Other Space Kaiden
Better than other-other space Kaiden
Tactics of The Swarm
The Swarm fights much like you would expect a hive of wasps to strike at an intruder attacking their nest. Where most fleets prefer to use the overwhelming firepower of Star Destroyers, The Swarm prefers the "One Thousand Cuts" method to space combat.
Instead of utilizing the firepower of massive battleships, most craft in your standard Swarm Fleet are instead massive carriers who overlook massive weapon compliments to store hundreds or thousands of fighters. These carriers and backed up by smaller capital ships like frigates or corvettes that are armed with plasma and missile weaponry.
The fleet then uses a screen of thousands upon thousands of fighter, bomber and strike craft alongside mass-missile launches to overwhelm the enemy point-defense systems; thus supplementing few ships with massive firepower for thousands of ships combining their firepower. Boarding actions are also a frequent tactic of The Swarm. Dozens of warriors are sent to board a ship, lead by a powerful Archon or Hiveguard Force User in attempt to forcibly assimilate the crews.
Commanding Ships In Combat
Through the power of the Hivemind, officers and commanders of the Swarm Fleets are able to directly communicate with thousands of their underlings in a matter of miliseconds. The thoughts, wishes and detailed actions that a fleet's Swarmlord wants taken are relayed directly down to their Archons who then directly relay those thoughts to their captains who then relay them to their men; all without a word being spoken.
Because of this, Swarm ships are capable of reacting and manuvering much quicker than most other fleets in the galaxy. Even fleets with A.I support are unable to react as quickly as a Swarm fleet because of the delay of information between the computers and their organic masters.
This means, however, that Swarm Fleets are highly vulnerable to taking crippling blows when even a single Archon is lost. If the Swarmlord of a fleet falls, it will likely break the entire fleet in a matter of seconds as orders will seize to be relayed. This is the take away of near instant communication and unmatched coordination. While the ships of a Swarm Fleet may be able to put fire on target and manuver from danger in fractions of a second, losing a single high ranking officer can cripple whole section of a fleet.
Other Fleet Operations
Aside from combat the Swarm Fleets have a variety of other duties that they are tasked with. One of the most frequent of these is what the Hivemind has chosen to refer to as "Ascension"
Ascension is a process in which masses of prisoners from a planet are gathered into a herd on the surface of a planet. Once the herd is gathered a specialized Swarm ship commanded by a Hivelord will orbit over the swath of land where the herd has been gathered. The herd will shuttled to the ship by the hundreds, where the overwhelming mental presence of The Hivelord breaks their minds and forcibly assimilates the masses into The Swarm. This tactic is used to quickly assimilate a large number of people, who will be returned to the surface of the planet to strengthen the Hivemind's presence on the world.
Once this is done the Hivemind can much more easily corrupt the minds of the populace and take over the planet completely. The Fleets are also tasked with siphoning resources from planets and from space, including water from frozen fields of comets or from oceans of planets, in order to fuel the growing numbers of The Swarm. Overpopulation is a problem for Swarmers as they care little for the low amount of space a planet may provide, thus siphoning additional resources from space is a necessity.
Ranks of the Swarm Fleet
The Swarmlords and Ladies are the Fleet Admirals of the fleets, commanding over thousands of fighters and hundreds of vessels. They are connected directly to The Hivemind and are capable of delivering their thoughts and actions to millions in miliseconds. They are widely considered some of the most intelligent strategists in The Swarm.
Archons (TAG WIP)
Archons are the Rear Admirals of the fleets. They command over hundreds of fighters and dozens of vessels. They are also directly connected to The Swarmlord or Lady of their fleet and are capable of delivering orders to all under their command in miliseconds.
Captains (TAG WIP)
Captains command single capital ships or squadrons of fighters. They are connected directly to the Archon of their section and are capable of sending orders directly to those under their command in miliseconds.
Swarmers (TAG WIP)
Swarmers are pilots of the fleets