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

Chapter 1033: The Bugs Are Fighting Back

Great... So we have Queens disappearing from their nests now... And we have no idea where they are.

I turned towards Admiral Markarius, ”Right... So what do you expect me to do about this?”

He steepled his fingers in front of him, ”I want to know what you think, Captain Tera. It is a fact that out of everyone here, you are the one that is most experienced with dealing with the bugs at this point. Do you have any idea what is happening?”

I wracked my brains a little to consider why the bug Queens would abandon their nests and also leave no trace of their escape.

”This is just a guess from me...” I prefaced, looking around the table at the people gathered around. ”But I believe they might be moving the Queens somewhere else and gathering them in a giant nest. I’m not sure how they manage to do it without leaving any trace but... I would probably have to see one of these nests for myself to know for sure.”

He nodded at me, ”We just so happen to have a battlegroup that was tasked to clear out one of the larger nests on the surface. Would you like to join them? There are already several Mercenary groups who have joined the assault as well.”

I frowned, ”How big is the nest we’re talking about?”

”Our initial estimation places the population of bugs in that particular nest to be anywhere between five hundred thousand to a million.”

One of the junior officers sucked in a breath at the side, ”That... Is basically the population of an entire habitat station isn’t it?”

I was going to say almost the same thing but claim that it was the population of a small country instead. Good thing I kept my mouth shut since my words would not have made sense in this universe...

The Admiral nodded, ”And it’s not even the biggest nest either. We’re aiming to get rid of the bigger nests since they are the larger threats and it is a bigger risk to leave them alone now that we know these bugs have the capacity to evolve at such a rapid pace.”

Hmm... That certainly is a threat that we cannot leave hanging around...

The Admiral continued, ”A battalion was assigned to deal with the nest and the assault has been going on for the last few days but because of the sheer number of bugs, there has been rather lacklustre results pushing into the tunnels.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”So... You want me to deal with it?”

A few of the younger officers immediately turned to narrow their eyes at me and I didn’t need to read their minds to know that they were scoffing at the thought of me actually being able to make a difference in this.

The Admiral proved them wrong as he nodded his head, ”Like I said, you have the most experience and also the highest success rate in dealing with these bugs right now, we will not turn down any help that we can get. If we can wrap this nest up, we can proceed to the next nest and deal with them before they evolve into a more dangerous variant. Right now, time is not on our side... We cannot let them evolve more than they have.”

I pursed my lips and decided to pop the question that had been on my mind, ”Just asking... You know... I’m just exploring all the possible solutions to this but... Is there no plans on maybe creating some kind of bioweapon for the bugs? Like... Some kind of virus that will specifically target bugs and kill them but leave everything untouched?”

All of them looked at me like I had just suggested bringing the sun down on the planet.

One of the older looking officers turned to me, ”I’m not sure if you know about this, Captain Tera... But... The use of biological weapons is outlawed within USC space unless it is to repel an external threat. So we will not be using biological weapons to deal with the bugs.”

Ah... I see...

One of the junior officers shook his head and whispered almost inaudibly at his companion, ”Typical clueless Mercs... They only know how to kill stuff.”

I mean... Doesn’t that kind of go the same way for you as well? Whatever...

I nodded, ”I see... But I’m not sure what gave you the confidence that I would definitely be able to deal with this, Admiral?”

”We will also be assigning a part of the dog unit under your control,” He explained.

That drew several surprise gasps from the other officers.

It’s a good thing that I understand the seriousness of dogs at this point so what the Admiral was suggesting was equivalent to them basically giving me a nuclear bomb.

Well... Maybe not to the point of a nuclear bomb but close enough.

One of the younger officers stood up, ”Admiral! You can’t be serious! That’s... You’re handing over such a dangerous weapon to a Merc?!”

The Admiral turned his head slightly to eye the officer, ”Are you questioning my orders, Captain?”

The officer shrunk back a little, ”N... No... But... But... That’s... Why do we need to let her have access to something that dangerous?”

”Then what use is there for having those weapons and not using it? Do you want to wait until everyone in that battalion is killed before you deploy it?”

The Captain snapped his mouth shut and sat back down in his chair, shamefaced.

Although I don’t really agree with that officer’s assessment of me... I do have a question though...

”Wait... Umm... Aren’t the dogs under Nerissa’s command? Isn’t she the one who is able to control them?”

Admiral Markarius steepled his fingers together, ”I think at this point, we’re past pretending, don’t you think, Captain Tera?”

”What do you mean?”

”You really think that I wouldn’t believe you’re not also a Biotamer after you walk in here with your own dog at your side?”

Ok... I guess... Fair enough but...

”She’s collared,” I pointed out.

”I know what a shock collar looks like, Captain Tera. You are not controlling your dog through the usage of a shock collar. I don’t care what’s the reason you are keeping your Biotamer abilities secret and I will not pry. As long as you give us results for the Credits we are paying you. That’s all we need.”

Well... I guess it’s better than them finding out I’m a Psionic I guess?

Fine, screw it...

”How many dogs are you assigning to me?” I asked, looking at the Admiral in the eye.

He looked at me from over his fingertips, ”How many do you need?”

I thought back on the number of bugs I had to lead the charge during the initial landing on the planet, how the dogs had torn through the tsunami of bugs that had tried to swarm us when we were attempting to make planetfall.

Then I imagined facing that number underground as well, which wasn’t that hard to do since the first nest I cleared with Nerissa was also roughly the same.

But since this time I would have military and Mercenaries as my backup...

”A hundred of them.”

The officer who had protested against me spun to me and opened his mouth but the Admiral was faster.

”Done. I will contact the main base and you can land your ship at the base to load up the dogs to take along with you. Miss Nerissa will stay at that base so do not take her along with you. This goes without saying but you will be solely responsible for the dogs and they are still considered a military asset. If anything happens to them or your mishandling leads to them attacking things that they shouldn’t, you will be held liable for the damages.”

I nodded, ”That’s fine.”

”Very well... In that case, I wish y--”

The door to the room slid open and another officer barged in shouting out loud, ”Admiral! Admiral!!”

Admiral Markarius frowned at the newcomer, ”What is the meaning of this? You better have a good reason for this interruption, officer.”

The guy took a moment to catch his breath before lifting up his personal terminal to tap on it, showing a screen recording of what looked like variations of the humanoid bugs swarming towards a group of soldiers and tearing them apart while they tried to shoot them.

”They... They have been overrun, sir! The battalion suffered heavy casualties when these bugs appeared! We’ve lost three squads so far and two Mercenary teams have also been wiped out!”

The Admiral jumped to his feet, ”What?! Are they attacking the camp?!”

”N... No, sir! The orbital bombardments held them back... But the troops have been pushed out of the tunnels are requesting for reinforcements, sir!”

Admiral Markarius turned to me, ”Captain Tera, I am formally requesting your participation now, please get the dogs from the main base and head there ASAP!”

Right, guess things are getting more serious now...