I Am The Swarm-Chapter 779: Completion
The construction of a Star Gate not only required an immense amount of raw materials, but also a vast array of precision instruments and equipment. The Swarm, lacking the corresponding industrial foundation, could not produce these components themselves, so they had to be manufactured within an Inner-circle civilizations territory and then shipped to the Swarm.
Fortunately, once fully mobilized, the Inner-circle civilizations’ production machinery achieved astonishing efficiency. Even though the Star Gate required a wide variety of specialized parts, the Inner-circle civilizations managed to prepare everything in an exceptionally short time.
The total volume of materials and components was enormous—enough to fill thirty thousand large transport ships. On top of that, they also had to carry components for space factories, since even raw materials would still need to be cast and formed into usable structures on-site.
In addition, a large number of personnel and construction machinery had to be transported as well. By the time preparations were complete and the departure date of New Era Year 105 arrived, the number of transport ships had already surpassed fifty thousand.
Though the Ji race still couldn’t launch a full-scale offensive deep within Inner-circle Alliance territory due to tight border surveillance and defenses, the Alliance took no chances. They dispatched a fleet of one hundred thousand warships to escort the transport convoy to the nearest Star Gate.
There, the fleet would be transmitted to the location of Star Gate XM1209, where the Swarm would take over defensive and escort duties.
The Ji race’s greatest strategic oversight at this stage was underestimating the significance of Star Gate XM1209. The Inner-circle civilizations, however, recognized its importance from the very beginning.
Their first successful Star Gate seizure—achieved through their moles—was this very one. Although the Ji race had subsequently gathered the remnants of nearby fleets to launch several counterattacks, with the Star Gate already lost, the Inner-circle Alliance had transferred a massive number of warships from their territory to defend it.
Under these circumstances, the Ji race gained no advantage. After the Inner-circle Alliance allied with the Swarm, the Swarm deployed massive forces to XM1209, completely extinguishing the Ji race’s hopes of retaking it.
Though the Ji fleets in the area were scattered, they were not annihilated. They still retained a certain scale. To prevent ambushes on the Inner-circle Alliance’s transport fleet, the Swarm dispatched nearly three hundred million Primordial bodies to provide escort. In the face of such numbers, Ji race commanders could see only despair.
Both the journey to the site and the actual Star Gate construction would require extended periods. Although the Inner-circle Alliance initially held the advantage, once the Ji race began replenishing their forces with large quantities of highly automated warships, the offensive dynamic reversed.
At this point, with nearly twenty years still remaining before the Swarm’s Star Gate would be completed, the leaders of the Inner-circle civilizations were deeply concerned that the Ji race might seize this window to launch an attack. Even if they couldn’t wipe them out, a heavy blow might still be struck. Should the enemy break into their rear and destroy the Star Gate, that alone could tip the war toward defeat.
To prevent such an outcome, the Inner-circle Alliance decided that even though the Swarm had not yet completed their ‘practice gate,’ they would begin constructing Star Gates within their own territory as well.
And once there was a first, a second quickly followed. After a rapid wave of fleet expansion, the Inner-circle Alliance soon found themselves facing a severe manpower shortage.
No matter how many warships they produced, they would be useless without sufficient crew. The Inner-circle civilizations had secretly stockpiled enormous resources over the years. Now, they allocated part of these reserves toward building Star Gates.
In just a few short years, over fifty Star Gates had begun construction across Inner-circle territory. Once completed, these new Gates would not only eliminate earlier concerns but dramatically increase strategic mobility.
Perhaps having become “addicted” to building Star Gates, the Inner-circle Alliance realized that the Swarm having only one Star Gate was problematic. It severely limited troop deployment speed and, if that one Gate malfunctioned, the consequences for the war effort would be dire.
Moreover, the Swarm had consistently behaved beyond reproach, fulfilling every duty expected of an ally.
As a result, in addition to the original single Gate under construction, the Inner-circle Alliance organized two more transport fleets to build two more Star Gates for the Swarm.
Naturally, the Swarm had no objections. They accepted the Inner-circle Alliance’s “generosity” with perfect peace of mind.
This period marked the weakest phase of the anti-Ji alliance—Inner-circle forces were in a manpower deficit, and Swarm forces couldn’t be effectively deployed.
Fortunately, the Ji race didn’t take advantage of this vulnerability. Aside from conducting periodic internal investigations, they made no large-scale moves. Yet this inactivity made the Inner-circle civilizations increasingly uneasy.
Under normal circumstances, such a wide-open window of opportunity wouldn’t go unused by any competent commander—especially not when the Ji race had gathered such a large number of brilliant minds. This behavior made no sense.
Yet reality is often more surreal than fiction. The Ji race simply went against expectations. Although the Inner-circle Alliance still maintained some spies within the Ji race, none had transmitted back any useful information.
As for the few remaining elders still in contact, suspicions raised by earlier events made the Inner-circle civilizations question their credibility. Moreover, the information they sent wasn’t of much substance anyway.
Amid all this uncertainty, time marched forward. In the blink of an eye, several more years passed, and the calendar turned to New Era Year 146.
The Swarm’s first Star Gate was officially declared completed. Though it was delivered five or six years behind schedule, at least there had been no accidents, and the project had concluded successfully.
Because the original Ji system had involved deep integration with Lumina, the Inner-circle Alliance needed to strip out certain programs before using it themselves.
Fortunately, the Inner-circle’s new system had already been in development for years and had been running safely at locations like Star Gate XM1209 both within and outside their territory.
So after just over a year of system testing and fine-tuning, the Swarm’s First Star Gate was formally activated at the end of New Era Year 147.
In the nearly fifty years leading up to this point, the Swarm had already stationed an enormous number of troops at the Star Gate—Thirty Billion, to be exact.
However, limited by the Gate’s transport capacity, even if it operated non-stop and no more troops were added to the location, it would still take nearly ten years to fully transfer them all to the anti-Ji frontline.
The Inner-circle Alliance was exceedingly grateful for their earlier decision—having only one Star Gate simply wasn’t enough. The more Swarm soldiers they could send, the fewer losses they themselves would suffer.
After further discussion, the Alliance expanded the plan to build five additional Star Gates in Swarm territory. This time, however, only the precision components—those the Swarm couldn’t manufacture—needed to be shipped over. The personnel and modular factory components were already available locally.
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