Star Kitten

by Purple Hazel

  When the door finally opened, General Bengal literally unleashed hell on Star Pussy. It was a ferocious and incredible surge that caught the poor Customs staff completely off guard. The Smilodon Brigade swept through the port facility with ease, and began fanning out in both directions to secure additional ports. General Bengal took two companies of Pumalars and one Earther artillery company; a force of about 900 troops, heading toward the nearby Pumalar Environ. His other two companies moved out in the other direction toward the Earth Environ to secure the next port for reinforcements to arrive.

  Reports coming back to Kscheeech were all very positive for almost a full hour. His Zorg runners made splendid messengers using the gigantic hallways of Star Pussy. They could sprint and hop over dead bodies with ease; and on the smooth simulated tile surfaces they could move swiftly. The Smilodons just blasted away in every direction as they entered the large lobby areas, mowing down anyone standing up or foolish enough to resist. Beings of all species fled in all directions or just wisely fell to the floor and laid completely still while the battle raged. Going from chamber to chamber the Nausties forced female Pumalars and even female guests into secured areas and closed them off from the lobby. Male noncombatants were either ignored or knocked to the ground while the Nausties snuffed out resistance.

  Star Pussy Police were clearly overwhelmed in those first sixty minutes with the sheer ferocity of the attack; but soon the security breach was met with stiff resistance, and the tables turned immediately. Falling back to more easily defended areas, the SP Police called in reinforcements and eventually made a stand. More reinforcements arrived. Then more. Suddenly these tough policemen were counterattacking and regaining lost ground. The hunter…had gradually become the prey!

  Before long, the three companies under direct command of General Bengal found themselves trapped and—for several hours—surrounded.

  At first, when Star Pussy Police notified central command of a pirate attack, the order was to “hold your positions and eliminate the intruders.” This was most logical at first, because all police stations (unbeknownst to the Nausties) had an arsenal of hand-held EIC’s that the SP Policemen (in their mint green shirts with brown slacks) could arm themselves with for a real battle. The electric batons were tossed away immediately—those were just for drunk and rowdy customers—this was combat!

  This was what they’d truly been waiting for… a real fire fight. Most SP Police officers had military backgrounds; and knew how to use automatic weapons. Retired Pumalar Army, soldiers of fortune from Earth, or even experienced Porkonji colonial troops… they’d all come to work here so they could enjoy the special benefits of working on a gigantic galactic floating brothel. And their attitude regarding pirates? Mere scalawags all of them. Scum. Heathens. The SP Police looked down on these raiders as being below contempt.

  True… they might very well have underestimated the ferocity of the initial pirate attack. But once they recoiled and rallied for a counter-attack, the SP Police suddenly turned into fiercely determined defenders who coolly, calmly, and methodically regrouped to fight the now surprised and lightly supplied Pirates. As they re-formed and armed themselves with EIC’s from the nearby police station, the SP Police prepared for the assaulting Nausties and opened fire with merciless intensity at their approach.

  General Bengal and his three companies took appalling casualties when they came upon the first of these fortified positions. SP Police threw up barricades using anything they could find; and mowed down the Nausties as they advanced. No one had warned General Bengal that the SP Police carried anything more than night-sticks with a cattle prod on the end. Besides, how could Kscheeech or anyone else have known that? The videos he’d watched just showed softly dressed happy smiling police officers with electric batons! So when the SP Police opened fire on Bengal’s troops, they were caught out in the open and had to flee for cover.

  The next thing that happened was even worse. While they were pinned down by murderous enemy fire, enormous security doors descended from the ceilings several hundred yards behind them, which shut off the whole section from the docking station. Suddenly they were trapped in a firefight, cut off from their ship; and taking casualties. General Bengal found himself and his remaining men literally fighting for their lives. All Bengal could hope for, was that Zorg messengers would notify Kscheeech in time and hopefully he’d have some way of rescuing them. If not, his seven hundred remaining troops might all be slaughtered.

  Meanwhile, the other two companies, who’d fanned out in the other direction toward the Earth Environ hadn’t fared much better. They’d secured the port there; but soon found themselves in a similar predicament. Nausties in this force were able to slaughter all the SP Police in the docking facility and eject the lone ship anchored there; so an additional Naustie ship, the Warthog, was able to land and offload fresh troops. However, by then the SP Police had shut off the area by closing massive security doors on either side of the port. This squeezed the nearly four hundred Nausties into a pocket about one mile wide; with only the port they now held as their only means of escape.

  When Admiral Snout heard of this (by monitoring communications traffic on Star Pussy), he flew into a rage. Nothing angered Snout more than hearing of his troops taking casualties or being “cut off”. And that’s precisely what he was being told by his crew. They’d been intercepting station transmissions between police units fighting the Nausties; and many were reporting things like, “enemy is contained and pinned down near Pumalar Environ Empath Chambers” and “counter-attack successful. Enemy is retreating into food court area and cut off from escape.”

  Snout was furious. In an angry snarl, he commanded his crew in the Engineering area to arm their warheads and prepare to fire. If the Chief of Police on Star Pussy wanted a real fight, then he was about to get one. First Snout ordered his crew to fire neutron torpedoes at the command center in the middle of the space station. If the Police Chief was sitting there, calling the shots for his police force, then he and anyone else sitting around him had to be taken out. That was just basic military procedure.

  Take out the eyes and ears of the enemy first, before conducting any further offensive operations. That was only logical; and now Snout was regretting not pushing for an all-out takeover of the space station like Kscheeech had originally proposed!

  The Anarchy had five neutron torpedoes which functioned effectively as a means of radiating a limited area without causing much destruction to facilities or structures. They were almost exclusively for antipersonnel purposes more than anything else. A small blast would open the command center building and obliterate those at the very top level. Radiation would infiltrate the passages and hallways as the station attempted to seal off damaged sections of the headquarters. The five different blasts would be targeted to hit not just the dead center, but also four other locations around it, to cut off the very center of the station and kill most everyone in the headquarters without damaging the overall structure of the wagon wheel-shaped facility.

  Meanwhile, an enraged Admiral Snout ordered his Engineers to stand by the thermonuclear warheads just in case this attack was a complete disaster and had to be scrubbed. If that happened, the Admiral knew what he’d have to do and that was to destroy the entire station—and all his isolated troops still trapped on Star Pussy right along with it. If they were indeed going to have withdraw, Snout knew he must leave little evidence behind of who was really responsible for the attack. For another two agonizing hours, Snout weighed that desperate option, while he awaited news from below.

  But things eventually got better. Kscheeech exited the Chengshi and set up a new headquarters in the terminal port command pod so he could be close to the action and take command of the operation to save the beleaguered Smilodon Brigade. With him, he brought teams of Porkonjii from his own ship's crew to go out with acetylene cutting torches to slice open a passageway through the security barriers. This allowed Bengal's troops to get resupplied and rally for an eventu
al counterattack. Swiftly, he then ordered the Chengshi to depart so that another ship, the Varanus, could dock and unload reinforcements. When fresh troops from the Varanus landed at the Pumalar Environ passenger port; and the Warthog landed with the Arian Knights Brigade at the captured but desperately held Earth Environ passenger port, things finally started to turn around for the Nausties.

  Up until then, Bengal had proudly held on; merely promising his troops reinforcements and brashly admonishing them with, “No retreat! Hold your ground! Hold your ground until help arrives!” His bravery was outstanding despite the desperate circumstances his warriors faced. He was holding on by a mere whisker… but he wisely knew that his troops were not about to break and make a run for it. New ammunition was really all he needed. The resupplying of ammunition meant the “trapped” Smilodon Brigade could now apply murderous return fire to the SP Police units attacking them; and slowly the tide began to turn. The SP Police were gradually routed out of their defense line; and driven back when reinforcements arrived from the newly landed Varanus.

  Kscheeech stayed in the Port Command Pod, directing the operation and remaining visible; while reports came in constantly and messages were sent up to the front lines. The SP Police command center had been demolished with neutron torpedoes as well, so the disruption of central command meant police units in the field had to make decisions on their own. Not knowing exactly what to do; nor whenever they’d finally be reinforced, the SP Police soon were withdrawing completely from the Pumalar Environ.

  Same thing was occurring in the Earth Environment sector. With the arrival of General Vlad the Impaler and the Arian Knights Brigade, it just became too much for the gradually more overwhelmed SP Police units. Naustie Earthers used cutting torches to slice open fifty foot wide hatchways through the massive security doors; and Earther artillery units sprayed through the cutaway at hapless defenders on the other side when the hole was completed. Very soon, General Vlad’s forces were pouring through the breach; and those poor terrified human body workers who’d been trapped in that section of the station when the lockdown doors were activated… were soon being rounded up; while the last of the SP Police in that sector were eliminated.

  As the last of the SP Police were being routed and forced to retreat… Vlad and about fifty of his best men suddenly found themselves standing right in the middle of the enormous holographic imagery deck made to look like a giant Roman gladiator arena. It had been used as a holding area for noncombatants in the area while the SP Police formed a defensive barricade. Vlad and his men stared and guffawed at the scene now lying before them: nearly five hundred earthmen and women, cowering in fear and terror, lying on the floor or kneeling with their hands up in surrender; in the middle of a simulated Roman coliseum. It was like they’d stepped onto a movie set.

  Some were customers. Many more were male body workers, dressed in Roman gladiator costumes or skimpy togas. Most of them were bodybuilders with smooth oiled skin (muscles rippling and bulging). They were gorgeous hunks; one and all. “BO zheh moy!” exclaimed Vlad in his native Russian. Surrendering before him were nearly two hundred handsome beautiful glistening boys and men; none of them even over 25. Another three hundred females too; all beautiful and scantily clad (some were even completely naked), huddled next to them. They looked up at him and his scarred weathered warriors, trembling with fear. Vlad and his men just snickered and chuckled derisively amongst each other.

  “Greetings everyone,” bellowed Vlad sarcastically. “You’ll all be coming with us, now.” He then directed his attention to a rather pristine young man with boyish features and a carefully crafted physique. Vlad looked down at him with a lascivious smile, while the young man shivered with fear. “You can call me Vlad, my boy….”

  Chapter 16:

  The Starfish

  During the battle, Felina and Rex had wisely scurried out of the way of danger and quickly found a place to hide inside the Starfish restaurant kitchen….

  When the fighting began, Rex and Felina were just sitting down to a peaceful dinner together, after Rex had finished his work shift. He was relaxing in a comfortable restaurant chair thickly padded and covered with soft teal-colored vinyl fabric over a light metal frame. There were a hundred chairs just like this throughout his restaurant, in various different colors. The whole decor of his restaurant Starfish followed an ocean world theme. Rather than using images or paintings of sailing ships, or ropes and piers and docks like some seafood restaurants... Rex's design team strove for an undersea world ménage' that included all the soothingly pleasant imagery of actually being on the ocean floor.

  Soft pastel colors like lavender, teal, blue-gray, baby blue, manila, seaweed green, magenta, and pink dazzled the eyes, along with decorations and art that replicated sea plant life. The interior was low-lit, with only battery-powered table lamps made to look like over-sized glowing pearls inside a splayed-open oyster; and soft track lighting running along the tops of the walls. The rest of the lighting actually came from the brightly lit food court outside. Recorded soft ocean sounds emitted from speakers hidden behind plastic mock-ups of sea urchins or conch shells.

  The entire restaurant's seating was oriented around a massive fish tank that held thousands of gallons of replicated sea water; and was large enough for cleaning crews to actually scuba dive inside to clean and scrub the interior of the glass. It was oval in shape and extended to the ceiling. Diving crews entered and cleaned the tank every 72 earth hours too; so that it continued to be clear and transparent. Customers sat all around it and waved at the half-naked swimmers with their snorkels and breathers; scrubbing and scraping the sides of the tank; while the walls of the restaurant showed holographic images of sea and marine life swimming around the walls. The combination of all this imagery made the customers feel like they were truly seated at the bottom of a magical sea while they dined.

  But the ambiance for Rex and Felina was destined to be quite violently disturbed indeed this night, for in just a few moments people went from dining peacefully all around them, to freezing with panicked confusion from the noises and explosions going on all around the food court outside. Disturbed from their peaceful friendly conversation; both Rex and Felina went through the process of first wondering "what's that noise" to "why are all those people running?" Before long, the terrified screams from the food court outside combined with the explosions and bodies falling dead... made Rex finally blurt out, "holy shit, we gotta get out of here!" He grabbed Felina's furry wrist and dragged her away from the table as she spit out her mouthful of food.

  After only a few seconds of chaos outside, Rex concluded, this must really be them: the mysterious space pirates had finally come to Star Pussy itself. And why? They must be raiding the wealthy space station for its most valuable resource of all: females. Star Pussy had around 4,000 body workers; and most all of them were the loveliest of females their species had to offer.

  Rex was barely 5'10"… Felina normally towered over him at 6'1", but in his excitement to protect his best friend, he yanked her away from that front table like she was a tall skinny furry rag doll. This was a good idea too. If there was to be shooting going on, Rex knew those windows of his restaurant might surely be the next thing to break and fall. Problem was there was no real logical escape from the restaurant itself. There was no “back alley”. They were on a space station!

  At first Rex pulled Felina under a large booth table and they cowered under it for several minutes while screams of female humans and Pumalars could be heard outside in the food court. Several customers and waiters had done the same thing, hoping to be protected from the flying glass. But Rex could hear what was going on outside and whoever these attackers were, they seemed to be rounding up prisoners too. He looked back at his friend Felina, who was curled up next to him... "If they're capturing females, they'll surely take Felina... she's famous!" he realized. He needed to find a better hiding place for them to be safe. And he needed to hurry….

  When combatants with
EIC's began discharging them outside—as SP Police responded and opened fire on the raiders and they in turn fired back—projectiles smashed through the glass of the restaurant windows and began ricocheting off the giant fish tank. Customers and wait staff all screamed and cried out in fear. Not Rex. He just winced a bit when he saw the .30 caliber bullets leaving pock marks and divots in the giant fish tank. He just knew that humongous aquarium was eventually going to shatter and flood the whole restaurant with millions of gallons of sea water.

  He needed to get Felina out of there… but where to go hide? In a restaurant? They couldn’t go outside. Rex thought for a few moments.... Then he looked over at Felina, who was also wide-eyed in fear, hearing the screams and yelling outside the restaurant. Bullets were flying about. People were falling dead. Soldiers were firing back and forth at each other. It was compete mayhem out in the food court. Rex yelled to Felina over the din of noise and chaos, "Darling, come with me. We've got to get you somewhere safe!" Felina nodded quickly and they both sprang up from under the table. The other customers and wait staff stayed put, cowering from the bullets flying through the air, ripping apart the interior of the restaurant. But Rex and Felina crouched over at the waist and scurried toward the kitchen, barely raising up above the tabletops.

  Soon they reached the kitchen and Rex held the door open for her while she crawled through; legs already buckling from the cramped running. He breathed, "Good job, Darling. Now let's get into one of the pantries and hide until this is over." Felina gasped and crouched on the floor rubbing her legs. Kitchen staff were all piling into the freezer or into the food pantries and broom closets, filling them full and leaving no room for more. Rex sighed as he looked around for other options. Felina cried, "What now Rex? Where are we gonna hide in here?" Rex said, "Just follow me... I got an idea!" Outside the screaming and yelling could still be heard. Bullets continued to fly into the restaurant and smash lamps, artwork, and ricochet off the aquarium. Rex just knew it was eventually going to crack and break. Those poor people out there! Someone needed to warn them…. But first he had to hide Felina.