Star Cat Forever: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 6)

by Andrew Mackay

  CHOMP.

  She bit into the wiring in his neck and chewed the Titanium plate away from the top of his chest.

  STABBBBB.

  She threw her claws through the black material and clenched her fist around what felt like a rectangular box.

  “D-D-D-Diieeeeeee—” DD-12 twelve’s voice rattled and diluted as she tugged on whatever was inside of its neck.

  CRUNCH — CRUNCH.

  “Whurrr-whurrr,” DD-12 struggled.

  Its arms fell to its side as Jelly squeezed the rectangular device between her claws. She lifted her right leg and placed the sole of her boot on its chest.

  “Batteries, huh?” she quipped. “Useless. They never last.”

  BOOT.

  Her right boot thumped DD-12 back-first into The Processor.

  The rectangular, black box and wires tore away from its neck hole, still in her hand.

  DD-12 splayed its arms out and tried to push itself away from the mold forming around its shoulders.

  “Automation process initiated,” the speaker advised. “Stage One. Commencing.”

  DD-12’s battery slipped through her claws and hit the floor as Jelly watched The Processor work.

  WHIRRRRRRR.

  DD-12 powered down as The Processor added a secondary piece of armor across its chest, pushing the original through inside. His legs buckled and slid to its knee connectors as the arms in The Processor extended and bolted the arm plates to its neck.

  “Error, error,” the speaker announced. “Unidentified item in the processing area.”

  WHUMP — CLAMP.

  Jelly’s eyes reflected the droid’s messy execution at the hands of The Processor.

  “Enough,” she whispered. “Enough.”

  She lifted her right arm and pointed the mini-gun at DD-12.

  “Error, error,” the speaker advised. “Please remove item and recommence procedure.”

  Jelly snorted, “I’ll go one better. I’ll remove you from the face of the planet.”

  Biddip-beep.

  Jelly’s mini-gun spun into a frenzy and unleashed a torrent of bullets into DD-12’s body and the mold behind it.

  THRAT-A-TAT-A-TAT — KRAAA-BA-BANG.

  Jelly continued to fire and destroy The Processor as she paced back to the gantry.

  The Processor busted apart. The interior mold cracked and shattered around DD-12’s fallen body.

  Jelly lowered her gun and crouched to her knees. She smiled at the decimated piece of machinery and yanked on the mini-lever in her left glove, “Uh, thanks for the suit.”

  WHOOOOSH.

  A burst of fire pushed her forty feet into the air. She spun around at the summit and grabbed hold of the gantry railings.

  “Ngggggg,” she groaned as she lifted her right leg over the metal and landed, ass-first, on the walkway.

  WHUP — CLANG.

  “Nice. Now, let’s murder us some bad guys,” she spat as she stood up straight and ran to the door.

  Just as she arrived, she looked at her right-hand gun and spotted the USARIC logo etched onto the side.

  The very sight of the name was enough to evoke a rage of hell deep inside her stomach.

  “Yaaarrggghhh.”

  SCHWUNT.

  A grenade launcher unclasped on the side and armed itself. She swung her right arm at The Processor and yanked on the lever in her glove.

  WHUMP.

  The shell darted out of the launcher and into The Processor.

  Jelly didn’t stick around to see the impact. She ran through the door and into the reception area.

  ***

  Sierra pressed her elbows on the hood of the gray van and aimed her gun at the front of the Research building.

  “Can you see anyone?” Amelia asked from behind the tire.

  “No, I think they’ve fallen back.”

  Sierra squinted at three suited men with guns behind the enormous burning wreckage in front of the building.

  “It’s them.”

  “Who?” Roman asked, ready to pounce and return fire.

  “Sheck, and two of his boyfriends.”

  “Can you take them out?” Amelia asked.

  Sierra closed one eye, forcing the sight into focus on Maar’s chest, “Taking the shot.”

  The crook of her finger pressed back against her trigger, when—

  WHUDDA - WHUDDA - WHUDDA.

  The gale from a helicopter blew Sierra’s blue bangs across her eyes. The opportunity to take Maar out was lost in a flash.

  “Damn it.”

  “What?”

  Amelia, Roman, and Sierra looked up to see a giant twin-propeller helicopter hovering above the grounds.

  She averted her eyes to the three men, who pointed at the sky and punched the air.

  Scores of USARIC mercenaries flooded around them and ran across the concourse.

  “Oh, no. No, no, no—” Sierra screamed. “They’re gonna escape. And there’s more of those bastards coming.”

  Amelia exhaled and joined Sierra at the hood of the van, “Goddamn it. Let me take a shot.”

  BANG. BANG.

  Amelia fired two shots at the three men and missed.

  The USARIC mercenaries looked at the van, “Over there. They’re over there.”

  “Oh, great,” Sierra said. “Roman.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Reload. There’s more of the bastards headed straight for us.”

  Roman cocked his gun and held his fist at Remy, “Stay down.”

  “Okay.”

  The boy peered through the shattered van window and watched his friends shoot at the oncoming horde of mercenaries.

  Maar held his hand out at the van and screamed at the approaching mercenaries.

  “Over there. They’re over there. I want them all dead.”

  The helicopter lowered itself over the ensuing carnage, “Maar, standby for the ropes.”

  “There are three of us,” Maar screamed at the helicopter.

  “Huh?” Santiago counted himself, Maar, Brayn and Arden, “There’s four of us.”

  “Huh? Where the hell have you been?” Maar shrieked.

  “Out here, broadcasting everything.”

  “So you didn’t get Anderson being battered by my death droid?”

  “Uh—”

  “—Useless media imbecile.”

  Santiago’s mini drone hovered over to Maar’s face and flashed its red beam at him.

  “Christ. At least tell me your drone thing is still broadcasting?”

  Maar pulled on his gun strap and grabbed the barrel.

  “Yes, it is,” Santiago said. “It’s been broadcasting for almost an hour straight.”

  Maar cocked his shotgun and pointed it at Arden’s face, “You counted four of us?”

  “Yes, me, you, Brayn and—”

  Arden squinted at the end of the barrel, “Maar? What are you—”

  BLAMMM — SCHPLATTT.

  Maar blasted Arden’s head clean off his shoulders.

  “I count three.”

  “J-Jesus Christ,” Santiago choked with fear as he watched Arden slump to his knees and die in the upright position against the wall.

  Brayn held his breath and turned to Maar for a reaction, but he didn’t get one.

  “See what happens when you cross me?” Maar screamed at the mini-drone. “See what they made me do? Goddamn morons. This is all your fault.”

  WHUP — WHUP.

  Three carbon-fiber ropes whipped out from the side of the helicopter and slapped to the ground in front of the three men.

  “Okay, grab on,” came the voice from the Metal Bird One’s speakers, “Let’s get you guys out of here.”

  SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP.

  Maar, Brayn, Santiago - and his mini drone - all turned to the Research building.

  “Ohhhhh, dear,” Maar whelped.

  Jelly stormed through the reception area, crunching the tiles on the floor and made straight for the chasm in the wall where th
e doors used to be.

  “Maar Sheck,” she yelled as she lifted her mini-gun at his face. “Come here for a killing.”

  Brayn grabbed Maar’s shoulder and pushed him towards the second rope, “Get on the chopper.”

  “Jesus Christ, look at her, she’s—”

  “—Damn it, you dumb moron,” Brayn slapped Maar across the face and brought him out of his catatonia, “Grab hold of the rope.”

  “Never hit me again.”

  “Well, never be a stupid moron again, sir.”

  Jelly stomped forward and barged the statue of Pascal D’Souza out of her path.

  CLANNNGGGG.

  The line of sight afforded her the opportunity to take Maar out of the game once and for all.

  WHIRRRRR.

  The mini-gun on the end of her right arm spun around and prepared to fire at him.

  “Christ,” Maar clutched the rope and shimmied his way up with his feet, “Go, go, go,” he yelled at the sky.

  “Understood, sir.”

  Santiago waved his hand up, forcing the drone to broadcast his attempts to climb the rope.

  Brayn did the same and gripped onto the carbon fiber rope as tight as he could. He knocked his gun into his free hand and opened fire on Jelly.

  WHUDDA — WHUDDA — WHUDDA.

  Metal Bird One lifted into the air with the three men climbing up the ropes.

  “Maar, get back here,” Jelly said as she punched the last of the wall away from the building.

  “You dumb rodent,” Brayn screamed as he fired off several shots in her direction.

  BLAM - BLAM - CLAANNNGG.

  The bullets sparked as they flew off her new droid armor, “Jesus, what the hell happened to her?”

  “I d-dunno,” Maar gasped as he continued to climb, “Just keep shooting her till she’s dead.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He shot at Jelly once again as she lifted her right arm and returned fire.

  THRAA-TAT-A-TAT.

  The bullets chain-fired several corpses across the ground, pulverized the side of the research building and out into the sky, narrowly missing the helicopter.

  Sierra shot two USARIC mercenaries in the head.

  “Two down,” she screamed as Metal Bird One whizzed past her head, “Oh no, they’re getting away.”

  Five more mercenaries opened fire on the van. Sierra didn’t notice as Amelia and Roman took cover behind the tire.

  “Sierra, get down.”

  SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP.

  “Citizen,” the first guard screamed, “Put down your weapon.”

  Sierra double-took and kept her gun aimed at Shane, the border guard from IRI-Two.

  “You put your gun down.”

  “No,” Shane said as he held his men back. “You can stop this. Surrender and put your—”

  “—No,” Sierra roared, “You put—”

  A giant shadow rolled across the ground, followed by a series of inordinately loud thumps.

  ROOOOAARRRR.

  Sierra lifted her head to find a twenty-five-foot armored tiger approaching the men from behind.

  It aimed its mini-gun at them and unleashed a flurry of bullets.

  THRAAAAAAAAT — SCHPLAT-SCHPLAT.

  Shane’s chest opened up as the bullets tore through his body and into the ground ahead of where he fell face-first.

  SPINNNN — SCHWUNT.

  Shane hit the deck, dead, along with his colleagues.

  The mini-gun slowed down in a haze of smoke, shrouding the helmet of the android that had saved Sierra’s life.

  She screamed for her life and considered firing at whatever emerged from the cloud of smoke, “My God, What the hell is—?”

  Jelly stomped out of the cloud of black smog and focused her yellow eyes on Sierra’s frightened face.

  The woman had seen God. Worse, she thought she might have known who she was.

  “Jelly?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s you.”

  Jelly lifted her head and pointed at the helicopter, “He’s getting away.”

  “Wha—?”

  Remy ran out from behind the van and expected to see a little house cat.

  “Jelly Anderson?” he said, looking around the floor, “But she’s not—”

  He stopped talking when he took in the sheer enormity of the creature standing before him.

  “Remy Gagarin.”

  His jaw dropped further than his heart sunk into his feet, “Oh. My. God.”

  “No time for cuddles, little boy,” Jelly said. “Sheck. He’s getting away.”

  Roman and Amelia stared at Jelly for what seemed like an eternity.

  “Stop ogling me like a bunch of perverts and get in the damn van,” Jelly screamed. “Go, go.”

  “Right.”

  Sierra looked up at Jelly. “Anyone else with you?”

  Jelly grunted and shook her head, “No.”

  “Alex never came back?”

  Jelly shook her head, feeling it better to withhold the truth and keep the peace. A little trick the humans and Androgynes taught her over the years.

  Sierra clapped her hands together and pointed at the door, “Amelia, start the van. Everyone, get in.”

  SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP — SCHTOMP.

  Roman helped Remy into the van and took their seats. Amelia started the engine and reversed the van over several murdered USARIC mercenaries.

  Sierra pinched her mouthpiece, “Rana, this is Sierra. Do you copy?”

  “Yes, Sierra. This is Rana. Sit-rep, please?”

  Sierra tried not to lift her head and stare at Jelly, “Uh, we have Anderson-shaped consignment.”

  “What?” Rana’s voice lifted with excitement. “You’re kidding me—”

  “—Look, no time to explain. Start the engine and wait for the gray IRI van. We’re taking it out of here.”

  “Who’s with you?” Rana asked.

  “Don’t ask. Start the engine and await my instruction. We’ll be there in three.”

  “Got it.”

  Sierra ran over to the van and gripped the door frame as it backed up to the gate. She looked up at Jelly as she ran after the vehicle.

  “Jelly?”

  “What?”

  “You can’t fit inside the van,” Sierra screamed as the wind blew across her face, “Where are you going to—?”

  STOMP — STOMP — STOMP.

  “Get in the van,” Jelly roared as she picked up the pace and launched herself forward by her hind legs.

  WHOOOOOM.

  Amelia yanked the handbrake and spun the van around one hundred and eighty degrees.

  SCHLAAAAAAM.

  Roman, Remy, and Sierra cowered as a gigantic thud crushed the ceiling down a few inches.

  “Wow, she has grown, hasn’t she?” Roman snapped.

  Amelia shifted her head to the side, just in time to avoid a decapitation.

  “Sorry about that,” a grunt came from the roof as Amelia hit the gas. “Carrying a bit of weight, here.”

  “That’s okay, pet,” Amelia yelled. “Just hang on tight.”

  “Never mind me. Just follow that fricken helicopter.”

  Jelly gripped the handlebars on the side of the van for balance, careful not to apply too much weight onto the mid-section of the roof.

  Sierra looked up at the dents in the roof and took a deep breath, “I dunno what’s happened to her, but she’s sure pissed off.”

  Roman chuckled, “We got her, and that’s all that matters.”

  Remy punched his fists together and squealed with delight, “We got her. We got her—”

  “—Yeah, yeah, we’re not out of trouble just yet, my Russian friend,” Sierra said as she moved her mouthpiece in front of her lips. “Rana?”

  “This is Rana. Speak.”

  Sierra watched the helicopter bolt into the horizon.

  “The chopper’s gonna pass right by you any second now. It’s heading south on I-Ten.”

  “Got it.
Leaving Perimeter Zee, now.”

  “Good luck.”

  ZOOOOOOM.

  The van bolted through the battered gates, leaving hundreds of murdered citizens, USARIC employees, and one thoroughly devastated Research & Development Institute smoldering into the dusk-laden sky.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The Gulf of Mexico

  Furie waded through the cloudy, salt-infused water. She’d been holding her breath for a while now.

  Her pink lungs kept her journey going.

  Furie’s whiskers sparked and fizzed in the water, turning the salt into a ghostly contour that melted away from her body. They guided her through the murky water.

  A heavy, dampened commotion took place at the surface several feet above her head.

  The pink beam throttling the tree that wasn’t a tree. She couldn’t hear it, but she could feel it. A thousand meows from the cats who tried to climb tree joined the intensity of the vibrations that rifled through the water and pushed at her limbs.

  If she dared open her eyes she’d experience a stinging sensation in her head which would’ve turned to a soothing sensation, despite the blinding effect.

  Here, in the unfathomable depths of the Gulf of Mexico, things were different. She could see, yet not see. Hear, yet not hear. An undeniable stench of sulfur and burning drifted through her nostrils and guided her whiskers forward to the ungainly structure in the middle of the Gulf.

  The glow from her chest lit the way forward.

  Gwub-gwub-gwub.

  Furie’s lungs expanded. It was time for air.

  She tilted her body up and pushed her arms to her sides and rocketed towards the surface.

  WHOOOSH.

  She took a deep, desperate lungful of air and bobbed in the water.

  “Aaaagghh.”

  Two cats, who’d ran into the water all that time ago, swam beside her and meowed at the top of their little lungs.

  “Hey, wh-what’s going on? Friends?”

  “Maaooowww.”

  The cat lifted its paw at the tree and tried to keep its head above water.

  “No, it’s not a tree, honey,” Furie said. “It’s an antenna.”

  BWAAAAAAARRRRRSSSHHHHH.

  The tip of the “tree” beamed and glowed in time with Furie’s heart.

  “Owwwwww,” she grunted and breast-stroked along the surface to the tree, “Something’s pulling at me. I c-can’t—”