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

Chapter 1032: The Bugs Are Adapting

I was expecting things to change drastically or something after that meeting but... Things seemed to remain roughly the same... On the surface at least.

There were still Mercs who were going down onto the planet surface to launch expeditions to clear out nests and even the Reapers had moved on to the next nest as well.

One thing that changed was the fact that we got hired by the military directly as, according to the Admiral, ’Special Consultants’.

I was in the war room of the Carrier with the Admiral alongside several of his officers and I could tell from the looks on some of the officers that they did not appreciate me being there.

Though none of them said anything which I attribute part of the reason was because Freyja was still with me and accompanied me wherever I went.

I believe it was a case where these officers have a bias towards Mercs and see Mercs as inferior to themselves.

Not really that surprising since I’ve already heard that there were such rivalries between the military and Mercenaries that started long, long ago.

The good thing was that the majority of both sides were still fine with each other since during the AI Rebellion, humanity had to work together to survive and it did not matter if the one fighting beside you was a human, an alien, the military or a Merc.

I heard that it was really bad before the rebellion where the people from the military and Mercenaries would constantly compete and butt heads with each other whenever they met. Now it was way better than before and cooperation came pretty easily.

I did note that pretty much all of the military personnel who did not look happy with me were on the younger side while the older ones gave me looks of respect.

One of them even complimented me and my crew on being the one to take out the most number of nests so far.

And that was precisely the reason why they had hired me along as a special consultant apparently.

At first, I didn’t want to do it but... The Admiral told me they were going to pay me a contractual fee of sixty million Credits for the duration of the contract which would last for a month or until the planet has been liberated, whichever comes first.

Additionally, for every nest that were cleared under my direct involvement, I would also get paid another million Credits for it.

Even if we just slacked around here and did the bare minimum, we would be earning two million Credits a day. Split amongst the entire crew, each of us would be getting around two hundred and twenty thousand Credits a day.

I would be stupid to pass up this chance.

The fact that they were willing to pay this much must mean they really, really, really want this planet to be liberated and will not tolerate failure. Which made sense since retreating from this planet would be admitting defeat a second time and that can’t be good PR for the military if that were to happen.

Also, they have already invested a lot of resources, time and effort in the planet and the base we had helped establish was already expanding into a small colony at this point. They definitely do not want to give it up at this point.

I’ll still do my best to help, of course, since I do want this operation to succeed.

Partially because Nerissa needed this colonisation to succeed or she would be forced to return to her family and I pity her a little... And partially because I’m kind of curious to see how the colonisation of a planet will look like.

For now, I was called here so that the Admiral could have me discuss things about the bugs with the officers to decide their next course of action.

He nodded at me as I entered, "Captain Tera. Thank you for coming. Please, join us."

One of the officers shifted aside to give me space at the war table where a holographic projection of the planet’s surface was being projected.

I gave the officers near me a nod in greeting and the older man who had shifted away for me nodded in return while the younger female officer on the other side just narrowed her eyes and turned back to the table without acknowledging me.

I didn’t make a fuss about it and addressed the admiral directly, "Admiral. What do you need from me?"

He tapped on the control panel on the table, "We have read your reports, which I have to say are very detailed and well presented, and I would like to share some of the observations made by both our own units and other Mercs. Perhaps you might help us shed some light on the issue."

Right, the report was written by Vier and Yumiko so I really have to thank them later.

The holographic projection in front of us expanded and zoomed in on a specific part of the planet where it showed two valleys running parallel to each other that looked to be especially deep.

"There was a nest in each of these valleys and a Mercenary assault team had gone down to exterminate the bugs. These were expected to be easy marks because the valley led directly into the bug Queen’s nest without needing to move through tunnel systems so it should just have been a straight drop down into the valley to blow up the Queen and return back to do the same to the other nest. So far, we have observed that each nest functions independently of one another. They are not hostile to each other but they do not come to each other’s aid as well. A different bug nest could be attacked just a mile away and no bugs from the other nest would send bugs to help them deal with the invaders. However..."

He tapped on the console again and the hologram changed to show a ship flying into the valley and hovering in between the valley walls, dropping several Mercs who flew down to, I assume, commence their assault directly on the bug Queen to kill it.

But then what looked like a wave of bugs came from the other nest to climb over their side of the valley before dropping down on top of the ship, bringing it down to crash into the other nest before they worked together with the bugs in the other nest to swarm the Mercs that had gone down into the valley.

None of them stood a chance and the entire team was wiped out.

"That’s not even the weirdest part. This was what we managed to recover after another team went in to clear that very same nest," The Admiral continued.

Another scream popped up and it showed a video recording of another group of Mercs fighting through the bugs inside that valley, this time with their ship flying high above the valley and bombarding the bugs from above as air support.

They had also brought in combat mechs and even automated turrets that were dropped from their ship to clear out the bugs before they finally made their way to the Queen’s nest and... They were standing in an empty cavern.

The crystals were still there and the eggs were also there... But there was no Queen.

I frowned, "Does that mean... The Queen relocated?"

The Admiral tapped on the console once more and another screen popped up, showing the same Mercenary team going down the valley again, which I assume they were advancing on the other nest on the opposite side.

The same thing happened where they fought their way through the bugs and made their way down to the Queen’s chambers, expecting to find the Queen there but... Just like the other nest, the heart of the nest was completely empty.

No Queen bug at all, just the eggs and the crystals.

I frowned, "Did the Queen of both nests... Run away?"

"That’s what we believe to have happened... The only problem with that is the Mercenary team who were aiming for the clearing of these two nests had been conducting surveillance on them from a very early time. They had sent in drones to scout and the drone footage showed the Queens were inside their nests before they started their operation. But when they started and fought their way in, the Queens were no longer there. And yet, their surveillance showed no Queen bug had left the nest from above ground, but the nest did not have any other exits underground either. So where could they have gone?"

So we have disappearing Queens now... Don’t tell me they could somehow transport themselves away when the nest is in danger? There’s no way right?

But even if they could... How would they even leave? Could they dig a hole out of their chambers and then seal it back up so perfectly that no one could find where they had gone?

Great... And here I thought we would just be slaughtering mindless bugs...