Star Kitten (13 page)

The first wave was an entire division of
shock troops, divided into brigades of about 2000 warriors each.
Each Brigade was further broken down into battalions of about 500
warriors. Pumalar shock troops in one battalion. Earther Javelin
men in another (with one platoon of Earthmen armed with EIC’s).
Zorg Slingers carrying sulfur bombs made up yet another battalion.
Spleef light infantry comprised the rest. Porkos made for good
heavy infantry yes, but not as frontline troops. They were less
fearless; and more prone to break during melee combat. But they
were heartless killers in mop-up operations, there was no doubting
that! Several of the battalions had a company of Porko heavy
infantry armed with shields and makeshift cutlasses.

Of course, everyone knew the battle plan by
now, and all the commanders in the crowd already knew where they
were to position their troops for the assault waves. They’d all
known the battle plan for days, and even drilled at it, in full
view of the Warden’s troops above. The only thing almost no one in
the crowd knew for sure was… just who was going to drive that last
dump vehicle with the detonators in it?

Finally, General Hicks called out directly
to Perry (who by now was done checking the detonators). Hicks
swallowed hard with choking fear—something he’d not felt in
decades. Perry was clearly starting up the hauler and getting ready
to drive it! The crowd remained mostly silent in anticipation, with
thousands of battle-ready troops literally encircling the dramatic
scene unfolding at the base of the ramp.

“So… Mister Perry! Are you planning on
leaving us, my good friend?” Hicks tried to smile confidently and
look strong. He’d been dreading this all along, and had tried not
to dwell on it. A hush fell over the crowd, as it all finally sunk
in with everyone around the base of the ramp. The reason no one had
yet been announced as the suicide driver, was quite clear now.
Perry was planning on doing it all by himself instead! Hicks’ heart
was breaking in two in his chest… he knew there was only one thing
left he could do now.

There was no way he could stop his lover
from going on that brave and glorious mission. No way in hell that
General Hicks could order his best and brightest man to simply
stand down and let someone else drive that tractor up that ramp…
all the way to certain death. Oh yes, if the General commanded it,
Perry would have yielded and exited the vehicle. He’d never be
insubordinate to his direct superior. But Hicks knew, Perry would
never trust the task of activating the detonators to another being.
If there was any problem at all with that switch, only Perry could
trouble-shoot it. Only Perry could be trusted with this task. It
was just one shot, after all. It had to be perfect.

A murmur ran through the crowd. The murmur
rose and swelled like an ocean lapping up on a beach. The name
“PERRY” kept being spoken, and then gradually it was even being
chanted. This was to be Perry’s final fifteen minutes of existence,
and as the tears of pride welled up in his General’s eyes, Perry
poked his head out the window of the cab and replied humorously
back to his commander, “Yes General, with your permission, Sir…”
Perry patted the side door three times and smiled broadly, then
added boldly, “I’ve always wanted to drive one of these
things.”

The smile on Perry’s face was that of a man
who’d come to terms with the end of his existence, and made peace
with his own God. He beamed with a smile like that of a man who had
no cares left in the whole universe. But it was also the look of a
man who had made the decision to sacrifice himself willingly and
quite downright eagerly, for the good of his comrades’ future.
There was no other greater potential honor for a man or any other
creature for that matter in the entire galaxy. All of these
thoughts and emotions seemed to show in Perry’s eyes, as he threw
the vehicle into reverse and began backing up the ramp. The crowd
began to cheer even louder, and chant his name vigorously.

But General Hicks surprised everyone, by
screaming out in a powerful growling voice that rivaled even the
strongest of Pumalar battle cries. He roared, “WAIT!” And everyone
nearby fell silent with shock, turning back toward the General to
see what his next command would be. Perry stopped backing up the
ramp, and looked out the window, still grinning like a madman.
Hicks paused for a moment to blink tears from his eyes. Then he
yelled out, “Mister Perry… I don’t believe you’ll be safe without a
spotter guiding you! It’s a long way up, my—!” Hicks cut short,
almost choking on his words. But he soon recovered. Then General
Hicks continued in a loud and powerful yell, “If you don’t object
to my assistance, Mr. Perry… how about letting me ride
shotgun?!!!!”

Perry just smiled with a surly wink.

A murmur again arose within the crowd, as
Perry merely nodded proudly, and the full gravity of the situation
began to sink in with the thousands of beings armed and ready for
the final assault. Good God… General Hicks himself? Yes… the
General himself was going to join Perry in this suicide mission,
joining with him as his spotter for the ride up to the top! They
would be going out together, as lovers and partners for all
eternity… loyal to each other to the very end. And soon, the entire
crowd—thousands of warriors in all directions—was aware of what was
truly happening.

Almost half the crowd could even see the
whole thing going on, and those who couldn’t see it, were being
told by their neighbors around them. Spleefs hopped up on the
shoulders of Pumalars. Zorgs climbed up the sides of machinery or
nearby Stalagmites to watch the spectacle. Earthers strained their
necks to get a look at this amazing event. This was truly going to
be a moment in their planet’s history that no one would ever forget
for the rest of their lives….

Their own commanding General as well as his
Aide de Camp were going to sacrifice themselves for the rest of the
Naustie Army. One last heroic act of courage, to rival any brave
deed that anyone else was going to perform that day. This inspired
the entire assault division; and prompted thousands of beings from
all species to cheer wildly. Hicks hopped off the platform and
strode proudly over to the dump hauler to join his life partner in
the cab. Warriors stepped aside to let him pass, nodding and bowing
their heads in respect. He climbed in, slammed the door shut,
reached over the side, and slapped the door three times, signaling
to Perry he was ready to go. The cheers swelled louder, and even
louder, until it was almost deafening!

As General Hicks issued his last orders to
his nearest commanders and passed supreme authority over the army
back to Architeuthis, he waved to the crowd as Perry slowly backed
the hauler up the ramp. Then, out of respect, the whole army—tens
of thousands of warriors—was ordered by its commanders to stand in
silence and pious reverence for the brave deed about to unfold
before their eyes. Gradually the entire cavern fell silent once
again, with only the eerie sound of the electric hauler slowly
climbing up the ramp. But it was far more than just a heroic act to
Perry and Hicks. It was their last five or ten minutes together. In
the blink of an eye… with the flick of a switch, they’d be gone;
right along with a thousand Security Troops barricaded in a
honey-combed defense network on the other side of that thick glass
wall behind of them.

Of course, they were quite businesslike to
the very end, chattering back and forth as they backed up that
ramp. “Good on the right, Mister Perry!” growled Hicks
professionally, over the roar of the electric engine. “Copy that
General. Good on the left!” replied Perry quite militarily.

They knew they had to go very slowly up the
very center of the trail (especially for the last fifty yards of
ramp to the glass wall of the Mess Hall). Slart planners had
instructed drivers to follow closely in the ruts of previous
vehicle tracks to avoid causing an avalanche at the crest of the
ramp. Five drivers and spotters had actually died that way in
accidents, when they veered off course only slightly and ended up
tumbling down the side of the ramp to their deaths.

When they eventually got close to the edge,
Perry merely yelled over to Hicks, “General, if you please, Sir!?”
and reached down to flip the switch devised by the Slarts for
activating the detonators. Hicks barked out very formally, “Ah,
Mister Perry! Allow me!” And with that he actually grabbed and held
up the switch for Perry to engage it. Perry smiled slightly at his
General, then very professionally yelled, “Thank you General. And
goodbye!” With that he activated the switch and turned round to
listen for the beeping of the detonators. After a seemingly
infinite moment, sure enough, they both heard a whining BEEEP.
Hicks smiled into Perry’s eyes for just one last second. Perry
smiled right back, then turned right around and gunned the engine
in reverse.

Within a mere instant later… KABOOM! A
deafening explosion rocked the entire cavern.

The detonators ignited, blowing a massive
hole in the side of the Terminal Mess Hall. Fully three floors of
offices and barracks, along with the entire Mess Hall defense
network, were nearly all vaporized. The crash, the explosion, the
sight of so much construction material, furniture, glass shards,
and body parts falling out of the cavern wall was a terrifying
sight, and on the cavern floor, soldiers hid under shields, and
workers ran for cover. But after a few moments of debris falling
all over them; the Naustie warriors began cheering wildly. The
detonators had worked!

All the army needed now was a single
command; and with their supreme commander now dead, the commanders
of all the assault units merely looked back into the crowd for
their spiritual leader Architeuthis, to give the order. Being the
only logical ruler of the Army at that moment, the giant squid-like
being merely raised up his left tentacle and pointed to the breach.
His words were brave and honest. He said just what needed to be
said at such a solemn yet incredible moment. Architeuthis
recognized, just like any being there that day, just how brave the
sacrifice had been by both Hicks and Perry.

And Architeuthis spoke to
the Warrior commanders with a burbling hum from his neck,
indicating true raw emotion, especially for a wise old
Slartigifijian. He gurgled out proudly, “
For the Honor
!”

And with that, the hellish assault began, as
troops kept repeating the words of Architeuthis over and over
again; all the way up that ramp. They lurched forward, filing in
with carefully practiced drill, to enter the path leading up the
side of the Earth Cruiser, onto the main part of the incline. And
they began trotting up the dirt ramp in formations, many carrying
sections of steel planks with them—all the while chanting, “FOR THE
HONOR! FOR THE HONOR! FOR THE HONOR!”

The final battle for the control of New
Australia had now begun. And the reign of the evil Warden Ggggaaah
was about to come to a very violent end.

"Good Morning and welcome to the IPN news
network, I'm Tabby Calico," said the news broadcaster on the video
screen. A swirl of musical notes followed with that style of news
show music that sounds a lot like typewriters and is designed to
conjure up concerned emotions in the listener. The wall video
monitor had suddenly activated inside eighteen-year-old Felina
Toyger's dormitory room, and in a hung-over daze, she slowly
stirred awake. Very slowly actually….

It had been a long night of partying the
night before, and she'd forgotten to turn off her alarm clock last
night which activated the wall video monitor in her room to help
her wake up each morning. Just like an old clock radio back on
Earth—but with a giant 48 inch video screen on the wall opposite
her bed—the screen came on each morning just in time for
Interplanetary News Network’s “Morning Update".

On the screen was the live image of a
Pumalar female, fur-covered but quite humanoid in form... with a
predominantly white coat and patches of brown and black fur mixed
in. She had piercing yellow-green eyes with those cat-like black
pupils that crease like a vertical black slit down the center of
their eyeball. The rather gorgeous News Anchor paused to focus her
gaze onto a different camera as the news show music gradually faded
out. She began her broadcast with, "At the top of the news this
morning... rioting and violence continues now into the 25th day on
planet Rijel 12, as prisoners of the New Australia Planetary Prison
reportedly now control most of the planet's interior mining
network… as well as the loading bay of the main terminal, cutting
off all access now to the planet's landing facility.”

Tabby Calico’s expression
conveyed sincere concern and anxiety about this tragic event—just
like any good News Anchor person on any planet knows all too well
how to do. The camera view began to pull back from Tabby’s face a
bit, as a miniaturized screen opened up to the side of her showing
some file photo of the planet Rijel 12. And it had the
caption
PRISON RIOT
emblazoned in bold letters underneath.

She continued, “As
reported earlier this week, the Intergalactic Cruiser
Unity
was captured by
prison rioters in early fighting on Rijel 12; and the fate of its
crew is still unknown. New Australia Planetary Prison Warden
Ggggaaah continues to assure Interplanetary Authority officials in
recent inter-space communications that the rioters have been
isolated from the rest of the prison population, and the rebelling
prisoners have no possible access to the main terminal. In his most
recent communication to the media, Warden Ggggaaah issued the
following statement…”