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

Chapter 1028: They Are Spreading

Well... There’s no one else here to see our fight so... We might as well just deal with it here, right?

I got Freyja to jump back into my cockpit and we landed at the edge of the area that was occupied by the bugs with the rest of my girls. Close enough that we can see the bugs but far enough that we have not aggroed them yet.

Funny that after I got to accompany the Reapers on their expedition, I’ve come to realise that we cannot be compared to the normal Merc teams because of how out of the norm my team was.

The normal Mercs had to rely on preparing tactics and strategies ahead of time before they brought in the firepower they needed to deal with their problem.

And then there’s our team who can just rush in and deal with whatever problems that come up by adapting to it since we have the ability to react to pretty much anything.

”So... Should we take care of this nest too?” I asked.

Amber’s face appeared on a screen at the edge of my vision looking not too bothered by the threat in front of us, ”Well... The bug fled here, didn’t it? Do you think that should be a cause of concern?”

”It was smart enough to know it could not defeat us and also smart enough to flee from us to look for another nest. The only question is if it came here to hide or do something else?” I pointed out.

Mara’s face appeared right under Amber’s, ”If we want to be absolutely safe, then we should just clear out this nest as well.”

Ries chuckled through the comms, ”Ehehehe~ Why would we not want another reason to blow things up, Boss? Come on! Let’s get in there!”

Before that... I made a call to another person that had remained on the ship, only needing a single ring before the other side picked up.

”Tera?” Vier greeted, clearly wondering why I was calling.

”Vier? Our contract with the Reapers only involved that one nest, correct? If we were to find another nest and clear it on our own...”

”Then we get the full rewards for it, Tera. Are you going to clear out another nest so soon?”

”Some things have changed. We need to clear this one to make sure it doesn’t jeopardise any other expedition for this planet.”

”In that case, feel free to do so, Tera. We do not owe them anything if we decide to clear out a nest on our own. Just send me the coordinates of the place and I will log it as ours.”

Right, we have to claim the nests now because there are other Mercs also vying to try and claim nests for themselves to get the rewards of clearing one.

”Mistress, I suggest sending a message to the Reapers as well,” Yumiko suggested, already drawing out her Exo-Knight’s blades. ”Otherwise they might try and search for us and... Our secrets might be revealed.”

That’s true.

I would like to think that those guys were honourable at least, but I think they would want any advantage they could get so they might use the excuse where they are checking up on us to spy on us instead.

I sent a quick message to Nayek, telling her that we had tracked it down to another nest far away and we would be surveying it to see what the bug’s next actions were.

I also intentionally told her to just complete her extraction of that nest without waiting or looking for us as their presence might draw attention from that nest.

A lie, of course, but we need to make sure they don’t think about coming to find us.

With that done, I gave the order to my girls.

”Go.”

All of us leapt up into the air, fully prepared to attack the nest and clear it out and...

Before we could start shooting, I spotted a bug flying out from the tunnel entrance to fly away from the area.

A bug that looked humanoid and was currently missing one of its arms.

Eh? That’s the bug we were tracking weren’t we?

Then, following right after it, were three more of those flying, humanoid bugs, each of them flying in a different direction instead.

Wait... There’s more of them now?

Did the arrival of that bug trigger a mutation to create those other bugs? Or were they already mutated through a shared network between all the bugs and its arrival just triggered them to be activated?

There’s too many things we don’t know but...

”Mistress?” Lea called out, bringing me back to my senses as my girls awaited my command.

There’s four bugs that were flying away, each of them no doubt heading for a different nest.

And if this pattern repeated itself, each of these bugs would also trigger another group of mutated bugs to show up and maybe those would also be sent to another nest to continue as well.

Perhaps... What we’re looking at was the bugs trying to evolve themselves in order to survive.

We’ve already come across one of the humanoid bugs in our past expeditions where it attempted to communicate with us but aside from that, it wasn’t really capable of doing anything else.

This one, however, was not only capable of speech but also of flight and also definitely pretty strong.

Not as strong as Freyja but I’m sure if a normal Merc without any Power Armour or specialised tools had come across that bug, they would be killed quickly.

And from this, I think we can conclude that these bugs had the capacity to evolve rapidly in order to survive. Not only that... I think with each nest that was cleared, or at least with each Queen that was killed, the bugs will evolve and mutate even more.

I’m sure that they don’t have a way to telepathically communicate with each other since this bug was physically flying off to these nests presumably to warn them... But perhaps the evolution or mutation was something that was instinctive and could be accelerated if they knew how big of a threat they could expect.

So in other words... There’s four messengers heading to four other nests that will cause them to mutate if they were allowed to reach them...

And this nest that we were in front of should already be in the process of mutating at this point...

I looked back at my girls.

There were eight of us here but only five of us brought our Exo-Knight since Mara had came in the Verlandi.

Not only that, only Amber and I could solo clear a nest since Mara was not strong enough of a telekinetic to clear a nest without backup.

Which meant that the best we could do was to split up into three groups with myself as one, Amber as one, and Mara alongside the rest as the last group.

And yet, we have five targets to hit if we want to deal with this...

If only I could split myself...

Hmm? Wait...

”Renata?”

”Yes, Daddy?”

”Can you take care of two of these nests by yourself?”

”Ehehehe~ Of course Daddy!”

Right then, Mara’s voice came through the comms again, ”Captain... Please wait. Are you suggesting we clear out five nests at once?”

I gave her a slight nod, ”That’s the only way to stop this right now, right?”

”Captain... I will follow your decision, but please take a moment to think about what will be said if it is found that we had cleared five different nests in a single day?”

I paused.

Right... A normal Mercenary team... One that even possesses heavy weaponry and vehicles, needed almost an entire day to clear a path to the nest and that is with assistance from us as well.

If we weren’t there, the Reapers might have needed one or two days before they could get to the Queen.

Any other Merc team would definitely need several days or even weeks to clear out their assigned nests so if it comes up that we managed to clear out five different nests all within a short period of time... They will ask a lot of questions.

In fact, they might also figure out that we have Psionics in our team since that would be the easiest way to explain how we managed to do it.

In other words, if we were to deal with this... We would also be announcing the fact that we have Psionics in our Mercenary Company...

I let out a sigh.

”Let’s just send out a warning, tell them that the bugs are capable of mutating and each nest that is cleared will accelerate their mutation... Anyone intending to participate in nest raids needs to know that each nest will get progressively harder and harder when there’s fewer of them,” I ordered.

That should at least help somewhat... But for this nest in particular, we’re still going to clear it out.