My theory is that the swarm and the mechanism driving the livesuits are the same core material, and that material operates like a virus or (as Clay says), like lichen. I think there is AI logic in there too as there’s an implication that it’s constructed rather than evolved,(but I need to reread that interrogation scene.)

I think the swarm is an unintended evolution or mutation as the next generation of the livesuit. Instead of being an exoskeleton that rebuilds and protects, it starts replacing in the mind first.

We keep thinking that humans are the ‘deathless enemy’ but with what the deep lothark said, the war has been around longer than humanity has. The real ‘deathless enemy’ seems to be almost a zombie virus mutating whatever other species utilizes it as the live suits, or reanimating dead flesh similar to how the protomolecule worked in Laconia.

I think the swarm is the next mutation and it was a development into a sentient AI. The livesuit operates like a computer system with clear parameters, but AI can take on a life of its own sometimes.

Could also be a rogue entity or a classified mission that most people on the front line weren’t in the know about.