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For those of us who questioned a race that called itself The Five:
We have long wondered why a race would have called itself The Five. Who are they? What do they represent? Do we know them? Do they want something out of us? Do they hide a terrible truth…? We have wondered long enough, for this is the time we uncover the hidden past about an evil that is closer to home than we could ever imagine………
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The Five
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Our heritage is lost, Earth
It is where our race was given birth.
Can we clam it back? What we lost?
Yes, destiny urges, "We must"
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PART ONE OF A TRIOLOGY
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My name is Marco.
I'm in a standoff me and my friends the Animorphs that is. Classic? Maybe, was I used to it? Almost. Did I like it? Defiantly not.
We were all in our various battle morphs, I went in as a gorilla, Jake, my buddy and pal, the former leader of this little resistance on Earth-the only resistance- is a tiger. His insane and yet beautiful cousin, Rachel was in her favorite morph, the grizzly bear. Her best friend and our moralizing, tree-hugging, nature freak, Cassie, was in her wolf morph. Tobias bird-boy, our air force, our wings and eyes, our surveillance was high in the sky. Ax was not in morph he was as he is. As you may or may not know, he's our resident alien, an Andalite cadet. Don't be fooled just because he wasn't morphed that doesn't mean he couldn't inflict some serious damage- watch out because he can.
A standoff?! The Visser practically screamed, I will not allow it!
I hear sirens! Bird-boy said, The cops are coming! Jake, you better finish this fast!
I see you are running out of time. Jake reluctantly addressed the Visser, So, what will it be?
The Visser screamed in frustration, Ax winced slightly; he was the closest to him, after all, he's the one who had his bladed tail at the Visser's neck. The Visser had used one of his monster-of-the-week morphs and had trouble navigating the tight squeeze of our corner.
He started demorphing, Retreat!
And retreat they did, the Visser left us staring at the box in front of us. According to Ax, it was a randomite box. Meaning we could change the setting to get a better look at what was inside.
We didn't change the setting, between Rachel and me, who had demorphed and morphed to elephant, we began to push the box away, towards the forest. The box was surprisingly light, although I could feel that there was something inside.
We pushed it deeper in the forest, avoiding Tobias's territory and Ax's scoop. We finally came to a stop in a clearing, there was a lake near by, my gorilla morph smelt the water but my eyes could not see beyond the trees that surrounded the clearing.
Jake's feline eyes stared at the darkened box, Ax? We're ready.
Ax walked to the box and his fingers played at some kind of keyboard installed at the side of it. He stepped back.
I stared at what was inside, we all did. It was an alien. We expected a human, an Andalite a Hork-Bajir…but defiantly not this. Whatever this was.
It stood erect on two legs, the legs where jointed backwards, not like your knee, more like your elbow. Its feet were a mixture of Tobias's talon and a Hork-Bajir's feet, not like Tobias's talons because they were tougher, more wicked looking, and not like the Hork-Bajir because they were not that sturdy.
The next thing I noticed was that the creature was entirely black. Completely. Its body was covered in black fur, just as long as Ax's fur. Its arms, which it had two of them, were stronger than an Andalite's but not quite as strong looking as a human's arm, they started at a slim looking shoulder, not like a human's, but not like an Andalite's either.
Also, they ended up with hands like mine and yours, four fingers and an opposing thumb, only the major difference was that where your nails would be, the tip of your fingers, there was this wicked cruel looking claw, like a cat's only black and bigger, its more like a reptilian thing, like a prehistoric dinosaur claw.
Its face was shaped like a human's but it had a muzzle, not a complete muzzle, I mean, not like a dog, it was slight, but you would notice it. Surprisingly, it had hair, short and it covered his head, some of it dropped in front of his eyes. Its nose was two small holes in its face. It's eyes were the brightest thing on this alien, they were a luminous green, they shone like a cat's, I'm not a betting kind of guy, but I would bet that it had night vision.
The ears were like a wolf's, high on the head. It had a tail; if the eyes were the brightest things on this alien, then the tail was the most disgusting. It was like a rat's tail, again black, but very very long and swift. I looked at the tail and shuddered, it was not something I would have liked to touch.
But, that wasn't what had really caught my attention, what really, really caught my attention was that this creature had a set of feathered wings, they were closed, folded behind it's back. They ended just bellow it's knees and above it's ankles.
The creature was standing with its head low, it's eyes to the ground and it's ears cocked forward.
What is that thing? I asked.
It couldn't be... Ax managed to say.
Ax! Jake yelled, the alien was aware of us now, it emitted a very low hiss, it raised it's head slightly and looked at us with eyes that shown brightly, it's mouth half opened revealing a row of sharp looking teeth and four particularly long mean looking carnivores, it made the primate inside both, me and the gorilla shiver. What the hell is that thing!?
"What the hell is that thing?" The creature repeated, Jake had been careless the creature overheard him. "Why I'm a Five, didn't you know that?"
He's a what? I asked.
But your species are extinct. Ax said calmly. What are you doing in this side of the universe?
"What am I doing? I believe you have an answer to that. Not me."
What do you mean by that?
The creature snorted, "After all, you captured me from my ship and dragged me to this place, haven't you?"
What? Ax asked, You were captured by the Yeerks?
"The who?"
This guy is clueless! I said to Jake, Look at him, he thinks we captured him.
Ax looked doubtfully at The Five, You have space travel and yet do not know of the Yeerks?
"It doesn't matter what I know and what I don't know, you are my captures and I demand you tell me what you want out of me."
Hey. We're not your captures, we just rescued you, now, I'm not sure if that was a good thing after all. I said.
The Five smiled slyly, "Then release me."
How do we know that you are a prisoner? How do we know that you have been caught against your own will and brought here to this planet? For all we know you could have been an ally to the Yeerks and you double-crossed them or something like that. Rachel spat out.
"Will you kindly explain to me who are these Yeerks? All the creatures that I have seen are you and a bladed reptilian, the bladed reptilian was the creature who put me here." He gestured at the box that he was in.
The Yeerks are a parasitic race, they infest and seize control of your brain, your body would be theirs to serve, you would become a slave of your own mind. Ax paused slightly, They have successfully enslaved and destroyed a lot of races, only we Andalites,-he gestured at us as well as himself-Stand the chance of over coming them, the Yeerks are currently trying to enslave the sentient race of this planet.
The Five stared at him for a very long time, what Ax said seemed to shake his reality. "These Yeerks, as you call them, why haven't they been stopped?" His voice was hoarse.
That is what we Andalites try to do, but the Yeerks out number us, although we have superior technology than them.
"All of you are Andalites?" He questioned looked at the rest of us, "They do not look like you, is the Andalite race a mixture of more than one race?"
No, all Andalites look like me, these creatures you see are Andalites, but we have a technology that allows us to change our form, only for two hours, any being who stays for more than two hours become a nothlit, a being trapped in the body of another. We Andalites use the morphing technology as a weapon against the Yeerks.
"Ah, yes. I see. Hide." He said. We stared at him. "Now release me."
Not after we hear your story. I said bluntly.
"You want to know something about me…Andalites, yes I remember them…" He looked thoughtful for a moment, "A pacifist race, grazers, sentimental beings who have no understanding for the universe and have lost the fear of danger, jut because there are no longer any predators who threaten their safety in their home world, they think the whole universe is safe." He snorted, "Yes, not a complete wonder to why these slugs have been unleashed."
What? This guy doesn't know about the Yeerks but know that the Andalites had given them advanced technology.
Hey! I snapped, I thought you said that you knew nothing about the Yeerks, what happened to that?
"Fool," The Five said, "The Five are a very ancient race, we go back a very long time, we have evolved completely, we no longer live in this universe, we have another, all for ourselves. Your technology is laughable; any mere child could have done better. As for knowing the Yeerks, ha, The Five know of every single race in this entire universe. Only two begins stand above the Five."
His eyes flashed, "Two beings who play in this universe, to them, all of you are nobodies, you are mere pawns in their games. The Five are a race who will always stay between them, we are happy the way we are."
Oh.my.god. Cassie gasped, He means the Ellimist and Crayak!
Uh-oh.
"The Five had moved on as a race, we monitor the development of the other races. The Pemalite almost came to join us, sadly, they were annihilated by Crayak's shock troops." He paused briefly, "They had been chosen by The Five to unite with us, only, it proved to be a waste of our time, who needs a race that doesn't want to go to certain length in saving their selves They are complete fools."
We were…shocked, really, I wouldn't have believed a word he had said, only, he knew a lot of things we knew, things that he wasn't suppose to know, well, sort of.
Why were you overpowered? Ax demanded, If Andalite technology is laughable to you, then nothing the Yeerks could muster would have took your ship out of service.
The Five said nothing for sometime. "Release me."
You are not telling us the truth. Ax reported calmly.
"Release me."
Not until we hear the full story. Ax said forcefully.
"Release me."
Hey, are you deaf or something? I snapped.
"I.said." He repeated tightly, "Release me."
What is wrong with this idiot? I muttered.
Jake said, If you have trouble with our decision then that's tough luck. You will be held here until you give in to our demands, and our demands are that you tell us exactly why you are lying to us.
The Five gave off another hiss, low. His teeth showed and his eyes glittered and he flared his wings, "No. You will do as I say, and what I say is very simple and not all that demanding: Release me."
No can do. I said cheerfully, then to Jake I said, This is going to be one heck of a long night, eh, Jake?
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"Rock paper scissors!" Won, again. "Haha, you lose."
Ax looked at his Andalite hand, muttered something, shook his head and turned to the darkness of the open field, his shift was done, he was off to feed or meddle with his TV.
It was my shift now. I wished I had someone else to play with, like Jake, so I can bet with him, you know, to escape my shift. I have something better to do than baby-sit an arrogant alien, besides it was around eleven. I was missing some precious time off my sleep.
I had Tobias and Ax for emergencies, according to Ax, he said that 'Prince Jake's orders' were to squeeze out all of what we can about this guy. I morphed wolf and paced in front of the Five's holding cell. Jake wasn't happy on keeping him in there for a longtime, so far, he was there for thirty-nine hours. Almost two days.
So, just you and me I guess, huh? I said, in a way to make conversation, I get bored if people don't talk around me.
"So you say."
Look we're not thrilled on keeping you in there, all we want is the truth, then we let you walk away.
"So you say." Was this guy big on repeating what he says?
What's your name?
"Names are irrelevant."
Come on. I said, At least tell me that, it's not like it's going to end up with your being killed if I know your name, maybe it's irrelevant to you, but I guess it would be okay with me if I know it.
"Pointless talk is, too, irrelevant. Action-is all that counts."
Gee, you sound like Rachel only with a Chinese monk in you. I muttered to myself. Okay fine, then why don't you tell me some…un-pointless talk? I said.
He thought it over, "No."
I knew he thought it over, see, the minute I finished saying the word 'talk' he said no. I love that guy; he wasn't even listing to what I was saying.
Fine, Let him take it his own way. I wasn't concerned. Not much anyway.
After a boring four hours, my shift finished, I was just about to call Tobias when the Five, whatever his name was, slumped against the box, moaned and doubled over.
Tobias! I yelled. Hey, you around?
I ran to the box, pressed my nose against its side, Hey, you okay?
He didn't answer me; I stared inside looking at his sprawled body. I saw that his left leg was…the flesh was disturbed, it was burnt, the flesh was bleeding dark red blood, only we had never noticed because he had been hiding it. It looked pretty serious to me. I gave off a sharp yelp, hoped he heard it, Hey, you okay?
He responded with a groaned.
Oh man, what the hell happened!? Tobias.
Tobias! Something's wrong with him. I yelled, Call the others, quick!
I'm on it! Tobias said flapping away.
They arrived a few ten minutes later. What? What is it?
Look, he's hurt…I think, I don't know, he sort of collapsed. I said.
Sort of? What are you a moron, Rachel said, He either collapsed or he didn't.
She was snappish, she didn't get over the fact that she was disturbed from her sweet sleep at around three in the morning. I ignored her.
During my wait he had jerked, twisted and gave off a distressed yawl. But he never touched the wound, his fingers where moving, flexing, almost. I think that was what he was doing.
Cassie, Ax said, You would need water, it is a dracon beam inflicted wound, and by the looks of it, a pretty serious one.
Cassie had demorphed. To which Jake had absolutely no objections to-you do realize I was being sarcastic? -, We all demorphed. Rachel ran to the lake to get the water. She used Jake's shirt.
Cassie, with the help of Ax, carefully, dragged him out. He tried to get a snip out of Cassie but she turned his head away, pinning it with her knee, he gave off a stressed hiss and struggled weakly, he did more than a struggle when Cassie pressed the wet cloth against his burnt leg. His wings opened and he tried to flap them, he almost knocked Cassie off him, but Cassie had a lot of experience with handling animals, not that the Five was an animal or something like that, although he was acting like one.
After a few minutes he stopped struggling, he seemed to hate his position, lying on the ground with a human practically on top of him I didn't blame him.
Cassie wrapped the cloth around the wound and stepped back. The Five stayed in the position that he was in, panting.
We decided there was no harm in telling him our secret, besides, if he was taken the Yeerks would now any way. It was also a way to gain his trust.
"I suppose you want the truth." He commented.
"Gee." I said sarcastically, "That was your first clue? Where have you been for the last day or so?"
"All of what I had told you is true, so far." He said, "What you don't know is the concealed truth. I am not very sure that you would want to know the truth."
"We are." Jake said.
He seemed to sigh, "My name is Iriskon, as you already know, I am a member of The Five."
Why do you call yourselves The Five? Ax interrupted.
He cocked his head. "We never came from your part of the universe, Andalite, we came far away, in a land untouched by other aliens, a forgotten, unmapped part of the universe. We originated from a very beautiful planet, it carried a lot of life, a stunning place really, but as beautiful as it was, it was unbelievably dangerous, and yes, intimidating.
"There were numerous predators, a lot of prey. They strayed the land, sea and sky. Lots of vegetation and plant life, millions upon millions of species! And it's surface area…"-he smiled at the memory-"Open space! An unbelievable huge arena of nothing more than long grass, short grass and wild flowers, also, there was the mountains, rocky outcrops, cliffs, white points covered with snow! There were deserts of heat and deserts of cold. Forests, woods, rainforests, swamps and jungles-you name it! We had vast oceans of deep green and infinite seas of an even deeper blue!
"There was the humid and the dry, the windy and the calm, places of which the temperature was steady and places of which the temperatures rose and fell as easily as the tidal waves when our only moon rotated across the planet, unlike our life bearing planet, our single only moon was as lifeless as a dead desert, nothing roamed it, nothing at all, it was a ball of dull rock, dust and had a creator infested surface."
"On the planet." He closed his eyes, "Completion was fierce, the reach to the top!"-he hopped to his feet and his eyes widened, his wings opened wide-"It was the fight of our lives, for our survival! If only you could understand the beauty of such a place! The way every thing slots together, prey population would rise if not for the predators, generations of wildlife's gene pools would weaken if not for the scavengers who prey on the weak, nothing goes to waste! Nothing! And only the strong live! The weak will die and perish in front of the mighty eyes of the savage warlords, the predators the magnificent survivors of our daily war! Fight to survive! Fight! Kill! Slay blood for your existence, your prey! Your food! Your wish! Your Kill!" He paused panting, and then, almost wistfully he added, "Your right to survive."
This creature had definitely forgot to take his medication he is totally insane. The way he went hyper at the end of his little speech? I could actually see the evidence of his heart beating, it was practically pounding, I saw his chest rise and fall with his breathing, but I also saw the way it vibrated and trembled as his heart pounded at it, the action was continuous.
He calmed down after a few seconds, relaxed, "And then it changed…all of it. The day the huge comet rushed at us," He closed his eyes, then opened them again, to my amazement and horror, there where tears, actual tears. Talk about mood swings.
"Nothing we had would have stopped it. We had space travel at that time, not a lot of weapons…"-he hung his head down- "My race…a portion of us fled, for our lives, our right to survive,"-his eyes flashed with anger-"Not all of my race fled. No, they stayed. They said if this was our fate then so be it."-Something like insane rage shown through his eyes, they burned fire.
"Fools! They believed that they should stay where they are, not fight it, not seek a way to escape, what does the prey do when they are cornered? They do either of two things! Attack in mass or individuality, depending on the situation or the most likely option: flee."-Now his voice's tone changed it was bitter and angry, ashamed as well - "Just because we were one of the top predators and sentient beings they thought that…" He seemed to skip this part, "Arrogance at our own part! Stupid. And utterly foolish." He shook his head in disbelief; he remained in some sort of trance, like he was thinking that one over. "So naïve."
"Anyway, the survivors roamed the space like nomads, we searched for a planet like our own…we found none, at a point we tumbled across a frozen moon-"
Ah yes, is that where you sentimentally annihilated a race of sentient beings for the use of upgrading your computers? You do remember the Venber? I hope your race is ashamed of such a cruel act. Ax interrupted.
"Ashamed? Not really, we did what we had to do! They were weak and insignificant, they would not have possibly evolved well enough to function like you and I, but now, my race have a code against doing such things, not because it is cruel, but because we interrupted, no being should interrupt the advancement of another…" He looked at us, "Then we went to another part of this universe and worked hard at our weaknesses, if you ever witness The Five Empire you will be astonished…we went quite a way."
He looked at nothing in particular, seemed in deep thoughts. He looked around, his lips turned to a smile.
That still does not explain why you are called The Five. Ax said sounding profoundly annoyed.
"I was coming to that." He snapped at Ax, "We call ourselves the five because we swore we would return to our home planet, before leaving we calculated how it's surface area and seas would look like, we would have five contents, and those, the Five, we will watch out for, they represented five things: The tropics, The Lands of Fertility, Barren Desert, The Killer Cold, The Green Harvest and The Golden Arena." He paused, "They teach us great things, and they are the bases of our culture and beliefs."
"Ohmygod!" Cassie gasped suddenly, "He's talking about Earth! The Five originated form Earth!"
Iriskon nodded, and looked like Cassie like she won the grand lotto. "Yes child, Earth is our true home."
"No way," Rachel said, "You got to be kidding."
"How did you guess it was Earth?" I asked her, "That was the last thing that would have occurred to me."
"Does anything ever occur to you?" Rachel muttered.
"It was mostly about the way he described it, and when he talked about why they got called The Five," She said, nodding, "South America are The Tropics, North America are The Lands of Fertility. Australia is the Barren Desert, Antarctica and the poles are The Killer Cold, Africa is the Golden Arena. I'm thinking that The Green Harvest is Eurasia."
"Oh." Rachel said.
But what where you doing before you got caught?
"When I was on the Visser's Blade Ship, I glimpsed the planet. I instantly recognized it as my own." He replied, not answering Ax's question.
"What were you doing before you got caught?" I asked sharply, I defiantly noticed his avoiding the question, "Why was your ship overpowered? Why aren't you answering Ax's questions? You seem to like talking about 'pointless' things."
He smiled, that sly smile again. "A good specimen of my world." He barked out a harsh laugh. "Smart. There is an air of coldness around you, man kind, do you not see it-"
"HEY!" Rachel yelled angrily "You're doing it again!"
"Angered too easily." he frowned in disapproval, "Although I could mention a few dozen of my species whose anger is triggered even easier. Mostly-"
"Ax!" Jake said, he didn't need to say anymore.
FWAAP!
Ax's blade sliced at the air…
In the second it took Ax to move his tail, Iriskon had moved, he crouched low, his belly almost touched the ground, his claws hovered above the ground, his ears cocked back, flattened against his skull. He flared his wings and held them partially folded against his back, the tips dangling at his sides. His mouth opened to show the teeth, he emitted a long hiss and when it finished he kept his mouth open, a silent snarl formed. I noticed that his pupils widened from slits to round balls, blocking off the green iris.
Ax's blow missed-
SHHHITAAAH!
A sound that broke your concentration, Iriskon had cracked his whip like tail, the end cracked the air. Now, like lightning, Iriskon slashed, I didn't even see his hand move, one second it was at his side, the other second…I saw bloody tracks at Ax's chest.
Ax stumbled back, taken completely by surprise, he gathered himself for a counter blow and-
SHHHERRRRRTAAH!
I whimpered involuntary, we recoiled back from the sound of the tail. My mind reeled; my brain played the scene over and over again the sound burned in my memory.
You now when someone sings a verse of a stupid nursery rhyme or an out of date song, and then all of a sudden you can't get your brain to stop replaying the words? It's like that, only the sound was awful.
FWAAP!
"HARRRROWW!" He hit home, Iriskon howled in agony. But I think he was expressing anger as well as pain, man was he vocal.
SWOOT!
Iriskon snapped open his wings and held them open.
"Morph!" Jake said, "Don't let him go away!"
I started morphing, so did Rachel, Jake and Cassie. Soon we were in our battle morphs. Ax was bleeding and so was Iriskon.
Iriskon hissed at us, his took in the reality that he was defiantly out numbered. He started to flap his wings, Ax tried to get another blow landed on him but missed, now Iriskon was lifting off…slowly…
ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!
Jake pounced but failed to grab him, I noticed that Iriskon wasn't really flying, he was hovering, and by the looks of it, he had a very hard time in maintaining his position. He hovered over me, then over Jake then over Rachel and…dropped! He just folded his wings -still in an upright position- and dropped on Rachel, his talon feet penetrated Rachel's side as he used it to slow his momentum, Rachel roared in agony, spun round to swat at him and got claw in the face, blood flooded her eyes and crawled down her neck, he blinded her!
Then very quickly, like lightning, he slipped down beneath her, and held on like a sloth, you know, these things you find in the rainforest who insist on living all there lives in a tree top hanging upside down? – I am spending way too much time with Cassie - That's what Iriskon did, only, consider Rachel's underside as the bottom of the branch. He moved up slightly and before Rachel could so much as rear up so we could help her…
HOOOAA-
Her roar of agony was cut of, I saw Iriskon's head beneath her neck, I saw his nasty teeth dig deep into her neck, he collapsed her esophagus and chocked off her air supply.
Ahhh! Rachel yelped, How did he get there! Man I can't see a thing!
She sounded very angry, I decided to take things in my own hands…now that they where a lot bigger… I walked to Rachel, helped her on two and calmly grabbed the scruff of Iriskon's neck, I easily yanked him off, and he froze completely, seeing that I could crush his neck in no effort at all.
Rachel demorphed and remorphed, this guy is dangerous, he still insisted on lying to us. I threw him in his previous cell and he remained there.
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I am Iriskon, just Iriskon, no other name beyond that one, although to a fellow Vernin I'd have to state my identification number. Every member of my species has one, when addressed by the authorities –which have happened to me on more than occasion- I am known as 891325-7S.
Seven S is my division, where I lived in my Empire, and where I worked, and my home. My combat skill, since I am in the military, is a Rivnah warrior, we are the third highest in quality, not the best, but not the worst either. Above my combat skill rank, there are the Zern and Sypix. There are many more below us, since combat skills depend on both your body and mind, you need great practice in coordinating both of them, The Sypix are almost invincible, they are the top, so they are the best. Of course, I am a fighter pilot, one of the best, I scored fifth highest in the academy's history.
Vernin is the name of my kind, but we are known as The Five nothing else and nothing more, until today, I had proceeded in breaking my law. This is not a first. My parents aren't going to be exactly proud of their ninety-eight year old son, Vernin's have a lifespan of around one hundred and fifty years, it never was this long, originally, we are design to live for a good ninety years tops, but you do realize with our advances in medicine and life quality had given us a greater life span.
Another thing to mention, The Five have five Vernins as heads, the lords, the kings, a council of five. They balance each other out. There is no Emperor, all five of them should decide on an agreement and weigh out the chances. They are, as I mentioned, five members; they are of course chosen from the five different breeds of Vernins.
There is the 'Imperial Breed' or if you like 'Whites'. You must have a pure white thick fur to be Imperial, if you have so much as a small hint of gray or your fur is a dull white, you are a whitey/white. These are noble creatures that are well suited for the cold; they have thick fur and have a heavy sturdy build. Their distinguishing features are fine brushed black markings across their faces, huge white wings that are totally useless for flying, and a thick white tail. They are mostly peaceful creatures that feed on Rilgert, a type of meat from my world, and are well known for their loyalty.
Also, we have the Chestnut breed; their fur is a brilliantly warm brown, reddish brown really, they have dark brown tails and wings, their ears and the area around their eyes are a darker brown. They often have lighter markings in the underside of their wings and around their shoulders. They have a warm personality, they are creatures that love to play harmless fun and enjoy open lands of short grasses. They feed on Flinjar a creature smaller than the Rilgret, they are the relevance of robins or small rodents. The Chestnut breed can achieve flight, but with great difficulty. Their main goals seem to be learning and exploring new areas. The Chestnut breed is the smallest of all Vermin breeds.
We have the Strippers, theses are Vernins who have scales, not fur, the scales come in a light solid body color –light brown, cream, light green- and have strips running down there bodies-these are usually dark colors like green, blue, red or black, they have slit eyes and excellent binocular night vision, they cannot fly, but are excellent jumpers, they have been born and raised up to kill and attack in long grass, their specialty is ambush. They are not liked very much; they have a reputation for disloyalty and misleading the truth. They are well known murderers, they are cannibals, and you do realize that their cannibalistic nature is no longer practiced… although I did hear…
The Hiker breed, they are very well known for their climbing abilities, they habitat rocky cliffs and feed mainly on fish. They have rough scaly bodies, solid shades of gray in color and their claws are a lot longer than the other breeds, they can glide, not like flying, but it helps. They are very well known for their hardworking nature and flawless courage.
The last breed The Shadow or Blacks. Have a well-known reputation for being flawless hunters, they are well adapted for the harshest weather, at any given time of the year, The Shadow will never fail to bring kill. The Shadow is a black furred breed. And looking at me, since I am a Shadow breed, you will know how fierce we are. Of all the breeds we are the only that could achieve flight, but it's hovering that we can do, not real flight. Real flight is impossible.
Our nature to draw blood had given us the reputation of ruthlessness and our speed in combat can never be matched by any other breeds, The Shadows rarely engage in a fight amongst other breeds, but there is plenty to call for when two male Shadows meet on unclaimed lands… The Shadow's instincts and cruel nature is fine tuned because the Shadows are mostly the breed used for the military. There are other breeds but we are chosen over the others.
As I was saying…
Just because I'm ninety-eight you think that I am old? I am not really that old. Although Vernin's mature at an early age we have a longer life span to insure that we accomplish things in our lives.
And my little brother would probably cut in and tell me what a beautiful job I was doing. I am not in harmony with my brother, we have a lot of problems, he is younger than me, and he always makes a point of snubbing at me in front of his colleagues, I do not know what he wishes to accomplish out of that.
My brother works in the military and yes, he is an Apex level intelligence officer, he does not do a lot of field work, he mostly sits in this big room a long with a few dozen more Apex level intelligent officers and do nothing but stare at their computer's interface. Of course, that is another lie, they do not sit and stare, they do something, whatever that something is, is unknown to me.
If I said I wasn't curious I'd be lying.
So, 891325-7S, what are you doing? You are on an unauthorized mission; no one really knows where you are. Which is exactly why I had to allow myself to be captured and my ship destroyed as so to hide evidence of my whereabouts.
I am a rebel; you must have noticed this about me. So you ask; a rebel against what?
I'll tell you, my over curiosity had led me to trouble, smack into the face of it. I had stumbled across an Apex level intelligence report. A report about the number of aliens raided from the beyond.
The beyond is your universe, the originally universe if that's what you want to call it. They raided aliens from the beyond and cared horrible tests on them, they imprison them, they are taken from their home worlds and grow to die in ours. The military would do a lot of terrible things to them, and the state these aliens are in is…miserable.
There is a group of rebel Vernins they call themselves Protectors. They help raid the military and release the aliens…. And I had become one of them.
Although I do have to admit that I didn't expect to stumble across my home planet and get caged by mankind.
Anyway, The Protectors have a big plan, I know of a small part of it, this way, if we are ever caught and the military presses the truth out of us, they will only know a small insignificant part of it. Like "Sector five formation, ISBR. Goal to contact. Species A, level ten. Affirm by proceeding to target location."
See, doesn't make any sense, only to me it does, of course if we are tortured for the truth, the only thing we say is our mission, not what we understand out of it. I had just voiced my mission I will repeat it again, "Sector five formation, ISBMR. Goal to contact. Species A-A, level ten; affirm by proceeding to target location."
Sector five, my sector in The Protectors, Formation means that a group would be picked and these would work together, in formation, ISBMR. These are my comrades, I is me, Iriskon, S is Spinx, B is Bilken, M is Merc and R, my best friend Raxon. I was Comander of the mission.
Species A-A, Arrogant Andalites, the species we are going to contact, our goal is to contact them, give warning. Level ten means we come to direct contact and introduce ourselves. Affirm by proceeding target location is just a way to emphasize that when we warn the Andalites, the minute we do it, we confirm it to the Protectors. We are also to confirm if we take a group of them to attack the base of which experiments where used on Andalites, they then would take their kind and we confirm 'Mission Accomplished'. We have been put into two teams, team one and team two.
Team one, in a separate fighter was Spinx along with me. Team Two Raxon, Bilken and Merc were in another fighter, I do not know of what happened to them, all I remember was Spnix screaming and me being carried one way and her another.
Yes, in Vernin military there are females, they have equal rights, although they are not really pressed hard on. Not all of my comrades are Shadows, not all of them are from the military, Spinx is from the military, I did say that the military takes in Shadows as the main breed, but the other breeds are equally accepted. Spinx is a Chestnut breed; her fur has more red in it than brown.
I lost contact with her, I have no idea where she is, I had not expected that we would be separated, but we had been, I will have to find her before I so much as think about starting the mission, it is I and Spnix who are suppose to do the real job, the others cover up our tracks.
Bottom line, I am in a mess, which is why I really think it is unnecessary that I should get a headache because of a dental problem.
"Is that so?" The human name Marco questioned. I have finished briefly outlining my mission, team two will be forced to kill them, what I told them was highly classified information, I gave them a small warning but they decided to ignore it. Of course I did not define my teammates and who is commander, I certainly did not tell them that their days are numbered.
"I have told you the truth, whether you believe it or not is your concern, not mine, I have work to do." I replied. I was still in a prison they have not released me. I tire of their unreasonable decisions.
"Then, we will go with you." Their commander, Jake, said bluntly. I bristled. "I cannot do that."
"Yes you will, you plan to dock to an Andalite ship, and this is our only chance to call for help, we are seriously outnumbered here, we have a few months of freedom and then Earth will no longer be a free planet."
I argued and tried to reason, to no avail, they seemed determined to go with me. And at the end I gave in, after all, they would be helpful and, they are from my home planet. This is good news and bad, good because I'm happy and bad because I have to watch out, anything that survived to become dominate predator is to be watched carefully.
They let me free and I preformed a little bow towards them, Vernin style, "I wish you forget the fight that I fought with you and my current misleading the truth, as so will I forget your hostility, that is the past, we need to function well in order to do this fast and quick."
"Turn on a new leaf, huh?" Rachel said, "Why not. But I tell you that chewing on my neck was totally unnecessary."
Where do you think Spinx is hidden? The raptor said, his name is Tobias.
"On their mother ship, most likely."
"Or on the Visser's blade ship," Jake mused, "That's why the Visser gave up easily, he had another specimen to keep."
"We don't want any unnecessary risks." Marco cut in, "Let's check with the Chee, they would now where they put her."
Jake nodded, "Who's to go?"
The one called Cassie volunteered.
We had to wait for thirty minutes, and then Cassie came back. "The Visser's blade ship."
"How do we get there?" I asked.
They where all quite for a minute. Then they exchanged looks, they looked angry even a little scared.
"The Yeerk pool is the only place they have bug-fighters." The one called Rachel said, Cassie looked at her and shuddered.
"Ah, yes. And what is a Yeerk pool?"
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Author's note: I hope you liked the first part, the last chapter was mostly about The Five so most of the action in the story is in the next part and the part after that. In the next part of the story I think I would have mentioned something like 'Q-Space' its just an improved technology, I know it is kind of stupid but I ran out of ideas. I'll be posting the next part soon.