Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Seventy-Nine - More Than the Machine

Chapter Seventy-Nine - More Than the Machine

"This is a world where your value as a human doesn't contribute to your own happiness, but the wealth of others.

It's inevitable.

The only thing you can do is make them as miserable as you."

--Mario Russo the CEO Bomber, 2029

***

"Eyes open!" One snapped. It was the first time he sounded actually concerned. "Medic, check on Charlie Four."

A soldier ran over to the dead man on the ground, but... yeah, there wasn't much that could be done there. That dude was very dead. Then they surprised me by taking apart the upper chest section of Charlie Four's armour. A few disconnected bits later, and the medic has Charlie Four's head entirely removed and was placing it into a foldable bag.

A cyborg? Not just a small one either, but a full-body conversion? Fuck, that was something I didn't see often.

I shook my head and refocused. The Family's guys could be the most badass fucks I'd ever seen, but that didn't help too much now. One of them had still gone down to that Model Thirty-Three and it didn't look like we'd hurt it much.

"Invincible, you okay?" I asked. I was practically standing on top of him.

"Yeah... more or less?" he grunted as he tried to sit up, then fell back down. "Oh, fuck, I think I broke a rib. One sec... yeah, my AI says I broke two, and my clavicle, and some bones in my hand."

"You'll live?" I asked.

He muttered something that I couldn't make out, and a box thumped to the ground next to him. Then the back of his armour opened up slightly and a small four-legged drone fell out and ran over to the box. It returned with what looked like a Nano-Regenerator suite that it climbed into his armour with. "I'll live," he confirmed.

That drone wasn't a bad idea. "Myalis, gimme... six cat drones. Cheap ones. We need to find where that thing went. And maybe... can you equip them with a little surprise? Some HE bomb or something?"

Certainly. Six Cat Drones coming right up.

They were delivered in three boxes with flaps on the sides. No one chose to comment on how they looked a little like a cat carrier. The sides opened and a gaggle of little cat drones darted out. They had small cylinders on their backs, covered in yellow-black warning stripes.

One of the screens in my mech flicked over to a six-square view of what the drones were seeing. "One, you got visual on that thing?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "We're bringing our quadcopters down to get a better picture of the area. Our electronics aren't picking anything up."

I frowned. There was some fuzz in his speech, like he had a bad mic or something. "Myalis, is it me or is there something fucking with the comms?"

You're correct. There's more interference than previously.

I looked around, and finally noticed that there was probably more dust in the air that could easily be attributed to the alien crashing through the walls of that shop. The damned thing had spewed out dust all over, then, something that messed with electronics? That seemed possible. It could also be something to help its stealth. I'd noticed it going all chameleon on us when it pushed out the back of the store.

"Can you give me a rundown of a Model Thirty-Three's abilities?" I asked.

Certainly. They're generally considered a hunter-type Model. They have higher-than average intelligence.

"For an Antithesis?" I asked.

No. Just in general.

"Ah."

They have relatively decent stealth capabilities and can regulate their temperatures as well as turn their skin different colours and textures. Not so different from some octopi. Otherwise, the model has an average amount of strength for a Model in the third tier, with average durability, but excellent self-healing abilities. Given a few hours, a Model Thirty-Three that's near death can essentially regrow itself.

Well, damn. "We need to find this thing fa--"

One of the screens to my right went dark. A split-second later I heard a loud boom and a plume of dust rose out from maybe a block away.

I switched to the same channel as One and the other soldiers. "Looks like it found one of my drones," I said.

My others moved in closer and came upon a street with a new crater blown out of the middle. There were a few bits of alien goop around, but no big corpse. The five remaining drones started to run around the area, searching front yards and scanning the fronts of ritzy apartment buildings.

One spoke up. "Let's move into the area. This position isn't defensible. I'd rather keep moving."

"Got it," I said.

"Yeah, sure," Invincible replied. He sounded a little shaken up from it all, but I didn't blame him. That had been a close call. If that thing had a better set of jaws or his armour wasn't as good, then he'd be mulch right now.

The soldiers formed up again. The quickest way to the next block over was just down the street, then around and up. The block was higher than where we were, with a guardrail overlooking the shops and resort in some spots.

The troops moved at a slow, careful pace, guns pointing ahead, steps slow and deliberate. I could almost imagine them breathing slowly and steadily. They were pretty brave, I'd give them that. Their guns looked decent, but they'd barely scratched that big thing. I'd be about to quit unless I was given a rocket launcher if I was them.

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The quadcopters flew in closer until one was hovering just a couple dozen metres above with the other two further back.

I noticed motion on one of my drone cameras, then faster motion as it was picked up and thrown.

"Careful!" I shouted.

The cat drone was flung into the air, right at the quadcopter. It... harmlessly flew past. I was expecting a big explosion, but I supposed that bombs were generally a little safer than that.

The choppers above were able to trace the area the drone had come from. Within seconds a trio of missiles were screaming across the air to ram into the side of an apartment building with an explosion that burst windows and scattered concrete.

The soldiers dipped to a knee as debris flew past, then the choppers opened up with some machine guns, peppering the space where the Model Thirty-Three had been with massive figure-eights.

Another drone went dead, and I realized that it wasn't where they were shooting.

But it was closer.

"Left!" I shouted.

I turned, scanning the area. It was one of the troopers that saw it first, a vague form in the dust that was rushing our way. He opened fire on it only to be rammed aside by a long, sinuous tail tipped in boney barbs.

I ripped into it with my Gatlings, then it was right there in front of me.

I stepped back, out of the way of its snapping jaws, then swiped out with my forepaws, the claws on it hissing as the mini-Void Terminus blades on them swallowed the air.

The monster shifted to the side so fucking fast it was almost just an afterimage.

Invincible fired his under-arm guns, then grunted as he was rammed aside to land on his ass.

The troopers opened fire in earnest, but their gunfire cut off quickly. The damned thing was in the middle of our formation, and we were all in each-other's crossfire.

I hopped back and to the side, lining up my 105mm guns even as my mech's railgun warmed up.

The moment the crosshair was lined up, I fired.

In that same moment, the monster leapt.

A single shell caught it in the lower stomach, between two of its rear legs. The other rammed into one of the buildings down the road and blew it up.

Alien giblets were tossed all over the place, but the fucker landed on its remaining five legs and then shot towards me.

I gasped as its massive jaw clamped down around my Mech's head. I winced as a dozen damage alerts rang out.

My Gatlings turned, and I opened up on its face.

I saw its eyes pop like overfilled water balloons, but the moment my Gatlings had passed, they started to regrow.

Myalis had severely under-described its healing.

I reached up with one paw, even as the Model Thirty-Three lifted my front off the ground. I buried it into its guts, and I could tell that its insides were being syphoned through the portal-tipped claws.

We'd see if it could live with no insides!

"Samurai Stray Cat!" One shouted. "The edge!"

The edge?

Then I realized what he meant as the alien gave a shove, and my world spun over. I was falling backwards, the guardrail doing fuck and all to stop me from tumbling back.

But I grabbed the bastard anyway, unloaded both 105s into the sky with a spray of alien innards, then pulled it down with me.

The crash shook my everything. Fortunately, it was only one floor down.

Unfortunately, it was still chewing on my mech's head.

"Fucker!" I yelled as I opened up with the railgun.

I couldn't see, but I was pretty sure it now had a hole in its middle that I could crawl through.

And yet it was still alive and eating me. I struggled. One Gatling was just gone, ripped off at some point. My 105s were throwing up warnings. My tail was caught. My forelimbs were scrambling against the alien's underside...

Then it bit down harder. I screamed as teeth started to poke through the walls of my cabin.

Fucker was trying to eat me!

My mech went on the fritz, because it wasn't designed to be a fucking chew toy.

But I knew exactly where the bastard's head was, didn't I?

"Myalis, is the head weak?

Its brain is in its head, at the very rear, near the neck joint.

I unstrapped myself after moving my mech's legs to hold on tighter. I almost stumbled out of the control seat as things shook. The walls grinded down, teeth moving in a few more millimeters.

But I knew, more or less, where its brain was. My drones gave me an okay picture from the outside. It didn't look good, but...

I pulled my sword up, unsheathed it with some difficulty, then pressed the tip onto the front of my cockpit even as I shifted myself around so that I had a foot over my headrest and the other bent down before me.

"Fuck you!" I roared.

The cockpit filled with the hiss of the void.

I pushed.

The sword stabbed through armour like it wasn't there until the hilt met the glowing inside of my cockpit.

The alien froze up.

There was a long, long moment where I wondered if I'd just stabbed my own mech for nothing. Then the teeth clenching slowly loosened, and I shut my sword off in a hurry as that meant nothing was holding my mech in place anymore.

***