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

I went to look at the site that the guy sent me while seated at one of the tables.

There were surprisingly a lot of choices for this and it kind of reminded me of those figurines that people might collect.

The company that the guy introduced me was one of the biggest suppliers of this and you could basically customise your android however you want for whatever purpose you might need.

I’m talking about housekeeping androids, worker androids, bodyguard androids, maid androids and of course, sex androids.

Heck, you don’t even need to specify one, they could install different modules into one so you could have an android that can fulfil both maid and bodyguard duties if you want.

Their bodies could be changed into any type you want so you could have one with four arms or even one with the body of a snake or a horse.

You don’t even need to worry about them being metallic as they even had synthflesh which makes the robot look almost human.

Although… It seems like there is a rule in place that androids need to have specific markings on them which allows them to be discernible from actual humans.

One such marking could be a black, squarish tattoo that you could scan them to see their profile or their owner. Another could be changing their ears for some kind of antenna or having some of their skin being translucent to show its internal circuitry.

Ironically, all of those markings can be applied onto humans using cybernetic mods and there seems to be a small group of humans who like to mod themselves to look like androids.

I scrolled through their store page and read up more about these androids and one of the problems I quickly realised was… These androids possess Class three AI at best.

That means you were basically getting one of those robot vacuums with an AI chat bot attached to it and did not have actual sentience.

Even those sex androids are only programmed to give specific responses during sex so if the response wasn’t programmed into them beforehand, they would not be able to respond.

When I went to do some more research on them, it seems like before the AI Rebellion, people actually had autonomous androids that were capable of independent thought.

It had even gotten to the point that there were talks about allowing android and human marriages and to grant androids citizenship to be recognised as actual living beings instead of objects.

But there were, of course, people who were against it and fought very hard to stop that from happening. Who, you ask? The multi billion Credits corporations that were using AI for cheap labour of course.

If those AI were granted citizenship, those corporations would have to start paying them a salary and give them benefits, so a lot of money was invested by those corporations to start a counter movement to suppress AI rights.

That apparently started several extremist groups that fought for AI rights and that later escalated to the AI Rebellion.

I wasn’t really able to find information about those extremist groups but it seems like it was androids and other AI that banded together to start using violence to get the humans to obey their demands or something.

Then things got out of hand and it started a full scale conflict within this side of the galaxy.

Pretty crazy history if you ask me.

But digging deeper through the GalaNet, I found some posts talking about some parts of human space that were accepting of AI and even treated them like living things.

Some said that these places were safe haven for AI that did not want to take part in the war and became a sanctuary for them.

Unfortunately, these were basically just rumours and speculation with no names of where these supposed AI sanctuaries were or even proof that this was real.

If you ask me though… I suspect that it might have been a known fact at one point but the information about it had been deleted or something.

Hey, you never know about these kinds of things. I literally have an eldritch thing on my finger right now so I’m ready to believe anything is possible.

Speaking of that, the ring hasn’t been saying anything for a while now.

Like it was happy to just stay on my finger and occasionally spit out some of those Psionic Crystals for us unless I speak to it. And there wasn’t really anything to talk about so it has been silent for quite some time.

”What are you looking at?”

I jumped slightly at the unexpected voice coming from behind.

I turned to see Ragbar chuckling at me, ”Ahaha! Sorry, sorry. Didn’t think I would startle you like that. I guess you must have been really focused to not even hear me coming.”

”A little…” I admitted, turning back to my Codex. ”I saw that you guys were using an android as a DJ so I got curious about androids.”

”Oh, you looking to buy one? I have someone I can call to give you a good price if you are.”

”Well… I had been thinking about it… But since they are limited to Class Three AI at best, it’s not very practical for us so… Probably not.”

He raised an eyebrow at me, ”You’re not looking for those illegal androids are you?”

I turned back to give him a look that told him I had no idea what he was talking about.

”You don’t know about them? Well… You do know about the AI Rebellion, right?”

I nodded, ”I am aware of that, yes. Humanity fought against the AI that turned against their creators right?”

”Pretty much. Quite a brutal war as well and thank the gods I wasn’t a part of that. Anyway, you don’t think that all the bots in the galaxy just got shut down or destroyed after the war ends right?”

”You’re telling me that there’s still fully sentient AI running around in the galaxy somewhere?”

”Yeah. It’s kind of a known secret to everyone. It’s not like all the robots had a central ’off’ switch that we could just press and shut them all down after all. So when the robots lost the war, the remaining AI scattered. Some of them even supposedly hiding in plain sight and the UTG has been hunting them down ever since. And since the UTG’s presence isn’t as big out in the Outer Colonies, that’s where they escaped to.”

I blinked, ”Is there a chance that… There might be safe havens that were created for them?”

”Ah yeah, I heard of that rumour too. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true but there is a law in place that anyone caught harbouring an illegal AI will also face prosecution so if anyone is hiding them, they won’t be announcing it to everyone around them.”

Makes sense…

He gave me a pointed look, ”So… Are you actually looking for them?”

”Well, not really? I only just realised their existence after all,” I told him diplomatically.

”Hmm, hmm… Well, don’t worry about me, it’s not like I would rat you out even if you were. I have no love for the Inner Colonies and if you ask me, I would say that we’re being too needlessly restrictive on the regulations for AI. Things could be so much better if we choose to embrace some things instead of trying to keep them at an arm’s length, you know?”

He then looked up at where his wife was working on the floor above, ”Or in my case… Four arms. Ahahaha!”

I chuckled alongside him before asking, ”So you were talking about some contact?”

”Oh right! If you want to get an android for yourself, I’d recommend SynLife Corp. I’ll send you their contact and you can tell them that I was the one who recommended you. They are good people.”

”Ah, your guy that’s fixing the DJ showed me their site earlier. I’ve looked through their stock and it’s honestly quite impressive.”

”As he should. I dare say that they are the best in the market and I have no complaints about the androids they make.”

”That’s a pretty big praise for a company that you seem to have only bought a single product from…”

”Oh, you didn’t realise huh? Some of our bouncers here are also androids.”

I blinked at him, ”Wait, really?”

”Yeah. Look for the little metallic ring around their necks. Those are the androids.”

Oh, I think I saw one of them earlier standing near the door. I thought he was just some really dedicated bouncer because he was keeping really still without complaint. Guess now I know why he was able to do that.

Ragbar then took a look at his personal terminal, ”Oh, ten more minutes to opening. I better go get ready then. Go ahead and get yourself a drink, Tera. I’ll comp your first one!”

He ran off, leaving me on my own once more.

First drink is free huh… Don’t mind if I do then~