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 Fifty-Two - Supply Line Dancing

"Tariff wars are awesome! It's so easy to predict what's going to explode in value and cost just months after they happen.

You can make real bank betting on it.

Just this week, the price of toilet paper doubled! I made fifty grand!"

--Enthusiastic R/ShootMeNow user, June 2028

***

"We'll come with you!" Princess said.

"No, no, it's fine," I replied instantly.

Princess blinked, then looked down. "Oh," she said.

Next to her, Knight was looking at me. I'd have said she was looming, actually, if she was any closer. I could tell what she was trying to communicate already. She was upset that I'd made her sister upset, and... fuck. I kinda got it, even if Princess was a pain in the ass.

"Uh, I was gonna head back in my mech. There's only place for one inside. But I mean, if you want to ride on top, I guess..."

I was suck a fucking softy. Princess snapped her head up, and her eyes practically glowed. No, wait, I think they literally were glowing a little. Weird AUGs, maybe?

I chose not to question it. Instead, I gestured around. "Are you two done in here?" I asked.

"We should be, yes," Knight said. "We left a few detectors behind, to let us know if a large surge of Antithesis try to make it through, but with their source cut off... hopefully that means we'll be safe for a little while."

"Right, let's hope so," I said. "I'm heading back. Rendezvous at the MEOW in five? It'll give you time to do anything that needs doing."

"Sure thing!" Princess said before giving me a big thumbs-up.

I smiled back at her, not really feeling it, then dipped.

A few minutes later, I was out of the plant and back at my mecha's side. The party was still on. I was happy to see that the strike group wasn't shitfaced. One beer, no matter how good, wasn't quite enough for that. I did notice that some of them had stuffed their booze away, either for later or to sell it off, which... fair enough, I supposed.

I gave the MEOW another look-over while I waited, but there really wasn't much I could do. So I decided to be a little productive in other ways, and I checked in on the others. Specifically, I looked in on Gomorrah and Hedgehog and Shy, and then I remembered that Crisis Mode existed. The woman hadn't exactly left the biggest mark on me, which wasn't a good excuse for forgetting her outright, but still, I'd had a busy sort of day.

I sent a 'is everyone alright?' followed by a short message that I dictated saying that I'd be heading back to the wall, not too far from the front lines and probably over to wherever command was stationed at the moment.

It only took a few minutes before I received a call from Gomorrah. "Yo, what's up?" I asked.

"Cat, where are you now?" the nun asked.

I shrugged. "Not too far from that hydro plant? Just came back a few minutes ago and checked in on Princess and her sister. You need me over there?"

"Not just yet, no," Gomorrah said. "But I could still use your help."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Hedgehog and I are probably enough to keep this front bogged down for the enemy all on our own. I don't know where Shy is, but I did see her pop up along the front lines for a moment before she pulled back."

"So you don't need me out past the walls?" I asked.

"No, I need you to go spook command into taking their job seriously. Tinwhistle said that we were supposed to get a lot more artillery support than what we've gotten so far. I also heard that we're running low on some munitions, especially for the stationary guns. It's coming in, but slower than we're spending it. For now, everything is fine, but if the logistical chain breaks down, in an hour or two we might not be doing so well."

"Fuck's sake," I muttered. "It's always something. Yeah, I'm bringing Princess and Knight over. Maybe they can help a little? And I'll go see what's going on. Is there a forward command post?"

"There is," she confirmed. "But it's not where the problem is. I stepped in, and while they're as busy as you'd expect, they're not in charge of procurement, only distribution. The problem isn't here, it's further back in the chain."

Of course it was. I glanced back as I saw Princess' unmistakably floofy dress bouncing my way. "Alright. Where is central command, then? I'll poke my nose over there, then work my way down and shoot the snag."

Gomorrah snorted. "Do that. Or don't. It could be a genuine mistake. I heard that the protests in the city are quite large. They're not riots, but it's a lot. As for central command, that's in the tower Libre operates from."

I felt something twist in my gut at that. I had a premonition and I didn't like it very much. "Alright. Thanks Gom. Keep me posted if anything goes pear-shaped, alright? I can be at the front in a few minutes, tops."

"Thanks, Catherine. Gomorrah out."

I turned to greet Princess and her sister, but Knight beat me to it. "Is everything alright, Stray Cat?" she asked.

"Ah, yeah," I said. Stupid socially-trained people and their ability to read others. That was cheating. Then again... "Hey, you ever get into a situation where you have to work with someone and you know they're a piece of shit?"

"I was trained for politics," she said.

"Oh. Right."

Knight gestured for her sister to go ahead, and Princess happily did so. Those little mechanical arm things in her skirt could lift her up, it seemed, so she climbed up and onto the MEOW without much trouble. "You have a problem with someone?" she asked.

"Yeah. I thought that we were just very incompatible, but you know, sometimes that doesn't matter when you're both working towards the same goal."

"That's fair," Knight said. "If you're in politics, then you often have to work with people that you'd rather not, even if it's just because your overall goals happen to align. It happens. My... I've heard that it doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep an eye on that kind of person, though. Better be stabbed from the front than the back."

"Uh-huh," I said.

"Is this about Libre?"

Fuck, she was a perceptive one, wasn't she? "Spot on," I said. "He's being a shit. And I think he's the cause of a whole new batch of problems."

"Figured," she said. "Look, I've met more Samurai in the last couple of weeks than most people will meet in their lives, and so far, you've all been... good? Not just like, morally, though I feel like that's a common trait, but also you're all people that get things done in a good way. I don't know what goes into qualifying someone for the job, but it has to be a lot. Libre strikes me as someone that's good at what he does, but he might be the wrong person for this situation, and I don't think he's coping well with whatever happened to his--was she his girlfriend?"

"I don't know what they were," I admitted. "But yeah, I think we'll pay him a visit. If he's not responsible for the fuckup, then whatever. If he is... I don't know, who do you even complain to when a Samurai's being a shit?"

"Another Samurai?" Knight asked.

Well, shit.

I gestured to the mech, and she nodded, then went up and hopped up. Her sister helped her up, and soon both of them were grabbing onto the main gun and sitting on top. I'd have to go slow, and try to be smooth.

I climbed into the cockpit, skipped some of the startup sequence, and just started moving down the road along the edge of the wall. It wasn't too long before we were back to the real front of the fighting.

There were a whole lot more people here than when I'd left. The army hadn't stopped mobilizing just because my attention was elsewhere. I pulled into a free space next to some tanks that were parked in a neat row. I suspected that they were part of the second line of defence, if the wall was somehow breached.

Once parked, I recalled the Bastion. I'd be needing my ride back soon enough, and I didn't fancy walking the MEOW all the way over.

I jumped out of the cockpit, then moved to the side and reluctantly helped Princess down by extending my arms up and catching her around the waist. She was at least pretty light, even with whatever armour she had on under that poofy-ass skirt of hers.

"Alright," I said. "I'm heading out. Gom's somewhere in the wall. I bet she'd like some reinforcements and... oh."

I paused as I saw someone stomping over. Crisis Mode. The woman was decked out like a combat medic, though she was now wearing some lighter power armour as well. A definite upgrade. She also looked pissed.

"Good luck," Knight said.

"Yeah, thanks," I said.

I might well need it.

***

A note from RavensDagger

Ah, back home and things are more normal!

Also, almost done writing Vol 5. Like...4 chapters + epilogue left to write? Once that's done, I might up the posting speed for the last bit!

Also (x2) Stray Cat Strut Volume Eight has just launched on Amazon and Audible!

If you've been following the series, thank you. Seriously. Eight books is a ridiculous amount of Cat, and I'm still delighted people keep coming back for more.

And if you've been meaning to catch up, well, now there's even more of it waiting for you.

Amazon: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0GLSTRTKN?maas=&ref=

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Stray-Cat-Strut-8-A-Cyberpunk-LitRPG-Audiobook/B0GLT6CK5Z

Also (x3) I'm gonna be on a weird podcast thing tonight, hosted by my favourite boomer, PopPop!

Here, at 8pm: https://www.youtube.com/live/LCUOBOFM3i4?is=InB0kYpCwQpBm8ma