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

by Andrew Mackay

  Jelly brushed the tip of her nose on the side of his face, enjoying every single second.

  “Wh-what happened to you, girl?”

  Jelly licked her mouth and pulled her head back. It was a question that threatened to make her heart explode.

  “Girl?” Jamie tried again.

  Jelly patted the tip of her mini-gun against her chest, several feet above Jamie’s head.

  Jelly squeaked like a little girl. “Look at me. Look what they did to me.”

  “B-But—”

  “—E-E-Everyone w-wants answers, Jamie,” Jelly continued. “I’m i-in s-so much p-pain.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m so t-tired.”

  Jamie blinked hard, squeezing the tears down his face, “I’m s-sorry.”

  Grrrrrr.

  Jelly slammed her left fist to the ground in anger.

  “Stop saying you’re sorry. Stop saying it.”

  “B-But I am—”

  “—You’re not sorry,” she growled. “You gave me away.”

  Jamie exploded with tears once again, demanding a chance to explain himself.

  “It wasn’t my fault—”

  “—You. Jamie Anderson,” she grunted and held back her tears, “You gave me away. My mother took me away in that damn cage,” she grimaced with emotion and almost lost the ability to speak, “I, ruh-ruh, r-remember it like it was y-yester-d-day.”

  She lifted her left finger to her face, but it was too big to wipe the tears away.

  “How c-could you d-do that to me?”

  “I didn’t know—” Jamie fumbled through his upset for an answer to a question he never thought he’d need to answer, “I was only five y-years old, and I—”

  “—And you thought I h-h-had what it took?” Jelly screwed her mouth with disappointment as Jamie nodded in agreement, “Yes. We both did, d-didn’t we? And l-look where we’re at now.”

  “I’m sorr—”

  Jelly punched the ground once again with her left fist. The impact rattled the truck from side to side.

  Rana gripped the door handle and steadied herself, “Jeez.”

  Jelly pinned her ears back and widened her pyramid-shaped eyes at Jamie in a threatening manner.

  “You say you’re sorry one more time, I’ll—”

  “—You’ll what?” Jamie asked.

  Jelly leaned back on her knees and coughed a rope of blood down her chin.

  “There’s nothing left to say.”

  She glanced at the detonator and went to reach for it when a shower of sparks roasted up the back of her armor.

  “Nggggg,” Jelly howled in pain as the mask reformed over her head.

  The shattered visor slipped down her face as she felt a million dots of fire roast through her armor.

  A giant droid operated by Maar stormed its way through the reception area and unleashed a stream of armor-piercing bullets in Jelly’s direction.

  “Get ready to curl up and die, you little bitch,” Maar screamed through the head compartment as he yanked on the gears.

  He squeezed the trigger on the two sticks and unleashed a second stream of bullets.

  “Haha,” he yelled as the Kozhikode unit crunched through the window, pulverizing it pieces.

  “Jamie, get down.”

  Jelly covered Jamie from the bullets.

  Each burst chewed through the armor and rifled up between her shoulders blades, tearing the material in two.

  Jelly winced as she felt the bullets punctured through her fur.

  “Nggggggg.”

  Jamie looked at the two yellow dots behind the pure black visor, “ Girl, please.”

  “Jamie, run,” she said. “I have to go take out the trash. I’ll protect you. Now, run.”

  She widened her arms and shifted her behind to the left to stop the stream of bullets getting past her.

  Jamie wouldn’t move.

  The onslaught of certain death didn’t seem to assuage his temperament in the slightest.

  “Ngggggg, don’t just stand there. G-Go—”

  “—I love you, girl,” Jamie tried.

  Jelly grunted at the boy as he waited for the same sentiment to escape her visor.

  “Love is the answer, Jamie,” she grunted in agony.

  “Huh?”

  “Love is the answer,” she howled. “I love you, too. Now, go.”

  He nodded, spun around and ran as fast as he could, away from the giant tiger-shaped shield protecting him from the bullets.

  “Jamie,” Sierra barked. “Over here, quick. Get to the van.”

  Roman, Remy, and Leesa hurried them over to the front of the van as Jamie watched Jelly raise to her feet and turn to face her new oppressor.

  “Goodbye, girl,” Jamie whispered.

  Sierra waved him along, “Come on, let her finish this.”

  Jelly turned to the truck. A strange groan came from the driver’s seat behind the busted steering wheel.

  Rana coughed a flap of blood down her chest, “Juh-Juh—”

  Jelly grunted and held her mini-gun arm in front of her chest.

  Rana’s chest had opened out like a flower, exposing her breast bone.

  Rana struggled through her last gasps for air, “Awwww,” she wailed, “I’mma-a, muh, muh, b-been h-h-hit.”

  Jelly kicked her left heel to the ground in anger as the bullets washed across the side of her gun.

  “P-P-Please? Juh-Juh—” Rana begged. “K-Kill m-me—”

  The Kozhikode stopped firing and launched into a jog, heading straight for Jelly.

  “—Hey, Anderson,” Maar yelled into the microphone hanging from the head compartment. “Say night-night, you dumb pussycat.”

  Jelly bent her elbows, tilted her head back, and wailed into the pink-coated night sky.

  “Arrgghhhhhh.”

  The two thirty-foot machines raced towards each other, ready to destroy.

  Kozhikode lifted its right arm and pushed itself forward. Its fist connected with Jelly’s helmet, pushing her visor across her face.

  She tumbled across the floor.

  “You murderous little rodent,” Kozhikode announced via the speakers in its chest plate. “Come here and get killed.”

  Jelly slammed her right foot to the floor, creating a vast ocean of cracks rippling across the tarmac.

  Kozhikode stormed over to her with its left arm raised above its head. Maar held his left hand above his head and karate-chopped it down to his feet.

  Kozhikode enacted exactly the same action. Its left hand sliced down through the air and smashed the top of Jelly’s helmet.

  The visor exploded, revealing her face.

  The top of the helmet jutted down, the dent pressing on top of her skull.

  “Ugghhhh.”

  She staggered to her feet and tried to remain upright as Kozhikode returned for more.

  Maar lifted his right leg and kicked forward.

  Kozhikode did the same, booting Jelly in the chest and flinging her against The Arena’s entrance.

  “Goddamn Star Cat,” Maar screamed into the mouthpiece, which turned his voice into an electronic rendition of death. “I’m gonna erase you from history.”

  Kozhikode’s chest plate opened out and allowed two canons to push through. One by one, they fired off a round of bullets, which screamed through the air and exploded off Jelly’s legs, taking much of the armor away with them.

  Jelly toppled to the side and crunched the ground on impact. She lifted her mini-gun at the approaching mechanized weapon bolting towards her.

  “Ugh, ugh,” she howled as she yanked on the trigger.

  A succession of rapid clicks indicated that the chamber had run out of ammunition.

  She squeezed the second trigger and blasted a grenade in Kozhikode’s direction.

  It hit the machine on its left shoulder, blasting its arm to the ground.

  “Yaargghh,” Maar screamed as the green beam that had smothered his left arm snapped to black. “You�
��ve already cost me enough money, you dirty little tramp.”

  Kozhikode trampled across the ground and fired another round of shots at Jelly. The bullets crashed into her waist, breaking her armor away from her stomach.

  The shards of heavy carbon crashed around her feet as her suit broke away.

  Jelly pressed the cracked end of her mini-gun to the ground and pushed herself into the prone position.

  She pounced and ran forward, throwing her right shoulder in front her face.

  The two machines collided in a haze of sparks as her shoulder armor daggered into Kozhikode’s chest, forcing it to tumble ass-over-head six times on the ground.

  Inside the control center, Maar slid against the magnetic plate and dropped to his behind.

  “Ugh, really? Now?”

  He climbed to his feet and planted his shoes on the sensor. Kozhikode did the same two seconds later, to find Jelly storming towards him.

  She growled, jumped in the air and bent her right knee.

  Kozhikode ducked as Jelly performed a scissor kick. Her foot pulverized the side of the machine, slamming it sideways to the ground.

  Maar tumbled around the control space. His shoulder slapped against the ceiling.

  “Ah, damn it,” he said as he lifted his feet above his head and pushed his feet to the plate.

  Kozhikode’s legs splayed out, spun around like a propeller, and folded over its head.

  Both its feet smashed the ground, and flipped its body upright.

  “Okay, okay,” Maar screamed. “Let’s do this.”

  Jelly hit a button inside the spent, broken mini-gun with her right hand. The feel of a clicking action rifled up her forearm as she swung at Kozhikode.

  The mini-gun darted away from her armored wrist and flew through the air.

  Kozhikode tried to duck to one side, but was too late.

  The mini-gun slammed into its waist, pushing it back against The Arena entrance.

  Kozhikode smashed through the glass frontage and tumbled over the fountain, mowing down the statue of Pascal D’Souza. Jets of water blasted in all directions, soaking Kozhikode.

  Streak of electric thunder exploded underneath the machine as it blasted into the air and landed on its feet.

  “Ah, I feel great,” Maar yelled. “Come here for a murdering, you prissy little bitch.”

  Kozhikode booted the splintered statue into the wall and launched itself as Jelly bolted in its direction.

  The two met at the fountain.

  Maar lifted his right arm and went to punch Jelly, who used it as an opportunity to throw her hands out and launch into his chest.

  She rammed into its neck and wrapped her arms around its enormous width. Both she and Kozhikode crashed through the reception wall and onto tarmac grounds.

  Kozhikode rammed Jelly in the helmet as she smothered him.

  “Nggggg,” she huffed.

  She rammed her armor-covered knee between the machine’s legs, forcing it across the ground.

  Kozhikode slammed its elbows to the ground and pushed itself upright. Barely a dent showed on its front. The machine, and Maar inside, had a lot of fight left in them.

  “Come here,” Kozhikode yelled at the exhausted, beaten Jelly as she staggered to her feet.

  Balance for her became a worrying issue.

  Her armor had all but torn away, much of her singed fur and wounds exposed to the nasty, smog smothered grounds.

  “Yaaaooowww,” Jelly groaned and doubled-over in pain. She clenched her left hand and felt the tip of her last remaining infinity claw pressed into her forearm like a syringe.

  She ran forward and threw a punch at Kozhikode, who side-stepped in time for her to miss and run screaming into the side of The Arena.

  Kozhikode walked backwards, crunching its feet over many of the dead USARIC mercenaries.

  Maar clapped his hands together with glee, forgetting that the droid he was in replicated the same movements.

  Kozhikode slammed its bus-sized hands together three times. The almighty sound was beyond deafening.

  “Jelly friggin’ Anderson,” the machine roared in its peculiar-sounding voice of death, “How do you like me, meow? Hah.”

  The back of Kozhikode’s right leg against something small, forcing the machine to topple over like a drunken wind-up toy.

  Jelly planted her feet on the ground and focused on the device that had bought her some time.

  The detonator.

  “No,” she grunted.

  Rana pressed her hand to her bloodied chest and shrieked, “Oh n-no y-you d-don’t,” she gasped.

  Kozhikode stomped over to the detonator and grabbed it in its right hand.

  “Ooh, what do we have here?” Kozhikode roared in its ungainly voice, “A detonator?”

  “Noooo,” Jelly screamed.

  She ran at speed towards him as Kozhikode’s thumb lowered onto it.

  “Come and get it, you stinking rodent,” Maar yelled from inside the machine.

  Rana used the last of her energy to slam the accelerator to the ground.

  The tires screeched to life, pushing smoke into the sky.

  “L-Let’s see how you h-hold up-p agains-st eight-hundred pounds of torque, a-asshole.”

  The truck rolled forward and picked up speed as Rana gripped the dashboard and yanked her body forward.

  Kozhikode hadn’t seen the truck careen towards him from behind. He settled on Jelly making a run for him from The Arena.

  “That’s right, that’s right. Come get your dinner, pet,” Maar said as Kozhikode’s shadow blasted up the ground and shrouded Jelly on her approach.

  The machine twisted its head around to its shoulders and saw the truck speeding towards it.

  “Huh?”

  Rana’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. She slumped, dead, against the accelerator pedal.

  Jelly quickly veered away from Kozhikode as the front of the truck rammed into its body.

  The machine’s head slammed onto the hood as the truck bolted past Jelly and into the Arena reception area.

  The tires bounced off the statue of Pascal D’Souza, forcing Kozhikode up and into the ceiling.

  The detonator bounced out of its hand, flew into the air, and blasted the last remnants of glass of the window as it hit the ground outside.

  The rest of the truck careened through the far wall and rolled into the auditorium.

  Brayn and his men turned to face the commotion coming from the side door beside the stage.

  “What was that noise?” a mercenary asked.

  “I dunno, it sounded like—”

  The front of the truck smashed through the wall and crunched its way through the rows of seats, finally shunting to a halt beside the stage.

  “Umm,” Brayn said. “Stay where you are and cover me.”

  He jumped over the scattered seats and opened the passenger door of the truck.

  Rana lay dead in the foot well, crumpled in the fetal position on the gas pedal.

  “Keep an eye on the door,” Brayn screamed over the sound of the reception crashing down the front of the building.

  “This can’t be good.”

  Kozhikode brought itself to its feet as it looked at the grounds.

  Jelly’s foot landed by the detonator.

  Her right hand pushed through the screw joint for the mini-gun and gripped the detonator.

  Kozhikode paced over to her and prepared to strike her across the face, putting her out of the game once and for all.

  “Give me that.”

  “Come and get it.”

  Maar growled from behind the bulletproof visor and held out his right hand, “Give me it.”

  “Sure.”

  As Kozhikode reached her, she lifted her right arm in the air and swung it down to the machine’s head.

  The trigger stabbed through the visor, arming the detonator. Jelly slipped her thumb over it and kept it held down.

  Maar ducked and held his arms over his face, as did
Kozhikode.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Nggg,” Jelly whined as she rammed the corner of the detonator into the chink in the visor.

  The crack blasted out, creating a mini vortex of air inside the control. She swung the sharp end of the device across the front of Kozhikode’s face, pushing the glass away.

  He didn’t notice the green lights inside the magnetic panel snapping to black.

  Maar stomped his foot on the ground, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I said I was going to kill you,” Jelly growled.

  “Oh, really?”

  Maar lifted his right arm, expecting Kozhikode to do the same.

  It didn’t.

  Jelly yelled at him as her helmet unfastened up her face. Instead of folding into the chest plate, it clanged against her shoulder and hit the ground by her left foot.

  A genuinely terrifying vision of anger looked directly at Maar inside the head of the machine.

  “Huh?”

  He sliced his arm down again, confused as to why the machine wasn’t moving.

  “Goddamn Indian technology.”

  A giant, lone infinity claw lifted up in front of his face.

  The one attached to the equally-as-large middle finger.

  “Oh, hey. Hey,” Maar shrieked as he backed up against the control center wall in Kozhikode’s head.

  The fear of God birthed inside the pit of his stomach.

  “That’s my claw,” he screamed. “That’s USARIC property.”

  “You want it back?”

  Maar fought off the urge to soil himself and put on the last ever show of faux confidence afforded to him.

  “Actually, yes. Give me it back. This instant.”

  She unfolded her left hand. The sharp end of the five-foot-long infinity claw pointed right at his face.

  “Oh, shit.”

  Maar gulped in terror. He knew this was the end and took himself by surprise when he suddenly winked and chuckled at Jelly in as friendly a way as he could muster.

  “Umm. Jelly. Haha,” he feigned a note of sincerity in the misguided hope that it might calm her down, “Uh, now, look. Would it help if I said I was sorry?”

  Jelly thrust the infinity claw through his chest like a shish kebab skewer. The sharp end punctured through his ribcage, past his spine and jutted out between his shoulder blades.