I Am The Swarm

Chapter 479: Impact

“Open fire!” the squad leader roared, snapping his team out of their stunned state. His furious command was quickly followed by a barrage of concentrated energy beams aimed at the oncoming black tide.

The Daqi soldiers became sharpshooters in their desperation. Every shot was a direct hit, often taking down two or even three Raiders with a single blast. Yet their efforts were futile. The attacks did little more than splash greenish “soup” into the air, failing to halt the relentless advance of the dark swarm.

Within seconds, the defensive line formed by the two Daqi squads was overrun. The furious shouts and the staccato sounds of gunfire faded, replaced by the piercing, resonant screeches of countless Raiders swarming forward, their collective cry growing ever louder, shaking the very core of the listeners.

Watching the chaos unfold through the surveillance feeds, the remaining Daqi personnel were overcome with shock and terror. Those with a fear of swarming masses felt their breaths grow shallow, overwhelmed by the horrifying scene.

But the battlefield left no room for prolonged emotional responses. The Daqi commander was the first to recover, his hardened combat instincts forcing him to suppress his fear.

“Seal all the passages! Everyone, fall back to the command center!” he barked.

The commander’s extensive combat experience had taught him that dividing their forces against such a tidal wave of attackers would only result in them being picked off one by one. His priority now was to buy as much time as possible, gather his personnel, and plan either a strategic retreat or a desperate last stand.

In the base’s corridors, thick metal bulkheads slammed shut one after another, forming barriers to block the advancing swarm.

“Boom!” The tide crashed into one of the sealed doors, the impact crushing the leading Raiders into pulp. The mangled remains of the “wave” smeared against the metal door, green, semi-translucent corrosive fluid oozing from their broken bodies.

Though the stripped-down version of the Raiders lacked dedicated venom sacs, their entire bodies served as highly effective acid reservoirs. Deploying the acid was as simple as smashing themselves to pieces.

“Sssss…” The fluid reacted violently with the metal, hissing and steaming as it corroded the surface. A foul odor spread through the air, but the advancing swarm didn’t care.

The corrosion worked quickly. Within moments, the nearly meter-thick metal bulkhead had a gaping hole, allowing the black tide to surge forward again, crashing against the next barrier.

Meanwhile, inside the Daqi base, personnel scrambled to regroup at the command center. Soldiers who had already arrived set up improvised defensive positions in the narrow corridors leading to the command center. Heavy weapons were deployed, despite the risks of collateral damage in such confined spaces. At this point, survival outweighed such concerns.

“Commander, are we planning to make our stand here?” one operator asked nervously.

“Staying here is a death sentence!” the commander replied grimly.

He understood the terrain too well—these tight spaces made it impossible to concentrate their firepower effectively. Facing such an overwhelming tide of enemies, holding the line here was nothing short of a fool’s dream.

The commander was acutely aware that the entire star system was now under Swarm control. Any attempt to outlast the Swarm through attrition was doomed to failure; at best, his actions could only delay the inevitable.

Observing the previously unseen Swarm units being deployed, the commander deduced that the Swarm was conducting tests. They were either developing new tactics or addressing shortcomings in existing units that rendered them unsuitable for planetary surface combat. ?ãN????

He believed the latter to be more likely. If the Swarm truly wanted efficiency, deploying their Space Octopuses would have been far more effective than wasting ammunition then on these suboptimal units.

The commander speculated that, despite the Swarm’s biological focus, their spaceborne units, much like the large warships of other factions, were likely restricted in their ability to operate on planetary surfaces. What puzzled him further was the absence of the little Octopus Freaks from the ground operations, leading him to suspect some deeper mystery at play.

Regrettably, with all channels of communication blocked, the commander had no way to transmit this critical insight. If he could, he would willingly sacrifice himself to provide this intelligence for the survival of his people.

Since a noble death was out of the question, survival became his primary goal. As the saying goes, “Better a live coward than a dead hero.” As long as he lived, there was a chance—perhaps one day, he might find an opportunity to relay this vital information.

“Can we contact other bases to see if they can send reinforcements?” the commander asked.

“No, sir. Our signals were jammed by the Swarm at the very start of the battle!”

“Check how many transport vehicles we still have. Can they carry everyone out at once?”

“On it, Commander.” The operator typed rapidly before responding, “Currently, we have five transport shuttles, four gunboats, and thirty-seven ground vehicles. If fully loaded, we can evacuate everyone from the base.”

The commander nodded, deep in thought. The transport and gunboats were in constant use and were maintained in combat readiness. However, the ground vehicles, despite regular maintenance, were seldom used. Their immediate operational status was uncertain.

Moreover, being an underground facility, the vehicles had only two potential routes for deployment.

Option one: Use the elevator shafts. This method was fast and could deliver units to the surface quickly. However, the elevator shafts had limited capacity, requiring nearly twenty trips to transport all thirty-seven vehicles. This would consume valuable time and divide their forces. If they were ambushed on the surface, the segmented deployment would be vulnerable to piecemeal annihilation.

Option two: Use the underground tunnel. This tunnel, designed for transporting large modules and equipment, offered the advantage of maintaining troop cohesion during evacuation. However, it spanned a length of ten kilometers and lacked the robust defenses of the base walls. If they encountered an ambush within the tunnel, they could be completely trapped, with no hope of reinforcement.

There was no time for extensive deliberation. The commander decided to prepare all options and adapt as the situation unfolded.

“Send Combat Teams Three and Four to escort the engineering team. Get all the vehicles operational. Everyone else, fortify the defensive lines!”

The base’s design seemed to account for the possibility of evacuation. The command center was relatively close to the hangar, elevator shafts, and tunnel entrance. However, considering the risk of enemy intrusion through these points, the corridors connecting them to the command center were heavily fortified.

Surveillance systems and automated turrets provided additional security, but the most significant deterrent was the twenty-meter-thick metal wall separating the command center from these access points.

This barrier could withstand most heavy weapons, ensuring the command center’s safety. Additionally, the wall had only a single corridor leading through it, making the area an easily defensible choke point.