DISCLAIMER: See Ch. 1.
A/N: Now, we get to see a chapter narrated by more than one character! Here's my first battle scene ever for Animorphs fanfiction; I just hope you all like it!
This chapter is dedicated to Edriss, for illustrating my version of the Kelbrid… among other things! Be sure to check it out on her DeviantArt profile! (Go to Edriss' user profile, then go to the link from there.)
CHAPTER 9
Aximili
The attack "came out of the blue" as humans would say. Calling my fighter squadron to attention, we rushed back to our fighters which were parked nearby.
(Ax!)
Turning one of my stalks, I saw Tobias swooping in, flying alongside me. Keeping pace with my galloping, he confided in me, (I figured it was best to stick with you.)
(A wise decision, Tobias,) I replied as calmly as I could while we fled to the Andalite fighters.
Tobias was about to dive into my own fighter after me when a large Dracon beam blast hit the ground near me and my pilots. I only got some dust on me, but one of my younger warriors was severely wounded; somehow in the fall, he managed to break all four of his legs.
(Warrior Seerian!) I yelled.
(Just go on without me, my Prince!) Seerian shouted, trying to be brave. (Don't worry about me!)
(Ax!) Tobias shouted to me. (I have an idea… Can I pilot Seerian's fighter for him?)
I actually almost asked Seerian for his permission, but that would have almost been a faux pas for an Andalite prince to make: Andalite warriors request permission from their princes, not the other way around.
As a few Andalite and human medics came to Seerian's aid and got him out of there, while Tobias morphed an Andalite, looking like my twin.
(Lead the way, Prince Aximili,) I heard my own voice say to me as my "twin" leapt into Seerian's fighter.
Stifling a grunt of amusement, I said in response, (Then follow me, "Warrior" Tobias.)
Our fighters were prepped and ready to go. We took off, up into the air – we also had to be careful around our airborne Kelbrid guests – and were ready to fight off the descending transports filled with Controller shock troops.
However, this task was made much harder because each transport was escorted by at least three Bug fighters. I was just deciding what to do when my warriors and myself got a mirrorwave call from War-Prince Galuit.
(The Kelbrid and the humans are sending troops of their own to contend with the transports and their troops inside once they land! You just worry about the Bug fighters and try to stay alive!)
(Well, you heard the War-Prince,) I said to my pilots, trying to play the role as leader of the fighter squadron. (Fry the Bug fighters!)
And with that, we engaged our enemies in open air combat.
I had my pilots pair up, with two Andalite pilots fighting together, and ordered Tobias to stick by me.
(Yes, Prince Ax.)
(Please do not call me that, Tobias,) I told my shorm.
(Of course, Prince Ax.)
Here, I allowed myself a brief sigh of frustration. Was this some sort of divine retribution for all the times I had addressed Jake like that years ago?
The time for chatter was over as we picked a fight with two Bug fighters heading straight at us.
However, before I could even give orders, Tobias rolled in mid-air to avoid a shot from one Bug fighter's Dracon beams, and swigging around, fired right back, hitting it perfectly.
It was amazing. It was as though Tobias was a piloting prodigy. I mean, of course he knew how to basically fly, after spending the last several years of his life mainly as a bird. But to fly an Andalite fighter like that as though he had been doing it for years…
(How are you flying so well, Tobias?) I asked him, utterly amazed.
(I don't know!) Tobias shouted back to me in response. (It almost feels as though I was born for this!)
(Well, whatever it is you're doing, don't stop!) I advised him as we continued to fly and fight.
A few more Bug fighters dropped out of the sky, and while on a strafing run, Tobias hit them all in a row. The flaming wreckage of one even dropped right onto a transport ship that had just landed, destroying it before it could even yield its Controller troops inside.
The fight went on, and Tobias seemed to be almost equal in caliber in me, I am both shocked and proud to say. Just as I shot down the last Bug fighter, we got new orders from higher up.
(All Andalite pilots: It has just come to our attention that some Skrit Na raiders have entered the atmosphere near where you are! Chase them down, but remember our policy: Shoot to disable!)
I ordered my pilots to follow me, and together, we tracked the Skrit Na raiders across the desert, engines burning.
Ever since the early days of my people's alliance with Earth, we had since made some modifications to our own fighters for atmospheric combat, should some other alien race ever try to attack this planet again. Now, just about all our fighters had extra heat shields, designed for chases through a planet's atmosphere. However, we never really had a need to try these new shields before.
That is, until today.
As we began the chase, I gave some orders of my own to my squadron, remembering what Elfangor said in his hirac delest about when he stole a Skrit Na raider and flew across the surface of the Taxxon home world. (We will chase the Skrit Na, but should we come across any human towns or other settlements, try to avoid harming them without compromising our orders. After all, we will probably be putting our new heat shields to the test.)
(Yes, Prince Axmili,) my pilots all replied.
And with that, the chase began.
At more than a thousand miles per hour, we blazed across the desert, over barren sandy and rocky wastes with little or no animal or plant life. We raced east, following a single Skrit Na raider. So far, no loss of sentient life.
We kept trying to take shots in order to disable the raider, but it would just veer off to one side while we tried to keep up with it. And so the chase continued.
(Prince Aximili, the Skrit Na raider is heading for that giant canyon!) one of my warriors told me.
I saw it up ahead: The Grand Canyon. One of the biggest canyons on Earth and more than a billion years old, it stretched for miles.
And as the raider reached the edge, it plunged downwards into it.
(Follow that raider, no matter what!) I told my warriors.
And thus, we plunged in after it.
It was both exhilarating and stressful, following all the twists and turns of the canyon to stop the Skrit Na raider without crashing into the large rock walls. Lots of times, we had to cut back on speed in order to make the turns without actually crashing.
Finally, Tobias managed to catch up with me, and all of a sudden, he fired!
TSAP!
It hit the raider just above the engines, but it wasn't enough to destroy it. Tobias fired again and –
TSAP! BAWOOM!
The engines blew out! The raider went down in smoke, and crashed along the rocky ground and skidded to a halt before finally stopping. However, it did not explode, but was still in one piece. I certainly doubted that it would ever be able to fly again.
(Excellent work,) I commended my warriors. As we all slowly descended to make a closer inspection, I punched up a few commands and the scanning took place.
In more recent years, my people had developed a new technology to scan the inside of enemy ships. However, it was designed more for the purpose of inspecting Skrit Na ships at a distance to determine whether or not they had any life forms hostage on board. Since most known life forms give off body heat, part of the scanning device used heat sensors.
Now that the engines were shut off from all the damage, I could use the scanners better. I took a look at who – or what – was on board the ship. A few Na at the helm, a couple of Skrit lumbering around the cargo area, perhaps a few cocoons in one corner…
But, to my surprise and eventual horror, I saw heat readings climb from a device that was attached to the ship's helm…
(All warriors, get out of there NOW!) I yelled, trying not to let too much panic bleed into my thought-speech voice. (It's a self-destruct mechanism!)
They didn't need to be told twice. Aiming our fighters upwards and powering up the engines, we were out of there.
We had just cleared the edge of the canyon when it exploded behind us. It was powerful, but not as much as the explosion from the time when the Animorphs and I rigged a subway train with several bombs to destroy the Yeerk pool. Still, this explosion was rather powerful.
I ordered my warriors to settle down away from the edge of the canyon cliff. I exited my fighter and stepped out onto the sand, trying my best to tolerate the desert heat. My warriors, likewise, all exited their fighters and came up to me. I gave out orders to let them rest for a bit before we returned. We would also have to give accounts of what happened to human and our own Andalite authorities alike.
However, I noticed that someone was missing: Tobias.
Turning my stalk eye to Tobias' fighter, I said, (Is something wrong, Tobias?)
(Erm, Ax?) came an unfamiliar thought-speech voice. However, it did sound familiar somehow…
(Tobias? Is that you?) I asked, perplexed.
(Yes, it's me. Anyway, I'm exiting the fighter now. Please, don't be alarmed.)
With that, the hatch to his fighter opened, and he descended.
What appeared to be an Andalite adolescent appeared, looking hardly any older than I did when I first met the Animorphs. In fact, he seemed to resemble Elfangor to a point, as though my older brother had had an Andalite child.
(Yes, Ax, it's me, Tobias,) he said.
I was about to ask what happened when he gave me another surprise.
He demorphed… into his human form.
If I were in my human morph when I saw this, my mouth probably would have been hanging wide open in shock.
However, after he was finished demorphing, he yelped in pain and ran back to the cool shade of the fighter's interior; the hot desert sands hurt his bare feet.
(Tobias,) I said, trying to remain as calm as I could in front of my curiously-looking warriors, (Could you please explain exactly what is going on here?)
"Heh, well, Ax," he said, choosing his words and looking somewhat embarrassed, "You just might not believe this…"
Vegren
My own warriors and I were flying and striking, using a tactic which humans would call "hit-and-run" (although in our case, it was more like "hit-and-fly").
After the Andalite prince Aximili and his warriors went off after some solitary Skrit Na raider, some of our own fighters went after the Bug fighters and the transports.
While I didn't lose focus on my enemies whom I was fighting on the ground, I did at times catch glimpses of our own Kelbrid fighters cutting up the Bug fighters – quite literally.
At first glance, our fighters have stationary wings raked forward at 45-degree angles to the main body. However, the wings could pivot, until they were at 90-degree right angles to the main body. Then, after that, the wings extended into sharp blades. Like humans do on Earth, we often found, used and refined steel, but we had a technique which humans had probably yet to develop – we had a way of increasing the blade's strength and durability tenfold.
So, with these deadly wings, we could cut through the sorts of materials which some races such as Andalites and Yeerks made their spaceships out of. Combine these deadly fighters' weapons with their incredible speed, and whatever poor sod in the sliced ship would never know what hit him until it was too late.
So, as our fighters took over for the Andalite fighters, we warriors fought alongside human soldiers and Andalite warriors on the ground.
Now, I should tell you now that we Kelbrid are more naturally suited for aerial combat with our bodies (in case you somehow haven't already guessed). On the ground, our wings can be something of a liability, a disadvantage, if you will. So, normally, Kelbrid warriors don't like hand-to-hand combat on the ground, even though it is mandatory for us to learn it.
Me, however… well, I like to improvise.
For example: When one human-Controller tried to kick my knee in order to break it, he thought he had successfully broken my knee. However, thanks to a little trick of evolution, we Kelbrid have evolved with knees that can bend either forwards or backwards, depending on whether we need to walk on the ground or hunt from the air. In the end, the human-Controller did no harm to me, but I managed to deal sufficient harm to him. I accomplished this by pivoting on my other leg, snatching the Controller in the center of his chest with the clawed foot he merely kicked another way, dragging him along the desert sand and dirt under me, and tossed him up in the air behind me. He flew about a good five feet in an arc before crumpling on the ground in what must have been a very uncomfortable position. I think he may have survived, but I wasn't sure.
Anyway, I continued to fight with such proficiency, movement and grace that I think my fights may have seemed almost like an art form to some. I think one of my cleverest moves was when I brought my extended skria-tark blade in an arc overhead to fatally slice a Taxxon-Controller rushing up to me – and then brought it back over my head in reverse to hit a human-Controller over the head with the blade's blunt side after she tried to sneak up on me from behind.
Systematically and methodically, the other Kelbrid warriors and myself picked off our targets – Hork-Bajir-Controllers were the primary targets, human-Controllers were the secondary targets, and Taxxon-Controllers were the tertiary targets. (If you think about it, you should be able to understand the reasoning behind this.)
Finally, the transport ships stopped coming, and we were finally able to ascertain how many we had left to fight and defeat. With a more definite victory now in sight, I called my warriors on to victory. We plowed our way through Controllers, cutting and hitting them down as we went. I was about to deliver the final blow to one fatally wounded Hork-Bajir-Controller…
…When suddenly, three of his fellows jumped me.
"My host body is dying," the Controller coughed out. "However… Hold him down. I think I've just lost a weapon and gained a whole armory…"
I saw the Yeerk crawl out of the Hork-Bajir's ear just as the Hork-Bajir itself died. As two of the Hork-Bajir-Controllers held me down, the third retrieved the hostless Yeerk and slowly bought him to my tilted head…
I yelled and screamed in protest, hoping someone would prevent me from being infested by this vile parasitic creature…
Alloran
For years as the slave to Esplin 9466, I had longed for the opportunity to use the morphs he made me acquire against his fellow evil Yeerks. Now, finally, my wish was granted. I was on a winning streak in my skirmishes with the Controllers, and I didn't feel like stopping anytime soon.
Currently, I was having a field day in my eight-headed, fire-shooting Octiggarr morph, blasting Controllers all around me. I now felt about as giddy as a foal a fraction of my own age. The Andalites, humans and Kelbrid I fought alongside were all shocked by this bizarre morph at first, but they were soon glad enough to have me on their side.
However, it was after half my heads in this morph were blasted off by multiple Dracon beams did I decide to demorph. The Octiggarr can live with only one head, should the other seven be destroyed, but after that last head is also destroyed, well, that's it.
Just as I was finished demorphing, I noticed a few Hork-Bajir-Controllers trying to hold down a Kelbrid warrior – whom I recognized as Karmaad Vegren.
It only took me a split-second to figure out what it was they were trying to do.
As if my mind was focused on nothing else, I charged over to them in my Andalite body, determined to put a stop to their sinister plans. I knew full well the horrors and shame of being the first-ever Andalite-Controller, and I certainly wasn't about to let Vegren become the first ever Kelbrid-Controller…!
The two Hork-Bajir-Controllers holding Vegren down I instantly dispatched with my tail blade – FWAP! FWAP! – and kicked the Controller holding the Yeerk back with my front hooves before slashing him horizontally across the chest. I would have done more to that third Hork-Bajir-Controller, but with the small group of Taxxons nearby, it was unnecessary.
As for the Yeerk that was attempting to infest this Kelbrid warrior, it slipped down along the Vegren's feathers and armor and into his claw-like hand. Vegren allowed himself a moment to glare at the Yeerk with disgust before dispatching it. With a toss into the air and a flash of a Kelbrid hand, the Yeerk went up into the air, still in one piece, and fell back to the ground in shreds.
"Thank you," Vegren said – in his own language, of course, but the translator chip implanted in my head understood. As he retrieved his bladed Kelbrid weapon, I told him, (It was what had to be done, Karmaad Vegren, really.)
As a swarm of human-Controllers carrying both Dracon beams and various other human weapons advanced on us, we got back to fighting.
An Earth half-hour later, the pitiful number of surviving Controllers retreated, and we were left with the clean-up and investigation.
While the humans were happy that they had fought alongside us and won, they were also a bit dismayed that it was only the second day of talks and meetings with their Kelbrid guests, and already someone attacked them. Fortunately, though, the Kelbrid were not the slightest bit unhappy or disappointed with what had transpired. In fact, I think they enjoyed the fighting.
As the sun set and the air cooled that evening, all the military personnel from all three species had gathered to hear some unsettling news.
"It turns out that the attack on the summit… was just a distraction," a human intelligence officer said, looking exasperated. "While they did manage to cause plenty of chaos here, it was just to keep us busy."
(I was wondering about that, especially after our chase of that single Skrit Na raider turned out to be pointless,) Prince Aximili said.
"While most of those Yeerk and Skrit Na forces attacked here, some more Skrit Na raiders, escorted by some Bug fighters, went to a certain prison facility in Kansas. The prison facility."
A touch of dread began to creep up my spine as I began to make the connection…
"What are you saying?" Vegren asked with a small touch of impatience.
Composing himself, the officer finally broke the news. "They broke Visser One out of prison."
Collective gasps and murmurs all broke out at once; the humans, along with my fellow Andalites, all hated that Yeerk named Esplin 9466. I felt a wave of hatred and revulsion wash over me. Esplin… The Visser… now loose…
People were shouting, muttering, whispering, all at once, trying to figure out what to do, what to do…
(Well, obviously, someone is going to have to try and find him,) Galuit said after most of the talking died down. (In the meantime, though, we should probably keep the talks and meetings going.)
"Well, if you don't need me, I could chase after him…" Jake suggested.
"You're not going anywhere, Berenson," a human general barked. "You're needed here."
As arguments began again as to who should go after him and who should stay here to make sure things ran smoothly, I sighed and finally spoke up.
(I'll go search for him.)
Everyone stopped right in their arguing and turned to look at me.
(I'll go. He was my captor for more than twenty years. I know how he thinks, I know how he works, and I know how he acts. If anyone were to predict where he would go or what he would do, that person would probably be me.)
There was a general sound of agreement to this. For the time being, however, I would probably have to stay here with everyone else while we got things straightened out.
Off to one side, I heard Jake and Aximili talking. (You know, Jake… While I still respect you for all the times I served you as though you were my prince, I'm starting to think I should have just killed Visser One back then. Not only would I have avenged my brother's death, but that would have been the end of him.)
Jake gave a sigh. "I know, Ax. In fact, I'm starting to think the same thing…"
TBC…
A/N: Uh-oh! The Animorphs' arch-rival has just been broken out of jail? You just know this can't be good… (And just what is the deal with Tobias, anyway?)
Note about this "Octiggarr" morph: As plenty of you will probably recall, this was the unnamed monstrosity which Visser Three morphed back in The Invasion, which "had a thing for the number eight." The "octi" in the name I obviously got from octo, the Latin word for the number "eight," and I just thought that "ggarr" sounded fearsome.
Next chapter is where we see precisely where the former Visser One has been taken… –Quillian
ABOUT THE ALTERED QUOTE...
Just in case you still haven't figured it out. Anyway, think back to the shouting match between Aximili and Lirem in chapter 6. Aximili says, "Do not meddle in the affairs of humans, for they are subtle and quick to anger." The original quote from LotR was, "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." So, there you go!