As Tarrade convulsed he lost track of time. Minutes seemed like months to him as the room faded...
<Sir, we will be translating out of z-space in approximately one hour,> the helmsman said with concealed excitement. Tarrade felt it too. The anticipation before a the operation began. His mind raced. What could go wrong? What hadn't been anticipated? What was the timeline? How is the crew doing? What to do if the yeerks spotted them as they approached the planet? What if the intelligence reports weren't accurate? Tarrade always had trouble in the time between everything was set and when he began. Before, he could focus on getting ready. After, he could focus on what was happening. But now there was nothing to do but let his mind wander.
<Understood. Alert the captain. Run a test of all mission critical systems,> Tarrade responded. He was the officer on watch, but that was for a lack of officers on the mission. The ship was overfull with personnell, but all were mission specialists. Tarrade was an intelligence officer and the subject matter expert on the planet and the indiginous species.
<Report,> the captain said as he entered the bridge.
<Sir, we are running cold, we are 45 minutes out from the planet, we are running tests on all mission critical systems, and the crew is on full alert.>
<Good, be ready to brief in 30 minutes.>
<Yes, sir,> Tarrade left the bridge and went to the briefing room. He was to brief the landing zone, and human culture. They had been over it before, but they were going to go over the opening phase of the mission in detail. He looked through the holomap of the planet. He zoomed in and confirmed the locations of the primary and secondary landing zones. As he he finished reviewing his map, his mind turned to the planet. He had seen intelligince reports and recon images, but he had never-<Tarrade-Garrasus-Escalon, report to the bridge.>
15 minutes out, Tarrade returned to the bridge of the Lareel. The ship was state of the art. It was perfectly designed for infiltration missions. They were to use the shp to pass the yeerk defenses, recon the planet, and prepare it for the andalite main effort.
<5 minutes until translation from z-space.>
<What are the enemy forces expected?> The captain asked Tarrade. Tarrade knew the captain already knew, but he was making sure Tarrade knew the information inside and out. Senoir officers endlessly questioning junior officers about what they should know was a tradition and favorite pasttime in the military.
<There is one pool ship and two squadrens of fighters. On the planet there is one major pool complex and several minor ones across multiple continents.>
<And what of the native species?>
<Humans are a highly adaptable species that is advancing rapidly. They are technologically infererior, and it is not known how they would react if our presence was made known, but I speculate that if they were to become aware of the presence of yeerks and ourselves, they would become useful allies.>
<You speculate? Based on what?>
<I have studied them for years. I know more about them than any->
<Z-space translation in 10 seconds.>
They both turned their attention to the sensor displays. The screen flashed as the ship returned to normal space. The planet was too close. They missed the exit point.
<Sir! Bug fighters at 15 kilometers.>
<Disengage the stealth system. Raise shields. Activate the ECM, and charge the weapons.> The stealth system was useless at this range. Contrary to what most civilians think, the stealth systems don't make the ship completely invisible to active sensors, they reduce the effective range of those sensors. They came out of z-space within that range.
Tarrade watched as the patrol came about. The Lareel fired on the lead fighter, disentegrating it. One of the fighters returned fire. The red beam lanced by, aimed at a sensor ghost created by the ECM suite.
<Target the second ship and fire,> the captain said with an eery calm. The gunner scored a glancing blow on the bug fighter, it was adrift, but not destroyed. Tarrade looked at the other two fighters. He knew that they were not a match for them, as did the captain.
<Set course for the planet, keep firing.>
It was a desperate move. Even if they were able to escape, the fighters would be able to transmit their location. They would have to hide until the Galaxy Tree arrived several weeks later.
The ship suddenly shuddered. The power flickered.
<Sir, we've been hit. ECM suite is down. Hull breach in armory two.> The gunner returned the favor as the third fighter erupted in a silent flash, but without the electronic countermeasures, the last fighter had a clean shot on the lareel. This time the ship cracked at the hit.
<Report,> the captain barked.
<Weapons down, sensors down, thrusters are minimal, we are not going to be able to stop our decent to the planet.>
The hull burst into flames as the ship made contact with the atmosphere. The corvette's hull was thicker than the bug fighters, which was their saving grace. The fighter could not follow at that speed, but they would know where they landed. The ship lurched as a section broke off. Through the viewport, Tarrade could see several of the crew members incinerate as they were exposed to the atmosphere. The ship began a slight spin and the blue filled the view port.
