Chapter 1045: Hey General, We’re Back

We got back to the main outpost without any incident, surprisingly enough.

Although... When we did reach the main outpost again, I realised there were now dead bugs in front of the outpost walls that weren’t there before.

Seems like it came under attack while we were gone but at least they managed to repel the attack.

The gates slid open when we got close to it, allowing us to enter with the dogs leading the way.

One of the soldiers wearing full body armour that had a different colour to signify his rank came over to us, his stripes on his arm showing that he was a sergeant.

"Mercenary Tera. I assume you have completed your task?"

I nodded and gestured to the drones that we had returned with, with one batch of them still being full, "One of the outposts had been destroyed but the other two were still intact so we delivered the supplies to them and returned with one."

He nodded, "Understood. General Rourke asked to see you as soon as you returned. Please head back up to the surface."

Before I could say anything, the turrets that were facing towards the tunnel that led deeper into the nest came alive and started firing, prompting all of us to turn to look at it.

The turrets fired for a total of two seconds, blasting a hail of lasers down the tunnels before stopping abruptly, indicating the threat had been neutralised.

Most of the soldiers didn’t even bat an eye at it, as they simply returned back to their duties the moment the firing stopped, as though they were already used to it.

"Has there been frequent bug attacks ever since we left?" I asked.

The soldier nodded, "A couple of them... But their waves have been small so far so we’re able to deal with them quite easily."

I frowned a little, wondering why the bugs would just throw themselves to die like that which made no sense.

I gave him a concerned look, "You think that it might be a probing attack to test the defenses?"

The soldier paused before looking around to check if anyone was listening. Only after confirming that no one was paying attention to us did he lean in to whisper to me.

"That’s what we think as well... They come in regular intervals... About every hour there’s a small group coming to attack us and they’ve been right on time so far... The outpost commander believes they might be trying to get us used to their intervals and then launch a sudden attack on us before the expected time to catch us off guard. For now, we’re still working in shifts to maintain full alert but... We can’t last long as this state would exhaust us in the long run... When you meet with General Rourke... Do let him know we could use reinforcements and also heavy weapons backup."

Right... They were still trying to mine at the tunnel the last we checked so maybe they have already cleared the blockage?

I assured the sergeant that I will pass the news back to the General and left through the back door of the outpost to start heading up towards the surface.

It seems like they have yet to establish a communications line yet so they could not contact the people on the surface yet, though I would guess they plan to do that after the blockage has been cleared.

The dogs continued to stay vigilant as they sniffed their way up to the surface, just in case the bugs somehow had some secret passage to get behind us and lay an ambush.

Thankfully, the path was clear so they shouldn’t have a path to get around the outpost. At least as far as we know for now.

Reaching the surface, we found the miners still busy mining away at the walls of solid earth, slowly chipping them away to make sure there’s no risk of a cave in and to make the tunnel big enough for the bigger war machines to come through.

They have at least cleared a big enough hole that a Power Armour could move through the entire length of the tunnel without too much struggle.

Still... The miners had to stop their work to let us pass so we did not dally and moved through the gap quickly.

Though later when I thought about it... They might have actually stopped their work because they were afraid that they might accidentally hurt one of the dogs and then piss them off.

We got back to the drop ship that served as the command centre of this operation and I got the dogs to wait outside while my girls and I went to the ship.

The place looked to be less chaotic than before since there weren’t people running around the room looking like the world was ending anymore.

General Rourke was even seated behind a desk instead of standing at the war table looking through reports on his screens and looking more relaxed.

The soldiers guarding the place stopped us from entering and one of them went to the General to announce our arrival, prompting him to leap to his feet and stride over to us.

"Tera and everyone from Teran Mercenary Company! You really live up to your reputation! You’re back in one piece and I assume the mission went well?"

I gestured behind me where the drones were being taken over by the soldiers, "One outpost was destroyed. Two were intact. The one that you wanted us to check at the end of the tunnel was intact."

He paused, his gaze shifting to the drones for a moment and I wondered if he actually wanted that outpost to be destroyed and was disappointed to hear that they were still around.

His face remained neutral so I couldn’t tell and he shifted his gaze back to me, maintaining his neutral look.

"I see... The people who have been lost in that outpost will be remembered. I assume it is the one that is right beside the main outpost?"

I nodded, "Yes. It seems like they put up quite a fight before they went down. Everyone in that outpost died fighting."

The General’s features softened slightly, "Thank you... I will make sure they are remembered for it. What about the next outpost? What was their sitrep?"

"They were jumpy and on high alert... Going so far as to start firing on us when we appeared."

He grimaced and nodded, "You have my apologies and you will be compensated for that."

Hey, I wasn’t going to say no to government money~

I gave him a nod of acknowledgement before continuing, "We managed to convince them that we weren’t bugs and they let us into their outpost after that where we dropped off the supplies for them. They seem to be holding out pretty well despite all things considered."

"Good. Once we reestablish the outpost between them again, we should have a solid supply line to aid them. And what about the... Last outpost?"

I noticed how he had hesitated on mentioning that place and it felt like he was going to call it something else before he changed to calling it the ’last outpost’ instead.

Well... I figured I could just ask Mara about it later since I have no doubt she’s reading his mind right now.

Still, I wasn’t sure how much I should actually tell him so I just decided to say the bare minimum.

"They were in a much better shape than the rest since the outpost before them most likely prevented any bugs from reaching them. They were quite suspicious of us at first but they let us in pretty easily once they confirmed our identities. They didn’t really let us roam around and we left after they processed the supplies they took from us."

Technically, I didn’t lie since it was true that they didn’t really give us the chance to roam around to begin with and I didn’t state whether we did anything in between our arrival and them processing the supplies which happened after we were done with their job.

The General huffed before giving me a pointed look, "They didn’t ask you to do anything weird, did they?"

I pretended to be confused, "Weird? Not at all."

Yeah, asking us to capture live bugs for their experiments is just a job, nothing weird at all~"

The General didn’t really seem to believe me but I guess he didn’t have any proof otherwise and nodded, "Very well. We intend to secure this nest completely so I would like you to follow the heavy armour units into the main tunnels and push in with them with the dogs. We’ll establish a forward base at the main outpost and we’ll discuss your role there in more detail. Would that be fine?"

I shrugged, "You guys are paying me for this after all so... Sure."

He nodded before dismissing me, letting me return to my girls.

Alright, Mara... Tell me what he was thinking~