He covered his mouth with his hand and bit down on his thumb, realizing just how serious the situation at USARIC had become.
“Oh my God—”
“—Anderson, for God’s sake, get back,” Sierra yelped as she clutched his arm and marched him towards the truck. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“But, b-but—”
“—Damn it, you’re gonna get yourself killed. It’s not safe here.”
Jamie walked with her and stared at the gun in Remy’s hands.
“Wh-what are you—”
“—What’s up? English?” The Russian boy grinned. “What, you never seen a gun before?”
“No, I-I—” Jamie stammered as the catastrophic noise of war unfurled behind them.
“Here, this is for you.”
Remy slipped the machine gun off his shoulder and chucked it at Jamie, who caught the length of it in both hands.
“What?”
“Don’t point it at the people you’re working with.”
Roman chuckled to himself, “That’s my boy.”
“I did good, didn’t I?” Remy asked.
“You’re doing great, Gagarin,” Roman said. “I am hoping you won’t have to use the weapon. But it is not over, yet.”
“Damn right it ain’t over. I’m gonna kill me some USARIC scum bags before the night is over.”
Sierra pushed Jamie aside, “No one’s shooting anyone till I say so.”
Rana placed her hands on her hips and frowned.
“What’s going on?”
“Who let Anderson run into the war zone?” Sierra asked in an accusatory tone. “Was it you?”
“Of course not. He just ran off.”
Leesa and Remy exchanged glances.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
She focused on the gun in Remy’s hands.
“Nice gun.”
“Thanks.”
Sierra circled the air with her hand and turned to her team, “Listen very carefully to me, okay? Jelly’s out there. There’s hundreds of those bastards trying to take her down. She’s not going to make it. Rana’s got the truck lined up.”
Sierra held her right hand to the side of her head.
“We’re gonna launch the truck right into The Arena where they based.”
“And then what?” Jamie asked.
“And then we’re gonna blow the ever-lovin’ shit out of it and take them all out. Any questions?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Good. On no account do you remove yourself from cover. Do you understand me?”
Everyone nodded.
Sierra looked at the three children, “Especially you guys. I’m not going to be held responsible for what happens to you. I’ll die before any harm comes to you.”
“Okay,” Leesa said.
“So, you guys take cover behind the gray van.”
Remy lifted his gun and slipped his finger over the trigger, “Not me, though. I’m going to fight with you.”
Sierra launched into maternal mode, “Remy?”
“What?”
She nodded at Jamie and Leesa, and then held her hand out at Lydia in the truck.
Scritt—scritt.
Sierra felt an itch on her calf. She reached down to scratch it as she spoke, “I need you to protect these troopers, here. If those bastards get through the concourse, the kids won’t be able to defend themselves.”
Jamie looked at Sierra’s boots and lifted his ears,” Uh, Sierra—”
“—You want me to defend two American and one English?” Remy said, chewing over the prospect. “Okay, I accept.”
“Keep the war hot, young man. I’m counting on you.”
“You can.”
“Sierra?”
“What is it?”
“Your boots,” Jamie said.
“Huh?”
Everyone looked at Sierra’s left boot and held their breath. Rana pointed at the thing snaking around her legs.
“Bobbie.”
“Meow.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Who’s Bobbie?” Leesa asked. “And what—”
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE.
Everyone’s head turn to the fence as scores of eyeballs blinked through the wire mesh. The waves from the Gulf crashed behind them
“Meeooooowwww,” they all roared in unison.
“Oh Holy Moly,” Roman said. “Look at that.”
CLING — CLANG - RATTLE.
Hundreds of shiny Titanium claws scurried and scratched up the fence as Bobbie hopped around and cheered them on.
“Meow, meow, meow.”
Bobbie’s high-pitched chants were greeted by a whirlwind of howls and shrieks
Dozens of cats climbed the railings and launched themselves to the ground.
The first among them was an Egyptian Mau, who raced over to the human beings and dug her paws onto the tarmac.
WREEENNCCCHHH — PULLLL.
“Mwaaaarrrr,” she growled, ready to kill.
Suzie Q-Two followed behind her and made her presence known by rolling across on the ground and splaying her legs.
Leesa’s face lit up, much to Remy’s consternation. He hadn’t been as lucky as his two peers, today.
Leesa ran over to her pet and held out her arms, “Suzie, where did you—”
ROOOWWWARRRRR.
Suzie Q-Two jumped in the air and landed on all fours. She didn’t want her owner anywhere near here.
“Oh,” Leesa grunted with disappointment, “But—”
GNASH - ROAARR.
“Whoa. Easy, girl.”
Leesa backed up as Suzie Q-Two swung her vicious, metal claws at the girl.
“Meow.”
“Okay, okay.”
Crutch—crutch.
A pained whine drifted over Roman’s shoulder. He turned around and nearly jumped in his boots.
“Jeeez,” he shrieked. “What the—?”
Everyone averted their eyes to the ground. A few meters away, Bobbie had relieved a dead USARIC mercenary of his firearm.
“Mwurrggghhh,” she purred.
“Oh shit,” Roman screamed. “Get back, get back. If her mouth touches the trigger, she’ll—”
WHOP.
Bobbie dropped the gun to the floor and pushed the barrel to one side with her nose. She lifted her head to the rest of the cats who, by this point, had lined up behind Mau and Suzie Q-Two.
“Maaaah,” Bobbie said.
She slipped right paw under the barrel and lifted the end of the gun.
Astonished, Sierra’s jaw hit the floor, “Surely not?”
Bobbie stood up on her hind legs with the end of the gun tucked under her arm.
CRUTCH.
Bobbie kept the gun up with her left hand and reached for the trigger with her right paw.
“You must be kidding me,” Roman whispered in fright. “You mean to say she can—”
KER-TCHLUCK.
Bobbie cocked the gun and paced forwards, “Maaaooowww.”
“Uh, Bobbie?” Leesa tried. “Girl? Put the gun down.”
“Miew.”
Bobbie wiggled her nose and flicked her ears back. She lifted the gun as high as she could and wrapped her claw around the trigger.
“Meow?” Mau asked.
“Meow,” Bobbie confirmed.
Bobbie lowered the gun and went to rest, when suddenly —
BLAMMM.
The gun went off, catapulting the bundle of fluff into the air.
“Jesus—”
Everyone hit the deck as Bobbie spun around in the air, spread her limbs, and landed on all fours.
The cats jumped in the air and shrieked up a frenzy.
“Meow, meow, meow.”
Suzie hissed at Leesa as she bolted towards the concourse, with Mau and the scores of other cats in tow.
“Where are they going?”
“You wanna try and herd them all back?” Sierra said. “Good luck with that.”
/>
“Uh, no,” Jamie said.
Fifty of the cats ran onto the grounds and scrambled to find a discarded firearm from the hundreds of corpses scattered across the ground.
There were hundreds to choose from.
The other half of the destructive crowd bolted towards the five scattered PAWZ forklifts a few feet away.
TWIZZZ — SCHUNT.
Mau aided nine cats who pressed their paws onto the side of the first unit and pushed it upright.
WOBBLE — CLANNGG.
“Meow,” Mau ordered.
The cats raced into the opened calf after Mau, who climbed her way up the steps and inserted herself into the helmet.
Roman shrugged his shoulders and turned to the team, “Well, I guess the war is officially on?”
BIZZOOOWWW — WHIIIRRRR.
The twelve-foot high machine clanged forward, operated by a two cats in each limb - lower and upper left and right leg and arm, with a ninth in the chest and Mau in the helmet.
Mau gripped the gears in her paws and pushed them forward, “Meow.”
The Manx cat occupying the chest compartment nosed around the gears and slammed the butt of her palm on it, making the entire device tilt forward.
As the cat in the upper right arm waved her paw left and right so, too, did the arm belonging to PAWZ-1
SWISH — SWIPE.
“Meow,” Mau shrieked as the forklift stormed towards the war.
CRUNCH — CRUNCH — CRUNCH.
PAWZ-2, PAWZ-3, PAWZ-4, and PAWZ-5 followed behind.
Sierra screwed her face and half-chuckled.
“So, that happened.”
“Daddy,” Lydia yelled from the driver’s window.
“Lydia.”
Roman raced over to the truck and opened the door, “Come here. Are you okay?”
She jumped into his arms and hugged him tight, “Daddy, don’t go. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Shh, shh, sweetie. It’s okay. Remy and Jamie and Leesa will protect you.”
“But I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Sweetie, I have to fight.”
“B-But—”
“—No, Leesa,” Roman said.
He took her face in his hand and looked into her eyes, “These bastards are the reason your mother is no longer around. We’ve come this far. Our men have given their lives. I cannot back down now.”
Lydia wasn’t happy with the news, but put on a brave face.
“Kill them, Daddy.”
“I will. I swear.”
He pecked her on the forehead and lifted her back into the truck, “Now, stay safe. And do what Rana says, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy.”
“I love you.”
WHUMP.
“Okay, let’s dispense with the pleasantries, my friends,” Sierra snapped and waved the children over to the truck. “Remy?”
“Yes?”
She winked at the boy and held the side of her gun at him, “Remember where you are.”
He lifted his rifle and gun-bumped with her, “You got it.”
“Let’s show these bastards that we can work as a team, yeah?”
“Hell yeah.”
“Go.”
Remy ran over to the truck and whistled at Jamie and Leesa, “Come on. Get over here.”
They acted upon his instruction and raced towards the truck.
Sierra ran her hands around Rana’s waist and kissed her.
“Ol’ blue hair would be proud of you, you know,” Rana said.
Sierra bit her lip and held back the tears.
“I know.”
“Promise me you’ll do one thing?”
“What?” Rana asked.
“If I don’t make it back, make sure—”
Rana pressed her index finger against Sierra’s mouth.
“No. Don’t say it.”
She pushed Sierra’s digit away with her tongue and rethought her sentence, “Just make sure the place goes boom, okay?”
“Ah, now, see? That’s what I’m talking about,” Rana chuckled. “Like they used to say a century ago.”
“How very last century of you.”
Rana slapped Sierra’s behind and threw her a cheeky wink, “Go kill ‘em, Skill.”
“Don’t you worry about that.”
“Ha!”
Sierra marched away from the truck and nodded at Roman, “Let’s do this.”
Roman inspected the side of his gun as he caught up to her, “Hey, Sierra.”
“Yeah?”
“She called you Skill back there?”
“Yes, she did.”
Sierra flipped her headgear across her face and thumbed the safety catch down on her gun as she picked up the pace towards the war zone.
“Why?”
“She always calls me by my surname when she’s serious.”
BLAMMMM.
Roman and Sierra flinched at the sound of a giant shell being fired near The Arena.
“Jeez, what was that?”
Jelly swung her right arm to a mega-vehicle firing at her. Its shell exploded off her left arm, cracking her armor.
GROOWWLLL.
She launched a grenade at the vehicle. It bounce off the turret, rolled across the ground and exploded, taking out a flurry of USARIC mercenaries.
A chorus of angry meows crept up from the ground, several feet behind Jelly. She turned around to see the five PAWZ forklifts storming towards her.
Mau peered through the visor of the first machine and threw the levers forward.
“Meow.”
The two yellow digital renditions on her visor beamed and blasted sideways. She pointed her right arm-gun at the approaching horde.
“KILL ‘EM.”
“Meow,” Mau shifted the gear forwards. PAWZ-1 stomped forward.
The cat in the right arm lifted her lever and fired off a round of shots from the canon in the housing.
BLAM - BLAM - BLAM.
The bullets chewed through the first line of mercs, killing them instantly.
Brayn darted out of The Arena and followed behind the hundreds of mercenaries pushing forward.
“What’s going on?”
“They’re advancing on us,” one of them said. “Get behind the mega-vehicle.”
Santiago followed behind the men with his mini-drone hovering by his face, “I dunno if you can see this, but it’s incredible.”
He pointed in the distance at the cat-powered forklifts storming across the grounds.
“Look at that. Have you ever seen anything like it—”
SCHPLATTT.
The mercenary Brayn was talking with dropped to his knees, having been hit by a bullet. A second blast took the visor off his helmet and entered his skull.
He slapped face-first to the floor, dead.
“Whoa,” Santiago yelped and turned to his mini-drone. “It’s carnage. And you saw it here first.”
“Push forward,” Brayn yelled from behind the mega-vehicle as it continued to roll forward.
PAWZ-2 clumped along the ground with difficulty. The cats inside couldn’t figure out how to make it fire its weapons.
“Meow.”
The white Persian in the head shrieked and climbed down the central ladder and hopped out of the unit.
Another cat in the left arm hit the trigger, shooting the ground.
THRAAAAAT-A-TAT.
PAWZ-2 tilted back due to the force and clanged onto its back, forcing the cats to hop out screaming.
“Meow, meow.”
They scrambled across the ground, hopping over the whizzing bullets.
Yellow barrel-rolled across the ground and arrived at a machine gun lying on the floor.
“Grrrrr.”
She lifted the barrel with her forehead and dug her hind legs into the floor. Her front paw wrapped around the trigger and pulled back.
BLAM.
The little bundle of fluff propelled off the end of the gun as it blasted the side of the mega-vehicl
e.
“Mwaaahhhh.”
She climbed to her feet and shook the fatigue from her head.
Jelly waved PAWZ-3 and PAWZ-4 over to her.
The cats inside seemed to have figured out how to operate it.
WHIIRRRR — CRITCH.
Both machines fired their weapons at the advancing mercenaries, who shot back.
CLANG — CLANG — BLAST.
Sparks rippled up the side of PAWZ-3 as it returned fire and took out a row of USARIC mercenaries.
“I don’t believe this,” Brayn said. “Are we fighting cats, now?”
WHOOOOOSH.
Brayn lifted his head to the night sky to see a fighter jet storm through the sky and open fire on the ground.
BRRAAAAAAAYYYZZZEEE.
Two strips of bullets tore up the path, shunting PAWZ-3 onto its side.
“Halt,” Brayn screamed as he pushed forward and opened fire on Jelly and the PAWZ vehicles. “Stand your ground.”
Santiago ran off to the fence and tried to glean a better view of the fighting cats, “My God, they’re everywhere.”
“Meow.”
Santiago looked at his shoes to find a white bundle of fluff looking up at him.
“Hey, girl,” he grinned. “What are you doing here? What’s your name?”
He scanned her leg and read the tag, “Suzie Q-Two?”
“Meeeee-y-yeaahh.”
SCHWUNT — STAB.
“Ufgh,” Santiago clutched his legs and hit the ground. Suzie yanked her infinity claw from his shin and licked the blood off the end.
“Me-oww.”
“Agh, agh,” Santiago gasped and focused his eyes on a twelve-foot forklift stomping his way.
PAWZ-5, with a particularly vicious white bobtail in the head. Bobbie.
Santiago held his arm over his face and begged for his life. “Please, d-don’t.”
WHHHIIIIRRR - TCHLOCK.
PAWZ-5 stomped forward and picked Santiago up by his ankle.
“Gaaaaahhhh,” he wailed as he swung to and fro.
PAWZ-5 stomped backwards as the cats meowed and hollered within their respective compartments.
Suzie Q-Two hopped up and down and threw her left paw at the mega-vehicle.
“Mwah?”
“Mwah,” Suzie Q-Two demanded.
PAWZ-5 lifted its arm above its head and chucked the screaming Santiago right into the battle zone.
His body tumbled through the air like a flailing animal and into the line of fire.
Two streams of bullets caught his fall, tearing into thousands of bloody pieces.
Star Cat Forever: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 6) Page 33