ANIMORPHS: The Terran Chronicles
Episode I: A Discovery of Heritage
Chapter 1
My name is Tobias. I flexed my steel muscles as I stood on the barren, gray moon. My huge metal feet were planted solidly in the dirt, flattening small craters into the ground. In front of me, the Mantis mec swung a long, bladed arm slightly, showing off it's power. There was no air on this moon, which would cause this fight to be frictionless, speeding it up greatly. I called forth my battle ax with my mind, and it shimmered into existence, clutched in my hand. The blue haze faded from around the steel shaft, from the curved double-blade. I held that ax tightly, it was my best weapon. The Mantis, a fast, graceful type of mec, suddenly swung forward. I moved my Titan arm up quickly, dodging a blow that would have severed it from my body. The Mantis spun so fast that it was just a blur. I wanted to strike that blur, to keep it from destroying me, but I held back, knowing that a Titan's strength is its greatest weakness as well as it's power. I must wait for the perfect time... The Mantis stretched its long, triple-jointed legs, one knee near the bottom that jutted out forward and a second knee nearer to the top that went far behind it. The Mantis had two long arms that curved sharply down to form two scythe-like blades. The thin, wiry mec housed a lot of power though. Behind the Mantis mec, the horizon of the barren moon stretched so far that I could see the curve of the planet. Craters covered the gray, dusty moon, making it look like Swiss cheese. Already a few scattered footsteps from our battle flattened those craters into nonexistence, never to be changed on this airless dirtball. The Mantis moved ever so slightly, seeming to test its arms like a fighter circling another. I crouched down just a little bit, prepared my piston-powered legs for... The strike! I leapt forward, swinging my battle ax so fast that I could barely see it. The ax crashed into the enemy mec, showering sparks as I pressed my steel body against its, pinning its bladed arms to its thin chest. My ax dug deep into the metal shoulder of the Mantis, severing the gears and power cables that ran from its engine. One of its arms would be useless now, but I couldn't kill it without pulling backward for another swing. With a final jerk of my ax for good measure, I yanked it out, sending more sparks crashing into the scorched surface below. I kicked the Mantis hard, sending it sprawling on its legs with too many joints. It wasn't time for my energy weapon now, no, not until the mec was disabled enough to get a good feed. My needle gun could disable the optical sensors if I could get far enough away, but it was too late for that. The mec charged, thin arms flailing away at me with precise movements that looked random. It came closer, closer. "Aaaagh!" I half-choked, half-yelled. Sparks and plasma bursts came from the place where my right arm used to be. My arm! I calmed down in a nanosecond and quickly called my second weapon, the needle gun, into the hand that was still there. It shimmered as a pistol of light, then appeared. My battle ax laid on the barren ground of the moon, twitching up and down as random fluxes of power fed through the arm. The needle gun was a pistol-type weapon that used energy to expel a large, supersharp dart into the victim. Needle gun usage was fundamental in military training. The gun itself was small and L-shaped, with a handle that you held onto that put a long barrel across the top of your hand. The barrel only barely passed the end of my fist. CRACK! The vibrations from my first shot made a sound throughout my steel body. Because the moon was airless and so could not conduct sound, and the gun was so small, the Mantis might not realize what was happening until it was too late. CRACK! The first needle cut its way into the one of the Mantis' optical sensors, or "eyes". The Mantis barely slowed, but it gave me just enough time to dodge as the second needle smacked into the Mantis' head with a silent rip. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! As the Mantis passed, three long, steel needles thunked into its good arm. Sparks flew and plasma began a long, slow, low-gravity fall to the surface of our barren battlefield. The Mantis, its only weapons useless now, turned for a suicide run with its hard head. CRACK! CRACK! Two more needles thunked into each of the Mantis' multi-jointed legs. Power drained out, plasma leaking into another slow fall. The Mantis fell. I traded my needle gun for an energy weapon. The small pistol sparkled with blue light that seemed to expand, forming a rifle sort of gun. I handled the large, bulky gun awkwardly in one hand, plasma still falling from my other arm socket. I sighted carefully, and pulled the trigger. The snakelike metal feed tube shot from my gun like a bee-stung rabbit. Its talons sunk into the mecs chest, clamping on. Then, with a slight vibration and soft buzz, it feed the destructive energy into the Mantis' body. The Mantis jerked once, twice, and then collapsed on the ground. I had won. But with winning there comes a price. Dark. It was getting dark. The stars. Fading into the blackness, stars. Darkness. Dark...
Chapter 2
My name is Erek. I am a member of the race known as the Chee. We are nearly indestructible robots, shaped like our masters, the canine Pemalites. We were made as playthings, toys, meant only for the enjoyment of our ever-happy creators. But, being indestructible makes me one of the greatest weapons ever. Of course there are other Chee. We are all "Terran" in a way. That is, we project Terran holograms. We guard our masters, the Pemalites, in their "spirit" forms, embodied in dogs. Who are the Terrans you ask? I remember when they were known as "humans" and lived on the planet Earth. Of course by now, 5067, the Terrans have advanced quite a lot and now speak a single language, Basic, are known as a single "race" and not many, and, of course, have done away with that silly and abstract concept known as money. Ha! Little pieces of paper that formed the center of all humans' lives, it was first to go. Another reason for the change of name, besides to avoid confusion among other races, was the Symbiosis with the Yeerk race. Now, the Terrans are known as the race that joined with it's worst enemies, giving them forever life and the humans knowledge of all history. After the Joining, all Kandrona producing suns were transformed chemically and the Kandrona knowledge was systematically wiped from all Yeerk memories. Then, the knowledge was wiped from humans too. I and my kind went into hiding, since, to Terran records at the time, we did not exist. After the Joining, we emerged again, projecting holograms of citizens when they died suddenly and we found them first. We would destroy the body, and become that person, as if they had miraculously escaped injury. This allowed us to assimilate into the Terran culture, with only brief periods when we had to take refuge in our underground chambers with the Pemalite spirits, embodied in dogs. After the Joining, a rebellion arose in many culture, most notably, the humans, Hork-Bajir and Andalites. The Rebels, calling themselves the Symbiosis Rebellion, joined with many other species, convincing them that the Yeerks were evil and could only be evil. Of course, the Yeerks depended on the Symbiosis now, with no-one to tell them about Kandrona, but many aliens were easily persuaded, perhaps because they had been captured before. With the combined forces of the Terran Star Navy and the Andalite StarFleet, the rebels were put down mercilessly. Rebel fleets retreated soon after the first battles, and with Yeerk symbiotes increasing their reflexes, the Terran Star Navy was unstoppable. You remember the old, old saying, "two heads are better than one?" That is especially true with symbiotes. And the Andalites? They retreated in a different way. After their greatest enemy was destroyed, the Andalites scrapped all their ships, taking the weapons and placing them on giant space platforms orbiting their planet, set to disable any ship that entered their planetary system. The other energy sources were attached to huge generators that put a planetary shield around their planet, isolating themselves from the rest of the galaxy. Now, soon, a new evil will threaten the galaxy. It is not a new alien force, suddenly appearing from outside the spiral arms. It is a much more subtle evil, that will soon destroy my culture, before I even came to earth. It will come through a fourth dimension. If only I had known...
Chapter 3
Tobias
I closed my eyes, making the darkness complete. The gray moon, the hulk of a Mantis mec, the stars, fading. All it would take was a single thought... End simulation.
"Congratulations, Cadet," said the robot in a artificial monotone, "You have been accepted into the ranks of the Mec Titan Group Seven as a Trainee First Class. Report to the physicians office in one standard hour for a routine checkup. Please consult your manual, paragraph Four-C, section Five, for the protoc..." I walked off before the robot could finish, my regulation boots making a hollow clanking on the gantryway leading away from the spherical sims. Apparently, it's sensors picked up my motion, and it moved on to the next cadet exiting the simulator, switching its voice to her. "I apologize, Cadet. You have not..." I moved out of hearing range before it could finish. I felt a little sorry. She might have just been cut out of Titan Seven because I finished two seconds before her. Some people could do a better job, just not fast enough. I was actually surprised. I didn't think I had done that well. Getting killed did not usually qualify as a point toward your rank advancement. But, being a Trainee First Class was still a good thing. It was like being one of those Andalite arisths of old. I might accompany a full mecflyer, or, if I was lucky, I would get a out-of-date Fighter mec to observe in. Titan Group Seven wasn't the best of the best. The Group was an average Titan Group, with routine assignments, like Skrit Na regulation, and policing the cosmos. Still, I was glad that I had passed. Many Cadets were assigned even worse jobs, like flying some Destroyer class mecs, which were even older than the Fighters, on space trash cleanup. The Titan was my choice mec. They were humanoid, much like a gigantic version of us Terrans. Their bright silver finishing made them seem to say "Don't mess with me, I'll kick your butt". They also had a large weapon-cache memory, being able to call five different weapons without needing to register with the dealer. The call range was long too, at least a light-year. Titans were used by the Terran Alliance as tools of pure force, and were an excellent tactical advantage in any war. On the other hand, the Terran Alliance hadn't had a war since fighting off a recurring Rebel faction of Hork-Bajir, about a thousand years ago. Still, the mecflyers were important additions ever since the Hork-Bajir Rebellion. During the Hork-Bajir Rebellion, shield technology developed to embrace zero-space technology. Shields developed even faster than ray energy weapons, like the old laezrs. If you could understand that, you would have figured out that now energy weapons cannot be used, so humanlike robots that could hold hand weapons have been used ever since. Of course, for killing blows, you can simply fire an energy feed tube and flood the enemy with supercondesed photons. "Mec" stands for Mechanized Energy-protective Craft. Most mecs are humanoid, or at least retain some similar characteristics. The Mantis mec, obviously, is based on a praying mantis, a rather frightening bug if you think of yourself as the size of an ant. I think that its slightly ironic that the praying mantis was named so because it's arm position makes it look like it is "praying". Believe me, looking down the twin blades of a Mantis, you think it should be spelled with an "e". There are many kinds of mecs. Most common is the Mantis, Titan, and Arsonist. The latter uses super heat sinks to build up massive amounts of flame, which is a wave energy, not ray, there's a differnce you know, and shoot it out in insanely destructive bursts. Arsonists don't carry any other weapons, since the power required to keep a fire burning in their belly would drain those weapons beyond belief. Of course energy is used to fire guns, no matter if it isn't exposed to shielding, what did you think we used? Chemicals? So I walked down the dark hallways of the training facility on the remote planet of R'gheisa. My footsteps followed behind me, the barely audible echo traveling down the hall. I was wearing my grey workout clothes, a slightly-loose bodysuit and flexible boots. They were soaked with sweat. Even though mecs are controlled through thought, many respond to actions in zero-g too, which was what I had been in. The technology was so sophisticated that you actually feel what you were doing as if you were the mec. I came to my room. The wall had a small square next to it, about six by six inches. I pressed my hand against it. When I pulled it up, the orange surface of the pad had turned green where it had read my palm. The wall dimpled and spread, forming a door. I walked into my room. It was nothing more than a small bunk with temperature regulators and a cleansing unit. I didn't even have room to exercise in the morning. I had to get up early to be in the hall before the drill sergeants woke up and busted me for being out of my bunk. Still, though, that helped me stay in shape. Maybe that was why I had been accepted to a Titan Group after "dying". I changed into my dark-blue button down shirt and navy pants. Time to get to the physicians office. I stepped through the wall, which closed behind me, and into the unoccupied hall. When I reached the office, the computer read my mind and opened the door, knowing that I was here for a physical. But as I prepared to step through the door, I felt a tingle run all over my body. That's just what it was, a tingle. As if my skin had little electrical charges running over it and my blood was plasma. It didn't really hurt, just, well, tingled. I forgot about it and continued my walk through the door and into the large sickbay. "Hello," the physician said as he looked at his data pad," Cadet Tobias. I am Doctor Wynger. You are here for your military-entrance checkup?" "Yes," I said. "Fine. We will begin with a DNA scan to make sure you are who you say you are. No big deal," Wynger said. He pressed a button on his console. A small picture of a DNA strand came up. You know, a double-helix? Anyway, he glanced at it, read the data next to it, and frowned. I saw him zero in on a single section of the strand. It zoomed in, showing a second double-helix. I'm not a doctor, so I wouldn't know, but that seemed a little odd. I was right. The doctor turned, a small device in his hand. Turns out it was a strong depressant. So, for the second time that day, I blacked out.
Chapter 4
Tobias
When I awoke, a single bright light shone in my face, and I closed my eyes against the glare. Opening my eyes but a crack so that a sliver of light sliced through my eyelashes, I sat up. I could feel the heat of the low hanging light on the peak of my skull as I glanced around the silent, blank room. There were no visible windows or doors. As I prepared to swing my legs off the small bed I had been lying on, the wall opened up and a doctor came in. He gave me a sideways glance as he walked over to the neurapanel to my right. That glance told me that I signified a threat to him. A threat? Me? It was just insane. I watched him carefully, my eyes swiveling in their sockets. I barely moved my head at all. I didn't trust this man. Apparently, he noticed my slight movements. He glanced up, his face filled with an expression that bordered on hate. "Lie down. Andalite!" he said. The Andalites. Hermits of the galaxy. No one knew why the Andalites had secluded themselves on a single world. That was even beyond Yeerk knowledge. Nobody liked them much either. They were... too secretive. It's a pretty stupid reason, I know. But most of the galaxy had accepted it. So now I was an Andalite? This just kept getting weirder and weirder. Let's recap. I was strangely accepted into a mec group, even after I got killed in my final exam. Then I'm zapped and taken to this strange place, which, if I remember my cliches, is on a deserted planet. And now I'm being accused of being the one thing I am definitely not. An Andalite. I recalled the doctor's last order to me and laid back down. Why was I an Andalite? The doctor reached forward, a small lizard in his hand. "Touch this," he said. Not wanting to offend this man, mostly because I didn't want to get zapped again, I touched it. "Now acquire it's DNA," the doctor said. I opened my mouth for the first time since I had been brought here. "Excuse me?" I said. "You know, Andalite," he almost spat out the word, "combine it's DNA into your own. I suppose I should be glad that I have such a fine specimen to experiment on" This was getting out of hand. Was this the mythical "morphing" we had learned about in theohistory? About the Andalites before they had become hermits? If I remembered correctly, the Andalites had only needed to touch an animal to acquire it's DNA. Then they could shape-shift into that animal. Pretty weird if you ask me. I like that word, weird. So I figured, what the heck? Might work. Not much else to do. Maybe I could plan for escape. 'Cause I knew one thing, I did not like this place. I concentrated on the lizard. I absorbed it's DNA into my own. The small creature went slightly limp as the DNA flowed. Now this was just getting, well, I hate to overuse a word, but it was weird. "Now morph," said the doctor as he pointed a small scanner at me, "Now" Just then, I realized that this doctor was not carrying any weapon. At all. I could easily overpower him. I may be just a young cadet, but military training is supposed to toughen you up. I could knock him out, but then where would I go? The door was probably keyed to the doctor's signature. I couldn't leave. So I began to morph.
Chapter 5
Erek
"Do you think it's really him?" questioned Trenton, "we have lost contact with the Animorphs ever since the years of hiding" I was standing in the open field that comprised the Chee underground. The vast expanse was as large as a Yeerk pool, and twice as well hidden. Now that some of us must stay down here forever, the area had been much enlarged. Every breed of dog known to the galaxy romped around our feet. All of them had been the product of Chee technology and the souls of the Pemalites. "It is him," I said. "We must contact him," said Trenton, in a voice of restrained excitement. "Yes," agreed Derik, "If we know who they are, they could be great allies" "But against what?" said Elder Aren, "The Chee have no enemies" It was true. We cannot kill. It is hardwired into us, and is impossible to change without a Pemalite crystal. I tried reprogramming myself once, with a crystal captured by the Animorphs. I saved my friends lives. But I could still remember... How my alloy paws tore through Hork-Bajir flesh with no resistance. How the bullets bounced off me. The blades of Hork-Bajir clanged into my metal skin. I took care of every one of them. I tore into living, breathing bodies and stole the life from them. I was a monster. An android never forgets. I would never, ever take another life. Even to protect myself. Instead I would let myself be attacked, dismantled. Destroyed. Killed. But the horror of violence is too much to have written into your memory. "What if we did," I said finally, "what if the Chee were destroyed? What if...the Pemalites. The dogs, were destroyed? We need someone to protect us. Someone who can...forget" Sera, a feminine Chee, put her paw on my shoulder. It was a very Terran gesture. I suppose living with them has rubbed something onto us. "You are right," said Elder Aren, "You must search for this Son-of-Hawk. If those military files prove correct, we must contact him" "Of course, but who..." my voice broke off. He had said "me" hadn't he? "but why me?" I corrected. Elder Aren stood silent. My violence was too much for him too. I knew why though. He wanted me to feel useful. After that...incident, I had been devastated. The horror... But I would accept my mission. It was wholly possible that he just wanted me to go because I had been close to the Animorphs so many years before. So it was up to me to track down the Son-of-Hawk.
Chapter 6
Tobias
My bones crunched into new positions, then shrunk. The tingling ran up and down my rapidly changing body and made me want to lie on the floor and twitch. My skin seemed to sink into my body, revealing a primordial reptile skin underneath. The scales varied throughout the green spectrum, from a light, sea green, to the darkest, green as we normally think of it. My lizard was not a very dark creature. It was not large either, about the size of a skink. I couldn't identify it more than that, I had had military training, not biology. I was now on my belly on the soft, leather-covered hospital bed. My belly spread out over it. It seemed to spread anyway. I was only four inches long. My head jerked back and forth. My tiny nostrils sniffed for food. None. FOOD! FOOD! My little mind shrieked. I scuttled over to the edge of the bed, my legs motoring faster than they've ever gone before. Really, though, I wasn't going that fast. It's that perspective thing again. My primitive little mind shrieked again, this time the urge was stronger. FOOD! I powered over to a crack in the floor, sniffed. Not any food there. There! Another crevice! I zipped all around the floor, sniffing. SOUND! LOUD! A vibration shook my little body. Where was it? My hyperactive mind spun me in circles. My nose sniffed. UHZHALIH! The vibrations were back! My tiny brain couldn't decipher it. Uhzhalih? ANZHALIH! Then, like a rubber band snapping backwards, I gained control. ANDALITE! The doctor! He was yelling. This realization overwhelmed the lizard consciousness and my Terran self rose to the top. "Andalite, gain control of yourself!" The doctor yelled. I could feel it vibrating through my insides. Then, quieter, "now I know that you can change from one morph to the next without returning to your original body. Thank you for this information." What? I had to escape! That thought pulled the trigger that shot the lizard mind to the top of my thoughts. My tiny little legs motored, and I scuttled across the floor. Air! A rush of breeze overwhelmed my senses. My Terran mind, buried deep beneath the lizard's simple consciousness, said, "go to the door! The door!" Of course, the lizard didn't have any idea what a door was. It might as well have been called a tree. But it did know how to run. I scuttled past a pair of large leather boots, over the rapidly closing door, and into the hall. I continued my journey over the cracks in the large tiles. My tiny body hugged the wall, and it seemed to offer security. My feet slipped into the cracks between the tiles easily. FOOD! Now my lizard mind was changing gears. It believed the threat to be gone, and now it wanted to feed. NO! I screamed at it. The SOS teams will be after us in a moment! I don't know why I used the term "us" except maybe because the lizard and I were two minds linked together. So the SOS men clamped across the floor, their clumsy feet vibrating the floor so much that we...I mean, I...shot out across the floor again, faster than ever. I mean, the Shoot On Sight men are supposed to give a guy a chance. But I had had my chance.
Chapter 7
Erek
The planet called Terra Alpha is actually quite beautiful. White clouds swirl around the globe, revealing shining blue seas and green land. Sometimes the mountains jut up into the sky, casting shadows on the land from the partially eclipsed sun. "Better step away from that window, friend," came a voice from behind me, "The sun can damage your eyes, and we wouldn't want our first visit to the great planet to be a hospital visit as well, eh?" "Thank you, sir" I replied. "No problem" I turned to face the man. "I have never been off of Terra Gamma, my homeworld. Tell, me, what is Terra Alpha like?" "Well," said the man, smiling, "There are huge cities that are like small countries. Naturally, the largest is the galactic capital, Terra Prima. Multiple layers of plasteel and concrete dig deep into the ground. There are actually around one thousand levels of buildings, but most of that is attributed to the United Systems tower, near the center of the city. There are dozens of different aliens around there, and I'm talking about species. You got your Hork-Bajir, Ssstram, Hawjabarans, Mak, Onganchic, your Skrit an' your Na, plus some I've never even heard of. 'Course, I'm just a programmer. You're a military man?" "No," I said simply, "Farmer." "Naturally. I didn't know it was possible to farm Terra Gamma. Rotten soil they got there. Figures though. Th' life of an' outworld farmer, probably know lots of different aliens, lead yourself an interesting life. I'm just coming back from Luna. You ever been there?" "Just a stop off to change ships" "Of course, that's why we're on the same ship," he said as beeps filled the hallway, "What luck! I managed to get on a Luna-Terra transport that serves food! See you at the dinner, whatever!" I smiled at him as he turned his back and quickly walked away toward the drop shaft to the seating area. I, however, stayed in the observation deck. I could ingest the food and literally burn it for about two kiks of energy, which is not very much, seeing as how I use super-advanced Pemalite technology to power myself. Although the Terrans were quickly catching up. So, I just stood there, not even thinking about the Terran ritual of eating. Rather disgusting habit, of course, the Andalites had said that eating was an amazing joy. I wouldn't know. Metal does not lend itself easily to taste buds. The planet called Terra Alpha grew closer. I remembered the past days, when I had a Yeerk in my circuits, feeding it through my energy core. Those days were gone. The Yeerk had been memory wiped and returned to it's companions. That was easy, since the rest of the Yeerks had no idea of their history beyond slithering out of that long tube that destroyed their thoughts and returning to their brothers. Humans no longer remembered the procedure of Kandrona. Now, the only way to survive was to take a host. They were still called hosts. Really though, the human portion of a Terran is just doing it because it's a long standing law, and out of the goodness of their heart. Depending on how good their heart is. On Terra Alpha, I had infiltrated the Yeerk society. I had joined their inner circle! I had predicted their every movement, sucked up every secret, listened to every word. The Animorphs had won because of me. Won! They had gone on to defeat the Yeerk Armada. They had joined with the followers of Aftran. They had created a new, more powerful race, now they ruled the galaxy. The United Systems was not lead by a Terran though. No, they were not that selfish. As the most powerful race in the galaxy, they had given up their power. On Terra Alpha, the president was an alien. I had done much on the planet Terra Alpha. Something though, nagged at the back of my cybernetic mind. Something I had tried to bury deep inside me. And now, as the planet spun away into the inky void and we entered orbit around it, I remembered. This was the planet I had killed on.
Chapter 8
Tobias
The SOS lasers tore up the steel floor. Shards of metal were thrown high into the air. Well, at least it was high for me, I was only a centimeter tall. My little tail was shot off pretty quickly, it didn't stand a chance. Luckily for me, my tail was meant to be torn off, and still regrow. I skittered left and right, dodged the crimson lights of death. My legs pumped rapidly, spinning me across the floor. I had to get away from the light! That could have been my lizard mind talking, but hey, for once, my Terran self agreed. Behind my tailless body an SOS laser ripped another gashing hole in the floor. The tiny explosion, which was actually rather large to me, hurled me through the sky, my head still bobbing in search of my attacker. I smacked the wall with a sickening thud. I bounced off of my rubbery belly and tumbled down, only two centimeters away from the wall. I hit the floor with the same kind of thud that I had hit the wall with. I had landed on my back, so I quickly flipped myself over. This had all happened very quickly. I had probably been flying for less than a second. This revelation brightened my spirits, however tiny they were. If I had been going that fast, maybe the SOS men had lost track of me! I wondered if it was time to return to Terran. This lizard might get annoying. If I were Terran, I might be able to avoid them easier. As I demorphed, my head climbing up through the air, I watched the wall become clearer. It was amazing! I had actually hit a door, even though my initial speed had been too much for it to handle and dimple open for me, as I had fallen the door had opened and let me through. I stood, fully Terran, quite naked, and looked around. Sterile white walls glared at me from all sides. The walls were covered with various cabinets, white as the walls. Three small, medical beds dominated the available floor space of the room. I walked over to one bed and opened the small drawer below the mattress. Not much in there. A couple of surgical laezrs. The drawer beside it was much more interesting. There was the control panel for the neurogas, different activation squares flashing or shining. The knockout gas would slow my pursuers down. I would have to work fast though, I could hear the footsteps of the SOS men clamping by. Soon they would realize that my ricochet wasn't quite what they thought it was. Opening the first drawer, I pulled out laezr. One was long and thin, with a notice warning against it's use. The notice also said it was a 5:1 laezr. High power, thin blade. I heard the footsteps returning outside the door. Then I wished I could bar the door. Too bad there weren't any locks. With the 5:1 laezr I slit open the metal that the control panel was situated on. Inside, the control area glowed blue. The gaseous plasma that acted as a conductor for the information writhed below my laezr. Looking for the right spot, I stuck my laezr in. The plasma glowed red around the crimson laezr, and I could barely see the line of energy that made it up. I removed the laezr and watched as small sparks of red spread throughout the blue. Slowly the plasma became laced with the red of the laezr. I quickly replaced the cover, and watched as each button spun with the colors of blue and red. Without identifying symbols, I would have to remember my training. Pressing a button, I watched as a different button slowly rid itself of blue and became totally laezr-red. I heard the footsteps stop outside the door. The SOS men were here! I slammed my finger on the red button and rolled away behind one of the other beds. The door dimpled in and opened. The grey padded armor of an SOS man strode through. His helmet visor was down, the dark material obscuring his face. Hoping he couldn't see me, I began to return to lizard form. My hands once again seemed to flake and become scales. In my retreating hearing I heard the one bed begin to vibrate and shudder. "Any time now," I muttered with half-formed lips. The bed rose up behind me like the United Systems building. Even though I knew I was shrinking, it was a strange sensation, like I was falling. Falling off of a very large bed. Morphing will take a little getting used to. Now the bed towered over my little lizard body. The floor vibrated the tiniest bit from the overloading neurogas canister. My nostrils sucked in the air. Just a hint of that sweet smell. Mmm. It was a good smell. It meant it was time to bail. As the bed exploded, hurling shards of metal at my pursuers, I flung myself toward the door. That armor would probably protect them from something as little as some sharp metal. Not so for an unprotected lizard like myself. Moving faster at this revelation I skittered across the room. The transparent green gas followed close behind my tail. Which apparently I had regrown. That was something to remember. And as the shouts of paralyzed soldiers faded behind me, I continued my mad dash toward escape.
Chapter 9
Erek
This hiss of escaping gas assaulted my ears. Landing thrusters pummeled the steel ground below us. A transport down to Terra, wow. Nothing but the best for a Luna-Terra transport. I think there was some important dignitary on the ship, of course though, the Terran Federation is full of them. Using a transport instead of MT beams doesn't cost much more, and the Terran Federation is full of resources too. I never much liked Matter Transferance beams. Scrambles the circuits. Of course though, you would never know. I can fake Terran life-signs, but still... Another hiss filled the passenger area, which was quite spacious, signalling the drop of the ramp. This must be an older transport. The new ones would never be so loud, or use that particular form of gas. By now I had reached the Spaceport causeway and was walking past the other ports. There weren't many. Most people were coming down by MT beams. So I continued my walk, going slowly, investigated everything. You never know when an Animorph might show up. A sharp clanking came from behind. It matched a sound in my database. Running. In combat boots. Just like soldiers. I whirled, swinging my arms out to keep balance. Anyone who saw me would see me facing front, then they'd blink, then see me facing back. Weird. Wasn't the Son-of-Hawk a military member? Maybe... "What's going on?" I called as the soldiers stomped past. "Nothing. Just a drill. Go away," said one as he continued stomping. Now that was wrong. Soldiers never had drills in public. I have a perfect memory. Not only that, but I was there when the Federation Document of Sentient Rights was signed. Follow them. Instincts from years of espionage and subterfuge gathered in a split second. In truth, it was shorter than that, but I won't go into specifics. I altered the flow of energy through my circuits, filtering and flooding it through my holoprojectors. I matched myself with my surroundings. Hovering above the ground on force fields, I ran as fast as a synthetic dog who walks on his hind legs can. I really don't think I have to tell you how fast that is. Sliding in the door to the military transport as it opened, I almost slammed myself against the wall diving in there. The troops continued their march in. They were rather crammed in, and I hoped I wouldn't be discovered. I may be able to camouflage myself, but I can't disappear. "Everyone on?" asked the team leader. "Right, boss" "Good," continued the leader, "Pilot, to our destination. Impulse 100" "Yessir," came the voice over the intercom. "Impulse 10. Exiting the atmosphere. Impulse 50...75...100 sir! ETA, 3 seconds and counting, 1, arrival." Arrival? We were here already? Must be inside the solar system. Any other place would have taken at least a minute. "Excellent. Men, prepare Andalite-containment gear"
Chapter 10
Erek
High above the ground, in the upper atmosphere of the planet, they crouched, wrapped in their protective suits. Large force field generators were strapped to their backs, giving the illusion that they were twice as wide. The generators, I knew, would be discarded and detonated after landing. They also had on oxygen helmets, with filters on each side for scooping up as much real air as possible, as well as a tube running down their backs for a small, partially buried oxygen cylinder. They were preparing to jump into battle to contain an Andalite. Andalites are a very rare species. They all exist on one world only, guarded by an entire automated fleet. But if one had left the homeworld... As the troops lept from the carrier, I watched them flip and tumble so that they were falling head down, as if diving into a pool. They watched their altimeters on their wrists until a certain height, then a shimmering sphere about ten standard feet in diameter enclosed their bodies. Soon, the last one had plummeted. The carrier continued it's skyward journey as it closed it's bay doors. I slammed my metal against it and felt the ship shudder. My personal force field hacked away at the metal, until, with a sickening tearing sound, the metal split against my fists and I fell too. The wind was nearly unbearable. I was falling extremely fast, and the outer atmosphere of a planet is rather thin. The thin atmosphere still whistled past my audio receptors like a Class 12 storm, like the one on the planet formerly known as Jupiter. I watched the terraformed ground below me slowly take shape and color. It expanded across my vision, a pale color under the clouds, which were becoming more and more present as my fall continued. It may have been a terraformed planet, but there was still that reddish tint. Emerging from the thin clouds, I finally saw them. The shimmering shields tore through the clouds, leaving perfect spherical holes. They fell slower than I, because of the shield area. As I fell, I expanded my shield slowly to match thier descent speed. I was still cloaked against the sky. My shield shape changed, shifting me closer to one of them. The soldiers, unnoticing of me, continued plummeting. Pulling my shield inward, I aimed at the one I was above. My shield was shaped like a bullet, a perfect, elongated cone. The wind whistled past even faster now. With a sharp flash of shielding, I hit the trooper. I had aimed to one side, so, based on the spherical shape of his shield, the soldier was flung off to one side at superfast speeds. He would most certainly miss his landing zone. The other troops looked over in surprise at their tumbling comrade. Their helmet computers locked on to my shield signal. They knew I was here. Sweeping my shielding like a hawk's wings, I slipped between the laezrs that came from the large rifles just unstrapped from the other five soldier's backs. They spoke into comm microphones. The needles erupted in flames around me. Swooping between them, I aimed straight at one of the soldiers who was firing almost blindly at the image on his helmet visor. Pulling my shield in suddenly, I bulleted straight into the trooper. A second green flash of shielding corrupted my vision, sparking all across my eyes. Spinning around on my force-field wings, I faced another trooper as the other flipped and tumbled away from the landing zone. Just has he pulled the trigger on his laezr. There was a second bright flash of green light, this time twisted with the red of the laezr like some bizarre Christmas decoration. The sheer force of the blast probably fried the weapon in the trooper's hands. He would rather maim himself temporarily than let the mission be a waste. Even though my shielding prevented me from being disintigrated, the blast knocked me far away from the landing zone. The troopers, thinking the threat was neutralized, continued their face-forward descent. Neutralized? Not a chance. Sweeping my force field into wings once more, I flew toward the spark on the dim, scarlet ground. The strange spark of yellow and orange with the slightest hint of red. The spark grew larger, filling my field of vision until, with a flash of green force field light, the tower of flame consumed me.
Chapter 11
Tobias
Again a lizard, I was scurrying across the cold steel floor of the complex. This was extremely tiring. There was nowhere to hide in the entire complex. Slipping into a computer alcove, I quickly demorphed, my green scales giving way to pink human flesh. Maybe lizard wasn't the easiest way to get out of here... The SOS men were close. I crept deeper into the shadows, listening to their heavy footsteps. They passed me, stomping in their black boots and grey "enforcement gear". They passed. The rearguard began stomping by me. My arms snapped out, one hand over his mouth and neck, the other grabbing his laezr rifle. As he struggled to make noise, I hit the pressure point under his skull, cutting off the blood flow to his brain. He silenced. I stole his clothing from his seemingly lifeless body. Luckily, the gear was a one piece suit. Slipping between the rows of teeth on the zipper in the back, I silently put it on. The helmet, black tinted from the outside, was clear as the sky on Luna from the inside. I calmly walked up to the group of SOS men. Raising the laezr rifle high over my head, I cracked it down on the back of one soldier's helmet. The sharp sound carried for a second, bouncing down the hall as the trooper fell to the ground before the other SOS men turned. My rifle was already on it's way down. I squeezed the trigger, and a deathly ray of bright scarlet light lept from the muzzle and slammed into one trooper. He flew backwards, through a gap in the group, and hit the ground. Hard. Pumping my legs, I dashed towards the other three SOS men, laezr in front, not barrel towards them, but sideways, so that, with a grunt, the soldier in front of me would fall. Swinging around, I flung the rifle into the face of one of the last two troopers. It cracked again, but the trooper wouldn't drop. I brought it around for another go, and was promptly smashed upside the head by the second trooper's gun. I was flung forward onto my face, and in the moment of panic, I had the insight to quickly roll to one side as the red laezrs tore open the floor where I had lain. Now face up, I blasted one SOS man with the laezr, the beam lifting him off the floor to smack his head against the ceiling before hitting the ground. One last enemy. In one smooth movement, I rolled again, crouched, jumped in the air to avoid another blast, and flung my rifle into the trooper's facemask. He stood, stunned, for about two seconds before falling on his back with a bang that resounded down the corridor. Then, in the aftermath of the battle, I saw the thing I couldn't have seen with lizard eyes. It was a sign. And it said "exit". "Man, this is too easy," I said quietly in my helmet. The exit? Right there? But it was the exit. And as the doors whooshed open with a dimple, I saw a truck with "NO RADIATION" written on each side in bold, black letters, and the intergalactic danger symbol. That's when I heard the grunt from behind, and turned to find one trooper getting up, holding his laezr, which, as you know, stands for "light amplification by exposure to zero-space radiation". Shaking my head violently, I yelled, "No! No!" at him, but he probably thought I was pleading for mercy. Ducking to one side as his half-unconcious shot went wild, I saw it sail through the air and connect with the "NO RADIATION" truck. Two words went through my mind. They are ancient, and considered quite vulgar in our civilized age. "Ohh..."
INTERLUDE
It was black, pitch black. The darkness was like a cold blanket, as if a shadow had covered the room. A single voice could be heard to the prisoners. "This is very simple. You tell me what I want to know, or, I kill you. I am giving you this choice. If you tell me, you will be released. If you don't...well..." He left the sentence hanging, threatening. "You first," he said to one of the captives, "Tell me the secrets of the Terran Alliance" "Tena, Lieutenant 2nd Class, Mantis Group-" She never finished. A single shot flashed in the darkness, incinerating her. There was no scream. The voice, the leader, did not believe in inducing pain with death. Only the destruction of those in its way. "Next," the voice said. "Gyron, Lieutenant 1st-" There was another flash. It moved on to its next victim.
Chapter 12
Post-Interlude
She traced her arm with her left hand, found the safety of her laezr, and flipped it. Yanking the sleeve of her jacket over the tiny machines and circuitry, she stepped into the red dirt streets of New Los Angeles, Mars. Or what used to be Mars. Terra Beta now. Less confusion that way. She was beautiful, by human standards. Young, yet old enough to take care of herself. She was tall and thin, but her semi-tight clothing revealed that although she was beautiful, she had not sacrificed her strength to get it. Possibly her most noticable feature was the red hair, long, but held high on her head by a band. The rest fell down a little ways past her shoulder. She did find long hair useful, but also found that it sometimes got in the way. This was the happy medium. Her face, smooth and oval shaped, was serious. Her dark eyes looked cautiously from side to side as she glided down the street. The eyes moved slowly, not flicking. Slipping into an alley, one just like all the others on the haphazardly built colony, she closed her right eye. Letting the disc slide into place from somewhere in her forehead, until it completely covered her eye, she opened it. Looking through the ring of metal with a transparent center, she could see the DNA signature of her contact. With a thought, the disc slid back up, not leaving a mark in the gently curving brow. "I'm here," she said, in a perfectly normal tone of voice. The alien uncamoflaged itself. First, shadows appeared around the folds of skin, giving a vague outline to the creature. Then, it added color, giving it a definate outline. Finally, looking like a cutout of flat colors, depth was added, completing the creature and making it look as normal as it could be. It was a shifting mass of color, as if the creature didn't know what to do with the pigments it could change. It was six-legged, although it stood on four, and used the weaker front legs as some sort of arms. The skin rippled, showing that not only could it change color, but possibly its shape to a certain degree. A long tuft of hair, purely decorational, flowed down its back, also waving and writing and shifting colors. There were two crossing slits across its face in an X that formed its mouth. In a deep speech that sounded as though it had a windpipe as long and as twisted as human intestines, it croaked out something that was untranslatable by the standard chip implanted in all Terran brains. The language was too complex, abstract symbols mixed with pictures and sounds. And it seemed the only difference between the words was the pitch. "No, you can't have it," said the woman. With a gutteral burst of rapid speech that sounded like a choppy roar, the creature pulled a small laezr rifle from one of its "folds" of skin. The woman was not surprised. She cocked her eyes and put her hands on off-center hips in a what-do-you-think-you're-doing? gesture. The creature, probably not well versed in Terran body language, repeated what it had said before in the same gurgling-growling voice, this time a little louder, with more emphasis on the growling portions of it's speech. The woman jumped forward, spinning in midair so her back was at the shifting mass of color and skin. She grabbed the creature's arm under her right elbow and bent it to the side. Her right hand squeezed hard on the alien's wrist as her left wrenched the rifle from it's grip. Kicking off from the creature, she whipped back around, laezr rifle pointed straight at it. "Why do Ghies always try to muscle their way through things? Don't you realize that Terrans are faster and stronger? That's what your camoflage is for!" said the woman, seriously annoyed The Ghy gave a little gurgle-grumble. "And killing the messenger isn't going to do anything" The Ghy grumbled again. "Tell your boss that he can't have it. Wyion changed his mind" The Ghy straightened suddenly and let out a short growl. "And tell him Elisa says, 'No more Ghy messengers'" The Ghy, protective of his species, crouched on all sixes and growled at Elisa. "Come on. I really don't want to shoot you. I don't get my bonus that way" Walking away, Elisa suddenly spun and threw the rifle toward the Ghy. The Ghy, startled, disappeared partially, just a faint shadow was there. But before the gun hit the Ghy, it disappeared too, but in a flash of crimson light. The Ghy looked up at the woman, who had a laezr pistol in her hand. The light that could be seen down the barrel slowly faded. Elisa smiled at the frightened bully, spun the laezr on her finger, and glided backwards out of the alley.
Chapter 13 She saw the tower of flame rise from the street. It curled and writhed back and forth, spitting jets of flame out of its side. People ran from it in hordes, like a stampede of Terrans. She calmly analyzed the flame, knowing that she had plenty of time to escape. There were strangly high levels of radiation. On her display, the tower had strands of something that looked like electricity flowing through it, crackling up and down the column. Near the base of the tower was a bubble of the same radiation, pulsating. The bubble was slowly getting bigger and smalller. Her analyzation told her that the flame was not expanding horizontally, and the bubble would never reach her, and so she was shocked when a wave of intense cold passed through her body and she disappeared from the face of Terra Beta.
Erek hovered in the flame, his downward momentum clashing with the power of the fire. Then he shifted his force field to an angle that drove him out of the column. As he attempted to fly away from the fire he scanned it with his sensors. He noticed some strange green-colored electricity slicing through the tower. Then one of those electric bolts jumped from the fire and connected with his shield. Erek saw a bright flash, and was gone.
Tobias was thrown back from the original force of the blast, but he saw the tower rise up to grapple with the sky. Fire slipped into the door, but was quickly stopped by countermeasures of foam and water. The big "EXIT" doors closed and an emergency force field was put up behind the wall of anti-flame foam. Tobias saw the emergency force fields flicker, as if something was hitting it, but the fire couldn't get through, so what...? He tried to get up, but collapsed when he realized one of his legs was broken. He knew he was dead now. Soon SOS men would be coming in here to disintigrate him. The force field flickered once more, and died. Tobias screamed as pins jabbed into his skin, and the fiercest cold he had ever felt passed through him. The SOS men never found him.