I Am The Swarm-Chapter 727: Interception

With air superiority secured, the Ji race began frantically deploying troops to the surface. The number of troops that ten thousand warships could carry was unimaginable. Additionally, a larger wave of reinforcements was about to arrive in near-orbit.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

As the Swarm’s electromagnetic interference system across the planet was gradually destroyed, the Ji race’s mechanical soldiers also began entering the battlefield. These tireless, painless metal constructs, commanded by advanced artificial intelligence, possessed combat capabilities far exceeding those of even the elite Ji special force soldiers.

Although the strength of the Swarm Empress’s bio-armor exceeded the expectations of the Ji race’s strategic systems, her escape once again fell within their predictions.

After all, as the Empress of such a powerful race and having the confidence to participate in this planetary gamble, she undoubtedly held some hidden cards. Now, both sides were testing who had stronger conventional forces and who concealed more trump cards.

However, from the perspective of the Ji race’s command and advisory staff, exposing a crucial trump card while facing only around two hundred Ji soldiers was an unwise move for the Swarm Empress.

Yet, based on past data analysis, the Swarm Empress was no fool. Thus, there were only two possible explanations for her actions: either she had exhausted her options and had no choice but to reveal this card, or she still held multiple trump cards, with this one being the least significant.

Though the Ji personnel hoped it was the former, reason told them the latter was far more likely. They had to prepare accordingly.

“Regardless of what the trump cards are, they have their limits. As long as we isolate the target from the Swarm forces, we can force her to reveal more, or even all, of her trump cards at minimal cost.”

“Exactly. Like this time, use our conventional forces to keep wearing her down!”

Taking advantage of the dense smoke cover, Sarah detached from the battlefield and continued running deeper into the tunnel. The Ji squad leader reacted swiftly, immediately organizing personnel to pursue her.

The nearby soil layers had been compacted by previous explosions, leaving only a single passage dug out by a juvenile Burrowing Worm. Although Sarah was fast, in a straight line, the Ji race’s propulsion systems weren’t slow either. Without any forks in the path, it was difficult for Sarah to shake off her pursuers.

Sarah attempted to ambush her pursuers, but due to the tracking beacon on her, the Ji soldiers could easily gauge the distance. Whenever she turned back or stopped moving, knowing they couldn’t match her, the Ji squad would also halt.

With no other choice, Sarah tried to burst into extreme speed. Though this accelerated her physical and energy consumption, it could produce a sonic boom. If she could collapse the tunnel with a sonic boom, it would be ideal.

Unfortunately, when Luo Wen designed the Burrowing Worms, he made them too perfect. The tunnels they constructed had very high safety factors. Despite the sonic booms causing rocks and sand to fall, making the tunnels look precarious, they never crossed the final threshold.

Sarah regretted not taking a few more high-explosive grenades from the Ji soldiers earlier. With them, she would have had a better chance of collapsing the tunnel and shaking off her pursuers.

Now, she could only continue to accelerate, hoping to leave the compacted soil area soon. Once out of there, an intricate network of underground tunnels awaited, where she could easily create a hundred different routes to confuse the Ji soldiers.

However, her thoughts or choices were too obvious, and the Ji race certainly wouldn’t let her succeed easily. With the disappearance of the interference field, the means available to the Ji race increased exponentially.

Through specialized instruments, underground passages within three thousand meters depth were quickly outlined in a 3D sandbox. The lone passage through the compacted soil stood out glaringly.

“Descend from above and block this route. Also, watch out for the Burrowing Worms; prioritize killing or driving them away!”

With the arrival of specialized equipment, even the massive Burrowing Worms, designed to minimize operational noise, were exposed under the Ji race’s professional devices.

To reduce the mission’s difficulty, these behemoths became the Ji race’s top priority targets. For instance, the juvenile Burrowing Worm that had dug the passage, after returning too quickly, was ambushed and killed by Ji soldiers. Another Burrowing Worm that previously attacked the Ji’s pursuit team met the same fate.

After mastering the physiological patterns of the Burrowing Worms, killing them wasn’t particularly difficult. Ji soldiers simply needed to detect their movement routes in advance and plant high-explosive bombs along the way. The Burrowing Worms, advancing by devouring the earth, would end up burying themselves.

Thus, auxiliary units remained auxiliary units. While surprise attacks could yield some results, they couldn’t sustain them long-term.

Although the Swarm Empress could achieve speeds surpassing the sound barrier, she was somewhat outmatched by the advanced civilization’s specialized vehicles. Therefore, it was easy for the Ji race to deploy defenses ahead of Sarah’s escape route.

A Ji team of over two hundred soldiers, riding K2N9s, charged into the tunnel. Outside the tunnel, nearly three thousand soldiers waited nearby due to capacity issues inside the tunnel. Simultaneously, more teams were deployed, including the newly arrived mechanical warriors.

The Empress, alone and under siege, naturally prompted desperate rescue attempts from the Swarm. However, having lost air superiority, the ground battlefield was abandoned, and all forces retreated underground.

Underground was the Swarm’s main battlefield. Here, their combat units possessed even greater fighting capabilities than on the surface. Due to the tunnel’s capacity and terrain issues, the Ji race’s combat effectiveness was reduced to its minimum.

Initially, the Ji race could only rely on continuously deploying troops and leveraging the clustering of long-range firepower to slowly gain an advantage.

But the underground environment was too complex. The Swarm’s combat units could attack from unexpected angles by digging tunnels. For example, those small, pesky bugs, resembling giant ants, particularly enjoyed attacking the soldiers’ feet.

Under the coordinated multi-unit attacks of the Swarm, the Ji race suffered heavy losses. Subsequently, after precise calculations, the Ji race avoided their own interception points and dropped numerous ground-penetrating bombs in nearby areas. Though these bombs were limited in quantity, they were sufficient to cover several hundred square kilometers.

With the concentrated detonation of the ground-penetrating bombs, tunnels collapsed, soil layers compacted, and the once smooth underground tunnel network was shattered. A large number of Swarm units were killed by explosions and compression. The reinforcements, needing to reopen tunnels, caused the Swarm’s previously overwhelming attacks to lose much of their fluidity.