Joining

Rowan recalled carefully that during the negotiations, Bular had revealed a lot of information, including not only what he already knew, but also a lot of gossip, such as about the Descendants.

Then they immediately sent several Descendants over? No wonder the timing and location of the Epoch Clan's the Five's appearance were somewhat strange, and their acquisition of negotiation authority seemed inexplicable. Was it because the time was too tight and there wasn't enough preparation?

Rowan frowned in thought. No, no, he had been making some assumptions. The other party didn't know the Swarm's methods, so theoretically, the Swarm shouldn't know the origins of the Five.

From this perspective, the Swarm should only know that the Five belongs to the Descendants faction. And given Bular's previous explanation, it seems reasonable that these descendants are somewhat arrogant and disdainful of others.

Based on the surface information, the Swarm should also be able to guess that the Five has extraordinary identities, so it seems reasonable that the Telo Civilization changed its attitude under their pressure.

Then, their perceived lack of time management led the Swarm to believe they were inefficient. So, the fact that negotiations dragged on for twenty years didn't seem so bad.

Moreover, without the Riken Star System campaign, this matter might have dragged on indefinitely.

Thinking about it this way, the player's purpose became clear, but this purpose made Rowan feel that his deduction was wrong. He went through it all again from the beginning and found that he still came to the same conclusion: the opponent was buying time for the Swarm?

Sure enough, reality is even more surreal.

Does the Swarm have hidden allies? Does it have some powerful backing, perhaps it's the inheritor of some civilization, with countless forces secretly paving the way for it...?

If Rowan hadn't known he was a completely alien species, he almost would have believed it.

Since this isn't some kind of succession planning game, what exactly is the other party's purpose?

The player has some understanding of the Swarm, knowing that Swarm biggest need right now is time. Is he intentionally stalling for time to allow the Swarm to develop?

Thinking about it this way, the deployment of 200,000 fleets from the Terro civilization was intended to put pressure on the Swarm, forcing Swarm to develop as quickly as possible. In other words, stalling for time for the Swarm isn't an easy task for the player. They need to minimize the time available.

"Then there must be an even stronger force above him!" Rowan raised an eyebrow. This made perfect sense; if they were already the strongest, they wouldn't need to be so secretive.

The Duoqi Civilization's revenge was likely also part of the player's plan, a test or examination—a test of the Swarm's development?

However, the Swarm's forces are all on the surface; there's no need for a war. You can roughly estimate their numbers with just a few glances.

Strangely, Rowan fell into deep thought again.

Yes, Rowan realized with a start that he had fallen into an intelligence trap again. Many things he took for granted were actually unknown to others. He knew that those Ancient Class experts were all genuine, but the mastermind behind the scenes did not.

Did the player suspect that the Swarm, under pressure, might produce substandard or defective goods to bluff their way in? Did they send a subordinate to inspect the goods?

Of course, the Duoqi Civilization, being a pawn, is most likely unaware of the inner workings. However, looking at the Telo Civilization, although they are also pawns, these muscular men weighing 300 pounds seem to be smarter than one might imagine.

The battle in the Riken Star System left the mastermind extremely satisfied, or perhaps overly satisfied, with the Swarm's development speed, as evidenced by the fact that the other side suddenly changed the progress of negotiations with Origin A11.

The shift from procrastination to rushing was far from smooth; it was too abrupt. The flaws were so significant that Rowan couldn't help but rethink these events from the beginning, connect the dots, and arrive at new conclusions.

So now the player's plan should be entering the next stage, but what exactly is the opponent's objective?

Rowan quickly drew a preliminary conclusion: the opposing side needed the Swarm to possess a certain level of strength, but not to exceed their control. What did they need such Swarm for? Rowan didn't find the answer to this question; the information was too limited to support his further analysis.

Fortunately, as the players continue to make moves and establish their positions, more and more information will be revealed. With the conclusions drawn earlier, they have gained a little bit of initiative, and they can then respond to each move as it comes.

Before that, we still need to accelerate the development of the Swarm's strength. If we have absolute power, all schemes and tricks will be nonsense. We can smash the chessboard, find the players, and let them know why the flowers are so red.

The Swarm has already made significant progress and advancements in some technologies, which have already been monetized. Moreover, since Swarm combat units are mostly modeled after Creep, with their weapons and equipment becoming organized and modular, directly adding and upgrading existing combat forces should provide a pleasant surprise to those with ulterior motives.

With the addition of the new Epoch Clan team, the negotiations at Origin A11 quickly made significant progress. A year later, although some aspects were still under discussion, the Swarm officially joined the Star Sea Alliance and became a member.

It then took another year for the Swarm to invite the Riken Civilization. Researchers from both civilizations had already completed the screening process. The two races totaled over 100,000 people, with 3,000 from the Swarm and the rest provided by the Riken Civilization.

Given the large population of the Riken Civilization, the Swarm could not possibly establish a suitable ecological colony on their own territory. Therefore, the assembly point was set at the twin-star colony in the Riken Star System, where all personnel would gather and await the arrival of the Epoch Clan's ships to pick them up.

The preparations were tedious. Rowan had prepared insect bodies for the three thousand researchers who would be traveling with the Swarm well in advance. However, after careful consideration, Rowan decided not to make it too special. These insect bodies would no longer have the ability to survive in space without protection. Instead, a new circulatory system was designed for them based on samples of native organisms from the Origin Star.

At the same time, a new bio-protective armor was designed to conceal the "minor anomalies" that Bular had previously observed.

Riken Civilization the other hand, the Swarm naturally wouldn't let such a good opportunity for infiltration slip by, and their target was much smaller than the Swarm Intellect.

Although the Swarm only sent 3,000 people this time, the attention it attracted far exceeded that of the Riken Civilization. However, since they had only been in control of the Riken Civilization for a short time, and did not use radical and violent conversion methods, and since they did not know whether the Star Sea Alliance had the means to detect anomalies, the Riken researchers disguised as Intellect only accounted for about 20% of the total number.

In the vast sea of stars, this parting is almost certain to be the last, so these people will have ten years to say goodbye to their family and friends.

These ten years also represent the time it takes for the Epoch Clan to dispatch their spaceships to arrive.