Not Enough

Such a large-scale commotion by the Coalition Army forces would naturally not go unnoticed by the Swarm on the other side. A Blade meeting was convened, with numerous Blade gathering in the Swarm Network conference room to discuss countermeasures.

"The Star Sea Alliance is coming with great force this time, and many more advanced civilizations are involved. The Telo Civilization, which was previously considered advanced, would only be considered mid-level now. Our forces might be at a disadvantage due to their speed and range."

"That's right. This time, the enemy's overall technological level has improved significantly, and their numbers are also completely incomparable to those before."

"There's no need to worry about that. The Overlord has already arranged for the frontline troops to undergo self-upgrades. Once the upgrades are complete, the speed and weapon range of the Ancient Class units will be improved. Furthermore, the Overlord has authorized command of all troops in this star system. I have already transferred some troops from the rear to the front lines. In terms of numbers, we will not be at a disadvantage. However, they are still on their way and will take some time." Sarah said calmly in response to the Blade's question.

With the support of numerous Intellect within the Swarm, the Swarm's technological research and development and growth rate far surpasses that of all other alien civilizations, even the Epoch Clan.

Furthermore, many of the Swarm's existing technologies are still in their early stages and have significant room for improvement, so the Swarm could have already undergone an upgrade.

However, since their previous technological level was sufficient to deal with the enemy, the Swarm did not reveal much. Now that the enemy has improved, the Swarm naturally needs to upgrade its technology as well.

Because it involves some modifications and improvements to the existing system without adding new modules or organs, Rowan only remotely authorized the mutation. The Space Octopus then absorbed energy in near-star orbit, which was very convenient.

In terms of numbers, the forces that the Swarm previously used in the attack came from the Riken Star System, Proxima Star System, and Origin Star System, as well as from star systems such as Sandstorm, Big Horn, White Grub, and Red Ant.

These star systems were the first territories occupied by the Swarm, developed early, and amassed a considerable number of troops, supporting the Swarm's first wave of attacks. Subsequently, these star systems continued to send troops, and together with the star systems they subsequently occupied, they expanded outwards.

However, the troops on the other side were never used. This was because, initially, apart from the Earth River and Black God star systems, the other star systems were occupied relatively late. Earth River and Black God needed to continuously send troops outward to expand and occupy new star systems, so they had no way to send troops to support the other side.

Later, after the newly conquered star systems developed, and upon discovering that the other side had already stabilized and no longer needed support, they also sent out their surplus troops to explore new territories.

This explains why the Swarm has only conquered about twenty star systems on one side, while nearly two hundred have already been captured on the other. Besides the lack of interference, it's also because they've deployed a large enough force.

However, facing the overwhelming Coalition Army, the forces from the twenty-odd star systems on this side were already stretched thin. Therefore, Rowan authorized Blade to use the Swarm forces on the other side to provide them with support.

With these hundred-plus star systems as a foundation, plus the original twenty-plus star systems, the Swarm will not be at a disadvantage in terms of military strength for the time being.

However, due to the vastness of their territory, the furthest Zerg base is currently more than 100 light-years away from the front lines. Even Ancient Class with an upgraded propulsion system would need more than 20 years to cross this distance.

Therefore, reinforcements are available, but they will not arrive immediately. The Blade need to make flexible arrangements based on this.

"According to intelligence, the Star Sea Alliance has over three billion warships, and we have nine star systems exposed on the front lines. On average, each star system will be attacked by three to four hundred million warships."

"We currently have less than four billion troops on this front. Even if they were all upgraded, it would still be impossible for them to withstand an attack from a Coalition Army fleet of nearly the same size."

Due to their size, the individual combat power of the Coalition Army warships is much stronger than that of the Swarm's Ancient Class ships.

The length of the Coalition Army in this allied offensive fleet varied from two thousand to four thousand meters, depending on race and technological level. The number of main guns ranged from eight to ninety-six, and the number of secondary guns ranged from thirty-two to four hundred.

Some special flagship or functional ships carry even more main and secondary guns. Superior energy and transmission systems allow them to fire more guns simultaneously.

On the other hand, the Ancient Class Swarm typically carry two to four main cannons, while the secondary cannons are carried by the Mature Form. From this number alone, one can intuitively imagine the difference in firepower between the two sides.

Prior to this, the highest level of adversaries the Swarm had faced was the Telo Civilization. Their main warships were equipped with only about twenty main cannons. In contrast, the Meto Race, at its level, had only eight main cannons on their main warships.

In this situation, the Swarm, with its superior agility, powerful healing and regeneration abilities, and the harassment of countless Mature Form and Larval Form, managed to win several battles, thanks to its numerical advantage and constant reinforcements.

But now, trying to win this war with the original military strength ratio is absolutely wishful thinking. The Swarm must be several times larger than the enemy's to achieve a balance of firepower.

Rowan had also noticed that the Swarm space forces were currently highly homogenized, with almost all combat being carried out by Space Octopus of various sizes. The variety of unit types and the level of division of labor and coordination were far inferior to those of ground units.

The reason for this is that the Space Octopus has functions such as melee combat, long-range combat, and transportation. When there is no war, its flexible tentacles can also make it serve as an engineering and construction unit.

Furthermore, the presence of the Creep template gives them incredible vitality and strong compatibility. By all accounts, they are a near-perfect unit.

However, as the Swarm enemies become more advanced, the Space Octopus, while perfect in many ways, is also mediocre in some areas, making them increasingly ineffective against their adversaries.

Rowan has noticed this and is currently redesigning some highly targeted units, such as abandoning melee and transport capabilities to carry more weapons, all for the sake of a long-range, maximum-output Firestorm Beast (beast).

There are also other similar units that are highly functional and targeted.

However, most of them are currently in the conceptual stage. Before they can be truly born, put on the battlefield, and be shown to the world, there are still many problems to be solved. Among them, the most crucial is a more efficient energy system.