Stray Cat Strut Chapter Twenty-Eight - What Newton’s Good For

Chapter Twenty-Eight - What Newtons Good For

Its only been twenty-four hours since the start of the worlds first global incursion, and already the signs that we were not as prepared as we could have been are showing. Id like to take a mont to rember Buenos Aires. Those poor souls didnt deserve to have a kaiju walk up to their shores this morning.

-- Family wide communication, 2057

***

I knelt down to one knee as a chill wind whipped around and hooked onto my jacket to throw it open. The area around the highway was cleared of any obstacles, no trees or forests or even much of a hillside to cut the wind. That wasnt always going to be the case. There was a forest out ahead, with big old pines turning the sides of the roads into a dark pit where I couldnt see anything an lurking.

Why are we moving so slowly? I asked.

The mobile base truck we were on was moving at a zippy ten, maybe fifteen kilotres an hour. I was pretty sure I could outrun it with little difficulty.

Grasshopper turned her head around so that she could stare up at . There was no way her neck was normal if she could turn her head that much. Her face mask split apart, the big globes over her eyes sliding back so that I could see her staring right into my eyes.

She didnt say anything for a mont. Then, right when I was about to break the silence, she spoke up. Baby elephants, she said before her head spun back around and her mask reset itself.

What?

Grasshopper sighed. Baby, elephants. She waited for another mont, then shook her head as if I was the dumb one here. Herds with weaker mbers must move at the fastest pace of the slowest and weakest mber so that the combined force of the entire herd can be brought to bear upon any aggressor.

Oh, right, I said. We were moving slowly because so of the trucks behind us couldnt keep up otherwise. That made sense. Baby fucking elephants, I muttered.

I see one, Grasshopper said. Then she started to dance.

It was one of the weirdest fucking things Id ever seen, soone wearing armour that had far to many limbs on it, swaying from side to side like an excited puppy while laying flat on their stomach.

So... shoot it?

Oh, yes, I will, Grasshopper said. Do you want to see? I like seeing the aliens die. It makes happy.

I looked out ahead. The forest was still a good kilotre away, maybe a bit more. I wasnt a great judge of range. I couldnt see anything alive over there, but then the scope on her rifle was longer than my forearm. Sure?

A ping to my augs later, and I had a small screen open in the edge of my vision. I had it grow larger.

It was the forest, but zood in. A single model four was climbing up a tree with so difficulty, the smaller branches not entirely strong enough to hold its weight, but it was making its way up the tree nonetheless.

Then the screen flickered and a dozen red outlines appeared, then a dozen more. Antithesis, a few hundred of them, if I had to guess, all scurrying about in the underbrush.

Want to leave so for you? Grasshopper asked. She sounded almost shy about it.

Nah, you go ahead, I said. Im more of a spray and pray kind of gal, at this range Im useless.

Okay then, she said.

All along the length of her gun, the little tripods holding it up hissed, and the barrel shifted around with tiny, minute motions.

There are many ways to kill, Grasshopper said.

I was about to ask if that was a question when her gun barked. The sound made my teeth rattle, and I swore the mobile base shook a bit with the recoil.

In the screen occupying my vision, three of the antithesis that happened to be lined up disappeared.

The most ancient, and most effective, Grasshopper continued. Is the eting of two opposing objects. Upon eting, these two opposing objects will exert a force against each other. Newtons Second Law.

She fired again, and this ti two aliens were wiped out. The antithesis were starting to catch on that they were under attack and were moving around in what almost looked like panic.

A large model five shifted, then started charging out of the forest in our direction. All the little model threes started to group up behind it.

Newtons Second law states that force is what is required to change the velocity of an object. By exerting sufficient force onto an object, then allowing that object to impact another, that force can, in part, be translated to the second object. This object is what I designate as the target.

She fired again and the model fives upper half was turned into a gaping hole big enough that I could have crawled through it. The bits of its body flying out the back brained a few of the model threes behind it too.

Ti for a pop quiz! Grasshopper said. She flicked sothing on the side of her gun, then shifted left and right almost chanically. Pop, pop, pop!

Every pop ca with a much weaker bark from her gun, and in the distance a pair of aliens died with a bang each. She never fired unless there were at least two of them lined up.

Do you like math?

What? I asked. Uh, math? Not really, no.

Oh, Grasshopper said. I couldnt hear any judgent there. She fired a few more tis, thinning out the herd. I like math. Numbers are non judgental. I like violence too, but theres a certain level of societal stigma around the application of great and sudden violence. But math? No one minds if you like math. Oh! I like animals too.

Bugs too, I bet, I said.

She stopped firing. How did you know that? she asked.

Your... na is Grasshopper?

That tracks, she replied before she continued to kill off the aliens. At this current rate, this group will be dead two hundred tres before reaching the front of the caravan. Problem. Theres a second group coming in from the south, and a third moving in from the forest to the west. My speciality will allow to remove any of the larger threats with little issue, but Im not good at swarms.

I glanced to our left, then squinted. There was definitely sothing moving in the field that way, the grass was shifting a lot as what looked like a small wave spread out to hit the entire caravan. They were a good way out still, though.

The other forest she was talking about was across the street from the one shed been sniping antithesis from.

I stood up, careful to compensate for the wind and the slight rocking motion of the mobile base underfoot. Glancing back, I took in the convoy as a whole. It was too damned big to cover from one place. Sure, there were so trucks with guns on them, and the mobile base itself was bristling with guns, but I couldnt imagine the convoy holding out once the aliens were waving through it.

Okay, heres the plan. Its a shit plan, so feel free to interject with better ideas, alright?

Grasshopper stopped firing, moved back and up onto her knees, then kneeled there with her hands on her lap and head tilted up to look at . Im listening.

Uh. Yeah, Im going to drop a few catbots around here. Theyre cha cats, they have guns, so... yeah. Then Im gonna place so cheap laser turrets onto the roofs of a few of the trucks back there. And once thats done, Im going to fly over the bigger pockets of the wave and drop bombs on it.

Are the cha cats warm and huggable?

No, I said.

That seems like a terrible waste of points. But I wont tell you how to live. I can work around your plan. Ill keep removing the greatest threats as they appear.

Cool, you do that. Keep your coms open. You can ping if sothing cos up. I glanced at my map while my hoverbike lowered itself down to my level. We were still a long way from the city, and at the speed we were moving, it would take us a while to get to the outskirts.

The area around the city was still mostly green though. We were only going to have to defend the convoy for most of the way there, which was brilliant.

We were about to dip into an entire zone that was nothing but orange and red though. A few kilotres of antithesis infested hell that wed need to cross with nothing but two samurai and a few bottom-of-the-barrel defences.

The more I looked at the situation, the uglier it looked.

My hoverbike ca down and I leapt up onto it. Okay, see you around, Grasshopper. Call if you need .

Good luck, Stray Cat, was her reply. Show these aliens what Newtons good for.

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