My first space story! Space ships are a mix of futuristic space ships that one normally thinks of, but also some have solar/space sails like the ships from Treasure Planet. So, main story is that some space pirates have boarded a cruise liner, and it’s up to Matt and his team to stop the pirates. Its a bit of a long story and I didn’t cut it up like I did with Hamburgers and Otters, but I hope you guys like it!
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The dastardly scoundrels were everywhere aboard the passenger ship, Gala Beau. Engines shred to pieces, streams of energy radiating from holes in the ship, and the bridge in ruins. The Ethereal Raiders, a deplorable yet effective pirate crew, used their monster ship, the Centurion Fury, to strip the vacation cruiser of it's beauty and treasures. A constant barrage of energy cannon blasts was the horrible soundtrack to the plundering of the Gala Beau. In every nook and cranny, pirates were causing havoc, scavenging for treasure and possessions, shooting beams at crew and passengers to make them “dance”, and stuffing their guts with food, valuables, crew, and passengers. Captain Merricor, a merciless thief with iron fists - quite literally, he lost his hands to a far more ruthless pirate - laughed and spat at the bridge crew as they kneeled and refused to look at the pirate captain. The poor cruise sail was left adrift in the Adria Stella Sea, among the space clouds and clumps of stars, a beautiful place to be boarded and stranded.

On board the Andromeda II, the flagship of the Stellar Haven, an elite protection force, Captain Orion Havens, a strong and brave lion, held his breath as a stealth interceptor shoved off quickly and silently into the inky blackness. The ship was commanded by Lieutenant Matt Gabriel de Luna, more commonly just as “Lobo Gordo”, the Hispania word for “fat wolf” for his chubbier appearance.

The lieutenant was young, almost in his twenties, but had shown himself to be a speedy, albeit reckless, flyer and had proved himself in many rescue missions. Skilled in energy dagger combat and negotiations, he had zero kills to his name, yet he always carried out the mission successfully. He was often known as the “Peaceful Phantom”, due to how he disappeared from many of his enemies, but treated those he captured with civility and friendship. Whether in the field or on base, he was friendly to many, only holding grudges with the more high-class and posh domesticated lap dogs that often held council jobs and other high-ranking positions. Many of these officials often looked down on the wolf, with almost only the retrievers and shepherds looking at the wolf and other members of Stellar Haven with friendship and respect. However, the fact still remained, many on the council wanted to see the wolf put into his place.

“The child must be placed back into his old attendant position, tending to the true fighters and operators.” boomed a Great Dane from his decorative throne.

The lion sighed, tiredly stating “With all due respect sir, his team is one of the Haven’s most successful and popular task forces, we cannot simply-“

“SILENCE” yelled a West Highland Terrier, further yapping, “This is a FORCE, we are meant to capture and stop threats by ANY MEANS. We must stop enemies, not take them to brunch! Look at this through our perspective, we simply cannot stand his gullible nature. You have stood up for his mistakes and his lack of judgement. His kindness will get him killed one day, I hope you realize that.” The lion bowed his head and sighed in agreement. The Stellar Council dismissed the Captain, allowing him to see the launching of the interceptor before a pink and purple swirling beam emerged from the engines of the sleek ship. In a magnificent roar and the blink of an eye, the ship was gone.

Reappearing in the Adria Stella Sea, the interceptor quickly caught up to the cruise sail. The stellar sails had been torn and the engines seemed to be ruptured and charred, most definitely destroyed by sol cannons. Matt turned on the autopilot and began to suit up. Due to the small size of the stealth ship, he only had half of his crew. Misty, a tough snow leopard with purple locks of wavy hair, was suiting up with her energy blades, tucking them away in their sheaths strapped on her back. In the rear, monitoring the ship's systems was a large and muscular Bernese Mountain Dog named Rio, who stood up and lifted the humongous cannon blaster he nicknamed, “Ole Rocky”. Finally, loading up his smoke bombs and arrows, was the Golden Retriever named Randy, but was nicknamed “Sparky” due to his love for using stun arrows and joy buzzers, shocking both enemies and friends alike.

“Rio, how are the engines doing?” asked the Lieutenant.

“Running fine and dandy. Sparky, put those arrows back, I’m tired of picking up electrocuted guys, they make my fur all staticy!” Sparky playfully glared at Rio as he placed his shocker arrows in a compartment.

“Misty, what are you bringing?”

“Just a few knives and my plasma cutlasses. Figured that even with the wide halls of a vacation ship, the energy longsword was too much of a hassle to use. How about you, Matt? Going with your jian, or are you gonna take the boring route and use the stun blaster?” Matt smiled at the cat.

“Alright, you’re taking both, whatever.”

Matt turned and said to Rio “Can you disable the lock mechanism on their loading dock doors?”

Rio looked around in mock confusion. “Wait, you mean the ones I finished hacking when we left base, right?”

Matt laughed and ran the ship silently into the opened hold of the cruise. The vacation cruiser was so massive, the doors to the hold were almost half the size of Andromeda II, and the hold itself seemed to be as large as a gladiator arena, with multitudes of starjolt ferries and even a Hyper-Stellar Foxtrot v2, one of the most expensive and luxurious star schooners in the galaxy.

Sparky gasped as his jaw dropped. “I’ve never seen one of these beauties up close before...that’s a company that knows comfort, the owner and founder is a pool toy if I remember correctly, and I’ve heard he gives the best hugs!”

Matt smiled as they landed on the floor of the hold, replying with “We can talk about him another day. Now, it’s time for action. Rio, open the bay door, we’re going in.”

Once off the ship, the team donned their neon colored glasses, adjusted their black and neon blue jackets, and ran quickly down the hall and into the crews quarters. They had heard stories of the Etherial Raiders and their merciless robbing and their endless appetite. Though they did their best to be fair and friendly even to enemies, they knew they had to go in strong and take out any opponent they met. Immediately, they were met with a dingo swallowing a poor ferret. One chop to the back and a grabbing of the ferret’s hands, and the first pirate was down.

“We have a ship in the hold, it’s a small, sleek stealth ship, wait for us there and we’ll take you to our base. Go!!!” The ferret whispered a thank you and sped down to the ship. Around the corner, a scraggly cat and a nasty-looking rabbit were knocked unconscious by the team as they rushed up some stairs, through the galley, and into a poolside restaurant. The crew ducked behind some tables and looked into the large pool chamber.

The chamber was enourmous. Large exotic plants from across the Trinity Galaxy system were growing tall around the pool and seating areas in the large room. The chairs were lined with gold leaf and Sharma silk, with dormi fur towels folded nicely laying on the foot of the chairs. The lights were dimmed, with the only light being the neon blue glow coming from the poolights, making the chlorinated water glow bright for night-swimming. The only swimmers however, were pirates, with one cow pirate and her large, writhing belly full of innocent people floating on huge islands of pool floats and toys so she wouldn’t sink. The group sneaked behind a bar that had underwater seats for guests to drink and relax as they swam, and contemplated their next move.

Matt had an idea pop into his head. “Misty, would you be a dear and let out Cambel. I bet he’s hungry…” the wolf whispered with a smirk, with Misty's face twisting into a malicious grin as she took a folded lump of plastic from her pocket and threw it into the pool. The plastic, while small, made a tremendous splash as it landed in the deep end of the pool.

The pirates looked over in surprise and confusion, looking for whoever threw the lump of latex. A hyena looked over at a weasel, growling, “What’s the big idea? Randy if your trying to scare us, it ain’t working!!!”

A possum, strapped to the teeth with knives and daggers, grabbed a floaty and swam over to see what the thing was, grumbling “Darn mice, always weighing my belly down.” The possum unfolded the plastic, revealing a fake teethy smile and kind eyes. The possum laughed, yelling “WE WERE SCARED OF A LITTLE POOL TOY LADS!!!” The pirates processed the information, and began to howl in laughter.

“Oh no, lads!!! I think I see an arm floatie swimming by!!!” wheezed a tiger who was munching on some chips he had ripped out of a poolside vending machine. The possum sneered and looked at the toy, when he noticed something. “Lads, just curious, do all pool toys have stomach chambers?”

Matt grinned as he put a thumbs up. Misty pulled out a remote, pushed a button, and beckoned for the other two team members to watch the whole scene unfold. The pooltoy’s maw snapped as it stuffed the pirate possum's face into its rubbery mouth. The possum screamed and pounded against the unfolding and inflating rubber dragon. But his fruitless escape attempt only wasted energy, and he was quickly shoved into the dragons gaping maw. The dragon lifted his head high, and sneered as he swallowed the pirate, who quickly slid into the larger chamber that Cambel called his stomach.

The pirates stood stunned as the long, snake-like dragon finished inflating. The dragon was big, almost half as long as the pool and his jaws and snout the size of a couch. After seeing their friend get devoured, most of the pirates were frozen, not daring to feed themselves to the rubber toy. Suddenly, the tiger yelled and ran along the side of the pool, claws reaching for the toy as he jumped into the air. A plastic tail slammed against the pirate, sending him flying into the pool. But Cambel caught him, snatching him in his jaws and swallowing him down.

The dragon then slithered on the water's surface with unmatched speed, barreling towards a passenger-stuffed cow. The cow desperately paddled her floaty island towards the pools edge, but Cambel was having none of it, diving as deep as he could underneath the mountain of pool floaties and lunging from below. The island of toys and floats broke apart, leaving the cows lower half stuck in the living pool toy’s gullet.

Despite her already large size and stomach full of food and people, Cambel only needed a few gulps to send her down to his gut. Left and right, he swallowed the hyena and weasel, a fox, a horse, even a snake pirate who was slithering and clawing at the pools edge, only to get slurped down like pasta. Pretty soon, all that was left were some clothes and stolen jewels laying around the pool.

“Urph, that cow was a tough one, she’s really weighing me down...but, huff, goodness they’re a handful, I think that’s the last of em guys!” Cambel shouted at the group. Suddenly, an otter dashed from behind a large Sasolia palm tree, hoping to dive into a small lobby. Looking back and laughing at the group of three and their rubber dragon, he smelled the cool refreshing perfume of a hotel lobby. CRASH!!! The otter rolled back into the dark pool room, confused by what he had slammed into. He saw a large shadow at approach, looking up to see Rio towering above him.

“P-please have mercy! I-I only wanted to get home! I h-had to tag along with these p-p-pirates!!!”

Rio smirked and said, “Quick question, what have you got here?” The mountain of a dog snatched a knapsack off the otter, opening it to see a family of mice trapped in a plastic soda bottle.

“Well, ahehe, I saw them and thought, ‘Maybe they need help’ so I...no, wait STOP!!!” The otter wasn’t able to finish his lie before he was picked up by Rio.

“HEY CAMBEL!!!” Rio yelled. The dragon turned his head and began to pant with his latex tongue hanging out like an excited dog. “GO LONG!!!” As he flew, the otter yelled and prayed to Deora, the goddess of unlawfulness and mother of all thieves as he sailed into the pool toy’s gut. He and his friends would have to and wait to be brought back out when the Haven wished to arrest them.

But Cambel was feeling playful. The group of pirates tumbled as Cambel began to swim and splash around. They were sent to the throat opening as their weight helped Cambel to dive in the deep end, and slammed into the back of his long stomach as he strained to resurface. Finally, he spun through the water as he surfaced, before floating on his back, using his puffy arms and tail to rub his plastic belly skin, and trying to push his protruding belly-button valve back in. He chuckled as he heard the muffled groans from the thoroughly dizzy pirates he trapped in his belly, his puffy cheeks blushing as he saw and felt their hands and bodies press out and try to rip apart his tough rubber skin. All they were able to do was make bulges and stretch the dragon's belly skin as they pushed against the plastic stomach walls. Cambel clambered out of the pool, wagging his tail as the team rubbed his snout and his ears.

Sparky rubbed the pool toy's belly as he said "Hey big guy, if you still have room, there's still a few pirates down where we came from."

Cambel smiled and said "You had me at, if I still have room." as he waddled away, belly swaying and bulging out as the pirates kept trying to escape.

After the plastic pool dragon turned the corner, Misty snuck ahead and rolled into the lobby, only to be slapped by a formidable gorilla and held down by two smaller gibbons.

"My, my, my...what a wonderfully fluffy tail you've got there, little kitty! Sure is a shame I'm going to use it to decorate my quarters on the ship." whispered Captain Merricor as he sat and watched from a highly decorated chair, the cruiser captain's chair, no doubt. The golden-furred jackal smiled and gave a short, malicious chuckle, waving his hand in a slicing motion. The gorilla lifted his unevenly-made machete into the air, slowly bringing it above his head as if it's weight was almost too much for the gorilla to handle. Before the machete could shear off Misty's tail, Matt jumped out and wedged his jian next to her tail before the machete could even fall halfway. The sword was angled to block the machete, and held so firm that half of the crude weapon shattered.

The gorilla turned his head and kicked Matt square in the stomach before following up with his fist slamming into the wolf's cheek. The pain caused by the kick and the dizzy feeling brought by the tremendous blow left Matt gasping for air, before he eventually heaved and said hello to his lunch again. Matt vomited and was reduced to tears when the jackal kicked him in the gut and forced his foot down on the wolf's back.

Merricor seethed as he hissed "Arresting my crew in a pool toy, how disrespectful. I thought they would send in killers, not toons! What an utter joke…oh well, it's just me and my first mates now!"

"Whats that?! Just you now?!" Merricor turned around to see his gorilla mate out cold, being held firmly by the shirt by Rio. Next to the dog, Merricor saw Sparky with the two gibbons tied up and placed in a lobby trash can.

"Youuuuuu…my victory! My chaos!!! You oppressive, foolish SOLDIERS!!!" Merricor pulled out his saber and lunged for the Golden Retriever.

A jian was pulled out of the floorboards and swooped 180 degrees, sending the saber down to the ground, with the jackal rolling and grabbing his blade. Matt held his jian sideways so the edge of the blade was parallel to his shoulders in a defensive manner. The pirate captain slashed at the wolf, but the lieutenant twisted his sword and flicked the curved blade away. The jackal tried again and again, with the same results.

"FIGHT ME, COWARD!!!" Merricor hysterically yelled.

Though he was panting from his nausea and the power used to deflect the saber, Matt calmly answered "As you wish." Matt quickly went for a jab and slash, with the captain deflected the jab and stepped to the side to avoid the slash that was aimed in the opposite direction. Both swords clanged and scrapped each other, the saber slicing apart Matt's glasses and the jian splitting the leather strap that held Merricor's hip sheath in place.

The two fought with fury, the jackal seemed to fight as if he were a murderous ballerina, twisting and twirling to confuse and dazzle his opponent. The wolf took a more sturdy fighting style, focusing on defense and dodging to stop the pirates flashing sword. As the fight dragged on, both canines were getting more reckless and desperate. Sparks flew as the metal blades sheared against each other, and the fluid and graceful movements began to change into hacks and slashes, both trying to knock the other’s sword out of their hand.
Sweat began pouring down their faces, Matt heaving from the pain, Merricor hissing from the anger. Yelling, the jackal raised the saber above his head and sliced towards the floor. Matt smiled at such a useless attack, angling his blade to deflect.

Blood splurted and spilled as the saber cut his arm. The wolf staggered against a wall in a small retreat, the jackal giving a howl of joy and maniacal giggling.

“I know that hurt, boy!”

Though the cut was not deep, the deep red blood streamed down Matt’s arm and along the edges of his jian. Matt’s winced and huffed as demeanor changed from determined to infuriated. He had a short-fuse, and Merricor had definitely spent up the wolf’s patience.

“What a twist, the most serious trick I have. One flick of the wrist and I cut your arm quite nicely. You thought I would be stupid enough for a straight-lined slash?! No. I’ve got more skill than that…” The pirate captain lifted the wolf’s chin with the top of the saber, tapping the wolf’s forehead as the wolf snarled and glared into the jackals dastardly eyes.

The wolf smiled as he said, "Know something, you thieving jackal...never make me lose my lunch. NOW MISTY!!!” The snow leopard used a roundhouse kick to knock over the squatting pirate, sending his face into Matt’s open and slobbery jaws. Sparky pushed the pirates feet, shuffling him far enough into Matt’s gullet that the jackals arms were pinned in the wolf’s throat. Matt’s throat bulged as the jackal squirmed against the fleshy throat tube, thrashing as his head and shoulders met the air and liquid of Matt’s stomach.

The bulge in his throat shrank as more and more of the jackal was shoved into the gut of the wolf. As he slipped in, Matt’s belly bulge pushed his hind legs and tail higher into the air, giving Matt a sort of bed. The wolf groaned as the pirate yelled and slammed against his fleshy prison, making Matt’s belly ache. Soon, Merricor’s expensive boots slipped off his feet as they disappeared into the wolf’s gut, with Matt letting out a monstrous belch. His tail bent and fell over his eyes as his legs and rump were angled by the bulge his belly made. He smiled weakly and panted, hiccuping a bit as he rubbed the sides of his squirming stomach.

“Good job guys, I think that went pretty, uuurrrRRAP, well! But we’ve still gotta wrap up the mission, so here are your last jobs before we leave. Make the call Rio. Sparky, make sure Cambel aaAAAYYYTE!!! Whew, pardon me, make sure he ate up the rest of the pirate crew. Misty, makes some room for two very full people. And I think you are an amazing flier, please - HIC - take over for me, I couldn’t possibly be able to fly...HICCUP!!!”

Everybody nodded, patted the wolf’s stomach for good luck, and went to do their jobs. Sparky ran back towards the hold, yelling “CAMBEL, BUDDY!!! You finished munching on these losers?! We gotta go soon!!!”

Misty followed the retrieves to leave some chairs and storage boxes for the Cleaner/Survivor crews to pick up, along with survivors who escaped and evaded the pirates. Rio used his communicator to call the Haven.

“Captain, we’ve got the pirates. Uh-huh, clean up and survivor rescue crew are on their way? Good. Listen, Captain, this band were definitely a voracious bunch, swallowing anyone and anything they found. I’m gonna need to use the reformer on all their GI Tracts to make sure any passenger and crew don’t become pirate fat and all valuables are returned to their owners. Oh, Matt’s gonna need the reformer too. Yeah, he had to catch him that way. You know how they end up in there, they always make him lose his lunch...”