Truth be told I was horrified by these aliens. Being unarmed in just the NASA jumpsuit, was not something I was accustomed to. These floppy, tuby aliens of burgundy, with three eyestalks and two mouths. Their voice sounding like someone drowned. I was instantly grabbed and pulled down the corridor.

The grip was strong, definitely not something I could break free from. The one that had ahold of me easily navigated through the narrow confines of the ISS. Lights were shut off for most of the sections, and I recognized some alien tech that they had grafted onto the power systems. The temperature was also cooler in this sections, video cameras taped over with black tape.

I was pulled in front of a section that was covered in heavy cargo netting, Inside seemed to be some animal carriers with various mammals. My captor had started to pull a corner out to shove me in.

“This will do for now till the ship arrive. We’ll be sure to not plunder your world too much.”

Just as he was about to shove me in, there were yells and screams from the first section. I could hear energy blasts as the ISS shuddered, starting to rotate slowly.

In that small moment, I shoved my hand into my jumpsuit. Before the alien had a chance to turn back, I slammed a snub-nosed Colt .45 and emptied for rounds to the fattest part in his body. The alien contorted and lunged for my head, no doubt trying to bite it off. I shoved the pistol into its mouth as its mouth closed around my wrist, emptying the rest of the magazine.

It’s bite loosened around my now bloody hand, yanking my slobbered-covered sidearm from it’s mouth. It’s eyes flicked randomly in different directions as it it slowly floated away. One down.

Just as I was gathering my to-do list together, a figure floated in from the top hatch. It was feminine, clad in snug chitin armor with a slim oval dome for a helmet. Tendrils ran down the head and back, two rifles in hand. One looked quite alien, while the other was an M-16A with a white polymer body.

“Facility secure.” A small speaker on the front of the suit spoke. It sounded pretty human, perhaps with a heavy Asian tinge to the voice.

I grabbed the white rifle, taking a spray can nearby for hazmat cleanup and dousing my arm. I could still hear some of the aliens making a commotion.

“Prisoners, huh? Let’s go.”

The figure gave me a snappy salute, pushing back through the hatch.

A few other of the same girl aliens were untaping cameras, flipping switches and lights on as I went by. As we got to the main deck, three of the girls had two of the slugs at gunpoint. The slugs glanced at me, eyes narrowing.

“You will pay for this! Earth will be reduced to nothing but charred remains, then enslaved. You puny primitives!”

“Just like you tried to enslave these bug waifus? They rebelled against you pretty well.”

I glanced at my weapons.

“You also die when shot, so that’s a good sign, too.”

The leader snarled. One of the bug waifus nudged me a walkie talkie radio, with a giant battery pack and a tall antenna. I took ahold of it, mashing the call button.

“Team, report.” A stern man demanded.

“Echelon has secured the station, general. We’ve activated the beacon for their ship to jump in.”

“Roger, we’re ready on the ground here.”

“What? Why are you summoning the ship? You can’t even think of taking us on. You’ll be pulv – oh no.”

The leader’s face drained to a pink, now coming to realize just what was going on.

“Oh yes. The atomic bomber. Shiva Star. ASAT missiles, the EM drive. Groom Lake, McDonnell Douglas…maybe most of our population is twirling around in hipstergrammer glasses and Fornite dances, and seem like they’re pretty easy tribute to take. But some of us remembered our legacy from the Reagan administration, looked up to the first fly-by-wire fighters and thought we’d be living on Mars by now.

But we’re here now. We met good aliens while we stayed up at night while building new toys. We built new toys together. And now we may not be able to wage an interstellar war, we can kick you off our doorstop for the most part.”

I folded my arms, drifting just a little closer.

“Guess your little overlord campaign ignored a bunch of old-school peeps with old planes in the desert. What happened, not ‘mainstream’ enough?”

I could see the alien truly scared for the first time. Not panicked, actually pee scared.

One of the girls turned to me.

“Descartes is here. We should evacuate.”

“Yeah, sounds about right. Just in case the numbnuts try to ram the station or something. We’ll egress out, NASA and the government can lean up the mess afterwards. It’s not our whole problem.”

“Ta, what about them?” One of the other girls motioned to the slugs with her weapon.

I glanced up at the window towards the Earth below. A silhouette of a light gray space shuttle hung in view. Musk may have gone to capsules, but the next-gen shuttle of our design was a lot more safer and effective for hops like this. It being armed was a plus too.

“There’s evac bags for just a situation. Stuff them inside; they’ll fit.”

The slugs started to clamor. One did not believe the shuttle was real. Another did not want to be stuffed into the evac bag. Fortunately the girls were quite convincing. As I clambered into a quick-entry spacesuit they were fielding for tests, I was glad that a day’s work was done. We still had to cripple and board there ship, but the space popes would help with that. Me and the bug girls did our job.