Author Topic: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles  (Read 1212 times)

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Offline visser101

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Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« on: April 05, 2009, 03:42:12 AM »
New too the forum and thought i would add something.

From what we saw of the two sides. how would have the Andalites attack the yeerk fleet over earth and how would the yeerk respond too that attack?

too me the Andalites would use a wall formation at long range while their fighters pinned down the yeerks.

the yeerks (or Visser 3) would try to flank the andalites using cover or z-space so they could get the blade ships beside and behind the dome ships. if that was impossible then try to fly faster then then the dome ships could track, hopefully enough ships would survive to force the andalites too run or die.

Offline JFalcon

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2009, 05:11:26 AM »
It depends on when it happened. As Visser Three a small Andalite task force would have done him in and he knew it, as Visser One I assume he called more ships in (they just . . . didn't arrive?)

If we're talking endgame here, with the Andalite fleet bearing down on him and just a pool ship and a blade ship to his defense Visser One might have been in trouble.

Might have been.

See the major problem we see with the Andalite fleet is lack of coordination, the Elfangor jumps into the sol system first, apparently they're the vaguard, not the fleet but even so the guns on the pool ship combined with fire from the Blade Ship would have tore her to shreds if she closed to weapons range, at best she'd launch her fighters the way Galaxy Tree did and remain at a distance until the bug fighters were dealt with, and much like Galaxy Tree would have likely met the same fate.

If the Andalite fleet continued to show up in groups of twos and threes the Yeerks could have won a major victory by focusing on and eliminating the dome ships as they came out of zero space, but it's unlikely, the battle for Earth was pretty much lost to the Yeerks. Even if the Andalites showed up in small groups and the Blade and Pool Ships kept taking Dome Ships out upon entry sooner or later they'd find themselves out of position, the superior Andalite fighters would overwhelm the bug fighters and then swarm the Blade Ship, the Pool Ship would then be smashed by the Dome Ship's guns.

Now from the Andalite perspective it would have been smarter to move the whole fleet in at once, but from different sides, much like in Wing Commander the fighters are the real power in the fight because while we see Andalite fighters accomplish this and that in TAC the Dome Ships seem like little more than sluggish fire platforms, the barely manuver without severing half their structure. There are enough Dome Ships that one group of say two or three dome ships could have come out shooting on one side, attracting the Blade Ship and the Bug Fighters while a similar group could have tried to slingshot around the planet, detatching their domes upon entry to normal space for the added manuverability, launch fighters to suport the first group and themselves get close to the pool ship which would have sent all of its fighters away, thrash it and let their fighters play with the bugs or the blade, assuming the Blade hadn't already been vaped by one or all of the three Dome Ships in group 1 since even if it caught one by surprise there would be two others with shredders ready.

Thus we see even a much smaller Andalite fleet than the one that went to Anati could have taken out the Yeerk presence on earth, what doesnt make sense is why earth is so underdefended by the Yeerks, Visser Three was a major Yeerk, moreso as Visser One yet his only real force that we hear of is a Blade Ship and a Pool Ship. I know star ships don't grow on trees but as home to a class five species and known target of the Andalite fleet, Earth warranted far more than that, I don't recall if Visser One had a larger fleet at the end though I don't think he did.

Depressing.
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Offline Darth Revan

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2009, 05:38:05 AM »
a bigger presence around Earth would've sent a red flag to the Andalites, making Earth the Andalites' #1 priority relief effort.  And The counsil wouldn't want that. Visser 1/Eva wanted the invasion of Earth to be gradual and unnoticed. And it seemed that they didn't need more than the Blade ship to defend  the area, because as far as anyone knew (including the Animorphs) Earth was deemed by the Andalites a low priority, and not worth a second effort.
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Offline JFalcon

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2009, 06:35:37 AM »
Earth was red flagged by the Andalites as of Visser. Before then the pool and blade ship defense was adequate, after that it was a bluff.

Once the Yeerks lost at Anati however, once Visser Three became Visser One Earth should have seen a major step up in security. The Andalites sent a major task force (I suspect the survivors of Anati who were in the best shape) to Earth right after they won Anati, I'm not clear on how large the force was but it would have been more than enough to wipe the floors with the Yeerk presence.

The Yeerks never stepped up security so the second naval battle for Earth was lost before it began.

Or was it?

Having given it some thought here's what I would have done if I had been in control of the defense of Earth.

First I send out a call for reinforcements, even if they couldn't possibly arrive in time, I'd want this to be intercepted by the Andalites, maybe they'd see it as a deterrent and not attack, far more likely they'd feel like my back was too the wall and their attack was all the more necessary right then.

Next I'd array my fleet, the Blade Ship, some bug fighters and any other attack ships I had I'd place near the moon where they could be detected but not immediately intercepted by the Andalite fleet. Planetside I'd forcefully procure as many human Space Shuttles as I could and build a few more of my own, I'd then fill them with as many explosives as I could, maybe human nukes but if I had anything better that I could spare then so be it. I'd have a few empty ones as well, you'll see why in a minute.

I'd crew them with involuntary human hosts, and one voluntary, the group commander. The empty vessels would have no explosives but be rigged to give off the impression that they were, indeed I wouldn't want the Andaliets to detect any sort of advanced shielding, I'd want them to know about the explosives, I'd have my fleet commander inform them that that was simply the human shuttle's fuel source, the Andalites know jack squat about human ships, they'd buy it.

Why would they buy it? Because they'd see those ships launching and trying to escape my bug fighters, which would be blasting the crap out of the empty ships, similarly they'd detect my offense fleet withdrawing from the battle, the Andalite meddlers would swoop in to the aid of the human ships which would radio themselves as being the human resistance trying to escape the planet, claim that the Animorphs and Aximili had given them prior knowledge of the Andalite's fleet movements. They'd claim to be full of women and children, I might use real women and children to complete the illusion, and if the sensors could pick up actual yeerks I'd just have the yeerks themselves morph humans so that no Yeerk lifesigns were detected on the ships.

So with my fleet of explosive space shuttles heading for the Andalite fleet and my pool ship trying to back away I'd have the fighters attacking the shuttles withdraw to defend the pool ship, make it look like I was trying to get away, meanwhile the phoney human resistance fleet gets closer and closer and when they're just close enough to the Andalite fleet . . . BOOM, baby! Baring the Andalites suddenly realizing what's happening (And even then because I'd sort of want to use explosives that would take the Andalite fleet without having to be right in there among them) They self destruct, the Andalite Dome Ships get thrashed, the Blade Ship, bulk of the bug fighters and whatever else I had pretending to flee sweep in to finish the Dome Ships, destroying but more importantly disabling whatever they can, the Andalite fighters, which would have left the dome ships defenseless to chase the pool ship, or else escorted the human ships in and been destroyed in the blast or vaped by my own fighters and blade ship, would probably try to go to Z-Space, or make a break for the planet. If they try to land on the planet I have a warm welcoming party waiting for them with the objective of capturing the fighters intact and stunning any Andalite warriors for infestation, I'll assume however that the Andalites either die or escape to join the Yeerk resistance, capturing even one pilot would be a major boon but I wont count on it.

I win even if they go to Z-Space, which I doubt they would given that nobody from the Galaxy Tree made the attempt despite the fact that their Dome Ship was destroyed long before the battle ended I assume the nearest relief is further away than a Fighter can manage.

When the space dust settles (which I guess it never technically would) I'd have teams go out to salvage every Dome Ship and Andalite fighter I could, what fighters I couldn't replace on the Dome ships I'd fill in for with Bug Fighters, crew them with Hork-Bajir and morph-capable humans, then using Visser One's caputred body (or preferably a different Andalite if I'd gotten one) I'd send a message to the Andalites that the invasion of Earth had failed terribly and that the survivors were inbound for repairs and refit.

Then it's a simple matter of deciding where my fleet of captured and pieced together Dome Ships would go. To the Yeerk Homeworld to free it, or the Andalite Homeworld to burn it.  >:D

And Jake and his group? Believe me, if I were in control of the pool ship they'd have been properly dealt with the minute they set foot on my boat, they wouldn't have made it as far as flushing that pool of Yeerks because I'd have beat them to it while they were still in the room and just blamed it on them (hey, I'm a Yeerk, my survival comes first) and the Yeerk in control of Tom had darn well better know better than to try to steal the Blade Ship and attack the Pool Ship on my watch because I wouldn't have waited until after Rachel died to shoot that traitor out of space, I'd do it the minute they came in on an attack vector, and the swarm of bug fighters tailing him would be crewed by Yeerk loyal to Visser One (or me, I figure if I've got nominal command I'm probably at least a sub-visser . . . please don't let me be Taylor  :P)

And if you read all that, well what can I say? You are a trooper.
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Offline EmberGryphon

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2009, 09:41:01 AM »
^ My big issue with it being... I can't imagine any Yeerks willingly going on a kamikaze mission, like commanding rockets filled with explosives. And after the number of Yeerks we see betraying Esplin and/or the rest of their species because they feel used or manipulated by their superiors- like the Controller in #8 who tells Ax where to go to assassinate Esplin, for example- I don't think it's a good idea to force them into their stations and expect everything to go well. You might wind up with a lot of explosions in empty space, or rockets coming for your ships, instead.

Offline visser101

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2009, 11:42:44 AM »
I'm not sure the andalites were lacking in coordination if anything they were far too coordinated. Much like the U.S. military in Vietnam the andalite military was being run by buricrats that had tables and pie charts for making military decisions. A single dome ship was more than capable of taking a single poolship so that was all that was sent. This kept the main andalite fleet at top strength so that when the main yeerk fleet was found they could have a nice clean fight where the yeerks would kindly let themselves be gutted.

The limited yeerk force above earth at the end may have been bait or trick to mess with those buricrats. Class five with so few ships? WTF!?

we also know that Tom was hiding stuff from the Visser so it likly that the plans for defending the invasion was working on bad info.

Offline JFalcon

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2009, 03:43:16 PM »
^ My big issue with it being... I can't imagine any Yeerks willingly going on a kamikaze mission, like commanding rockets filled with explosives.
Assuming they know. Maybe I told them the ships were full of Hork-Bajir ready to board and capture each dome ship and I personally activate their self-destruct mechanism.  ;D
Lie to a few Yeerks, sacrafice a few dozen shuttleloads of Yeerks and a pool full to save our species and our empire? Heck yes I would. They'd be "heroes" afterwards  >:D

But yeah, I'm not saying my scheme isn't flawless, I came up with the plan on the spot, it needs fine tuning.

I'm not sure the andalites were lacking in coordination if anything they were far too coordinated. Much like the U.S. military in Vietnam the andalite military was being run by buricrats that had tables and pie charts for making military decisions. A single dome ship was more than capable of taking a single poolship so that was all that was sent.
I don't mean the Andalite fleet as a whole (though with two massive static fleets over both the Andalite and Yeerk homeworlds, and the thirty ships that attacked Anati, I do think their inability to send two Dome Ships to Earth marks them as lame allies to humanity) lacked coordination, but if I recall correctly the Elfangor was the first to arrive of a larger fleet meant to destroy earth, that fleet was poorly coordinated to send a single dome ship out by itself without a thought for strategy or the survival of that ship.

The Galaxy Tree went in with bad intel, and didn't bother to detatch the dome until it was too late, they were a poor indication of the capabilities of a Dome Ship but great indication of the firepower of the Yeerk Blade Ship. One shot, one Dome Ship kill  :P
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Offline AustinZhou

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2009, 03:54:43 PM »
Hey, in the book Visser it says that fifteen Andalite Dome ships could wipe out his forces in less than a second.  ;)

Offline Galladerotom

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2009, 07:34:19 PM »
That is fifteen dome ships. They usually travel on their own.
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Offline Darth Revan

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Re: Andalites vs Yeerks: Fleet battles
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2009, 12:21:07 PM »
That may be, but if there was a big enough threat, it could warrant that type of strike to guarantee victory.
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