Stray Cat Strut Chapter Forty-Four - Dirty Break

Chapter Forty-Four - Dirty Break

ntal health services are, like healthcare, one of those things that just arent profitable for a society whose main concern is monetary.

In fact, its worse than healthcare. With that, you can at least extort people for money. Soone with a gaping wound will be willing to pay much for treatnt and to live. Soone hearing voices though? Soone going through a depressive period? Well, theyre just not great clients.

I think thats why all of the help and assistance we had just... disappeared one day.

--Jacob Washington, last mber of the all-volunteer Suicide Watch group, 2023

***

Id seen buildings collapse before. I an, on my dia feeds.

Happened all the ti. Usually it was buildings that needed to be demolished, but every couple of weeks so ga-complex would fall apart all on its own. Shitty construction, too many cut corners, maybe the place was only designed to last thirty years and that was before you counted the years shaved off by subpar materials.

So yeah Id seen plenty of buildings fall apart.

Never seen it happen from the inside in first person though.

Fuck fuck fuck, I swore as the floor started to tilt.

Office shit went flying, desks crashed down and chairs with those little wheels at the bottom went sailing across the room.

I half-turned and planted a foot onto an exterior wall. The building was tipping towards the street below. The chairs and desks crashing around eventually lost their montum or hooked onto sothing, so the din in the room stilled.

The cacophony outside though, didnt. A glance out the window showed blackened marks and craters punched into the road where a liberal application of heavy ordnance had rained down.

The aliens had been pushed back a bit, but then so had so of my defences. Most of the garrote grenades were destroyed and I didnt see any of my acid sprayers left.

The aliens regrouped and resud their charge, this ti eting a lot less resistance.

Dammit! Myalis, can you tell whoever aid that last volley that Im going to kick their ass? We need to reset the defences.

ssage sent.

Right, thanks, I said. I paused as the building creaked. A building this big tilting wasnt good, but maybe whoever had built the place knew what they were doing because it seed to be holding.

Catherine! Incoming volley!

Are you seri--

Explosions rained down across the street, shells ramd into so of the buildings across from us, shrapnel and glass raining down in a cascade atop the aliens below. Then I heard sothing punch through the ceiling.

I spun and saw a hole the size of my head missing in the middle of the office.

Whatever had punched that hole went off and a gout of dust poured out into the office. I was blind, dust and smoke robbing of sight.

The floor fell out from under , and I swore as I tumbled. Everything was moving in different directions, and for a panicked mont, all I could do was be rag-dolled around. Even with my armour, the breath was blown out of as I was thrown about.

tal scread and glass shattered. I think the building just decided to give up and crashed down onto the street.

I hit sothing hard and it shifted beneath . Then all my fighting and rolling around was stopped. A pressure grabbed onto my chanical arm and didnt let go.

Everything ended in a single, final boom that rattled my head.

I blinked as the dust cleared a little.

I was on my back, with a cent barrier about a handspan away from my face. I wiggled my toes, then shifted on the spot. Still had all of my at limbs. There was no burning. I was fine. Peachy, even. Never better.

Armour integrity is at seventy-four percent. Im afraid youll need a new suit. The back component of your jump pack is damaged as well.

Okay, I said. Okay. Uh... where the fuck am I?

Pinned under the building you were on. The topmost floor hit the building across the street, then it collapsed on top of your position. Here.

A screen opened up in my augs and I got to see... a lot of wreckage through a thick film of dust. So shit was on fire too. What am I seeing this from?

One of your cat chas survived.

Tough little shits, I murmured. She was distracting , wasnt she? Uh... Myalis, I think Im stuck.

You do have a building on top of you at the mont, yes.

I swallowed. Okay. Yeah. That would do it. My breathing ca in a little faster, chest heaving. I didnt know why but I almost felt like laughing. I cant get out.

Catherine, you have a multitude of thods to remove yourself from this location. I can guide you through them. You are safe.

Right. My arm?

Your cybernetic arm is pinned. Please do not activate the rocket within it. That would be irresponsible.

This ti I did laugh. Yeah, yeah, okay. I tugged at my arm, but it didnt do much. The space I was in was... not very big. Id used public toilets with more room. A pocket that was maybe a tre wide, half that tall. Id lost my Bullcat sowhere along the way. Still had my sword buckled to my hip though. Too bad, I liked that gun.

I tugged on the arm again, but it didnt move at all.

I need to get this unstuck, I said.

I can release the arm. Youll be able to purchase another. It was beginning to be outdated compared to your other equipnt anyway.

Huh? Oh, yeah, okay.

There is one issue. The armour is nonfunctional in that section. It is likely that so of its internals were damaged. I cannot disengage it.

Okay, okay, I said.

Well, when all you had was a sword that could cut through anything, everything started to look like a nail. Or sothing like that. I tugged the sword out of its sheath, then brought it up and around, blade part hovering over my bicep.

I paused.

What the fuck was I doing?

There are more delicate tools for that sort of operation if you wish. Or I could contact other Vanguard for assistance.

I swallowed. No, its fine. Myalis had to know that Id put my own pride before any nervousness about self-mutilation. I took a deep breath. Fuck you, I said.

The sword activated with a snapping hiss and I closed my eyes as I sliced down.

I didnt realise it, but the place I was resting was uneven. I shut the sword off quickly as I slid down deeper into my little nook, suddenly free from the arm holding in place.

Oh shit, I said. I looked at the stump by my side. Id lived most of my life with only a stump there, it would probably be a lot more dramatic for soone losing their arm for the first ti. But hey, practice made perfect and all that.

I shifted, then sat up. There was barely enough room for that.

Myalis, I want to get out of this hole.

Are you certain? Its actually relatively safe.

Are you kidding ?

If youre going to purchase new limbs and new armour, then it makes sense to do so from a place of relative safety.

Just get out of this hole!

I closed my eyes and leaned back, head clunking against the cent behind .

Sorry, I muttered.

No apology is necessary.

The ground shook a little, and I almost scread, but the building held.

Just artillery hitting nearby. Now, as for options to remove yourself from this location, might I suggest a short-range wormhole bomb? There are several other options, but this seems like the cheapest and most expedient. It is also relatively safe.

I dont know, the words wormhole and bomb put together dont sound... safe. At all.

I can guarantee its safety, if that helps.

And if youre wrong? I asked.

Then youll be too dead to make a complaint.

I felt like that deserved a laugh, but what escaped wasnt quite that. I sniffed. Okay, okay, lets do that.

New Purchase: M.I.C.E. Bomb

Points Reduced to... 35,742

Mice bomb, really? Whats that one an? I asked as a box landed on my chest.

Micro-scale Intralocation Cat Extractor

I paused. You really dove deep for that one, I said. The box had a cylinder in it with a switch. That was it. Not even a pin to pull, or options to toggle. I shrugged, suppressed the weird feeling from my right side at the motion, then flicked the switch.

I was in mid-air.

That didnt last long.

I crashed down, fortunately only a couple of centitres, and winced as cent and rebar rained down around . I was back on the street, or above it and the building I had been on. Did that teleport a few tres straight up?

Okay, I said. It was imnsely easier to breathe without the taphorical weight of a building atop .

Unfortunately, being up here ant that I didnt have a building between and the beasties.

Ah, fuck, I muttered.

***