Star Kitten (6 page)

These were automatic weapons which fired up
to 120,000 rounds per minute. They could be sprayed at an attacking
crowd of protesters, or a wave of attacking troops, rendering
appalling casualties in a matter of seconds. Larger .50 caliber
versions of these weapons were installed in “kill slots” on the
outside walls of every guard outpost, and they could mow down
beings of any species that came inside their field of view.

The guard outposts were quite formidable
indeed, constructed of steel, and safely secured inside caverns
along major access tunnels throughout the planet; and one was
attached to every food depot throughout New Australia. Each guard
outpost was garrisoned with at least ten guards armed with these
deadly weapons and safely secured next to elevator shafts or output
collection sites where prisoner gangs would bring in their ore and
crystal to earn their daily food ration. Crystal extraction
operations were mobile, so guard outposts and food distribution
centers would be located in tunnels, then moved occasionally as the
extraction work moved around the crystal to free it.

The Slart mechanics, repairmen, farmers,
scientists, engineers and physicians embedded in all the gangs
throughout New Australia, now began nominating the best and
brightest of their kind to come together and become a planning team
for the revolt. A headquarters cave was established and protected
by the Schpleeftkorkii gang so that the planning team could go to
live and work directly with Architeuthis in planning the initial
planet wide attack. This planning team assembled almost immediately
and began assessing what the Nausties had to work with in terms of
developing battle solutions for enemy defenses. Within a few weeks,
they had many working theories….

Nausties who were skilled with tunneling
could dig right up under a guard post and right through their
floor… or dig down through the outpost’s much softer ceiling.
Porkonjii (tough and brutish with amazing strength and endurance)
were naturally talented at that!

Next, global tunneling also meant they could
set up a communication network with runners passing messages in a
relay system throughout the planet to organize coordinated
attacks.

And it took months for Porkonji diggers to
improve that communication tunnel. Porkonjii, or Porkos as they
became nicknamed, were the best diggers and miners of all
Nausties—their bodies almost perfectly designed for the task. When
the network of tunnels was eventually fully connected, Zorg runners
were soon sprinting in relays throughout the planet keeping all the
gangs updated on progress and deadlines.

Next, the planning team knew they needed
fantastic scouts to work with the Porkos and Zorgs protecting them
from detection or danger. For that task, the Schpleeftii (or
Spleefs as they were nicknamed) made perfect candidates. Spleefs
had amazingly sensitive snouts which could sniff out gases,
minerals, salt, sulfur, body odors, and anything dangerous much
faster than any other being.

The Slart planning team also ordered the
crafting of carbide lamps. Calcium Carbide would need to be
acquired from the guards to fuel these lamps. Longer term, it could
be manufactured by heating coke and lime into making acetylene, but
there were already large stocks of acetylene for cutting torches
used in the mines. In the short run they’d have to stockpile their
own carbide lamps to create lighting for the communications
tunnels. Stockpiling lamps was quite an easy solution for supplying
the tunnels with lighting however the Slart planners knew, they’d
need a lot more. Once Warden Ggggaaah shut down all the electricity
in the mines, they’d be in complete darkness and suddenly those
lamps would be their only method of artificial light.

The next issue was food. The Slart planning
team meticulously calculated just how many calories a warrior would
burn during a prolonged attack on a Food Depot Guard station. Next
the Slarts calculated just how long the whole planet could survive
once the revolt began—once the whole network of Food Depots would
be shut down by Warden Ggggaaah. The incredibly scientific and
mathematically gifted Slarts devised a time table for the first
attack, once it was ready to execute.

They’d have precisely five days to capture
at least three Food Depots before the entire planet would begin to
starve….

To calculate this, the Slarts took into
consideration the amounts of food stored in a typical Food Depot.
It received a one week shipment, every six or seven earth days, via
a massive elevator system, the gang leaders knew. And each day it
would send up the output from its prisoners in the same elevator
shaft. Guards travelled in a passenger bay located in the same
elevator shaft, but they only refreshed their staff every Earth
week when food shipments arrived. Each food depot had a one month
supply of food for the prisoners, just as a precaution in case of a
cave-in or elevator breakdown. But to control the prisoners, the
guards had always given out daily rations only; and those
distributions were based on production from the previous 24 hour
period (in Earth time). The whole system was originally designed by
Earthmen, so they tended to observe earth-like customs and
practices for time tables and production management.

Subsequently the food rations were
calculated precisely to feed a specific number of beings of all
species with enough calories to sustain them for 24 hours. The best
option, said the Slarts, was to step up production for at least six
months to earn ration bonuses and stockpile food. This would be
incredibly difficult, but it would buy time for the Slart farmers
to increase their own clandestine food production deep inside the
mines.

In front of each food
depot was an enormous area for bringing in production output on
electric dump trucks which were the size of a large house. This
cleared-off area was the only approach to the typical food depot
within the mine; so attacking
in
masse
across this killing ground would be
disastrous for the Nausties. Because of this, the Slarts calculated
that a careful tactical approach would be necessary to reduce
casualties until warriors could approach closely enough to employ
spears or javelins, which the Earth prisoners were already
designing and crafting.

That became their specialty. Earthmen (with
their more dexterous fingers and hand/eye coordination) had
superior ability for craftsmanship in designing tools or weapons
for close order combat, so many of the stronger but less agile
humans, or “Earthers” as they were called, became the “blacksmiths”
for the Nausties.

The Slarts suggested the gang leaders
increase production for at least six months so that they could earn
food surpluses, but they also ordered a tripling or even
quadrupling of the size and scale of hydroponic farms. Seeds were
acquired (by simply sending teams of Spleefs to go through the
guard’s trash searching for discarded fruits and vegetables, and
soil was developed on a massive scale using dung and infusing it
with nitrates and minerals the Slart scientists had been
developing. Great reservoirs of filtered water were collected, and
whole sections of the lighting panels used deep inside the mines
were cannibalized to make enormous hydroponic farms. Harvesting
could occur every 8 earth weeks, and these harvests could sustain
the planet for a while; just in case a captured food depot was
destroyed in battle. But the safest path was to capture as many
food depots as quickly as possible to keep the revolt going. Once
frontline troops began to starve, the rebellion could easily fizzle
out.

Daily food rations were given out based on
fractions of ten. In Ggggaaah’s system, a completed quota yielded
the prisoner a full daily ration of calories, but the food rations
were broken down into tenths. If you missed your full quota, your
ration was reduced by 1/10th or even 20 percent; and this could
lead to malnutrition and death. So workers in gangs would strive as
hard as possible to produce the entire quota for their gang, so to
have enough food for all their members including those sick or
infirm or injured. That was the unwritten code of the Nausties: do
your part and your comrades survive.

Therefore working to achieve output
surpluses and achieve food ration bonuses was a reliable way to
stockpile food. Without those captured stockpiles of food ready to
consume, warriors battling in the mines would never be able to
sustain themselves in combat for long.

Hard choices would have to
be made. It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.
Many
would
die,
that simply HAD to be understood; so casualties were beyond
consideration. Literally, there was little use considering it. The
only thing that mattered was capturing those depots. Naturally, the
Pumalars arose as the most fearsome and fearless warriors. They
were larger than most of the other creatures, standing an average
of six and a half feet tall; whereas human males still averaged
about five feet ten inches. And Pumalars were highly skilled at
close-order combat. They immediately became military commanders and
trainers for the assault forces which trained during and after
their work shifts several days a week. Earthers were the next best
fighters, and quickly dispelled any myths that Pumalars might have
had about their will to fight or their ferocity. Earthers could
dish it out and they most certainly could take it, just as well.
Pumalar drill sergeants and tactical training commanders were
delighted with how fast they learned and how ruthless Earthers were
in combat. They weren’t just brave… they were downright heartless
and cruel.

Earthers had more intelligence as SOLDIERS
though—even more than Pumalars—and over time, the Slarts began
choosing Earthers over Pumalars to do the actual tactical planning
and battlefield management preparation. Once they did that, some
very fresh and creative ideas came from the Earther captains and
lieutenants within the new Naustie army. Pumalars were indeed very
brave and fearless, but Earthers were crafty and deceptive. When
preparing to attack a fortified military position, their planning
tended to focus on “drawing fire” away from where the main attack
was actually going to come; and to create diversions that would
keep enemy defenders from being able to concentrate fire and
successfully repel an attack. The Slarts were amazed at Earthers’
almost natural ability to complicate matters for a defender and
create an isolated military advantage or “window of opportunity”
that might only exist for a few minutes; yet yield a chance for
overall victory.

Archibald Hicks of the all-white Arian
Knights gang was eventually promoted to General of the army, and at
his first major strategy planning meeting with the Slarts, about
six Earth months after preparations and training had begun, he
explained his tactical plan for assaulting the typical average
fortified guard station and food depot.

Bald and razor-shaved from head to toe,
Hicks had tattoos all up the side of his neck, arms, and legs. Most
Nausties had abandoned clothing by now and merely wore loin cloths
to cover their genitals. The Arian Knights were all gleaming white
Caucasian humans from various parts of Earth; and one of the most
violent gangs on New Australia. Hicks also had an eight-inch Celtic
cross tattooed on the back of his shaved head, from the nape of his
neck all the way up to his cranium. The Slarts were both shocked
and amazed at his ruthless plan (as well as his terrifying
appearance).

Upon being introduced by Architeuthis to the
committee, General Hicks leaned forward over the planning table and
glared for a moment, nodding subtly to the other Slarts at the
table. Then, he said in a growling yet emotionless voice, “First we
draw out the commander of the enemy garrison and murder him. Food
deliveries and changing of guard staffs occurs every seven or six
earth days, so we catch them during a personnel change… kill as
many as possible while they’re moving in and out of the station.
The guards surviving this initial attack will flee inside the
station if they can; and lock down the station thinking they can
fend off the assault… meanwhile our Zorg friends will do a
spectacular job of convincing them it really is just a suicidal
frontal assault. That’s what they’ll expect. But it’s not.” General
Hicks then cleared his throat ominously, as he stood up, still
glaring at the little squid-like creatures watching him,
enthralled.

Hicks then pulled out a three foot long and
two foot wide diagram of a food depot.

The diagram, which showed arrows and
directions of assault, had been drawn onto an actual old cutaway
picture of a food depot and its accompanying guard station
barracks. It had been part of a blue print at one time. How they’d
acquired it, no one even remembered. Probably it had been lost
somewhere by work crews constructing one of the depots. It had
probably been left behind, and then later retrieved by prison
miners years later. Hicks’s male life partner, Perry, had laminated
the diagram onto a large metal plate the size of a car door; and it
included an overhead cutaway view, as well as a profile view of one
of the facilities. These depots had all been constructed exactly
the same in factories back on Earth, then shipped in components to
Rijel 12 years before to be assembled.

Therefore, the Nausties could use the same
attack plan on practically every food depot on the planet.

“Zorgs… they’re quick and small,” continued
General Hicks. “Use them as light infantry to draw fire from the
guards while our heavy infantry moves up… protected by boulders and
transport vehicles. These boulders will be discreetly placed; and
vehicles will be parked in a random fashion so to create very thin
narrow kill zones for the guards and their EIC’s. Our heavy
infantry must jump from protective cover to protective cover while
taking fire, slowly working their way toward the guard station.
Casualties will be high, but this is necessary for the Zorgs to do
while we get our infantry close enough to fire salvos of spears and
eliminate guard positions.”