Zarya Fleet Base, Scorpii Sector, Year 2023.
Commander Takahashi thought calling Zarya a Fleet Base was ridiculous. It was even stretching it a bit far calling it an outpost. Built after the Yeerk War, the Zarya had never seen any action. It was located on the border of the Yeerk Area, as far away from human / andalite space as possible. The only thing the space stations some fifty-strong crew ever did, was maintaining the six starhawk-fighters stationed there, and gazing at the stars. The pilots themselves were charged with the boring task of patrolling the Yeerk Area, making sure the defeated yeerks didn't attempt anything funny.
"Anything interesting to report?" he asked as he strode into the bridge.
"No unless you call a load of space dust and a lone comet 'interesting'" his second in command replied. "I never thought life could get so boring."
"So, you'd like some excitement?" Takahashi said as he sat himself in the command chair. "A Blade Ship popping out of z-space, perhaps?"
"Yeah, right." The yeerks had been crushed three years earlier, and those few yeerk ships that survived (only a few dozen) had been scrapped.
The conversation ended abruptly when the warning siren suddenly sounded.
"Sir, I have four unknowns coming out of z-space."
"On screen." Takahashi ordered. The large viewscreen in front of him changed from showing only stars, into including four triangular ships, with what looked like the bridge located on the left side.
"Identity?"
"Negative, sir. Whoever they are, they are not in the databanks."
A new race? Takahashi thought. That's not something you discover every day. "Hail them. Send a standard greeting in galard."
"Jesus! Now I'm reading multiple weaponslocks on us!"
"Take us to Defcon 1 immediately! Raise shields, launch fighters!" Takahashi barked. Careful what you whish for, you might just get it. He thought bitterly.
Unfortunately, Zarya was not designed to withstand such an assault. Green energybeams shot out from the hostile ships, and began hammering at the space station's shields. Zarya returned fire with its shredders, and managed to inflict some damage. But it was to little, to late. Zarya's shields collapsed after ten seconds, and the pilots never made it to the launchbays. The hangar was the first thing that was targeted afterwards. Explosions and air vents from hullbreaches could be seen on the surface of the station, as the attackers continued to cut deeper into its structure. Then they hit the energycore, and the space station flared up like an exploding star.
Zarya Fleet Base was no more.
Von Braun Spaceport, Old USA, Four days later.
Cassie smiled as they winked goodbye to their past selves (Authors Note: Haven't read 'Fight for the future"? Shame on you! :-) The years that followed after the ellimist had shown them the future had not been easy, but they had won through. And that was the only thing that mattered.
"The circle is completed." Marco said. He had not changed a lot all these years, except growing taller, of course, and getting a haircut, but even Rachel had admitted he was handsome. That coming from her was saying a lot.
"Isn't that a line from Star Wars?" Jake said, every bit as much a leader now as then, only with much more experience. He was a cliff nothing could wear down.
Tobias. The legendary half-human, half-andalite who had made powerful Vissers tremble at the mention of his name. No one would think that he had once been a shy and withdrawn boy. Living with Rachel for years must have had some effect on him.
Rachel. She could have made one hell of a career as a model. But she would probably never have chosen to become one, even if the yeerks had never showed up. Besides, years of fighting had driven the warrior in her even more into the light. One look at her and you'd know that she isn't some stupid blonde, but a warrior to the core.
Ax. A hero to his people like his brother, he was what every aristh wanted to become like. With reflexes to rival Elfangor he rarely lost a tailfight, and more than one Hork-bajir controller had gotten an ugly surprise.
And finally we have Cassie. As a xenobiologist she got to do what she liked best. She had volunteered to serve as a ship's doctor during the war, and quite a few humans, hork-bajir and andalites could thank her for being alive today.
"So, Jake. How long will you stay on Earth this time?" Cassie asked as they began walking towards the space terminal.
"A couple of weeks. Just until they are finished refitting my ship with those new Type 18 shredders. Then it's back to patrolling the Yeerk Area, making sure they aren't trying to be smart again."
As late as six months ago, a patrolling Disk Ship had come over some yeerks trying to repair a damaged Blade Ship witch had somehow survived. The battle had been short, with the yeerks being blown to bits in seconds.
"Um, Jake?" Marco said carefully. "I'm afraid you are going to stay on Earth for only a few days."
"What?"
"It's not just because of the ellimist that we are gathered here today."
It is true. Ax said. I received orders directly from High Command, telling me to go to Earth as soon as possible. No reason was given.
"Same goes for me and Rachel." Tobias said.
"I know the reason." Marco said. "But I won't tell you here. To many ears."
"Oh, James Bond is at it again." Rachel taunted.
"You have no idea how right you are."
They boarded a small shuttle with destination for Earth orbit. Two decades earlier, such a trip would have cost millions of dollars, but technological development had reduced the prise to that of a buss ticket. The flight was quite uneventful and they soon docked at the Eternity.
Eternity Fleet Base was shaped like a giant disk with a long, thick cylinder beneath. It looked almost like an andalite Dome Ship, but much, much bigger. With its over twenty thousand strong cew, it was charged with the task of maintaining and supporting the bulk of the fleet defending Earth, Sol System and the entire Sol sector.
Once on board, Marco took the lead. He lead them through a maze of corridors and several hangars, before coming to a high-security area were they had to ID themselves and go through a scanner, before getting past the guards (although the guards cast one look at their IDs, then preformed a salute witch would have impressed a four-star general).
"Just what are we doing here?" Rachel asked, beginning to lose her patience.
"Easy, Xena. Look at that one." Marco said and pointed. They were standing in the middle of a small hangar witch was occupied by one ship. The ship was shaped like a sleek teardrop, completely black, and equipped with four - four! - engines. Although she was far from an expert in the area, even Cassie could se it was heavily armed with shredders.
"This is the Black Light." Marco continued. "It is a stealth-ship equipped with the latest in cloaking technology and advanced sensors."
"So basically you are telling us it's built for spying?" Cassie asked.
"Um, yes."
"On what?" Jake asked.
Marco sighed. "Four days ago, we lost contact with Zarya Fleet Base in the Scorpolii sector. We sent a Disk Ship to investigate. It was never heard from again. A day later the andalites lose contact with one of their outposts. Next, another Disk Ship disapare without a trace, this time barely 18 light-years from the Yeerk Homeworld."
"My God." Tobias said.
"Yes. High Command has kept this secret until now, and is sending our forces into the Yeerk Area as fast as they can. However, they are not to keen on a new war, right after having defeated the yeerks. So, the IIA are sending this prototype-vessel to find out who the attackers are and what they want."
"Great, but what does all this have to do with us." Jake asked. "If we have a war situation, then we should be onboard our respective ships right now."
"Well, the Black Light has six cabins. Five are designed for humans, the sixth for an andalite..." Everyone stared at him. "They want the Animorphs." he finished.
"Why us?" Cassie exclaimed.
"I don't know. Perhaps they think we can work miracles or something. Anyway, it was Admiral Gates himself who requested that we'd be transferred here. Everything has already been arranged. Jake will be the official Captain onboard, but we are all used to him being in charge."
They chuckled a little. "Wait, wait." Cassie said. "You guys are all in the military, but I'm just a doctor. I am completely useless on such a mission."
Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Really? I think I can remember a Cassie who served in sickbay onboard several different ships during the war."
"Yes, but..."
"And a Cassie who did an admirable job during the assault on the Hork-bajir Homeworld."
"Yes, but..."
"Not to mention a Cassie who was indispensable in the old days, when we had only morphing-technology to combat the yeerks with."
"Yes, but..."
"Besides," Marco added. "Who is going to keep Xena from killing me?"
Looking to Jake for support, only to find him furiously fighting the urge to laugh, she finally gave in. "Okay, okay! I'll go with you."
Smiling, Marco said: "We'll leave in two days time. And don't worry. Neither the andalites nor we have sensors that can detect the Black Light once it is cloaked. We couldn't be safer if we locked ourselves up in one of the bombrooms here on Eternity and gathered the entire 1st Fleet around us."
Marco had no idea how wrong he was.
Earth.
"What do you mean you are going?" Mark exclaimed. "You said you were going to stay for two weeks! You haven't even been here for a day yet."
"And what's this about mom coming with you?" Jean continued. "She is not in the military."
Mark and Jean were twins, and almost copies of their parents. Both had inherited Jakes calm and leadership gifts, and Cassie's abilities as a peace negotiator. But neither of them showed much calm right now.
"Something came up." Jake said. "I'm sorry but we have to go. Don't worry, we'll only be gone for two weeks - max."
"Two weeks?!" Jean shrieked.
"We'll probably be back before then." Cassie said quickly." As for me, well, I can't just sit here on Earth while my friends go out in space."
"Why can't someone else go?" Mark asked.
"I don't know. Admiral Gates personally requested us, and we can hardly refuse a request from him."
"Fine! Go, then. See what I care." Jean said angrily and stormed of.
Jake sighed. "Mark?"
"I... I understand. Just get back in one piece."
"Of course we will." Cassie smiled. "Are you sure you'll be alright, being alone for two weeks?"
"Sure, we're not kids anymore. We're thirteen years old."
"Going!? Where? And why?" Ryan demanded. "I thought that you would stay on Earth for a while."
"So did we." Tobias said carefully. "But something came up. I'm afraid we can't tell you were we are going or why."
"What is this? Some kind of spy-mission?"
Rachel and Tobias looked at each other.
"It is a spy-mission."
"Look," Rachel said, trying to change the subject. "We will only be gone for a couple of weeks."
"But that's two whole weeks! I am tired of living with your parents, I want to live with my own; You!" Then he stormed up to his room.
"He has your temper." Tobias sighed.
"And your stubbornness." Rachel resorted.
"Me, stubborn? You've got to be kidding."
"Come now." Rachel smiled. "He'll be fine."
Marco, on his hand, had an much easier time, as he had been able to give his daughter and his wife more warning time.
"Promise me to be careful." Melissa said. "The yeerks might try another stunt like they did six months ago."
"Don't worry. I won't even come close to any of the four yeerk-colonized worlds." Marco said as he packed his bags, referring to the planets they had allowed the yeerks to peacefully colonize after the war. Looking at his daughter, he continued. "And you. You look out for your mother, right?"
"Sure." April responded.
"You think you can handle it?"
"Oh, I get it. You fought an alien invasion at age thirteen, while I can't even look out after mom?"
Eternity Fleet Base, Sec-Level A, Black Light Hangar.
Two days went by fast, and soon it was time to leave. Jake sat in the captain's chair on the small bridge, with Tobias at the Helm to the left and Rachel at Tactical to the right. Ax was managing Communications behind him. Marco and Cassie was operating the various special sensors the ship was equipped with.
"We have clearance to leave, prince Jake." Ax reported.
"Don't call me prince." Jake said automatically, forgetting the fact that he actually was one. In the eyes of andalites anyway. "Open the hangar doors and take us out at one fourth."
Seconds later the Black Light shot out of the hangar like a bullet.
"Whoa, this thing is fast!" Tobias exclaimed.
"Careful now. It's not a fighter you are flying." Marco said.
"Marco is afraid we'll wreak his new toy." Rachel taunted.
"With you at Tactical? Yes!"
"Set course for the Scorpii sector." Jake smiled.
The Black Light disappeared into z-space.
Eternity Fleet Base, Admiral Gates' personal office.
Admiral Gates grinned evilly as he saw the Black Light disappear from the small viewscreen. It had taken a lot of effort to convince the rest of High Command and the IIA to send the so-called 'Animorphs' with the Black Light, but in the end he had won through. Now the first part of his mission was complete. The five humans and that andalite dapsen did not know it, but they were heading towards their doom!
"Soon, very soon, we will have revenge, and the empire will be reborn!" he wispered to himself with a longing for vengeance that bordered on madness. At the same time he could feel the real admiral Gates fighting desperately to regain control. It did not matter.
After all, no host had ever successfully rebelled against a yeerk.
Yeerk Homeworld, High orbit, Four days later.
High above the unsuspecting andalite and human peacekeeping forces, a z-space jump point formed, and seconds later six triangular ships shot out.
"Guardmaster, we have exited z-space, and are detecting one Dome Ship in orbit." The commander of the alien fleet said.
"Raise shields. All ships attack the Dome Ship. Activate z-space jamming. Don't let them jump away!"
The andalite captain barely had time to order the shields raised before the hostiles opened fire. Green beams stabbed out and began draining the shields. The Dome Ship immediately deployed its fighters in a desperate attempt to survive. However, the attackers responded by launching a swarm of their own, crude cone-shaped fighters.
While the fighters were locked in a dogfight, the capital ships continued their shredder-duel. Soon, it became apparent that the attacking ships were much more primitive. The Dome Ship focused its attack on one of the ships in hopes of taking at least one of the enemies with them. This paid of as the shields of the triangular ship soon collapsed, and the andalite shredders began blasting in the hull.
"Guardmaster, one of our ships has sustained serious damage and is asking for permission to withdraw."
"Permission denied. We can afford a few casualties."
Shredder beam after shredder beam hit the ship, until the energycore malfunctioned and caused an explosion witch ripped it apart. The fighters were not doing any better. For each andalite fighter taken out, two or three conefighters were blown to bits. But in the end superior numbers proved to be the deciding factor, and the andalite fighters were slowly exterminated.
The Dome Ship soon meet the same fate, after having seriously reduced the shields of a second ship, its own shields failed. One green energybeam blew a hole in the dome, sucking everyone and everything inside out in space. A second beam destroyed an engine, making it almost impossible to maneuver. A third took out the primary weaponsystems, and after the bridge was hit, the ship was doomed.
The gunners onboard the triangular ships took pleasure in slowly reducing the Dome Ship to wreckage.
"The andalite ship has been completely annihilated, Guardmaster." The commander said with an evil grin.
"Good. Order the fleet to proceed towards the primary target!"
"With pleasure!"
The small fleet slowly turned towards the yeerk homeworld, and opened fire.
The Black Light.
The sound of the communicator ripped Jake out of his sleep. For four days they had been on their way towards the Scorpii sector, and taking shifts had of course been necessarily. Looking on his watch he saw that it was still over an hour before he was due. Irritably he pressed a button on the communicator.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Captain, you are needed on the bridge."
Jake sighed. "Marco? Knock of the 'captain'-routine."
"Yes, Fearless Leader."
Quickly he slipped out of bed, and got dressed in his usual black uniform. As he made his way to the bridge, he mentally cursed the designers of the ship. Couldn't they have made it a little bigger when they were at it? It was barely enough room for their beds in the cabins, and the corridor leading to the bridge was so narrow that one of the walls always brushed against his side.
"What is going on?" He asked as he went into the bridge. There was only two people there, Rachel at the Helm and Marco at Communications. The rest were asleep or resting.
Marco had for once a serious expression. "We just received an encrypted message from home. The Yeerk Homeworld has been bombarded from orbit."
"What?" Jake asked, not sure if he had heard right.
"You heard me. Six unknown ships came out of z-space and attacked the Dome Ship currently patrolling that area. They were blown out of the sky in minutes, but managed to take one of the unknowns and a fair number of enemy fighters with them. Next, the hostile ships turned towards the planet and opened fire."
"Christ! What are our casualties?"
"Very low, actually. They didn't target our troops, but the morphing centers. It was mostly yeerks who died in the attack."
"The morphing centers? Why would anyone attack the morphing centers?" Jake asked incredulously. After the war the yeerks had been given an easy choice: Stay in the yeerk pools for the rest of your life, or; receive the ability to morph, acquire some humans who had volunteered their DNA, do a frolis maneuver, morph, and trap yourself. Needless to say, most yeerks choose the second option. Soon, large morphing centers were built, designed to hold the yeerks for well over two hours.
"I don't know, but that's what happened. Now the ships has withdrawn, except one. It is in orbit above the Yeerk Homeworld doing nothing. All attempts to communicate with it have so far produced no results. We have also received orders to go there, as we are the closest ship. High Command also hopes that our advanced sensors can find out more about them."
"Right. Tobias, alter the course. And wake the others."
"Done. ETA in one hour thirty-seven minutes."
Jake sat himself in the command chair. There wouldn't be anymore sleep.
Eternity Fleet Base.
'Admiral Gates' went calmly through the corridor. He had already cleared the Sec-Level A guard post. The guard had checked his ID and, after going through a scanner, let him pass. After all, everyone knew who the supreme commander of the Earth Federation Starfleet was. But to pass the next security level would be much more difficult.
At the end of the corridor was a large door with the words 'Sec-Level Zero' painted in large letters. Only a very few people had access to this area. Luckily, admiral Gates was one of them. The yeerk could feel the admiral fighting harder than ever to regain control. He ignored him.
He produced his ID to one of the guards there, and then went through a new scanner. After being cleared, he pulled out a second card and inserted it in a slot beside the door. Then he entered a code, and the door went up.
So far, so good.
As the door closed behind him, he knew now came the difficult part. Standing in a small room that almost looked like an airlock, he pulled out a small cylinder and pressed one of the tips. Holding his breath he waited. A few seconds later the door in front of him went up. It had worked! The cylinder had prevented the biofilter from detecting his own DNA.
Grinning, he walked into the new room. It contained only a large computer sitting on a table and a chair. Both the computer and the table were bolted to the floor, making it impossible to remove. He opened his fake, scanner-immune watch, took out a memorycell, and inserted it into the computer's slot. He ran the program it contained, and sat back to wait. It took the program fifteen minutes to locate and destroy some very specific files, and a further fifteen minutes to remove all entries from the computerlogs. When he got back to his office, he would have to use it to hack into the system witch controlled the surveillance cameras, and remove the recording of him.
He had to pass through the biofilter and the scanner again to get out, but none of them found anything wrong with admiral Gates.
One less threat. He thought.
The Black Light.
Prince Jake, We are coming out of z-space in thirty seconds.
"Good. Cloak the ship as soon as our emergence is complete. And don't call me prince."
Yes, prince Jake.
"Stand by." Tobias said. "Exiting z-space in five, four, three, two, one, now!"
A millisecond after the Black Light shot out of the jump point, the cloaking device made the ship disappear both form plain sight and from any possible sensor. They were completely invisible.
"Cloaking active." Tobias reported. "And we came out exactly were we wanted. Behind the third planet in this starsystem." The yeerk homeworld was the second planet.
"Set course for the yeerk homeworld. Stay alert for anything." Jake ordered.
Second in speed only to a fighter, the small ship covered the distance in an impressing short time.
"The hostile ship is within sensor range." Tobias said.
"On screen."
The viewscreen changed into showing a strange triangular vessel with the yeerk homeworld as background.
"Do you get anything?" Jake asked.
"Their shield is up, so it's difficult to get any reading at all even with these sensors." Marco said. "If we could get a little closer I might get more."
"Close in until we are a hundred kilometers away." Jake said.
The Black Light accelerated briefly, and stopped dead in space fifteen seconds later. "Now reading a hundred kilometers to target." Tobias said.
"Marco?"
"Wow! These sensors are fantastic! With ordinary sensors we wouldn't have gotten anything at all."
"Marco!"
"Oh, sorry. That thing to the left seems to be the bridge. Their weapons appear to be some kind of primitive shredders, unusually high powered. The shields of the vessel are pretty weak, they have a heavily armoured hull instead. And I have something here that I think is fighterbays. All in all I'd say that the alien ship is much less sophisticated than our own ships, but what they lack in sophistication they make up for in brute force. Moreover..."
"What the... The cloaking device is failing!" Tobias exclaimed.
"What?! How?"
"I don't know, there is some kind of power loss! Cloaking device now offline."
"The ship is locking weapons on us." Rachel said calmly.
"Raise shields!" Jake ordered. "Open a jump point. Get us out of here."
"I can't! The jump engines suddenly went offline, too. There is some kind of z-space jamming at work here."
"The ship is firing." Rachel warned.
Two green beams of energy shot out from the hostile ship, and struck the shields of the Black Light. "Shields down to 73% Shall I return fire?" Rachel asked.
"No, we don't stand a chance against that thing, primitive or not. Set course for the third planet. We are faster, we can outrun them."
The Black Light fired up all of its four engines and shot away at a speed much greater than the hulking tirangular ship could follow. However, just as they were about to get out of the hostiles weapons range, it deployed a swarm of conefighers.
"They just dropped some kind of fighters. Twenty of them." Tobias said. "They will reach us in ten seconds."
"Open fire when they are within optimal weapons range. Keep trying to open a jump point." Jake ordered. To many of them. This ship is built for intelligence gathering, not for combat
"Yes, captain." Rachel replied, now fully at Tactical Officer.
Jake was right. Although heavily armed for its size, it could not take on twenty fighters. The enemy attacked in groups of four, and both parties opened fire almost simultaneously. The Black Light scored the first hit, blowing one of the conefighters to bits. Another took a hit in its right engine and spun out of control. The enemy returned fire, hammering away at the Black Light's shields, and although Rachel blew up fighter after fighter, it proved to be to many of them.
"Shields?" Jake asked.
"Down to 11%" Rachel stated.
"Tobias?"
"Still can't jump."
He had just completed the sentence when another enemy fighter spun out of control and crashed into the Black Light, draining the ship of its remaining shield-power.
"Shields are down!" Rachel said.
"Still can't jump?" Jake asked.
"No, but we have to be outside of the range of their jamming soon." Tobias replied as the entire ship shook.
The conefighers continued their relentless attack, despite having lost almost half of their own. Soon, the hull of the Black Light was dotted with scars.
"Multiple direct hits." Tobias reported. "Hullbreach at deck 2, containment fields active."
"Evasive manoeuvres, return fire." Jake ordered.
The Black Light began a series of manoeuvres at full speed in a desperate attempt to avoid being hit, still the ship took the blunt of the fire.
"We have lost shredder control. Several new hulbreaches, fire on deck 2, fire extinguishers active." Just then, another explosion rocked the ship. A consol exploded and both Jake, Ax and Tobias were knocked to the floor.
"Status!" Jake gasped after pulling himself back into the chair.
"Combat sensors are destroyed. Containment fields are failing. Lifesupport are down to 22% We have only half enginepower."
"Can we jump?" Jake never got a reply as another, much more violent, explosion sent him flying across half the bridge.
Jake tried to stand up, but something was wrong with his left leg. Then he saw Cassie lying on the floor without moving. Cassie! No! This is my fault. I should never have taken her with us.
"Massive damage to deck 1." Tobias reported when he again could see through the smoke. "The energycore is failing."
"Divert emergency power to engines!" Jake coughed.
"I can't, we..."
The entire world erupted into fire, and for a brief moment Jake thought he could se stars. Then it was just total darkness.
* * * * *
GWAHAHA! Cliffhanger! But I'm sure you guessed something like this would happen. After all, I did write "...with their greatest heroes presumed dead." in the description of my fic. Now be 'a responsible reader' and review. Reviews are the fuel for us authors.