The End

Both the defensive warships and the warships covering the retreat were badly damaged and absolutely could not withstand the next Swarm attacks.

Dialo declared victory because the warships that had previously withdrawn had returned after so long.

The Electromagnetic Projectile and their Mature Form take time to fly. Just as they were about to be deployed to the battlefield, a sky full of red beams suddenly appeared in the distance, shattering the 300-meter-long Mature Form into dust.

A large number of warships braked sharply in front of the battlefield, and the Repulsion Field they activated blocked the Electromagnetic Projectile. Even if any managed to slip through, the Laser Defense Array could annihilate them.

When these more than a thousand Duoqi warships arrived on the battlefield, it meant that the battle was temporarily over.

Faced with a fleet of this size, the Swarm had no power to pursue, and the Duoqi Fleet dared not linger there any longer.

And so, the battlefield, which had just been fiercely clashing, suddenly became calm.

As the Duoqi Fleet turned around, it took in its own kind from the damaged warships and destroyed the warships that couldn't keep up with the fleet.

The engine spewed out a stream of energy hundreds of meters long. Sarah watched the blue lights gradually disappear into the distance, remaining silent.

Rowan's voice rang in her ear. "How are you feeling?"

"My Overlord," Sarah said with a hint of self-reproach, "I've let you down."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Rowan asked.

"The Riken Race is too weak, which made us a bit arrogant."

"It seems you've already realized where the problem lies."

"Yes, Overlord Majesty, our actions were too naive without intelligence support, resulting in the annihilation of most of our forces right from the start."

"This is indeed your problem. Remember, when facing an unknown enemy, you must remain humble and cautious, and maintain a sense of awe towards science."

Sarah nodded, indicating that she understood. The Swarm's pattern meant that there would be many enemies in the future. These enemies would have varying levels of technology and different tendencies, and who knew what strange weapons they might pull out? Perhaps some of them would be very effective against the Swarm.

"We will be careful, Overlord Majesty. We have learned a lot from this battle. It's just that the Chuyun Planet Base has been destroyed."

"It's good that they can learn something and make progress. We can afford this kind of tuition." Watching the Blade grow, Rowan felt somewhat gratified. It was like a training game; watching his subordinates level up was quite rewarding.

The battle may seem to have resulted in heavy losses, but perhaps it's not such a bad thing. It's much better for a relatively weak enemy to wake the Blade up than for an invincible one to make Blade realize this.

"My Overlord, it's a pity we let that alien commander escape. If their reinforcements had arrived five minutes later, I could have taken him down!" Sarah said with some resentment.

"There aren't so many 'ifs, Sarah," Rowan said sharply at first, then continued, "But don't worry too much about it. Letting them escape is no big deal. If we run into them again, a familiar commander is much better than a stranger."

Sarah nodded. The Overlord was right. This battle had exposed the commander's style of command. Next time they encountered each other, there would naturally be ways to counter it.

However, the Overlord had just said that one should be humble and cautious when facing enemies, but there didn't seem to be any such idea in his words. The Overlord couldn't be wrong; she must have misunderstood something. So, she raised her question.

"Sarah, what I just said was to be humble and cautious when facing unknown enemies! But they are no longer unknown, are they? And their strength doesn't warrant the Swarm being humble and cautious!"

Sarah nodded. This time she understood. The Overlord meant that one should be cautious of enemies one does not understand, and even after understanding them, one should still be cautious of powerful enemies. But with weak enemies, one can act arrogantly.

That's roughly the idea...

Seeing Sarah nod, Rowan smiled with satisfaction, "Alright, you can continue the analysis later. Now it's time to deal with our old friend."

The standoff between the Swarm and the Riken Race was broken by this sudden intervention of a third party.

The Swarm's forced exposure of many hidden technologies made the Riken Race realize they had been exploited. Therefore, even though the Swarm's Chuyun Planet Base had been severely damaged, the Riken Race remained obediently on the Binary Star Defense Line, showing no intention of taking advantage of the situation.

Several hours later, reinforcements from the Zerg base in the stellar orbit arrived and began clearing the battlefield.

Numerous damaged warships drifted in space; the flagship and elite escort ships of the Duoqi Fleet were destroyed here. Although all the warships that the Duoqi Race could not take with them had their self-destruct mechanisms activated.

However, this self-destruction only destroys the key equipment and instruments and erases the data, but most of the ship remains. Although the key parts are missing and the remaining parts are not of great value, some things can still be deduced. Moreover, even if only scrap metal is left, the Swarm has never been disgusted with it.

The arriving Ancient Class support vessels towed large pieces of wreckage to Chuyun Planet orbit, while the Mature Form and Larval Form cleaned up the smaller pieces of debris.

The wreckage of thousands of Duoqi warships piled up together, like adding another satellite to Chuyun Planet. Some Creep Seed were buried, and the "wrecked satellite" gradually turned purplish-gray, wrapped in fleshy tissue, seemingly being corroded and digested.

But inside, thousands of Insect Cocoon burst open, and some insect bodies quietly rose up. These were Intellect that had descended from afar, and they would conduct research on the Duoqi warship under the cover of the Creep.

With the battlefield setup nearly complete, the Swarm seemed to finally remember the Riken Race standing nearby, and the spoils of war temporarily stored with them.

The Riken Race decisively to the arrival of the Swarm, immediately surrendering. This decision was made not only because they had witnessed the Swarm's "true" power, but also because of the covert machinations of the Swarm Intellect. For a civilization whose upper echelons were riddled with infiltration, this was not difficult to accomplish.

The main reason the Swarm and the Riken Race were able to reach a standoff was because Rowan wanted to see if there was a third party behind the scenes. Now that the fish has taken the bait, the bait is no longer valuable, so Rowan didn't waste any time and directly resolved the Riken Race issue.

Because of the groundwork laid, such as prolonged tension and oppression, mental torture, multiple demonstrations within the tribe, public opinion guidance, and a national referendum, the Riken Race was already psychologically prepared for the surrender of the Swarm.

Therefore, when the news of the surrender came out, the ordinary people of the Riken Race found that it was not difficult for them to accept the decision. After all, it meant the end of the war and also the end of decades of wartime.

Of course, their ability to think this way is also largely due to the propaganda that the Zerg are not brutal.