Star Cat The Complete Series

by Andrew Mackay

  TCHA-CLUTCH.

  “It’s just you and me, asshole,” Jelly growled. “You wanna die, now? Or do you want a head start?”

  Brayn’s index finger quivered around the trigger. He tried to keep his eyes on the sight at the end of his gun, but his two dead colleagues reminded him of just how successful their own challenge was.

  Jelly yawned, forcing her eyes and teeth to stretch back round her face for a half-second.

  Brayn gasped at the brief image of terror.

  “J-Jesus Christ.”

  “Your call, dickhead,” Jelly spat. “I’m still hungry, if that helps?”

  Brayn froze still for a split second — and then bolted towards the door.

  BLAM — BLAM.

  Jelly fired off a round of shots at Brayn as he ran back into the building, leaving one thoroughly confused and scared mercenary on his own.

  “What’s going on in there?” Jelly asked the merc.

  He held up his hands and surrendered, “I d-don’t know. There’s a van outside threatening to blow itself up.”

  “Say that again?”

  “I said there’s a van—”

  “—Ugh, that was a rhetorical question. Don’t actually say it.”

  “O-Okay.”

  GRUNT.

  Jelly snorted and lifted her head at his rifle.

  “Throw me your gun, dickhead.”

  Feeling the urge to oblige, he unhooked it from his arm and tossed it in her direction.

  SNATCH.

  She caught it in mid-air and marched to the back door, “Show me my respect, scumbag. Get on your knees.”

  “Y-Yes.”

  “Do it.”

  She pulled the door open and turned over her shoulder to see that the man had done exactly as she asked. Kneeling on the ground, hands behind his head, like a frightened chicken.

  “Now, lay down like a dog.”

  He followed her order and laid down like a dog.

  “Go to sleep. There’s a good boy,” she giggled. “Come on. Woof-woof.”

  She pulled the door shut behind her and ran into the bay corridor.

  WHUMP.

  The back door closed shut.

  The merc stayed down and wondered when he should get back up again - or if he should even bother at all.

  Chapter 14

  VROOOOOM.

  Suttle throttled the gas.

  The blue van stormed towards the Research Facility’s closed gates with Amelia’s gray van zooming behind it.

  Sierra looked through the windshield, “Ram it,” she yelled.

  “What, are you crazy?” Roman spat from the driver’s seat. “Hold on to something. You’ll go through windshield.”

  “Yeah. Good thinking.”

  She pinched her mouthpiece and ducked behind the seat.

  “Okay, everyone ready?”

  “Yeah,” Amelia said as she sped her gray van at speed. She gave him the thumbs up and roared over her shoulder, “Everyone, hold onto something. We’re taking the hard way in.”

  The giant gates screamed toward the blue van.

  “As soon as we’re in, kill everything.”

  “Everything?” Amelia asked.

  “E-ver-y-thing,” she screamed and braced herself for impact.

  The USARIC guard at the gates spotted two vehicles tear towards him and jumped out of their path.

  “Oh, shiiii—”

  WHOOOOSH — KERAA-AAAANNNGG.

  The front of the blue van smashed through the metal and careened onto its left wheels, tipping Roman and Sierra against the windows.

  WHUMP — BUMP.

  “Whoa,” Sierra squealed.

  Amelia spun the wheel and directed the front of her van at the guard, who failed to move away in time.

  “Oh, shiii—”

  WVHOOOM — SCHPATT-TT.

  A torrent of blood raced up the windshield as the van crunched over the guard’s body, finishing him off entirely.

  “For God’s sake,” she screamed and slammed on the brake.

  SCREEEEEEECH.

  The red van rolled to a halt, forcing its occupants forward.

  WHUD — WHUD.

  The back doors flew open and released the armed Misfits, Saad, and Remy to the ground. They swung their guns to the petrified USARIC employees.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” Saad yelled at the stunned USARIC employees and mercenaries, “Would you all be so kind as to get on the floor? Now.”

  BLAMMM - -SPLAAATCH.

  He shot a mercenary in the chest and immediately reloaded.

  “Anyone need me to repeat that?”

  The nearby employees dropped to their knees as scores of USARIC mercs opened fire on the Rebels.

  BLAMM - BLAMM - BLAMMM.

  “Remy, get down,” Saad said. “Behind the van. Go.”

  The boy scurried over to the tailpipe and held his hand gun against his chest, full of excitement.

  Saad pointed at the handgun in Remy’s hands, “Just aim and shoot. Kill anything that moves.”

  “Yaaaarrggghhhh—”

  Remy hopped out from behind the van and pointed his gun at an armed guard, who fired back at him.

  BANG — BANG — SCHPLATT.

  The bullets whizzed past the boy’s head as he fired off a shot into a merc’s knee.

  “Gah.”

  “Oh, oh—” Remy gasped. “I hit him.”

  Saad giggled and inspected his gun, “Well done, comrade.”

  Startled, the severity of Remy’s actions made him pause in the middle of the firing line, “You just restarted the Cold War. Get down if you don’t want to end up like him.”

  Remy slid to his knees and grabbed Saad’s arm, “Where’s Suttle?”

  Saad pointed at the blue van rolling to a stop a few feet away, “Over there.”

  Suttle slammed the accelerator. His blue van careened towards DD-12.

  The giant android prepared itself for impact, “Come here,” he yelled as he bent down and opened his ten foot palm.

  VROOOOOOOOM.

  Suttle released the steering wheel and kicked himself out of the driver’s seat, “Hold on—”

  WHUP.

  DD-12 took the width of the van in its clutches, lifted his arm, and launched the blue van into the air.

  It twisted around as its peak of trajectory and hurtled back down to the ground.

  SLAMMMM.

  The van’s windows shattered as it crashed against the ground.

  DD-12 growled and punched the ground with its fist, causing a mini-earthquake.

  “Kill them all,” it yelled at the mercenaries, who continued to fire at the Rebels and Misfits.

  Sierra grabbed Roman and yanked him to the back of the van, “You okay?”

  “I think so.”

  “Get out,” Sierra booted the back doors open and jumped onto the ground.

  BANG— BANG — BANG.

  “Damn it,” she roared as she marched into the oncoming bullets of three USARIC mercs, “You assholes.”

  THRAAA-A-TAT-A-TAT.

  Sierra sprayed a full clip of bullets at the men, killing them instantly. She dropped the magazine to the ground and kicked it away with her right boot.

  “Guys, can you hear me?”

  “Yeah, we’re online,” Amelia’s voice flew into Sierra’s ears via the headset.

  WHUP.

  Sierra palmed a fresh magazine in her gun and ran behind the van.

  SCHPANG — SCHPANG.

  She ducked behind the back window as two returning bullets flew her way, “Where are you?”

  SPATT — SPATT - SMASSSHHHH.

  Two bullets hit the side of the van, followed by a third that shattered the window, covering Sierra’s shoulders with fragments of glass.

  “Sierra, behind you,” Amelia said. “Two tangos to your right.”

  Sierra widened her eyes and peered from behind the van, “Got it.”

  She hopped out from behind the van and blasted two more mercenaries
in the backs of their heads. Their bodies somersaulted and smashed their faces against the ground.

  “Tangos down.”

  Roman knocked his head on the side of the battered blue van and pushed his finger to his ear, “Suttle, you read me?”

  “Yeah, I read you,” came the response. “I’m a bit preoccupied here—”

  “—So I see.”

  Roman aimed down his sight and picked out two sets of USARIC mercenaries on either side of the grounds.

  “You got three on the left, and two on the right,” Roman said. “I’ll take the bastards on the right.”

  “Gotcha,” Suttle said. “In three, two, one—”

  THRAAAAATTT — SPATCH-SPATCH-SPLATT.

  Roman put a bullet in the backs of both mercenaries to his right, as the heads of three more opened up like a bloodied flower on the left, having been shot by Suttle.

  “Five in one go, Roman,” Suttle said.

  “Good kill, my friend.”

  Amelia waved the Misfits out into the concourse with her gun, “Get out there and commit genocide.”

  “Woohoo,” they screamed and aimed their guns at the horde of USARIC mercenaries running towards them.

  Each set opened fire on each other.

  THRAAAA-A-TAAAATTT.

  Bullets screamed through the air and crashed into bodies and vehicles all around them.

  Three Misfits dropped to their knees and released their guns as they hit the ground, dead.

  “Jesus Christ,” Amelia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “You wanna kill us, huh? Have some of this, assholes.”

  She jumped into the air, spun around, and opened fire on the horde, picking off as many mercs as she could.

  BAM — BAM — BAM.

  A torrent of bullets whizzed out of her gun and slammed into the ground. The next round hit three more mercs in their legs, pushing their knees to the floor, in time for the next set of bullets into their chests.

  “Gaaahhh—”

  KER-SCHPLATTTT.

  The last mercenary’s chest exploded in a bloodied haze of gunfire. Amelia reloaded her gun and ducked behind the gray van.

  “Christ, how many of them are there?”

  Sierra’s voice came through her headgear, “Hundreds. At least. We’re outnumbered. Hopefully, not outgunned. Stay away from IRI-Two and the Training facility.”

  Amelia dropped the empty magazine to the floor, reached into her pocket and palmed a fresh one into the grip of her gun.

  “Understood.”

  Siyam ran out from behind the blue van and returned fire at the scores of approaching mercenaries.

  BAM — BAM — BAM — BAM.

  He hit two USARIC mercenaries in their visors. They fell knees-first to the floor, and keeled over, dead.

  “Damn it, there’s millions of them,” Siyam gasped as he dropped his empty mags to the floor and returned to the safety of the back of the blue van.

  Siyam pinched his mouthpiece, “Sierra? What do we do? We don’t know where Jelly is—”

  The ground cracked all around his and Sierra’s feet, followed by three successive slams to the ground

  SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP.

  The shadow of a giant droid crawled along Siyam’s face. His jaw dropped at the enormous thing standing over him.

  “Holy hell. What is that?”

  Sierra looked up with him and raised her eyebrows, “Goddamn it. Siyam, run. It’s that damn droid. It’s gonna kill you—”

  DD-12 spun his head around and blinked its eyebulbs at Siyam.

  “—Surrender, citizen.”

  “Agh, agh,” Siyam pressed his shoulders against the van and kicked himself upright. He turned to Roman, who was next on DD-12’s kill list.

  “Roman, run.”

  “Huh?”

  Roman turned around and witnessed DD-12 grab the van in its giant forklift hand and crunch all four tires up into the roof.

  GROOOAAANNN — KEEERR-RUNCHH.

  The engine busted out from the hood as DD-12 closed its fist completely.

  “Siyam, run.”

  Roman opened fire on the behemoth as Siyam ran away from it.

  The bullets bounced off the droid like tennis balls on a brick wall.

  “Damn it,” Roman shrieked. “Nothing. It’s doing nothing. I c-can’t—”

  SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP.

  DD-12’s body revolved to the right, and swiveled its head left, settling on Roman. It threw its arm forward.

  SCHWUNT.

  A mini-gun rocketed into the palm of its hand and rolled into a blur.

  SCHREEEEEEEEEE.

  “Halt,” DD-12 grunted as his mini-gun spun at full pelt.

  BRRAAAAAYYYYYYZZZZZEE.

  Roman hurled himself out of the path of a thousand bullets chewing along the cemented ground, and up the wall of the Training facility building.

  Shane gasped at the sheer carnage taking place. He ran to the front of IRI-Two and punched Joseph on the back, “That thing’s gonna shoot us.”

  “What thing?”

  “That great big death droid thing,” Shane shrieked as he kicked the door open and stepped out, “It’s shooting the hell out of the building. I’m not staying here. Jesus Christ, we’re all gonna die.”

  Joseph remain seated, as did the rest of the men in the van, “Don’t, you’ll get us killed.”

  “Okay, stay here and look after this for me.”

  “Look after what?” Joseph asked.

  Shane gave the man the middle finger and closed the door. He turned around and surveyed what little remained of the landscape.

  Dozens of murdered USARIC employees and mercenaries littered the battlefield of death and destruction. Misfits fired at mercenaries, killing each by the dozen.

  “Jesus.”

  Shane yanked a machine gun from a murdered USARIC mercenary’s clutches.

  “Nggggg,” he yelled as the fingers clutching the grip panged open, “Got it.”

  “Hey, you,” came a voice from behind Shane’s shoulder.

  “Huh?”

  Shane looked over his shoulder and prepared to fire at the person who’d called to him.

  Maar Sheck stormed towards him from the research building, with Arden and Santiago behind him.

  “What the hell is going on here, you cretin? What the hell is happening in my compound? And why are you dressed as a border guard?”

  “Sir, they kidnapped us. I’m not a mercenary.”

  Maar held out his hand, “Gimme that fricken gun.”

  WHUMP.

  Shane pushed the machine gun in Maar’s arms and watched him storm into the middle of the battleground.

  He began firing indiscriminately at anything that fired at him.

  “WHO WANTS TO SHOOT ME, HUH?” Maar yelled as he sprayed the two vehicles with bullets, “GODDAMN IT. WHO WANTS TO SHOOT ME?”

  “Maar, get back,” Arden called after him. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

  “NO,” Maar yelled back, making damn sure the warring factions could hear him, “I’ve already died once, thank you very much.”

  He twisted his hips around and fired at the gray and blue van once again.

  “GONNA KILL ME, ARE YA? THINK YOU CAN TAKE USARIC DOWN ON ITS OWN TURF? THINK AGAIN, YOU BASTARDS.”

  Maar backed up and continued to fire his gun in RAGE’s direction.

  Suttle covered his glove with his right hand and yelled at Sierra, “Let me push the goddamn button.”

  Sierra reloaded her gun and huffed, “No. Don’t detonate the van. Not yet.”

  An series of bizarre electronic beeps followed her reply.

  KERRRR-WHUMP.

  A giant robotic leg daggered into the ground in front of Suttle’s face.

  “What the—?”

  He looked up to find a DD-12’s ugly face staring back at him, ready to punch him into the next dimension.

  WHIRRRRR — CLENCH.

  “Die,” DD-12 roared.

  Suttle�
�s face fell, resigned to his fate.

  “Oh, dear—”

  KERRRRR—ACCKKK — SMASSSSSH.

  DD-12’s van-sized fist rammed Suttle’s head through the back of the blue van, through the rows of seats, and into the engine.

  Suttle died instantly.

  His hand released the glove as his body, and the blue van, lifted away from the ground.

  GRROOOOAAAAAAANNN.

  DD-12 lifted its arm above its head, taking the van up with it, impaled on its forearm. The ground cracked apart as it stomped forward and slammed the van on the ground over and over again.

  WHAMM — WHAMM — WHAMMMM.

  The blue van broke apart with each punch, spraying gasoline-soaked shards of glass and metal in all directions.

  Everyone jumped back and continued firing at their enemy. Three Misfits ran straight into the oncoming hail of bullets being fired from the mercenaries by the Research building.

  Sierra spotted Suttle’s discarded glove lying a few feet from the devastated blue van. She hooked her gun over her shoulder, flung herself forward on all fours, and raced along the ground like a desperate cat.

  “Aaaaaaaggghh.”

  BLAM — BLAM — BLAM.

  The mercenaries spun around and opened fire on her, their bullets trailing her feet as she launched forward, gripped the glove, and barrel-rolled onto her side.

  “Hey, assholes,” she screamed as she listed the glove. “Duck.”

  Her index finger punched the button.

  BZZZZOOOWWWWW.

  Everything went silent. Her view of the battle crashed to a halt, and then—

  KERRRRRRRAA — BAAAAAMMMM.

  IRI-Two exploded in two separate sections, killing Joseph the driver, and all the border guards inside.

  “Whoa,” Sierra blurted as she lifted her head and witnessed the front of the vehicle rocket into the air.

  The warring factions halted their firing as they, too, watched the spectacle in the sky.

  “Everyone get back, get back—”

  The flying, flaming chunky remains of IRI-Two hurtled towards the training facility building.

  WHOOOSSSHHH — KERASSSSHHHH.

  The charred slab of metal slammed into the ground, cracking the tarmac apart.

  Maar lowered his shotgun as he watched the front half of the van crunch through the ground.

  WHIIIIIIISSHH.

  A plume of white, dusty gas escaped through the cracks in the tarmac.