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*((This is an example of Thought-Speak))
My name is Fendrien-Perenor-Cirith. I am an Andalite warrior.
And there is no way I'm getting out of this alive.
My arms shook as I piloted my craft through the battlefield, dipping and rolling to avoid stray shots. This was my first battle, and already I was proving myself a coward. It was all I could do not to turn tail and run, flee from the enemy and the dying cries of my fellow Andalites.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. We were the mighty Andalites, great warriors of the galaxy, our fleets nearly invincible! They couldn't defeat us!
...except now they were.
It was our fault, really, I thought bitterly. Looking back on it, we fell into a trap of our own making. If we hadn't blundered our way right where they expected us to...if we'd scouted ahead…perhaps we wouldn't be in this situation. Still, we'd had no reason to expect the sheer number of fighters that we were now encountering. They had swarmed us, flowing out in droves to attack. Yeerk Bug Fighters, squat and ugly with several raked-forward Dracon beam cannons that fired beams of energy that could render an asteroid rubble.
((Don't think like that, Fendrien.)) I berated myself. ((It's just Bug fighters, inferior Yeerk technology. It's not too late to kick their tails! We can still-!))
I was cut short, all four eyes widening in terror and disbelief. My hearts sank into my chest.
((No…))I whispered.
From behind the moon it came, all sharp edges and menacing aura. It was pitch black, every aspect of the wretched thing radiating the evil within.
A Yeerk Blade ship.
That was the moment that spelled our doom.
((NO!)) I gasped, and forgot my terror for a moment. I had to reach the dome! I had to defend the commanding officers. I had to….
The Dome Ship slowly turned to face this new threat. Time slipped by as it turned at its painstakingly sluggish pace, each second pressing up against my hearts. Gradually it came to turned its own weapons towards the Blade Ship.
Too slowly.
The Blade Ship fired.
I rocked back both with the shockwave and reeling with the shouts of the entire fleet in my mind. I could hear them, feel their pain, watching in horror as everything I stood for was burning.
It fired again.
Sound can't travel in space. Though-speak can. So can Z-space transmissions for help.
Calls that could not, would not be answered.
And so I watched and listened helplessly as my people burned.
The Blade Ship fired a final time onto the dome, detached from what had been the lower armed portion of the Dome Ship (and what was now a collection of metal rubble floating through space). The Dome's engines flared brilliantly white as they failed. Flames crackled off the Dome as it was pulled by gravity, slowly at first, then faster and faster, to the planet below. I watched as it grew smaller and smaller, finally disappearing into the blue.
I was shocked. Too shocked to think. I had lost everything….they had killed everyone…
My bladed tail twitched.
((Filthy….Yeerks…)) I hissed. Boiling with sudden fury, cowardice forgotten, I rushed with a soundless cry of rage into the battle. I fired on fighters once, twice, over and over again, countless times. I rolled and dived and swerved, attacking again and again. Several fighters burned, several Yeerks dead. Murderers.
Not enough.
I snarled and turned towards another fighter. Too late, I saw another approaching from behind. Twin lights flared as the Bug Fighter fired.
The ship rocked and I was thrown to the side. Lights flickered and alarms blared. I struggled to my hooves.
A second ship fired.
The console in front of me exploded with sparks. I gave a shout of pain and collapsed to the floor, blinded in one eye and burned badly on both arms. I raised my hand to my eye, sharp needles of pain stabbing through my body. My fingers came away wet with blood.
A third shot brought me back to the present as the shields screeched, barely containing the force of the blast. I couldn't stay here or I would surely die, struck down by enemy fire. I raised my hand to the console, then hesitated.
Where was I to go?
What could I do?
My people were dead. This was a Yeerk victory. We were finished.
Unless….
My eye stalks automatically twitched backwards, towards the shelf where I had left one of our greatest weapons, abandoned in the sudden attack.
((No!)) I hissed at myself vehemently. ((Don't you dare, coward!)) I couldn't, not in all my cowardice, even consider breaking one of our laws. I would rather die here, surrounded by all of my comrades, than do so. It would be a noble death.
The blue planet suddenly came into view as my ship was thrown from another shot. I stared at it, hope lifting briefly in my hearts. I did not have to die, perhaps. Perhaps...perhaps I could live...live to resist the Yeerks.
Alone? Some part of me whispered. I ignored it, focusing instead on piloting my way to the planet. My ship was at the moment drifting, seemingly dead, through space. The Bug Fighters were moving in for the kill.
I poured every last bit of power I had left into the thrusters. They burst into blue flame and I was rocketing towards the planet before the slugs could react, gravity pulling me along. I scoured the continent below, choosing a landing site at random.
Probably the last remaining Andalite survivor of what was once a proud fleet, rushing headlong towards probable death.
I fell, a star on fire, towards Earth.