Stray Cat Strut

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Stray Cat Strut (A cyberpunk system apocalypse!) - Ongoing

Fluff (A superheroic LitRPG about cute girls doing cute things!) - Ongoing

Love Crafted (Interactive story about an eldritch abomination tentacle-ing things!) - Completed!

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Cinnamon Bun (A wholesome LitRPG!) - Ongoing

The Agartha Loop (A Magical-Girl drama!) - Volume Two Complete!

Lever Action (A fantasy western with mecha!) - Volume One Complete!

Heart of Dorkness (A wholesome progression fantasy) - Completed!

Dead Tired (A comedy about a Lich in a Wuxia world doing Science!) - Ongoing

Sporemageddon (A fantasy story about a mushroom lover exploding the industrial revolution!) - Ongoing

Past the Redline (A girl goes too fast, then she does it again) - Completed!

Magical Girl Crystal Genocide (Magical Girls accidentally the planet, and then try to fix it) - Completed!

Magical Girl Rending Nightmare (A sequel to Crystal Genocide! Cute girls in a soviet dystopia having a picnic on the roadside) - Volume Two Completed!

Noblebright (A shipcore AI works to avenge humanity) - Completed!

The Complicated Love Life of Ivil Antagonist (The Empress of Mars finds love) - Completed!

Pokebun (Broccoli Bunch in the world of Pokemon) - Hiatus

Queen Violence (An Assassin Reborn as a Kitten) - Completed!

No Strings Attached (An Elden Ring/Bloodborne inspired progression fantasy) - Ongoing

Save Scumming (A time-looping system apocalypse) - Ongoing

Chapter Thirty-Six - Tankery

"Because of the conditions on the ground in the Oceania region, notably the rise of semi-aquatic Antithesis forms along coastal regions, the nations of that region needed a new land-based defensive vehicle.

Hence, the Bob Semple Mk 2. A solid, if slow-moving, weapon's platform capable of taking on the Antithesis threat while keeping its occupants safe and comfortable. It is also notably cheaper than most other armoured vehicles, being made from repurposed farming equipment and common materials."

--Modern Tankery Magazine, Issue 135, 2050

***

"Alright, are you the guys I'll be heading out with?" I asked as I walked my mech over a cleared out area just behind the wall.

Before me was a small fleet of armoured vehicles. Some I recognized, and a few that I didn't, but mostly my attention was on a familiar figure.

"Hey, Stray," Major Tinwhistle said. She smacked the hood of a truck, then spun to face me properly. A few moments later she was up close and standing right up in my mech's grill. "You have to let me see the inside of that beauty one day. That is a fine-looking piece of engineering."

"Thanks," I said.

"Wouldn't want it in my corps, though," she continued.

"You wouldn't?" I asked. "The MEOW's got a decent gun, fantastic armour, and can move around well enough."

She shrugged. "None of that matters to us. We're the Engineers that need to fix the damned things, not ride them around. If you bring me something that complicated it's going to be a right bitch to repair and I've got a maintenance list longer than I am tall."

That was fair, I supposed. "It's not that bad, if you have replacement parts. Otherwise, yeah, I can see it being a problem."

"It'd mess our logistics right up. But hey, that happens all the time. The brass love their boondoggles as much as the engineering corp hate having to deal with them. Speaking of which, this is the fleet heading out with you."

I nodded, then had the MEOW's head do the same. "I recognize the troop transports, at least," I said.

There were three of those. Long, rather tall half-tracked trucks with a boxy rear and a front built like a cowcatcher. Their windows were little more than a slit, and there were sponsoons on either sides with the barrels of machine guns sticking out.

The top had another machine gun, this one with a hatch opening that a brave soldier could stick their head out of to shoot.

It was the kind of thing designed to carry brave idiots into the thick of it, and then maybe out of it as well.

"Yup! We have three ATTs here," she said.

"ATTs?" I repeated.

"Armoured Troop Transports. Keep up with the lingo, Samurai. They're pretty tough old cows, built way back in '39. Old enough to drink. Easy to fix, too. These are armed with three machine guns. 7.62s. Nothing too fancy, but it hits where it counts."

Tinwhistle saddled over to the side, then gestured to a shorter, but much wider vehicle. A tank. Just... a smaller one than usual.

"We have two of these beauts as well. C3 Pikes. Ever seen them?" she asked.

"Nope. They're ugly as shit."

They really were. The Pikes had a boxy set of armour around a pair of tracks that protruded a little out of the front and rear. If it wasn't for those, the whole thing would look a little too boxy. It was short, though, with a turret on the top that had a sharply angled front and rear.

Again, there were two sponsoon guns, though these were much smaller and mounted on the sides of the main turret which itself had a bigger gun. Not a cannon, though.

"Two belt-fed 5.56 guns. Remote-operated. A main 50 cal gun, and just enough room to fit three poor sons of bitches. Did you know that to work in one of these you need to be under five foot four? Only tank in the service with more women crew than men."

"Is it good?" I asked. I was pretty sure I could walk the MEOW over this thing without much trouble. It probably didn't come up to my shoulder when I was out of the mech, and I wasn't the tallest woman around.

"No," Tinwhistle said. "But it's tough. Runs off an electric battery, and you can slap it down just about anywhere and it'll stay there for a damned long time. Their gearbox is a sack of shit though, and their tracks tend to get thrown off all the time. More mobility kills than mission kills, you know?"

"Sure," I said. "And the last two?"

There were two more kinds of vehicles, and Tinwhistle seemed to be in her element yapping about them. Who was I to stop her?

She pointed to the smallest vehicle here. It was an ATV that was just barely shorter than the Pikes. "C9 Wolverines. Good. Gas engines, but alright. Nothing impressive in the firepower department, but they're fast."

They were basically just small four-wheelers with an enclosed cabin. There was a small turret fixed to the roof. It looked like it wasn't much more than an assault rifle on an electronic swivel. I think the inside of the roof section could be opened so that the driver could reload. There was a rear seat, too, facing backwards. A couple of the Wolverines had a second gun mounted on the back on a hydraulic arm.

"Are they drawing straws to see who rides on the back?" I asked.

"Nope! Volunteer only, and we had to fight the idiots off, too," she said.

The last vehicle was a squat little thing that I'd have called a tank, only it had wheels, and for some arbitrary reason, an armoured, turretted thing having wheels made it not a tank, even if it was a tank in every way that mattered.

"Those two are C3 Rattlesnakes," Tinwhistle said. "The biggest guns here. 75mm of pure 'fuck that' and a secondary fifty-cal for fun. These fuckers are from '51. Been around a minute. Not half bad, really."

The Rattlesnakes were six-wheeled armored cars, with a chunky turret up top with all the bells and whistles slapped on. There was even a little hatch-fired machine gun, but the main gun was the big attraction. It didn't compare to my MEOWS, but it was okay.

"So, that's... what..." I took a moment to count the vehicles. "Sixteen smaller tanks and armoured cars. Not bad, I guess."

Tinwhistle shrugged. "I have a few main battle tanks, but they're all the way across the city from here, and I was told you needed stuff that can move fast. This can do that. Whether it can keep everyone safe... eh."

"Right. Anything I should look out for?"

"The C9 Wolverines. They tip over sometimes. Two of the ATTs will be loaded with a squad each. The third has a pair of medics and nothing else. They'll be there to load up anyone that gets injured and who's retrievable."

"Damn," I said. It kinda sank in just how the army didn't expect all of us to make it back. "If we had another half hour, could we get something better."

"Yeah, but mission time is in... T-minus three."

"Right," I said.

"The moment you're through the gate, we have a flight of FPV drones and some automated ones ready to go. They'll fly ahead, blow up, make some noise, and hopefully clear the way," Tinwhistle said. "Once you're near the big bad aliens, though, it's all on you."

Right, go in, find the biggest, meanest assholes, find as many Model Fifteens as possible, blow all of that up, then retreat.

I was pretty sure that our artillery was good enough that nothing would land close, so at least there was that.

Since there wasn't enough time to hesitate, I spun the MEOW around and walked over to the gate. It wasn't long that the convoy was forming up behind me. There was one of those Pikes on either side, the ATTs at the back, and the middle was mostly made up of those little Wolverine ATVs and the two taller Rattlesnakes.

It was a pretty intimidating formation, I bet.

Too bad the enemy didn't seem to know what fear was.

"Is this... necessary?" I asked.

The Model Fifteens are covering several sections of the wall in climbable materials. It seems to be the crux of the Antithesis' plan for this assault, at least in this section. If you wish to hold back, you may. There are other solutions available."

"Yeah, nah," I said. "Just... remember that huge bomb we used a few minutes ago?"

Yes.

"Let's start with one of those."

I recall Vanguard Libre being upset.

"He can kiss my pretty ass. I don't care."

Understandable.

The gate started to rattle and slowly pull open. "No time for fancy speeches," I said over the mech's loudspeaker. "So don't die, because I'll at least prep something nice for the victory. Let's do this!"

***

A note from RavensDagger

Hi!

I don't usually shout stories unless they're fanfic, but today we're making a small exception!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/168418/retort-retribution

Two rise to challenge the gods.

Nicholas's world is broken. And none have chosen to fix it despite the need. All it would take him to fix would be to ascend. Someone has to fix the world, why shouldn't it be him? With the power to bend reality to his will he can begin his work to fix the world. Be the hero it needs.

Jasmine was made to be a successor of a god. To be the next superhero to cross the boundary and become a Pinnacle. To replace her grandmother at her leisure. A destiny she refuses to follow. Jasmine won't walk a road paved by the suffering of others. She'll carve her own soul and through it a path. One to surpass everything.

Heroes were formed by and for the people through the power of their belief. A system the Pinnacles had long since perverted for their own ends. To Save the world, they'll have to stop the ones that made it.

Retort Retribution is by Wind! One of the fantastic beta-testers for the SCS Tabletop game, Hope//Punk! They've been a spectacular helper, and I've been excited to see their new story on RR! You should check it out <3