Korean Pearl- I guess my vision of the Andalite government is sort of a cross between a democracy and an oligarchy. They have a small Senate, elected by the people, and the Senate holds virtually all power, except over military matters. They have no president, no prime minister, no House, and the courts are overseen by the Senate. Of course, this is just my theory.
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Dome ship StellarBlade, In Orbit Above Harvest, Zero-Hour
Captain! It was Prince Maryorn. We're receiving word from StarStrike and the Reyomee. The Americans and the Europeans have opened fire!
There was a collective gasp around the StellarBlade's battle bridge, but Captain Limidi quickly stifled it.
We weren't hoping for this moment, Limidi said slowly. But we are ready for it, correct? There were murmurs of affirmation from the officers and crew.
Limidi continued. We are staring down the throat of the Chinese, and they will most likely begin to attack any minute now. He turned to his weapons officer. The shredder is charged?
Yes, sir.
Limidi then turned to Prince Bredun, commander of the StellarBlade's fighter squadrons. Are the fighters ready to deploy? He asked.
They'll be in space three seconds after you give the order, Bredun replied smugly.
Good, now- Limidi was interrupted by a crewman monitoring the space around them.
Captain! I'm picking up a large energy signature building up! He paused, consulting he readings. It's emanating from Harvest's moon!
What?! But that would- It took Limidi a few seconds to process that. They have a prism cannon emplacement on the moon! They're preparing to fire! Evasive action, NOW!
The StellarBlade made a hard turn to the right just as a huge blue beam of light blazed by it, narrowly missing the ship. Before Limidi could get another order out, the nearest Chinese ship, the Formosa, started unloading on them. A shudder went through the bridge as a prism fire struck their shields.
Limidi stood frozen to the spot. He had never been in a real battle before, and he was frightened. He never thought he would be; he had assumed he would be as brave as ever in the face of battle. Apparently, he was mistaken. No! He shook his head to clear his wits. Get it together, Limidi, he thought, you've trained for this.
Bredun, the captain said, masking the fear in his voice. Scramble the fighters.
Yes, sir. Bredun spoke into a console then dashed off toward the fighter bay.
Now Limidi could see to his ship. Are our shields holding? he asked Maryorn.
So far, but the humans are giving us all they got. There was another shudder as an attack glanced off the shields.
Well, then, we should return the gift, Limidi said, trying to fall into his new role as battlefield commandant. Open fire.
Limidi watched as the shredder beam arced toward the Formosa. The Chinese ship barely dodged the blast.
Suddenly, the entire Dome ship buckled. Limidi barely braced himself. What was that?! Are we hit?
But his attention had already been drawn to the viewport, where, not fifteen miles away, the StellarBlade's sister ship, the GalaxyThunder, was going up in a fantastic explosion after being struck by the massive moon-based prism cannon. It was the shockwave from the explosion that had struck the StellarBlade.
Limidi stared in horror at the explosion. He had several good friends aboard that ship, and now… We have to take out that prism cannon on the moon, he said to his T.O. grimly. Have Bredun's fighters engaged the humans?
Not yet, but they have rendezvoused with the squadrons from the, um, Maryorn paused, uncomfortable, from the GalaxyThunder. Limidi flinched, but Maryorn continued. ETA to the Formosa is 2 minutes.
Limidi gave his order. Have our fighters break off from the Chinese. They are now ordered to destroy that cannon on the moon; it's already destroyed one ship, let us see if we can prevent it from destroying any more.
P.S.S. Vishnu, In Orbit Around Harvest
Fleetleader Chao Nguyen was fully aware of what was happening on the battlefield. The constant updates from his officers on the Vishnu's bridge, along with what he could see for himself from the cruiser's viewports, kept him up-to-the-second on the battle
Currently, the Vishnu's fighter squadrons, along with those of several other Protectorate ships, were engaging two Andalite Dome ships and their fighters. After destroying one Protectorate ship and badly damaging another, along with a European ship, the Dome ships had begun firing on the planet itself.
So far, if Nguyen's knowledge of Harvest's geography was right, the Dome ships had done no great damage. They were firing on the Northern Reaches, a great uninhabited mountain range near the planet's north pole. There was nothing there except a few mining establishments.
But the Dome ships had to be taken out. If they moved their fire to another area of the planet, or if they fully charged their shredders, they would kill billions of civilians. So far, the Andalite ships hadn't been firing at maximum power, which explained why the planet was still in one piece; fully charged shredders could destroy a moon and blow a significant chunk off a planet like Harvest.
The Protectorate fighter squadrons were essentially a diversion, keeping the Dome ships' defenses and fighters busy while the Vishnu and two other Protectorate ships maneuvered into place to destroy them.
The Protectorate cruisers reached their position just as the Andalites wised up to their plan. One Dome ship began turning to face the humans, but it was two slow; a blue beam lanced out from the Vishnu's prism cannon, neatly cutting the Andalite ship in half.
Suddenly, four other Dome ships appeared out of Z-space, flanking the Protectorate forces. Three fired and the ship next to the Vishnu exploded in a terrific flash.
"Shit! They were expecting something like this!" Nguyen exclaimed. He turned to his communications officer. "Order the Bangkok to fall back."
"Yes, sir," the young man said. Then he hesitated. "What are we going to do?"
Nguyen ignored him. He instead turned to the weapons officer. "Charge the main prism cannon to overmax and set on wide dispersal. We're going to do as much damage to these things as we can."
Human prism cannons were a unique innovation. Ever since the early days of the alliance, the Andalites had refused to share weapons technology with Earth. They seemed to have forgotten, however, that hundreds of thousands of former Controllers had retained their Dracon weapons. Humanity took the Dracon weapons, reverse engineered them, and added some human innovations. The result was the prism weapon. Prism weapons were similar to shredders and Dracon beams in that they had an internal power source fueling a powerful beam weapon, but they had one big feature to differentiate them from the Andalite and Yeerk weapons. A prism weapon could draw upon any outside ambient energy, light or electricity or heat or even sound, to increase the force of its blast. One of the main benefits of this feature was that a wide-dispersed prism shot could be just as potent as a focused shot. The Andalites had never expressed concern over the prism beams because they had never been on the receiving end of one.
"We just need the fighters to keep the ships busy a little longer," Nguyen said. "How are we on the prism cannon?"
"Ninety-six percent, sir, less than two minutes more."
"I don't know if we have two minutes," Nguyen muttered.
No sooner had he said that then an explosion rocked the ship, sending most of the people on the bridge to the floor. "Damage report!" Nguyen yelled as soon as he got his bearings.
An officer scrambled to his station "Sir! Shields are down. We've lost engine two as well as engineering sector eight."
"Where are we at, Le?" Nguyen demanded of his weapons officer.
"The cannon's at 123%, just a little bit more."
Another shredder struck the ship. "We've lost engines one and three!" someone cried. "Sectors 7, 9, and 13 are depressurized."
"Seal them," grunted Nguyen. "And begin ordering our fighters to break off from the Dome ships." He turned to Lieutenant Le. "Le, come on," he pleaded.
Lieutenant Le hesitated before answering, gazing intently at his display. "Done!" he finally said triumphantly. "Cannon is at 150%, we're at overmax charge!"
"Good! Now fire at the Andalites!" exclaimed Nguyen.
The dispersed prism beam engulfed all five Dome ships. The one closest to the Vishnu exploded almost immediately, while smaller explosions began rocking the other four as their shields were drained. Another Dome ship exploded before the remaining ones escaped into Z-space.
Cheers erupted on the Vishnu's bridge, but Nguyen quickly silenced them. They had won this skirmish, but the battle for Harvest was still being fought, and the war had only begun.