bit at the front of the K2N9 came into close and intimate contact with Sarah.

In fact, Sarah had been grazed by K2N9s several times before. While in mimicry mode, unless subjected to severe attacks, her camouflage wouldn’t break. Underground collisions were inevitable, and Sarah had repeatedly been mistaken for an ordinary rock and ignored. Aside from luck, this was another reason she had remained hidden in plain sight.

But this time was slightly different. Though the purely physical impact posed no real threat to Sarah’s bio-armor, the brief contact with the high-speed rotating drill bit still exposed a slight vulnerability in the armor.

This minor flaw might have gone unnoticed earlier, but now that the Ji race had locked onto her general area, concentrating all available personnel, the thoroughness and meticulousness of the search had increased exponentially.

“She’s here! She’s here!”

A Ji soldier following behind the K2N9 keenly detected the brief exposure of the bio-armor. After a momentary daze, he immediately realized he had struck gold.

Promotion and riches were within reach, but he was well aware of his own limitations. If pitted against the Swarm Empress alone, a hundred of him wouldn’t stand a chance.

However, discovering the Swarm Empress was still a monumental achievement. Now wasn’t the time to be greedy for personal glory. Thus, the soldier’s voice, tinged with obvious excitement, rang out across the communication channel.

Joy was meant to be shared. Other soldiers empathized and partook in the elation. Nearly three days of grueling digging were about to end, and more importantly, once the mission was over, they could leave this dangerous place. It was hard not to be thrilled.

Artificial intelligence, however, remained ever-calm. Selina felt no joy from the soldiers’ excitement. Diligently, upon detecting the Swarm Empress, she immediately reported it upward and marked the target location.

Subsequently, guided by navigation, Ji soldiers surged toward the target position.

Though her vision was impaired due to her mimicry, and the soldiers’ shouts, though deafening in the communication channel, were muted externally by their helmet visors. Sarah still pieced together subtle clues and realized she had been discovered.