I Am The Swarm-Chapter 757: Alarm

In the early days, especially when the New Ji race had just inherited the mantle of the original Ji race, many believed that the development of artificial intelligence should be curbed. However, due to Lumina’s high level of autonomous authority, this suppression wasn’t very effective.

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Over the long years, the New Ji race benefited greatly from Lumina. Consequently, some began to accept this entity beyond their control and started developing and upgrading AI technology based on Lumina’s characteristics, aiming to maintain a leading position in the Confederation in this field.

To this day, they have indeed achieved this. But precisely because of this, in the Interstellar Technological Confederation, except for a few races that have completely given up, other races have more or less been researching how to counter high-level AIs and methods of warfare without intelligent systems.

If both sides were using highly intelligent armies, but one side’s AI was of a higher level, then the opponent’s army might be breached, controlling their foundational control system, causing it to defect.

This situation is unacceptable to any intelligent race, even if they are still very weak.

Even though the Ji race has overwhelming power over many of the other races, as long as they don’t intend to truly annihilate these vassals, they cannot prevent other races from doing so through normal diplomatic means. After all, such things are being pursued even within the Ji race itself.

However, the New Ji race wasn’t overly concerned about this. These things aren’t so easy to achieve.

What they never expected was that someone could now kick out the Ji race’s AI in terms of program permissions.

Although it wasn’t the main body of Lumina, nor even an AI like Selina, but merely a shipborne subroutine with limited computational support, it was still an impressive achievement.

But now was not the time to marvel. That warship might be carrying their most important target for this mission. If lost, the mission’s success rate would plummet instantly.

“The enemy has simultaneously hijacked the star gate and the target and already altered the star gate’s transmission coordinates. This must have been meticulously planned.”

“It must be those rats. We didn’t expect them to achieve this level—hijacking a warship is one thing, but they’ve even managed to seize partial control of the star gate right under the AI’s nose!”

“They’ve made a good calculation. By altering the transmission coordinates and sending the target to an unknown region, they’ve evaded both our fleet and the fleet on the other side of the star gate.”

“But why did they hijack the target?”

“There are many possibilities!”

“Now is not the time for this. We must stop them!”

“Selina, can you reclaim the permissions?”

“The enemy used some physical interference methods. To regain control will take at least seventeen minutes…”

“How long until they cross the star gate?”

“Based on calculations, the enemy will cross the star gate in two minutes and thirty-one seconds.”

“Damn it! What’s their destination?” In fact, there was no need for Selina to answer; the Ji commanders and advisors could visually tell that the hijacked warship would reach the star gate well before seventeen minutes. Sure enough, Selina’s response confirmed this.

“The XM1209 coordinate server has been blocked. The target’s destination cannot be determined until we regain control…”

“They’re really well-prepared. It seems there are far more rats among us than imagined, and many hold key positions. Perhaps among us here, there are their people!” One Ji commander said bitterly.

“This matter will naturally be investigated afterward, but now is not the time to disrupt morale. We must first stop them! Order the ships near the target to ram it!” Another Ji commander, who appeared to hold a higher rank, reprimanded the speaker sternly and issued a series of commands.

Not wanting to harm the Swarm Empress—who had already lost half her body—a few more jolts might cause her demise, which would be counterproductive.

With sufficient time, he would naturally choose the safest interception method. Meanwhile, he also prepared for worse scenarios. Thus, the commander continued, “0612 Squadron, charge weapons and aim at the propulsion system of the target warship. Squadrons 0613, 0614, and 0615, aim at area C03 of the star gate and await further orders!”

The four squadron codes called out by the commander were abbreviations. Their full codes were extremely long, but anyone present knew which teams the commander referred to.

Each of the four small squadrons consisted of twelve warships, the smallest organizational unit in the Ji fleet. Because the Ji fleet had previously chosen a very elongated formation, even these four smallest units occupied a considerable length of the formation.

And this section was the optimal firing position for targeting the star gate and the hijacked warship.

The warship carrying the Swarm Empress belonged to Squadron 0599. Upon receiving the order, the other warships in the squadron adjusted their courses and headed toward the hijacked warship, intending to physically intercept it.

However, the unknown force that hijacked the warship, being bold enough to act, was evidently well-prepared. The hijacked warship moved like a fish, skillfully dodging incoming collisions. Two vessels even crashed into each other while trying to evade, temporarily withdrawing from the battle.

Witnessing this scene, the Ji commanders slightly frowned. Although the new piloting team of the hijacked warship seemed highly skilled, their own warships shouldn’t be this incompetent.

Though these warships appeared numerous and ordinary, each crew was selected through multiple layers of screening. Any single warship here possessed the capability to sweep away a low-level civilization.

Logically, even if the hijacked warship’s crew were highly skilled pilots, under identical ship performance conditions, a 1 vs. 11 scenario where they dominated like a circus act should not exist.

“Selina, is Squadron 0599 still under our control?” the commander asked doubtfully, the current situation prompting him to consider various possibilities. If the enemy could hijack one warship, they could potentially hijack more.

“Except for JZJ18982192798, communications with the rest of the target squadron are normal…”

“Strange…” the commander muttered. Could it be that their own personnel were so lax in training that their skills had deteriorated to this extent?

“Beep beep beep… Alert, alert, entire Squadron 0599 has been infiltrated, entire Squadron 0599 has been infiltrated…” Suddenly, Selina’s alarm sounded.

“What’s going on!?” The commander was both shocked and angry. Hadn’t they just conducted checks? How could there suddenly be an error?