Invasion of Earth Proposal.

[Blazing Angel]

So your going to drop everything and focus on the ships?

[Gumby]

Er, no I'm just going to build some ships.

[donut]

Ground camps are highly plausible due to the Yeerks holographic projections and stealth technology. Just set one up in an obscure, remote part of Africa.

I'm more concerned about personnel.  However, holographic projectors require a tremendous amount of energy to operate.  I believe Ax mentioned it when he was talking about the chee's holographic emitters.  The books have implied that making something invisible could cost less energy, but I don't think they ever mentioned the energy requirements of making something invisible.  You only intend to have one?  Or do you intend to have multiple facilities?  Each would require a rather large stealth field generator and supporting power plants.

The Yeerks in the Hork Bajir Chronicles managed to mine, starting with nothing but a few fighters and skrit-na ships. Surely so can I. Using human mining equipment and human hosts inside of a projected force field to keep out the vacuum. As for the fuel, I was perhaps going a bit on assumption.

In HBC the yeerks had *all* of their forces there.  They were all on the same planet, and the planet had an atmosphere that could support them and their hosts.  They also had all of the food necessary to support their hosts growing all around them.  Their ships included transport ships that the andalites engineered to allow the yeerks to travel, which means they have kandrona generators, and implies that they have machine shops within them to make necessary repairs and possibly manufacture small end items.

You’re going to use human mining equipment?  You’re going to be transporting fuel to those machines, a lot of it.  You’re also going to have to provide a large number of air scrubbers since those machines use internal-combustion engines, which will eat up O₂ inside your forcefields.

Ax mentioned how much energy it takes to generate forcefields as well.  He made it clear it took a lot of energy.  To set up your mining facilities you'd need large power plants, the shield generators, you would need ships to ferry supplies to the facilities and take raw materials back from the facilities, and you would need the personnel to run those operations.

Megamorphs 4 shows Bug fighters having both underwater capability and firing dracon beams underwater. But yes, I considered the fact many nukes are on submarines. However they too would be being tracked the US Navy, which the Yeerks could hack. They would eventually have to surface or at least get close to the surface, and that's when they would be destroyed.

Well, there's a KASU in there since HBC had dracon beams malfunctioning and hurting the operator in thick fog.  I'm going to say that the KASU was in the dracon beams operating underwater since it makes more sense.  It would be especially bad to fire them underwater since the water will absorb the energy.  Rapidly heating water tends to create pretty impressive steam explosions.  (On a side note, I just learned what superheating means and realized what happened to a the liquid in one of my test tubes in a chemistry lab awhile back.  It never sat right with me how quickly that liquid went from not boiling to completely gas.)

A Yeerk Pool Ship has a compliment of around fifty bug fighters I believe, and two would definitely be enough to wreck most military bases. Strongholds particularly troublesome could be destroyed by the bladeship if need be. Keep in mind with communications down they wouldn't really be capable of staying in touch or even warning one another about the attacks. Comms satellites can be shot down, radios jammed, and mostly any other electronics can be hit with EMPs.And while most of the military would be on standby, their bases and equipment would be there. Pilots are no use when the airbase has been destroyed.

Now you have me genuinely curious.  I've been looking for awhile to find actual numbers in the series for the fighter compliments of ships.  Where did you find that?

Regardless, the andalites are coming with a force capable of defeating a pool ship and everything organic to that pool ship.  The only reason the andalites failed in the series was because the yeerks also had a blade ship.  Expect heavy loses to your fighters.

SSBNs can actually stay submerged for a very long time.  It's been a long time since I've looked up anything at all about submarines, but I don't see how it makes sense that they would be effectively tracked.  Anything that allows actual tracking would be able to give the sub's position away to others.  What you might be thinking is that they know the sub is in a certain area, but that area is hundreds of square miles.

Pilots don't matter.  I'm talking about ground troops.

And I don't mean that the fighters wouldn't be capable of destroying any particular base.  I mean that destroying every base would take a very long time.  They're going figure out that they're under attack.  They won't know from what for a little while, but communications will come around in some form.

Better to be patient than to botch an attack.

Sometimes, but I will again be referring to Echelons Above Reality here.  They expect progress.  As little sense as it makes, they will be looking at this and wondering why you aren't doing anything.  You are also on the clock.  You're expected to get hosts quickly.  You aren't if you're waiting.

If I was a Visser setting out to conquer a species and their planet, I would be sure to bring a good science team that covers all fields plus computers capable of doing just that.

You're assuming those resources are widely available.  You're competing against every other visser in the empire for limited resources.  Can you really justify taking up assets to be able to do *everything*?  (Hint: the answer is no)

Ah, but time before the invasion would have been spent creating said shield generators and kandrona's. In addition I would have several kandrona's before hand with me on the pool ship, if I'm taking over a planet a couple kandrona's seems like common sense to bring.

*sigh*
Ok, you aren't starting the invasion.  You're inheriting it from Visser 1.  You don't have extra kandronas.  The destruction of *one* was a serious blow against the yeerks that crippled their operation.  The ellimist was blunt with this point: if the animorphs hadn't destroyed the kandrona, the yeerks would have been successful.  That destroying *one* was such a crippling blow confirms that you don't have spares, and implies that they are extremely difficult to manufacture.

Keep in mind that the Andalites consider Earth a rather low priority, I would at least three years to do this. in addition I would likely have much more time since the Animorphs would have never ended up warning the Andalites to any extent like they did in the books.

Elfangor was convinced that an andalite fleet would arrive in about a year, so he had reason to think the andalites would follow up after they realized the Galaxy Tree had been destroyed.  Granted they didn't, but this wasn't because they were unaware.

The andalites considered Earth a low priority because the yeerks were invading by infiltration.  It would be difficult to know what kind of progress was being made, and the andalites would figure that they had time.  They would prioritize it low, because the yeerks were probably launching overt invasions.  I highly suspect that the reason that the andalites didn't come within that year Elfangor mentioned was because the yeerks started an overt invasion of Leera.

Quote

    You don't have the yeerks to take that many hosts initially, or the facilities to support that many.


Point there. But I could still have several hundred thousand to be quite sure. Facilities already exist on Earth to support the population.

I'm fairly certain you only have a few tens of thousands of yeerks initially. (I'm assuming that more will be brought in as time goes on.  This is one part of my plan that I wasn't comfortable with, but there's no reason to think that more yeerks wouldn't be brought in over time.)  You can't rush the initial grabbing of host bodies. 

Earth has its own supply of kandrona generators?  You also have to provide food and water to those people.  I believe you said that this would be set up in Africa.  Africa is notoriously bad for distributing food and water, which means you'll either be constructing the infrastructure start to finish or transporting it by ship.  Are they going to be sitting in their own filth?  If not, you need to construct hygiene and sanitation facilities.  You also need security set up to monitor them and keep them from rioting.  While you could easily kill all of them, that’s self-defeating.  You need to prevent them from being able to rebel, and be able to kill small portions if they do rebel, which requires compartmentalizatio n of the prisoners.

If you’re doing this over spread out areas, you have fewer problems with constructing facilities to support the hosts’ needs, but you have more problems with supporting the yeerks’ needs.  You’d have to be able to supply every location with kandrona rays or provide transport to locations that have them.

True there, but they still travel far fasted than bullets. Unless they were badly made dracon beams, I do not see what could effect the aim of the user except just keeping the gun steady which could be majorly helped by modifying the dracon beams into rifle-versions. Unlike the bullet, the beam will travel in a very near if not complete straight line. Just aim and shoot.

You’ve never fired a gun.  I’ll give you an example of one of the many things that can affect where you hit when you shoot.  While looking down the sites, for whatever reason, your site picture is off by 3 millimeters.  Let’s say that between your front sites and rear sights there is half a meter.  Every half a meter your projectile travels, it will be 3 millimeters off.  By the time it reaches a target 100 meters away, your projectile will be 600 millimeters away from where you aimed.  That’s .6 meters (about 2 feet).  That’s the difference between hitting and missing your target.  I’m picking somewhat arbitrary numbers, but I think you get the concept of it.  You also have to aim; considering that you’re mixing in running, diving, crawling, general fatigue from fighting, plus whatever alarm chemicals that your body is releasing, aiming isn’t an easy thing.  BTW, your target is shooting back.

It obviously detects both human and Yeerk DNA, otherwise Ax would have told the Ani's they just had to walk through the door to the Pool and then morph.

I don’t think it does.  The Ax walked right into the pool in one book in human morph, and the anis left the pool plenty of times as human.

Even the USSR trained its soldiers to operate in units, maybe not like the Americans, but they still did. And if I saw it fit, I could implement more training for soldiers in the wait prior to the invasion.

The USSR did break their soldiers into units, but in practice, those units were commanded by someone 17 echelons higher (Yes, I’m exaggerating.  Deal with it.).  Unit commanders had no ability to make decisions.  This made them very inflexible as information had to be delivered up the chain of command, then orders had to be sent back down before units could adapt to developing situations.  It also meant that killing the highest commander in an area would stun the entire group.  Given how the yeerks were shown to operate, they seem to follow this doctrine.

The other part of that, which the yeerks also follow, is that they tend to throw masses of troops against something and grind it down rather than defeat a target with maneuver and, well, anything other than just wearing out their target.  They’d then send elite troops in to actually destroy the target.  Those troops would be trained to fight as a flexible, maneuvering force.

Prior to all of this my task force arrived in the Sol system. Upon this we would enter an extreme-long range orbit, waiting and building up. Keeping a very low profile, taking a few thousand human controllers as we went. Mining resources in the asteroid belt, constructing what we needed slowly and surely. Once the forces have been built up, we launch pinpoint strikes in pressure points globally. Hitting humanity where it hurts and hitting them hard.

I believe you already realize that this would take a very long time.  I don’t think you realize how many resources this would take to accomplish though.  I already covered setting up mines in the asteroid belt.  You need to realize though, that the longer you take the worse your position gets.  The andalites are winning.  Your forces are assets that aren’t being used.  That makes them a waste.  They could be reassigned to something else that was actually working towards winning the war.  Also realize that the andalites had assembled a fleet that could destroy anything that the yeerks had by the time of Visser.

I'm just going by the rules. I am a Yeerk Visser, and I attained my rank through tactical abilities. I feel the pressure of the Council on me, I cannot and will not fail. I will take whatever precautions I need, as long as I am ultimately successful. 

What I mean is, either you’re changing the rules in that you have the yeerks following a different doctrine and set of tactics than they did in the book, or you’re rewriting and training them.  If you’re doing the latter then it will take a very long time to implement effectively.

I recall no such event. I know the settings change in the books due to ten or so power settings on the dracon beam. I presume they would use a medium setting most of the time to save the battery.

I just checked it.  They fired on it and it was visibly damaged.  It still turned back and fired, but it was operating much more cautiously.

They're not that large. And at the rate humans can build other massive things like aircraft carrier, four bladeships seems quite possible if much of the species is devoted to it.

Aircraft carriers take years to build.  I believe the latest one is scheduled to take 5 years to finish.  I'm having a very hard time finding construction times for cruisers.  The only one I found was a pre WW2 speed record of 1 year.  I believe a cruiser would be equivilent to a blade ship.  However, all of the necessary factories and skilled labor is already in place.  You have to repurpose factories to be able to build these ships, which takes time, you also have to train workers on the tools and jobs they will be using, which will take time, and they will not become proficient at their tasks for some time even after being trained.

[Blazing Angel]

officially scared now.

[Gumby]

Some points taken. I wrote it half-asleep anyway with a subconscious idea of a larger fleet.. Though I HAVE fired a gun before, several times. And the great assistant to a DB's accuracy is that you can see the nice red beam you're shooting and where its hitting. Then it's just a matter of moving it to the target.

Actually I have worked out a much more sinister, awesome plan that mixes the continued stealth invasion of Earth initiated by Visser One and revealing the Yeerks to the public. I'll post the details tonight when I have more time, but it revolves around the Yeerks exposing themselves to the public eye, not as murderous overlords but as benevolent protectors here to save us from the Andalite marauders.

Plan:

After taking over the Earth Conquest from Visser One, my plan to take it will be put into effect. The Yeerks will reveal themselves to the people of Earth, but not of their prior activities, and they will not reveal their true nature. Instead we shall pretend that Hork-Bajir are our natural form and we come under the guise of being newcomers to the system, and intrigued by our species ability to adapt, survive and thrive. We will be enthralled by such a successful and potential species, tied down it may be.

We shall explain that our reason for coming to Earth is to warn them of a grave threat. We are there to save such a tremendous species from the all-consuming species called the Andalites who battle savagely us to control space as a dominant power. They are arrogant, proud, and cruel and seek to stay as the top power of the universe and let the other species crawl beneath them.

We have noticed their interest in Earth, and are worried that they will conquer and decimate your great race like they have done to many. We shall expose their crimes, including the hideous evil of trying to destroy our entire species with a quantum virus. We refuse to let the andalites have their way with this planet, and we must help you prepare.

Here a risky move will be done, giving the humans Yeerk science. Under the guise of a helpful and caring nature, we will help the humans study science and learn it as we do. We will teach them about things such as dracon beams and zero space, shields and force fields. We will teach them about the deadly Andalites and their power, and we will talk about how they can save themselves with out help.

We will make good relations, meeting with their world leaders and helping exterminate their petty religious insurrectionists. During meetings with the world leaders they will be infested and return to their countries filled with zeal to defend Earth, learning about and constructing zero-space craft and energy weapons all the while promoting the Sharing which helps abolish human rivalry and bonding them together as one united race against the alien threat. Naturally, Sharing membership and infestation will increase monumentally.

When the Andalite Domeship Galaxy Tree popped out of Zero Space to engage us, it was a blessing to our purpose. We showed the Humans the Andalites, their enemy. We sent them messages asking them to surrender so we may spare them, and we did not fire first. The Humans saw the us try to negotiate with the Andalites, and defending ourselves when attacked.

They will believe that we have just saved them from a great threat, the Andalites came to destroy them and we the Yeerks saved them. By now the majority of key human political figures will be under Yeerk control and the humans will continue producing weapons and vessels they believe are needed for their defense, which of course will be used to our benefit.

The Campaign will continue. The humans believing us to be benevolent protectors, and this image will be enforced by a growing number of Human-controllers in seats of power.

[General Squall Leonhart]

That is a nice plan, but you have to realize that humans are NOT an accepting species. Humans dont even accept other humans. If the yeerks reveal themselves in ANY form they will be tranquilized and autopsied.

[Blazing Angel]

Yeah, please remeber the "Anti andalite terrorists" in the last book.

[Gumby]

I think that you can't really speak for six billion people like that, particularly the heads of governments like America which has sent greetings of peace to any ET life they may encounter.

[NateSean]

Adding to my plan. Hospitals.

Hospitals are a hot bed of potential hosts and it would require minimal resources to plant a few volunteers, a nurse or two and maybe even a doctor in a single hospital to watch out for and obtain valuable host bodies.

Whenever a very key host, like a recovering police officer and/or military personel, or someone with money or a position in a company for example, appears to be on the mends, a quick night trip down to the pool via a disused elevator shaft will allow us to place a yeerk in some sensitive areas.

Severe psychiatric patients, and patients in hospice may prove useful in testing a few concepts that might work on the general population. Concepts like viruses that numb freewill, chemical agents that would be detrimental to the host body but not to the Yeerk, weapons, etc.

 

[General Squall Leonhart]

I think that you can't really speak for six billion people like that, particularly the heads of governments like America which has sent greetings of peace to any ET life they may encounter.

Actually I can speak for 6 billion humans because all you have to do is look at history. When Americans first saw Africans they thought ONE thing. SLAVES. A work force that didnt have to be paid because since they were a different color they were LESS than human. Another example is Hitler and everything he did. Another is KKK and their beliefs. Another is any religious fanatics who believe that ANYONE that dont believe as they do should be either converted or killed.

So if humans CANNOT accept other humans based on skin color or religious beliefs or sexual orientation than what in the world makes you think that humans will accept Hork-Bajir?!?!? Humans will do one of two things...Shoot them and autopsy the corpses OR Tranquilize them and perform all sorts of tests and experiments on them that will eventually lead to an autopsy.

The human race is NOT nice.

Plain and Simple.

[Blazing Angel]

Its not that. Most people when they see things they don't understand they have one or two of several reactions. Reject it, kill it, eat it, use it for my monetary benefit. and remember what happened when a hrok bjair child was captured? It was put in a third class zoo. For the gain of money.

[General Squall Leonhart]

ok you got a point there, but it is a garuntee that most if not ALL humans will NOT accept alien life.

[Blazing Angel]

Thats exactly what imm saying. They wont except it because they dont understand

[NateSean]

Actually I can speak for 6 billion humans because all you have to do is look at history. When Americans first saw Africans they thought ONE thing. SLAVES. The human race is NOT nice.

I get what you're saying, but as a point of interest America as a nation didn't exist during much of the slave trade. And while American Colonists owned slaves after the Revolutionary War, up until the abolishment of slavery by Lincoln, Americans didn't invent the concept.

Slavery has been around for as long as we've existed and it still exists today. The point, as you mentioned, was to get free labor. Being from Africa doesn't ring into it, because many African nations used slavery as well. Those pyramids didn't get built by free masons and trade unionists.

[Blazing Angel]

Yeah they got built by chee strong men