Chapter 1022: Bug Extermination Rotation

This was my first time working with another Mercenary group in such a scale and capacity.

I was honestly more focused on watching how this particular group worked instead of paying attention to the tunnels and bugs around us.

They had separated into different teams and each team had someone playing a role within it as they covered each other while we advanced through the tunnels.

Nayek was leading from the middle, not because she was using her team mates as meat shields but because she could see everyone and give directions quickly and accurately depending on the situation around us.

“Elbar! More coming from the left! Pull back and reload! Jenny! Take point with the machinegun and cover Elbar’s squad! Milo, get your team set up on that rock over there. Take out the big one at the back!”

All of the Reapers moved with precision, carrying out the orders she gave out quickly.

The bug swarm came charging at us but no one showed any fear as they stood their ground and fired at the horde of bugs.

Amongst this squad in particular, there were four people in Power Armour and two others who were carrying heavy weaponry strapped to a power pack, all of them easily keeping any bugs at bay before they could even come close.

As for my group, we were held in reserve and followed behind them silently.

At first I thought that they were really just going to clear through the entire nest with us hanging back behind them. But Yumiko just told me that they were simply showing us what they were capable of as a benchmark for us to reference.

Basically, this was Nayek telling us ‘we can do this. We expect you to do better. So when it’s your turn to show us, don’t let us down’.

Well… We already intend to show off a little anyway so there’s no problem with this.

Which was why I was paying more attention to them than the bugs to begin with.

I watched as two of the people in Power Armour moved up in front of the group and started moving down the horde of bugs with the cannons attached to their arms and the shoulder mounted mortars that lobbed mortars into the middle of the horde.

The other two Power Armour guys moved behind and their companions went up to them to swap out the backpack on the Power Armour that contained their ammo reserves, giving them a fresh bag of ammunition.

Hmm… I’m a little concerned about that since Ries, Patricia and myself did not bring any spare ammo for our Power Armour.

In my case, I didn’t really need to since Renata was literally the one feeding the ammo so as long as she had liquid matter, she could just keep making more ammo for me. In Ries’s and Patricia’s cases though… They intend to just switch to melee weapons if their ammunition ran out so they could not really just waste their ammo however they like.

Well, at least we aren’t expected to clear this entire nest by ourselves anyway so we should be fine.

We continued advancing through the tunnel until we reached an intersection where the tunnel split into three paths moving in three different directions.

There were no bugs here but it was clear these tunnels were made by them.

Nayek paused before turning back to me, “Tera… Which way?”

I stepped forward to take a look at each of the tunnels.

One of them seemed to curve upwards so I don’t think that was the one as it was most likely leading to another entrance on the surface.

The second one seemed to move in a relatively straight line before turning around a bend which led me to believe that it was simply a connecting tunnel to another tunnel and not the way deeper into the nest.

The third one was leading at an angle down deeper into the earth and with my scanners, I could see that there were fresh tracks from the bugs leading from within, which should belong to the small horde that the Reapers had just cleared a few moments ago.

“Here,” I pointed to the third tunnel.

She looked down at the tunnel I pointed at, not saying anything at first before turning back to me, “Are you sure?”

I wanted to ask her why she would even ask me the directions and then ask me if I was sure right after that? If she didn’t even trust me to point out the correct direction to begin with, why bother asking me?

Nevertheless, I answered her simply, “I am sure.”

“I see… Could you and your group lead the way for the next section? I believe my team could use a break.”

Ah… So she’s trying to get us to switch positions as casually as possible I see.

I nodded at my girls and we moved forward to take point with me leading at the front.

We trekked a good distance deeper into the tunnel without any incident before my HUD suddenly highlighted a red outline on the ceiling, showing one of those bugs with blades for arms clinging on the ceiling.

Thanks Renata.

“Above us,” I warned, right before pointing the autocannon strapped to my arm at it and firing.

The kinetic shell blasted through its carapace and its corpse crashed onto the ground with a soft thud.

As though that was a trigger, the top of the tunnel ahead of us suddenly had loose rocks falling off from above, revealing hidden nooks that were hiding more of those bugs within them and they started scurrying their way towards us.

And if that wasn’t enough, some parts of the ground were also pushed aside to reveal smaller tunnels where another horde of bugs started crawling out to attack us.

It’s a good thing we spotted them earlier or else they would have appeared in the middle of our group instead of in front of us.

My girls and I formed a defensive line as we started firing at the bugs both above and below, which I then realised there were a lot more bugs coming from above than below.

“Focus fire on the ones above! Yumiko, Freyja! Take care of the ones on the ground!” I ordered.

My girls moved to obey just as quickly as the Reapers did. All of us started shredding through the bugs that were climbing their way towards us on the ceiling while Yumiko and Freyja ran towards the bugs on the ground without hesitation.

I saw Yumiko shoot a glance at my dog and for a moment, I thought she had some kind of connection with Freyja since they were both dogs but…

Freyja growled at her and Yumiko actually growled back before dashing ahead.

Err… I don’t know why… But for some reason, I could tell that Freyja had taunted Yumiko as if saying that she could kill more bugs than her and Yumiko took up that challenge…

I don’t know if I should be happy or concerned that Yumiko did not look scared by Freyja since she would usually be terrified of her under any other circumstances…

The two of them clashed against the bugs, Yumiko’s swords slicing them into pieces as a shadowing blur and leaving streaks of slashes along the path, cutting the bugs into numerous slices.

On the other side, Freyja was basically doing the same thing as she dashed through the crowd, slicing the bugs she passed by with her claws while also ramming through the bugs that stood in her way.

All I could think of at that moment was how I needed to bathe Freyja after this.

Even with this many bugs coming towards us, with our combined firepower, we could still advance despite them. Especially since Freyja and Yumiko were cutting through the bugs that would have blocked our path.

As though figuring out that this trap had been a complete failure, the bugs turned and retreated away without looking back, running deeper into the tunnel and no doubt to either set up another trap or to consolidate their numbers and prepare for another wave to try and push us back.

With the path clear again, Nayek came up to me right as Yumiko and Freyja returned, the contrast between them was obvious to see where Freyja was coated with entrails and blood of the bugs while Yumiko remained clean and pristine.

“Impressive…” Nayek praised, pointedly not looking in the direction of Freyja. “I can see how you managed to clear out a bug nest with just your team alone. Your subordinates are pretty impressive, not to mention the quality of your gear too.”

Even though her face was hidden behind the mask, I could see that she was eyeing the weapons on my Power Armour.

She’s not planning on stealing this, is she?

Before I could wonder if that was really the case, she turned to shout at her men again, “Alright, break’s over! Assault Team A, take point again!”

Right, of course she wouldn’t. Anyway, we should be approaching the heart of the nest soon.

Captain’s Log:

Hmmm… I’m actually a little worried now that we might not have brought enough firepower for this.