I Am The Swarm-Chapter 730: Reinforcements

“Then expand the search area and send all K2N9 units over. The target likely completed shedding its armor and hiding while staying in place just now.”

“Exactly. Also, have the soldiers be more cautious; the target might currently be in an unarmored state.”

“That probability is low because without the armor’s isolation, the target can’t possibly remain invisible to detection instruments.”

“It could be her innate abilities. After all, no one knows what kind of genetic modifications the Swarm has made on themselves.”

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“So we’d better be careful. It doesn’t matter if she gets injured, but accidentally killing her would definitely be bad.”

A large number of K2N9s began converging towards where the beacon disappeared. The original pursuit team had already arrived in the tunnel, and a significant portion of the blocking forces from ahead also came to reinforce.

Under Selina’s coordination, each arriving K2N9 was assigned its task. They were carefully using their mechanical arms to inspect the surroundings.

Although the Ji race was conducting a diffusion-style search outward from where the beacon disappeared, the origin point was still some distance away from Sarah Kerrigan’s hiding spot.

However, as more K2N9s gathered at this location, the Ji race’s search range expanded rapidly. It wouldn’t take long for them to reach Sarah’s position.

The Swarm forces outside seemed to sense their Empress’s increasingly perilous situation and charged madly towards this location. Although the Ji soldiers, after receiving reinforcements, formed a powerful fire net. The firepower protection net composed of various long-range weapons was like a meat grinder. The corpses of the Swarm combat units had piled up into small hills.

Some drawbacks of the Swarm’s surface biological combat units became evident at this moment. Powerful biological functions required sufficient energy to drive them. Whether it was the early atomic furnaces or the current dark energy furnaces, the size of the Swarm’s biological energy systems was enormous. Even when miniaturized, the resources consumed were unimaginable. Units like Spider Combat Bugs couldn’t match such requirements.

Unless the Swarm started focusing on elite troops, but in that case can they still be called the Swarm? Moreover, the number of the Swarm related to Luo Wen’s influence in this universe, and the strength of his interference was directly tied to the number of Swarm nodes. This indicated that the Swarm couldn’t, at least not in the short term, adopt an elite troop strategy.

Thus, most of the Swarm units currently charging the Ji forces were relatively primitive. Their bizarre attack methods were more than enough against lower civilizations and even some intermediate ones lacking necessary information. However, facing top-tier powers like the Ji race, they fell short.

A few Red Fang Breakers and Wild Boar Beasts could match the Ji soldiers’ combat power, but their numbers were insufficient to dominate the battlefield.

Nevertheless, the Swarm had its advantages. On the surface, once the Ji race’s firepower net was deployed, it was extremely difficult for Swarm units to approach. With aerial support added, any number of Swarm units would be insufficient.

But here was the underground. Without tunnels dug by Burrowing Worms, the Ji race’s long-range firepower couldn’t be effectively deployed. Though the Ji race had buried numerous bombs in the soil layers, flesh stepping on mines was hardly an issue for the Swarm.

A large number of Swarm units began digging tunnels to bypass the Ji race’s firepower net. The Ji race was aware of this, but without proper equipment, it was challenging to completely prevent this method of advancement.

Fortunately, the Ji command room had anticipated this situation earlier and air-dropped a large number of modified K1KN10 units. The K1KN10 was a large shield machine, far larger than the K2N9, designed specifically for constructing bridges and roads. Originally, such cumbersome machinery couldn’t be quickly deployed on the battlefield. However, Ji technology granted it decent mobility, allowing it to be useful in this war.

Functionally similar to the Swarm’s Burrowing Worms, the K1KN10 could be considered a mechanical version of them, with even their sizes being somewhat similar.

Both had similarly rounded shapes, nearly ten meters in diameter and hundreds of meters long, differing only in that one was biological while the other was mechanical. Wherever they passed, a compacted tunnel was left behind. The Ji race continuously deployed K1KN10s to try and expand their advantage in long-range firepower.

The excavation of many new tunnels indeed expanded the Ji race’s advantage, but they couldn’t possibly excavate all the land. Thus, between the gaps of these tunnels, a large number of Swarm units still crossed through.

As time passed, Swarm units gradually appeared in the tunnel where Sarah was located. However, the Ji race was well-prepared. A large number of K2N9s gathered, bringing substantial reinforcements. While the K2N9s searched for Sarah in the soil layers.

The soldiers weren’t idle. Under Selina’s coordinated arrangements, they set up multiple defensive fortifications and buried a large number of bombs below and to the sides of this location.

Swarm units that successfully breached the Ji race’s outer defense line encountered fierce firepower as soon as they emerged in the tunnel. When subsequent K2N9s arrived, they delivered many mechanical soldiers and automated defense weapons.

Controlled by artificial intelligence, these machines reacted much faster than the Ji soldiers. They lacked the instability of biological entities, with extremely high shooting accuracy, hitting precisely where directed, forcing the Swarm units to continue digging through the soil layers to approach the defenses.

“Let them come!”

“What? Why?”

“No problem. Relying solely on these things to rescue their Empress is a pipe dream. Even if we let them through, they won’t dare get close to the Empress to avoid exposing her to accidental hits.”

“True. We can even use their distribution to infer possible locations where the Swarm Empress might be hiding.”

“Exactly. Have our soldiers be more cautious. If they don’t dare to rescue the Empress, they’ll have to attempt to attack our soldiers.”

“We could withdraw all those soldiers and leave only mechanical soldiers and automated defense systems there. That way, it would be an impregnable fortress, completely immune to sneak attacks.”

“Inadvisable. If the Swarm sends in a high-energy pulse bomb, it could instantly disable those things. We can’t rely entirely on machinery; we must leave soldiers there to handle such situations.”

“You’re right. Then we’ll send more bunker modules to increase the soldiers’ survival chances. After all, those bugs can attack from any angle.”

“We’ve already installed large detectors there. With Selina’s assistance, the soldiers won’t be easily ambushed. But I don’t oppose deploying bunker modules.”