I Am The Swarm-Chapter 651: Trap

Although the Micro-Seeds could reach their target locations and successfully infiltrate enemy warships, the final success rate might only be one in a thousand, or even one in ten thousand. It was a journey fraught with hardships and dangers.

However, no matter how low the success rate, the sheer volume of Micro-Seeds made up for it. Despite their high technological sophistication, the Micro-Seeds required very little material to produce due to their extremely small size. A Brood Queen could easily produce hundreds of millions of Micro-Seeds in a day without much effort. If fully dedicated to the task, the production speed could even reach hundreds of billions.

Thus, when their numbers reached a terrifying scale, the actual number of Micro-Seeds that managed to infiltrate the enemy formation remained significant. Each warship would have at least a hundred or so Micro-Seeds on board.

These Micro-Seeds could not all mutate into Brood Queens and Fungal Carpets. While these two were valuable, they had no offensive capabilities in the early stages. Therefore, no more than ten Micro-Seeds on each warship would mutate into Brood Queens and Fungal Carpets. The remaining Micro-Seeds would all mutate into auxiliary units.

Considering that the Micro-Seeds were deep within enemy territory, their methods of gathering energy were limited. Their task was to protect the Brood Queen Eggs and Fungal Carpets during their development. They couldn’t wait for the Fungal Carpets to mature and provide energy, as that would defeat the purpose.

However, inside enemy warships, there was little radiation, so the Micro-Seeds had to take risks to gather the energy needed for mutation. If multiple Micro-Seeds absorbed energy simultaneously, it would draw attention and cause unnecessary trouble. Thus, how to secretly and quickly develop became a new challenge.

Fortunately, with the efforts of the Intelligent Entities and Luo Wen, this problem was soon resolved.

Since this was a wartime situation, these Micro-Seeds did not need to remain hidden for long. Their goal was to develop quickly and dismantle the enemy from within.

Therefore, rapid development was the top priority, while concealment was secondary. The issue of rapid development had already been solved by burning through their bodily lifespan. The next step was to solve the energy supply problem.

With this in mind, the Tentacle Trap was born. Contrary to the assumptions of the Confederation races, these Tentacle Traps, due to their focus on speed, did not have mobility in their early stages.

Thus, they typically chose a wall or floor that was easy to corrode as their development site. The damaged walls that the foreign races observed were not dug out for concealment but were instead the result of the Tentacle Traps needing energy.

Although the Tentacle Traps lacked mobility in their early stages, they still possessed formidable killing power thanks to the Swarm’s advanced mimicry and electromagnetic technology. As long as they attracted the attention of the foreign races, the Micro-Seeds that had mutated into Brood Queens and Fungal Carpet Seeds would remain safe.

“Take it slow, everyone. Check every corner carefully,” Knox instructed his team as they cautiously advanced through the ship’s corridors.

Their formation had now shifted to having two Z-R-2 humanoid robots with shields at the front, while other models and Z-R-2 units without large metal shields followed behind.

The defensive units, originally meant for cover, had become the vanguard. Compared to other robots, the shield-bearing robots, though somewhat clumsy, carefully checked their surroundings as they advanced, using their bodies to detect traps.

However, the massive interior of the warship meant that relying on these large shield-bearing robots to meticulously inspect every inch would be incredibly slow and inefficient. But there was no other choice—this was the fastest method available.

The two large shields at the front bore multiple dents and scorch marks, remnants of previous encounters with the Swarm’s Tentacle Traps.

Although the shields were made from the same material as the warship’s reactive armor, the attack strength of the Swarm’s Tentacle Traps was unimaginably powerful. Based on the damage to the shields, they could likely withstand only two more attacks before being destroyed.

In fact, Knox’s team had already replaced two shields. The number of Tentacle Traps far exceeded the Confederation races’ predictions. They were not sparse but were scattered throughout the ship’s interior, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. It was unclear how the Swarm had managed this.

Their powerful attacks and large numbers caused significant trouble for the reconnaissance teams, rapidly depleting the shields. Yet, there was no other option. If even specially designed blast shields were being destroyed so quickly, the consequences for other units hit by such attacks would be dire.

However, while this method of reconnaissance improved safety, it was excruciatingly slow. Several hours had passed since the Tentacle Traps were first discovered, and Knox’s team had only managed to inspect two corridors, each just over a hundred meters long.

At this rate, it would take years to fully inspect the warship. By that time, even if the ship hadn’t been destroyed by the Swarm, the war would likely have long since ended.

But given the current situation, this was the only option. The Confederation races’ strategists had discussed potential solutions and were still debating the issue, but no viable alternatives had been found.

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The Swarm’s advanced mimicry technology left the Confederation races blind. They had considered using other types of robots to quickly clear the traps.

While Z-series robots were rare, other types of robots, such as various models of repair robots, were abundant on the warships. Using these robots to trade one-for-one with the traps didn’t seem like a bad idea. However, this approach also failed.

There were two reasons for this. First, the number of Tentacle Traps was far greater than anticipated. On the warship with the most traps discovered so far, over two hundred had been found, and this was far from the total. Based on the area ratio, each warship likely had at least a thousand of these traps.

Second, the Tentacle Traps displayed a certain level of intelligence. They could distinguish between different situations and decide whether or not to attack.

On one warship, the tactic of using repair robots to clear the traps was initially successful, eliminating several Tentacle Traps. However, after a few successes, the Tentacle Traps seemed to reset their behavior, ignoring the repair robots entirely. Even when the robots passed directly over them, the traps would not attack.

Moreover, the Tentacle Traps appeared to have some mysterious connection among themselves. This behavior was not unique to that one warship but suddenly became universal across all traps. This added another layer of confusion for the Confederation strategists trying to decipher the situation.