Chapter Sixty-Five - T-Rex Vs Giant Mecha Cat


    Chapter Sixty-Five - T-Rex Vs Giant Mecha Cat


    SexyHawk: Ohhh! Go catmech!


    TigerA: Whats the t-rex looking one?


    SDC: Cant be a trex, no feathers


    Storyteller: stfu, you know what they meant. Its an m23


    October: can we get an interior view?


    Someone: Mess them up Stray Cat!


    --Witch commentary on the live drone footage of the Burlington Incursion, 2057


    ***


    I ran, and the model twenty-three chased.


    A few things became immediately obvious. While I had a lot more manoeuvrability and could turn and move in the air much faster than it could, the damned thing was fast.


    The other thing that became obvious was my lack of rear-facing weaponry.


    The Gatling guns mounted on the mechs shoulders could turn all the way around to fire backwards, but that was about it, and while a constant stream of armour-piercing 10mm was doing something, it wasnt doing something fast enough.


    I came around a corner, claws throwing up sparks as I scrambled for purchase on an old school cobbled road.


    The t-rex looking motherfucker behind me just rammed through the building on the street corner then opened its mouth wide to try and take a bite out of my ass while masonry crashed and skid across the road.


    I kept moving, whipping my thagomizer-equipped tail into its face with its void terminus blades lit and extended. The crack of tail-meeting-face made the model twenty-three flinch aside, and it scored a long cut across its face.


    Not nearly enough to kill the damned thing, but hopefully enough it hurt it.


    I kept running, ducking into an alleyway between two smaller businesses, The model twenty-three paused at the entrance and glared at my back.


    It couldnt follow through the narrow gap, not without ripping through the entire thing and risking getting itself stuck.


    So it went up instead, powerful legs bunching beneath it before it leapt, ripping apart the road beneath it before it crashed onto the roof of the building to my right.


    It instantly collapsed under several tons of rampaging alien mass. I swore as I ducked down lower and pushed myself to move faster and slip out of the far end before I was the one to get stuck in the crashing building.


    You okay? Gomorrah asked.


    Ask me once Ive killed this fucker, I snapped.


    Reload with HE, I said. And tell me where that assholes brain is.


    Upper chest, about half a metre below the nape of its neck. Highlighting now. Mortars are loaded.


    My mechs chest opened and I pulled the trigger.


    Immediately, the cockpit warmed up as I fired the railgun.


    The aliens chest gained a hole I could crawl through even as six high explosive grenades landed in the goop around it and detonated.


    I waited for just a moment, then shrugged and fired the railgun again, then unfolded the 105mm guns and fired the remaining rounds I had left before needing to reload about where the model twenty-three was.


    Then I waited, and as the dust settled it revealed a very fucked up alien, its upper body shredded apart, one arm missing, and head flopped to the side.


    Its technically still alive.


    Wow, I said. Well, lets make Gomorrah proud then. Ive got to have some sort of burning grenade thatll melt that thing.


    I watched for a few merry moments as the model twenty-three cooked. I was feeling pretty good about myself, all things told.


    If youre done, can you do something about the rest of the aliens? Gomorrah asked. Theyre making it past the firewall, and Im busy over here.


    Ah, right, got it. Consider me on the way, I said. I let go of the mechs controls for a moment and rubbed at the back of my neck and shifted my legs a bit to stretch them. That had been kinda awesome, but also stressful as hell.


    Who knew giant mecha on monster combat could be so nerve-wracking.


    My break over, I checked my GPS, realized that Id gotten turned around at some point, then realigned myself with the shore and took off running while ordering up a reload of everything. More mortars, more shells for my guns.


    Id live with just one Gatling gun for now. It was something I could fix later. And maybe Id use replacing it as an excuse to upgrade my new toy, because I couldnt see myself not using this in the future.


    Would Lucy fit in the cockpit or would it be too tight? Or would she have to like... ride on top.


    I could very vaguely recall her once saying that she wanted to ride a horse one day, back when she was much younger and really into ancient horse movies for whatever reason. I wondered if this was a suitable replacement for a horse.


    Giant robot cats were so much cooler than horses. (Although, now that I was thinking about it, some of that obsession might have been inspired by riding pants.)


    Cat, are you getting there, or not? Gomorrah asked.


    Yeah, yeah, I sent back before pushing the mech to move a little faster.


    Once I got closer to the pier, I could see why Gomorrah was getting nervous.


    There were a lot of aliens here. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them. Most in the single-digits, but a few bigger ones, though none as large as the model twenty-three Id just killed. There was a mobile hive left, however, slowly trudging through the burnt ground without a care in the world.


    Id have to change that. Remind these aliens that there very much was a reason to worry.


    ***