Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Forty-One - Rapid Return

“We’re not so different from the Antithesis, in some ways.

Back either of us into a corner, and that’s where you’ll see us fighting the hardest.”

--Nomad, 2056

***

Gomorrah flew the Fury over the gap.

I didn’t know what else to call the long stretch of space where the wall just stopped. Cranes were set up on either edge, and there were huge cement slabs ready to be pulled up onto the foundation that was even now being poured, but there was no missing the fact that a three-kilometre stretch of the city was entirely unprotected.

It wasn’t an empty spot either. Suburbs were set up on what was going to be the outside of the wall. A satellite city sat on the southernmost part of the gap. It looked like the wall was going to bulge out a little to accommodate it.

“Atyacus, did Laserjack give us a spot where we’d be needed?” Gomorrah asked.

“The Family has suggested some locations which require reinforcements,” a smooth, rather posh-sounding voice said. “The entire stretch of space without a wall needs to be defended. Anywhere along or around that area could use Vanguard-tier reinforcements.”

I glanced out the window and noticed that several armoured vehicles were forming a barricade just outside the area where the wall would be. More vehicles were moving into the space behind the wall. Mobile bases, semi-trailers with mobile offices on their backs, and a whole heap of supply vehicles.

“Looks like every other PMC in the city is coming over,” I said.

“This location is the most likely to lead to the Antithesis breaching the city,” Atyacus said.

I nodded. “Makes sense. Get everyone over the spot that’s weakest. The plants will definitely be pushing that spot hardest. Least resistance, and all that.”

“Indeed,” the AI said.

“I'm going to station myself a bit out in the open,” Gomorrah said.

“Isn’t your range pretty short?” I asked.

“Yes, but I expect that there will be enough of them that it won’t matter,” Gomorrah said. “Besides, I do best when I have a lot of space with no one friendly inside it.”

I considered that for a moment. Not so much Gomorrah’s fighting style as my own. How did I fit into all of this?

“Can you drop me out at the far end of that city?” I asked, pointing to the suburban sprawl. Lots of apartment buildings, and a few dozen condo-enclaves. “My gimmick’s not going to be useful in the open, not if there’s going to be thousands of the fuckers. I’m going to head in towards the walls, leave a few hundred traps behind.”

“We don’t have a lot of time for traps,” Gomorrah said.

I shrugged. “I can run pretty fast. Maybe I’ll get a jetpack of my own?”

Gomorrah chuckled. “Go ahead. I won’t need to taxi you around quite as much.”

I grinned as we swung around. A glance at the map wiped that smile away, at least a little. The wave was way too close for comfort. I could see plumes of dust in the distance, getting closer.

“Go,” Gomorrah said. “And remember to stay alive.”

I nodded, then reached out a fist to her. She bumped it.

My boots hit the ground with the softest of thumps, and the Fury whined as it rose out above and shot out across the city. Gomorrah had left me on a once-busy street. Ten-story buildings on either side, their first floors nothing but colourful shopfronts with screaming-bright advertisements.

“Not much time,” I muttered. “Myalis, you ready to buy some shit.”

Catherine, you should know that I am always prepared. What are you thinking of?

“I need... fuck it, I need a better suit. More mobility, better guns. Stealth too. And I want to be able to fly.”

Do you mind sacrificing your back-mounted guns for flight?

I winced.

Understood. Your current armour is modular. I wouldn’t be surprised that you forgot that. Let me suggest a cheaper alternative to a whole new set. Boots with deployable jump-jets, a jet-pack that will fit in the centre of your back and over your lower back. You will have to remove your coat unless you wish to find a different solution?

“No, no that sounds good,” I said. I was already shucking the coat. It was cool, and I’d be sad to see it go, but... yeah. Needs must and all that.

New Purchase: The Leaping Lion’s Paw
Points Reduced from... 20,764 to... 20,514!

New boots appeared before me at the same time as mine hissed and basically fell off, the armour panels clunking aside until my feet were covered in nothing but a skeletal frame and some sort of padding.

The new boots were in a box, with little clamps holding all the parts separate. I put my foot in, and as soon as it was on the sole, all the parts pressed in and fit together like a demented engineer’s idea of a jigsaw puzzle.

I did the same for my other foot, then noticed the third item in the box. A sort of rounded scoop thing which trailed down to a point with nozzles on the bottom. It was obviously designed to affix to my back.

I grabbed it and felt things shift behind me.

Press the wider part to the small of your back.

As I did just that, the arms for my railguns deployed and helped the upper section of the jetpack together.

I shifted my shoulders, feeling a slight difference in weight. The boots were definitely a bit lighter, despite being bulkier.

Ideally, the entire suit would be lightened to make flight more efficient, but such is the sacrifice of a modular system.

“Right,” I said as I shouldered my Bullcat. “I need... shit, what else do I need... I wish I could send all of this back home.

A small mechanised cat-drone could carry your coat and older boots back to your house.

That wasn’t a terrible idea. “Okay, yeah, do that.”

New Purchase: Stylized Servitor - CAT Mech
Points Reduced from... 20,514 to... 20,364!

A box appeared, and then immediately opened up as a cat mech jumped out of it. It was smaller than the mechs I had for fighting, with a whole set of thin mechanical arms sticking out of its back. It used those to quickly pick up my boots, then it folded my coat with its forepaws and grabbed it in its jaws. The cat looked up at me with glowing cat eyes before slinking away.

“Right, what else,” I muttered.

Catherine, the wave is incoming. You have under one minute before the forward-most section is upon you.

I swore, then looked up at the nearest building. “How much fuel does the pack have?”

Each container should last you long enough for half a minute of flight. They can be replaced automatically, same as the ammunition in your current gun. The tanks cost ten points each.

That would probably add up.

“Okay... uh, how do I fly?”

I think it would be safest if I flew for now. Keep your legs together, please.

I tensed up a half-second before I took off into the air. The worst part was the lack of sound. Except for my screaming, of course, but that didn’t escape my helmet. At least, I hoped it didn’t.

Myalis landed me on the edge of a flat rooftop, and I paused there for a moment while my heart considered whether or not it would leap out of my chest. “Okay,” I said. That was all I could think to say.

A rumble to my right had me looking that way.

The dust cloud was getting closer, much closer. My augs drew a square at the base of the cloud and a small screen opened up with a zoomed-in view of that square.

Model threes. Packed in so tight they were bouncing off each other’s shoulders. More behind them, and through the faint dust, I could make out bigger models. There had to be thousands. How were they kicking up dust when it had to have rained in the last day or so?

“Fuck me,” I muttered.

Any path in particular you wish to take?

That many would be hard to kill. Impossible, even. Not by me alone, at least.

Unless...

“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to need a few cat mechas, and... some sort of bomb that will create a barrier. I want walls to cut off their path. Funnel them in a little. Maybe those expanding foam things? With resonators? We’ll push the entire swarm into a few corridors, then we’ll fuck them up from above.”

All I had at my disposal was an infinite armoury of exotic explosives and the high ground.

It would have to do.

***