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!

Dreamer's Ten-Tea-Cle Café (An insane Crossover about cute people and tentacles) - Hiatus

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 Forty-Seven - The Friendlist of Fire

"Amendment XXIX

Section 1. No person duly recognised as a Vanguard of the United States shall, while acting in defence of the nation, its territories, its people, or the continued survival of the human species, be constrained by any law, statute, regulation, ordinance, or order which would materially impede the timely execution of such defence.

Section 2. Actions undertaken pursuant to Section 1 shall remain subject to review after the cessation of the immediate emergency. No such review shall invalidate actions reasonably taken in good faith under conditions of imminent threat.

Section 3. Congress shall have power to establish procedures for the recognition, oversight, and civil accountability of Vanguard, provided that no such procedure may prevent or delay immediate action against an active existential threat.

Amendment XXX

Section 1. Disregard Section 3 of Amendment XXIX."

--Amendments of the 21st Century

***

There was something beautiful about the patterns that the 75mm shots left on the ground.

The airburst shells exploded at just about the same height every time, something like two or three metres off the ground. Each explosion was quick, just a flash, and a micro-second later there was a space were the dirt and grass was churned up as a thousand little puffs were kicked off the ground.

That space was kinda ovular, probably because of the angle of the shell when it went off. So, the entire area that the Antithesis was using for their new river-side hive was being peppered in shots, one every second or so.

Both Rattlesnakes were firing as quickly as they could, with a few troopers passing fresh shells up and into the tank's main turret via a human chain.

That was going to wear something out, I bet, but it ought to be safe enough for now.

In the meantime, I sat back and prepared to deliver the counter-beat to the rhythm that the tanks were laying down. Or something like that. I didn't know jack about music.

I aimed the MEOW's main gun up a ways, and made sure that the projection tracker for where my hit was going was lined up with the biggest, meatiest part of the hive. The scans gave me a good idea of where to place the next shot.

I pulled the trigger, then squinted at the distant feed I had of the hive just in time to see a pillar of dirt rise up from the ground and turn into a blooming explosion. 155mm shells could pack a lot of punch. Hopefully it was enough to wreck the hive.

I shifted the turret to the side a little, aiming for the next-highest concentration of Antithesis stuff, then I fired again. Another big explosion.

The 75mms shots from the two Rattlesnakes weren't just random, they were slowly walking them from left to right, each shot more or less closer to the river, only their guns didn't quite have the accuracy of my bigger gun, probably because the Rattlesnakes were wheeled, and each shot fired had the vehicle bouncing on its suspension as it absorbed the impact.

I grinned as I fired a third, fourth, then fifth shot.

"Myalis, what's the hive looking like?" I asked.

No points for its destruction yet, I'm afraid. You have damaged it considerably, however.

That was nice, but it wasn't what we were aiming for. Damage was good. I didn't need the hive continuing to grow and spitting out problems later, but I'd rather have it entirely wiped out.

"Okay," I said as I got on the strike group's comms. "A few more shots and we're moving in. I think we're going to split the party again."

"Yes ma'am," Hatner said. "What are you moving with?"

I thought about it for a second. "One of the ATTs and all of the wolverines. The plan is to run around the area, clean out the remains, then plant something bigger than what I can fire with my main gun. We'll salt the earth for the alien fucks, then back. I don't want to linger out here for much longer."

That would leave one of the transports behind, which was necessary when so many troopers were out and moving around on foot. If they needed to move in a hurry, they'd need the ride out of here. The second ATT we had left didn't need to stay, and its guns might just come in handy.

It took a couple of minutes to organize the group, bringing the Wolverines and the remaining Rattlesnake ahead, once everything was in place, however, we took off all at once.

The Rattlesnakes had enough 75mm shells left to keep up the bombardment for a solid few minutes. They dialed it in, though, bringing the shots closer to us as we advanced while still keeping them about a hundred metres ahead at all times. That meant that when the first Antithesis started to rush out of hiding to ambush us, they were almost immediately met by some unfriendly air-burst shrapnel to the face.

They were just Model Threes at first, and I let the Wolverines ahead pepper the survivors full of bullets. "Watch out for ambushes," I warned.

I was certain it was going to happen. The aliens weren't exactly predictable, but they had a playbook.

So when a brace of needles flew out of the bushes and the bushes started to move, I wasn't even surprised.

One of the ATV veered off course, but the pilot corrected before anything dangerous happened.

I set my mech's smaller guns to spray into every bush and plant-like thing in the area, and that turned out to be a good move. Far too many of them shuddered and bled and gave up on the whole 'just an innocent plant' routine after a few rounds punched into them.

Mostly we were dealing with those annoying fucks that had lots of long, spiny needles that they could fling, and some of the 'bushes' unfurled and uncoiled themselves before jumping out into our path, turning themselves into something that looked like a flat, off-white blob with a long stringy whip above them.

Model Nines. I hadn't seen those fuckers in a while.

"Careful," I called over the comms. Model Nines. They can shapeshift and are a pain in the ass to pick up on most scanners."

I got some confirmations from the group, and then in typical 'the tax-payer will cover this' army style, they started to shoot everything that moved and plenty of things that didn't. I was pretty sure there were procedures for all of this, but who cared, right?

"Why didn't the scan pick those up?" I asked.

It did, though only barely. I'll highlight those that were noticed, if you wish.

"Sure," I muttered. Myalis could be irritatingly unproductive sometimes.

Do you really want me to start being predictive?

And she could read my mind, too, which was all sorts of creepy. "No," I grumped. "Unless I'm about to die, in which case, a head's up wouldn't hurt."

Good. Head's up. You are about to die.

I felt a shot of adrenaline shoot through me, but when I looked around, I didn't see anything. Well, I saw a lot of stuff, tracer rounds, some distant explosions, a hill bursting apart, the Wolverines spreading out a little.

Then I blinked and shifted my focus back onto the hill. Why was it exploding?

I spun the MEOW's main gun around, aiming it into the mess of dirt and shredded grass. I could barely register what was uncoiling from within when I fired.

From point blank, into a hillside some thirty-odd metres away. The explosion from the HE shell impacting something hard within blanketed the area in a wash of fire, and I slowed to MEOW to a halt as I saw some of the Wolverines being flipped over from the wash. Fuck, too close.

Out from the expanding dust came a trio of figures. No, wait, it was just the one monster, its body linked together but made of three separate pods.

"Shit," I said as I spun the smaller guns around and let them rip into it.

Couildn't remember the fucker's model number of anything like that at the moment, but it was one of those asshole aliens that protected hives. They were never far from where they spawned, these ones.

The alien covered the space between us in seconds, moving with quick, jittery shifts from side to side and up and down, like an octopus on ketamine.

"Circle!" I shouted into the strike group's comms. I hoped they understood.

The Wolverines, at least those still upright, scattered. The alien didn't hesitate, however. It rushed over, picked up one of the ATVs with a long, sinuous tentacle, and held it up before itself, unceremoniously dropping the pilot within to the ground.

Bullets tore into the ATV, ripping it apart, but it was enough cover that the fucker reached me.

I spun the MEOW around, trying to get the main gun to bear, but nothing. I was soon covered in a half-dozen tentacles, and they were reaching around, grasping, and probably fucking up my paintjob while looking for some way in.

Three cloaca-looking things opened up on the pods, and I grimaced before they started to puke all over my mech.

My small arms weren't dislodging it, and the army seemed afraid to fire on it.

So I did the logical thing. "Keep focus on the smaller ones!" I shouted before I took off running towards the blown-up hill, the tentacled alien still gripping onto my mech and trying to tangle me up. "Rattlesnakes!"

"Yes?" came Hatner's reply.

"Fire on me, now!"

That would do it, right?

***

A note from RavensDagger

Huh... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/StrayCatStrut

Didn't know we had one of those? Neat!

Also, I'm heading out to Brazil in a few hours, wish me luck?