Talent

At this point, the Swarm's adversaries had officially shifted from the Koya Alliance and the Locke Mutual Aid Society to the Star Sea Alliance. Although the former two were originally members of the Alliance, there were still some differences between them.

The biggest change is that the entire decision-making team of the Coalition Army has been replaced. The Swarm's previous information channels have been relegated to the margins, resulting in some intelligence delays.

To reach the previous level, Rowan will need to put in more effort.

The reason why there are no "insiders" in the new decision-making body is not because they are already able to resist the invasion of the Swarm Network, but because they have been on the move for decades, their whereabouts are elusive, and the Swarm have not had the opportunity to come into contact with them.

By this time, they had already made contact with the Swarm, and it was only a matter of time before they found "their own people."

However, even at the highest decision-making level, where there are no "insiders," they cannot bypass the command structure below if they want to get things done.

Including the previous management systems of the Koya Alliance and the Locke Mutual Aid Society, as the local strongmen in the frontier, almost all orders required their cooperation.

Both of these entities had already been infiltrated by the Swarm, so what they knew meant that the Swarm also knew it. Therefore, although they were slightly behind on the latest situation of the Coalition Army, the impact was not significant.

The Swarm were aware of the Coalition Army's high alert, both through conventional and unconventional means. As time passed, the Coalition Army discovered that the Swarm were merely amassing forces without any intention of launching an attack. The numbers of troops on both sides increased, and they faced each other across a battlefront spanning more than a dozen star systems and tens of light-years in length.

"According to past patterns, the Zerg should have set off a year ago. But they still haven't made a move." An outsider looked at the data in front of him. He came from a Mid-Ring Civilizations and had been traveling all along, never having actually made contact with the Zerg. All his knowledge of the Zerg came from various videos or written materials.

"Isn't this to be expected? The Zerg aren't stupid. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't attack either." A member of another race shrugged. He also came from a Mid-Ring Civilizations. "But at least they have the self-awareness to not get arrogant just because they defeated a few weaklings."

"We're all allies, it's not fair of you to say that." Sensing the disdain in the foreigner's words and seeing the grim expressions on the faces of the representatives from the Outer-Ring Civilizations in the conference room, another foreigner stepped in to smooth things over.

"Ahem, let's discuss how to deal with the Zerg. We've just arrived and have no experience, so we hope you'll offer your valuable advice and suggestions."

"To be honest, we also lack experience in fighting the Zerg. We'd better rely on the Locke Mutual Aid Society for advice on this." The representative of the Koya Alliance went along with the situation, not getting bogged down in certain words, and cleverly shifted the focus to their old rival.

The representative of the Locke Mutual Aid Society was an old acquaintance, Lord Wheeler of the Telo Civilization. During the front-line war, when he learned that the Zerg forces sent to LKDW265 and 267 had appeared outside the LKDW262 and 263 star systems, he knew from his understanding of the Zerg that the Coalition Army were doomed.

He acted decisively, immediately leaving the war and finding Defek. After explaining the situation, he tried to run away with Defek. However, Defek was still the commander of the Coalition Army at the time, and naturally could not abandon his troops to accompany Wheeler's foolishness.

But as it turned out, Wheeler's judgment was correct, and the Zerg did not disappoint him, successfully annihilating the Coalition Army. Fortunately, he had planned an escape route beforehand, and during the retreat, he took Defek on a long detour, successfully saving his life.

Although Defek escaped with his life, someone of considerable stature had to take the blame for the Coalition Army's crushing defeat, and Defek, as the commander-in-chief of the Coalition Army, was naturally the most suitable candidate.

Meanwhile, several other commanders at the time also shared the blame with Defek, including General Arrito from LKDW262 and two leaders from LKDW263.

Their replacement, however, brought Wheeler into the spotlight. Wheeler had previously represented the Locke Mutual Aid Society inviting the Swarm to join the Star Sea Alliance, so his status and position were naturally not bad, and he also held real power. However, during his hibernation, he was forcibly sidelined by Defek had some free time.

But every cloud has a silver lining. Wheeler, who had no real command authority, successfully avoided being made a scapegoat and has now been promoted several ranks to become the representative of the Locke Mutual Aid Society in contact with many Mid-Ring Civilizations.

However, his face was rather dark at this moment. He had just been mocked by some idiot in the middle circle, and then his old rival tripped him up. Anyone would be upset in this situation.

However, compared to the conflict with the Zerg, these verbal exchanges are nothing. A large portion of the Telo Fleet destroyed at LKDW262 consisted of his former subordinates. Although there weren't many with whom he truly had any loyalty, even that small number was enough to escalate the hatred between Wheeler and the Zerg to its maximum level.

Therefore, he genuinely wanted to contribute his strength to the Alliance's fight against the Zerg.

"The Zerg must have a very impressive character design team, because the appearance of their combat units makes you feel disgusted, ferocious, brave, etc., and some perverted people might even find them cute or silly, but you would never associate them with intelligence."

"Before we engaged in battle with the Zerg, I conducted a survey on first impressions of them. Many people thought they were mere beasts, nothing to worry about. I don't know if this was the Zerg's way of suggesting something about other intelligent life forms, but to be honest, I had similar thoughts back then. Perhaps some of you here also held this view before hearing what I'm about to say, and even now, you might be somewhat dismissive. But what I want to say is that the Zerg are extremely cunning. Compared to their other characteristics, intelligence is their most terrifying trait."

Upon hearing Wheeler's words, the expressions of many outsiders, including representatives of the Mid-Ring Civilizations, became much more serious. Wheeler's words were quite accurate; just a minute ago, they had indeed thought the Swarm was nothing special. Now, they wondered if they had truly been influenced or guided by some kind of suggestion.

"They seem to possess a special ability, always able to foresee the future and plan ahead. Seemingly unrelated actions always miraculously connect in the end. Therefore, we must carefully analyze every move of the Zerg, and not limit ourselves to a single battlefield, but consider the overall situation." Wheeler ignored the reactions of the other races and continued explaining...

Afterwards, Rowan learned some details of the meeting and was surprised. He hadn't expected that an outsider would know so much about the Zerg. This was indeed something he hadn't done well enough. Such talent needed to be given opportunities.

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