Chronicles of Terrus Chapter 15: Long trip, Warm Welcome

-Location: Z-Space-

"Why did you do THAT?" I exclaimed in amusement. Heyo grinned and replied excitedly, "Coren thought my strategy had merit, but was poorly executed." I laughed and shook my head, "Scenario SC-3011...The worst." If you happened to be Terrus. I added to myself.

"Scenario SC-3011 was easy compared to TS-Varient 58480." I heard Serri say from behind me. I could hear the grin he had on his face. I turned around and sure enough, the darkap was grinning at Heyo and me.

"No it wasn't! I said with a frown. "TS 58480 was where we were all pushed to near starvation and forced to evade dracon cannons and traps on an enclosed course, as well as fight each other for the Kandrona. Remember? We were all as hunger-crazed as Taxxon."

Serri's grin slipped off his darkap Hork face. I looked back at Heyo, who was sitting completely still and staring at the ship deck. When I turned to stare back at Serri, he was motionless as well, lost in memories.

"Exactly." I said, feeling a bit low spirited because of their low spirits "TS 58480 wasn't an easy situation. That will happen to us out here in the universe at some point in our lives."

I just hope that that 'some point' will be MUCH later on in our lives. "I'm going to collect my Veleek." I said suddenly, breaking the painful silence as I followed words with actions. I went to the largest crate and unlocked it, then reached in carefully and heaved my Veleek out. It squirmed in my clawed grasp and snarled at me until I said, "FRUN!" Stop. It obeyed instantly and I carried it over to Heyo and sat down next to him with the creature in my arms.

My Veleek stared at Heyo with all four eyes and gave out a low growl. "It still doesn't like you! It remembers that I called you a 'not okay darkap' from...how many days has it been since we left our ho- I mean the Hork homeworld?"

"I don't know, Terrus. Ask the smart one." Heyo said as he stared straight ahead at Serri. Serri craned his neck and stared right back at Heyo, even as the darkap keyed something in on his console. Show off...

"Well miss, and my good friend yet not a friend Heyo, it has been exactly twenty seven days since we left." Heyo and I stared at him for a couple of seconds, which prompted him to add unhelpfully (though he may have believed it to be helpful in his own eyes) "We should reach the Taxxon homeworld in precisely ten days, that is, if Z-Space does not experience another fluctuation." TEN DAYS?

"I'm going to go crazy! I can't be stuck on this darkap ship with you people for that long!" I shouted.

Serri gave me a slight frown, "Miss, you have been stuck with us on the ship for twenty seven days now, ten more days will not make you insane. And, scientifically, I doubt that you would even "go crazy" anyway. it is interesting how our psychological-"

"Yes that's wonderful nobody cares!" I told him quickly, cutting off his what would have no doubt been a thirty minute in depth discussion. An idea suddenly struck me and I said excitedly, "Serri, if Z-Space experiences a flux, could it possibly shorten the trip time?" He gave a grin and replied, amused, "Yes miss. That is very possible. Let us hope that that happens. For your sanity."

I grinned back "I can't go insane, remember?"

"Perhaps I was lying to you. Perhaps right now you are insane."

I put my Veleek aside and stood up, then said slowly "If I'm insane...then I guess I should try to kill you all now." Serri stared at me in blatant confusion. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Heyo with the same expression on his face. "You really are insane..." He muttered as he stood up himself.

"Come on Heyo, the only time I've ever seen you fight is with those dracon weapons of yours! You need to learn to use your blades. Up close and personal. Don't be a coward!" I said in feigned disgust. "And Serri, your ground based combat skills still leave a lot to be desired as well."

Both of them looked offended as they took up positions in front of me, blades raised,and then I saw their expressions change to anger. I lowered my arms and said reprovingly, "No no no! That's exactly what Vortim told me! You can't fight with rage! Relax."

I brought my arms up again and asked Serri, "Is Eliza making sure this Z-Space trip is going smoothly?"

He looked confused and answered "She is in the Portable Pool, as you very well know."

"So we have three or so hours to do this. Three or so hours of fun time." I said with a grin.

Heyo glared at me and said indignantly, "Terrus, Why are you teaching us how to fight? You're still a grub yourself!"

I glared back at him and replied "You know full well I've passed my training, and I have the most combat experience so far out of all of us. And, besides these points, do you have something else you should be doing on a ship flying through Z-Space full of Hork-Bajir?"

Heyo didn't answer.

"Exactly." I tapped a toe claw against Heyo's shin and said in amusement, "Your footing is all wrong. And your tail is off to the side. A single hit-" I swung my arm at him in an eye-blink and he blocked, but spun around completely and fell into Serri "-And you lose balance."

"I'm not doing this." Heyo said to me. I sighed and he turned to Serri and said again, "I'm not doing this." Serri looked from him to me and said slowly, "On a different day, at a different time, I would agree with you. But Terrus makes good points...and you are a coward."

I smiled and said maliciously "And Serri is an egotistical Yeerk soldier and pilot with plenty of skill pertaining to the 'pilot' aspect of his career but no skills at all when it comes to the 'soldier' part."

"I'm still not doing this..." Heyo muttered.

"STOP BEING STUPID AND FIGHT!" I shouted furiously.

Both of them looked at each other and then rushed me. I easily ducked under both blades and spun around, bringing my arms up and ripping into their backs, spurting blood onto myself and the ship's deck.

"Come on you two! I thought you were better than this!" I taunted in between my laughter as they turned to face me. This time I charged at them and they both broke left and right, Heyo stuck out his leg and Serri slashed for me with both wrist blades! I easily pivoted over Heyo's leg and sliced it off below the knee with my back leg blades and threw out an arm that shoved him backward and off balance.

I met Serri's blades with mine and he blocked everything I threw at him for the next few seconds.

"Would you-" Serri landed a slice on my arm, cutting deep but not severing it.

I kicked out and stabbed my toe blades into his ankle and pulled back at the same time as I made a lateral cut on his chest. "Darkap-"

Serri used his tail to keep from falling on his back and caught my wrist blade strike in between his arm blades. "LEARN-" He twisted his arm, breaking off my wrist blade. "To stop being-"

He swung at me with his left arm, and I physically grabbed his wrist blade with my Hork hand and then rammed my knee blade into his thigh. "Such darkap!"

I felt three quick slices into my back. I realized, I'd ignored Heyo, thinking he was weaker and less skilled, as he obviously was! But still...How could I have made such a mistake? Five more slashes went across my back, and in the two seconds that he ceased slashing, I spun myself around with Serri, my knee blade still embedded in his gut, and watched as Heyo slashed into Serri's back.

I pulled my knee blade out of Serri's gut and kicked him backward into Heyo which caused both of them to fall into crates. "Training Session 5633 over." I said with a slight smile. "Let's take a few minutes to heal up. Then we start again."

"Training session 5633?" Heyo repeated mockingly.

I gave him a glare and waved my arm threateningly, "Yes. Maybe we could name it after you though. The training session where everyone fails. Training Session 222." Heyo took a half step toward me in a gesture of intimidation, and I just laughed. "Sit down on that crate and let your darkap host body heal."

"No. Let's keep going." Heyo said quietly.

What is this darkaps problem? He didn't want to fight and now he does? "You don't have a darkap foot! I have a missing wrist blade, Serri took a blade to the gut, and I took eight slashes to my back." I said slowly. I expected him to give in, but what he next said was a shock.

"We won't often get to stop and heal during a real battle or a mission. The Hork hosts heal fast enough when your jumping around anyway. Fast enough to keep living."

"Okay." I said in amusement "But if you end up leaving your host body because it dies, your staying in the Portable until this trip is over, and then I'll get you a Taxxon host."

He flinched at the words 'Taxxon host' but agreed to the terms. I grinned and said, "You're going to be very sorry you ever pressed this on."

For the next hour, I made good on my word, giving cuts, gashes, and almost severed limbs and bruises to my teammates. I took injury too, and finally I halted the fighting. "That was good, even though you're both still darkap." I told them with a smile. They won't ever know how proud of them I am.

"I am not a darkap." Heyo said, irritated.

"Yes you are." I said slowly, eliciting a small smile from him.

"I'm really not." He insisted angrily despite the smile on his face.

"You are." Serri said with a laugh.

"I am NOT a darkap!" He said, not smiling now.

"Shut up, darkap. You know I don't mean it as an insult." I told him.

Serri laughed and said, "I do."

Heyo ignored Serri and said to me, "I know. Are we at the Taxxon home-world yet?" I turned my head sideways as I stared at him and asked, "Why do you care? Do you really have something going on there?"

He glared at me and shot back, "No. I just get annoyed at being trapped on ships with people that would kill me for saying the wrong thing."

"You just said a wrong thing you darkap, and you aren't dead yet." I said in amusement. I sent a smile Serri's way and asked, "Can you show me how to listen to transmissions from anywhere in the universe regarding our great Empire?"

"Very easily miss, but I believe you only wish to hear the ones being sent out from, on, or toward the Taxxon homeworld." Serri replied as we walked to the front of the ship. Heyo stayed back and went messing around with an HK he'd picked up out of a crate.

I smiled again at Serri. You know me well, darkap. "I want to know about Andalite activity there, just to keep an eye on that while we go about our other missions." I stood behind him, shifting my balance impatiently while he hit a few buttons and keyed some things in on his console.

After about a minute he finally stepped away from the console and said to me with a grin, "It's all yours, miss." I grinned back "Thank you." I tapped the activation key and sat in the pilots seat for the first time, and stared into the whiteness of Z-Space as I listened.

"...Vrunai Pool is having Taxxon uprisings almost regularly, Sub Visser! We can't keep going like this-" Another voice broke in, one I assumed to belong to the Sub Visser, "Do nothing. If you kill them all then you kill your work force you fool! Do not wipe out all of them simply because a few of them are rebels. Can you not handle a few Taxxon?" The first voice spoke again, "Sub Visser, these rebel Taxxon are severely hindering the construction of the Vrunai Pool. They're sabotaging everything! The filthy beasts swarm us at times!"

The Sub Visser gave a contemptuous growl that could only belong to a Hork and said, "Do nothing! Erin 8012 do you hear me? Do nothing!" Erin sighed and just said, "Yes...Sub Visser.' And I heard nothing but static and silence.

"Not very effective of them." Serri commented. I looked at him and laughed, then said "Well, we'll have to show them how to be more effective. A small team like us can go in and kill the rebels for them." Traitorous scum, trying to stop our conquest! That Sub Visser is an incompetent fool, giving an order like that! If it had been me instead of that Erin Yeerk I wouldn't have given in. I would have ignored the Sub Visser and killed all of the Taxxon!

"Next." I said in a bored voice as I tapped a key to switch to a different channel.

"Dunyol 2056, this is a Yeerk transport en route to the Taxxon homeworld, we've come under attack from...You're not going to believe-" I tried hard to focus on the conversation through the sounds of combat and the background talk. I heard a huge explosion, and then another voice say, "KELBRID? What in the name of the Empire are they doing with Skrit Na?"

Serri and I stared at each other, and I turned the sound down on the console. "Kelbrid?" I said in shock.

"Kelbrid." He said back.

"They're the only ones besides us that can rival the Andalites!" I shouted in a mix of anger and fear. If those things are working against us actively... "Are they with the Andalites now?" I said, finishing my thought aloud.

"How about we listen in a bit more, shall we miss?" Serri said as he turned the sound up again and hit a holo-key.

Disappointingly, it wasn't that same transmission that we began listening in on.

"Vrunai Pool, why did you block my signals?" An angry voice demanded.

"I think the Vrunai Pool, whoever it is from that last call, got a bit more like me." I said with a grin. Serri sighed at me and replied, "Do I detect a hint of pride?" I hissed at him and answered in a mock arrogant tone "Why wouldn't I be proud of who I am? That I'm so perfect?"

He sighed again and poked my shoulder "That is a good point miss. But you are not perfect. Not-" I glared at him and said quickly, "Don't say it! Don't even say it!"

He grinned at that and said in pretend sadness "But I must say it: But you are not perfect. Not even close."

I shoved the darkap over and switched the transmission channel again.

"Dirt world..." Static. "...Taxxon are filthy beasts, I don't know why we-" It kept up like this for a few more seconds until it came in loud and clear.

"Jefuranisasi. Did you and your allies bring what I asked?" I heard a series of hissing noises that I thought was from the transmission, but I recognized it an instant later as the natural language of the Taxxon.

However, this revelation didn't do me any good since I didn't understand the Taxxon language.

After the hissing was over I heard the Galard speaking being say, "Good. In three days time, meet with the contact at the main space-port. Him and his crew will bring the items to me." I heard a single hiss and then the being said "Of course this transmission is insecure. The gurshiy Yeerk Empire keeps track of everything on this world."

"Smart darkap." I commented over the next series of hisses from the Taxxon named Jefuranisasi.

"Not smart enough," Serri said quietly "We could follow this information and do something about it." I stared at him and asked "You want to kill other Yeerks?" He gave me a surprised look and replied, "No. The Taxxon and his allies are rebels. Uninfested. You should have figured that out, miss."

I glared and told him, "Just shut up so I can listen some more."

-Seven days later-Taxxon Homeworld-

We all stared at the planet that we would be stuck on for a long time. This was the complete opposite of the Hork-Bajir homeworld. No giant trees, no grass, very little plant life of any kind. It was all mountains and desert. Sand and dirt. But we did notice outposts, bases, underground base entrances, and the different hovercrafts and many different species members roaming or milling around at the spaceports.

"Great. It's going to be another one of these planets." I said sarcastically as the ship touched down at the biggest spaceport this side of the planet.

The spaceport was a ring shaped building with basically nothing inside the ring. Nothing but spaceships and creatures of all kinds! There had to be over two hundred different ships, and many more that of sentients! Skrit Na and Yeerk Empire were the most prominent.

Serri gave me a curious look, "You've only ever been on the Hork-Bajir homeworld, miss."

I ignored him and unstrapped myself from my seat and dashed to the back of the ship, searching through crates until I found everything I needed. I clamped on my utility belt, holstered my twin dracon beams, stuffed extra ammo into the pockets, and slung my pole and a dracon rifle across my back.

I was armed and dangerous. I was hyped. I was ready for anything and anyone. Now I can show them all what the Yeerk Empire is really made of. I swished my arm blades through the air a few times and moved to hit the button to lower the ramp-

"Oh great." I heard Heyo say, though if it was to me or himself I didn't know. "We aren't going to war Terrus." I spun my Hork head around and grinned, "What do you think this is, if not a war you darkap? You can come with me now or join me later, either way I'm going out there!"

Eliza gave me a bit of a sad look and said "Promise me you won't go pointlessly killing anyone at least. Please?"

"Okay...I promise." As soon as I said that I felt my excitement go down, but only by a tiny bit. I won't break my promise to her though. She's right. This many people, this many ships...I'd die in half a second if they all decided to attack the Yeerk Empire members.

"Can I leave now, Torgah?" I asked my best friend with a laugh. Torgah. 'Parent' in the Skirt Na language.

She smiled at me and answered playfully, "Yes. But don't go too far from the ship! And please remember not to go starting fights with anyone here."

"Okay."

Serri was unmoving, intently interested in something. The darkap was still messing around with the ship's systems."Bye Serri." I said to his back. He didn't answer me, so I just turned around and reverently pressed the ramp button with a claw.

I swished my tail back and forth and was all but exploding from excitement, from curiosity and from happiness as the ramp came down in front of me. A new world! I was assaulted by light and scents and sounds and sights, much like when I first set foot in that valley on the Hork homeworld, but this time was entirely different in it's own way. It was also entirely too much in it's own way. I took a breath and got calm.

I'm a proud member of the Yeerk Empire, the greatest rising power in the universe! I will NOT be intimidated by all of this. I won't!

I angled my powerful Hork legs and jumped forward into the sea of beings, flying over their heads and watching them all move apart as I landed next to a Skrit Na trader ship. A few of the beings close to me stared, but most went about their business. Suddenly something bumped into me from behind and I spun around on instinct and slashed furiously, decapitating a Skrit Na and removing it's arms, causing it to drop a crate, and when it spilled open I saw handheld weapons similar to my dracon beams.

Now a lot of beings were staring at me. Some of them went for their weapons and I shouted out, "Terrus 5633 of the Yeerk Empire, that's me!" I kicked the dead Skrit and finished coldly, "If anyone crosses me the wrong way, you'll end up just like this fool here!"

Fear. I smiled when I recognized it in some of their eyes, and I crouched down and picked up one of the weapons from the crate. Pure black, one trigger and a switch on the side. Such a small weapon...I can't even get a claw on the trigger fully! I gripped it oddly and pointed the barrel away from myself and then pulled the trigger.

The weapon exploded in sound and jerked back in my claws! I thought that maybe it had exploded when I realized I was still holding it, and that a weird being was screeching in pain. It stood at twice my own height. This creature had almost scaly skin like my Hork host did, three legs that were like blades in appearance more than anything, two legs in the front and one in the back. It had four massively muscular arms that were as big as my torso, and ten digits on each hand.

And the skull...that was what intrigued me the most. It was a SPHERE. purely a perfect sphere in shape with one massive sunken in eye and a horizontal slit that went halfway around the sphere skull.

I didn't like the looks of that mouth at all.

There was a tongue which ended in what was definitely a BLADE, and the mouth was ringed with a lot of incredibly sharp looking teeth.

As the creature looked at me, then at the weapon in my hand, I felt a twinge of fear. This monster makes my Hork host look harmless!

The creature rushed toward me and grabbed my throat with one hand, both my arms with it's two others,and punched me in the gut with the fourth one. I struggled with it, but it was futile. The creature slammed me up against the Skrit Na ship, knocking the air out of my lungs even more. It raised me up to eye level with it in one effortless motion, and the tongue shot out and stabbed right through my shoulder and then was back in the mouth in an instant. "What a way to die..." I hissed out as I got my breath back.

There are so many other beings now crowded around us that I can't escape them all even if I get free of this thing. They would all kill me anyway, judging by the way they're cheering on this monster...

The sentient made high pitched screeching noises, in bursts and some drawn out, and I knew it was speaking in whatever language belonged to it's species. It made one long continuous noise and sliced my forehead with the tongue/blade. "WOULD YOU SPEAK GALARD?" I yelled at the thing angrily. "And stop hurting me or I'll burn off your face!"

The huge half face mouth thing closed and then opened again, and my sentient captor spoke in Galard "You are in no position to demand anything. You are nothing but a grub, as you Yeerks say."

It punched me five times in the gut with the free arm, and then delivered an uppercut to my jaw. "Where is your Empire's might now, little one?" It taunted.

The sentient released my throat and then began punching away at me, and with each hit I felt bones break! The monster punched for my face but I weaved my neck back and forth, dodging those ones because I knew for sure if even one or two hit I'd probably go unconscious or die! "Where is it, GRUB? WHERE IS YOUR EMPIRE'S MIGHT?" It shouted as it kept on punching me to death.

I heard three distinct whirring sounds, three familiar whirring sounds, and I laughed because I knew what was behind the monster that had me suspended in the air. "That Empire might that you seem so keen on finding, look behind you darkap."

The creature surprisingly stopped punching me to death and turned around slowly, but still didn't drop me to the ground.

I grinned at the sight of my teammates standing in the front of the crowd, all pointing dracon beams at the giant monster. I waved a little with my hand and said "Hi..." as I still grinned.

Eliza looked at me in disappointment and said "You promised you wouldn't start any fights."

The grin left my face and I replied quietly, "Well...you know me...And I didn't start this fight! Honest!" She just sighed in exasperation, and I immediately back-tracked, "Okay okay! I shot this...sentient. It was accidental! First I showed off a bit and then I ended up slicing apart a Skrit Na, then I found weird hand held weapons, so I decided to test one. I fired it and it...it turned out to be a projectile weapon and it hit this...creature...And that's how I ended up like this."

Serri looked at Heyo and asked him, "What do you think?" Heyo glanced over at him and answered in amusement "That sounds like Terrus. I say we free her." I smiled sweetly at him and shouted "YES! Free her!"

The giant creature shook me roughly and punched me in the back and boomed out, "THIS FOOL PROPELLED A METALLIC ITEM INTO MY BODY! I WILL NOT FREE HER! SHE WILL DIE!"

"Oh great..." I muttered. I'm just hanging here uselessly! Serri stared at the creature and asked "There is always a price. In return for our...trouble making friend, what do you want? Can a deal not be made?"

"NO DEAL WILL BE MADE!" It shouted with finality.

Serri looked to Eliza and Heyo, and they both nodded. "Then we kill you." No sooner had Serri said that than they sprang into action.

Heyo and Eliza rushed in and made to slice off the legs of the thing, but it surprisingly jumped back and then swept an arm out that connected with Eliza, and a split second later Heyo ducked under the arm and sliced upward, but only made a wound instead of cutting it off.

Serri jumped atop the Skrit Na ship and then leaped over onto the back of the giant monster, and I thought that would end the fight right then and there, but the monster punched Serri square in the face, sending my friend flying off to land against the Skrit ship. I again struggled to get free, but the monster just would not let go of me!

"OH JUST RIP ME IN HALF ALREADY YOU GIANT DARKAP!" I yelled at it angrily. I regretted saying that in the next second when it began to pull my arms out even as it still dodged Heyo and Eliza!

"Great..." I sighed and let my whole body go limp in an act of buying myself more time before my arms were ripped out.

"USE THE DRACON BEAMS!" I shouted at my friends angrily. Eliza slashed three times on the front left leg and yelled back at me as she jumped away another arm sweep "NO! We might hit you! We don't want to shoot you!"

"THEN DON'T!" I yelled at her, "LIZ, SHOOT ALREADY! YOU WERE GREAT WITH THE DRACON BEAMS DURING TRAINING!"

I saw the tongue/blade flick out and wrap around Heyo's legs and pull him off balance, sending him to the ground where one of the legs stabbed down to meet him, but he rolled out of the way and slashed at it quickly, actually cutting a chunk off and making green blood spray everywhere.

I heard the familiar sound of a Dracon beam firing, and I saw the energy beam burn through the chest of my captor, so close to me that I had almost had my own head taken off! What intrigued me was that the shot hadn't been made from anyone in front of the thing, but from BEHIND.

The monster gave an extremely high pitched screech, and then the arms suddenly stopped pulling on me and it hurled me into the surrounding crowd. I slammed into the first row of beings and kept on going, mowing them all down and slicing them up unintentionally with my bladed body until finally I slammed face first into a small one being fighter craft that I didn't even recognize.

I can't just lie here like a darkap! GET UP TERRUS! GET UP! I screamed at myself. GET IN THE FIGHT!

I ignored all pain, all thoughts, and I got to my feet, pulled my pole off my back and then in seven giant leaps, I was over the crowd and in front of the huge sentient monster that was fighting my friends. It stopped when it saw me, and I took advantage of that.

I rushed straight toward the thing and leaped over a sweeping arm, grabbed onto one meant to punch me in the chest, and swung up off it and onto the shoulder of the creature. I swung my pole right onto the giant eye of the thing as hard as I could while slicing furiously into the side of the skull with my arm blades. It screeched and brought up all four arms to dislodge me, but I jumped straight up and pulled out a dracon beam as I came back down to land atop one of the arms.

I dug my feet claws deep into the arm and I fired straight down, sending the arm and myself to the ground.

I saw my three friends now firing openly at the thing. At it's legs, the main body, the arms! "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I shouted as I flipped back away from the rapidly disintegrating sentient.

"Saving the head shot for you! Take it if you want!" Heyo said with a stupid grin as he deliberately targeted the same leg that had almost impaled him.

"Thank you!" I said as I took my sweet time putting my Dracon beam to full power, and then taking an even longer time sighting up on the head.

Wait...Wait...The monster turned around so that the eye was directly looking at me, I saw it blink once, and I pulled the trigger.

The head was nothing. it was simply there one moment, and then it wasn't. There was no explosion, no gore, no flying blood. Just a body with a head one moment, and the next one without it.

"So, what next?" I asked my friends as the giant hole filled, decapitated monster fell to the ground.

"I always find that the journey to this planet is long, and the welcome is...not very warm." A voice said from behind me, and I turned to see a fellow Hork-Bajir controller who had a bit of a smile on his face.

"Who are you?" I asked curiously.

"I am the head of the security forces here on this miserable world." He answered in amusement "I must say that I was not expecting your arrival until much later. And indeed, your fighting skills are very impressive to witness in person."

I gave him a long stare, and then I remembered, "You were that Yeerk from the trial! The one named-"

He radiated pure delight and said, "Yes! Yes, Terrus 5633. I am Esplin 9466."