Chapter Sixty-Five – Pspspspsps

Chapter Sixty-Five – Pspspspsps

“There are two types of illnesses common in large conventions. The ‘Con flu’ which is any variation of the common cold carried by the visitors and guests of the convention and shared between them because of their close proximity.

And the con plague. Similar to the flu, but more likely to lead to many deaths.”

–Fur-Con Guide to furry conventions, 2032

***

“Here aliens aliens aliens,” Princess said. She was talking over a loudspeaker embedded in the MEOW’s outer armour, so her voice was being projected out and all around us, pretty loudly too.

Unlike the Nyanzerfaust, which had lots of stealth tech, the MEOW was… not as subtle. It had some amount of ECM, but it was mostly to throw off electronically-targetted weapons, and it felt like something tacked on, just in case.

I was pretty sure the mech could take on an artillery barrage and come out stomping the other side with no issues.

“Pspspsps,” Princess called.

I blinked, then shifted in my chair to look back. Princess noticed, and at least had the common decency to blush. “Are you calling out for the aliens or for wild cats?” I asked.

“Sorry, I didn’t know what to say?”

Fair enough, but I still felt a little slighted. I hoped that Nya wasn’t listening in, otherwise she might show up and start batting us around.

An artillery barrage I was confident against. A bored Nya… not so much.

We continued to thump through the forest, heading in the general direction of the red spot the map. I was starting to wonder if there were even any–

A green blur shot out from the underbrush and I gasped as I saw it coming through a dozen sensors, all of them connected right into my head. A few more screamed a warning when I was already mid-jump, and I fumbled and lost hold of the controls for a moment.

Then the alien thumped against the front of the MEOW, claws slicing at the mech in a mad scramble and not really doing much.

It was just a model three, a big one, but still. I brought the mech’s foot around and pressed the model down and into the ground, then, lacking any proper melee weapons, I stepped on it. It popped like a grape.

“Wha, that spooked me,” Princess said.

“Yeah, likewise,” I said.

“I’m sorry I didn’t see it.”

I glanced back, then refocused on the forest around us. “You don’t need to say sorry. Not like I saw it either.”

“Yeah, but it was my job,” she said.

“And it was mine to pilot us, which means a lot more of the responsibility of looking around was on me,” I said. “Don’t worry about it, alright?” Princess nodded, and I continued to push up forwards. “At least this means that we’re probably on the right track.”

I scanned the area around us, quickly switching between vision modes. That’s how I caught some motion coming in from the right.

“I see them,” Princess said. She pinched her tongue between her lips, then moved one of the gimballed guns around. The moment the sight was on target she fired, then shot downwards. “Oh… there’s no recoil to compensate for?”

“It’s not a video game,” I said. “And that kind of calibre won’t do anything to move this tank.”

“Sorry sorry!” Princess said. She re-aimed, but the model three was dead already.

Targets Eliminated: Model Three x2
Points Earned: 12
Point Total: 7,612

Hmm. Not a lot in the bank, but better than nothing. I had been getting a small trickle every day, passive income, as it were. Today was hopefully going to be better for gaining points. More so than the last week, at least. Hopefully.

“More ahead and a bit to the left,” Princess said. “I see some heat signatures that way. It’s either really warm rocks, or more aliens.”

I snorted. “Yeah, alright,” I said.

It only took a minute of gentle stomping through the forest before we started to get attacked with a lot more regularity. First model threes jumping out of the brush and trying to bite and claw their way into the mech and failing utterly.