I Am The Swarm-Chapter 793: Battle Stars

As for the Swarm, their short-range maneuvering units did rely on electromagnetic propulsion, so EMPs could disrupt their movement systems. But Primordial bodies, which formed the Swarm’s shield network, didn’t need to move—rendering the neutron cannon’s secondary effect largely useless against them.

However, the photon cannon, another weapon mounted on the Battle Stars, proved far more devastating to the Swarm.

This cannon fired accelerated photons at near-light speed. As the saying goes: speed is mass. When a photon is accelerated to nearly light speed, its impact force becomes astronomical. Moreover, this was pure physical impact—with no additional effects.

Against such attacks, the Swarm’s biological armor was no better than tofu. And not just the Swarm—even the reactive armor of Ji and Alliance warships provided little more protection.

If the Ji Race ever managed to reduce the photon cannon’s energy cost, miniaturize it, and mount it on standard warships in place of dark energy cannons, this war wouldn’t even need to be fought. The Inner-circle Alliance would surrender on the spot, and the Swarm would simply retreat.

But reality doesn’t bend to “what-ifs.” The deployment of two Battle Stars had drastically increased the Alliance’s casualty rate—nearly matching that of the Ji Race. However, it still wasn’t quite enough to establish decisive battlefield dominance.

The real concern was that the Ji had over a hundred Battle Stars deployed throughout the surrounding star systems. If the war dragged on and they all made it to the front, the situation could shift dramatically.

The Inner-circle Alliance also had Battle Stars. Though not as advanced as the Ji versions, they were still formidable assets.

The problem was quantity. It wasn’t that the Inner-circle lacked resources—it was that, before formally declaring war, building too many strategic-level weapons like Battle Stars would have alarmed the Ji Race. Since most Inner-circle civilizations shared borders with the Ji, they couldn’t risk provoking suspicion.

Now that war had broken out, those restrictions were lifted. Naturally, the Inner-circle Alliance rushed to add Battle Stars to their military plans. But these colossal constructs—comparable to large planetary moons—required centuries to build.

As a result, their current stock consisted of a few older models and a handful of newly completed ones. Most were still under construction.

And of those ready for deployment, only two were near the front lines. At the start of the war, the Alliance had already ordered them to reinforce the front.

But the problem was distance: the battlefield had penetrated nearly 20 light-years into Ji territory. Even at full throttle, it would take 40–50 years for those Battle Stars to arrive—far too late to make a difference.

“Is there any way to destroy those two Battle Stars?” In the Inner-circle Alliance command center, a Yasufit officer posed the question.

“Very difficult,” came the reply. “Even if all our agents onboard those Battle Stars were activated simultaneously, they could only cause a temporary shutdown. Once the reactors rebooted, the Battle Stars would suffer no lasting damage.”

“But the photon cannons are too deadly. In just the past month, our casualty rate has risen by one percent.”

That might sound small, but don’t forget: the base number was built on a confrontation involving 200 billion major combat units. Two Battle Stars alone had caused a 1% increase in losses—an alarming figure.

“At this scale of conflict, tactics have limited utility. To destroy those Battle Stars, we’d need to brute-force them.”

“Have you assessed the feasibility?”

“Near zero. These aren’t structures that can be taken down quickly. According to our calculations, each one would require ten million warships, firing at full capacity for half an hour to destroy. And under current battlefield conditions, any shift in formation would be detected immediately. The enemy would respond before we could concentrate that kind of firepower for even five minutes—let alone thirty.”

“Damn it! Then what do we do?”

“I suggest we don’t get too fixated on those two. After all, it’s only two Battle Stars. Based on our intel, the Ji Race has over a hundred approaching the front. Even if we destroyed these two, we couldn’t stop the rest. We’ll just have to absorb the losses.”

“Don’t our allies have any tricks up their sleeves? Their infiltration tactics worked well against the Star Gates—can’t we apply those to the Battle Stars?”

“I already contacted the Swarm. Their response was: impossible. Their infiltration units are not only difficult to deliver, but require very long periods of dormancy to be effective. The Ji Race won’t give us that opportunity.”