Andre Norton

Star Ka'ats and the Winged Warriors is a book published in 1981 that was written by Andre Norton and Dorothy Madlee.

Takes place after the Great Blowup. Many areas on Earth are still radioactive. Mutated plants and animals abound. This is the story of Lars of the Puma clan, of the people of the Smoking Mountains. Lars's father was of the famed Star Men- explorers of the blasted wilderness beyond the mountain stronghold of the Star …

Only as interstellar mercenaries can humans go to the stars; the aliens who already dominate the galaxy allow no other recourse. But when Swordsman Third Class Kana Karr and his comrades-in-arms are betrayed and abandoned on a hostile world by their alien master, s the warriors from Earth begin a desperate but …