Chapter 16:
Neko Nuke Nightmare
“What, are you going to blow a hole in the side of the dome?” The ambassador’s remark was intended to be sarcastic, but the gynoid took the question at face value and nodded. “That’s insane.”
“There is no time to waste arguing.” Still pointing her gun at Lea, she waved it toward the stairs. “Grab whatever weapons you have.” She then turned her head to address me. “Tie the humans up in the cellar. If we want to avoid a war, we have to make it appear as though the Federation government did not participate in what we are about to do.”
“But I’m human too.”
The gynoid opened her mouth to respond, but Lea cut her off. “Do what you want with the ambassador, but the maid dies.”
To my surprise as much as hers, I moved to block Lea’s path to Rosalie. “There’s no need. She’s not a threat anymore.”
“She murdered Oliver, and you want to protect her?! Is a little head scratch enough to buy your loyalty, or do you think it’s OK to kill nekomimi now that you identify as human?”
My ears drooped and I shrank back. Was I hesitant to kill Rosalie because she wasn’t a complete stranger? Part of me wanted revenge, and it wasn’t fair that the Futarchy wouldn’t punish her, but at the same time, her death wouldn’t bring Oliver back. It would only increase the body count of this bloody mission. We had killed out of necessity; I didn’t want us to become murderers of convenience.
Unsure if Lea would accept that argument, I tried a different approach. “If we kill her, we’ll have to kill the ambassador to make it realistic. If we kill the ambassador, the Federation will attack us as enemies. We’ve already sacrificed so much for this mission. Will you let it be for nothing just because you couldn’t sacrifice your revenge? Do you hate humans that much?”
“That’s not fair.” Her hands shook as tears rolled down her cheeks.
I nodded. “It’s not fair, but it’s reality.”
With a huff, she turned away, her tail smacking into my side, and marched off to the bedroom, where she had left her rifle. I grabbed Rosalie and pulled her toward the stairs to the cellar. She resisted at first, so I pistol-whipped her across the cheek, just hard enough to let her know I wasn’t her friend. After that, she didn’t make any trouble as I led her to the cellar. There was nothing to tie them with, and I didn’t feel like putting down the suitcase anyway, so I just shoved them inside and locked the door.
As I climbed the stairs back to the first floor, I heard the sound of glass shattering followed by two shots from a Federation rifle.
“Sprout,” Lea called to me, “we’ve got company.”
With the pistol at the ready, I crept toward the window and peeked out in time to see three cars barrel into view. There was another car parked in front of the embassy with two dead bodies lying next to it. The men who piled out of the cars ignored their fallen comrades as they rushed the door.
From one floor above me, Lea wasted no time firing down upon them, killing another three before they even reached the sidewalk. I followed suit, managing to take down a couple of my own, but they responded by throwing a gas canister into the building. As I scrambled to throw it back, two more sailed in, and even more cars turned onto the street. We were quickly being overrun.
The entire building was shaken by a loud crashing sound, and bits of roof rained down on the sidewalk. At first, I thought this was another enemy attack, but then I saw a Federation battle suit fly out over the street and rain down dozens of blaster beams on our enemies. The beams of light curved in midair, homing in on their targets.
From my position, I couldn’t see who the pilot was, but I heard the gynoid’s voice as she shouted from within the suit. “Grab a car. I’ll cover you from the air.”
I wasted no time leaping out the window onto the sidewalk and bolting for the nearest car. Lea dropped down behind me, landing silently despite jumping from the second floor. Police sirens blared in the distance as we piled into a car and drove off. We had no idea where we were going, but we followed the gynoid as she zoomed through the air.
It wasn’t a long trip to the docks, especially since we were going triple the speed limit, but there was a police blockade waiting for us when we arrived. Without warning, they opened fire on the gynoid. She wheeled and dived to avoid the bullets, but one grazed her cheek and another shattered one of the suit’s thrusters. The battle suit spiraled out of control, but she managed to return fire and steer the falling suit into the blockade.
She emerged from the flaming wreckage with the left half of her face missing and a large crack splitting the other half. Her hand and clothes were singed but mostly intact. Presumably unable to speak without a jaw, she waved us toward a mini yacht floating a meter off the ground amidst towers of large metal shipping containers.
The boat was small and sleek and painted white. Designed to look like a yacht that sailed the open sea, it instead flew through the air, powered by Federation technology. I couldn’t believe it was just sitting in a Futarchy dock without anyone guarding it, but when I got closer, I saw a shimmering distortion in the air around it. It was protected by a powerful energy shield.
The shield vanished as the gynoid approached, almost as if it were evaporating. She grabbed the bottom rung of a ladder built into the side and started climbing. Lea and I scanned the area with our backs to the ship, guarding against any attacks from the rear.
If only we had thought to look up. My ears twitched as I heard the shot. Bullet-shooting rifles emitted no coil noises to warn that they were about to fire, giving me less time to react, but I dove behind a shipping container as fast as I could.
But the shot wasn’t aimed at me. Halfway up the ladder, what was left of the gynoid’s head shattered, sending bits of metal ceramic alloy flying through the dockyard.
Lea reacted just as quickly as I, raising her rifle to where a police sniper crouched atop a tower of shipping containers. They both fired, but Lea was first. His gun discharged as he fell to the ground, his bullet burying itself in the thick glass of the dome dozens of meters behind us.
I glanced around for more threats, but finding none, turned to Lea. “What are we going to do now?”
“Get on board the ship. I think I know what the gynoid was planning.”
The gynoid’s body—er, chassis—was still clinging to the ladder, so I jumped onto her shoulders and from there onto the deck of the yacht. Lea did the same and ran over to the cockpit. She pressed some buttons, and the air warped around us as the shield powered back up. It was smooth sailing at first as the boat rose higher into the air and back toward the city center. Then Lea spun the wheel to bring the boat about and lined the bow up with the bullet embedded in the dome.
“Hold on to something,” Lea said. “This is going to be bumpy. Let’s hope the gynoid knew what she was doing.”
Pushing a lever as far as it would go, she accelerated the yacht toward the dome. The entire boat shook so hard when it collided that I thought my neck might snap. Cracks appeared in the dome’s glass, spreading slowly outward. The ship’s engines squealed as Lea pushed them to their limits. They were soon joined by loud snapping and creaking noises as the dome buckled under the shields.
Then, as the chorus of destruction reached its crescendo, the glass pane shattered completely, and we shot through to the outside world. The sun shone through the thin miasma, reflecting off the ship’s hull.
We were home free. Just a quick trip to the Federation, and this mission would be over. My relief was so palpable that I let out a whoop of victory.
My celebration was cut short by a loud boom that shook the ship once more. One of the engines had blown out completely. At the same time, Lea sank to her knees, clutching her side.
A bloodstain was spreading across her dress.
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