View source for Cats Cradle Chapter 10

“It’s bulletproof!” Ford yelled at her.

Cathy swore. Quattro lunged. Ford dodged out of the way. Just a fraction too slow. She yelped as she was cannonballed into the wall, taking the brunt of the impact on her back. She heard her pistol skitter across the floor.

“I’ve got you... I’ve got you!” Quattro squealed with a savage grin on her face.

Ford brought her knee up to Quattro’s crotch. It was like hitting an anvil. The pain in her shoulders reached a peak as Quattro began to pull... raw, brute cybernetic strength.

“Get off!” Cathy screamed, coming in with a flying kick.

The force sent the pair of them tumbling. Cathy landed on her feet. Quattro kicked out. Cathy didn’t even have time to look before the blow caught her in the stomach. Her eyes seemed to bulge as she crumpled over into herself, flying backwards into a Quattro’s computer terminal.

The holographic displays warped and died. Cathy’s mind just swam as she struggled to keep herself from throwing up.

Ford was panting as she got to her feet on shaking legs. Her head was still going through loops, trying to convince her she was spinning in circles. Quattro was between both of them. Christ all Friday that madgirl was strong. And she didn’t even seem tired.

The madgirl turned to face her, a crack like lightning across the lens of one of her glasses.

Ford began to wonder how long she could keep this up.

----

They heard the footsteps hammering along the corridor.

“That’s not human,” Laura whispered, shrinking down as far as she could go.

Edward shushed her sharply. He crouched down, leaning his weapon on the top of the barricade. “Whatever comes around that corner,” he said. “We start shooting, and don’t stop until it’s dead.”

Ebony couldn’t help but feel he was being optimistic. She was shaking, she was visibly shaking. Her Makarov seemed to rattle in her grip as she aimed it at the corner.

Himei stood planted and firm and tall, Remington held down by her hip. Someone clearly thought they were an action star, and they were action ready.

Laura held an old Sig with armour piercing rounds. Good quality, it had been a gift some time ago. She never expected to be actually using it.

Cobs taser whined as it’s capacitors charged. A waved model, it could probably shoot lightning bolts enough to knock a man clean out unconscious. It was a not-quite-death ray. It was their best chance.

Ebony saw it coming, ricocheting against the far wall shattering the rock, before launching forward riding a turbine scream. Big, white armoured, faceless, with shining blades mounted to its forearms.

It seemed to be diving through the air towards her. It was halfway down the corridor before she even had time to blink and realise the clatter she’d heard was her Makarov hitting the floor.

“Shoot it, Shoot it now!” Edward bellowed.

It jinked out of his line of fire. Edwards gun boomed. Ebony swore she saw the slug spiral through the space the attacker had occupied an instant before. A beer can was crawling through the air beside her. Ebony was staggered to find she could read the markings on the bottom. It was the cartridge ejected from the gun, hanging still in mid air.

Himei screamed. She was squeezing the trigger, pumping it with her finger. Nothing was happening. Himei never got the chance to realise she’d left the safety on.

Laura’s mind just locked up.

Cob screamed wordlessly as he fired of his taser. Two wires sprang out, lightning crackling and arcing between both bare cables. They skittered uselessly off a wall and missed.

Ebony hit the ground screaming, screwing her eyes tightly shut and hoping in the name of hope that whatever this thing was would just leave her alone.

She felt it pass over with a hot blast, chased by a wet crunch that reminded her of the time her younger brother had stood on her pet tarantula. Go away! Go away! she begged. Something hot and sticky sprayed across her body. She thought she heard Himei scream for a moment, before it was cut clean off. Something heavy and hard landed across her back, followed by something wet and soft and distinctly.... meaty.

Then nothing but her own whimpering, and the same hammering footfalls receding into the distance and the smell of a slaughterhouse lingering in the air.

“Idiots,” she whimpered to herself. “Idiots.”

She opened her eyes.

What she saw, would linger in her nightmares for years.

----

50.2231 seconds.

Blood streamed off Jet's blades as she ran. She ricocheted around another corner, dislodging a slab of steel off of the wall. Four down. One left behind who'd thrown her gun down. No time to stop. No time to demand surrender. Blasting past while leaving them alive would just have given them a chance to shoot her in the back.

She confirmed with herself, it was justified.

Time was everything. Quattro was everything. Ford was everything. This mission was getting within a hair's breath of being a total bust. And where was Ford?

''“One, Three,”'' Lenneth called over the comm, ''“Target Beta secure. No sign of Vidkun,”''

''“Three, One. Copy,”'' Jet responded. ''“If you can get control back, send our message,”''

''“One, Three, Wilco.”''

Jet kept running.

----

The injector was an oversized syringe filled with the traditional Green Goo. It was big, burly and almost comedic. It was designed to go right through the breastbone and into the heart. Miranda swallowed a sick lump, her guts still churning.

First, she ripped open Hotaru’s uniform, exposing her chest. She pressed the auto-injector against her flesh, positioning it right over her heart. Hotaru’s breathing was slow and shallow. She’d be dead within minutes without help.

Miranda put her full weight into it. Her hands were shaking, her palms slick with sweat. She swore as the syring slipped, popping up into the air. She grabbed at it, and sent it flying. It cracked off the panel before ricocheting back onto the deck.

“Dammit, dammit,”

Her own clumsiness would kill Hotaru far better than any head injury. She groped around the cockpit floor, finding it after what felt like an eternity of fumbling.

“What the hell you doing?” Mari snapped back at her. “Inject her now!”

“I.... I dropped it.” she answered back, stuttering. “I’ve got... I’ve got it now,”

I’ve never done this before, she didn’t say. She pressed the injector against Hotaru’s bare chest. The first button made it clamp down. It made her sick to feel it bite hard into the woman’s flesh. Hotaru’s body didn’t even flinch.

The second button punched the needle through into her body with a thump and a crack. Hotaru juddered, a tremble running through her limbs as the green stuff filled her body. Miranda swore she could see it darkening the veins across her chest already. Think happy thoughts, that was the usual advice.

“Done!” she announced, looking back towards the Captain.

“Good,” Mari said. “Now, get me a damage report. How bad are we hurt?”

Miranda’s mind was still spinning out of control while she pulled herself back over to the comm’s panel.

Below, in the engine room, both turbines were still spooling down to match the dropped demand. The acrid smell of seared plastics filled the compartment, insulation on some low voltage wiring having charred thanks to an arc somewhere in one of the panels.

Linda was flat on her back on the deck, panting. Her breathing was sharp and hard, a shudder of pain running through her body with each breath. She grimaced, biting down hard. Every breath was stabbing her in the chest.

She still remembered something hitting her like the kick of a cyborg, followed by a vivid red flash and then nothing. But she was breathing now. At least the pain meant she was alive. 

“How long?” she managed to get out.

“Dunno,” Andy barked back. “Hotaru’s been hurt on the bridge, she gets priority.”

It would have to be bad to take priority over Linda. The panel beside him crackled and fizzed, one of the wires having been knocked loose.

''“How...”'' it cracked. ''“Can y... ...ve  propulsi..?”''

Andy decided not to bother with the thing. He opened the hatch and yelled up to the bridge. “Five minutes.”

“We don’t have that long!” Mari shouted back down to him.

“I don’t know what’s out on that wing. I still have to figure out what breakers tripped and why. If I reclose at full power on a damaged powerline with a fuel leak, we’ll lose the entire wing.”

“Get it back, as soon as you can,”

“Aye.”

He growled to himself, and couldn’t help but not that, if this had been a Trekkie ship, they might all have been dead now. Credit where it was due, at least the Boskone knew how to do power system protection.

With a bit of luck, maybe the disturbance recorders survived.

----

Ford was panting. She took the first blow on her metal arm, getting herself out of the way of the follow up which cracked the wall behind the space where her head had been.

Quattro had no skill. What she had was speed and strength backed up by inhuman endurance. She had time on her side, while Ford was only going to get tired. Her heart was pounding as she dodged out of the way. She spun back around, using her cyber leg to return to favour. It send the android tumbling against a stack of equipment. Ford took the chance to make a desperate grab for her pistol on the floor.

Cathy was out of ideas. The PPK was next to useless against Quattro. Thinking quickly, she remembered she’d taken the android’s stungun. It would be difficult at best, but she was out of ideas. If they didn’t end this now, Quattro would just wear them down.

Screaming, she launched herself at the madgirl. She aimed right at her face, hoping to jam the stun-gun right into her eyes. Blind the bitch, that was the only thought in her mind.

Quattro turned to face the screaming catgirl. The last possible moment before the prongs of the stunner made contact with her eyes. She started to duck, bringing her arm over in an arc to knock the furball clean out of the air. Bright electricity arced between the prongs, Cathy’s fangs glowing bright in the light.

Quattro actually felt fear. For one brief millisecond, she was actually frightened. Something scratched off her cheek before penetrating her eye. She felt the warnings a moment before she felt the lightning shoot through her body. She screamed.

“My eye!” 

Cathy was completely committed to the attack, compelled by her own momentum to keep moving forwards. Quattro caught her right in the chest with a crunching blow. She yelped, before crashing into a crate back first.

Fluids were leaking down Quattro's cheek as he tried to guard the wound with her good hand.  She stumbled, her balance all shot to hell. Systems errors announced themselves in her mind. Stray currents had found their way through her body, cooking control chips as they went. But her mother had built her body tough. She’d make them pay. She’d make all of them pay. Little ants would be stepped on and go pop and crunch.

"You'll pay," she choked out. 

Cathy tried to reply with a combat quip, but settled instead for just throwing up. Her world was spinning, and her guts were tying themselves in knots. Something was wrong deep inside. It would heal, homeostasis was good that way.

Ford finally felt the reassuring weight of her pistol in her hand. Quattro seemed to be stunned. Behind her, Cathy was stumbling on her feet and clutching at her gut. Her own hands were heavy.

“Give it up!” she yelled.

Quattro hissed and turned to face, her damaged eye appearing scorched and metallic behind the incongruously unharmed glasses. Ford slowly began to circle to her right, putting Cathy and Vivio out of the line of fire,

The android tracked her with her good eye. Her teeth were gritted into a vicious, dog-like snarl. There was fury and frustration. Ford had no idea how much effect a nine millimetre luger round would have on Quattro’s head, but hoped to hell that Quattro didn’t either.

“You think that thing will hurt me,” the android sneered.

“You care to find out?”

There was stalemate. Ford considered just shooting her, but she really didn’t want to have to go through the bother of explaining herself.

Cathy just stared motionless at the two of them. She didn't want to break the stalemate. It gave her time to catch her breath.

“Are we going to stay here until Great Justice arrives?” Quattro asked. Somehow, her town still managed to keep it's mocking sneer.

Ford smirked at her. “As long as it takes to keep you from escaping.”

“Seven more minutes?”

The door burst open.  Everyone glanced back at it. Ford half expected an armed squad of Gliesbies piling through. Quattro recognised what it was first, and started moving. Cathy began to yell a warning. Ford’s gun fired with a sharp bang. She felt something heavy hitting her in the gut. Something pinged and fizzed.

Ford landed hard on her butt, her head swimming dizzily around.

“Don’t move. Don’t fuckin’ move!”

Ford thought she recognised the voice. She looked up to see Jet standing in the doorway, fully geared up with blood streaked across her armour and dripping from her blades. That oversized handgun of hers was drawn and pointed right at a point just between the madgirl’s eyes. Jet’s helmet glanced down at her, then returned its faceless gaze to the android.

“Reinforcements arrived... game over.” Cathy whispered.

“Now I know what you’re thinking.” Jet said, her voice a hard snarl. “You’re thinking... she’s a cyber, and I’m an android. You know you’re faster than an ordinary human, but you don’t know if you’re faster than me.” She took a breath. “Truth is, I don’t know myself but given that I’m able to lift a car and could easily rip your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question, do you feel lucky?”

Quattro didn’t move. Thoughts raced through her cybernetic brain. The markings on the shoulder made it clear. She ran a quick calculation. It gave a probability of survival a fraction above zero. A very small fraction.

“Oh..." she whined. Part of her wanted to just run, and for a brief moment she pictured herself running screaming only to get shot in the back. The gun barrel was insistent. The bloodied blades backed it up. She wouldn’t have a chance in a fair fight. 

“Great Justice, You’re under arrest,” the Kunstler said, sounding calm.

Ford saw Jet’s finger on the trigger. Ready to shoot.

“No!” Quttro fell back down to her knees. “I can’t lose. It’s not possible. I made sure... I planned...I will...”

The gun barrel tracked her face. She stopped, dead. Her eyes were wide.

“My orders are to capture you, dead or alive. I really don’t mind which one you choose.”

For the first time in her life Quattro felt as she wanted to break down and cry. She was.... weak.

Ford and Cathy were watching. Neither of them said a single word.

Quattro's shoulders dropped forward and she nodded slowly.

“I surrender..”

The hardsuit didn’t lower its weapon. “Ford,” she said. “You alright?”

Ford found herself gawking at the blood covering Jet for a moment. “Just a little bruised,” she answered, poking herself in the ripbs to make sure.

“Cathy?”

“I am fine,” said the Catgirl through wheezed breaths. “Just give me a minute.”

The catgirl in the tank was crying softly to itself. It was staring at Jet.

“Jet,” it said. “Could you let me out?”

Jet looked over at her, just one word on her mind. How?

{{Shadowrunning}}