"I fucking hate climbing…" Mumbled René to himself in annoyance about his upward movement. Despite his disdain for it, he was on the way up to the top of the old radio tower. Just to place a little piece of technology there that would let them regain a connection they desperately needed.

As he pulled himself centimeter for centimeter up the old scaffolding, Kitty had to wait down in the old room that must once have been the room that handled the energy supply of the station. At this point she had nothing to do, after a long footslog through the desert, she was happy about the break anyway.

Her feet have never hurt like that and the sheer thought of walking the same way back made her nauseous. René on the other hand looked quite fine even after all this walking. He probably would have had enough energy to fight some patrolling lizards but luckily, and thanks to Kitty´s knowledge of the countryside, they didn´t run into any of them.

Kitty asked herself how long he was part of this space military that he had trained so much that he could just take it like that. After all, this species was getting unbelievably old. And they even managed to convey this trait to Dudley.

It was mad, Kitty never thought about how weird it was, but he was actually older than the first handmade globe. She sometimes asked herself how it felt to be that old but still look like in his early thirties.

Wasn´t it weird to wake up to the same face every morning for centuries? Or was it weirder to simply wake up one day and look in the mirror realizing that the fur was a little lighter than a few years ago? Kitty didn´t know, she was missing the other experience to compare what was weirder. But maybe it was just the comparison of those two states that bore weirdness.

She sighed, it was too silent. When she started to think about these things it was too silent also her headache started again. She desperately needed someone to talk. Maybe René would when he was back down from the antenna. They hadn´t talked a lot while marching here.

Maybe he was more talkative now? To be honest, she wasn´t quite fair thinking like that. After all, it was her who avoided talking. She just didn´t know what they should talk about. They couldn´t talk about the weather after all, it was either cloudy or sunny, nothing else. And debates if either a cloud covers the sun or not were not really alluring.

Maybe she would have an idea as soon as they were done here. Kitty looked to the side where a little holographic pad was lying. It seemed to be switched off. René must have put it here to use it later to adjust the antenna to get a good signal. Kitty was fascinated by this holographic technology.

It was a lot better than watching TV. She couldn´t imagine how immersive it must be to watch a movie one of those things. She had to grin a little as she imagined herself trying to get Nick to turn one of these off because it was bedtime. It had been hard sometimes to get him off his computer back then. She missed that time a lot. It felt like back then her only worry was that he was in bed in time. Now the predominant worry is that they would all survive.

"You, identify yourself!" A harsh female voice with a stern tone suddenly said. Kitty spun on her heel and looked surprised into the eyes of a human she had never seen. A tall dark blonde woman with short hair that was standing stiff with her arms crossed in front of her chest. For one moment, this other human looked as surprised as Kitty before she cleaned her throat and repeated. "Identify yourself!"

"My name is Kitty Katswell from planet…"
"HOLD UP!" another human pushed herself into the holographic projection and looked at Kitty in awe. It was a woman with brown hair, which she wore in a messy bun, and a round face.

She smiled excitedly at her. "I don´t… but yes, you look like his drawings!" she squealed and turned to the stern looking woman. "Alex! This is Dudley´s fiancé! This is Kitty!"
"Get back onto your station." Alex said and pushed her out of the holographic projection with one arm. She adjusted her uniform and then continued her inquiry. "How do you got onto this frequency, how do you get the authentication code of one of our crew members?"

"I actually didn´t…" Kitty admitted a little confused. "This guy René did the work…"
"So René… where is he, where is the rest of the crew and where is the captain?" She quickly asked still with the demanding tone of a platoon sergeant. Kitty took a deep breath, and concentrated.

She straightened up and stood at attention. "René and I are here by command of your Captain. He is on this tower installing the antenna to regain connection."
The woman nodded and the little bit of mimic she delivered told Kitty that she felt some kind of relief by this message.

Alex looked to the side, as it seemed exchanging look with her crew mates. Then she looked back at Kitty and gave her a soft nod. "Affirmative. What are the captain´s orders?"
"I got a list somewhere…" Kitty got one of the small holopads out, which she got from René, and activated it.

That was the only thing she was told about that device by René and the only thing she needed to do. A little holographic version of Powers popped up and looked at Alex with his arms folded behind his back in his typical pose. For a little bit the captain stared lifelessly at the hologram of Casey before the recording started.

"Because I don´t want to endanger our team here, I´ll make it quick. To whoever is in command, probably you Casey, we need some things. Ryan with all the medical equipment he can carry, a shuttle with the cargo area full of standard supplies. Also, throw some weaponry in there. We need basically everything. Oh and we need scientific equipment. A few more things, like telemetry and a more detailed list are attached to this data stream." The little captain took a deep breath and sighed. "I´ll be back on the bridge soon. I hope you are all okay. Powers out." The holograph disappeared and Casey nodded again.

"That could be a problem…"
"What´s the problem?" René asked as he entered rubbing his hands together.
Casey looked up surprised as she first heard and then saw him. She saluted at him quick and casually before she continued. "We had a leak in a plasma conduit in the vehicle's bay. The two remaining shuttles are fubar. We need another way to bring you the Doc and the rest you need."

"Can´t you just land your ship?" Kitty asked and received a dirty laugh from René. "That would be an idea Casey would like. Fucking glorious but out of conversation."
"Okay, then what should we do?" Kitty felt a little insulted and crossed her arms. "Do you have a better idea?"

"I like to hear your suggestion too." Casey meant as she gritted her teeth.
"Hey, please, calm down, I don´t have an idea, but landing the Leviathan is simply not possible." René meant defensively and even stepped back from the hologram.

"Are you open for suggestions?" The woman with the brown hair stepped next to Casey.
"Shoot." Casey said and stepped aside to give her some space.
"Hi, I´m Meliha." She grinned and waved at Kitty. "I´m the chief engineer of this ship and… wow, it´s just so awesome to get to know you! I´ve seen all the pictures!"

"Pictures? Did Dudley have a picture of me?" Kitty asked confused. She remembered that she wanted to give him a picture of her for the flight, but he had to leave it behind. The guys who dressed him up were pretty strict when it came to things that he could take with him.

"No, but he is quite skilled at drawing… He drew you in oil, you should see it! Actually, I can fetch it just…"
"No." Casey said and grabbed Meliha by her sleeve before she could run away. "Tell us your idea, we don´t have all day."

"Okay, okay… I´ll tell you…" Meliha took a deep breath but as soon as she wanted to start her sentence René´s suit made a sound that made the engineer look up startled.
"That´s bad…" René crouched down and walked to a window of the room. He peeped outside and
then sighed. "A patrol, four lizards. 300 meters away. Meliha, make it quick."

"Okay! Okay!" Meliha ran out of the hologram´s range and the holopad in Kitty´s hand started beeping. She ran back into the hologram and said. "I sent you the details on your device. If the captains agrees, tell him he should answer by a distress signal. We will know where and when."
"Uhm… okay." Kitty nodded. "I´ll tell him."

"Protect this tablet with your life." Casey said and added before turning off the transmission. "This is an order. Casey out."
"With my life…" Kitty mumbled skeptically as she sneaked to the window out of which René peeked.
"Just four guys… they seem like a patrol."

"Do you think they caught the signal." Kitty asked and also carefully looked through the window. The four lizards were approaching the building. They were probably the best armored lizards she had ever seen. The only body parts she could see through their auburn armor were their wrists which were, due to their not quite fitting gloves, unprotected.

"Well, I couldn´t be decent sending this transmission." René admitted whispering and peeked once again through the window. "They seem heavily armed."
"I have never seen them being so armed…" Kitty whispered pulling out her blaster. "I don´t think my blaster will do anything against their armor."

"I would appreciate if we could avoid…" René fell silent as one of the lizards yelled something and pointed towards their window.
"They saw us." The engineer whispered and started tinkering on his glove.

"No, no…" Kitty said calmingly. "They just have an idea that someone could be here… I guess they´ll rush into this room any second."
"That´s not better…" René said. "We should get out."

"Noted." Kitty replied nodding. "But what about your projector? We can´t leave it here, can we?"
"Fuck, you´re right… Do you happen to have some explosives with you?"
She just looked at him in a way that made a verbal reply unnecessary.

"Okay Okay…" René meant trying to make her stop looking at him like that.
"Can you maybe rewire this thing, so it destroys itself?" Kitty asked.
"No, not that quick…" René whispered and the first steps on the hallway leading to their door became audible.

"Hide behind the door, I´ll attack him." Kitty instinctively ordered as the steps reached the door.
"Are you really…"
"Just do it!" Kitty hissed and René nodded complying. Kitty´s heart was racing, she had never faced a lizard that defenseless. Especially never that heavily armed lizards.

The steps fell silent as soon as they arrived at the door and for a moment Kitty hoped that the lizard would just pass by. But her hopes were shattered at the same moment the lizard shattered the door by kicking it in. The remains of a steel door flew towards Kitty and she could barely evade them.

The lizard in his battle suit stepped towards Kitty calmly but she wasn´t willing to let him just walk up to her and snap her neck. She took two steps at him and then jumped feet first towards him. But she also could have jumped against a mountain. She simply ricocheted off his armor.

Even though she couldn´t see the lizard´s face as he lifted her up by her throat, she knew he was laughing at her. He said nothing as he slowly closed the grasp around Kitty´s neck and except retching she couldn´t reply anything anyway in that moment.

In the moment the darkness had almost completely embraced her the hand of the lizard suddenly opened almost robotically and he let her fall to the ground.
"Are you alright?" the first thing as her vision got less blurry was René´s face who looked worried at her.

Kitty just retched and got on her knees. Her throat was hurting like she just drank acid but at least she could breath. "Where were you?" she croaked. "Why didn´t you take him out."
"I had to use other methods on the lizard´s suit." He said and helped her up. "I could disable the suits by overloading the neural interface. Let´s get the fuck out here before his friends arrive."

René grabbed her wrist and fired from the glove on his other hand a bright lightning that destroyed the projector that recently created the holo images of Meliha and Casey.
The two stumbled onto the hallway where, at the other end of it, another lizard was already waiting.

It was due to Kitty´s quick reflexes that the laser shot by the lizard missed them.
"Shoot him! Shoot!" Kitty yelled.
"Dammit, I can´t!" Cursed René. "The projector was coupled to my…"

Two more shots from the lizard drowned out René´s voice. That guy was pinpointing them in the room, he was probably waiting for backup. Kitty was sure of that he had probably realized that his partner was dead.

"Quick, look out of the window and tell me if there is someone still there." René rushed to the dead lizard that still hung in his suit and started tinkering on it. Kitty jumped to the wall next to the window and cautiously peeked through it while another burst of laser shots penetrated the concrete on the end of the hallway. It seemed empty out there, what could only mean one thing.

"They´re on their way up here, hurry!"
"No clue if this works but I swear we´re taking the fuckers with us." Yelled René as he laid his hand on the suit of the dead lizard. The sound of something discharging was audible then, like risen from the dead, the lizard in front of them straightened up, turned on his heel and walked into the hallway.

"Now, let´s get out here quick." René pointed at the window.
"Wh…" Kitty was about to say but René kept pointing at the window energetically.
"Not now, we don´t have time! Run!"

Kitty turned around and jumped out of the window first followed by René. But a few steps later he was in front of her and jumped behind a piece of debris from a building that once has stood on this place. She jumped next to him not a second too late as an explosion ripped the building apart.

Kitty has never rode on the pressure wave of an explosion, and if given the choice she also wouldn't try to every again. Additionally to the gravities merciless pull an even more violent force grabbed her and threw her like she was just a leaf in the wind.

The good part about being a cat, besides being able to sleep on every surface, was that her body automatically turned herself to give her the best opportunity for survivable landing. The ground raced toward her and in the last moment before the touch down she looked over to where René was flying.

The human had curled himself up into an uneven cannonball. Kitty gritted her teeth then the certainty of the ground became a tangible truth. Kitty didn´t remember when she came to a stillstand after what felt like about an eternity of rolling, but when she did the sound of myriads of concrete particles that hit the ground around them filled the air.

"We survived." Panted Kitty as the sound of stones raining from the sky slowly faded. She sat up and checked herself. There was definitely something broken in her body, no doubt about that. The sharp pain when she caught breath was a clear indication. "We survived… How did we survive?"

"That´s not a thing I want to think about know…" René slowly stood up from the crater that his impact had formed. "Fuck… are you. Shit!"
"What, what is it?!" Kitty turned her head nervously searching for approaching enemies.
"Is your arm okay? Should it… bend like that?" He pointed at her left arm which has gained a few additional joints.

"Not at all…" She gave the arm a brief look and then turned her head quickly back to Renè. "Let's get out of her."
"Agreed… I don't want to wait until these jackasses arrive to look for their friends." René grabbed Kitty by the more healthy looking arm and helped her up.
"You got to show me that trick with their power armor." Kitty moaned as they started moving homeward.

[Authors note: Hey guys, another chapter is done and I'm currently writing on the next few. I hoped you liked Kitty's mission there. Besides that, you know the drill, leave me a review, would be cool. And of course, stay tuned.]