Chapter 355: Oversight
“Target the remaining mobile Swarm units and eliminate them first!” Diallo ordered as the Daqi fleet continued its spiraling retreat from Planet Izumo.
With the Swarm’s Primordial bodies increasingly reduced to stationary defensive turrets, fewer of them had the firing angles necessary to maintain pressure on the retreating fleet.
Still, before losing their functionality entirely, many of them pushed their limits. By overloading their cellular structures and destroying their weapon mechanisms in the process, they achieved a final burst of firepower.
By this stage of the battle, over 800 Daqi warships had been left behind on the front lines. Among these, more than 300 were completely destroyed, while the rest were disabled and unable to follow the fleet’s retreat.
Initially, the Daqi had attempted to rescue some of their stranded comrades. However, once the fleet began withdrawing in earnest, small vessels and escape pods from the disabled ships began heading toward the Riken Twin Star Defensive Zone instead.
This retreat was far from orderly. Diallo’s fleet, which had made space for the Crimson Kiss missiles by partially clearing out their drone bays, still carried a significant number of drones—about 500 per warship.
The Daqi drones were elliptical and flat, resembling an enlarged first-generation Swarm Combat Beetle. Measuring 5 meters in length, 3 meters in width, and 2 meters in height, they were designed to be stored compactly. The drones were slotted into racks within their hangars, looking like rows of oversized USB drives.
Even after accommodating the bulky Crimson Kiss missiles, each warship retained room for over 500 drones.
The primary role of these drones was breaching and harassment. Armed with two small energy cannons concealed on either side of their chassis, the drones posed little threat to the reactive armor of enemy warships. However, their compact size allowed them to exploit gaps, targeting exposed components such as radar arrays, main and secondary turrets, and even penetrating hangar bays to wreak havoc inside enemy ships.