Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

I love the Warmaker's Guild just causing trouble in the neighbourhood and getting absolutely crushed by a group of young teens.

# ? Aug 1, 2021 09:54

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# ? May 25, 2024 09:09

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Why is Ax dancing

# ? Aug 1, 2021 12:01

Agaragon: Nov 16, 2018

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Why is Ax dancing

He is part of the cheer squad along with Rachel, Marco, and a just getting pumped up a little Cassie.

# ? Aug 1, 2021 19:21

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

freebooter posted:

Also I'll spoiler tag it for those who don't want to see it (though I think we're about to see the scene it depicts) but this book has probably the craziest inside cover of the entire series:

Yeah, this is about as far as I can remember from this book; I don't remember the confrontation with the howlers or how this plot was resolved at all. And aside from Megamorphs #3 and Visser, which I guess I read out of sequence of the main series, it's also the last book I can remember anything about. I've seen some synopses of future books and they don't seem familiar at all. This must have been about when I went over to Everworld instead.

# ? Aug 1, 2021 21:15

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Why is Ax dancing

He can dance if he wants to :colbert:

# ? Aug 1, 2021 21:44

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

e X posted:

He can dance if he wants to

He can leave his friends behind.

# ? Aug 1, 2021 22:19

Fritzler: Sep 5, 2007

Fuschia tude posted:

Yeah, this is about as far as I can remember from this book; I don't remember the confrontation with the howlers or how this plot was resolved at all. And aside from Megamorphs #3 and Visser, which I guess I read out of sequence of the main series, it's also the last book I can remember anything about. I've seen some synopses of future books and they don't seem familiar at all. This must have been about when I went over to Everworld instead.

I think is the last book I actually remember exactly how it resolves. I think I thought it was dumb as a child, but I think I will like it much more as an adult who is not worried about cooties. I also remember how this is relevant to the Yeerks, which I thought was a nice touch.

I do like how out there some of the sci fi concepts are. These books were probably my first sci-fi experiences, and they really swung for the fences in a way I really appreciate now. Capitalist planet is a big enough concept that it did not also need the krayak/elimist war but glad to have that present too.

# ? Aug 1, 2021 23:58

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Fuschia tude posted:

Yeah, this is about as far as I can remember from this book; I don't remember the confrontation with the howlers or how this plot was resolved at all. And aside from Megamorphs #3 and Visser, which I guess I read out of sequence of the main series, it's also the last book I can remember anything about. I've seen some synopses of future books and they don't seem familiar at all. This must have been about when I went over to Everworld instead.

I think the reason I never much liked Everworld was that it put its main characters in a way harsher situation. They're just normal kids stuck in this hell world with their soft squishy vulnerable bodies. Whereas the Animorphs basically have a superpower they can always rely on even when the bad situation they're in isn't the normal Yeerk fight - like being stuck in the Arctic or here on Capitalism World - so it feels more fun/optimistic even when things get dark. Or feels like they can at least fight back.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 00:54

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

freebooter posted:

I think the reason I never much liked Everworld was that it put its main characters in a way harsher situation. They're just normal kids stuck in this hell world with their soft squishy vulnerable bodies. Whereas the Animorphs basically have a superpower they can always rely on even when the bad situation they're in isn't the normal Yeerk fight - like being stuck in the Arctic or here on Capitalism World - so it feels more fun/optimistic even when things get dark. Or feels like they can at least fight back.

Part of that is that it's for younger kids, too. Everworld was written as a young adult book for teens. Animorphs was, I think, marketed more to the 9-13 set. Not that books marketed to that age range can't be dark....they can, and Animorphs sometimes is. But they tend to be less brooding.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 01:10

HIJK: Nov 25, 2012; in the room where you sleep

I tried Everworld when I was part of the target demographic and my vague memory of it was a lot of bitter grim dark teens doing bitter grim dark things and even then it turned me off because I didn't think it was entertaining. Tell a goddamn joke once in a while.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 01:24

Mazerunner: Apr 22, 2010; Good Hunter, what... what is this post?

was everworld the one with the kid who stayed awake in cryosleep and put his brain into slow motion?

# ? Aug 2, 2021 02:36

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Mazerunner posted:

was everworld the one with the kid who stayed awake in cryosleep and put his brain into slow motion?

Remnants is the cryosleep sci-fi book series. But it sounds like you're describing The Jaunt by Stephen King.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 02:58

An Actual Princess: Dec 23, 2006

Mazerunner posted:

was everworld the one with the kid who stayed awake in cryosleep and put his brain into slow motion?

that's remnants yeah. which is up there with one of the most bizarre series i've ever read

# ? Aug 2, 2021 03:34

An Actual Princess: Dec 23, 2006

everworld is the series about the teens that get pulled into another world where all the gods from all the mythologies are there and it's relentlessly grim all the time

# ? Aug 2, 2021 03:35

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

HIJK posted:

I tried Everworld when I was part of the target demographic and my vague memory of it was a lot of bitter grim dark teens doing bitter grim dark things and even then it turned me off because I didn't think it was entertaining. Tell a goddamn joke once in a while.

Yeah, I dropped off after a year or so. I felt like they were almost trying too hard to make it grim and edgy. Also I started high school in 99 and probably stopped reading YA entirely around then.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 03:41

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 10

quote:

The Howler was moving up the stairway. We were moving down. We froze. The Howler kept coming.

He was not huge. Smaller than a Hork-Bajir. As big as a large man. He walked on two bowed legs with a swinging, almost comic gait. He had two arms, longer than his legs. The hands were almost human, five fingers and an opposable thumb. But from the wrists projected a sort of second hand, a claw that could be lowered to cover the back of the hand, or kept up out of the way. This claw had four hooked, steel-tipped claws.

It looked like there was a bearing halfway up his body, as if the top half of the torso was on a living lazy Susan, allowing the body to turn all the way around and keep the fighting claws in the game. The head was ugly, a slag heap of melted-looking, black pebbled skin. The entire creature looked like he had been formed out of still-cooling lava. Beneath the black, in the cracks and creases of his flesh, were lines of bright red.

Within this face were eyes of a startlingly beautiful blue. Robin�s egg blue, they call it. The entire eye was blue, with the cat�s iris a paler shade.

The Howler seemed indifferent to us. Didn�t care. Wasn�t concerned.

He wore a series of loose belts around his torso, and each of these featured a different weapon.

Or at least they looked like weapons. Something similar to a Dracon beam, what might almost have been an automatic pistol, knives, small metallic boomerangs, a gun that seemed loaded with darts.

He was a walking arsenal.

I looked back at Erek, above me on the stairs. His face was flickering. In and out. Not with emotion. With simple loss of control. The android under the hologram kept peeking out.

The Howler�s empty blue eyes locked on Erek.

�Erek, get a grip,� I said with forced calm.

He shook himself and the hologram stabilized, but the Howler kept watching him.

�Six against one, Jake,� Rachel said. �We won�t get better odds.�

I felt my stomach clench. Sheer drop on both sides. Unknown terrain below. Not the place for a fight. But Rachel was right: It was the time.

�Morph,� I said quietly. �Ax? You take the lead. Tobias? Get some altitude. Guide? Back off, this isn�t your fight. Erek? Stay out of the way.�

That sounded harsher than I�d intended. But my heart was hammering and I was feeling the fearsweat down my back. It had happened too soon. We weren�t ready. We were tired from the run-ins with the Warmaker Iskoort.

But mostly, mostly I was seeing pictures in my head. The eye. Crayak. The image from my dream. I could almost hear him laughing. Just a figment of my imagination, but it felt real enough. Six against one. It wasn�t going to get any better.

I began to morph, to call on the tiger DNA that swam through my blood. The tiger would be bigger than the Howler. The six of us together in morph can take on anything, I told myself. We can take on anything.

The Howler�s blue eyes narrowed as we shifted positions. He knew a fight when he saw one coming. But he was fascinated by the morphing. Fascinated and almost jealous, if it�s possible to read an expression on a face made of tar with eyes as empty as sky.

I felt the morph working on my body. The orange fur grew from my hands and arms. I had no time to get out of my clothes. They�d be torn apart by the morphing. Fur spread across my body. My fingers swelled, dark leather on the palms, orange and white on the back. Claws that could leave slash marks in a car door grew to replace my useless human fingernails.

I heard the organs inside me shifting, squishing, relocating, configuring themselves for the tiger body.

A long tail sprouted from the base of my spine and immediately began to snap back and forth, twitching in agitation and anticipation.

I fell forward onto all fours. This made my head several steps lower than my hindquarters. Teeth filled my mouth, too big, so big they grew out like a saber-toothed cat�s teeth.

Then my mouth caught up and my face grew sensitive whiskers. My eyes, made for seeing through darkness like it was day. My nose, sensitive to every smell of animal life. My ears, pricked forward, quivering at attention.

The Howler looked a little less intimidating now. The tiger was not worried. The tiger knew it was the fastest, deadliest creature in the jungle. The tiger did not fear the strange-smelling creature.

Ax was just in front of me, tail bowed and ready, three eyes forward, the remaining stalk eye watching the rest of us. Rachel had morphed to grizzly bear. She stood up, a massive pillar of rough brown fur with power to uproot small trees. Marco had morphed to gorilla. He swung his pile driver arms back and forth almost casually, like he was waiting on the street corner for the bus to come.

Cassie had morphed to wolf. The thick armor of fur on the back of her neck stood on end, and she�d drawn back her muzzle, revealing wet, glistening teeth.

We were more than a ton of muscle and claw and tooth, all directed by human intelligence that could draw on animal instinct.

Facing us, a single, man-sized alien.

I realized Erek was talking. That he had been for several seconds and I�d been too distracted to hear him.

� � will paralyze you and numb your senses. If he gets close he�ll use the needle teeth retracted into his upper and lower jaw. He�s not as fast as -�

<Erek. What did you say about paralyzing?> I interrupted.

�It�s the reason they�re called Howlers, Jake. The voice. Be ready to -�

The Howler�s hand moved. Reaching for the beam weapon!

This is definitely a "Listen to Erek" moment.

Chapter 11

quote:

�Hhhhhrrroooowwwwrrrr!� I roared, a sound that made brave men fall down trembling.

I gathered myself for a leap. But Ax was faster. His tail snapped, crack!

The Howler�s hand dropped. The weapon clattered down the stairs. But before the weapon had stopped rolling, the hand was growing back!

<Attack!> I yelled.

I leaped. Ax whipped his tail again, faster than the eye could follow.

I roared again, bellowing a sound that had never been heard on planet Iskoort. The others surged behind me. Down we went, a ton of animal power.

Then the Howler replied.

�KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-row.�

It was a blast of sound like nothing I�d ever heard before. Compared to it, my tiger�s roar was the mewling of a kitten.

�KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-row.�

I missed my leap and fell in a tangle on the steps. I saw Rachel trip and fall, landing on top of me. It was like having a safe dropped on my stomach.

The wind exploded from my lungs. I scrambled to get up, but I couldn�t make sense of up or down. I clawed feebly. Rachel rolled off and I saw that Ax was reeling, running! Running away, back up the stairs, weak Andalite hands clapped against his ears, blood seeping between the fingers. Cassie was howling, all wolf in her pain.

Marco seemed the least affected. He swung a cement-block fist that hit the Howler on his arm and spun the creature sideways.

I got to my feet, hoping to attack while the Howler was off-balance. Except the Howler wasn�t off-balance. The ball-bearing waist twirled him all the way around, using the force of Marco�s blow to spin and bring the now-regenerated hand up to a weapon.

F-t-t-t-t-t-t!

He had fired! A dozen steel darts, tiny triangles, ripped a messy hole through my left front leg. I stumbled. The pain was intense.

Marco swung another fist, missed! The Howler turned the flechette gun on him. A bloody hole you could have pushed a Coke can through appeared in Marco�s back.

He dropped like a load of bricks.

Cassie had recovered enough to bound into action, using Marco�s fallen mass as a springboard.

The Howler raised the gun, but too slowly. Wolf jaws clamped down on the arm and Cassie held on like a bulldog, ripping, tearing.

I was up and moving on three legs. A lame leap! I clamped my teeth on Howler leg. Rachel was up, too, and charging on all fours, looking to knock the creature down.

Tobias came swooping down at full-stoop speed, talons out for the Howler�s eyes. We were getting the upper hand!

�KEEEEEEEEEE-row!�

Someone exploded a hand grenade in my head. I clamped my jaws tight, but all else was a blur, a swirling, mad blur.

Blue-and-tan fur leaped over me, rust-red feathers shot past. What? What was happening? I couldn�t think � couldn�t make sense �

A searing sharp pain. My eyes cleared just long enough to see the ornate dagger handle that protruded from my neck.

I�d been stabbed! In the neck. The tiger�s blood � my blood �

�Jake! Demorph!� Erek said in a voice loud enough to penetrate the death fog creeping through my brain.

Then there came other orders, all rapped out in a loud, clear voice. No, not orders. Just information.

�Cassie, he�s trying to stab you. Ax, you are too close to the edge, stop moving! Rachel, the Howler is within two feet of the edge, to your right.�

I was demorphing. Or at least I thought I was. I couldn�t be sure. The tiger was dying, blood pumping out of his severed neck arteries.

�Demorph, Jake! Demorph!� Erek�s loud voice urged. �Do it now!�

I heard a bear�s roar. I heard an impact: body against body. I saw nothing but shapes, meaningless shapes.

�Cassie, demorph!� Erek ordered. �He�s gutted you, demorph! Do it now.�

From far off, a hawk�s cry. A bear�s bellow. The bullwhip crack of an Andalite tail.

All far, faraway.

Well, that's the book, everyone. Sorry about Jake there. In seriousness, it's surprising how many chapters in Animorphs end with the narrator about to die. Also, remember, this is one Howler doing this.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 04:21

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I know Erek can't fight, per se, but can't he non-violently restrain the Howler? Like his dad once did to Rachel in bear morph?

# ? Aug 2, 2021 04:28

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

I think this genuinely might be the last book I read. I distinctly remember how weird this planet was, jeez.

I also remember the twist of the ending but only through faint memory's eyes so.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 05:00

Mazerunner: Apr 22, 2010; Good Hunter, what... what is this post?

freebooter posted:

I know Erek can't fight, per se, but can't he non-violently restrain the Howler? Like his dad once did to Rachel in bear morph?

If he was a neutral third-party probably. Erek's dad had the goal of preventing current/future violence.

Here, the goal of the competition and the Animorphs and Erek is to defeat the Howlers- holding someone down while your buddy beats on them wouldn't count as pacifist, I don't think. Maybe he could hold it down while the others escape.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 06:59

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Yeah I guess he know if he did that, Rachel or Jake would tear its throat out next minute. Though, really, simply providing them with intelligence and advice is fundamentally no different. (This is why pacifism falls apart as a philosophy IMO).

# ? Aug 2, 2021 09:01

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Ah, a flechette gun.

For whatever reason, those things were everywhere in fiction in the 90s.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 16:19

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Cythereal posted:

Ah, a flechette gun.

For whatever reason, those things were everywhere in fiction in the 90s.

Gotta make FutureBullets somehow if you don't want rayguns. IIRC it was that or some variation on gauss weapons pretty much 24/7.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 16:25

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

That howler is one crazy mofo

# ? Aug 2, 2021 20:12

Grammarchist: Jan 28, 2013

The Howler's response to the morphing body horror was pretty hilarious. Like John Wick walked into a village full of werewolves and just went "Cool" before kicking everyone's rear end.

# ? Aug 2, 2021 23:07

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 12

quote:

Crayak turned his bloodred eye on me, watching as I lay helpless. Watching as the Howlers stood around Cassie in a circle, watching as they lowered their claw hands into place, watching and laughing as she stood, eyes closed, helpless, seconds away from -

�Cassie! Lookout!�

I jerked up, eyes wide, hands flailing, fending off an attack.

�Chill, chill,� Marco said. He grabbed one hand and Rachel grabbed the other. �It�s okay, dude, fight�s over.�

I looked around, still wild. A room. Walls of solid colors, one red, the others yellow. Still in Lego Land.

I slapped my legs. Human. My arms. Human. All me, with no ragged holes.

I�d made it out of morph. I looked around the room. Rachel and Marco. Tobias sitting on the back of a strangely shaped chair. Erek standing alone, head down in thought. Ax as far from me as he could get, all four eyes turned away.

�Cassie?� I asked.

�I�m here,� she said. I realized she was behind me. I felt her palm on my cheek. Then she put her arms around me and hugged me from behind. It made me want to cry.

�It�s taken you a while to wake up,� Cassie said. �You barely demorphed in time. Then it was like you were in a coma, like you weren�t going to wake up at all.�

I remembered dreams. They were dreams, weren�t they? Hard to be sure. Reality itself was weird enough to be a dream.

�The Howler?� I asked Rachel.

Her mouth was an angry line. �We hurt him. But he walked away.�

�Six against one and we got a draw,� Marco said angrily.

�Not six,� Rachel corrected. �Seven. Erek saved our butts. He was the only one who could handle the howls.�

�Yeah, right, thanks a huge load, Erek,� Marco said angrily. �He gave us directions. Not to hurt the Howler, you understand, �cause that would violate his programming. But directions on how to crawl out of there.�

I held on to Cassie�s hand. I didn�t want to get into this. I wanted to hold on to a moment of feeling glad to be alive, glad to feel Cassie�s concern.

Then I sighed, squeezed her fingers, and pushed her hand away. �Erek did what he could, Marco. You know that as well as I do. My brain was scrambled. I�d be dead without him. That�s enough for me.�

Marco looked like he wanted to say something else, but then his anger collapsed. �Yeah. We all did what we could.�

I spotted Guide back against a wall, uncharacteristically quiet. �You stick with us after that?� I asked him.

His eyes glowed. <Oh, yes, yes, yes. I will be able to sell the memory of that battle for a small fortune! And if each of you would sell me your own unique perspectives, I could buy my own corner with the profits!>

I drew Cassie around to where I could see her. I nodded at Ax. �What�s with him?� I asked.

She shook her head. �He ran away. He came back, but I guess that�s not enough. He won�t talk to anyone.�

�Let him be for a while,� I said. �Then I�ll talk to him.�

I felt weary. Bruised and beaten, although my human body reconstructed from DNA was unscarred by the battle. It was my brain that was worn out. I could see similar feelings on the faces around me.

We�d been beaten in a fair fight. No, not a fair fight. It had been six of us plus Erek against one Howler. We�d fought to a draw. A tie. Seven against one. A tie.

If there had been two Howlers, let alone all seven, we�d have been killed in ten seconds. We weren�t scared, not the way we might be, facing a battle. We were worse than scared: We were beaten.

�What is this place?� I asked.

Rachel shrugged. �Some place Guide got for us. This room and a bathroom - well, I think it�s a bathroom. Hope it�s a bathroom.�

A pile of rags lay in one corner. Our clothing. What was left of it after we�d morphed while still wearing it. We were in our morphing outfits now. But I guessed we didn�t look any more out of place than we would have, anyway. The Iskoort probably didn�t care much about human fashion.

<What do we do?> Tobias asked.

�I�m for dialing up the Ellimist and telling him to go jump off whatever super-dimensional bridge he can find,� Marco said.

<He wouldn�t have put us here if we weren�t at least theoretically capable of winning,> Tobias said.

�Unless there�s some other, deeper game the Ellimist is playing,� Cassie said. �He�s fighting a battle for entire species, entire planets. We�re just pawns.�

That was more cynicism than I was used to hearing from Cassie. But she wasn�t wrong. The Ellimist and Crayak were both way over our heads. And I was haunted by the suggestion that maybe this was all a setup. That maybe Crayak wanted us here. Not because we were important by ourselves, but because eliminating us would help the Yeerks.

Why had the Ellimist brought us here? He had to know how powerful the Howlers were. Had to.

�This is a rotten, stinking deal,� Rachel said, expressing the thoughts in my own head. �We�re leaving our own planet defenseless to save these Iskoort.�
She said �Iskoort� like a curse word.

I found myself looking at Erek. I could only imagine what was going on inside his head. He had the power to fight Howlers and win. But wasn�t able to fight.

Erek said, �Maybe the Ellimist would reprogram me. Remove the prohibition against violence.�

Marco groaned. �Well, it�s official: The situation is hopeless. When Erek starts talking that way it�s because we�re beat.�

�Beat this,� Rachel said rudely.

It made me smile. Rachel felt as down as anyone, but she refused to admit she couldn�t just go out and nail the next Howler she saw.

�They�re faster than we are, stronger than we are, better armed than we are,� Cassie said glumly.

Then she lifted her face, eyes wary. �But are they smarter than we are?�

�Erek?� I asked him.

He sighed, a very human reaction. �They had faster-than-light ships at a time when humans still thought the wheel was a radical new invention.�

<Doesn�t make them smarter,> Tobias said. <The Ellimist said some species evolve quickly, others slowly. If you get a billion years� head start, of course you have better weapons and technology than a species that started later. Doesn�t mean you�re smarter. Maybe it just means you started earlier.>

It was a weak thread to hang by. But it was all we had.

�Erek? Tell us all you know about the Howlers,� I said.

Sort of related to freebooter's comments about Erek and pacifism, Erek didn't tell them how to fight the Howlers, just how to survive the Howlers. Is that a work around? I don't know. Tobias does make the good point that, just because the Howlers are more advanced than people, it doesn't mean they're smarter. Still, we've seen that one Howler is a match in combat for 6 Animorphs and their Chee friend, so I'm thinking the idea of beating 7 of them in a straight up battle is pretty hopeless, and the team knows that.

Chapter 13

quote:

�I only saw them from the point of view of the victims,� Erek said. �I can use my holographic systems to recreate what I saw. But there may be a way to get even more information.�

<Yes!> Guide said, picking up on it right away. <Yes, of course. You could purchase Howler memories!> He walked over to the wall and touched a panel. The panel opened. A shelf popped out, an array of buttons and colored touch pads.



�You�re not getting any more of my hair,� Rachel warned. �Not a kidney or an arm, either.�

Guide whined from the diaphragm in his chest. It may have been a laugh of some kind. 

I sucked in a breath. �What is this memory-selling? Does it mean we lose our memories?�

Guide looked perplexed. <Of course not. Why would it? We simply make a copy.>

�They Xerox our memories?�

<Can�t do it,> Tobias said. <Those memories could end up reaching the Yeerks.>

He was right. Maybe. �Ax?�

No answer. Ax was swaying slightly, back and forth. His tail was low, curved forward. He was way deep in private thoughts.

�Ax!� I said louder. �Ax, we need you.�

He looked up, startled. <Yes, Prince Jake.>

I didn�t tell him not to call me Prince. This wasn�t going to be handled with a little joshing. The Andalites are an essentially peaceful race, but with a long warrior tradition, too. Ax was an aristh. A military cadet. And he�d spent his entire life in the shadow of his brother, Elfangor, who was considered a great war hero.

�How far are we from the closest Yeerk outpost?� I asked him.



Guide touched a wall panel. A small, flat screen appeared. Muttering and whining to himself, Guide called up a star chart. It was meaningless to me, of course.

Ax looked at it with no visible interest. He touched the screen, pulling the perspective back, widening the view. He did this twice more, till even I could recognize the spiral arms of our own Milky Way galaxy.

<We are more than five hundred million light years from Earth,> Ax said. <Before the Yeerks could spread a tenth of this distance they would have had to swallow not only Earth, but my planet as well.>

I nodded. �Thanks. Okay, then. It�s a deal, Guide. But if I understand what you�ve told me, our memories would make you very, very rich. So this is it. If we live, you get to copy our memories. And you don�t ask for anything else, and you advance us whatever we need.�

I thought Guide was going to fall over. I had the feeling we�d just turned him into the Bill Gates of the Iskoort.



�The android has a name: Erek,� Rachel snapped.

<He can call himself the Grand Guildmaster as far as I am concerned!> Guide said happily. Guide tapped into the panel. Then he called Erek over. He pointed to a slot like a keyhole. <Can you interface?>

Erek dropped his hologram, revealing his true android body. From one steel finger a prong telescoped out and pressed into the keyhole. The steel finger changed shape to conform to the keyhole shape. Erek�s almost canine face was blank. Then his eyes flew open and he pulled back. It was impossible to read emotion on the android face. But I could guess. He had just absorbed the memories of the creatures who had wiped out his creators, the Pemalites, and made interstellar fugitives of the Chee.

�How are you doing, Erek?� Cassie asked.

�I have absorbed the available Howler memories. They are not � not pleasant viewing.�

�Can you show us?�

�Yes.� He hesitated. �Memories of the attack on my creators is included. I would not like to show you that. I would not like to have to �� He fell silent, embarrassed.

Cassie put a hand on his steel and ivory arm. �Then don�t. Show us what you can. Show us what we need to know.�

Erek nodded. �The planet I�ll show you has no name. The people call themselves Graffen�s Children. What I will show you happened approximately twenty Earth years ago.�

The bare room disappeared as Erek�s hologram filled the room with a forest in shades of purple, blue-green, and mustard-yellow. We saw enormous leaves, as big as bedsheets. Vines wound along the ground, dipped in and out of the dark soil, then shot up to form strange trees.

Birds in long, random shapes like pink feather boas swooped and wove through the leaves and branches. Below them, orange-and-yellow centipedes crept along. Bristly combs rose from their backs, making them look like a comic cross between worms and stegosauruses. Animals like twoheaded prairie dogs popped up out of subterranean lairs, spit out mouthfuls of dirt and disappeared again.
It was a rain forest. But someone else�s. With wonders no more magical than those of Earth, but
wonders just the same.

Through the forest came a column of creatures that made me laugh. �Gumby,� I said.

They looked like Gumby. Not green, but dark blue, and not smooth, but as rough-textured as an old tree. But still they moved with the jerky grace of Gumby, walking on two legs, eyes raised to the treetops above them.

I saw a hand move into view and I jerked in surprise. A Howler�s hand! I was seeing this forest, these plants and animals and Graffen�s Children, through Howler eyes.

The Howler was lying in wait, hidden from view.

Then the nearest of the Graffen�s Children spotted him. His eyes went wide. A smile twisted his strange mouth. He extended a hand toward the Howler, welcoming, curious.

The column of Graffen�s Children walked toward the Howler like so many toddlers. Like kids who wanted to pet a dog or something.

The Howler moved, a blur of speed. Other Howlers came into view. They howled. To us the sound was softened by Erek�s filtering. But it hit the Graffen�s Children full force. They began to blow apart. They stood there, helpless, confused, not knowing why anyone would hurt them, and they simply -

�Erek, stop it!� I snapped.

The hologram disappeared as quickly as a TV picture that had been turned off.

�I shouldn�t have let you do this, Erek. Can you erase this stuff from your memory?�

�No, Jake.�

�I�m sorry,� I said. �How much more did you absorb?�

Erek powered up his human hologram. His face was human again. Now I could see the emotions Erek was feeling. �I have memories of seventeen Howler attacks. All successful. They have never been defeated. They have attacked highly advanced civilizations and simple people like Graffen�s
Children. They have never taken a prisoner. They simply kill and kill and kill until there is no one left to kill. Then they go and find something else to kill.�

�That�s insane!� Cassie yelled. �No species does that. It doesn�t make sense. There�s no logic to it. You�re not talking about predators who kill to eat, or prey animals who kill in self-defense. Even humans have reasons, no matter how sick. Even humans have limits. Why would evolution result in a
species that kills for no reason?�

�It wouldn�t. It didn�t,� Erek said. �The Howlers didn�t evolve. They were created.�

�Crayak?�

He nodded. �Graffen�s Children and dozens of species were annihilated by Crayak�s Children.�

So, I guess I have somebody else to add to my list of genocides.

I'm thinking less about the Howlers than the Chee here. The Chee aren't organic, they're androids (canoids?), created by the Pemalites, but the Pemalites didn't want slaves or workers, really. They primarily wanted friends and companions....pets, almost. So when they created the Chee, they gave them Pemalite characteristics and Pemalite morality...they made them peaceful, clever, gregarious, playful, curious.

That means, though, that while the Cree are virtually immune damage, they're not to emotional damage. They can feel grief, depression, moral outrage, and, because the Chee have perfect memories, they can never forget anything they see, no matter how horrible. I'm not entirely sure the Pemalites did the Chee a favor.

# ? Aug 3, 2021 04:10

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

quote:
Guide touched a wall panel. A small, flat screen appeared. Muttering and whining to himself, Guide called up a star chart. It was meaningless to me, of course.

Ax looked at it with no visible interest. He touched the screen, pulling the perspective back, widening the view. He did this twice more, till even I could recognize the spiral arms of our own Milky Way galaxy.

<We are more than five hundred million light years from Earth,> Ax said. <Before the Yeerks could spread a tenth of this distance they would have had to swallow not only Earth, but my planet as well.>

This bothered me as a kid who grew up interested in space. I never knew if KAA meant that they were five hundred million light years from Earth but still in the Milky Way (which is, uh, about two hundred thousand light years across, so nope), or if the Milky Way was just one recognizable object on a chart that covered 500 Mly (which would be roughly like calling up an unlabeled satellite image of the entire Earth and recognizing Amarillo, Texas, so probably also nope). I think it's the first, but either way, that number is meaninglessly large, which is likely more important than the specifics.

# ? Aug 3, 2021 12:18

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 14

quote:

We slept in shifts. Two of us on guard at all times. A futile gesture. If the Howlers found us, we would die.

Guide assured us we were safe. Apartments were built strong enough to resist the often rambunctious Warmaker Iskoort. And with our bargain to give him our memories, I felt like he had an interest in keeping us alive.

But so far, the Iskoort generally didn�t impress me. I was sure that others, with less at stake, would sell us out.

It was a long night. It was a very long night. Maybe some of us slept. I didn�t. I didn�t want to dream.

I tried to make sense of it all. Tried to figure out what the Ellimist thought he was doing. How he expected us to win a fight we had no hope of winning.

But nothing made sense. Whatever game the Ellimist was playing was over our heads. I felt like an ant wandering around a chessboard, trying to figure out the rules when all I could see was colossal figures moving around me in inexplicable patterns.

All we had learned was that the Howlers were violent beyond belief. Destructive. That they
were, in fact, designed and built to be pure evil.

�What�s it like to be one of them?� Cassie whispered in the darkness. She was close by. Obviously not sleeping, either.

�Who? An Iskoort?�

�No. A Howler. They know they were created by Crayak. They�re bright enough to fly spacecraft, so they can�t be entirely without minds. What do they think of themselves?�

I didn�t really care. But Cassie�s voice was a comforting distraction. �I don�t know. I guess they�re happy being what they are. Aren�t most species happy being themselves?�

Long silence, as she considered that. �Maybe I would have believed that back in the old days. But you know, I�ve been a termite, an ant. Mindless creatures of instinct. They weren�t happy. Not unhappy, either. They just do what they�re programmed to do, and they don�t have minds, really, so what else can they do? But Howlers must have minds.�

�Just because a person or whatever is intelligent, that doesn�t mean they can�t be brutal and rotten and evil. I mean, there must have been some smart Nazis and some smart slave owners.�

�Yeah, but the Howlers aren�t just individuals. We�re talking about an entire species, an entire race, being evil. That isn�t possible. We know that. Even the Yeerks aren�t all one way.�

�And maybe the Howlers are. All one way, I mean. Maybe you just have a race that is pure evil.�

�Can�t be,� Cassie said confidently.

�Why not?�

�Because that�s what Nazis and slave owners and people like that believed. That you can just take a whole race or whatever and say �they�re all this or all that.� That�s never going to be true.�

�Maybe,� I said, not wanting to stomp on her idealism. �Maybe so. But what are the odds that these seven Howlers handpicked by Crayak are going to be all soft and cuddly?�

She fell silent. So I guess I�d stomped on her idealism, anyway. At some level I thought, Good.

We don�t need a bunch of happy talk when we�re up against Howlers. But at another level I was just mad at the world and confused and scared.

I started to say �Cassie �� when something hit the door with the impact of a small comet.

WHAM!

We were up and awake in a billionth of a second.

WHAM!

The door held, amazingly. Guide started to whine. <See! I told you ->

TSEEEEEEW!

A red circle appeared in the door and began to smoke and burn.

�It�s them!� I yelled. �Howlers!�

I felt like I was choking on my own heart, like it was beating so hard, so fast, that it filled me up, leaving no room for any but small, gasping breaths.

We were going to die!

I heard moans of terror. Some were coming from me, just these subhuman, animal moans of fear.

�Morph!� I yelled, choking out the word.

�They�re going to kill us!� Marco cried.

In the glow of the Dracon beam, I saw Ax walking steadily toward the door. Rough, shaggy hair was sprouting from Rachel�s face.

�NO!� I blurted, realizing the mistake. �Not combat morphs! Go small! Flies!�

I tried to focus my jangled, shattered-glass brain on the image of a fly. It was the only way out.

Not to fight, but to run.

 Ax said calmly.

�No, Ax. Morph! We have to get out of here!� Rachel yelled at him.

 Ax said. <Not again.>

<Not the time, Ax-man!> Tobias said.

 he said harshly.

TSEEEEEEEEW!

The beam suddenly burned through into the room and hit the far wall.

Erek ran to the hole in the door as a Howler stuck his head though, eyes greedy. Erek�s hologram was gone. He was now a Chee.

�Chee!� the Howler said in surprise.

Erek took one steel hand and calmly rammed his fingers into the metal of the door. They went through like he was sticking his hand in a loaf of bread. He did the same with the other hand, curling his fingers and gripping the handholds he had created.

He blocked the entrance with his body. The Howler sneered and shoved at him. Erek did not move by so much as an atom�s width.

The Howler backed up and leveled his flechette gun at Erek�s metallic face. He fired. Flechettes ricocheted around the room, but Erek was unharmed.

�Jake, this will not last,� Erek warned me.

We were all morphing at top speed. All but Ax. I already had huge, bulging fly eyes and six legs.

<Ax! Do it! Morph, right now!>

<No, I can�t run again!>

<Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, you call me �prince� and you act like you mean it and I am giving you a direct order. Morph. Do. It. NOW!>

I think this is the only time Jake has ever pulled rank on Ax. I also liked the conversation between Jake and Cassie about how Howlers must think, even if it ended inconclusively.

Chapter 15

quote:

Now the Howlers tried their ultimate weapon. The howl was earsplitting. The walls around Erek began to shiver and crack. Guide fell to the ground, rolling in agony.

Ax�s eyes were bleeding, even in midmorph. But the rest of us were more fly than human, and the waves of vibration from the Howlers did not cause us pain. Not pain, just an overwhelming instinct to fly. Vibration could be sound or it could be movement. The fly brains felt the howl as sudden, massive, threatening movements from every direction at once.

Still seven or eight pounds, with a twisting, morphing human mouth, I was beating my growing wings frantically, kicking in panic, trying to fly.

�Fight me, Chee,� the Howler taunted, when he realized his howl would not shake Erek�s grip.

I was shocked to recognize the language. He was speaking English! Crayak must have programmed it into this bunch of Howlers. Programmed them to understand our language and to be able to taunt and question us, if necessary.

Erek ignored him. The Howlers began to fire Dracon beams. Not at Erek. They must have known from their collective memory that Chee cannot be easily destroyed by beam weapons.

Instead, they were using the Dracon beams to slice around Erek�s handholds.

We had all morphed. All panicked, but all morphed. Except Ax, who was still partly Andalite. And Guide, who was sitting in a corner now, gazing raptly at the madness, creating valuable memories for later sale.

Suddenly, Erek�s handhold was gone, burned away. The Howlers pushed past him, contemptuous. They knew he could not fight. But they found nothing. Nothing that looked like the creatures one of them had fought on the stairs.

Nothing except a weak, defenseless Ax, still morphing. A hideously misshapen, melting, twisting monstrosity.

The Howlers piled into the room. With my compound eyes they seemed to be made of glowing purple and blue with pulsating black veins. The facets in my fun-house-mirror eyes broke them into pieces. They were everywhere around me as I flew unnoticed.

�Target?� one Howler asked another. This second Howler was slightly larger and carrying even more weapons.

�Yes. Kill it!� the leader bellowed in rage.

Seven flechette guns rose and took aim at Ax. He had no chance. None.

Erek leaped to put himself between the guns and Ax, but the Howlers calmly blocked his path.

And Erek�s programming would not allow him to shove them aside.

In a split second, Ax would be annihilated.

<Crayak is a huge, walking, talking pimple,> a thought-speak voice said.

Marco!

The Howlers� heads snapped around, left, right, their bodies swiveling as they searched for the one who taunted them. They aimed at Guide, who was crawling out through the hole they�d burned.

<Not me! Not me! I�m just an Iskoort trader! And by the way, I�d love to buy your memories of all this!>

<And Howlers are the cowards of the galaxy. Brainless, ugly, bad-smelling, sniveling, gutless worms,> Marco added.

�Forget it,� the leader ordered. �Voices are meaningless.�

I zipped through the air, flying in the wild, wobbly fly way. I aimed for the face of the Howler leader. I landed just beneath his left eye.

<Not just a voice, you walking dirtball. I�m right here. Think you�re tough? Try killing me.>

The hand snapped up with shocking speed. I felt it coming, felt the disturbances in the air, and I responded with the RIGHT NOW speed of the fly.

Alien fingers slapped toward me. I fired my wings. The Howler was so fast his fingers missed me by millimeters.

<How are you going to kill us?> Marco taunted. <Better go back to Crayak and explain that you�ve failed.>

�Forget them! Kill that-�

<Too late,> Ax said.

Ax had made the transition to fly.

<Okay, stay airborne. No one land, no one set down,> I said. I was beginning to feel just the smallest bit of optimism. Even relief. The Howlers were mystified.

�The android!� the Howler leader roared.

I looked. I could see Erek, or at least a shimmering, distorted version of him. But the Howlers no longer could. Erek had created a hologram of one of the walls. He was standing calmly behind it. Out of sight, though not out of reach.

<Let�s bail before these guys start thinking of ways to swat flies,> Cassie suggested.

<You got that right,> Marco agreed.

<Out the door,> I said. <But stay close.>

We zipped, unnoticed, through the burned-out doorway.

Not a victory. All we had managed to do was run away. But we were all still alive. And that was more than I would have thought possible.
Too bad just staying alive was not an option. We had to win. We had to destroy seven creatures, any one of whom could fight all of us to a draw.

I have to say, Guide is pretty brave. I know that the Howlers aren't supposed to hurt the Iskoort until this whole thing is over one way or another, and Guide might too, but still, that much firepower they're using, and there's got to be a chance he's collateral damage.

# ? Aug 4, 2021 04:39

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Epicurius posted:

I think this is the only time Jake has ever pulled rank on Ax.

Yeah from memory the only time I recall him making a serious direct order in the heat of battle is when he tells Cassie and Tobias to abandon Ax at the rich guy's mansion in 16.

I like how he used his full name. You will morph right this second, young man!

# ? Aug 4, 2021 04:55

Beachcomber: May 21, 2007; Another day in paradise.; Slippery Tilde

Hello, I've never read these before and am also posting from the beginning of Book 3.

But I am being driven mad.

Shouldn't they be called Controlled?

# ? Aug 4, 2021 07:32

GodFish: Oct 10, 2012; We're your first, last, and only line of defense. We live in secret. We exist in shadow.

And we dress in black.

Beachcomber posted:

Hello, I've never read these before and am also posting from the beginning of Book 3.

But I am being driven mad.

Shouldn't they be called Controlled?

I suppose if you think about it the person being controlled isn't the person you're interacting with or talking to, you're talking to the Yeerk doing the Controlling.

# ? Aug 4, 2021 07:53

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Beachcomber posted:

Hello, I've never read these before and am also posting from the beginning of Book 3.

Come back after you've finished that book. :allears:

# ? Aug 4, 2021 08:26

Bibliotechno Music: Dec 30, 2008

Started reading these to my 8 year old sister from the beginning last night! She has the attention span of an ADHD 8 year old raised on YouTube, so here�s hoping this sticks!

# ? Aug 4, 2021 18:37

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 16

quote:

<Guide. Can you hear me?>

<Yes, of course, I am not far away.>

<We know,> Rachel said. <We�re just above your head. No, don�t look!>

<They�ll watch Guide,> Tobias said. <If we hook up with him and demorph, they�ll have us.>

The seven Howlers had emerged from the wrecked apartment. We�d lost track of them after that.

Fly eyes are useless at any distance beyond a foot or two. Were they tracking us? Or Guide? No way to know. But you couldn�t get careless with Howlers.

<Erek. I know you can�t answer, but if you can hear me, try to find Guide. Hide him from the Howlers.>

As we watched Guide, another �Iskoort� sidled up next to him. The second Iskoort suddenly became a small group of Warmaker Iskoort who simply absorbed Guide.

This group of Warmaker Iskoort would have been revealed as a hologram if anyone had touched them. But no one did.

We flew into the hologram and landed on Erek�s head.

<Are we clear?> I asked Erek.

�We were being watched, but I believe we have lost the Howlers, at least for now.�

<Great,> Rachel said unenthusiastically. <We can stay alive as long as we�re flies hiding inside a hologram.>

 Guide said. <Incidentally, this ability you have to change shapes is very interesting. Is it perhaps a technology you can sell? I would pay top price.>

I didn�t bother answering. We demorphed back to human and hawk and Andalite, still hidden, bunched up within the hologram.

We were crossing a sort of large square or plaza. The floor was green in this area and almost made you think you were on a vast lawn. In the center of the square was yet another stairway, and we took it, heading down. It was busy, with lots of Iskoort coming and going and what I assumed to be a few aliens, as well.

Erek made the hologram growl and threaten repeatedly, to keep anyone from bumping into us and penetrating our illusion.

We came at last to the next level down. And this was definitely different. Instead of the bare openness of previous levels, this one was almost a jungle. But a unique one. The plants, trees, and flowers were all in planter boxes packed together, leaving only narrow, circuitous walkways. If you looked out and up, you�d think you were in a genuine jungle. If you looked down, you felt more like you were walking through a greenhouse.
Iskoort were packed in tight on the walkways. Too tight for our extended hologram.

�Tobias,� I said. �Think you could get up and see if we�re being followed?�

Tobias flew out of the top of the hologram, took a couple of turns, and came back. <Looks clear.>

�I can�t imagine the Howlers creeping along like spies, anyway,� Rachel said. �They�re a little more direct. If they see us, they�ll come after us, and too bad for anyone who gets in the way.�

Erek turned off the extended hologram and resumed his human appearance. We were exposed again. Aliens walking in what passed for a park. My skin tingled.

�Ax, keep an eye out in all directions,� I said. He was the only one of us who could look backward as easily as forward.

�Yeah, let us know if you see any Howlers so we can have a few seconds to cry before they get us,� Marco said darkly.

Through the maze of false forest, we shuffled along with Iskoort in various permutations, none of whom seemed to be having an especially good time.

My brain was buzzing. Going a mile a minute, but going nowhere. Like a car with the pedal all the way down but up on blocks, wheels spinning but staying still.

What was I missing? Something. Something. Some way to defeat the Howlers. Had to be some way. The Ellimist didn�t send us into this battle to lose.

Did he?

I tried calling to him with my mind. I wondered if he was listening. Probably. But he and Crayak had their rules. The rules of engagement, as the military guys say.

What were the rules? Might as well have that ant look up at the chess grandmaster and demand an explanation for why he�d moved a particular pawn.

Why the Iskoort? Why did they have to be saved? Why had we known we were going after the Howlers, but the Howlers hadn�t seemed to know they were going after us till we met on the stairs?

Why didn�t the Howlers go after the Iskoort? That was easy: the rules of engagement. If they beat us, they could annihilate the Iskoort. Not until.

The one person we figured could fight and win against the Howlers was Erek. Only Erek had thepower. And only Erek was unable to fight. He could put himself between us and the Howlers. He could give us information, but not directly help us.

The Howlers had never lost a battle. That�s what the Howler memories and Erek had said. Never. What did it all mean? I pressed my hands hard against my head, like I wanted to squeeze the answer out of my brain.

<We are there,> Guide announced.

I looked up, startled to realize I�d been walking along the whole time. I felt a surge of guilt. I�d been so preoccupied, I hadn�t been on guard.

We were standing outside a building shaped like a pyramid, maybe ten stories high in Earth terms. It was white, the gleaming, artificial white of plastic, and featured a wide, arched door outlined in rows of neon, like a rainbow. Something that must have been music was blaring.

�Yeah, this�ll be a good place to hide,� Marco said sardonically. �No one would ever notice this.�

�Where are we, Guide?�

<We have reached the temple of the Servant Guild. They will take you in. I have paid for it. They will care for you until I return.>

�What do you mean, return?� Rachel snapped. �Where are you going?�

<I must feed. You see, we Iskoort are not precisely what we seem at first. The body you see is of our symbiote. We are a symbiotic species - a large outer body, the Isk, and the inner self, the much smaller portion, called the Yoort.>

<A symbiote?> Ax demanded, speaking for the first time. <Do you mean that you are parasites?>

<Long ago, yes,> Guide acknowledged. <But what began as a parasitic relationship has become a truly symbiotic one. We function as a single creature. The two parts, halves, only separate every three days, when the Yoort must feed by swimming in the Yoort pool and absorbing ->

Ax�s tail was at the Iskoort�s throat before he could form the next word.

<Yeerks. They�re all Yeerks!>

I'm going to the next chapter.

Chapter 17

quote:

The Servant Guild was just what it sounded like. Slavishly obedient, fawning, groveling Iskoort, fanatically obsessed with obeying your every order, catering to your every whim.

It took a long time for us to convey that all we wanted was a room. A room with none of them in it. They weren�t happy about it, but in the end they obeyed.

The room was as gaudy as the exterior of the Servant Guild Temple. The walls were so glaringly white they seemed to make your eyeballs vibrate. What wasn�t white was neon, or something like neon, in bold primary colors swirled here and there, up walls and across ceilings and inset in the floor. But the colored light did not seem to touch the whiteness.

�Must be the Iskoort idea of interior decorating,� Rachel said. �Like a hospital bathroom decorated by kids with those light wand things.�

Guide stood in the middle of the room. Ax had drawn his tail blade back, but Guide was not under any illusions: That tail would snap in a split second if we heard the wrong answers.

�You�d better talk, and talk fast,� I told Guide.

He was whining continuously from his diaphragm. <What do you want from me?>

Marco said, �We�re a bazillion miles from home, clear across the galaxy, and all of a sudden we find out you Iskoort are Yeerks. Excuse us for being suspicious.�

<We are not Yeerks. We are Iskoort.>

<Yoort, Yeerk, that�s pretty close,> Tobias said, flaring his wings angrily. <And you both live off Kandrona rays.>

<Yes, we feed on Kandrona rays. But we are Iskoort, not these Yeerks you despise.>

Rachel glared at the cringing Iskoort. �I knew there was something I didn�t like about these creeps. If they�re not trying to buy something from you, they�re trying to kick your butt or kiss your feet. Yeerks!� She turned to me, expression hard.

�That�s it. We tell the Ellimist to find someone else to play his games with. We�re not helping save a bunch of Yeerks. The Howlers can have them.�

I was inclined to agree. It was the easy way out, anyway. We weren�t going to die to help Yeerks.

Cassie moved between Guide and Ax. �Guide, tell me something. What do you know about the history of your people? Going way back to the beginning?�

Guide looked bewildered, but Cassie was staying between him and the Andalite�s tail, so he knew she was his best hope.

<We � we Iskoort � I mean, back many, many generations, the Yoort were parasites, as you said. They infested other species. But that was long ago. Since we formed our symbiotes, the combination of Isk and Yoort, we have been as we are now.>

Rachel snorted. �They conquered these Isk things and now it�s like okay, we�re best buddies. Big deal.�

Marco nodded agreement. �Some stranger shows up on Earth a thousand years after the Yeerks conquer Earth, the Yeerks will be saying, �Hey, us and the humans are symbiotes.��

I looked at Cassie. Rachel and Marco were right. Cassie nodded, accepting the fact.

But Guide said, <No, no. I have not made myself clear. The Isk were not conquered by the Yoort. They were created.>

�Say what?�

<Parasitism is a limiting choice. The Yoort moved violently to conquer other species and infest them, but this was not profitable, not in the long haul. So the Yoort used biological engineering techniques to design and create a species specifically to be a symbiote.>

<Who cares how you did it?> Tobias argued. <So you build the Isk and then enslave them.>

<No, no,> Guide pleaded, whining away through his diaphragm. <The Isk were true symbiotes. The Isk cannot live without the Yoort. And to ensure that this symbiosis would be real, the Yoort, too, were modified. Now Yoort cannot live without Isk and Isk cannot live without Yoort. They are one creature with two parts.>

Dead silence. No one said a thing. The reality of it was sinking slowly into our suspicious brains.

�Oh, my God,� Cassie said at last. �Of course. It�s the way. The only way. Parasite becomes symbiote. No more infestation. They create the next step in their own evolution and become true symbiotes.�

�No more war,� Erek said quietly. �No more need to conquer new species, to infest and enslave.�

�The Yeerks don�t know about this,� Cassie said. �Even the Yeerks who want peace cannot imagine a way out, a way to end the cycle of conquest.�

<These Yoort could be related to the Yeerks,> Ax said. <They may be the same species, somehow separated long ago, perhaps carried from the Yeerk home world by some forgotten race.>

<If the Yeerks knew � if the Iskoort ever made contact with the Yeerks �> Tobias said.

This was why Crayak had to destroy the Iskoort. And why the Ellimist couldn�t allow it. Someday, maybe far in the future, Iskoort would meet Yeerk. And the Yeerks would see that there was another way.

I smiled. The first time in a long time. The ant had just figured out part of the chess game.

There you go. The Yoort found themselves out of the parasite trap by creating and then becoming true mutualist symbiotes.

Epicurius fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Aug 5, 2021

# ? Aug 5, 2021 03:48

dungeon cousin: Nov 26, 2012; woop woop
loop loop

I guess what people say about 'war being profitable' isn't always true.

Also I wonder how close the Yeerk could be to creating their own bodies since they're already doing genetic engineering.

# ? Aug 5, 2021 08:12

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

dungeon cousin posted:

I guess what people say about 'war being profitable' isn't always true.

Also I wonder how close the Yeerk could be to creating their own bodies since they're already doing genetic engineering.

It's already been established that this is possible, in Hork-Bajir Chronicles. The Yeerks learn all about the Arn and what they do over the course of that book. It shouldn't be too hard for them to have put 2+2 together already, or really decades ago.

# ? Aug 5, 2021 08:50

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

"Let's give the bio engineering project to a real go getter, someone who gets things DONE. Summon Visser 3."
(Next on the agenda: why do all our reserchers keep getting decapitated?)

# ? Aug 5, 2021 09:42

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Fuschia tude posted:

It's already been established that this is possible, in Hork-Bajir Chronicles. The Yeerks learn all about the Arn and what they do over the course of that book. It shouldn't be too hard for them to have put 2+2 together already, or really decades ago.

Do they? The Andalites do, since they work with the Arn to create the Quantum Virus, but the Arn and the Yeerk are hostile to each other, and because of the Arn's genetic engineering on themselves, they can't be infested.

# ? Aug 5, 2021 12:43

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

dungeon cousin posted:

Also I wonder how close the Yeerk could be to creating their own bodies since they're already doing genetic engineering.

Seems like the problem is social, not technical. They're societally selecting for the most greedy, ruthless yeerks to get bodies, meaning that they have no interest in the time and resources expended to grow their own bodies, when they could just take what's already available.

Bobulus fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Aug 5, 2021

# ? Aug 5, 2021 16:55

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Bobulus posted:

Seems like the problem is social, not technical. They're societally selecting for the most greedy, ruthless yeerks to get bodies, meaning that they have no interest in the time and resources expended to grow their own bodies, when they could just take what's already available.

Sometimes its even a matter not realizing something is an option until its pointed out. Consider somebody like Aftran, the Yeerk Cassie befriended. Aftran wanted there to be some option between being a helpless slug or be forced into a never ending cycle of war and slavery, but didn't see what option there was.

# ? Aug 5, 2021 18:01

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Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

Do they? The Andalites do, since they work with the Arn to create the Quantum Virus, but the Arn and the Yeerk are hostile to each other, and because of the Arn's genetic engineering on themselves, they can't be infested.

Sure, but it's a clear demonstration of the possibility: the Hork-Bajir know the Arn made them, and the mist monsters (and that they self-modified to prevent their own infestation); that's part of the H-B's widespread cultural knowledge, which the Yeerks would know as soon as they start infesting. Plus they already use the Arn as slave labor in that book; they could force them to teach, or at least learn from the technology that they have.

Epicurius posted:

Sometimes its even a matter not realizing something is an option until its pointed out. Consider somebody like Aftran, the Yeerk Cassie befriended. Aftran wanted there to be some option between being a helpless slug or be forced into a never ending cycle of war and slavery, but didn't see what option there was.

It feels unlikely for no one to realize that, though. Everyone fighting this war may be the new post-Seerow generation, born in space, but it also seemed clear from Visser Three's account in that book that they don't particularly care about or limit Yeerks' access to all their collected data. Putting this together is barely even 2+2. I guess it's theoretically possible that none of the pacifist Yeerks has also ever stumbled across this information from the H-B planet, but it feels like intentional ignorance by author fiat.

Fuschia tude fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Aug 5, 2021

# ? Aug 5, 2021 18:34

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