(Note: For some reason it doesn't let me use the normal thought speak symbols, so until I work out how to do that all thought speak symbols will look like this: ( ). Also, thanks to everybody who reviewed the first chapter)
Empire:
By Cyclone49 , )
Chapter 2: Don't Kill. Infest
Magon 2682
It looked at me. Straight at me. It was a creature. Or a machine. Maybe both. One blood-red eye, sitting on a throne that stretched for miles. That's all he was. I was frightened. More frightened than I had ever been before. But, for some reason, I knew that it wasn't going to hurt me. It sounds crazy, but it almost felt like this terrifying being was here to help me.
"Don't kill," it said, in a low voice that seemed to pierce straight through me, "Infest." And then I woke up.
My name is Magon 2682 of the Sulp Niar pool. My host's name is Terence Thompson. His friends call him T.T. He is what humans call a "chick magnet", and my main job is to use this host to lure young girls into the Sharing.
But, none of that matters anymore. We have declared open war on the humans. Most of the city where we have been basing the invasion is gone, destroyed by dracon beams and an explosion set off by the Animorphs in our Yeerk Pool.
The Animorphs are a group of rogue humans and Andalites who are fighting us Yeerks. We thought they were all Andalites for a long time, but after a while we worked out most of them were humans. Since then they have been hiding out with their families, and none of us have any idea where they might be. Coincidentally, my host vaguely knew one of the Animorphs, a girl named Rachel Berenson. Even more coincidentally, Rachel's cousin Tom is the host of my current leader, Emplish 235.
We also now have the morphing power. I have there morphs, a peregrine falcon, an extremely fast earth bird, an extremely powerful arctic animal called a polar bear, and a tiny insect called a fly. I've had very little practice with these morphs.
I am, I guess, a traitor to the Yeerk Empire. Emplish had gathered about a hundred other Yeerks, including me, and come up with a plan to steal Visser One's blade ship and escape into space. It was exciting. I had long grown disillusioned with the Empire, and how we weren't getting anywhere in this invasion. Those fools were constantly arguing over which was a more effective form of invasion, a slow infiltration, or all out war. They didn't understand that both those methods were flawed, and what they really needed was an extremely fast infiltration, one where any free creature you could find was made into a host, no matter whether they were a Class 2 species or a Class 5 species (obviously we weren't going to start infesting Class 1 species).
A few Yeerks were now starting to catch onto this idea, but unfortunately we were all of low rank, and no one would listen to us. But, when we escape from the Empire, there will only be a small number of us, and each person will at least be a Sub Visser. We will also be bringing a small bunch of yeerks without hosts, used for infesting whoever and whatever we come across on our travels.
Emplish had made a deal with the leader of the Animorphs, Jake Berenson, the brother of his host body, as well as a large group of rebellious Taxxons. We were going to help the Animorphs get into the Pool Ship, and they would help us get into the Blade Ship, and we would get the morphing box and fly away. Of course, Emplish wasn't going to explain to the Animorphs the extent of our plans, he had some cover story about us wanting to become nothlits.
Currently, I was sleeping in one of the few remaining buildings left near the Pool Ship. Secrecy had been forgotten, and all the controllers that didn't have anywhere to live were given special living quarters. My host's parents and house had been destroyed when the Yeerk Pool was blown up, so now I had to live here, along with many, many other controllers. It was okay, I preferred being able to sleep in a bed and eating decent food, but at least I no longer had to put on the ridiculous charade of a high school student.
(Interesting dream you had there…) my host sneered, (I'm surprised you didn't wet my pants.) T.T. had grown much more rebellious since his parents were killed, his anger at me had grown ten-fold. He was now devoting all his time to annoying me, provoking me and trying to distract me.
(Stupid human,) I laughed, (Why do you even try? You cannot distract me.) And he couldn't. Not now, not when we were about to escape the empire and start our own glorious one.
I looked at my watch. It was 9:03 PM. I had only been asleep for about two hours.
(Magon. It is time.) someone said in private thought speak. It was Hergat 987, Emplish's lieutenant. I snuck out of the dark room and morphed to falcon. I noticed a couple of other people doing it too, other members of our rebel group. I flew up into the air, riding the thermals that had been generated by the heat of all the destruction. It was a magnificent site, seeing almost all of the city reduced to rubble around the massive sinkhole where the Yeerk Pool used to be. I was very nervous. I knew if we got caught, every single one of us would be executed. The thought of Kandrona starvation scared me a lot. I wondered if it was all going to be to waste. The Andalites might catch us, the Empire might catch us. What if the Empire actually wins, and becomes much stronger from this invasion.
(Where is are the bug fighters?) I asked Hergat in private thought speak. Emplish was going to trick Visser One into letting him take control of the Blade Ship. A couple of bug fighters were going to be waiting for us, to take us to the Blade Ship that was currently in orbit.
(Behind the rubble of the Elementry School.) Hergat replied. He had obviously told this to the other birds I was flying with as well, because all of a sudden about 40 birds scattered across the sky all flew over to the Elementry School. We landed and demorphed, and there were four bug fighters waiting for us. Hergat was waiting there, with a few Hork-Bajir controllers. Hergat controlled the host of a stern looking middle-aged man. It was strange to think he was taking orders from a kid barely out of high school.
"Okay, everyone." Hergat said in a loud booming voice, "Emplish has just informed me that he has just been transported to the Blade Ship, where some of our loyal members are waiting. We can fit 6 people in each bug fighter, and one of those people is going to have to pilot it," He looked at us and did a small headcount, "We will have to make two trips up. Everyone who can fly a bug fighter come over here." About fifteen people, including myself, walked over to Hergat.
"Okay, half of you are going to go up now. The eight of you standing in the front, each get into bug fighters. Two each to bug fighter," he looked at the rest of the controllers, "The rest of you, if you can fit into a bug fighter, get into one. The rest of you wait here, and we'll come and get you." I walked over to the nearest bug fighter and got in. I chose the Hork-Bajir seat, as it would be infinitely easier to control. A woman set in the seat next to me,"
"Great, you give me the Taxxon controls…" she laughed. I recognized her. It was my host's old history teacher, Ms Paloma. "My name is Karmen 630."
"Magon 2682," I replied, "Don't worry, I can easily pilot it up to the Blade Ship using these controls anyway," A few other controllers crammed in next to us, and I started up the bug fighter. My hands were trembling as I powered up the controls.
Well, it's now or never, I said to myself, No turning back now.
(You won't succeed,) T.T. said, (The empire will catch you. They will kill you. You know they will.)
(They will kill you too." I replied.
(So? Death is a far better alternative to this.)
"Magon? Are you going to take off?" Karmen asked. I nodded, and started up the bug fighter. Karmen set the course to the Blade Ship. It was an extremely easy task. Back when I had a Hork-Bajir host body I had been in a quite a few ariel dogfights, and this was child's play. We escaped orbit and docked into the blade ship with the other three fighters. Karmen then flew the ship back down to pick up the remaining people. Once we were all assembled, Emplish came and breifed us.
"Okay, there has been a slight change of plans," Emplish told us, "I had to feed the Animorphs to a Taxxon, so they won't be taking control of the Pool Ship," We all laughed at that, although a few, me included, were a little nervous about that. I was getting even more worried. With the Animorphs gone, the Yeerk Empire probably win. I would have been better off staying with the empire. But, it was too late now. To try and escape would mean death.
"What do we do if the Pool Ship attacks us?" someone asked.
"We attack it back. The Blade Ship has far better weapons and maneuverability than the Pool Ship. Then we escape into Zero Space. Hopefully the Andalites will be far too busy with the remaining Yeerks to notice us,"
I walked inside. There were already quite a few human controllers and Hork-Bajir controllers inside it. The Blade Ship was nice. Very nice. I had never actually been in there before, and it was a little awe-inspiring to be inside it. But, it was slightly small for a crew of about a hundred humans and Hork-Bajir, and it was going to be a little crammed until we managed to get hold of another ship. If we managed to get hold of another. What if we just ended up roaming the galaxy aimlessly.
(Ha ha, not too confident now are you?) T.T. said, (It's a big universe out there. You may never run into another species.) I ignored him. I didn't care what my host thought.
"Okay, I want these eight people with me on the bridge," Emplish said, looking at a list he was holding, "Hergat 987, Jukinz 4835, Loped 376, Magon 2682, Karmen 630, Portus 9821, Cacnea 2583 and Ginyu 225," I had been selected to be on the bridge for two reasons. Firstly, I was a good pilot, I used to fly bug fighters a lot when I used to have a Hork-Bajir host. Secondly, my polar bear morph was one of the most powerful morphs we had, and it was a good idea to have some firepower on the bridge.
Me and the other controllers followed Emplish to the bridge. There were four human-controllers, including myself, and four Hork-Bajir controllers. The other three human controllers were Hergat, Loped and Karmen. Me and Karmen were the two pilots, and Ginyu and Portus controlled weapons. Hergat was the navigator and Cacnea and Ginyu simply stood guard. Emplish and two of his luitenents, Jukinz and Loped, simply watched and gave out orders. Every one of us could morph, even the Hork-Bajir controllers.
Through the large window at the front of the bridge we could see the Pool Ship. Suddenly, we saw something strange. A large cloud of… something was being dumped from the pool ship.
"What are those hargrashes doing?" Jukinz wondered, "Is that a waste dump?"
"Hergat, zoom in on the monitors." Emplish ordered. He did, and we looked closely at the waste.
"That's… that's not a waste dump," I said in a strained voice, as I realized what had happened "They aren't dumping waste! That's the pool. The main pool. It's been flushed." Everybody gasped. Hergat ran a sensor check on the cloud.
"Sensor's showing… it's our people." he said, shocked, "Sixteen thousand… maybe seventeen thousand."
Emplish cut in harshly. "It saves us the trouble of killing them ourselves." Then, in an undertone, "But why? Why would the Visser flush… what does this mean?" What was going on? Then, suddenly, I heard it again. Don't kill. Infest.
It kept repeating, over and over in my head. Don't kill. Infest. Don't kill. Infest. Don't kill. Infest. DON'T KILL! INFEST!
"The Pool ship is preparing to fire!" I heard someone, probably Ginyu, yell.
"Hard left!" Emplish yelled. A moment later, he laughed. "The visser's lost maneuvering ability. The Pool ship handles like a drunken Gedd at the best of times, and now look at it." But I wasn't paying attention. I had fallen to the floor. And it kept repeating in my head. DON'T KILL! INFEST! DON'T KILL INFEST! DON'T KILL! INFEST! Then, just as suddenly, it stopped. I got back up.
"His Dracon cannon is powering down." Ginyu reported, "I show his reserves at less then ten percent."
"Are they? Well, well," Emplish said, "Hail the visser. On screen. I saw the viewscreen light up. I saw Visser One's Andalite face. There was a dull look in his usually aggressive eyes, a slackness in the normally tensed body.
"You seem to be experiencing some engine trouble, Visser," Emplish gloated.
Visser One said, (The Empire will track you down and kill you, you do understand that, I hope?)
"Oh, I doubt it. I think the Empire will have it's hands full," Emplish said cheerfully, "The Andalite fleet is rather close by. It's possible I may had misled you on that point." He was all but giggling. Then, Hergat widened the view screen, and we all saw it, a lithe Bengal tiger standing near the Visser. A red tailed hawk was there too, the one they call Tobias. Emplish was stunned. He took a step back, like he has been punched. "You're not dead!" he cried.
(I noticed the same thing,) Visser One said dryly. I got worried, I didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Emplish panicked. He grabbed control of Portus's control panel and started shooting. And suddenly, Karmen screamed.
"Animorph!" she shrieked, and we turned around to see a full grown grizzly bear emerge from Jukinz's desk.
(That's right, genius: Animorph.) it said.
It attacked.