Chapter Forty-Nine – Hunters

Chapter Forty-Nine – Hunters

“They call themselves ‘Hunters’ as if they’re big-game hunters straight out of some early nineteenth century Victorian gentlemen’s club.

Sometimes they’ll even run across a passing Samurai and either get told off for being morons or will get a pat on the back for killing some xenos.”

–Extract from a Reddit F.A.Q., 2035

***

I parted from Major Hunt with a slap on the back for my good ‘xeno killing work’ and a shove back to my babysitter.

“I was instructed to escort you to advanced team fifty-one,” the big guy said.

Nodding, I followed him out of the little command tent and back out onto the bustling main ground of the temporary base. Now that I knew just a bit more about what was going on, I could appreciate the groups of soldiers running past and the rumbling of vehicles heading to the front a bit more.

We waited as a large armoured van passed by, its back door opened to reveal twin rows of normal folk all huddled together and looking like they had been through a nightmare.

People rescued from the incursion zone?

“How does the whole saving people thing work?” I asked. “I mean. Say I find a bunch of folk out there. Do I escort them all the way back?”

Soldier boy shook his head. “No ma’am. If you’ll allow us to connect to your aug-gear, we’ll give you the locations of forward bases and rendez-vous points. Escorted combat groups will meet up with you there and take any VIPs and civilians back here to be processed and evacuated.”

I didn’t like the sound of ‘processed.’ He said it the same way someone might ‘process’ someone’s credit info, which was probably exactly what was happening. As long as they didn’t try to pull any funny business on my Kittens I’d honestly probably not do anything about it, but still.

“Do I have a target or something?” I asked.

He shrugged.

Finally a crack in his little professional attitude.

We reached a spot near the barricade where little all-terrain vehicles were parked, little Humvee look-alikes with roof-mounted guns and actual wheels instead of hover systems. It was all a bit old-school, but judging by how armoured the things looked, it wasn’t too surprising. “Team Fifty One,” soldier boy called out.

Eight soldiers, all in the same flat-grey almost-armoured uniforms as my escorts lined up in two rows before me. They varied in height and stature, but they all seemed like they could handle themselves.

One of them stepped up, the shortest one in the entire lot, but also the one with the most marks on his shoulders and breastplate. “Team Fifty-One reporting,” he said.

Soldier boy saluted. “I’m handing off Tier One Samurai Stray Cat into your care, Team Fifty-One.”

“Acknowledge,” Short-stack said with a return salute.

“Good luck ma’am,” my escort said before he moved off.

And then I found myself the centre of attention of a bunch of soldiers. I wished that I could turn invisible without it being a big social faux-pas. “Sup?”

“We’re in your care, Miss Stray Cat,” the short one said.

“Uh. Sure?” I said. They were probably all a few years older than me, which just… yeah, made shit weird. “I’m not big on saluting and such, can we skip ahead to the actual goal of this thing?”

“Yes ma’am! Have you been briefed?”

“Sure.”

Shorty nodded. “In that case, we’re ready to go whenever you are. We have two vehicles at our disposal. At your disposal. As well as clearance to cross the barricade sans inspection.”

Was that important? “I call shotgun?” I tried.

There was a snicker from some of the soldiers, but short-stuff didn’t seem to mind at all. He tapped the side of the nearest armoured car. “This one’s ours, ma’am.”

I moved to the passenger side of the car, if only to get away from all the staring. Should I get a shirt that covered my stomach? Had they been staring that way? It was hard to tell with their visors.

Which reminded me, I needed some cool shades too.