Chapter 549: Arrival
By the 68th year of the New Era, things had been relatively calm over the past few years, at least for the Ketuo civilization, which hadn’t faced much harassment. This unexpected peace left them feeling somewhat uneasy.
During this period, reinforcements from the Interstellar Technological Confederation continued to pour in. The number of civilizations on the front lines increased from 91 to 95.
With the navigation routes cleared again, some of the bolder civilizations resumed using warp travel. Although they encountered occasional harassment from the Swarm, the Confederation detected and neutralized these threats early on. Gradually, more and more civilizations regained confidence and reopened their warp travel routes.
The territory of the Interstellar Technological Confederation wasn’t far from the Swarm’s domain. Many civilizations, upon receiving their assigned tasks, caught up with the leading mid-tier civilizations in no time.
However, these mid-tier civilizations were unwilling to take risks and continued to use sublight engines for a cautious advance. Even though some of the later civilizations were eager to make a name for themselves, they ultimately joined the sublight travel convoy after considering their own strength.
After more than four years, the joint forces of several mid-tier civilizations finally approached the Swarm’s star system.
Of course, their ranks had grown significantly. On the Ketuo side alone, the original three mid-tier civilizations with a total of 170 million ships had expanded to seven mid-tier civilizations, with nearly 400 million ships.
Additionally, six outer-ring civilizations had joined, contributing around 300 million ships. Although their technological level was slightly lower than that of the mid-tier civilizations, they were still far more effective as cannon fodder than unmanned fighter drones.
Thus, the Ketuo-led fleet had undergone a qualitative transformation, now boasting nearly 700 million ships. Moreover, fleets from several other civilizations were expected to join in the coming years.