What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

Chapter 1023: This Was Just A Probing Attempt

We pushed through the tunnels and now we’re in the large caverns that the bugs were using as a staging ground and they seemed determined to keep us from getting any further here.

I’m pretty sure they were doing this on purpose as well because the bugs were making use of the fact that this cavern was huge, meaning they could take advantage of their numbers to swarm us unlike the tunnels where it was narrower.

Not only that, they only started to swarm us after we had already entered into the cavern, the bugs having only left a few of them out here as resistance to draw us in so that we could not retreat so easily.

The good thing was that we were already expecting something like this since I warned them that caverns like these should usually be filled with these bugs and we were thus ready for them.

We joined in on the attack instead of staying behind them, though I had Freyja and Yumiko hang back near the tunnel entrance where their Team B was holding to cover our escape route if we needed it.

That turned out to be the right decision as more bugs burst out from hidden tunnels that had been covered by loose dirt, all of them attempting to cut off our escape route and attack us from behind.

Yumiko and Freyja immediately moved to cover our backs by engaging the bugs behind us in melee, leaving the Reaper’s Team B to cover their backs.

Also, it looks like their rivalry was still going since they growled at each other before they jumped into the fight.

Now I’m just finding it funny that Yumiko would be terrified of Freyja if we were back on the ship but she had the courage to growl at my dog when we are in a combat setting.

Trusting those two to handle the bugs that had popped out behind us, I focused on the bugs in front of us instead.

There were so many of them that they covered every inch of the cavern in front of us and it was basically impossible to miss as long as we shot towards the front.

We had arranged ourselves into a firing line to maximise our firing arcs to mow down as many of the bugs as possible.

While we were able to hold them back when all of us were shooting together, there were moments where the Reapers and my girls would need to reload and those breaks allowed the bugs to slowly inch their way forward.

And it didn’t help that the bodies of the bugs were also starting to pile up, acting as a barricade for the other bugs that were still continuing to pour out from the other tunnels connected to the cavern.

Nayek saw the situation and turned to shout at everyone, ”We need to fall back towards the tunnel! Begin tactical retreat! Continue firing and start walking backwards!!”

The Reapers did as she told, all of them maintaining their formation even while walking back towards the tunnel and firing at the bugs ahead of us.

We followed them as well, matching their pace as we made our way back towards the tunnel even while Yumiko and Freyja were still dealing with the bugs that were behind us.

As though they were upset that we were actually running away, the bugs redoubled their efforts to rush at us, going so far as to try and leap towards us to close the distance.

One got really close to a Reaper but Nayek saw it coming and blasted it with her gun and shot it out of the air before it could land on her comrade.

That was when part of the cavern wall to our right suddenly collapsed, revealing a giant beetle shaped bug with two scythes for arms crawling out from the hole.

The bug was about the size of a tank and it let out several angry clicks with its mandibles before charging towards us with its scythes slicing through the air in front of it.

The Reaper that was closest to it fired a few shots from his assault rifle but it barely slowed it down as it continued charging towards him.

No!! He can’t die!!

Our contract states we have to make sure everyone is safe! If one of them dies, our pay gets cut!!

I immediately launched myself towards the scythe beetle bug, shooting my kinetic shells at it to slow it down before switching to the Power Armour’s Energy Wave blade.

It raised its scythe and slashed down at the Reaper, but I managed to reach there just in time to squeeze between the scythe and the Reaper guy to block the blow with my blade.

I had thought the energy blade would have sliced the bug’s scythe clean off but surprisingly, the organic scythe on the bug seemed to also have a heated blade and allowed it to clash against my energy sword without being sliced off.

I heaved my weight against the beetle, shoving it back and forcing back a step, allowing the Reaper to retreat away and let me focus on the new enemy.

The bug screeched and tried to slash at me with its other scythe, only for me to parry it before lifting my arm to fire a kinetic shell into its abdomen.

The shell exploded against its exoskeleton which left a burnt mark and a crack on it but it failed to penetrate into its body.

How hard is this damn bug?

It screeched at me again and brought both of its arms down towards me, forcing me to lift up my hand to block the slash with my energy blade.

The bug let out a triumphant screech as it tried to push its weight down on me, believing that it managed to get me in a compromising position.

All I had to do was activate my shoulder mounted missile pod and fire a rocket to explode directly in its face.

But even its head was hard because the explosion only managed to chip off a part of its head instead of blasting its entire head off, though it did give me some breathing space as it forced the beetle back a few steps.

With the space I just got, I ducked under its scythes and stabbed the energy blade into its abdomen, watching the blade sink into its body and burning its way through its carapace and into its body.

It shrieked and swung its scythes around blindly, but I was already too close to it for the scythes to swing at me so I went ahead to brace my foot against its bottom half before kicking myself up into the air, slashing my blade upwards to cut it vertically in half.

I landed with a thud before deactivating the sword to switch back to my kinetic cannons and started blasting away at the beetle to make sure it was definitely dead.

As though its death was a trigger, more of these beetle bugs suddenly leapt out from the tunnels to join the horde, all of them letting out angry clicks when they saw the fallen form of the beetle I just killed as though they were insulted by the fact I managed to kill one of them.

I guess these guys were meant to be the elite bugs of this nest, like how the other one I dealt with was that centipede bug.

At this point, Yumiko and Freyja had already cleared out the bugs behind us so we had a clear shot of retreating out of the cavern, but the question now was whether we were going to continue advancing or we were going to retreat.

”Leader! I’m almost out!” One of the guys in Power Armour shouted, shooting his shoulder mounted mortar at the beetle bug which did barely any damage aside from making it stumble back a step.

If someone who was more concerned about reputation and achievements was leading this team, they might have called for all of us to press the attack but...

”Fall back! We’ve made good progress already! Team B, cover our retreat! Team C, get ready the traps! Team A, head towards the tunnels, now!”

Oh? Guess we’re retreating then.

At least we managed to shoot down enough of the bugs that there was quite a bit of buffer zone between us and the bugs so we could retreat safely without routing.

The Reapers in Team B covered for us as we continued our retreat, but it seems like the weapons they’ve brought along were not strong enough to deal with the beetle bugs as they shrugged off most of the bullets and even explosions could only slow them down slightly.

If we wanted to take these things out from range, we would need even bigger guns.

I guess that’s also why Nayek wants to retreat since they would return to the base camp to resupply and switch their loadouts for armour piercing types.

This was apparently quite normal for Mercenary teams to take multiple attempts to clear the nest, we were the weird ones for being able to clear it in a single run.