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

Chapter 529: Thereʼs An Election Coming

As Ries had said, there were a lot of Exo-Knight models… But I severely underestimated just how many there were.

And here I thought that the last time we were shopping for a new ship had prepared me to be bombarded with choices.

But it seems like they went even further with Exo-Knights here…

There were specialised models and there were also general models. Then within those categories, you have land bound Exo-Knights which are meant to be used primarily on ground battles, air based Exo-Knights which are meant to be operated in the air with an atmosphere and of course space type Exo-Knights which can be used in the vacuum of space.

And within those categories, thereʼs also more sub-categories like the land bound Exo-Knights having different types of legs including tank threads, wheels, spider legs and even centaur legs.

I also realised that there were some that I would classify as mechs with the larger upper body and simple walkers as their bottom half which was exactly like those mech games in my old universe.

Saying that you would be spoiled for choice while shopping for an Exo-Knight was an understatement… It honestly felt a little overwhelming.

I guess I should be looking at the space types but thereʼs also a whole bunch of choices in that category as well.

In the end, I just decided to leave it for now since thereʼs just way too much to consider right now.

If you think that this wasnʼt a lot, Iʼm just going to point out that this was just the base models for the Exo-Knights. There were also other components including types of shields, types of energy generators, types and placements of boosters and then thereʼs the weapons too.

And thatʼs all mostly the technical stuff because thereʼs even the type of cockpit and you could modify and customise the entire interior as well.

On the topic of customisation, thereʼs of course customisation for the exterior too which… Well… Thereʼs some questionable customisations like adding boobs to the Exo-Knight.

Iʼm not even going to comment on that.

Yeah, it feels like if I actually wanted to get this, itʼs going to take an entire day for me to even deal with it…

Then, my saviour came in the form of my dearest Ries.

”Boss, if you tell me what you want to do with the Exo-Knight, I could help you find a suitable one! Heck, I might even be able to customise one myself for you!”

I blinked at her, ”Youʼre not going to tell me that you can build an entire Exo-Knight by yourself, can you?”

”I never tried but… Iʼve already managed to build a set of Power Armour anyway so how hard can it be, right?”

”I donʼt think the two of them are the same but… I guess itʼs better than nothing…”

Ries had even brought out her personal terminal in preparation to note it down and she was looking at me with a sparkle in her eyes.

”Well… Err… Where do I even begin? Iʼm kind of just thinking that the Exo-Knight is like a bigger power armour but in space, you know? Iʼm kind of thinking itʼs more combat focused as compared to my Verlandi, if that makes sense.”

The Verlandi wasnʼt the best combat ship since the ship was designed to be a versatile ship instead of a specialised one and it would be nice to have something that I can use specifically for combat.

Ries quickly typed into her personal terminal, ”Mmm~ I see, I see… So we need a combat type Exo-Knight… Hmm… Ah. Sorry Boss…”

”Eh? Why are you apologising?”

”Well… I realise that I would have a better time narrowing down my search if I know your piloting style… And thatʼs something that we could only tell after you have gone through the pilot test…”

I raised an eyebrow, ”Wouldnʼt my way of piloting the Verlandi be enough?”

She shook her head, ”Theyʼre different… But at least I have narrowed down the search for the eventuality, Boss!”

Hmm… I guess that means depending on how I do in the test for my pilotʼs license, it will determine what kind of Exo-Knight Ries would think is suitable for me.

Well… That will take a while for that to happen in that case…

I leaned back in my chair and sighed, ”How long more before we can actually deal with those pirates directly?”

Lea looked up from where she was seated, ”If I may be allowed to make an estimate, Mistress… I believe we might be able to head there after your competition with Valiea.”

”Oh? And what makes you think so?”

She placed her personal terminal on the table and spun it around so that I could see it.

On the screen was a news article with the headlines ʼCall For Station Administrator Elections In Next Week!ʼ.

I blinked at it before scrolling down to read further.

From what I understand from the article, it seems like they were calling for replacing the current Station Administrators due to what happened in the last two rings. The cause for such a move was because some Station Administrators started accusing each other of mismanagement which led to such a disaster happening and Station Administrators who are unable to prevent such a thing should not be allowed to remain in office.

Thus, they were holding an election next week to decide who should remain and who should be replaced.

I looked up at Lea, ”How does this tell you that the issue will be solved next week though?”

”No doubt, the Station Administrators directly in charge of the bottom rings would try to solve the problem as soon as possible to avoid being voted out of their positions. Not only that, since everyoneʼs position was being questioned, there might be other Station Administrators moving to solve the problems to claim credit and prevent themselves from being voted out as well. At this point, they might be fighting with each other trying to solve this problem before anyone else.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”Really? But wouldnʼt it be more sensible for them to form groups amongst themselves to gather the majority of the votes and kick out people they donʼt like? I would think that people in those positions would rather do that than actually solve the problem.”

Lea then reached forward and slid her finger across her personal terminal, showing me another article.

ʼFire At Saratonia Estate Attributed To Gangsʼ.

Ah…

So the article says that they have reasons to believe that the gangs on the first and second ring were the ones behind the fire. More specifically, they snuck their way up to the top and then burned that estate down.

The article didnʼt give a motive for the burning but it does say that the people living in the upper rings were furious about this and were obviously blaming the Station Administrators for allowing such a thing to happen.

”Iʼm assuming that the people in the upper rings are the ones that will be voting for that election?” I asked.

Lea nodded, ”The Station Administrators are voted in by the top people. Itʼs common knowledge here that if those people are not happy with you, you will not stand a chance of winning.”

”Right… So basically the rich are in charge of this station huh? The middle class and lower class people have no vote?”

”That is correct, Mistress.”

”And everyone is fine with that?”

”As ironic as it sounds, it seems like while they are definitely taking advantage of the system to enrich themselves more, the wealth they gain flows back to the people below anyway so it also benefits everyone else. Thatʼs why people are fine with the status quo and would rather just keep things as they are.”

Huh… Iʼm not sure if thatʼs a good thing but then again, I donʼt live here so I wouldnʼt know if thatʼs a good thing or not anyway…

I looked down at the article, ”So I guess the other Station Administrators would be trying to appeal to the voters with some kind of big success in dealing with the gangs in the lower rings huh? Iʼm assuming our raid is also tied to this and thatʼs why we were paid that much?”

”I believe that is the case, Mistress. Our client would also be in danger of losing his position if he doesnʼt get some results as well. A raid like what we did would definitely be a significant enough achievement to at least keep him in his position.”

”Yeah… And several Mercs died from this raid though.”

Ries scoffed, ”Like they would care. I am willing to bet that the news reporting this would say something like… ʼHero Administrator leads daring raid on smuggling ringʼ or something like that. Those rich bastards sitting in their little mansions would just clap their hands at that and never bother reading more into it.”

And I donʼt doubt that.

”So does that mean that we might not even have any more jobs after today?” I asked.

Lea chuckled, ”Fufu~ If Iʼm not wrong, he might even take this chance to take out some of the competition so we might actually be getting more jobs if weʼre asking for it.”

Hmm… I guess that could happen too.

Well, as long as weʼre getting paid well I guess?