NOVEL WEB Cat’s Flight
“Hold on Ortega, we’re inbound!” Private Harrison shouted over the comms, barely audible over her own screaming.
Catalina Ortega prepared herself for death as the roaring purple mutants charged up the stairs toward her position. She bit back another scream as she flew upward, hoping to Lord Jyn that there was an exit at the top of this stairwell. All she had to do was last until Hoplite Thirty-Seven arrived, surely he and private Harison had some ammo to spare, they’d need it for this horde of mutants. She’d run out of munitions over a week ago, after her squad was slaughtered by these freaks of nature… at least, she wished they had just been killed.
As her boosters sent her flying up the stairwell, she spared a glance down, seeing the occasional glint of Ternan marine helmets in the crowd. So many of the escape pods had landed feet-first into hell itself, both Ternan and Final Kind. Some of the alien menace was also present in the flowing horde, Yugoro’s, Swaglay, and Pugs scrambled after her, charging alongside their lifelong enemies. Worse however, were the infected Wasps, the creatures struggling to gain lift with buzzing wings as the monsters trampled over them. That horrible buzzing of their wings along with the roaring voices of the quickly approaching horde made her skin crawl.
If she even got a scratch from any of these freaks, it would be over for her… and she’d end up the same way as her squad had, as a blubbering purple freak. Her training as a Diver would hopefully see her through this, but unless Hoplite showed up soon, she was as good as dead. As she neared the ceiling, she felt sheer relief at seeing an open doorway, one that led to the outside. Hopefully the jumpers wouldn’t see her before she could fly off, those monsters may be able to snag her right out of the air.
She was fast and hard to catch, but Cat was also very slight, barely reaching one-hundred pounds in weight. There’d be no way for her to break out of their grasp if they got their hands on her, best bet would be to stab at them until the pain made them drop. They would still be able to inflict injury on her before that could happen though… and injury led to infection ten times out of ten it seemed.
She landed at the top of the stairwell, and sprinted through the open doorway, the dull buzzing and roaring of the horde echoing up the staircase after her. Her head whipped this way and that, trying to catch sight of the giant gate Hoplite would be surely arriving at. Once she spotted it, she ran for the edge of the roof, sparing her jets to allow them some time to cool off. This model thankfully didn’t need fuel in order to fly, but it would overheat if used for too long. She didn’t know the science of it exactly, and frankly she didn’t care.
The basics was all she needed, if she flew with these for too long, for over three minutes, the odds of it exploding or shutting down became a legitimate factor. After that point, the odds of one of those two happening would increase… she had already spent two minutes straight flying, meaning she had about a minute left before she’d enter the danger zone. Cat just had to make it to the next building, then she could cool her jets, both literally and metaphorically.
The gate was still a good distance away, perhaps three city blocks, it would be preferable to cool off. If only she had one of the fuel-based boosters, then Cat wouldn’t have to worry about overheating. Then again, the problem of running out of fuel would have been an inevitability, a fatal one at that considering her environment.
Thirty-Seven and private Harrison surely would have passed through the gates by now, apparently they had some local reinforcements with them too, but she doubted it would be enough to overcome the sheer volume of hostiles running through these ruined streets. The horde spilled out from the doorway right as she reached the edge of the roof, and she jumped, activating her jets and sending her flying off.
If there weren’t any jumpers in the streets below, she’d be able to recuperate at the next building. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that lady luck was on her side. Already she could hear the dozens of loud pops of air being burst, and she risked a look back to see three jumpers leaping through the air toward her.
Another variant of these infected, the rarest and the most deadly, at least to divers. Cat had no idea how they did it, but these mutants were capable of kicking the air so hard that it sent them flying. Their feet were blurs whenever they leapt, using nothing to propel themselves up toward her, screaming threats in perfect Jynesian. These beasts seemed to retain some lucidity, but that didn’t make them reasonable.
“Scratch cut smash!” One of them shouted, their voice booming and guttural, “Scratch cut smash!” It repeated.
“Kick kick kick!” Another shouted, “Kick punch bite!”
Tears began welling in the corners of her eyes as terror filled her, flying straight over the building she had intended to rest her jets at. The only thing to do now was to try and make it to the gate, she could stay out of the jumpers reach as long as she flew into the danger zone… meaning she would need to be lucky to survive.
She flew high, then swooped down, forcing the jumpers to adjust their course to catch her. She dove low, just above street level, swerving over the crowds of mutants and around buildings in an attempt to shake the jumpers from her tail. She screamed as she heard air popping around the corner, rapidly ascending to avoid another jumper as it rounded.
“Rip hair mulch guts!” It shouted, rising after her.
It was soon joined by the others that were already giving chase before, bringing the total up to four mutants on her tail. Trying to lose them had proven to be a waste of precious time, the only thing to do was go straight for the gate! She assumed position one, horizontal in the air, flying toward the gate like a bullet.
She could feel the heat of her thrusters now, seeping into her feet, her hips, her back. It was painful, but she knew that this was nothing compared to what those freaks had planned for her should they catch up. The gate was straight ahead now, all she had to do was make it there and she’d be safe, Higgins and especially Thirty-Seven would be able to fend off the jumpers. In fact, she could see them now! The Hoplite Thirty-Seven was there, hauling what looked like a primitive wagon, personnel loaded in the cart. She bumped her chin, sending the thrusters into overdrive as the jumpers began gaining on her. Her flesh began to blister under her thin armor, but she didn’t care. She could live with a few measly burn scars, she didn’t care as long as she got away from these freaks!
Hoplite seemed to spot her immediately, meaning that he also likely saw her pursuers. Please for the love of Terna, let him be as good a shot as she’d heard! Her heart fell as the thrusters began to flutter and die, tears rolling down her cheeks as she forcefully descended.
“Damn stupid things, fly!” She shouted desperately as she began flailing, bumping her chin to get them to cooperate.
Her skin felt like it was going to fry right off her bones, but she couldn’t die here! The thrusters reluctantly complied with her request, giving one final push and sending her flying toward Hoplite, who was already taking aim with a massive rifle. She could feel the bullets fly past her, colliding with the mutants behind her before she heard a thud and flesh scraping along stone.
A fate that she would share.
The thrusters, having been pushed to their limit, finally shut down. Despair filled her as the ground came up to meet her, and she tried curling into a ball to mitigate the incoming damage, but she knew that there would be no way that she’d survive the impact. At the speed she had been going… Well, at least she had tried to survive, Cat hadn’t given up, but her luck had finally given out, after everything.
Her vision blurred as something wrapped itself around her, her guts lurching as she was pulled out of motion suddenly. The force of her stoppage nearly knocked her unconscious and her rations nearly spilled from her mouth. Before she could see what had happened, she was in motion again, feeling giant hands clutching her. Could that be Hoplite? But that was impossible, he had been by the gate taking shots at the jumpers… So what had caught her.
When the blurriness left her eyes, she came face to face with a bulging purple chest, spirals etched into the skin. One of the infected had caught Cat right out of the air and was going to drag her off to brutalize her. She let out a scream of terror, trying and failing to kick free of the mutant as it sped off.
Gunfire echoed, sounding oddly closer now that she was being taken away. Cat barely managed to turn her head, seeing that the mutant had been running now away from Hoplite, but toward him. Thirty-Seven didn’t seem to be aiming at the infected that held her for some reason, instead firing past it and into the crowd behind it.
“I have her!” The creature holding her shouted, “I’ll put her in the wagon!”
“Affirmative, Halm, pull it out of the gate and hold off the horde there, I will stay here to draw them until the area is secure.” Hoplite replied quickly, taking aim at the gathering horde behind them.
“There are thousands!” The monster, Halm replied.
“Do it now!” Hoplite shouted, firing off more rounds, “I will be fine!”
How in the hell did this backwater world mutant freak know Hoplite?
“Hand her to me Halm, I got it from here!” Harrison said, “Just get the wagon past the gate like he said, we don’t wanna get caught on all sides!”
The giant complied, handing her to private Higgins as if she weighed no more than a doll. Harrison took her in his arms, cursing as the heat of her jets likely seeped through his own armor. He was a big man, with a dark beard and piercing blue eyes… wait, she’d seen him on the Sparrow before, always boxing with… ugh, Nasty Nate. Honestly though, she was glad to see him, and hell, she’d be happy to see Nate too at this point, even with his reputation.
“We gotta get these jets off ya Ortega,” Harrison said, laying her flat as he began fiddling with her boosters, disconnecting them before gently nudging them away.
The wagon kicked into motion then, quickly moving back toward the gate as the roar of the mutants closed in. There were other faces here too, the local personnel that she’d been told about. There was a blonde man with a red headband, a couple women, one with blonde hair and… pointed ears? Certainly not as odd as the man with red skin and horns though, that one looked like a real-life devil. She caught a glimpse of two others, a pale man, a woman with raven-black hair, and an old-timer, all with weapons drawn… Well, save for the old guy.
He was asleep.
The blonde woman rushed over, wearing plate-armor straight out of medieval times. Cat blinked slowly as she leaned over her, the woman wincing after putting a hand to Cat’s forehead.
“I can heal her, but she’s been burnt badly, there’ll be scarring for certain.” She said to Michael, who waved a hand.
“Just do it now, she's about to pass out!” Michael shouted.
Was she? Cat did suppose that she felt a bit faint… a bit woozy too. She wouldn’t complain if someone gave her some water.
“She’s going to fall unconscious no matter what I do, she’ll need rest after this.” The blonde woman replied, raising hands over her face. “Afina, let her be healed so that she will be tranquil in life…”
A cool warm glow then emanated from her palms, and the pain in her back subsided, her legs and hips too eased, the melted flesh feeling like it was reforming in mere seconds. Blackness enveloped her vision, soon overtaking it completely as she fell into blissful unconsciousness.