Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Nineteen - Vital Defensive Preparation

Chapter Nineteen - Vital Defensive Preparation

I like the ship.

On the one hand, sure, its classical trope stuff. The hardboiled, mean-spirited punk falling for the angelic nice-girl nun, but I mean, tropes exist for a reason you know!

Plus, I bet that in private, Gomorrahs totally the dom. I mean, have you seen the amount of faux-leather in her outfit?

--ShipBattles Forum post by user Youralis, 2057

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My plan had three basic steps, and of course I ran into trouble before the first one was out.

Fuck, I said succinctly.

Myalis had continued to direct my drones through the hive tunnels, and that meant that with each passing minute we had a better picture of where the hive was. The good news was that few of the branching tunnels were under Downtown. Not none, but few, which was the second best option there.

Then Myalis, being the helpful little AI she was, kindly pointed out a big glaring issue that I hadnt considered.

If we wanted to spread the alien-eating nanogoop to as many aliens as possible, then wed need to insert it in a few spots, and the best of those were all hard to reach. She overlaid a few locations in the tunnel network where we could do the insertion, but they werent all close at hand.

Okay, I said. My first thought was finding suicidal volunteers to head out and drop the packages off, but there were other, better options. We send out drones. Same cat drones that were using already, but with the bombs attached to them. Is that doable? I asked.

Of course. The cats will also be able to reach the locations that Ive designated as ideal spreading points with relative ease. Though this will take time in any case, and there are few locations to insert them from. The hole in the basement of the museum is one of three locations Ive found so far, and its the most convenient.

I nodded along. It wasnt central or anything, but... yeah. Time to delegate. Get me the General, I asked while I paced along the length of the food court. I didnt care if anyone saw me, really. Manic was still around, cleaning her nails out with a guitar pick. Sprout and Gomorrah had run off to prepare the defences and Johnny--Arm-a-Geddon, that was, had run off to... I didnt know, try to get laid maybe?

A line opened up on my augs with a boring image of the generals face as the only indicator of who I was talking to. Stray Cat? he asked.

You got any militia people with honking big testicles, General? I asked.

He chuckled. I might have a few. What needs doing?

I need a very precious cargo driven to a specific location and delivered to a specific hole. And no, this isnt any sort of innuendo. I need people to deliver a load of drones to the museum, specifically the basement where theres access to the antithesis tunnel network.

Is this going to be the sort of mission where we only ask for volunteers? he asked.

I swallowed. I hope its not that bad but... maybe ask anyway. We dont want cowards on this one. Give them your best gear too, and maybe I can throw in a few bonuses. Uh, while I have you on the line, where would be the best place to dump off a heap of Samurai-grade weapons?

Mall, second floor, weve taken over a row of shops there, he said. Ill have someone meet you.

Alright. Will you be able to distribute things quickly?

Well try. No promises when it comes to the civilians though, they might decide to run and hide. There was no contempt there, just a matter-of-factness to everything that made it sound terribly truthful. Some civilians would run, and there wasnt anything we could do about it.

Thanks, General. Well deal with that when the time comes, I guess. Getting as many people ready to receive the horde as we can is more important for now.

With that done, I started to make my way across the mall. Of course, my pacing meant that Id ended up as far from the nearest escalator bank as I could be without stepping outside. That was fine, it gave me time to get my next call out of the way.

Lucy answered on the third ring, and the first thing I heard was her breathing. Her breathing which was hard and laboured. Uh, I said. Hey... whatre you up to? I asked.

She laughed between pants. Wouldnt you like to know.

Desperately, I said. You know, you can set your augs to record whatever it is youre doing in first person...

Oh? she asked, the teasing note in her voice was impossible to miss. Would you, ah, like that?

I swallowed then glanced around as I slowed my walk. This was very much not the time to be looking at something like that, but yes, I totally wanted to see.

Here, linking you in now. Enjoy the view, she said with a raspy chuckle.

I opened the link as soon as it came through and... watched through a floating screen in my vision as Lucy--in first person--knelt down and picked up one of those turrets wed been fabricating at home and loaded it up into the back of a van. She stopped after it was in, hands on her knees to catch her breath.

These things are way too heavy, she complained.

I snorted. Yeah, Ill bet. How come youre loading them?

Isnt that what you called for? she asked. She smacked her hands together and turned. I saw the front of our home. She was between the forelegs of the cat, just on the landing deck out front. The door was held open with a block of something and the kittens were carrying out turrets, working in pairs to lift them.

Yeah, but how did you know before I called?

Because Gomorrah is better at communicating with her girlfriend than you are, she said. She turned and I saw that Franny was around.

The redhead looked up and blinked. Girlfriend? she asked. Wait, who are you talking to?

Im talking to Cat. Give me a bit? Lucy asked. At Frannys nod she walked off to the side where she had a little bit more privacy. So, whats up?

Uh, literally just called to ask about the turrets. How many do we have?

Forty-seven, she said. And I think we wont be able to fit all of them in the van. Racs working on making more as we speak, but they take like, twenty minutes each, so even if we did a round trip and then returned we wouldnt deliver that many more.

Thatll help, I said. Also, what do you mean by we?

We as in me and Franny! Lucy said. Im going to be the door gunner!

Lucy, no, I said.

Lucy, yes! she cheered. Come on, it wont be that dangerous.

Its a van, not a gunship. Theres no door to gun from, I said.

I have a handgun, she replied. Then she looked down, unzipped the front of her blazer, and pulled a handgun out from where shed tucked it into the waist of her pants. See, she said.

Disregarding how hot that was, I said. Still no.

Lucy laughed and shoved the gun away after checking to see if the safety was still on. You cant stop me, Cat. Besides, its just a quick trip over, right? Ill kiss you in like, an hour, tops. Alright? Now, I need to get back to work. Love you!

And then she had the gall to disconnect me.

Lucy was coming here. Oh, I could probably stop her, for now, but then it would become a challenge and I really didnt want to stand in Lucys way when she felt challenged about something. That wouldnt be healthy for our relationship. Besides, I did kind of miss her.

So, if I fucked up here, I wasnt just going to get a few thousand civilians dead, I was going to end up without Lucy too.

Well, fuck, I muttered. Myalis, how many points do I have left? I asked as I ran up the escalator. The clock was ticking.

You currently have ninety-six thousand, four hundred and twelve points remaining. You have been spending without paying them much heed recently, but that amounted to less than three percent of your point total, so I didnt see the need to be overly concerned.

Uh-huh, I said. Were going to be spending a lot more. I need drones with those nanomachines, I need turret emplacements, I need entire crates of easy-to-use weapons, and I need cases of grenades. If we cant make the walls around Downtown impervious, then well just turn everything at street level into one big killing field.

Oh, wonderful! In that case, might I suggest a few catalogues?

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