Star Kitten (28 page)

A new crew was installed
to run the
Chengshi
, and in practically no time, the hold was filled with
General Bengal’s brigade and it was off to Star Pussy.
Anarchy
stayed behind as
a scout to watch out for any following ships. Then finally, to
signal the rest of the Naustie fleet waiting thousands of miles
away, the newly captured
Chengshi
sent an interspace communication across public
Star Fleet channels hailing Star Pussy space station.

The other pirate ships
would intercept this message; and based on its content; would now
finally know when it was time to begin traveling to the space
station for the battle. No other ship to ship communication would
be attempted. Far too dangerous. They’d already heard
Anarchy’s
message that
was intended to lure the Earth ship to dock with it. Hearing
nothing else, they could only assume the ambush had worked. Up to
now they’d been listening for just a distress call indicating that
the
Anarchy
had
found a ship to engage. But there’d been none. Instead, they got
even better news! It was clearly their own fellow Nausties hailing
Star Pussy using a captured ship’s communication system.

Chengshi
, with its new pirate crew
at the controls, and Kscheeech taking personal command, sent the
cryptic but effective message, “Hailing Star Pussy space station.
Hailing Star Pussy space station. Request docking for earth
freighter
Chengshi
. Arriving in seventeen earth hours. One thousand five
hundred passengers and crew for vacation and shore leave. Please
acknowledge with available port information and terms.”

To everyone’s delight, a
female Star Pussy communications officer replied fifteen earth
minutes later with, “Acknowledged, earth ship
Chengshi
. Stand-by for docking
information… welcome to Star Pussy….”

Over the next seventeen
hours, the newly captured
Chengshi
travelled the last few light years to Star Pussy
with its hold filled with General Bengal and his assault brigade.
They knew when they approached the station that Star Pussy sensors
would verify not only their transponder identity, but also the
number of bodies on board, as their biological heat readings would
indicate the ship indeed had about 1500 humanoid beings on board.
Reality was it was a brigade of about 1263 bloodthirsty warriors
and a small skeleton crew of about two hundred and twenty manning
the controls. But that was plenty. Kscheeech could have run the
ship with half that many.

The remaining fleet was
cruising behind
Chengshi
, several million miles
back, waiting for a distress call from Star Pussy; indicating an
attack was underway, or even a communication from
Chengshi
with Star Pussy
customs authorities announcing they were clear to offload
passengers. That too would be good enough to signal the attack. And
once the message was received, the rest of the fleet was to appear
right in time to dock in any newly captured ports on Star Pussy to
further the assault and reinforce the attack where necessary. As it
turned out, the Nausties would end up being rather glad they
brought along such a large force…!

Docking in the port near
the Pumalar Environ on Star Pussy seventeen hours later, the
captured earth freighter
Chengshi
was able to secure itself easily and connect its
cargo bay to the port’s receiving deck by merely backing into the
giant moorings which latched onto the craft and held it firmly in
place while customs officials prepared to receive the
Chengshi’s
“passengers”.
With Kscheeech now at the helm of the
Chengshi
, he proceeded to carry on a
very polite and information-filled conversation about events,
attractions, and accommodations available on Star Pussy… with a
very polite and professional Port Authority officer named
Meerah.

A still image of the officer appeared
on-screen. This female Pumalar was not an Empath at all, but
actually an aging female who’d been employed by Star Pussy to greet
landing space craft in a feminine sounding voice so to make
visiting crewmen and their ship’s captains feel welcome… and
relaxed. Her voice was soothing and warm. And her training was
thorough. She knew EVERYTHING about the facility and she didn’t
mind—in fact Meerah downright relished the opportunity—to tell
Kscheeech all about what was going on the next few nights on Star
Pussy. Best of all, her answers were packed full of information
that Kscheeech really needed. He also knew the ship captains of the
other seven pirate attack ships could intercept their transmissions
and listen in as well.

“Oh yes, we’ve got plenty
of room for your passengers and crew, Captain,” purred the sweet
and kind old she-cat. “You know, frankly we haven’t seen ships
coming from Earth in several weeks now. Those rumors about space
pirates. Reporters on the news scaring everyone. Must’ve frightened
them off… back on Earth I mean. That’s my theory anyway. But our
sensors are telling us you’ve got nearly 1500 on board. Shall I
book some rooms for you all—I assume you’ll want to stay together,
right? Might be easier to find everyone when it’s time to depart,
(
giggle
).”

Kscheeech chuckled. What a
nice sweet old cat. He could pump information out of her easily,
and fully intended to. “Yes, that would be fabulous-sss,” he
hissed—then hesitated for a moment.
Woops
. He almost gave away his Zorg
accent; and he feared Meerah might detect he was actually not
human. That could be problematic: this was supposedly an Earth
freighter traveling from their home planet. Kscheeech realized his
mistake and corrected himself by saying quickly, “Sss-end us
s-sssome Porters-sss to handle our luggage… I’m s-sssure my crew
and passengers-sss will wanna head right for the Pumalar Environ.
Grab the first available Empath they can find. It’s been a long
voyage, Officer, uh….?”

Meerah just laughed,
saying “Oh just (
giggle)
call me Meerah. Everyone does. No need for titles
around here. I’m just an old she-cat, long past my prime you know
(
hahahah
).”

Kscheeech knew that all
Meerah could see on her end was just a camera view of the ship as
it was docking and hear the audio of his voice, so he tried to
suppress his hissing Zorg accent. “Very well then… Meerah… you can
call me
Keech
,”
replied Kscheeech. That was actually the nickname Snout had given
him a year before; because pronouncing his name correctly with a
Zorg accent just sounded ridiculous. Most Zorg names were like
that. Their names were all very ancient and went back to their
barbaric days as cold-blooded lizards. Each name sounded like a
noise that a lizard would make.

“Sss-o tell me Meerah, are
you able to access information on perhaps booking some time with
the S-ssstar Kitten… the one called Felina?” Once again, he winced
at his accent slipping; but Meerah still apparently hadn’t picked
up on it. She replied back quickly, “Ah, stand by while I check.
Good choice, Keech. I assume this is for you personally and if so
may I say, you’ll be very satisfied with Felina. She’s truly the
very best we have.” Kscheeech grinned and waited for several
moments—meanwhile the stevedores were linking up to the hull of
the
Chengshi
and
a telescopic access tunnel was extending out from the space station
to the
Chengshi’s
cargo bay. “Oh, I see her schedule now…. Well Keech, I’m
afraid she’s off work in about ten minutes. Oh pooh,” said Meerah.
“But hey, if you want to… just go to her favorite restaurant Star
Fish and meet her tonight in person. She goes there after work
every night. The chef there is amazing. Have dinner and stop by her
table to say hi. She’s very nice. Just tell her Meerah sent you
(
giggle)
.”

Meanwhile, as the access
tunnel was sealing itself to the
Chengshi’s
cargo bay, Kscheeech was
signing off with his newly-made friend Meerah. At that very moment
General Bengal’s Smilodon Brigade were all standing at the ready,
purring softly and snarling with anticipation. They’d waited
patiently while Kscheeech and his crew steered the ship into its
moorings. And when they heard the access tunnel linking to the
cargo bay, all the Pumalars, Earthers, and Zorgs braced themselves
to burst through the doorway. A big THUD was followed by some
motorized sounds which indicated a vacuum seal was being created.
Soon the door would open….

The Smilodon Brigade was made up of five
companies of troops. Three companies of Pumalar warriors carrying
hand-held Electrical Impulse Cannons made up the brunt of the
vanguard of shock troops. These units could fan out quickly and gun
down defenders fighting out in the open. Then there were two
artillery companies of humans (further broken down into fire teams
of five to ten men) which operated mobile large-size EIC’s. These
human units would carry the components of these cumbersome weapons
out to a secured position and assemble them. Once done, they could
spray the enemy with .50 caliber projectiles, rather than the
smaller .30 caliber projectiles in the Pumalar’s hand-held
EIC’s.

Enemy infantry would stand no chance against
these .50 caliber weapons. And it would keep the enemy cowered
behind barricades when under fire from them. Walls were no good
against them either. The large caliber EIC’s could rip apart
bricks, aluminum, and even reinforced glass. They also carried
satchel charges and grenades which could be hurled at fixed enemy
positions when necessary. And while the enemy held on for dear life
to fortified positions, Pumalar assault troops could move around
and outflank or jump from cover to cover until they could overwhelm
and eliminate most defenders quite easily.

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.