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

Chapter 956: Stop Talking Bug

Did that thing just speak?

It did, didn’t it? I wasn’t hearing things right? That bug definitely spoke words just now?

”Whaayyy... Haft... Yew... Come...” It spoke again, its words coming out weird like it wasn’t used to speaking.

It’s like it was trying to learn to speak to communicate for the first time and it was obviously not used to doing that.

I frowned at it, ”You can speak.”

The bug turned to face me fully and repeated the question again, ”Wrryyy... Have... Youuuu... Come?”

”Can you even understand me if I answered the question?”

There was a pause like it was comprehending my question before it spoke again, ”Yessshhh...”

I’m actually not sure if it really understood or it was just saying that word because it was an expected response to a question.

”How did you learn how to speak?” I asked.

There was another pause before the bug clacked its mandibles again, ”Whyyyyy... Have... Youuuuuu... Come...”

This time its words were clearer than before, though it still sounded a little garbled slightly.

It was learning in real time I believe...

It took a step towards me and its head tilted at an odd angle as its mandibles clacked again before its garbled voice came out again.

”Why... Have... Yo--”

I fired a slug round and blew its head off, watching as the bug fell forward with a soft thud.

What? You thought I would just let it continue to keep trying to talk to me or something? It was clearly stalling for time and probably even trying to use me as some kind of learning material or something.

Who knows? The next thing it might do is send some other bug and start preaching about bureaucracy and trying to claim that they have some right over this planet and want to sue us or something.

Also, for the record, I know for a fact that the bugs were the initial aggressors here because the first group of colonists tried to make contact with them and got slaughtered for it. Then the bugs went on to swarm the rest of the colonists to kill them so technically... This is us retaliating.

I turned back to look at the dogs and they definitely did not seem like they had a problem with me killing that bug either.

I tightened my grip on my halberd and nodded at them before leading the way forward, stepping past the corpse of the bug to peer over the edge.

The tunnel seemed to have stopped at the very edge of a deep chasm and the drop seemed to just go all the way down to the darkness beyond with no end in sight.

Looking to the left and right, the chasm extended as far as the eye could see and I didn’t see any other path that we could take aside from going down into the chasm.

I narrowed my eyes at the chasm and I’m not sure if I was imagining it... But within the darkness, it looked like there might be movement though I could not say for sure.

Just as I was wondering if I should just jump down there by myself since the dogs wouldn’t be able to follow me, I heard a skittering sound coming from my right.

I snapped my head in that direction right on time to see one of the bugs skittering out of sight around the wall of the cliff face.

I frowned at the sight and motioned for the dogs to stay as I floated away from the ledge to inspect the area I saw the bug disappear to.

It was then I realised there was another tunnel along the cliff face and there were obviously tracks that showed the bugs had been travelling from that tunnel up to the ledge en masse before which meant they had withdrawn into that tunnel and not into the chasm below.

A part of me wondered if this was somehow designed by the bugs to hide their nest from intruders or if it was just something that was formed naturally that they took advantage of.

Nevertheless... I don’t think the dogs can crawl along the walls so they shouldn’t be able to follow me through to the next part of the tunnels...

Unless...

I stretched out my hands and concentrated on the walls of the cliff, focusing my telekinesis on the parts that were separating the tunnel from the ledge.

I pulled back my hands and the entire chunk of earth was ripped out from the cliff face, forming a crude corridor that was accessible to the ledge as I tossed the chunk of earth into the chasm below.

The broken pieces of earth fell and disappeared into the darkness below, the fall being so deep that I didn’t even hear the impact until a few seconds later as a very soft thud reverberating around the walls.

I floated back to the dogs and they gave a happy bark before following me down the newly formed slope that led to the new tunnel that I found.

The tunnels here were still relatively big but definitely not as big as the one we had just come from.

But somehow, this one definitely felt like it had been dug out instead of being a tunnel that was naturally formed.

And the tunnel felt a little... Wet.

By that, I meant that the walls looked slick with precipitation and there was also water dripping down from the ceiling above to fill the air with the sound of water droplets that reverberated around the tunnel.

As we got deeper, I heard wet squelching sounds coming from up ahead and I got my weapons ready as I proceeded deeper into the tunnel with the dogs following behind me.

The tunnel eventually expanded into another cavern and I came to a stop when I saw what was inside the cavern.

What looked like eggs sacs and some kind of incubation tubes dotted all around the room, making this as some kind of nursery or something for the bugs.

I frowned at the sight of it right as a wet squelch sound came from further down the cavern and I spotted something moving along a series of tubes that were stuck to the ceiling.

It eventually found its way down to another side of the wall and another egg sac rolled out from the tube’s opening, prompting another bug that was smaller in size to crawl out of a crevice to carry the egg and place it on an empty spot in the cavern before scurrying away.

I tracked the tubes to find that it was linked to some kind of cylindrical, fleshy containers that were quite large in size and all spread out around the cavern.

I went up to one and sliced it open, revealing some kind of large, fleshy bug that was suspended inside with an enlarged thorax that seemed to contain a whole bunch of eggs with a tube attached to the end, leading up to the incubation tubes.

This was not only a nursery but a breeding ground... And it seems like they could just keep laying the eggs repeatedly without end and each of these containers had one of these egg laying bugs inside them.

And here I thought they had some kind of queen that was laying the eggs as the leader of the race or something... Didn’t expect they had dedicated egg layers for them.

As though on cue, one of the egg pods made a sound and I turned to see it cracking open, the top of the egg bursting out for a humanoid looking bug to stretch itself out of the egg shell, its carapace sleek with the fluids from the egg.

It took me a moment to realise that the bug was similar to the one that had tried to speak to me and it slowly crawled out of the egg already fully formed as an adult to turn its head to me, its mandibles clacking noisily.

”Le... Lea... Leave...” It clacked, its voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard.

Hmm... For it to also be able to talk like that... Perhaps these bugs function on a hivemind of sorts?

I turned to face the bug and rested my halberd on my shoulder, ”I don’t suppose you could show me the way to your leader?”

The bug shook slightly as it took another step towards me, ”Le... Leave... Not... Wel... Welcome...”

I’m really wondering where they were learning how to speak from... Were they just watching us and then learning through observation? Or...

Or did they consume the past humans that had been here and learned the language through consuming them?

I looked at the bug that was still trying to advance towards me and still trying to repeat its order of asking me to leave.

Hmm... Should I report this after all or...

I didn’t really get to decide because a black tentacle shot out from my chest and struck the bug in the abdomen.

The tentacle then expanded and wrapped itself around the bug before swallowing it up and pulling it back into my chest, the entire bug disappearing in between my boobs.

I definitely did not imagine the crunching sounds coming from my boobs as Renata ate the bug.

Oh well... I guess exterminatus it is then...