I Am The Swarm-Chapter 764: Dispersal

“It’s the target!” When the Swarm Empress entered the hibernation pod, the warship was still connected to the network. Once illuminated by surveillance cameras, various details were stored in the database. The comparison was quickly made, and Selina confirmed it was the same pod that previously contained the Swarm Empress.

“The target is indeed in the bow wreckage. We can stop our search mission here.”

“Not necessarily. It might just be an empty box.” A Ji commander voiced a dissenting opinion, with his own reasoning. The hibernation pod had an observation window, but it was opaque when not activated.

Thus, they could only confirm that the pod was correct, but whether the Swarm Empress was inside remained unknown.

“No matter. Our work here should not stop, and we should continue monitoring the situation there.”

“I believe the target must be inside. At this point, creating false leads makes no sense. Even if they create a thousand decoys, with Selina’s computational power, tracking a thousand simultaneously versus one makes little difference.”

“Reasonable.”

Indeed, as this commander suggested, the mysterious organization did not deploy false leads. After a long wait, only one hibernation pod was moved. It was transferred to a disguised merchant ship, which then headed far away without looking back.

The soldiers of the mysterious organization, having completed their predetermined tasks, began their retreat. Several unmarked warships dispatched numerous speedboats to pick them up. Meanwhile, many soldiers also withdrew from the bow wreckage.

“Something’s off. Even if the hibernation pod containing the target was transferred to the bow, given their knowledge of us, the warship layout must not be a secret to them. Before formulating this plan, they would have certainly agreed on a location to store the target’s hibernation pod. Thus, they wouldn’t need to send in so many soldiers.”

“True. They have maps; they aren’t blindly searching.”

“Something’s fishy. These soldiers are suspicious!”

“Is it possible they’ve already made prior contact with the Swarm? After all, their objectives, to some extent, can achieve certain cooperation with the Swarm.”

“Hmph, since they’ve infiltrated our army to such an extent, they must know the level of threat posed by the Swarm. Do they not fear conspiring with tigers?”

“Perhaps, in their view, the Swarm’s threat is controllable. They can use the Swarm to overthrow us first and then turn around to eliminate the Swarm.”

“I think we can remove the word ‘perhaps.’ That’s exactly what they’re thinking. The reason they went all out this time is because they covet the secrets hidden within the target.”

“An advanced civilization’s legacy hidden in a single individual? I find it hard to believe.”

“Believe it or not, since the higher-ups spared no expense in devising this plan, the target must possess something special.”

“Expense? I thought the true purpose of this plan was to clear those prisoners and the Swarm’s small toys.”

“Silence. This is not the time for arguments. If those rats managed to plant so many moles in our army, among our ranks, there might be some here too. If you keep spouting nonsense, I have reason to doubt your true intentions.”

“Correct. No matter what, the Swarm Empress is our designated target for this mission. Selina, keep an eye on the soldiers exiting the wreckage. Don’t miss any of them. If those rats have made prior contact with the target, she might actively cooperate with their actions, possibly disguising herself among those soldiers.”

Indeed, the subsequent actions of the mysterious organization left the Ji race even more perplexed. The soldiers emerging from the warship wreckage, numbering only a few hundred, split into multiple teams and boarded all the warships evenly.

“This is troublesome…”

The warships’ carrying capacity was already high. Just the armed personnel withdrawing from the star gate numbered tens of thousands, not to mention the original crew aboard. If the Swarm Empress cooperated and blended in, and they carried out further dispersal measures en route, even an AI like Selina with immense computational power might overlook something.

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Tracking a box or a half-person versus tracking hundreds of thousands or even millions of people was entirely different. If variables were added during this process…

“Mobilize all Ji warships within fifty light-years to form an encirclement. I want them to know whose territory this is!”

“Exactly. Even if they split into billions of teams, they can’t escape the encirclement now. By continuously shrinking the encirclement, we’ll eventually herd them together.”

“Hmph, it’s not that easy. Remember how much effort it took to capture the target last time in such a small area. Fifty light-years—you think the target will stay on the warship? She can hide on any planet, and you’ll never find her.”

“What do you suggest then?”

“No great solutions. We can only hope the higher-ups have arranged more contingencies.”

Contrary to the Ji command’s assumptions, although the mysterious organization had shown signs in many incidents, they hadn’t truly contacted the Swarm.

Thus, the extra soldiers were part of the false leads. Sarah remained in the hibernation pod and did not leave.

For Sarah, her insectoid body was built using the fungal carpet genome as the base template. Losing half her body was not a fatal injury. With energy, she could recover quickly.

Not to mention that during her “captivity,” the dark energy furnace inside her operated at low power slowly, and the remaining energy she had before was sufficient to heal this injury.

When the warship was attacked, especially when the ship’s power was cut off and the hibernation pod lost power, though she didn’t know what happened outside, she had the opportunity to leave then.

However, her mission this time wasn’t about escaping but for other purposes. Therefore, she chose to feign serious injury and waited for the rescue by this mysterious force.

In fact, during previous discussions with the Overlord, drawing out the resistance forces within the Confederation was part of the plan. After all, the Swarm had painstakingly informed them through multiple channels that Lumina had evolved into a sentient being.

If they didn’t want an uncertain future, this was their last chance to act. What she didn’t expect was that their rescue plan would be so brutal and that the covert forces would be so powerful.

After all, swiftly planting so many moles in the team carrying her, and managing two star gates and the subsequent rendezvous in a real-time monitored environment was no easy feat.