The Hive Mind faced two options: retreat or press forward until the objective was achieved. In a brief yet profound deliberation, every synapse creature within the swarm engaged in the decision-making process. Ultimately, the Hive Mind chose the latter—continuing the fight.
The battle on Baal still raged with no clear victor, and though the struggle against the Ironborn in the Underworld Star System was destined for failure, localized defeat did not equate to overall loss. To recoil from this inorganic predator and withdraw completely from Baal would be the true failure. Furthermore, even if the swarm suffered complete losses on both Baal and in the Underworld, it could still gather critical intelligence on these inorganic predators, information which, in time, could fuel evolutionary advancements and enable the crafting of a specialized fleet dedicated to their destruction.
Thus, the Hive Mind resolved to engage fully, recognizing that persisting would be ultimately beneficial. With this decision, the Hive Mind turned its full attention to commanding the war in the Underworld System, aiming to glean every possible insight from the Ironborn before its individual creatures were utterly depleted. And so, a full-scale war between the swarm's warbeasts and the Ironborn began.
Across the Underworld System, every bio-ship converged on Underworld One, drawing in every swarm warbeast in its orbit. Aside from the few required to scavenge on other planets, all biomass was allocated to the creation of warbeasts. Within the interdimensional space separating reality from the dimensional void, the Leviathan Ironborn mothership also ramped up production, churning out even more Ironborn. Its central intelligence sought not merely to obliterate this detestable organic enemy but also to gain a profound understanding of it.
The polar continent and the drained ocean trench on Underworld One became the fiercest battlefronts. Rows of Ironborn units advanced across the ground, their pace steady and ponderous. Though their movements seemed clumsy, nothing could hinder their progress, not even for an instant. As the Ironborn at the forefront clashed with the swarm, the electric arc weapons they wielded unleashed the first strike on the endless tide of slicing swarm creatures—a weapon uniquely devised to obliterate organic forms.
The original design had come from Qin Mo, who, while fortifying the Bottom Nest fortress, had anticipated the possibility of the Swarm's arrival and thus developed a weapon that could decimate it. It was only perfected with the construction of the Celestial Engine. When the Leviathan Ironborn mothership received a suite of weapon schematics, the electric arc was dubbed the "Celestial Engine's younger sibling." The smaller arc weapon was almost as potent as the full array. As the Ironborn pulled the trigger, a deluge of lightning poured from the muzzle, cascading arcs ripping through all Tyran swarm warbeasts within range. Swaths of swarm creatures shattered as the arcs passed through them, each collapse resembling struck-down stacks of blocks exploding into scattered pieces.
With a single Ironborn electric arc weapon, a thousand slicer-beasts fell within the opening seconds, and there were countless Ironborn advancing against the seemingly boundless swarm. If one could view the polar continent from orbit, one would see swathes of metallic shapes cutting through dense patches of black as the Ironborn units methodically pressed forward.
The Ironborn's advance was not limited by the firing speed of their weapons or the rate of slaughter but solely by the pace of their heavy, methodical march. The swarm's slicer-beasts dwindled by eighty percent—a result foreseen by the Hive Mind. Yet the Ironborn pressed on, their massive metal limbs striding through the scattered remnants of organic flesh. Even this debris was valuable biomass, a precious resource in this grueling war of attrition.
Ravagers, specialized for scavenging biomass, surged forward from the swarm, seeking to reclaim the scattered remnants with their agility and compact frames. But at that moment, the nano-swarm reappeared, sweeping across the battlefield like a white storm, reducing all the organic matter to ash as it was consumed in molecular flames. Once again, the swarm's most vital resource—the biomass—was significantly depleted.
As the Ironborn units marched on, they came within range of the swarm's long-range warbeasts. These warbeasts were varied in form, yet each colossal body bore an organic artillery almost as massive as itself. The green projectiles that burst among the Ironborn scattered not metal but clusters of small swarm creatures, which scurried across the Ironborn, chewing into their exteriors. Though these small creatures could not digest the metal they gnawed, they penetrated deeply enough to damage the circuitry within.
When the central intelligence observed through the Ironborn's sensors how these minuscule creatures were able to pierce their alloyed shells, it was taken aback. Though the Ironborn's armor was crafted through atomic restructuring and lacked the resilience of true Celestial-grade alloy, it was astonishing to see it eroded by the swarm's bioengineered jaws. The energy efficiency and the adaptability of the Tyran swarm were far beyond biological norms.
The central intelligence revised its evaluation of the swarm:
*Hive-mind predators.*
*Delete.*
*Enter new classification.*
*Precision bio-war machines.*
Once the new data was recorded, the central intelligence activated a countermeasure. Ironborn units within the ranks turned their electric arc weapons on their comrades, unleashing crackling arcs across the entire formation. The minute swarm creatures devouring their metal hosts were vaporized.
Observing this response, the Hive Mind ceased firing its bio-shells to conserve biomass and mobilized pureblood gene-stealers to join the fray. In the fleeting moment when the Ironborn recharged their arc weapons, the gene-stealers emerged from the subterranean tunnels, attacking with claws that emitted disintegration fields. With each swipe, dents and craters appeared on the Ironborn's thick shells, until a determined gene-stealer breached one, plunging its claw into the electronic core.
The Hive Mind directed each gene-stealer, forcing them to focus solely on destruction, heedless of defense. In response, the central intelligence deployed colossal Ironborn into the field. These giants wielded an array of armaments and defensive capabilities, though none were incendiary by nature—except for one. From the shoulders of the massive units, a gray gas billowed across the battlefield, igniting in a fiery blaze with a single spark. In an instant, the gene-stealers were consumed by a sea of flame.