I Am the Swarm

However, the Raiders are, after all, a low-profile cannon fodder-level unit. Apart from beating up the Riken soldiers at the beginning, the disadvantage of a single unit gradually emerged.

The gunboat in the sky quickly locked on to the hole drilled by the raiders. The artillery fire concentrated on it, and the thick flaming beams bombarded the ground, blasting a large number of raiders who hadn't rushed out to pieces.

The raiders who had rushed to the ground lacked reinforcements and had a short retreat. Although the results were good, as the number gradually decreased, the casualties under the attack of the soldiers were getting faster and faster.

For more than a hundred years, the Rickens seem to have put all their research and development energy on spaceship engines and other related aspects. The attack power of energy guns has not improved much, but the rate of fire has increased a lot, and there are auxiliary aiming and With the locking system, a small number of raiders were completely wiped out in the face of this kind of firepower.

After the battle, the ground was devastated, and a large number of parts and assembled equipment that had arrived here were blown up. Soldiers of the Ricken tribe couldn't take them into account when fighting, let alone the raiders themselves were good at using shelters, and what could be more suitable for blocking bullets than these metal creations?

According to incomplete statistics afterwards, there were as many as 500 tons of metal materials that were blown up in this battle and could not be repaired. These materials could not be replenished in a short period of time. Casualties reached thousands of soldiers, 80% of them died directly, and the fatality rate of the raiders was still high.

Fortunately for the commanders of the Riken tribe, most of the casualties were ordinary recruits. The special operations team did not suffer any losses due to the operation of the gunboats. Moreover, the recruits who have gone through this battle are gradually becoming veterans, and their combat effectiveness is slightly lower. promote.

A total of more than 5,000 underground Zergs were killed this time, and most of them were killed before they rushed out. If all the underground raiders were allowed to rush out, the damage of the Rikens would be doubled, at least.

In this battle, both sides showed something, but overall, the swarm suffered a little.

Because what the Riken tribe revealed was basically known to the swarm, but the raiders lost their mystery and their deterrent power was greatly reduced.

In the video conference of the post-war summary.

"Everyone, the autopsy report of the Zerg has been sent to everyone, and now Dr. Bart will explain it to everyone." General Massai made the opening remarks.

"Hello everyone, from the data point of view, the internal circulation, digestion, nervous system and other systems of these Zergs are very similar to the structures of the surface creatures we captured before. Even if there are slight differences, it is most likely due to the different survival ages or environments. Therefore, the possibility that they are alien creatures can be ruled out, and these Zerg races are out-and-out native creatures.”

Dr. Balter was the biologist who was extremely rare in the Riken tribe last time. He made some professional analysis through the anatomical data.

All the participants nodded one after another. Although they were not professional, they were able to achieve their current position without a fool, and the general data could still be understood.

"In other words, these creatures are not the same species as the ones that attacked the cat-eared spaceship?"

"Certainly not. The structure of these Zergs simply cannot support their survival in space."

"I don't think it's certain at the moment. We still know too little about them. Last time, we only analyzed at least three types of them. Is it possible that there are species that can survive in the space environment?" a captain asked.

"Impossible. Evolution is not a child's play. It is impossible for the same species to undergo such exaggerated alienation. The structure of these Zergs is actually ordinary, but the material of the forelimbs is somewhat unique, but these are not enough to make them have the ability to survive in space. It's completely two concepts." Dr. Barthes gave a very firm denial, and in his opinion, this statement was simply a joke.

"Well, I believe in the expert's point of view." The captain who asked the question was a layman after all, and after hearing such an affirmative answer from the expert, he realized that he might have asked a stupid question.

"Although this battle let us know what they are, our situation has not improved. They hide underground and have the ability to be dispatched at any time, but we cannot always be ready like this time." A A staff officer pulled the topic into reality, and no longer discussed the structure of the Zerg.

"Yes, we don't know the exact number of them, and if we can't find a way to target them, our ground base will be seriously threatened."

"This is not a big problem. This kind of creature still has very high requirements for the living environment. Just like we can't breathe directly on the surface of T853, when we transform the atmospheric environment here to be suitable for our Ricken people to breathe directly When breathing, it is also difficult for those native organisms to continue to survive in this environment." Dr. Balter replied.

"So that's the case, so what we have to face now is how to resist the attacks of these guys during the transformation."

"But this also takes a long time. We first need to build a base, then build a space city, and finally transform the environment. This will take decades or even hundreds of years."

"Dr. Balter, is there any other solution." A captain asked.

"Maybe we can develop a special toxin based on their breathing and nervous system. This requires a lot of experiments, and the specific time required is unknown. But I think it will take less than a few decades." Dr. Balter thought for a while, Then said.

"Then please, before that, we can only strengthen our vigilance to resist these Zerg."

"Do you have any questions or comments?" General Massai asked.

A staff officer raised his hand: "General, I have another question, and that is whether the Zerg are intelligent."

"I have also thought about this issue. Their sneak attack on the patrol team, and their rigorous action capabilities, do seem to have advanced intelligence. But judging from today's battle, the opponent seems to be no different from those wild beasts. ’ said a captain.

"That's right, maybe their previous behavior was just a biological instinct?" A staff officer said uncertainly.

"It's possible. From the very beginning, I didn't believe that such primitive creatures can achieve global coordination." A captain echoed. He raised objections to this during the last meeting, but they were not taken seriously.

"Here I would like to add that in the structure of these Zergs, there is no organ that can communicate over a long distance, not even a vocal organ. However, we also captured a few living bodies this time. By observing them, I found that , their limbs can produce a sound through rapid tapping and friction, plus a special pheromone emitted by themselves, and they transmit information through the combination of the two." Dr. Balter said here, suddenly Pausing, he thought for a while and continued:

"Maybe we can take advantage of this feature. If we can figure out the meaning of these knocking sounds and pheromones, maybe we can interfere with their actions and even make them kill each other."

"This idea is very good, but what you said earlier means that they cannot be linked remotely?"

"That's right! To put it simply, although the Zergs in the world belong to the same species, they are not in the same brood."