Chapter 1051: Our Dogs Are Still Smarter Than You

Well... It wasn’t the first time we saw a bug that could talk... So we weren’t really that surprised to see it talk.

The people accompanying us however, was a different case entirely.

"It... It talked?!"

"What is that?!"

"Could... Could this be a result of our making?!"

"How is it able to speak?!"

"We have to study it!"

"Hurry up and capture it!"

I suppose it’s a good thing that they weren’t panicking and actually excited about it instead...

Well then... No need to hesitate then...

I told the dogs to go ahead and grab the bug and Freyja let out a bark, showing that she has indeed taken the role of the alpha of this pack.

Two dogs immediately charged towards it and the bug sank into a combat stance, clearly not willing to go down without a fight.

Hmm... There’s no way that... These bugs managed to evolve to the point where they are on par with dogs, right?

I felt worry well up inside me and I was just about to consider calling back the dogs in case the bug really was just as strong as the dogs...

But then the first dog charged towards it before suddenly leaping to the side, feinting out a slash from the bug as it had incorrectly thought the dog was going to leap at it.

The other dog then jumped at it from its flank, headbutting its side hard enough to send it crashing onto the ground, right in front of the first dog that had done the feint.

She then pounced on top of the bug, pushing it further into the ground before she clamped her jaw over two of its arms and holding it in place.

The other dog quickly joined her and bit down on its other pair of arms, securing the bug between them before they started walking back to us like they had just retrieved a stick.

The bug writhed and pulled at its captured arms, trying to free itself to no avail.

Both dogs just carried the bug in between them without visible effort, their heads high and proud like they had just found a really nice stick.

They dragged the bug in front of me, holding it just out of reach so that the bug couldn’t actually attack me and waiting for me to deal with it.

That, however, did not stop the bug from speaking.

"Enemies!! Prey!!! Kill!! Release me!! Eat you... Eat you all!!!"

I ignored it and turned back to the lab coat guy, "How do you intend to transport or even contain it? You’re not asking me to just let my dogs carry it the entire time, are you?"

The lab coat guy gestured to one of the guards and he stepped forward while pulling out a disc shaped object from his waist.

He walked up to the bug carefully, though I actually wasn’t sure if it was the bug that he was scared of or the dogs holding it.

He very carefully approached it while the dogs remained where they were, completely unfazed by the bug thrashing around in between them.

He finally got close enough to the bug to slap the disc on top of its head, a red light blinked on the top of the disc before a soft hissing sound came from it.

I noticed that the bug’s thrashing got slower and slower before it finally went limp, like it had been knocked out.

The guard then turned to me, "Err... Could you... Could you get them to... Err... Let go?"

I turned back to the two dogs, "Drop it."

They obeyed and opened their jaws to let the bug fall onto the ground without complaint, their tails wagging cutely behind them.

I wanted to pat them but... I’m still in my Power Armour so that would be a little difficult to do unless I climb out of it right now.

They don’t seem to mind though as they came over to sit in front of me, their tails wagging and fully expecting to be patted.

Well... Since they would already go this far...

I awkwardly patted them with the hands of the Power Armour, the fact that it was actually Renata helped a lot since she helped me control it to allow that action to take place.

Meanwhile, the guard had taken out another device from his belt that he placed on the unconscious bug’s back, revealing it to be some kind of metallic restraint as straps popped out from the device to wrap around the bug.

He then picked it up and placed it at the side of the tunnel before nodding at me, "One of our recovery drones will be dispatched to retrieve it, we can just leave it here."

That sounds pretty dangerous but I assume this was how they did things so I didn’t question it.

We continued deeper into the tunnels again, dealing with the bugs that appeared as we moved along.

The bugs that we found after that were all of the normal variants so the GenoTrend people didn’t ask for them to be captured.

Just as I was wondering if they did not have any of those humanoid bugs anymore, we came across a cavern that had what appeared to be an underground lake with a stream flowing in from the opposite side.

Not only that, there were even plants growing down here and the place was illuminated by mushrooms that were growing on the walls of the cavern.

This is the first time that I’ve seen something that was other than bugs that were alive and native to this planet.

It seems like I wasn’t the only one to think so as the GenoTrend guys also let out audible gasps when they saw the cavern, all of them stepping fully into the cavern to look at the sight of the plants and water.

"This... This is amazing... I thought this was a barren planet... But this... This proves that there might be entire ecosystems underground. These tunnels... It might not even be dug by the bugs themselves but other creatures too..." The guy in the lab coat muttered.

Hmm... I’m no scientist so I don’t know what any of these means anyway... Whatever this means, I’ll leave it to the science types to figure it out.

What I’m more interested in though, was the fact that in the middle of the pool of water was a small island and there were several humanoid bugs that were on it.

Not only that, there were also a few of them that were hanging upside down on the ceiling, their green carapaces making them stand out rather noticeably.

I looked at the water, "Can the dogs fight in a place like this?"

As though taking it as a challenge, the dogs all barked at the bugs in the cavern, as if daring the bugs to come over to us instead.

The bugs let out hisses and the same raspy voices came from all around the cavern.

"Intruders..."

"Enemies..."

"Kill..."

"Feed... Bring back to nest..."

"Kill them..."

Bring back to the nest? That’s new... Because last I remembered, they don’t actually bring the corpses of the people they kill back into the deeper parts of their nest... And for that particular one to say ’feed’ right before that... Are they actually using corpses as their food sources or something?

Whatever it was, the bugs launched themselves towards us, moving faster than the normal bugs as they tried to swarm us.

"Take some alive, kill the rest!" I ordered the dogs, right as I lifted up my arms to start firing at the bugs.

My girls joined in at the same time, shooting their weapons up at the ceiling to kill the bugs that were in the air and leaving the ones on the ground for the dogs to handle instead.

But what surprised me was the fact that these bugs actually knew to dodge the bullets.

They weaved left and right to avoid the shots aimed at them while they continued to fly towards us, which was different from how the other bugs would act as they would have just simply charged into the line of fire without care for their personal safety.

Although... It didn’t really make much difference since we just needed to adjust our aim and they couldn’t fly faster than a bullet so they still ended up getting shot.

The dogs were... What the heck?

Most of them remained on land but... Some of them had jumped into the water to swim out towards the centre of the pool.

I thought they had made a mistake since doing so would put them at a clear disadvantage when fighting against the bugs but I got to see why they could handle these things on their own once again...

The dogs that had jumped into the water to swim were serving themselves up as platforms for the other dogs as several of them jumped onto their backs and used them to jump up and strike at the bugs to pull them down into the water to capture them.

They didn’t even need me to coordinate them... They did it by themselves...

Damn... They’re really smart huh?

The bugs might have gotten smarter but our dogs are smarter!