The orders were unacceptable and entirely uncharacteristic of a supposed "leader" who made getting his team back home alive his main purpose throughout the series. Does winning a war require sacrifice? Yes. Does it required needless sacrifice? No. Jake should have brushed up a little bit more on his military strategies and researched the numerous battle tactics that were used by guerrillas throughout the entire span of human history up to that point. They exploited their powers as spies and saboteurs, which was fine. They used no human or alien weapons when out of morph, which was an understandable oversight on their part because they were untrained and were still reliant on "keeping their innocence" and doing their best to forget about their battles while out of morph, as teenagers would do.
The problem still rests with Jake's orders to send Rachel to the Blade Ship without backup. What kind of moron sends his cousin to kill his brother without looking at all of the available options first? This is a veteran child soldier we're talking about, who has managed to keep his team intact throughout the series. Excuses such as "he was too tired to think straight", "he couldn't trust anyone except Rachel", do not cut it when we consider his character and his talents that have been used and abused this far. Why throw his most valuable weapon away just to get back at his brother?
Although we as readers of the series are looking at the decision in hindsight, remote from the action, whatever, even those of us not trained in the martial arts of warfare can detect a big f up when we see one. Rachel needed a backup squad with her. James, Erica, and Craig fitted the requirements. The rest of the Auxiliaries would fall under the directions of Sam Doubleday, who is trained, is knowledgeable enough to comprehend the importance of masquerade and camouflage to keep animals without weapons but an inspiring presence in reserve if the action got too close. All the Yeerk command had to do was see the six usual battle morphs, and the ruse would have been complete. First objective for Rachel on the Blade: Take the commander (tom) hostage. Failing that, then kill Tom and attempt to take over the bladeship with the help of her squad.
What happened in the last battle was unbelievably stupid, far more mistakes were made in the book than were made in the previous books in the series, and I cannot believe somebody did not point out the obvious flaws of that plan before it happened.
