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

I thought Ries would lead me to the workshop at the back of the ship but she led me to the cargo bay instead.

Maybe her tools were still there?

When we reached the cargo bay, an entire pile of stuff was left where it had been empty space when I returned not too long ago.

"Oh wow, you actually bought a lot," Amber muttered in amusement. "I didn't even realise this just now since it was dinner time."

Ries poked her fingers together while her ears drooped slightly, "Umm… I… I may have gotten a little excited with the budget… Should I not have?"

I waved my hand, "I gave you the money to spend away in the first place so you shouldn't feel bad to spend it. Besides, it's money that we've worked together to obtain and the things you're buying would benefit all of us anyway."

Ries's ears perked up and I saw her tail swish from side to side from my words.

Hmm… I'm guessing that is a sign that she's happy?

Anyway… I realised there was only one pile of stuff and from what I heard from Lea and Amber, they should have bought things as well. Yet I don't see any other stacks of things around in the cargo bay?

As though reading my mind, Amber chuckled, "I bought furniture, Tera. There's no way I was going to haul all of that back here myself. I arranged for them to deliver it tomorrow and they would also help us set things up."

Lea also nodded, "Same goes for me as well, Mistress."

I then turned to look at Ries who was blushing up to her ears, "Umm… I… I also got excited with the new purchases and couldn't wait for them to be delivered… So I brought them back myself…"

I blinked and turned back to the huge pile of boxes that was arranged in front of me.

There's like… At least sixty or so boxes here… And not all of them have the same size…

"You dragged all this back yourself?" I asked, fighting back my disbelief.

"She called us for help. That's why we came back together," Amber explained.

Ah… Ok. Then I can understand how she managed to bring all this back.

"So what would you like to show me?"

She immediately perked up again, "Here, here! Right over here, Boss!"

The cat girl went over to one of the boxes to unlatch it, revealing a circular, metallic disk that was sitting inside it.

She reached in and pulled it out, revealing that it was what I thought it was, which was a metallic disk.

Ries then placed it on the ground before reaching into the same box to pull out some kind of data chip which she slotted into her personal terminal.

A few taps later, there was a soft whirring sound before the metallic disk floated up into the air to hover at eye level.

I was just about to ask what it could do when the sides of the disk slid open to reveal small arms that snapped in the air.

"FD-Twenty One General Purpose Drone! It's shaped like that to allow it to slide into narrow crevices and can be used to clean and maintain machinery!" Ries explained proudly.

And as if to demonstrate, she pulled out a piece of cloth to hand it over to the drone which it took with one of its hands before it floated all the way up to the ceiling and started wiping at a certain spot.

I looked back into the box to see another disk sitting inside there and I estimate that there were at least four more sitting in there.

I don't think all the boxes here contained this drone but if just five of them had this, then we already have twenty five of these drones.

That should be enough to keep this ship clean and also maintain it.

Ries then raised a finger, "But don't worry Boss! They look really simple right now but I fully intend on doing some tinkering with them to make them more advanced!"

Amber turned to her, a look of concern on her face, "What exactly are you going to do to them?"

Ries's smile widened, "Right now, these drones can only follow specific commands. Like I have to program in the path they will take and their functions individually. I intend to make it such that they would be able to function autonomously and even deal with threats should there be any."

Amber frowned, "What if they get hacked or maybe even become self aware and decide they want to take over the ship?"

"Oh don't worry, I'm just going to give them a Class One AI at most. There's no need to go beyond to a Class Two. Right now they don't even have an AI at the moment and I made this Class One AI program myself."

"Hmmm… I see…"

I cleared my throat, "Ahem… Mind explaining the AI classes thing to me? I know about it but what's the difference, really? Like what can they do in each class?"

"Oh, me, me!" Ries raised her hand enthusiastically. "Class One AI is just an AI that you can give simple instructions to and they will follow the instructions that you give it. Without the AI, I would have to program the drone to clean this cargo bay according to a mapped order that I give it and they would not stray out of the mapped order. With a Class One AI, I can just tell it to 'clean this room' and that would be enough to get it going."

I nodded, "Ok… That's simple enough… So basically there's already a set understanding of definitions and instructions for a Class One AI?"

Ries clapped her hands together, "That's right! And for a Class Two AI, they would be able to not only understand and process instructions, they would also be able to respond and react to them as well! Like for a Class One AI, they would obey the order of cleaning up this room but if there is something blocking the way, they would clean around the object. For a Class Two AI, they would be able to understand to move the object and clean the area under it by itself."

Ok… So at this level, they are able to infer the meaning of words instead of just sticking to the literal meaning?"

Ries continued, "And then you have the Class Three AI, these are the service type AI which could form their own instructions and programming after being given a directive. They're mainly found in maid and butler robots where they are directed to 'serve' and they understand what they are required to do including protecting and ensuring the owner's safety without needing to be given explicit instructions to do so."

"No cases of them confining the owner because they think that would be safer?" I asked.

"Mnn… I don't think there are such cases for AI of this class, no."

That means there were cases of it in the higher classes?

I didn't get to ask that question before Ries continued, "Class Four AI and above would require special licences to operate where Class Four in particular are able to process and learn information on their own. These AI are usually used in combat bots since they would be able to identify and combat external and internal threats more effectively than a Class Three AI."

"And that's the level you would need to start worrying about…" Amber muttered.

I raised an eyebrow at her, silently asking her why.

Instead, it was Mara who answered for her, "During the AI rebellion, the combat robots were the ones who kicked off the rebellion which, to be honest, was more because they were the ones with the weapons and not because of the fact that they were combat AI. It's just a small stigma that humans have. So Class Four AI are more closely monitored and have more failsafes as compared to other classes."

Ries nodded, "Which brings me to the Class Five AIs! They are specialised AIs that are designed to serve single purposes like doing high speed calculations or even management of a large group of AIs! They are also used in supercomputers and some are used as station administrators, though the latter would always have an actual person overseeing it in case it acts up."

Mara gave me a look, "I will say this though… Most human stations do not have an AI station administrator."

And I can already guess why.

Ries wasn't bothered by the comment and continued, "And then we have Class Six AI which is absolutely illegal and completely outlawed within the USC territories! They supposedly have no limit on how much they can learn and grow but that also means they have the highest chance of going rogue and starting a rebellion! Any and all Class Six AI are required to be destroyed and purged under USC law!"

"The AI Rebellion was started by an AI that was on the level of a Class Six AI," Amber explained with a sigh. "I say that because the AI classification was only implemented after the end of the rebellion so it's not officially designated as a Class Six."

Right… I guess it's fine for us since Ries already said that the AI she's using will only be Class One.

Still, it's nice to know that there's other types out there.

I hope there isn't some remnant rogue AI that is plotting another rebellion…