What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company? Chapter 1037: Experiments Down Here?

My girls watched my back as I let the dogs lead the way ahead of me, using the map that General Rourke had given me to look for the intersection we were supposed to reach.

In between our destination and us, we would have to pass through two other intersections which were the sites of other outposts meant to hold those positions and act as supply and defensive bases for the military’s advance into the tunnels.

We have several of the military supply drones with us as well, which they would serve to resupply those outposts assuming the people there were still alive.

I had to let the dogs walk a fixed distance ahead of me so that my girls felt comfortable enough to walk closer to me, which I felt was a necessary sacrifice since I wanted to talk to them.

"So... What do you girls think about this side job?" I asked, trusting the dogs to spot any bugs that might be around us.

Amber looked around, "Well... I’m just thinking that we better get paid well for this."

Same here, Amber. Same here.

Yumiko had other thoughts, however.

"I don’t like it, Mistress... There’s definitely something weird going on."

I turned to look back at her though I did not stop walking, "Why do you say so?"

Yumiko pursed her lips in thought, "There were a few things that didn’t make sense... The first thing being the fact that a General is even on the front lines. That’s definitely weird to begin with. If this was a normal combat scenario, the general should be overseeing the entire operation from the Carrier alongside the Admiral so that they can coordinate orbital strikes. Not only that, it’s way too much to assign a General to deal with a single nest since there’s no doubt other assault groups that would be dealing with the smaller nests around the planet. Him being here would mean that those other expeditions are left out."

I paused for a moment to think about it, "Mmm... But he did say that this place was supposed to serve as their main base of operations though? Maybe he’s here to personally oversee that and then he will command the rest of the teams from this location?"

"That still doesn’t make sense. If that was the case, he should be commanding from the ship first and only descend to this base after it has been secured. Why would you risk the General by sending him to a combat zone?"

Well... I want to say that he would probably command the troops better if he was at the location directly... And since the actual fighting was happening underground in the tunnels anyway, he wouldn’t really be in danger.

But then again... The bugs might still be able to push their way out of the tunnels which, as far as I know, almost happened here. So it was still an unnecessary risk when the General could just direct the troops at another place instead.

"What are you suggesting then, Yumiko?" I asked.

"I believe the military is doing something here but doesn’t want anyone else to know what they are doing."

Eh? Doing something? Like what?

Ries let out a sigh before I could ask what was on my mind, "They couldn’t even wait until the planet is secure before doing it huh?"

Mara also shook her head apathetically, "I should be impressed by it... But if I had to guess... Someone must have got a hold of the corpses and perhaps... They figured out that the bugs have the physiology to allow it to evolve or mutate incredibly quickly and decided to try and use the military to set up a place where they could experiment with the bugs here."

I turned back to my girls, "Wait... Seriously? In an active warzone?"

"Wouldn’t be the first time, Mistress," Lea answered me, looking like she had expected something like this. "It was thanks to this that humans managed to adapt quickly to the war with The Confederation and forced them to go from the offensive to the defensive even before Psionics came to completely push them back and force a ceasefire out of them."

Humans really are crazy in this universe it seems...

Patricia clasped her hands together, "Umm... We’ll... We’ll be fine right? They... They wouldn’t... They wouldn’t just send us there... Just to kill us... Right?"

Amber smirked and let a small flame dance between her fingertips, "Oh, I would like to see them try~ After all... This deep underground... No one would know if things just... Suddenly combusted, right? Hehehe~"

"So what? Are we expecting to find some kind of secret laboratory down here?" I asked.

Yumiko nodded her head slowly, "I would actually be more surprised if we don’t find one. The General was even very specific in telling us to leave the area if we found that outpost to be completely destroyed. No doubt he wouldn’t want us digging through its remains and finding out just what exactly they have been working on in that laboratory."

I was reminded of that research facility where we found traces of kids being used to awaken Psionic powers but ended up creating monsters instead... And if we’re not wrong, that place, as well as the one that Amber had escaped from, also had ties to the military too.

Should have known something was fishy about this mission from the very beginning...

Oh well... The good thing is that they only require us to check whether the outpost was still standing and to provide aid if it was. I don’t think they would execute us once we got there since... I hate to point this out but... I have a hundred and one dogs on my side.

I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want these dogs to be running around without somebody watching over them either and I dare say that a hundred and one loose dogs is probably worse than having me find out whatever experiment they have down here.

We moved in silence for a while until we came across the first intersection where the next outpost should have been.

I say ’should have’ because like the main intersection we had just come from, the place was completely wrecked and there were only torn up bodies and broken bodies remaining.

I could tell that the soldiers here at least died fighting with how most of the dead bodies also had dead bugs surrounding them and every one of them were holding weapons in their hands.

It’s a shame but I suppose we were too late to save these guys.

There were a few bugs that had been left behind within the outpost and they were either just left there to keep watch or they were expecting to ambush anyone who came back here to check the outpost.

Either way, it did not matter as my dogs sniffed them out and immediately tore them to shreds without mercy.

I got to watch two of the dogs bite on both ends of a bug and tear it into half like a toy and another dog simply pouncing on top of the bug to hold it down before it tore into the back of the bug with its jaws.

By the time my group reached the middle of the intersection, all the bugs around were already dead.

We continued past the intersection to move to the next one, still keeping an eye out for bugs since the fact that the previous outpost was destroyed might also mean there were more of them up ahead.

Sure enough, we ran into another group of bugs that had been lying in wait in the crevices but got sniffed out by the dogs again.

We joined in this time and shot down the bugs that tried to crawl up on us from the sides of the wall and the ceiling, trusting the dogs to take care of all the bugs that were on the ground like before.

It didn’t take long for us to clear them out since it didn’t look like there were a lot of them to begin with anyway and we could advance again after that.

I kept my flashlight shining down the tunnel to keep it illuminated, until I saw another ray of light shining from around the bend in the tunnels which was filled with the corpses of bugs.

We kept our guns up and the dogs also slowed down their advance, stopping at the bend where the light came from and sniffing at the ground.

I got them to wait for me as I peeked around the corner, only to see a very solid looking giant metal door staring back at me with turrets mounted on top of it and towers with searchlights shining down at the tunnel.

It seemed like the outpost was actually still standing, surprisingly.

I stepped out from around the corner, expecting the people in the outpost to call out to me but...

The turrets immediately locked onto me and started firing.

What the fuck?!