Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Trench Run

“Operator: Why is the city on fire?

Lord Burninator: You clearly haven’t thought this through.”

--Excerpt from official transcript between Family operations centre and samurai field command, 2038 Venezuela Incursion

***

The turrets I was setting down on the edges of the tallest trucks were the same cheap crap I’d been using for a while. A laser-gun, a small battery pack, a little strip of solar cells and three legs which ended in suction-cup grippers that had no difficulty attaching to the stainless steel roofs of the trailers I was passing.

From earlier observation, the turrets took about three, maybe four seconds of continuous fire on a single model three to take it down. Way less time to take out model ones though, the little birds were easy to knock out of the air.

By the time I was at the back of the convoy I’d set down nearly fifty of the things. They had pretty decent range, and some of those near the front were zapping the quickest of the aliens already.

I’d dipped down four times between slower trucks and bought a few cat mecha. They were more than capable of keeping up with the convoy, and I figured the extra bit of mobile firepower might give us an edge if... or when, the aliens reached us.

I placed the last turret on the roof of the very last vehicle in the convoy. I probably didn’t need to bother, it was another of those oversized mobile bases, with guns bristling out of its sides and a few turrets on the top already, but the turrets would give me and Myalis an idea of the convoy’s status as it moved ahead, and I figured I could retrieve them after, maybe hand them off to the Family to place them along the length of the defences around the city. It was that much more firepower, and the self-sustaining sort.

“Hey, Grasshopper,” I said.

“That’s me,” Grasshopper said. “Is something wrong?”

“Nah, not yet,” I said. “I’m about to start my bombing runs. I’ve set down some turrets here and there, should keep the convoy... safe-ish. Honestly, it’s not much, but it’ll put a dent in their numbers I hope.”

“I understand,” Grasshopper said. “Do your best!”

“Right,” I said. I kicked my bike into gear and shot up a ways. From above I could see the vague formation the antithesis were taking. A large group of them were spread out to the left and rushing in towards the convoy. More were out by the front, where a few patches of forest made it hard to tell where they were hidden.

There was actually some sort of facility in the middle of those woods. Probably abandoned by now. Still... “Myalis, can you check to make sure there’s no one alive around here, I don’t want to bomb some poor sap hiding in that building over there.”

Searching now... no signs of life. The facility is an older slaughterhouse, it has been out of operation for a decade.

“Got it,” I said.

I turned my bike over to the large group heading into the side of the convoy.

The antithesis at the front were more numerous, but they were starting to enter the effective range of the guns on the mobile base, and a few of those armoured cars with machine guns on their roofs were near the front, spraying down lines of fire into the approaching mass.

The group to the side didn’t have as many obstacles, and if they reached the convoy, they’d spread out and rooting them out would be a mess. Some of the trucks were driven by flesh-and-blood people, we didn’t want to deal with dead drivers causing blockages on the road.

So I was going to teach the fuckers about the beauty of high explosives.

“Myalis, I need lots of grenades with the pins already pulled,” I said. “Maybe one every two metres or so?”

Noted. What are you thinking about for the payload?

“Can’t have anything that might damage the convoy. Just a big boom?”

Concussion grenades will release a large burst of kinetic force without launching any shrapnel from the explosive itself. Pieces of antithesis might reach the convoy, but not at speeds that would endanger the vehicles. Also, the explosives are relatively inexpensive.

“Works for me,” I said.

I lined the front of my bike up with the far end of the row of aliens, guesstimated how far ahead I needed to be for the grenades to drop on the formation, then took off.

“Now!” I called out as I leaned into my bike.

Grenades started to appear next to me in mid-air, matching my velocity for just a moment before trailing down and towards the ground. I’d miss the very start of the formation, but then, I kinda figured I would need to make another pass at it.

Loud whumps sounded out behind me, louder than a gun going off, but much bassier, the kind of sound that was felt as much as it was heard.

“Alright,” I said as I reached the front of the formation and pulled back on my bike so that I flew up and around.

Glancing down, I saw the horde of spread out model threes rushing towards the convoy, and occasionally right into an explosion.

The concussion grenades were going off in a roughly straight line a half dozen metres ahead of the antithesis line, big blasts that tossed up dirt and flung away any alien unfortunate enough to be within the radius.

The bombs went off like a metronome, a bang every tick.

I grinned as part of the explosive line went off right on top of the meatiest part of the horde and dozens of aliens were ripped apart. The last bit went off behind the horde, which was a bit unfortunate.

I’d thinned it though, and a good chunk of the remaining antithesis were limping or were too injured to keep on going.

“Myalis, I think we need to switch it up,” I said. “Concussions are nice, but they’re too... binary. They either kill the fuckers, or miss outright. Maybe something a bit more... fire-y?”

Something that will last longer, then. A liquid that combusts with contact to oxygen might suffice. With a dispersal system to spread it. Perhaps a napalm-based explosive? It would create a temporary barrier between the antithesis and the convoy.

I nodded. “That sounds perfect. Same rate, on my mark?”

Ready.

I dropped down, much closer to the ground than I had been on my last run. A bit more dangerous, sure, but I also wanted to be more accurate with my fire.

“Now,” I said as I took off.

The first grenade appeared next to me, a small canister, the size of a bigger soda can. It flopped down and out of sight. I couldn’t afford to look back, not when I was so low to the ground that the taller stalks from roadside weeds were whipped back with the air from my passage and the nearest antithesis to my right were so close I could see the saliva clinging to their teeth.

The first grenade went off with a sound like a fart in a tin can. It made up for that with a wash of heat that I felt on my back as I raced ahead.

Each burst increased the burning crackle until I pulled up and away at the end of the antithesis formation. When I glanced back, it was to see a sight that would make Gomorrah proud, a wall of flames, thicker by the middle, but still a good couple of metres wide. Some aliens were caught in the flames, writhing around as they burned.

The rest, smart enough not to run into a puddle of napalm, were bunching up and hesitating. A few started to run around the flames, but they’d have a long way to go.

A long way while staying entirely within the range of the turrets and manned guns in the convoy.

Flickering laser beams caught aliens in their sides and followed them long enough to put them down and the few trucks with turrets protecting the convoy opened up, firing past the napalm and into the enemy’s flanks.

“That’s a lot of fire,” Grasshopper said over the coms. “It’s actually good for the environment to clear out some surface brush on occasion. I don’t think you’re supposed to use napalm for that though.”
“It’ll go out eventually,” I said. “How are things by the front?”

“Well enough, so far,” Grasshopper said. “But the numbers are increasing. I think the forest will be a problem.”

“Well, I have plenty more napalm,” I said.

“I think passing through the forest while it’s on fire would also be a problem. Maybe we can come up with another solution. One that doesn’t harm the nice trees as much?”

I sighed. “We’ll see.”

***