KODIAK
Kodiak of Venus

By Will Fry
Time of writing: circa 1980s

[The story was never finished. The entire surviving manuscript is preserved here,
and much of the story hints at what was to come, but Will Fry wrote no notes about
what might have happened. Kodiak of Venus was the namesake of Kodiak Connors, 
according to Will's "Connors Family Timeline."]

(This document contains spelling and grammar errors that have been included from
the original handwritten document. These have been left in to show the development
of the young writer. -Ed. Rick J. Anderson)

1

The Venusian colonies had been first started in 2026, 282 years before, by 400 
people. Now there were over 2 million humans living in the seven cities and 
numerous family homes spread over the Northern hemisphere. Then, in 2308, the call
went out on all TV and radio stations for the strongest young men and women that 
wanted to, to join the STFF. The letters STFF stood for the Super Trained Fighting 
Force, and the people that joined would receive the best physical, mental, and 
spiritual training in the Galaxy, offered by the best personnel that the Space Navy 
and Space Marines had to offer.

Over 100,000 Venusians between the age of 18 and 25 went to the recruiting stations 
and signed up. One of those Venusians was named Kodiak, son of Jazeff. He was 19 
years old, six foot, four inches, and 235 pounds, Earth weight (213.85 pounds on 
Venus). Kodiak lived with his father Jazeff and his mother Dorcas in a small, humble 
abode out in the jungles of Venus, 150 miles from the nearest city, Jeela. He had 
grown up taking care of himself while his father hunted and his mother planted and 
harvested the farm. He had been home-schooled and this was only the third time he 
had been in the the city and its largenss still impressed him.

The STFF tryouts were on January 28, 2308, and they consisted of the most strenuous 
and demanding trials that Kodiak had ever endured. First, they had to jump across a 
25 feet deep, 25 feet wide ditch; then they had to scale a 20 ft. wall; next they 
swung across a 50 feet wide, 50 feet deep chasm on a slick rope. Finally, they had 
races, weight lifting contests, swimming races, diving competitions, gymnastics 
contests, shot put-throwing, and anything else that could be thought of. They also 
had hand-to-hand combat with training robots and a very extensive test that surveyed 
their basic academic skills.

All of this took three days. Then the results were posted at public centers and 
broadcast across the city. There were about 5,000 young people who had made it to 
the next round of tryouts, to be held on Earth's moon, on February 10.

Kodiak's name was among them, but it was number 807. Kodiak thought, well, if I'm 
that low on the lists, what'll I do when we compete against the Earthlings? Then 
his spirit sank farther when he saw that the base on the moon had a gravity setting 
of 1.1 when he was used to only 0.91. Well, he would start packing for the trip anyway.

2

As the passenger ship pulled into port at the orbiting moon base, Kodiak gazed out 
the window at Earth. It was the first time he had really seen Earth besides on TV 
and in pictures. Earth was almost as beautiful as Venus and the sight awed Kodiak 
(he had only seen Venus from space once too).

He took his bags and left the passenger ship when the doors opened, and walked out 
into the lobby of the space port. As soon as he left the space ship he felt heavier, 
twenty-one lbs. heavier. He walked over to an empty seat and sat down.

The man beside him said, "Hey dude, how ya' doin'?"

Kodiak measured him with his eyes and estimated that he was about 6 foot 6 and 
weighed about 250 Earth pounds. "Just fine, thank you," Kodiak replied.

"My name's Mark. Mark Kanty to be exact. Who're you?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm Kodiak," Kodiak answered. "From Venus," he added.

"What? You're a Venusian?" Mark looked incredulous.

Kodiak was about to answer, but a loudspeaker cut him off, "All tryout personnel 
with their last names starting with K report to shuttle bay 6 at once. Thank you."

Kodiak and Mark both got up and headed toward the shuttle bay. Mark tuned and 
blocked Kodiak's way, saying, "She was talking about last names, dummy."

Kodiak pushed past Mark and said over his shoulder, "Kodiak is my only name." And 
then, almost as an afterthought, "And I'm not a dummy."

Mark became enraged and lunged for Kodiak. His right fist plunged for Kodiak's jaw, 
but Kodiak deflected it and brought a left uppercut into Mark's jaw. As Mark staggered 
backwards, he swung his left fist and it connected with the side of Kodiak's head.

As they both were shaking their blows off, they were engulfed in a tide of ten Space 
Marine Security Guards. It took three of them to hold back each of the combatants and 
the other four covered them with lazer machine guns held at the ready.

Their squad leader ordered, "Alright, take them to the prison deck." Then, to Kodiak 
and Mark, "Too bad for you guys. No more STFF for you."

"Wait!" Kodiak called. "You can't do this! Our shuttle's leaving right now. Let us go!"

"Hah!" said the squad leader. "And who made you my commander? Ha! Ha!"

Kodiak hit one of his captors in the face and kicked another one in his solar plexus. 
Mark had broken free also and tackled the squad leader when he tried to jump Kodiak. 
Kodiak kicked two more and took off running. Mark gave the squad leader a final punch 
before joining Kodiak on the run toward shuttle bay six.

They dove into the airlock, just as the door was crashing shut. They climbed inside and 
strapped into two of the hundred seats.

Then the countdown started: "5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." Then, from outside, "Wait! Wa--" 
"Liftoff!" The engines roared, drowning out the voices from outside. As the shuttle 
pulled away, two Space Marines could be seen out the windows. They were jumping up and 
down in the shuttle bay, waving their arms.

The shuttle pilot laughed and said, "Too bad. The soldier boys don't get to aprehend us 
flyboys today. Ha!"

Kodiak leaned over to Mark and said, "Thanks for tackling that Space Marine. If you 
hadn't, I'd be in the brig."

Mark looked confused at first, but then he smiled and replied, "Ah, think nothin' of it. 
It's the least I could do to help a poor colonist." He couldn't keep the laughter out of 
his voice.

Kodiak burned with anger. "Why you--"

"Now, now," Mark taunted, "let's not get fiesty." Then he snickered.

Kodiak swung out of his seat and bashed a left into Mark's face. Before Mark could 
return the blow however, the shuttle pilot flipped the switch that turned off the 
gravity generator. Kodiak was hurled against the wall at the back of the compartment 
by tremendous G-forces. Immediately after he hit, normal gravity returned and the pilot 
called back, "Just a primitive safety measure. Now if you'll just take your seat like a 
good little boy, everything will be okay."

Kodiak stalked back to his seat with his face turning red. There were snickers all over 
the compartment.

3

As soon as the shuttle landed on the moon, the airlock swung open. A troop of twenty 
Space Marines marched down the aisle and grabbed Kodiak and Mark both. Amid the protests 
from both young men, the Space Marines marched them off the shuttle, through numerous 
passageways on the Moon base, and finally into a prison cell. Kodiak and Mark were both 
feeling the extra weight although it affected Kodiak more.

As soon as the bars closed, Mark started beating Kodiak, yelling, "It's all your fault, 
you dirty Venusian! Now I'll never be an STFF trooper! We'll be bums all our lives!"

At this point the guards reentered to take Mark to a seperate cell. They just left 
Kodiak on the floor to enjoy his bruises and cuts.

Later after they brought him his supper, Kodiak was taken to see General Blakely, 
commander of the STFF project. Blakely looked at Kodiak closely and said, "Hmmm. so 
you're the young troublemaker. Wait a minute. You look familiar... What's your father's 
name, kid?"

"Jazeff 'the Bull'," Kodiak replied.

"What!" Blakely cried. "Then you're Kodiak. Well, I'm sure there's been a mistake. No 
kid of Jazeff's would ever act that way. See ya' later. We'll have the rest of the 
tryouts tomorrow.

"Oh, By the way, I went to school with your dad before he immigrated to Venus."

"Yes, sir," Kodiak replied, "Goodnight, sir."

4

While Kodiak was getting ready for bed, he searched his memory for any sign of a Blakely 
that his father had ever mentioned. Then he remembered.

John Blakely: valedictorian of Intercity High School, the largest High School in 
Australia, where both of them had lived. His best friend: Jazeff Peirson, forty-eighth 
in his class, and fellow football player. when Jazeff had shipped for the colonies and 
dropped his last name, Blakely signed up of the Space Academy.

With this knowledge in mind, Kodiak lay down on his bunk, wondering how hard these 
semi-finals would actually be. The contract called for 1,000 people and there were over 
1,000,000 here already, and probably more would come in the morning. That meant less 
than one percent out of every thousand would make it.

Kodiak had exercised himself strenuously and had studied all of his textbooks over and 
over again. He felt that if he didn't make it, he would still have gained all of the 
excercise, so he was pretty well off.

Except for his bruises. They would cost him, he knew. He shouldn't have picked those 
fights. Well, he would just have to do better.

5

"All tryout personnel report to your respective mess halls according to your last names. 
Breakfast is at 0600 hours. At 0700 hours, report to the athletic center for semi-finals."

The blaring loudspeaker at 0500 knocked Kodiak out of a deep sleep. He got up, rubbed 
the sleep out of his eyes, grabbed his clothes and made a dash for the shower room. Two 
steps away from his bunk he collapsed on the floor, a large mass of sore muscles.

He staggered slowly to his feet and stumbled at a turtle's* speed toward the showers. 

[Original manuscript contained the following footnote: "turtle's" refers to Earthling 
turtles; Venusian turtles can run to 30 miles an hour.]

After breakfast, Kodiak followed a map to the athletic center. (A Space Marine squad had 
handed out maps at breakfast.) The athletic dome was two miles across and a mile high. 
the whole dome was a vast labyrinth of pools, gymnasiums, stadiums, lockerrooms, 
showers, newsrooms, storage rooms, weight lifting rooms, and much, much more.

Kodiak made his way to the section where Venusian semi-finals would be held, and took a 
seat in the grandstands. Soon the activities started. Long jumps, high jumps, rope 
climbs, rope swings, weight lifting, swimming, diving, running, and fights with training 
robots filled up that day and the next.

At the end of February 11th, it was announced that one hundred Venusians had advanced to 
the finals, but no mention was made about who had made it. That would be announced the 
next day.

There was a bulletin board in Kodiak's dormitory and the next morning there was a list 
of the finalists. Kodiak went through the list looking for the K's. There it was! 
Kodiak: number 98 on the Venusian list. That meant that there were only two people below 
him. He looked at the overall list next. There were 10,000 finalists overall and Kodiak 
was number 4,721. He knew that these scores were low only because of his bruises.

There would be ten days until the finals on February 22, and all ten thousand finalists 
were invited to work out in the athletic center, visit the libraries, or just try to 
learn their way around. Everyday Kodiak worked out in the athletic dome as hard as he 
could from 0700 to 1200, when he ate lunch; then, from 1300 to 1800, he studied in the 
extensive library of Luna City, which had the twenty-eighth edition of Encyclopedia 
Galactica, with 107 volumes. Then after supper everynight, Kodiak would wander around 
with his map in hand, trying to learn his way around.

6

It was 0500, February 22, 2308, and everyone was just getting out of bed to shower. 
Except Kodiak. He had gotten up at 0400, showered, and gone down to the athletic dome. 
He had been all alone except for a skeleton crew of security guards and some early-
morning janitors. Kodiak had done some stretches, situps, pushups, and taken one lap in 
the pool.

So, at 0500 when everyone else was just getting out of bed, Kodiak was getting out of 
the shower for the second time that morning. He was waiting in the stadium when the 
early-birds started arriving.

One of them was Mark Kanty. As everyone had on numbers depicting what place they had 
made, Kodiak looked at Mark's chest, he saw with dropping jaw that Mark's number was an 
extremely large, exaggerated 1.

Mark grinned tauntingly at Kodiak and pointed at his number. Kodiak boiled with anger, 
but kept his cool on the outside. Then Mark pointed at Kodiak's number and said 
something to his friends, who all laughed. At this insult, Kodiak jumped up and started 
for Mark.

Before he got all the way out of his seat, he felt a light hand on his shoulder. He 
turned and saw that it was a woman. She was tall for a woman, at 5 foot 11, and very 
beautiful.

Kodiak started to say something, but she cut him off, saying, "Don't listen to that loud 
mouthed fool!" She was talking loudly so Mark could hear. "He's think's he's the best, 
but really he needs to soak his head in a Balsan hot tub."

Mark's face turned red at this and started up the stairs to where Kodiak and the woman 
were standing. When he got there, he lunged for Kodiak but she stuck out her foot and 
tripped him. Kodiak noticed that her number was 5.

Mark jumped up and swung at her, but she caught his arm and flipped him over. At this 
time Mark's two friends caught and held her while Mark got up to punch her again. 
Kodiak's fist caught Mark's face just before his swing connected with number 5. Mark 
stumbled over while Kodiak punched one of Mark's accomplices. At the same time the woman 
flipped Mark's friend over her shoulder and he fell on top of Mark, just as he was 
getting up.

Now there was a large crowd around them, of about three hundred. One of them pushed 
forward, another woman. The first woman said, "Hi, Violet. I was hoping you'd show up."

Violet said, "Anytime, Angey. Who's this?" She pointed at Kodiak.

"I'm Kodiak, From Venus," Kodiak put in. Then he swung at Mark again as he got up. 
"Thank's for the help uh Angey."

About that time a security guard pushed through the growing crowd and said, "Okay, break 
it up. Find a seat and get ready for the finals. The next brawlers get disqualified." He 
stalked off.

The crowd dispersed and the people settled down, but as a few people walked away, they 
could be heard saying things like: "He deserved it," and "I'm glad someone finally 
showed him," or "He'll have a hard time winning with those bruises."

The competition started and it was obvious that Mark had been hurt by Kodiak's fists. 
But it was also obvious that Mark was trying harder than ever to beat Kodiak and make a 
fool out of him.

Mark came out ahead of Kodiak on the sprints + Weight lifting, and got first place on 
the ditch jumping, but then his weariness started to show. On the rope swing, they tied 
for 14th place (out of 10,000.), and on the wall-scaling Kodiak finished 12 places ahead 
of Mark, at 6th place.

When the time came for the fights with the robots, Mark was exhausted, but so was 
everyone else. Kodiak approached his robot carefully. As the robot faked a left and 
aimed a right, Kodiak ducked under the punch and tackled the robot. He held one forearm 
across the machine's neck, while he blasted away at it's face with the other. The robot 
rolled over and tried to flip Kodiak off onto the ground, but Kodiak held onto its neck 
with his right hand and stood up. He then proceeded to punch a hole in the face of the 
robot with his left arm.

The overseer turned off the robot and called in the next contestant. Kodiak had received 
a perfect 10. He then started his stretches for the next tryout contest, the long-
distance run. He looked up just in time to see Mark get his faced smashed by his robot 
opponent.

Kodiak got 21rst place in the 5-mile run, and Mark got 37th. All of the remaining STFF 
hopefuls (there were 3,072) took showers and took seats in the stadium to wait for the 
results.

The loudspeakers blared as it named off the order of the people: "Angie Johnson, 
first... Jaleff Booss, second... Kodiak of Venus, third..." Kodiak jumped up and almost 
screamed. Then he heard "Violet Car Rock Thompson, fourth... Seela Baze, fifth... Mark 
Kanty, sixth..." Kodiak almost laughed. Mark had gone from first to sixth, and he had 
gone from way up in the thousands all the way to third. Then Kodiak remembered how Mark 
had helped him get away from the Space Marines in the Space Station, and decided to make 
friends with Mark.

7

Kodiak stood up and looked over toward Mark. To his suprise, Mark was looking at him, 
and not unkindly. Kodiak walked over and sat down beside Mark as the speakers kept 
blaring out names and numbers.

Kodiak started, "Uh... I've been thinking...."

"I have too," Mark interrupted, "and I've decided that I was wrong about you. I thought 
all colonists were idiots, but since you beat me, I guess I was wrong."

Kodiak stared incredulously and stammered, "But... that's what I was going to say. I'd 
like to make friends."

"Sure," Mark said, "Just be sure and let me win next time." He laughed.

"Okay, but I might win by accident," Kodiak joked.

Violet and Angie came over and Kodiak congratulated Angie for making first and Violet on 
fourth. The four walked away as fast friends, this friendship was the beginning of a 
lifetime relationship between them all. They would save each other's lives many times 
and have many good times together. They would all be remembered in future times, but 
Kodiak of Venus would be the one that would stand out in history books as a hero. This 
is the story of his long, adventerous career in the STFF.

8

There had been built a small, 1500-person base on the far side of the moon from earth, 
specifically for STFF training. The one thousand STFF trainees, their specially picked 
leaders, and the base guard squads were all shuttled over to this base and given 
quarters. Everyone was given their daily schedule, and a tour of the base.

Their training started the next day, February 24th, 2308. It was the most gruelling time 
Kodiak had ever been through. They had to do some of the same things that they had done 
in the try-outs, but far more exaggerated. They also had to do an hour of tough 
calisthenics, then in the afternoon, they had classes to learn everything.  They learned 
Galactic History, STFF weaponry handling, Higher Math, Advanced Computers, Space Ship 
flying, etc. Saturday was a free day to study, exercise, sleep, eat, or do anything, and 
on Sunday they had a choice of six types of churches* to go to. You can believe that 
their schedules were full. 

[Original manuscript adds the following footnote: These churches include: Catholic, 
Assemblies of God, Baptist, Methodist, Sev. Day Adv., Lutheran, and Non D.]

Their training would continue to 10 years, but they could get out before then. After 
one year, they could leave the STFF for the Space Navy or Space Marines only. After two 
years, they could leave and pursue their own personal career. If they stayed in for all 
ten years, they would receive $100,000, up to 50 men to command, and up to 5 space 
vehicles holding 50 men totalled together. This was what most people were trying for. 
The main reason was because they weren't bound by any military rules, with their ships. 
They were just given these gifts for personal use.

In all the heat of competition, and intenseness of the study, there arose a few duels 
and fights among the STFF personnel. In the duels, according to STFF rules, the 
combatants chose and agreed upon the rules + weapons used. Most of these were settled 
before they took place, but Kodiak got involved in a duel that was actually fought. The 
story of this fight is in the next chapter.

9

One Tuesday morning, early in April, Kodiak woke at the normal time, 4:30 a.m., and 
headed for the shower. After breakfast and calisthenics, at 7:00, the longest run yet 
started. It was a 12-miler.

Kodiak stayed near the front the whole time, but so did Mark Kanty, Violet C.R. 
Thompson, Angie Johnson, and Jaleff Booss*. Toward the end, at about 10 miles, Mark 
dropped back, exhausted. Then, at 11 miles, Violet also dropped back. When the 11.5 mile 
mark flashed by, Kodiak, Jaleff, and Angie all switched into high gear.

[Original manuscript adds the following footnote: Jaleff Booss: from Titan, finished 2nd 
in the tryouts.]

Angie, with her lower body weight, pulled ahead, but soon ran out of energy. At the 
11.75 mile-mark, the two leaders sprinted to the finish, Kodiak winning by a hair. 
Jaleff shouted, "You cheater! I would have won if you wouldn't have bumped me back 
there!"

"I didn't bump you," Kodiak replied, "I beat you fair and square."

"Oh yeah? I'll bust you up good right here. Okay?" Jaleff challenged.

Kodiak really didn't want to fight his way through the STFF, even if it looked that way 
so far, so he said, "Okay, okay, you won. It's just a race." He stretched out his arm, 
"Friends?" he said.

"Slizh*, no!" Jaleff almost screamed. "You won't get off that easy! I challenge you to a 
duel next Tuesday."

[Original manuscript adds the following footnote: Slizh: Titanish cuss word; historians 
aren't sure of the meaning.]

Kodiak knew that if he refused it wouldn't be easy for him so he accepted. "Sure," he 
said quietly, "and only wooden clubs for weapons. Whoever gives up or dies first loses."

Jaleff looked looked suprised at these measures and then accepted.

Kodiak and Jaleff both tried to ignore each other for the next six days. They both 
trained hard during all their free time, using seperate gyms. When Tuesday came, they 
were all hyped up for the fight. Both thought they were better than the other, but there 
was a difference in their attitudes. Jaleff was overconfident. Kodiak's life dream was 
to be the best ever, and he knew from Venusian wilderness experience that overconfidence 
was the first mistake of a dueller. He analyzed the situation carefully and drew up a 
mental game plan for the duel. He had chosen the wooden club as the weapon because that 
was what he had used on Venus.

A small area was marked off in the center of the main gym, and almost all of the STFF 
trainees crammed into the rest of the space. At high noon, the two combatants entered 
from opposite ends of the gym. They were wearing only shorts, and all of their muscles 
showed through clearly.

When they reached the square, they were handed their wooden clubs. Kodiak analyzed the 
weapon, and weighed it in his hand. It was practically the same as the familiar Venusian 
duelling weapon. He grinned confidently and as Jaleff grinned back, overconfident, the 
bell sounded.

Kodiak advanced slowly, but Jaleff, sure of himself, jumped high into the air and came 
down swinging straight over his head, using both hands. Kodiak, holding his club in his 
right hand, smacked Jaleff's left elbow, knocking Jaleff's club to the ground and 
causing a yelp of pain to exit Jaleff's mouth. With his left hand, he hit Jaleff's jaw, 
knocking knocking him to the floor.

Jaleff instantly hopped up and headed toward his club, but a smack in the face by Kodiak 
was enough to discourage that motive. Jaleff reached for Kodiak's club and, grabbing 
onto it, pulled himself close to Kodiak. He then proceeded to nail Kodiak's face a few 
times before Kodiak let go of his club. Jaleff was holding on to it so tightly that he 
dropped to the floor.

The fighting went on in this manner, with Kodiak keeping the lead, but Jaleff staying in 
the fight, for hours. Finally, they were both so tired that they could barely move. 
Kodiak weakly tried to tackle Jaleff, and the latter stumbled out of the way, so both 
fell to the floor.

Commander Blakely pushed his way forward to the ring and said, "Okay, guys, that's 
enough. We'll call it a tie." Kodiak's mind reeled. He would rather lose fair & square 
than take a tie and not know who was stronger. His adrenalin mechanisms deep inside his 
worn out body started pumping out doses of energy faster and faster. He stood up.

"No way, Commander, sir," Kodiak said to Blakely's face. "I'll beat him up, and we'll go 
by the rules." Jaleff, weakly remembering something in the rules about dying, got to his 
feet shakily.

Kodiak's adrenalin was at full pace, while Jaleff's was just starting up. He picked up 
his club, and when it hit the back of Jaleff's neck, it busted into quite a few pieces. 
As Jaleff was falling, Kodiak's left uppercut hit his face so sharply that Jaleff's nose 
busted. And then, right before Jaleff's fall ended, Kodiak's foot caught Jaleff's neck, 
snapping it.

Kodiak was in a perfect calm now, and he said to Jaleff, "Give up or die."

Jaleff replied, "Before I give up to you, you slizhing barkle-sinker*, I'll..." He never 
finished the sentence. Kodiak jerked him to his feet, held him with his left hand, and 
started working him over with his right. Then he let go, and kept Jaleff upright by 
repeated kicks, punches and karate chops.

[Footnote: barkle-sinker: the only harmful animal found on the planet Tranquill 
(Discovered 2195).]

After 1 minute of this, Jaleff's body was hanging limp as a rag doll, but he was still 
conscious. Kodiak repeated his statement, and Jaleff wispered weakly back, but loud 
enough for the nearest spectators to hear. "You slizh-sucking jantlewhag*, I'll..."

[Footnote: jantlewhag: Buskan cus word.]

Kodiak cut him off at the same word as last time, but this time, all his punches were 
aimed at Jaleff's rib cage. Then he picked up Jaleff's club. He used this to 
continuously pound Jaleff's ribs till they started cracking one by one. "Stop!" screamed 
Blakely. "You'll kill him!"

Kodiak looked up at him with a touch of sadness in his eyes. He replied quickly, "I 
can't stop, sir. He challenged me to this duel, and then agreed on the rules. I'll be 
xakalized* if I'll stop now." He turned calmly back to his opponent/victim, and slowly 
beat the life out of him. Then he threw the club down and walked out, not looking at 
anyone.

[Footnote: xakalized: poisoned by a Xakali, one of the ferocious types of an. lt. on 
Ven.]

Mark Kanty tried to help, saying, "It's OK, Kodiak, you had to do it." Kodiak ignored 
him and went to the showers before going back to his room.

10

After the STFF trainees had been in training for six months, Blakely felt that they were 
ready for a training mission. Out of the 967 trainees (some had given up or been kicked 
out), he decided to send the 500 best to Balsa, the only remaining sword-world. (Angie 
Johnson was still #1 out of everyone, and Kodiak & V.C.R.T. had moved up to second & 
third with Jaleff's death. Seela Baze had dropped out, so Mark had moved up.)

Blakely assigned Angey Johnson as Commander of the whole mission, but she said she'd 
rather not, so Kodiak was in as head man. Blakely signed up 150 fighters, 10 5-man light 
cruisers, and one battleship for the mission. So Kodiak picked the 150 people with the 
highest scores in the fighter-flying class to fly fighters. Then he got the next 50 in 
that same class to do the light cruisers. He assigned 20 people that were good fighter 
shots to stay on the battleship and work the turrets. Eighty more stayed on as 
battleship computer workers, repair station controllers, nurses, cooks, mechanics, and 
minor weapon systems controllers. The other 200 were given 10 hand grenades apeice, 
aside from their usual armament*, and became ground fighters.

[Footnote: Usual STFF armament: 1 lazer pistol, 1 lazer rifle, 1 machete, 1 survival 
knife, 20 "pill" bombs.]

Kodiak picked a base on the planet that would present a good problem, called Binkel. It 
was a 100,000-person base, guarded by 3,000 fighters, 9 battleships, and thousands of 
support ships; it also had 20,000 infantrymen and 10,000 guards. Kodiak would have to 
get through an armed space station first, though.

When his battlegroup came out of hyperspace, Kodiak yelled, "GO!" over the radio and 
gunned his fighters engines. So did 149 other people, including Mark, Angie, and V.C.R. 
They aimed all their shots at the large space fort in front of them.

Their fire was immediately returned by alert Balsan gunners. The Balsan lazers easily 
cut through the titanium-alloy skins of the STFF fighters, but the STFF lazers were 
having trouble denting the zuro-lyte armour of the space station.

Finally, after ten minutes of intense fighting and a loss of 11 fighters, the STFF 
Battleship got close enough to the station to blow the hangar door off with a missile. 
It moved in closer, and all 200 ground fighters lept across the 50 foot gap of vacuum to 
the hangar. They started blasting with their lazer rifles and running through the rest 
of the station.

In less than five minutes, the whole station was burning, and the 181 remaining ground-
fighters came running out, dragging 51 prisoners along. Some of the Ground-fighters had 
their arms full of weapons. They all jumped into the battleship and the force continued 
toward Binkel.

Even before they reached the dense part of the atmosphere, their long-range scanners 
picked up defense activities on the surface. The same scanners also picked up the 
thunderstorms over the base.

Kodiak groaned. Thunderstorms are the worst conditions to fight under, even in 
spacseships, and they really messed up radars.

About that time, 150 preliminary defense fighters swarmed up through the cloud and 
headed toward the STFF force. The battle began as Kodiak fired the first shot. The 
Battlship swooped low enough for the 181 ground-fighters to parachute to the ground. 
Then 1,000 main defense fighters took off, along with four battleships.

The radio was a babble of voices so Kodiak shut it off. He concentrated his hardest on 
the situation. It bore a resmblance to a video game he had played as a kid in Jeela, 
Venus. He used all his skill to blast fighter after enemy fighter. The hardest part of 
the battle wasn't that they were outnumbered, it was that the enemy ships were made of 
the strongest metal in the galaxy, zurolyte.

Kodiak had used 7 of his eight missiles, and numerous lazer blasts to destroy 52 enemy 
fighters, and he had absorbed a lot of damage on his own fighter. Two hours after the 
attack had started, some of the ground fighters finally made it through the inner 
defense line of Binkel. Kodiak fired his remaining missile at a gun tower on the ground, 
reducing it to ashes.

Then, all of a sudden, a missle smacked into his fighter, blowing a wing off. Kodiak hit 
his "eject" button as his vehicle started a spin.

He shot out in his eject-chair and fell toward the ground, slowed by the parachute. As 
soon as the chair hit the ground, he jumped out, and, using his lazer rifle, he blasted 
his way into the base.

The first person he met was a Balsan sword-fighter, holding a zurolyte sword and inside 
zurolyte armour. Kodiak's initial lazer blasts were not enough to penetrate the armour, 
and the man was almost to him.

Kodiak lept at him, suprising him, and ducked under the first swing. He grabbed the 
man's arm and flipped him over, causing a yelp of pain. Kodiak ripped the man's helmet 
off and... it was a woman! He was staring into the most beautiful pair of eyes he had 
ever seen before, and they were full of fear.

She said, "Don't kill me please... I... I'll surrender..." Kodiak thought for a second, 
then agreed. He tied her hands together and grabbed her sword, using to whack another 
Balsan's arm off.

He was leading the woman behind him, and she said in a low voice, "The control room is 
to your left." Kodiak was surprised but immediately said, "Thanks."

He turned to the left, and she led him up some stairs and through a door into the 
control room. He gave the computer controllers lazer blasts and chopped the computers up 
with the woman's sword. Then the woman drew the door shut and turned to him.

"Thanks for saving my life," she said. Her ropes were no longer on her hands and she 
said, "I've always wanted to get away from this planet, but the security is too tight."

Kodiak took his helmet off and, letting his long black hair fall out over his shoulders, 
he said, "What's the deal here? Why'd you lead me up here, then shut the door?"

She replied, "I just want to be alone with you. You don't know me, but I saw a video of 
the STFF tryouts and have been in love with you ever since." She had been drawing closer 
to him; now she put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth, long and 
passionately.

Then the whole building shook with the blast of a large ship crashing. Kodiak and the 
woman were thrown to the floor. They jumped up, and putting their helmets back on, they 
ran out into the hall, heading for the main entrance to the building.

They sprinted outside where Kodiak's battleship was waiting. He dragged her aboard, and 
helped some wounded ground-fighters aboard before telling the pilot to lift off. The 
battle went on for another hour before the base was totally laid to waste.

The STFF group collected 117 more prisoners, and a lot of weapons, money, computers, and 
equipment. Then the battleship, with the 112 remaining ground-fighters and 91 remaining 
fighters, took off and hyperspaced for home.

While it was in orbit around the moon of Earth, Kodiak finally got some free time in 
room with the woman. Her name was Lilan Grazia and she was one of the best sword 
fighters at Binkel, but ever since she first saw Kodiak, she wanted to be with him. 
Without her armour on, she was more beautiful still, with flowing blond hair, and large, 
soft blue eyes. Kodiak held her close and kissed her again, saying, "I don't mind being 
with you either."

11

When they got to the STFF base, though, it was a different matter. The rules stated, "No 
one, except specified STFF personel, shall be allowed to quarter themself on the STFF 
training base, except for special guests, who shall stay in the visitors quarters."

Blakely wouldn't even let her stay there. Finally, after a week, they decided to find 
her an apartment at Luna City, where the STFF tryouts had been held. She got a job as a 
security guard at the capitol building. Kodiak was only allowed to see her on every 
other Sunday.