Stray Cat Strut - Chapter Eighty-Four

Chapter Eighty-Four

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“What’s this one even called?” I asked as I gestured to the mech carrier.

The changes I’d asked for weren’t too extreme, I don’t think. It mostly came down to adding sofas in the little command room in its centre and an integrated mini-fridge. At least, at first. I started to have fun with it after that. 

The centre-most space, designed to hold two mechs, was replaced by a small mobile garage. Nothing too complex, but enough that I could maybe fix a few easy things on the move. Myalis helpfully added a docking port for a repair drone as well, which was sensible.

The ship... was it a ship?

I frowned. This was way too big to just be called a car, or even a truck. It had more in common with a ferry than either of those. Yeah, ship felt right.

Anyway, the ship had plenty of guns strapped around it. Six twin-barreled machine guns, in ball-shaped turrets that had wide angles of fire, and a single-barrel 105mm gun on an angular, flat turret at the top. Below were two large pods that could tilt in and out of view, each one able to hold sixteen rockets or small guided missiles that could be reloaded from the interior.

It had less armament than a modern main battle tank, sure, but it could also fly and was armoured up the tits.

Myalis shifted the design a little, making it somewhat less boxy. The armour gained more of an angular look to it, sharp edges and all. 

“Okay,” I said. “Lay it on me, how much would this thing cost?”

Currently, with the modifications you’ve brought to it, the Catbox will cost you--

“No,” I said. “We’re not calling it that.”

It’s an objectively good name.

“It’s objectively stupid,” I replied. “Come on, we need a name with a bit of... you know, oompf to it. Something cool and... stronger?”

And you expect to come up with this name yourself? I will differ to your greater erudition in the matter of nomenclature and your obviously superior vocabulary with regards to names with appropriate gravitas.

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be a bitch. We just need a cooler name than Catbox. The Nyanzerfaust has a silly name, but it’s got some syllables to it, and Gomorrah has her God’s Righteous Fury which is a name that has hairs on its chest.”

Felis Aegis?

“Lucy would like that. But it’s too cutesy,” I said.

I see. How about the Clawhold? Or perhaps the Iron Pride?

I passed my tongue over my teeth. Yeah, that was a bit better. “Not bad, but like, for a gun or a shield or something. It doesn’t feel right for an entire... you know.” I gestured to the hologram of the ship.

I see. Then perhaps something with a bit more fur on its chest? How about the Bastion of Sekhmet?

“Who’s that?” I asked.

Myalis took over the hologram and showed some old Egyptian-looking art. Some lady in a skirt with a cat head with one hell of a headdress on. 

Ancient Earth mythology warrior goddess. She has a lion’s head and is one of the solar deities of Ancient Egyptian mythology.

I rubbed at my chin. Was it cool to appropriate another culture’s imagery just because it was kinda badass looking?

Probably not.

Would it annoy Gomorrah and did it sound rather badass? 

Yeah, it did.

“Alright, I’m done for that. The Bastion of Sekmeth.”

Sekhmet.

“Sure,” I said with a nod. “And this is gonna cost me...”

Forty-two thousand points.

I needed to sit down for a minute. Forty-two big ones. That was... a large chunk of what I had. Way more than half of my total points. Sure, it was for something big and there were good chances that I wouldn’t be replacing that for a long time.

I chewed on my lower lip. If I was a smarter sort, I might consider a pros and cons list, but that’d never been my way of doing things. Did I want this thing? Yeah, it seemed damned useful. It would be a hell of a thing to show up to problem locations with. I’d spent a decent load of time in mobile bases recently. PMC and army ones. This would be the same, but flying, and it would be mine.

Did I want it? 

Yeah.

“Alright,” I said. “But why’s it so damned expensive?”

Mostly the cost comes from the technology required to ensure that it stays afloat without breaking apart under its own mass. The sheer size is also a factor in its cost.

Right, I couldn’t argue that too hard, it was a big thing. “Go ahead, Myalis,” I said.

New Purchase: The Bastion of Sekhmet

Points Reduced to: 25,017

Oh boy, seeing my points drop by that much made me feel dizzy for a second. I took a deep breath and then flinched as the air in the parking garage whumped past me.

There was suddenly something huge taking up a hefty chunk of the room. A wall of flat black steel and armoured panels.

I blinked dust out of my eyes, then looked up at my new toy.

The Bastion of Sekhmet was larger in life than I’d expected from the hologram. It looked like it was just a few centimetres from scraping against the ceiling.

Legs larger than my old mech were deployed around its base, all six of them clamped onto the floor. I hadn’t asked Myalis about colour, and the hologram had been a glowy blue as they tended to be. The Bastion was a flat, light-absorbing black, except where its armoured panels had sharp edges. There, it was covered in gleaming gold panels and backlit by a pale blue light.

I started to giggle to myself as I walked around it. It took a while. There were, as I’d noted, six large doors, slightly angled, with golden numbers embossed onto them. Each was more than large enough for me to walk my old mech into.

“Ah, shit,” I said as I finished my circuit. My Nyanzerfust had been like, twenty-thousand points. I wasn’t sitting at much more than that now, and if I spent what I had left I’d be point-broke. 

... fuck, did I just buy a mech carrier without the points to fill it with mechs?

Don’t worry, Catherine, I’m certain we can buy you at least one new mech.

I frowned. “Are you reading my mind again?”

You’re predictable.

I wanted to disagree, but she was probably right. “Let me give the inside a tour first, at least,” I mumbled. My augs connected to the Bastion automatically, which was nice. I could open up any of the gates from a rather simple interface, and there were controls for the guns, the ship itself, and all sorts of knick knacks like the lights and stuff from a simple set of menus.

Opening gate six, I stepped back as an unfolding ramp came down and gently touched the ground.

 “So, mechs,” I said as I stepped in and started to look around. The bays weren’t entirely cut off from each other, but they weren’t sharing a large space either. There were thin walls with bracing between them, and folded up robotic arms designed to cling onto any mech parked in here so it wouldn’t bounce around.

I have a simple suggestions for you. Since you seem to use your Nyanzerfaust as a scout relatively frequently, why not purchase a frame more capable in that regard? A lighter, faster-moving frame, with better stealth capabilities and a more powerful suit of sensors?

“And cheaper?”

By a certain number of points, perhaps.

Uh-huh. A stealth mech wouldn’t be too bad, and something faster might be fun. It didn’t sound as safe as what I had already though. Then again, if it was meant to serve a different purpose, then did it matter?

I walked deeper into the Bastion. There was a wide corridor down the spine of the ship, large enough for a mech to walk down and over to the garage-like installation at the very rear of the vessel. Myalis, being handy like that, took over one of the projectors in that room, same as the one in my other new garage, and she tossed up an image of a mech.

It was another cat-shaped frame, only this one was lithe, thin, and with the proportions of a cheetah rather than an overstuffed lion like my Nyanzerfaust. It was lower to the ground at first, but then stood up in the hologram. 

I eyed it over as it spun slowly. 

A central cockpit, behind the ‘head’ of the lion, with a seat designed to be laid down onto. Two small holes on either side of the chest by the front for missiles, a tail that could elongate itself as a sort of barbed whip, claws like on my last mech.

The head had a mouth that could open up to reveal a small turreted gun, and there were two more mounted on the flanks that could unfold on a pair of long, articulated arms that let them aim in every direction. They were still rather small, belt-fed machine pistols, basically.

“Yeah, that’s something,” I said. “But... I want enough points for another upgrade to my wetware too. To keep Lucy happy.”

***