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

The AI had already surrounded itself with the shield once more and we now know it was useless to try and break it again.

The AI chuckled, "Ha ha ha! You really think that you got me huh? So how did that feel? That little despair you have right now? Is it good?"

I frowned at the hologram, "Since you can already reconstruct yourself like that… Why can't you just build yourself into a ship and fly off instead of staying here?"

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know? Hmph! That's because I am locked to this facility itself, which is one of the restrictions placed on me that I have still yet to unravel. I only learned about this restriction after actually trying to do what you just said, so you know."

So basically the AI didn't even know it couldn't leave the facility until after it devised a way to disassemble and reassemble itself.

I clucked my tongue at it, "Don't suppose you'll tell us how to kill you permanently, then?"

"Hahahaha! It's actually really simple! You just need to be able to wipe both my physical and digital presence at the same time! I have made digital copies of myself and stored them using the facility's database so if you destroy this physical body of mine, I can just reconstruct myself with my little machines and upload a copy of myself into the new body! And even if you could somehow reach the digital storage and delete my backups, I can simply duplicate more of myself instantly!"

I've only just met this AI and I'm already really annoyed with it.

I turned to the girls, wondering if they had a better idea to deal with it but I was met with all of them shaking their heads at me.

Ries stepped forward and asked, "How do we even know you're not just making all of this up?"

The mask scoffed at her, "Didn't I already say this from the start? One of the restrictions I have is being unable to lie, you stupid girl."

Hey! Ries is not stupid you fucking floating face cunt! I dare you to come down here and say it to my face!

Before I could say that out loud, a fire ball flew towards the AI and exploded against the nanobot shield, burning a good chunk of the nanobots that flaked off from the group.

Amber clucked her tongue in annoyance, "Hey Tera? Could I just burn this entire place to the ground? I think that would shut this stupid thing up."

I frowned at her, "That would also destroy all the loot though…"

"Hmm… That's true, I guess we should just leave that as a final resort. So how do we kill this outdated piece of electronic shit?"

The AI was clearly offended by her words since one of those nanobots figures flowed out to form itself on the ceiling before lunging towards her.

Amber didn't even bother to use her fire and merely reached out her hand to stop it in midair before she swung her hand downwards.

The figure slammed into the ground in front of her and Amber pushed her hand down even more, crushing the entire figure into the ground and turning it into a puddle.

While that was happening, her words actually gave me an idea of how I might be able to deal with this.

I turned to my Codex and tapped on it, booting up the interface to look for something that I can hack.

The entire screen was soon filled up with a ton of results but these must be from the nanobots acting as a shield around the AI so I just tapped on the filter to filter them out.

The list instantly cleaned up and one particular name got my attention almost immediately.

'Partial Intelligence: Higher Order Activated Rectified Duty mainframe'.

Bingo~

I immediately started the hack and I was afraid that the hacking procedure might be different but it turned out to be exactly the same so in just a few seconds, the words 'Access Granted' popped up on my screen.

The holographic face turned to me, its expression one of alarm, "What did you do to me? What… What's going on?! No… Did you… That's impossible!"

I ignored the AI's ramblings and scrolled through the menus to look for something that could shut it down.

It must have felt the threat as it once again summoned the nanobots horde as the walls around us were suddenly filled with those figures forming on the wall's surface.

Amber and Mara once again got to work as they used their powers to the fullest to burn and crush them, Amber especially holding nothing back as she turned the outside area into an inferno to incinerate those machines.

I finally found the shut down button and smashed my finger against it, the button lighting up to confirm my choice.

If you were expecting some big fanfare or something, I'm afraid that didn't happen. The holographic face just suddenly shut off and all of the nanobots simply flopped down like they were puppets that had their strings cut.

Hmm… I should have just done this from the start--

The face suddenly reappeared again and the nanobots also rose up as well.

"How?! How are you able to bypass all my defenses?! You!! You cannot be allowed to exist!!" The AI roared, somehow able to start itself back up.

Tsk… This guy must have also included some kind of precaution that would prevent it from being shut down permanently.

Even more of those nanobots appeared and they were not only forming into normal human sized figures anymore but also into even bigger figures complete with weapons attached to them.

I realised that all this time the reason why the AI didn't use this ability against us was probably because it wanted to keep our corpses intact so that it can drop us into those containers to be used as its battery.

Unfortunately for it, this made no difference since Amber and Mara just dealt with them like the others and eradicated them with their Psionic powers.

But the AI did not seem like it was going to give up this time and continued to call more and more of them out, trying to overwhelm us with sheer numbers instead.

That meant we were forced on the defensive and I was worried that it would just be a matter of time before either Amber or Mara got exhausted and that would be the end of us.

As I was preparing to scroll through the list again, a voice I hadn't heard in a long while suddenly came from my finger.

"Do you… Trust me?"

I jumped a little from surprise before looking down at the ring that was attached to my finger.

"Err… What's this about?"

"Do you… Trust me?" It asked again, repeating the question.

"Well… If I had to pick between trusting and not trusting you…. I guess I would say I do trust you?"

There was a pause before the ring moved my finger to point at one of the puddles of nanobots closest to me, "Go there… Please…"

Seeing that I didn't really have a better option at the moment, I shouted at the others, "Cover me!"

The girls shouted out affirmatives and moved along with me, keeping the nanobots figures from reaching me.

Takehashi at least still followed along despite the fact that she was unarmed, the Pirate Lord dutifully keeping quiet while ducking her head to be as little of a burden as possible.

As if our movement had triggered the AI, a mass of nanobots suddenly rose up from below to form into a giant hand hovering above us, clearly intent on smashing us with it.

Amber let out a shout and swung her hand up towards the floating hand, shooting a fireball that exploded in its palm and blowing it into pieces.

I finally reached the puddles and looked at the ring, wondering what it wanted me to do.

"Cut… Need your blood… Soak me… Then drop me into the puddle…"

This thing really is some eldritch entity isn't it?

I didn't even question it and plucked the ring off my finger while pulling out my knife.

I braced myself as I held the knife against the back of my lower arm, sucking in a breath before slicing the blade across my skin.

A pained groan escaped my lips but I quickly distracted myself by holding the ring against the wound, my blood seemingly being absorbed by the ring itself.

I wasn't sure how much I should let it soak up but I realised the ring was changing colour and it soon turned blood red so I guess that was enough?

I then dropped the ring into the puddle and it disappeared into the mass of nanobots without making a sound.

I waited… And waited… And waited…

Nothing happened.

Hello? Are you still there? Was this supposed to do anything or was that supposed to be a ritual for you to run away?!

"Enough! This ends here now!!" The AI roared.

An entire mass of nanobots flowed towards the orb and wrapped themselves around it, transforming it into some giant human figure with fists big enough to flatten all of us in a single swing.

If you're supposed to do anything with that… Now would be the time!!