A.N: Yay, another chapter! I like this one. The beginning is exciting.

CHAPTER 9: Fire in the Sky

Third Person

Prince Isidar-Ganal-Eluit looked at his group of young warriors, his face full of authority. He was not happy with the crew he had been assigned, for they were newly appointed warriors. Just three Andalite days ago, they had been mere arisths. Prince Isidar knew from past battles that new warriors were usually reluctant to follow direct orders. I guess I will just have to deal with it, the Prince thought to himself.

‹I trust you have all paid attention during your training at the academy, so you should know what to expect of war. Of coarse you don't! That's what I'm here for. I expect you to carry out every last order I give you without complaints. Am I clear?›

‹Yes.› answered the young Andalites.

‹Good,› said Prince Isidar, ‹your first order today is –›

‹Prince Isidar!› A muscular Andalite with greenish fur stormed into the room, ‹The captain requests your immediate presence on the bridge. There is a problem.›

Prince Isidar scuffed his hoof on the grass with annoyance, ‹Fine. Tell the captain that I will be there immediately.›

The Andalite walked back off to inform the captain.

‹All of you,› Isidar looked at his warriors, ‹are to remain here until I return. Practice tail fighting for all I care, just stay put!›

The Andalite Prince made his way down to the bridge of the MoonFire, wondering what could possibly be so important to interrupt his session with the new warriors. No one dared to ask him any questions for he had a reputation for being extremely irritable.

Isidar entered the bridge.

‹What is my briefing?› he asked the captain,

‹A large, unidentified spacecraft has appeared on our sensors. There is no mistaking that it is rapidly heading straight for us.›

The ship was now close enough to be easily seen with the naked eye. It was large, black and resembled a sphere with four large cannons, one at the top, one at the bottom, and two at its sides. The ship was covered in flashing blue and orange lights. It suddenly stopped. Without warning, it fired one of its cannons and blew a chunk off of the Dome ship. It was someone's private quarters.

‹What in the name of Yaolin—› the captain exclaimed and then was cut off.

The piece was sent spiraling down the small blue planet below. This was no Yeerk weapon.

Present yourselves or die! The ship fired again, this time at an engine. The entire ship shook with the impact of the shot.

Prince Isidar opened communications, ‹This is Prince Isidar-Ganal-Eluit of the Andalite Dome ship, MoonFire. Explain your aggression!›

Ha! Whatever the creature was said, Why should we explain ourselves to an inferior species such as yourselves? This is not your territory, now leave at once! It is the orders of the Influence!

Another shot was fired but the MoonFire had escaped into Zero Space and had already set coordinates for the nearest Andalite outpost. The ship was long gone before its attacker could catch up.

Alice's POV

The Animorphs and Jacob had left, making this just like any other night for us, or so we thought. Peering out of the window, I could see two reddish-orange specks among the stars. To my surprise, they seemed to be falling, but they weren't like any meteor I had ever seen. They were smaller. Closer and closer they came until I was sure they were not normal.

"Carlisle," I said, "look outside."

The things were close enough now that I could see that they were flaming and coming straight for the forest.

"Those aren't meteors," stated Carlisle, "They are far too small and they are red."

Carlisle called the rest of the family over to see what was going on outside. The objects would hit the ground any second now. Bella started to ask what they were when all of a sudden:

BOOM!!

About a minute had passed, then again:

BOOM!!

Each impact was like an earthquake. Even as a vampire, the impacts were startlingly hard. Why hadn't I seen this coming? It is never a good sign when I can't see it. The impact of the flaming objects had started a forest fire.

"Carlisle, we have to do something about this." Declared Edward.

"Okay," started Carlisle, "everyone, come on. We have to see where those things landed and what they were."

Everyone agreed and we headed off towards the sight. The fire was already spreading and I could feel its warmth. I was nervous about the fire for obvious reasons.

Finally, we made it to the scene. Strangely, for about fifteen feet around the first object, there was no fire. It was like the shock wave had pushed the fire back or something. What was equally strange is that the piece seemed to be like some sort of apartment, albeit a very strange one. There was an odd looking door and the whole thing wasn't very large.

To our surprise, the door began to open and it revealed, to our further surprise, an Andalite. The Andalite was very badly injured. There was missing fur and one stalk eye was horribly deformed. The Andalite's tail, or at least most of it, was completely gone. He was burned all over. When he had finally stepped all the way out of the little house looking thing, he began to notice us.

The Andalite's first reaction was to pull out a small, pistol-sized weapon and point it at us. He spoke, the thought-speak being very weak,

‹You are humans,› he said, ‹or maybe Human-Controllers. How do I know you're not all Yeerks waiting to kill me?›

This was very strange. It was a seemingly normal night with nothing really new happening at all, then all of a sudden, a piece of metal lands on the ground and out pops an Andalite. Talk about weird. The Andalite was silent for a while, then said, ‹Well?›

"Actually," said Carlisle, "we are not Human-Controllers, nor are we human. If you give us a moment, we can explain everything."

‹Very well,› answered the Andalite, ‹but be brief.›

Carlisle explained everything to the Andalite up until the point when we allied with the "Andalite Bandits". After some hesitation, he even told the Andalite about the bandits really being morph-capable humans.

‹Very well,› the Andalite said, ‹since I am in no fit condition to oppose you, I will believe your story for the time being. Now, however, it is time to tell my side of the story.›

The Andalite's story was very interesting.

‹My name is Ondar-Aldenok-Morteth, and I was a Tactical Officer or TO aboard the Dome ship, MoonFire. I had been ordered to inform Prince Isidar-Ganal-Eluit of an unknown ship that had just emerged from Zero Space. I then returned to my quarters at once. Irritating Prince Isidar is something that you do not want to do. Anyway, I was in my quarters when after awhile, I felt an impact. Looking out the window, I realized, to my horror, that I was drifting away from the ship and that the attacker was a large black ship with quad cannons.

‹The ship fired once more and I saw an engine come whizzing past me. I was reciting the ritual of death the whole way down. In fact, the only thing that kept me alive was the low power force field surrounding my quarters, which is how I came to be here at this moment.›

TO Ondar's thought-speak got weak towards the end of his story like he was losing energy. I had an idea. Maybe Cassie could help him get better. Yes! I could see that she would be more than willing to try and help the Andalite.

"Hold on," I told him, "we are going to get help. One of the Animorphs that we told you about is going to try and help you. Do you think you can hold on for that long?"

‹Yes.›

"You must make haste, Alice." Carlisle told me, "We do not know how much time he might have. I will do what I can, being a doctor, but we will need Cassie and Ax as well. He would know the Andalite's physiology."

I ran off towards Cassie's barn to tell her the startling news.

A.N: The mystery ship along with the "Influence" will have more importance in the sequel when I finish this. I'm not going to make this one of those 57 chapter long fics.