Star Kitten (8 page)

And alas, all the planning, training, and
preparation quickly paid off…!

“As luck would have it” to use the Earther’s
common parlance—all three stations fell within a few hours of each
other. Frankly, it wasn’t even a fair fight. By burning sulfur
combined with potassium nitrate, Slart scientists had developed a
corrosive incendiary called Vitriol (sulfuric acid) and formed it
into clay vessels which could be hurled and smashed against guard
positions. Zorg Slingers took out the Captains of the guard at each
station with a single salvo of stones; and then hurled these sulfur
bombs at the kill slots located on the outside of each guard post
wall. The burning liquid corroded and burned the eyes and flesh of
the surprised defenders firing from inside them.

Earthers who had trained at the javelin,
then stood up from behind boulders and fired waves of throwing
spears at the kill slots too; while heavy infantry units made up of
mostly Pumalar warriors moved up to the guard stations behind
mobile steel blocking shields attached to a wheeled chassis. In the
final phase of the outer assault, Earthers using acetylene cutting
torches sliced through the security gates and made it into the
station to exterminate the last of the guards.

Eventually the defenders were demoralized
and fighting desperately for their very lives. In the case of one
guard station, they were reduced to huddling terrified in the
center of their posts, tending to their wounded, only to find their
floor was being cut away, and the ceiling was being sliced open by
Porko diggers. Smoke bombs, like Perry the General’s life partner
had designed, were hurled through the openings and in the
confusion, rodent-like Schpleeftii light infantry hopped through
the openings and butchered several guards with daggers fashioned
from hand tools made by Earther blacksmiths. When Pumalar warriors
finally burst in through the sliced-open security gates, it was all
over. In close-order combat, Pumalars could easily overwhelm the
most formidable warriors quite easily; and most of these mere
prison guards didn’t stand a chance.

Zorg Runners circulated the news of the
victories throughout the planet core using the communication tunnel
network created for them months earlier. And when the word got out
that “objective Alpha” had been achieved, the three main bodies of
troops assigned to the second phase of the attack, massed at all
three locations for the long climb to the surface.

The easy part had now been accomplished! Now
came the hard part….

Architeuthis, upon hearing the good news,
heaved a deep resonating—almost burbling sound—like Slarts commonly
did when acknowledging, beholding, or realizing something joyful.
He then sat down with a relieved sigh on the ground, collapsing and
curling his legs into a sort of bed, like Slartigifijians commonly
do when they’re at rest. It had all happened so fast, and when
reports got back to Architeuthis of the successes, he so completely
wanted to share in the jubilation of the other Slarts and Zorg
messengers at his headquarters. Unfortunately he could not. All
that ran through his three hearts now was a cold sense of
dread.

Reports came in from all sectors of the mine
throughout the next 24 earth hours. Warden Ggggaaah had sounded a
general alarm and actually shut off all the elevators, cutting off
all his guard stations to fight it out to the death! “Great Goddess
of the s-sssea!” exclaimed a Zorg messenger reporting to
Architeuthis (that was a common expression among Zorgolongians, who
believed all life had been created at the bottom of the ocean by
divine beings who separated the fishes from the amphibians from
whence all Zorgs had evolved). The Zorg was breathless, and hissed
with excitement, fluttering his reptilian tongue. “Yes-sss, all
three depots-sss, in a matter (gasp) of a few hours-sss. But the
guards-sss are now trapped below with us-sss… Ggggaaah has-sss cut
off power to the elevators-sss!”

Architeuthis had prepared
for that yes, but these early reports were not completely accurate.
Later messengers arrived and clarified… one elevator that
had
been captured was
able to send up a unit of Pumalar shock troops, armed with captured
EIC’s taken off the dead bodies of the guards. This unit had made
it to the service tunnel several miles above… right before
Ggggaaah’s headquarters had received the distress calls and gone
into security lockdown. It turned out, the evil Warden’s only plan
for defense was to hole up in his fortified headquarters and let
his guards below fight it out until the whole planet below him
starved to death.

To be fair, Ggggaaah had every reason to
assume such a tactic would succeed. After all, the food depots
below the planet surface had only enough food to supply the
rebelling prisoners for one month. Moreover, they’d have to capture
all of these depots and defeat the garrisons in each one, just to
get to the food. Even if they could accomplish this, the rebels
were doomed to failure, and once they began to starve, thought
Ggggaaah, they’d fear complete disaster. Then, they’d surely
surrender.

Hell, even if they didn’t surrender, they’d
starve to death eventually anyway. Just like any pirate captain,
Ggggaaah merely planned on bringing in thousands more prisoners
once the mutiny fizzled out, and he’d be right back in
business.

Yet this did not concern Architeuthis,
because General Hicks’ plan already took that into consideration in
the first place. Hicks had assumed that Ggggaaah would shut off
power to the elevators as a security measure. In desperation, any
trapped commander would encircle himself with his best troops and
just let the enemy come to him. But Ggggaaah didn’t yet consider
himself to be trapped; that was the difference. He had actually
underestimated his opponent, and presumed he could defeat them by
starving them into submission, like he’d always done.

Ggggaaah, however…
was
dead wrong
!

True, General Hicks didn’t know which of the
three food depots would fall the easiest so he had a thousand
Pumalar shock troops in reserve, at the ready, at each location, to
try and board freight elevators before power was cut off. It would
be a twenty earth minute ride to the surface in those gigantic
lifts. If all three captured elevators worked, that would make
things easier of course. But if none of the elevators worked or
didn’t carry the warriors all the way to the surface, then the next
four Earth days would be very rough-going for the Rebels.

Luckily however, one elevator was captured
quickly and still serviceable all the way to the surface before
Ggggaaah shut off power to them. While the other two food depots
were under attack, and being secured by allied rebels, a thousand
brave Pumalars scrambled into the one captured freight elevator,
along with a platoon of Earther EIC fire teams riding all the way
up accompanying them. Each Earther fire team used captured weapons
from the dead prison guards; and set up barricades to protect
themselves for when the elevator door opened at the service tunnel
above.

Not sure what they’d find when it opened, an
ambush or a surprised sentry, the Earthers at the front prepared
for a deadly firefight. The elevator grinded, hummed, whined, and
groaned, then lifted the comparatively light load of sweaty (and
furry), grime- and dust-covered beings for twenty terribly long and
terrifying minutes as it ascended from the bloody battle scene
below. Packed in shoulder to shoulder, with many still fresh from
combat, it was going to be an agonizingly long journey. Would the
elevator even complete its ascent? Or would the elevator stop
somewhere along the way and leave them with another mile (or more)
to have to climb using the service ladders?

Thankfully, to the heavily armed Pumalars
and Earthers holding carbide lamps in case of a power shutdown, the
elevator completed the long climb, and to their relief, the doors
opened finally—only to find an entire platoon of about 30
Zorgolongian security troops awaiting its arrival, apparently still
expecting an empty elevator to open up for them to ride down and
easily suppress the rebellion. Remarkably, the Lieutenant in charge
of the unit, had “called” the elevator up to the surface right
about the time the Pumalars and their Earther allies had boarded
it; so the entire unit of Zorgs was expecting an empty elevator
lift when it opened.

As the lift crept over the edge of the
service tunnel floor, Earthers holding EIC’s and manning larger EIC
machine guns on tripods opened fire, decimating the surprised
security force, and scattering those not killed immediately. That’s
when the massacre began….

As the elevator came to a clunking stop,
Pumalar warriors inside the elevator went wild and rushed forward
to slaughter the more than five hundred mining engineers, truck
haulers, and support personnel working in the service tunnel. These
terrified civilians employed by the mine; had been working in
relative safety for years never expecting anything quite like this
to ever happen; and their screams and cries for help filled the
tunnel for miles in every direction, as the bloodthirsty killers
chased them down to butcher them mercilessly.

So many years of oppression and humiliation
suddenly came to an end for these brave and hearty warriors. Left
on the doorstep of an eternal hell by their home planets, abandoned
to serve out the rest of their lives in near-darkness, occasionally
starved into submission, abused and over-worked by heartless prison
guards… these muscular cat-like Pumalar rebels became enraged with
bloodlust. They killed anyone they saw, murdered and mutilated
everyone they could catch. Soon an orgy of violence was engulfing
the service tunnel in both directions, as the Earther Nausties
joined in the fight by blasting round after round from captured
EIC’s until they ran out of ammunition, then picked up more weapons
from dead security troops and just started all over again. Everyone
was an enemy. Everyone was a target. There would be no prisoners
today; and no quarter given. Those who tried to surrender were shot
or impaled to death on the spot. Those who tried to run were
heartlessly mowed down.

The slaughter continued for hours until the
main terminal was only a mile or so away… victory was nearly within
their grasp! But they would definitely need reinforcements to
overwhelm Ggggaaah’s headquarters. Inside the terminal on the
planet surface, located under a large tinted glass dome the size of
a small city was a military base that housed over 10,000 security
troops and personnel from several different planets. This last nut
would be a tough one to crack, indeed.

Meanwhile, below the service tunnel miles
away, Schpleeftii light infantry were scrambling up the miles of
service ladders inside the two other deactivated elevator shafts.
Spleefs were rodent-like beings that had evolved from rats and mice
on their home planet to eventually become the dominant species. But
they were just as brave as they were cunning, standing or crouching
on large feet and legs about four and a half feet tall on average.
They were fast and nimble, able to climb and scramble using
claw-like hands with strong fingers perfect for the task. Carrying
light arms, their job was to burst into the massive global service
tunnel through maintenance hatches, using explosive charges if
necessary, and fan out to murder and slaughter anyone and everyone
they could in both directions. If they could, their orders were to
reactivate the elevators and send up Pumalar, Porko, and Earther
reinforcements.

Zorg units followed them, and their task was
to reinforce any bridgehead established by the Spleefs. Not quite
as nimble at climbing, the Zorgs were bigger and more powerful.
Zorgs were far more cruel and ruthless in combat too, so if the
Spleefs faltered or scattered in the face of enemy fire, the Zorgs
were quite capable of sustaining the attack until help arrived with
captured EIC’s.

Eventually, the word got back to Warden
Ggggaaah that prisoners had broken into the service tunnel, and
were assaulting the main terminal bay with a small force of
infantry. Still not fully grasping the seriousness of the threat,
Ggggaaah next merely ordered electricity shut off to the entire
mine. Planet-wide, the Nausties below found themselves in total
darkness, and had to rely on carbide lamps to move about.

But that left another major problem to
contend with: how to capture all the remaining well-defended food
depots (in the dark) and feed the tens of thousands of Nausties
below.

Architeuthis and his planners had tried to
prepare for this actually. Scrambling into action on the very day
of the attack, Earthers, Porkos, and Zorgs commandeered
battery-powered mining vehicles and transport trucks below, while
Spleefs scrambled to harvest hundreds of yards of hydroponically
farmed crops then raced through miles of mining tunnels to
distribute food. Abandoned guard stations and food depots were also
assumed to be available once the guard stations below were
abandoned. That’s what Hicks had assumed would happen once Nausties
made it into the Service Tunnel… yet now trapped inside the
remaining food depots and guard stations throughout the planet,
were thousands of terrified Zorg guards… left behind to fight to
the death. Now, the Nausties would have to fight and attack each
one for desperately needed food supplies!

Architeuthis and his Slart planners didn’t
panic. They merely hoped that now that the first three depots had
fallen, the same tactical plan could be used over and over again to
secure these remaining strongholds and capture their food. It would
be at the expense of thousands more killed or wounded yes…but
eventually they could all be taken. Hicks and his staff went right
to work mobilizing units for assaults on the remaining depots; and
within a day he had plans for the next five. “Well, gentlemen…”
began Hicks at his next meeting with Architeuthis and his planning
team, “the good news is, it’s gonna be a lot easier hitting these
guard stations in the dark.”