I Am The Swarm-Chapter 652: Self-Destruction

The sudden change in the behavior of the Swarm’s Tentacle Traps caught the Confederation races completely off guard. As a result, when the repair robots had cleared certain areas and the Confederation races believed those areas to be safe, the attacks resumed.

This made the Confederation races realize that the Tentacle Traps could also choose their targets. This led to a significant loss for the Confederation races.

Not only that, but these Swarm Tentacle Traps would sometimes bypass the large shield-bearing robots at the front and prioritize attacking the rare robots or the flesh and blood lifeforms behind them.

Knox’s squad had once, unknowingly, lost two Z-series spider-shaped robots and one humanoid robot in this manner.

Later, the Confederation races discovered that these Tentacle Traps would, under special circumstances, attack the repair robots and shield-bearing robots as well.

This would happen when they were already exposed and about to become the focus of concentrated fire. At that point, they would attack the nearest enemy unit without discrimination.

However, getting the Tentacle Traps to expose themselves prematurely was no easy task. Their powerful mimicry abilities not only allowed them to evade all detection instruments but also enabled them to simulate certain damage responses.

This turned what was originally a simple path-clearing operation into a situation where the interior facilities of the ship had to be attacked and damaged to a certain extent to determine whether they were Tentacle Traps in disguise.

But doing this was equivalent to self-sabotaging the ship’s structure. While the walls were one thing, what about the precision instruments or their external protective panels?

The precision instruments themselves were likely beyond the mimicry capabilities of the Swarm’s Tentacle Traps. However, the external protective panels of these instruments were not technologically complex.

If the Tentacle Traps could mimic the ship’s interior metal walls, mimicking these protective panels should be no problem. But once these panels were attacked, it was easy to damage the precision components inside.

If these were rarely used scientific instruments, it might not be a big deal. But if they were commonly used systems, such as energy generation, conversion, and transmission devices, their damage could lead to insufficient energy supply, causing the ship’s cannons to go offline. In severe cases, it could even cause explosions, leading to a chain reaction that might result in the ship’s destruction.

The troublesome mimicry abilities of the Tentacle Traps gave the Confederation commanders and strategists headaches. Ultimately, they could only choose to first eliminate the less critical parts of the ship. But even this was a massive and difficult task.

“Captain, if we keep going like this, by the time we finish inspecting the entire ship, I might as well retire.”

“Haha, it’s not that bad. This job will take at most a few years to complete.”

“That’s just theoretical. In reality, if we keep going like this, it won’t be long before the ship’s internal structure is so severely damaged that it falls apart.” The squad member speaking was named Nasstio, one of the two Z-R-2 shield-bearing robot pilots.

As he spoke, he maneuvered the Z-R-2 to slightly move the large shield in its left hand, creating some space in front. Then, with its right hand, he delivered a heavy punch to the metal wall in front of him.

A loud noise echoed through the corridor. If it weren’t for the fact that the squad members had already turned off external sound transmission, it would have been unbearable. They had clearly experienced the effects of such noise before, and it wasn’t pleasant.

After delivering the punch, Nasstio followed up with several more strikes to the same spot on the wall. The wall now had a dent formed by the fist imprints, with cracks spreading around it.

“Alright, this panel isn’t reacting. No leaking fluids or bursting juices. It’s a genuine, proper panel, though it’s a bit flawed now.” Nasstio couldn’t help but complain, “Captain, I think you should bring this up with the higher-ups. What I said earlier wasn’t an exaggeration. Look at this wall. If the entire ship is like this, it’s bound to fall apart.”

Knox’s voice was low, “I’ve already reported it before, but it didn’t have much effect. We can’t just sit back and let the Swarm invade.”

“But this can’t go on forever, can it?” The person who chimed in was Cassidiro, the pilot of a Z2 spider-shaped robot. His method of inspecting the walls was to stab them repeatedly with the front end of his robot’s metal limbs.

The front end of the metal limbs could transform into a bayonet. This modification enhanced the Z2’s close-combat capabilities. However, although the limbs were made of special metal alloy, the ship’s walls were no pushover either. The constant stabbing caused rapid wear and tear on the limb joints.

“Cassidiro, take it easy. We’re running low on spare limb parts. If you break them, we might not be able to replace them,” Knox reminded him.

To be honest, during the pre-battle simulations using the supercomputer, the Confederation forces’ firepower network was such that the Swarm’s octopus-like creatures, regardless of size, couldn’t get close to the fleet. The actual situation was indeed the same. Excluding a few exceptions where the Swarm was allowed to advance, the octopus-like creatures couldn’t penetrate the Confederation forces’ firepower network.

Therefore, their Z-series tactical defense squad was theoretically unnecessary and had no practical use. Their existence was more symbolic than functional.

As a result, the related equipment for these robots wasn’t carried in large quantities, and they couldn’t afford too much wear and tear.

“Didn’t they say the ship’s smelting room is already operational? Can’t they just produce more parts? After all, we’re now a key part of the defense,” Cassidiro asked, puzzled.

“No, I’ve already asked. The ship’s small smelting room has limited technical capabilities. The end joints of the Z-2Q-15’s limbs, though seemingly simple, incorporate transformation technology that the smelting room can’t produce. Right now, they can only produce the large shield components for the Z-R-2, as those don’t require high technical expertise, just materials,” Knox explained.

“But how long is this going to take? Are we just going to rely on the shield robots slowly bashing their way through?” The Z1 robots, which provided aerial vision and support, were disk-shaped and thus couldn’t perform the current task. The only robots capable of this task were the remaining two models of the Z-series. If the Z-2Q-15 couldn’t contribute, then only the Z-R-2 humanoid robots would be left to do the work.

“Hey, don’t underestimate us shield warriors. Besides, even with your help, it’s not like we’d be much faster.”

“Even a little bit faster would be better.”

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“Forget it. Just stay on standby like the other four. If a fight breaks out later, you’ll have your chance to contribute.”

“With the current situation, what’s there to fight? Once we find their positions, these things are just sitting ducks.”

“That’s not necessarily true. If it were that simple, we would have defeated the Swarm by now.”

“True, the Swarm might still have tricks up their sleeves. We can’t let our guard down.”