Star Cat The Complete Series

by Andrew Mackay

  “It’s not safe here, pet. You need to go and keep Alex and your children safe—”

  BLOITCH-SPAAATTCCHH.

  Tripp’s body cracked open and shattered against the ground, releasing the Shanta within. It growled and slammed all twelve of its limbs against the walkway walls.

  BLAM-BLAM.

  Jaycee fired two shots and missed the Shanta entirely. Its first limb smacked the gun out of his hand.

  The second limb rammed him in the stomach, hurling him against the wall.

  “Gaaoow.”

  The Shanta’s midsection swung around to face Jaycee and Jelly. The slit in the central section shimmied apart and revealed its razor-sharp, goo-covered fangs.

  “SCREEEEEEEEEE.”

  Jaycee staggered to his feet and coughed, “Ugh, I think I dislodged something.”

  Jelly rolled her head around, cracking out the knots in her neck. She was ready to fight once again.

  “Don’t call me pet, Jaycee. I’m much worse than that.”

  She took a step forward and fanned her claws out in front of her face, threatening the disgusting, fleshy Shanta blob in front of her.

  “Hey, you.”

  “SCREEEEEEEEEE.”

  Jelly scrunched her face in anger at the Shanta as it moved its limbs along the wall, inching closer and closer to her along the walkway.

  “You killed my friend,” Jelly lowered her infinity claw and offered the Shanta a piece of her, “Come and get me. Pick on someone your own size, asshole.”

  RAAAAAARRRR.

  Her threat worked. The Shanta didn’t understand English, but knew for sure Jelly was offering herself to it.

  Its ugly limbs slapped along both walls, ceiling, and floor like a complicated octopus-cartwheel. Its talons created sparks as they scraped against the surface of each section of the walkway.

  “That’s it, that’s it,” Jelly whispered, readying herself, “Come to mommy.”

  “Uh, Jelly?” Jaycee tried. “I, uh, don’t have any weapons on me.”

  She closed her eyes in a huff, already fed up with his whining. She looked over her shoulder and snorted, “Then why don’t you be a good boy and go take cover in the control deck?”

  “What?”

  “I got this one,” she finished and returned to the approaching Shanta. “Come on, you ugly bastard. Come to mommy.”

  The Shanta pressed six of its limbs against the wall and catapulted itself at Jelly. She jumped back and swiped her infinity claws at it.

  SWISH-SHWUMP.

  She tore a chunk of pink gore from two of its limbs. It tumbled to the floor like a crazy, agonized squid and slammed its ten remaining good limbs against the walls and ground, ready to strike.

  “Yeah, yeah, come on. You know you want some more, Healy,” she licked her mouth and bolted after it.

  “Jelly, no,” Jaycee called after her.

  She ran forward, but fell to her knees in pain, “Uggghhhhh,” her low-pitched growl forced ropes of spit against the floor, “My t-tummy hurts.”

  “Jelly,” Jaycee called after her, “Get out of the—”

  WHOOOOOOSH-SCHLAAAMMMMM.

  The Shanta took advantage of its opportunity. It whipped its first three limbs out and punched Jelly in the side of her head, smashing her against the ground.

  “Bastard,” Jaycee ran toward the ghastly creature and clenched his fists, “Leave her alone.”

  “SCREEEEEE.”

  The Shanta turned its attention to Jaycee, who lifted his arm and prepared to punch its throat into the floor.

  “Yaaaaaah.”

  WHVOOOM.

  Jaycee launched himself over Jelly’s chest and punched the Shanta in its midsection. It released itself from the wall and slammed to the ground in pain.

  Jaycee fell to his knees and made a mad scramble for Jelly. She was hurt; battered, bruised, bleeding, and rolling around on the floor in agony.

  “Jelly,” he said, “Take my h-hand.”

  Jelly removed her arms from her face and rolled onto her back, “Nuh, nuh.”

  He widened his eyes in horror.

  Jelly’s face had cracked. Most of the fur had shed from her face, revealing a porcelain-textured layer of skin.

  More human than feline.

  She whined in agony and, as she screamed, her whiskers pushed out - along with the front of her skull.

  GRUNT.

  “Whoa, Jelly,” he said, backing up along the walkway, temporarily forgetting that this trajectory would lead him to the Shanta.

  GRRROOWWWWLLL.

  Jaycee climbed to his feet in shock, and ended up right underneath the Shanta, who prepared for another strike.

  Jaycee tried his luck, “Tripp?”

  The Shanta loosened its limbs and appeared to squint at the man.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Jaycee huffed, somewhat relieved that he might be able to talk some sense into the beast, “It’s you in there, isn’t it?”

  “SCREEEEEEEEEEE—”

  “—No,” Jaycee said. “You got inside my friend, and now you want to take us?”

  The Shanta flicked its talons out and stabbed Jaycee’s shoulder, pinning him to the wall.

  “SHAAAAAANNNTTAAAAAA.”

  “Ngggg,” Jaycee winced and coughed out a mound of pink blood. “Let me go.”

  He tried to kick at the ghastly beast, but it wasn’t much use.

  Jaycee had an idea, “Tripp, I know you’re in there. Let me g-go.”

  “Shaaaaaaaaantaaaaa,” the creature whispered.

  Jaycee stared in the creature’s slit, “Your wife remarried, Tripp. She thought you were dead.”

  The Shanta’s midsection tilted and blinked it slit. For a brief moment, Jaycee knew Tripp was in there somewhere.

  “I meant t-to t-tell you,” he struggled through the pain, “I’m sorry, Tripp.

  WHUMP.

  Jaycee saw the floor rumble up to his ass as he hit the floor. The Shanta had unpinned him.

  He looked up at the creature, who appeared to take the news pretty badly. It retracted its limbs and hung its midsection.

  “Tripp?”

  The Shanta flicked its talons and turned to face Jaycee, who held his hand out at it.

  “Friends?”

  The Shanta trundled over to him using its first four limbs.

  Jaycee felt his life flash before his eyes. He looked over at Jelly groaning on the floor for a second longer than he should have.

  It gave the Shanta enough time to strike.

  BAAAMMMM. STRAAAPPP.

  “Whaaa,” Jaycee yelped as his feet lifted off the ground. The Shanta’s limbs twirled him upside down.

  SCHLAAMMM.

  Beyond anger, the Shanta pinned him against the wall, imprisoning him with its limbs.

  His right leg bent out, awkwardly, against the wall, along with his right arm. Mashed up against the surface, the Shanta pressed its body in an attempt to crush the man to death.

  KEERRR-RUNNNCCHH.

  “Whoagh,” Jaycee yelped as his exo-suit splintered against his chest, “I ch-chu-ca-n’t b-b-breathe—”

  “SCREEEEEEE.”

  Jelly flipped onto her paws and caught her breath.

  She swished her tail and spat more pink goo onto the floor before tilting her head to the Shanta.

  Jelly wouldn’t watch her friend get crushed any longer. She found the energy within herself to get to her feet and stumble toward the creature.

  “Hey, you.”

  KEERRR-RUNNCH. CRAAACCK.

  “Juh-Juh,” Jaycee tried to call her name, but his face and skull pressed into the wall.

  “Let go of my friend, asshole,” Jelly screamed at the Shanta, but it wouldn’t relent.

  “D-Dumb…bomb,” Jaycee shook his leg as best he could. “T-Take it out.”

  Jelly tiptoed along the walkway, using her tail as balance. She threw herself forward and walked on all fours behind the creature.

  SCH-TATCH-KERR-REEAAAAK.

  Jaycee’s exo-suit
chest plate bust open, along with his Kevlar-based pants. Now that his armory was broken, all the Shanta had to do was apply more pressure and crush him to death.

  Whooosh.

  Jelly reached the back of the beast. She raised her front paws up the wall and grabbed Jaycee’s right ankle.

  CRUNK-CRUTCH.

  “Juh, Juh—” Jaycee tried, but couldn’t speak, as the Shanta’s mid-section closed in on his face. He felt the metal in his head warp and dent inward, “Ngggg, uh, nggggg.”

  Jelly opened the thigh compartment on Jaycee’s leg and slipped her paw in. She rummaged around feeling for the dumb bomb.

  Five seconds later, she felt something hard and oblong. Success.

  “Shhhh,” she winked at Jaycee and took hold of the bomb, expecting it to be less squishy than it was.

  “Huh?”

  The left side of Jaycee’s face cracked outward in sections, revealing the circuitry inside his skull, “Ngggg.”

  Jelly made the fatal mistake of looking at what was in her paw.

  It wasn’t a dumb bomb at all, but a dead kitten - her third and previously unaccounted-for child.

  At first, she didn’t process the information. She flicked her ears and thought about her discovery.

  A red mist wafted in her periphery vision as she held the small, haggard ball of flesh in her claws.

  It rocked around the sharp edges. Her paw shook uncontrollably. She couldn’t make it stop.

  Her heart began to pound harder and harder. The very fiber of her being turned red and heated every muscle and bone inside her.

  “Grrrrrrr,” she whimpered and took a deep breath.

  Jaycee Nayall was responsible for her daughter’s death. She thought she could trust him.

  “AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH.”

  She picked herself off the floor and released her daughter from her clutches. “You sonofoa—”

  She fisted Jaycee’s thigh compartment, grabbed hold of a solid metal connector and yanked his leg through the limbs of the Shanta.

  WHUMP.

  Jaycee’s body slipped down the wall and smashed to the floor. Beyond anger, Jelly pulled her fist out of his thigh with his dumb bomb in her claws.

  She lifted it to her face and slid her tongue through the pin.

  The Shanta wrapped its limbs behind its back and planted them along the wall behind her.

  SCHWIP.

  The dumb bomb armed itself as she spat out the pin to the floor.

  “SCREEEEEE.”

  The Shanta catapulted forward and opened its slit. A sharp talon jutted out from the cavity as it clambered towards Jelly.

  “Come to Mommy,” she screamed at the top of her lungs and rammed her fist into its slit up to the elbow.

  “SQUOOIIIIEEEE.”

  It gargled as it suffered Jelly’s arm deep within its throat. She released the ticking dumb bomb deep in its gut and stared right into the slit.

  “Get out of my home.”

  Jelly was beyond anger. Filled with hate and a desire to kill absolutely everything and anyone in her path, she wrapped her claws around two of the Shanta’s limb and flung it down the walkway.

  It crashed against the deck.

  Jelly stormed after it and scraped her infinity claws along the walls, creating an intense flurry of orange sparks, “Get up, asshole.”

  “SCREEEEE.”

  The Shanta shunted its limbs against the wall in pain, gargling and choking.

  Jelly elbowed the shattered glass from the airlock hatch and lifted the door, “Yaaarrggghhh.”

  She grabbed the Shanta by the midsection with both sets of claws and pulled it into the airlock.

  Biddip-biddip-beeeeeeep.

  “Oh, shi—” Jelly pushed forward and rolled to her knees. The Shanta crashed the inner airlock with its limbs, suspending itself in the air.

  Jelly yanked the inner airlock hatch down and glanced at the Shanta, “Go to hell, you son of a bitch.”

  She turned around and sprinted up the walkway at full speed.

  Jaycee squirmed on the floor, broken and mostly-battered, “Jelly—”

  “—Cover your face and stay down,” she roared and flung herself chest-first onto the walkway, “Do it, now—”

  KERRAA-BAAAAAAAAMMMMM.

  The airlock exploded. The door burst apart, vomiting debris against the wall and releasing a ball of fire up the walkway.

  The outer airlock door exploded and coughed out a ball of fire into the sky.

  Jelly rolled onto her side and slid along the ground.

  The heat from the passing fireball singed the fur on her back as she slammed her arms to the ground.

  The dust and detritus settled a few moments later. Both Jelly and Jaycee spluttered and gasped for air a few feet away from each other.

  The control deck door opened at the far end of the walkway. An Alex-shaped silhouette stepped out amongst the spinning red lights and stood in the door frame, “Jelly?”

  “Mah, mah,” she grimaced and clutched her chest, “I’m n-not f-finished—Ngggg.”

  Alex stepped forward and allowed the door to slide shut behind him. The skin on his face bleached red from the whizzing alarm bulbs on the wall.

  “No, n-no, get b-baaaaaa-aaack,” Jelly groaned and pointed at the door, “My babies. Look after my babies.”

  “Are you okay?” Alex tried to step forward, but knew he shouldn’t go anywhere near her.

  “Stay away from m-me,” Jelly slammed her right paw to the ground and snarled at him, “D-Do you w-want me to k-kill you?”

  Alex held his hands out in defense, “God, no. Of course not.”

  “Then let me finish this. L-Look after my babies.”

  “What do you mean ‘let me finish this’? What are you talking—”

  Jelly closed her eyes and lifted her head, producing a deadly response to his question.

  ROOOAAAAARRRR.

  Jelly now sounded like a tiger, and scared the ever-lovin’ hell out of the young man.

  “Uhhh, okay. Yes, good idea. I’ll go and look after your babies, then.”

  Alex turned around and entered the control deck, thankful that the she-beast hadn’t eaten him whole.

  Jelly climbed to her knees and licked her mouth. Her tongue tasted the singed fur on her chin. She coughed up another pink mound of blood and spat it to the ground.

  “Ngggg, whu, whu,” a pathetic grunt came from the other end of the walkway.

  It was Jaycee - utterly battered, and with half his face missing. He’d seen better days.

  Jelly walked forward on her knees, struggling to make any meaningful progress.

  GROWL.

  “Nuh, nuh,” she tried, before closing her eyes and screaming out loud. A prolonged yell of utter agony. Her skull shunted forward, breaking the bone in her nose out and taking her whiskers with it.

  Each facial strand elongated as her yell turned into a prolonged howl of murder.

  GRUNT, SNIFF.

  Her nostrils flared and blew out a gust of air. The vocal chords deep within slumped and thickened. Each tooth wriggled free from her gums and clanged to the floor.

  SWISH-FLAP-FLAP.

  She moved forward on her elbows and knees. With each thud against the ground, they broke apart and bent backwards. Her spine arched and pushed through the skin on her back.

  Jaycee watched her transform before his very eye.

  “Juh-Juh—?”

  He didn’t have the energy to move. If he did, he might find that parts of his body wouldn’t be accompanying him.

  “M-My G-G-God—”

  GRROOOWWWWWLLLL…

  Two giant fangs pushed through her gums as her tongue lashed out. More teeth pushed through as her skull extended under her cheekbone.

  Fur pushed through her delicate skin - white and black in colored stripes across her face. Her eyeballs sunk and enlarged in one swift motion, turning a urine-stained yellow.

  Grrrrrrrr.

  Jaycee gargled through his nostrils in
shock, “Juh, Jell-ie?” He squinted his one active eye and burst into tears, afraid for his life, “J-Juh—”

  ROOAAAARRRRR.

  “I c-can’t b-believe it,” he whimpered through his tears and stared his fate right in the face.

  Its tiger face.

  Jelly had transformed once again and paced toward him. Her body took up most of the walkway, blocking anything from escaping or entering.

  “Yuh-yuh—you,” she tried with the last of her ability to speak, her voice affecting a deranged and angry demon scowl, “K-Killed my b-baby…”

  “Nuh, nuh, Jelly,” Jaycee held out his arm at the tiger face moving through the darkness, “I d-didn’t—”

  “—You… killed,” she struggled through her croaking voice, “M-My d-daughter.”

  Jelly pressed her front paws into the ground and pushed herself upright. She wobbled around in front of Jaycee and tried to retain her balance - a feat she managed after a few seconds of standing upright.

  Jaycee looked up at the gargantuan freak show. Half-woman, half-tiger? Half cat? It was no longer worth assessing any longer in Jaycee’s view. The exo-suit remained mostly intact.

  “You-you look good in USARIC’s outfit, you kn-know,” Jaycee tried to joke through his tears.

  ROOAAARRR.

  Jelly didn’t find his quip amusing in the slightest. If anything, she considered his remark as something of a ball-buster - an invitation to pummel his face into the ground, squat over whatever remained, and take a huge dump on it.

  “Y-You—”

  “—I d-didn’t kill h-her,” Jaycee’s voice fizzed and slunk into a pathetic electronic rendition of the voice Jelly was used to, “I d-didn’t. I f-found h-her—”

  Jelly stomped over to him with a look of murder in her eyes.

  “Nuh, nuh, J-Jelly. I d-didn’t kill her,” Jaycee squirmed and guarded the remains of his face with his battered forearm, “P-Please, n-no.”

  Chapter 14

  Interstate 608

  The van tore across the grounds and smashed through the gate, headed for the freeway.

  “I think that’s the last of them,” Sierra unhooked her machine gun from her shoulders and passed it to Grace, “Here, take this. I’m performing a head count.”

  “Be quick,” Grace flicked her hair over her shoulders and looked through the windows of both back doors. Her eyes grew with terror, “Oh no.”