I've never tried writing a fan fic before, but I'll give this a shot.
[spoiler=Forward]Forward
This is a story about a character in Our Summer Vacation. I had taken over one of the andalite characters there called Tarrade-Gerassus-Escallon and was starting to really enjoy playing him when all the players left RAF almost at the same time. The RP died, but I've always wanted to play out his story. Instead of hoping all the players come back onto RAF, I decided to write a fan fiction of his story. I've never been much of a writer and don't really plan on too many people reading it, but I want to do the character justice and tell his story. OSV begins pretty far into Tarrade's story and is more about the humans than Tarrade, so this story begins years before the RP, shortly after Tarrade joined the andalite military. The story is a little different from the RP, partly because of the dynamics of an RP and partly because Tarrade was played by 3 different people before I joined and took him over.
It feels kinda contrived to dedicate a fanfic to people, but I would never be writing this if it weren't for the people that sucked me into that RP: Bear, Seal, Rad, J, and Tony. The characters come and go, but our story never ends. *gag*[/spoiler]
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[spoiler=chapter one]I woke up to the sight of an artificial night sky and for a brief moment I thought I was back home in my scoop, but the dull, never-ending hum of the Vanguard's engines quickly reminded me I was dozens of light years from home. It was tbree minutes before I had to wake up and begin the morning ritual. The morning ritual is when we dedicate ourselves to defending the people and obeying our superiors. I skipped it.
I left my quarters and quickly made my way down the narrow corridors of the habitation deck. Unlike the crew quarter's, the artificial skies projected on the ceilings of the rest of the ship were always day. The ship never sleeps. Even though the assembly hall was less than 200 meters away, it takes at least ten minutes to reach. The narrow corridors only allow for one or two andalites to walk through at a time, and it's customary to allow higher ranking andalites pass through when two meet in the corridor. As an aristh, everyone is higher ranking than me.
<Attention!> Sharantul-al-iskell yelled.
I fell in line with the other arisths in my squad. Sharantul had a smile on his face. He almost looked friendly, but I knew why he was in a good mood.
<In less than two hours we will begin combat insertion training. You will be dropping onto that rock below>, he turned one of his stalk eyes to the hologram behind him of a dead planet. <The assault transport will depart the Vanguard, enter the planet's atmosphere, and descend to an altitude of 750 meters. You will disengage your restraints and drop onto the planet as a unit. If you surprise me and manage to survive the drop, you will move to, and engage objective Red at this location.> As he spoke the hologram changed to the planet's surface, showing the where we were to land and where we would be attacking. <To be successful, you must drop without injury, move to, engage, and destroy the opposing forces at objective Red no later than one hour after you disengage from the assault transport.> He paused a moment and stepped closer to us. The smile disappeared. <Let's be clear. If any of you wastes of oxygen forget to activate your inhibitors you better make sure the fall kills you, because I will personally come down there and gut anyone who falls and write it off as a training accident rather than have to put up with any of you for retraining. Now, MOVE OUT!>
We moved to equipment racks. I began loading my ammo belts filled with shredder charge packs into my assault pack.
<You'd think he wants our inertial manipulators to fail during the drop> Garrund-Isthtal-Fallon whispered to me in private thought speak. I was so distracted by the upcoming drop, I hadn't noticed him walk up behind me. <I've never seen him smile before.>
Combat insertions were the most dangerous task a warrior could do. They're rarely done because of the danger, even during the initial landings on an enemy controlled planet they make up less than 1% of the landings. They're designed to drop warriors close enough to an objective to be able to capture or destroy the target before the enemy can bring reinforcements. Assault transports descend as quickly as they can through the planet to avoid air defenses and drop the warriors nearly a kilometer in the air. Warriors wear inertial manipulators to keep from being killed by the fall. They used to activate automatically, slowing your descent without your input, but the manipulators always activated too soon, and an andalite floating in the air is an easy target. Now warriors have to activate the manipulators themselves. It saves lives during combat, but it's not unheard of for an aristh to fail to activate their inhibitor before hitting the ground.
<Yeah, he would love for someone to get hurt so he can have them for another week of retraining. Except you. I think he really would just kill you.>
I walked to the weapons rack and picked up my shredder. I set it on 'test' and fired it down the testing lane. TSWEEE. A lance of green light impacted the charred bulkhead. I sighed and strapped on my inhibitor.
My squad stood silently in our restraints as the transport departed the Vanguard. The Vanguard was a Jorhal class cruiser. It's designed for planetary assaults. When fully loaded can carry a combat brigade into battle and can provide both fire support and act as a command center. It was designed after we realized the war with the yeerks wouldn't be won quickly. Before that, we hadn't fought a major war in almost a century. Our ships were designed to be the most powerful ships in space, but they weren't designed to wage a long ground war. It took almost two decades after the loss of the hork bajir homeworld for the government to approve these ships. The Jorhal cruisers were a quiet admittance that we had overestimated our dominance in the galaxy.
<FIVE MINUTES TO DROP!> The pilot shouted. I looked around at my squad. We were in two lines facing the doors and the aft of the ship. I was trying like everyone else to not look scared, and like everyone else, I was failing at it. I did my last checks on my inhibitor. The mauve lights on top were blinking. I walked through the hundreds of simulations we had done. Twenty seconds before drop the doors would open, five seconds before drop the transport would bank from its steep descent into an equally steep ascent, then we'd begin releasing our restraints and run out the back while the ship. We'd then watch our altimeter until it read 200 meters then activate the inertial inhibitor and gently land on the ground.
<THIRTY SECONDS!> My hearts were racing. All four of my eyes focused on the door as it opened, looking almost straight up at the sky.
<TEN SECONDS!> The pilot pulled up and I struggled to stay standing against the G-forces.
Suddenly the sky was replaced with the ground less than a kilometer below us. The cabin lights changed from red to green, telling us to begin releasing our restraints. The two arisths in front of me dropped and I released my restraints as the ship began accelerating. I didn't run out the back. I was thrown out. SKY-GROUND-SKY-GROUND-SKY-GROUND. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. I suddenly realized I was spinning as I fell.
Check your altimeter. 150 meters. I slammed my hands into my inhibitor as hard as I could. It barely had time to put me right side up before I hit the ground. My legs buckled under me.
I inhaled sharply. It was my first time breathing since I released my restraint. I pulled myself to up checked the landing zone. Clear. I began checking my equipment while continuing to scan with my stalk eyes. I watched a few of the arisths behind me land, silently hoping they would fall as badly as I did. None of them did. Once my gear was set I ran to the rally point.
<Team one, you will move along this route to the hill here. At thirty minutes from now you will begin laying down fire on the objective. Team two, you will move with me to this ridge. We will wait here until team one begins attacking. We will then cross the ridge and assault through the objective. Once we clear the objective, team one will provide overwatch from their position while we set the demolition charges to destroy the communications array. Any questions?>
I was in team two. I was still winded from my fall and was having trouble keeping up with the rest of my team. Terrel-Sharen-Taxili, our squad leader, wanted to be the best, and he wanted everyone to know he was the best.
<Tarrade! Keep up!>
I decided it was better not to answer than say what came to mind. We arrived behind the ridge ten minutes before team one was to begin firing. We positioned ourselves in row along the ridge to charge over and reach the objective. We stood as quiet as we could be with our stalk eyes barely reaching over the ridge. There was the comms array two hundred meters away in a long, flat valley. It was a large structure with an antenna on the top. Around the base were eight andalite warriors. Our enemies would only be armed with shredders locked on stun, but they still hurt, and if we messed up here, we would have to deal with Sharantul.
Suddenly beams of green light flew across the valley. Most missing and hitting the structure, but enough found their marks. The defenders tried to return fire, but only managed to get a few shots off before they fell. We charged down the hill, shredders raised, ready to fire in case there were any defenders left.
<Tarrade, set the demo charges!> Terrel barked. I quickly set the charge at the base of the array. The charge could be activated by remote, but I set the timer in case the remote failed or the person carrying it is killed. 45 seconds. We reached the hill as a bright flash simulating the explosives indicated the array had been destroyed.
<Mission accomplished, return to the landing zone.> Terrel spoke into the pulse transmitter to the other team.
<Yes, sir>
I turned and began heading back to the rally point with my team through the forest. Garrund was on my left as we returned. His stalk eyes swiveled toward me.
<Your drop was the best thing I've seen all week.> He said in private thought speak. By now I was more embarrassed than hurt by the fall.
<shut up, Garrund.>
<I was laughing so hard I couldn't secure my ammo belt.>
<SHUT UP> I said too loudly.
<What is going on, Tarrade?!> Terrel yelled. I turned my stalk eyes toward him , as he turned to look at me with all four eyes. <We are still moving tactically, keep quiet or-> TSWEEEE. Terrel crumpled as a shredder blast struck him. TSWEEE. TSWEE. Green shredder blasts began streaking across through the trees.
<AMBUSH> I yelled to the team. As we ran for cover. You're supposed to charge into an ambush. We didn't.
One of my team members grabbed the transmitter, <We are being ambushed> was all he got through before a shredder blast put him down.
I looked around the tree I had taken cover behind and saw one of our attackers. I raised my shredder and put him into my sights. TSWEEE. My vision filled with green then went black. While drifting in and out of consciousness I saw Sharantul standing over me firing on more of my team. Black again.
When I woke, team one had fought off our attackers, but they had managed to kill eight of us. There were only two of them.
<THAT WAS THE MOST INCOMPETENT EXCUSES FOR A TACTICAL MOVEMENT I HAVE SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. EIGHT OF YOU LET YOURSELVES BE KILLED. I SHOULD KICK OUT YOUR WHOLE FALUNG SQUAD FOR THAT DISASTER.> Sharantul screamed at us as he walked up and down our line back on the Vanguard that night. is voice echoing in my head, making the headache I had from the shredder blast that much worse. <The entire squad will spend the next six hours practicing tactical movement. If any of you dracon catchers speaks or fails to scan your area, I will shoot you then stomp on your head until you wake up.>
<Sir, we still accomplished our mission.> Terrel said. I was so stunned I broke attention to turn both my stalk eyes towards him, but Sharantul was too furious to notice.
<I DON'T CARE IF YOU WON THE ENTIRE FALUNG WAR! YOU WILL KEEP YOU DISCIPLINE FROM NOW UNTIL YOU DIE. BECAUSE THE DAY YOU DON'T I WILL BE THERE AND I WILL CUT YOUR TAIL OFF AND STRANGLE YOU WITH IT!>
We spent the rest of the night in the assembly hall walking back and forth as if we were in a combat zone, scanning for threats.[/spoiler]
