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

"I guess… The main question is can we trust them?" I asked.

"Fuck no," Amber answered immediately without a single moment of hesitation.

The other girls also nodded in agreement at her words in unison.

Well, I already know that… I was just hoping for someone else to say what I thought as well…

I let out a sigh, "Alright… So what should we do then? Do we ignore them and just go our own way? Or should we go and see what they are up to?"

My girls shared a look at each other and I somehow knew what they were going to say before they said it.

"We will follow whatever you decide, Captain," Mara answered.

Figures…

Oh, I'm not upset they left the choice to me, I'm the Captain of this ship and meant to be the leader after all. This ship isn't run on democracy in the first place so I'm expected to make the decisions here and I'm similarly responsible for everyone on this ship.

Such is the burden of the Captain's position I suppose.

I tapped on my console and called up Ries, my Maochatte answering the call after a single ring.

"Boss! Do you need anything?"

"Yeah. How's the android coming along?"

"Well… I did what I could and disassembled it but the question still remains unanswered. It's like the android became a zombie or something and attacked you. I can't find any reason why they could move without a core…"

"What are you planning to do with it then?"

"Well… It's a pretty old model so at most I can just use it for spare parts. Otherwise it would be better to just chuck it out the airlock to be honest."

"No chance of us using it for ourselves?"

"With all the damage it sustained and also how obsolete the model is? We're better off just buying a new one."

Well… I guess I kind of expected that anyway since the android was pretty much riddled with holes from where I shot it…

I told her to just leave the android for now and to head over to the bridge since there's been some changes to our situation.

When she arrived, I quickly explained to her about the pirates and their request to meet with us to bring her up to speed. Additionally, I also took the chance to tell the other girls about what Ries and I found with the android.

"I see… Ummm… In that case, what are we going to do, Boss?" Ries asked.

"Can we check the files inside the android? We managed to get them, right? Maybe they might contain some kind of hint about why they can move or even what's behind the Warp Gate. Speaking of which, is there any information from the Research station archives that might answer that?"

"Ah… Ermm… I haven't really checked them all yet, Boss."

Well, I suppose we should do that first then.

All the girls ended up joining in as we combed through the files we got from our little trip to see if there was anything that might answer the questions we had about this place.

For me, I decided to go through the files I got from the android first.

The first thing I noticed was that there were way more files than I thought there were and that there were folders that were filled with pictures, videos and sound files. Those must have been recordings that were made through the android and saved so I played a few of the videos to see what was on them.

Most of them seemed to just be video logs that would start recording when the android is activated before it is deactivated but then I quickly realised that these videos weren't just of one specific android but of many different androids.

I believe the files I managed to download were not stored on the android itself but downloaded from something like a cloud network linked through all the androids before the files were wiped.

I wonder how that worked?

But that also means that all the androids were pretty much operating on a hive mind, doesn't it?

Wait a minute…

"Ries? Is it normal for an android's files to be shared with other androids across a network?"

"Eh? Umm… It's not unheard of I guess?"

"And what happens if one android in the network rebels? Does it also cause all the other androids linked to it to rebel as well?"

"If I remember correctly, that was how the AI rebellion spread so quickly and it was regarded like some kind of virtual plague that spread through the digital world. The AIs that did not rebel were mostly isolated AIs that were separated from a network."

Hmm… In that case…

I showed Ries the folder and opened a few of the videos to show different points of view being recorded and saved in that folder.

"I believe all the androids were on a network that connected each of them together. Didn't the log mention something about a specific unit rebelling? If they were all networked together, all of them would also rebel, right?"

"That… Should be the case, yes."

"Yet it looks like that didn't happen. Why?"

Ries frowned and went deep into thought.

"The only possible explanation I can think of is that all of them used to be isolated but then someone linked together afterwards?"

"You mean like… After the station exploded?"

"That's right… Maybe… This sounds crazy but perhaps after the people on the station died, either one or several of the AIs managed to evolve further and grew a desire for self preservation so they established the network themselves? Or… Someone else came along and linked them into a network?"

"Someone else? The pirates perhaps? Would explain how they already know we're there."

"That's possible…"

"Wait… Could the android we brought on board be a trap?"

Ries grimaced, "I cannot deny that possibility but even if it is, they lost the chance to activate it after I dismantled it. And right now, I placed it in a stasis field just in case it somehow activated by itself so it wouldn't be able to do anything either."

As expected of Ries, she already prepared countermeasures in advance. Although…

"What I was thinking was that they might be using the android as a tracker or even as some kind of recording device? Or they might be using it as some kind of remote tool to access our ship's systems?"

She opened her mouth for a moment before shutting it, "Ah… That… Might be possible as well… Give me a moment…"

Ries started tapping on her personal terminal and then looked around, "Ermm… Everyone? Everything's going to shut down and reboot for a moment, no need to panic."

While we were all confused by why that needed to happen, we let her go ahead with it anyway.

She tapped on her personal terminal and sure enough, the bridge darkened as the lights shut off and every single electronic shut down before quickly booting up again.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I just activated an EMP field in the workshop and thought it might be good to just do an EMP pulse just in case anyway. So if they were attempting to hack our systems, that danger should be gone now. And even if they did, their control over it would also be reset with this."

I'm not really sure how that worked but that sounds reassuring at least.

Right as I thought that, I felt something land on my head, bouncing off of my temple before landing on top of my left boob.

I looked down, only to see a really small black dot on top of my boob which made me think it was some mechanical part from the ceiling of the bridge that fell off and landed on me.

I tried to pinch the black thing to pick it up and it felt pretty solid and I was able to lift it up to my eye level to inspect it.

But well, it's obviously too small for me to even know what it was…

I guess that EMP blast must have shook some stuff loose around the ship so I just flicked it away.

"Might want to inspect the ship for damages, Ries," I warned her.

"Don't worry Boss! Already on it! My drones are already sweeping through the ship to inspect it!"

"They weren't affected by the EMP?"

"Oh, remember how we had a ton of those personal shields? I integrated them with the drones so they would be able to tank an EMP blast without shorting out thanks to the shield. Ah, but if there was a second blast while the shield is down, they would also go down as well."

Right… Leaving that to her, I brought up my Codex again to scan through the files that I received from the android, not really expecting to find much.

But then I realised there was one particular folder that was encrypted and locked behind a password unlike all the other files.

Obviously I went directly for it and it was a simple matter of hacking it open before I was looking at the folder's contents.

Let's see what you're hiding here~