Post by Admin on Aug 8, 2009 8:40:58 GMT -5
Council of War
Rian:
Rian looked around the room. He had called everyone into this suite because it was one of the biggest in the hotel and it actual had places to sit for all of them. The room had beige double doors and a small open space with a floor that looked like marble but maybe wasn't.
There was a large common area with a cracked plasma wall screen tv on one wall and a couch, two chairs and a padded bench set up to face it. Behind the couch was a small circle with four chairs set up around it. Forming one wall of that little dining area was a bar with two stools at it, the stools having four legs of wood and grey leather or pleather (couldn't tell) padded cushions. There was also a door leading into a bathroom from that area.
It was obvious that the room had once been nice. The California Hotel and Casino had once been a nice hotel, not supper rich but not a motel either. But it had not fared well in the invasion. One tower was completely knocked down, collapsed, and closing off a lot of the amenities on the first floor leaving only the north section of the hotel open.
And in this suite specifically the wall to wall windows had been blown out in some sort of attack or another opening the room up to the elements. Broken glass was scattered over the floor and part of the couch below the window and the fabrics on that side of the room were faded from rain and sun.
But for all the damage the room was still nice and the broken windows actually provided a nice breeze in to break up the constant desert heat.
Rian himself was sitting on one of the stools at the bar though the others had all chosen their own seats, some at the table and some on the couches and chairs. Some were even standing.
But all looked at least a little serious after Rian had explained the implications of dynamite fishing. Now he asked for their vote. Should they do it? Or should they just try to destroy the dam.
If they just destroyed the dam the yeerks would be washed away anyway but that didn't mean they'd die. The yeerks might be able to recover them and the dam might be rebuilt. But if they killed them....well maybe the yeerks would think twice before building there again. Hopefully they would be deterred completely.
But it meant killing millions.
It was not a decision Rian would make for them.
"So, what do you guys say?
Drake:
"It sounds like suicide, to tell the truth." Drake was sitting on the couch, half reclined. During Rian's whole speech he had listened carefully, trying to imagine how the whole scenario would play out. He kept having visions of himself exploding, or someone getting sliced in two by a stray dracon beam.
"There are so many ways that this could go wrong. And even if we do all make it through in one piece, then it does not exactly mean that we won." Drake wanted to want to do this mission, but just could not quite bring himself to do it. At least not yet. Maybe he could be persuaded by the opinions of some of the others, but right now he could not imagine how that would happen.
Diana:
It had been, in part, Diana's idea. It was only now that she considered the weight of the mission and it's impact. She frowned, tapping her light fingers on her knee.
"It is dangerous. But if we stand by and do nothing when we have this chance to strike the Yeerks where it hurts, I feel that we will regret it until the day we die." Diana spoke frankly, the severity of her statement was not cushioned by her alluring French accent. "Surely the other Animorphs around the country will see the success of such a mission. We do this not for glory, but to give hope to mankind."
With her statement, Diana lowered her head and rested her cheek on the knee she had been tapping. The tension in the room weighed heavy on everyone.
Suji:
Suji was half-standing,half-perched on the armrest of the couch. She listened to Rian, stony-faced. She was appeased that he really had thought about it, and though she felt a little unnerved by the idea that anyone would have problems with killing Yeerks in wartime, he'd earned some of her respect by asking for their opinions. If nothing else, no one could blame Rian if they had misgivings about what happened five months from now, or years from now. The guilt, if there was any (Suji did not expect to feel any, not when Yeerks had decided to come here to take over their planet and their people) would be spread amongst everyone.
Unless someone pulled the pseudo-pacifist card, thereby giving themselves a reason to wash their hands of any wrongdoing. Suji hoped that wouldn't happen.
She listened to Drake. His concerns were valid, and he sounded more worried about their safety than killing the enemy. Diana spoke after him, and Suji felt that that gave her the appropriate moment to speak. Better not to be the first one to speak in support of it.
Suji looked around, and then spoke clearly--keeping her tone neutral, and open. "You're right," she said to Drake. "But we can be smart about this, and the opportunity is... well, it's probably going to be a one time thing. Defenses and security won't be as entrenched as they will be merely a week after it's opening. If Rian is right and there's some sort of opening ceremony, that's a further distraction point." She tried to make eye contact with each of them, gauging where they stood.
Suji nodded towards Diana. "If we don't strike now, we will never have this window again. And Vegas'll have possibly millions of fresh, new neighbors. I understand the risks, and I'm not one to be foolhardy about anything. But this plan, if we work it right, has a good chance of success." She looked back to Rian. "My vote is in."
Luce:
Luce was sitting in one of the chairs around the dining table though she was straddling it backwards, arms crossed over the back of the chair and her head dropped down on them while she listened. For the most part her forest green eyes were locked on Rian as he talked though she spared a glance for Diana when she spoke up, mostly because she hadn't expect her to be so gung-ho for the idea. Then again she didn't know much about Diana. She looked frail especially sitting as she was, but she had survived the invasion on her own so she couldn't be weak.
Luce surprised herself by speaking out against the idea. "I'm not sure it is worth the risk." She looked around at the others. "We were already pushing our luck with the explosives anyway. Almost no one here has experience with them which is why we brought Suji in in the first place. If we make the lake itself a target as well then that is just more explosives and more exposure even though we wouldn't have to be as precise to blow up yeerks as we will to blow up a dam. If you give me a plan that I think has a chance of working then I'm in otherwise I'd just limit ourselves to the dam."
Ember:
"No."
Ember finally spoke up from her position by the broken window where she had been leaning against the frame, gazing out across the city and letting the breeze play on her face. "No." She repeated, turning to look at the room full of her comrades and friends, her blood rushing even as she spoke. "We can't go half way. We've got to kill them all."
How could she describe how much this meant? The chance to strike at the heart of their enemy. A decisive if once in a life time opportunity, something that could get them all killed if they weren't ready for it. But her head was pounding and all she could say was, "Don't be a bunch of half-asses. We either do this, or we don't. If we go in with any uncertainty about who our enemy is in this war, then we don't deserve to be fighting."
Ember matched eyes with Rian, "I'll back you up one hundred percent on whatever you decide." She turned back to the window, "But you know my vote."
Suji:
Suji nodded at Ember. She didn't know this girl's name yet, but she appreciated that she, like the other one who had been for the plan, had focused on the right thing in all of this. This was a war, and if you had a good shot, you took it. Especially when those shots came rarer than blue moons, and the stakes in all of this were so high. Suji wasn't going to propose acting on impulse, but the risk of not acting (or, as Ember had put it: half-assed acting) was greater than the risk of bombing the pool.
"Setting off bombs doesn't take expertise, Luce." Suji kept her tone neutral, though she felt more than a little betrayed. What, Luce was doubting her now, too? "Not when you're hitting a big target. After all, it's chucking dynamite into a lake versus dinking around with setting charges. To be honest, we have a better chance to damage the internal structure of the dam from bombing the water itself, than bombing around it. And we're a lot less likely to accidentally harm one of us--or any humans, captured or Controller--as long as we stay on dry land. You'd need a lot more firepower to accomplish the same amount of strain you'd get with an underwater explosion."
Suji leaned forward on her perch on the couch's armrest. "A great enough explosion in that pool will cause massive damage to the dam itself, and will kill every invertebrate swimming in it We're talking hundreds of thousands, maybe millions." Suji's eyes flicked toward Rian. She did not smile as she said it, there was no trace of glee. Only rationalism, logic, determination, though her voice wasn't cold. "Rian and I have talked a bit about this, and one of the main concerns is: are you all ready to be responsible for the deaths of millions of creatures, sentient, thinking beings--regardless of who they are and what they're doing?"
Suji looked around. "I know there are Animorphs that wouldn't be able to do that, though I haven't been here long enough to know if anyone here is among that number. That's what you really need to think about in all of this, before Rian goes into the possible plans we came up with."
She focused on the center, staring at the ground for a moment. Her voice was low, but clear, though it trembled, if only for a second. "The way I see it is, a million dead Yeerks is a million or more people who never have to go through being enslaved. And that's what I'm fighting for."
Stevert:
Steve had actually sat silently through everyone's opinion. He listened to what tthey had said and didn't like it one bit. Rian was asking them to commit genocide! Steve had killed one or twice in the war already. He wasn't too proud of that. But in each time, the controller had been personally trying to kill him. But these yeerks weren't killing anyone...yet. He felt wrong about it.
He looked up at everyone and said, "Robert and I--". He was interrupted as Robert's thoughts broadcasted another meesage. <<I vote we do this.>>
Steve's expression was one of complete shock. But Robert ignored that. He continued, saying, <<I say we must do this. We may never get another chance to strike so much of a blow to the yeerks. We cannot pass this up. And who knows? If we play our cards right, this might be the first step to freeing Las Vegas of yeerks within our lifespans.>>
As he talked, he moved Steve's eyes to meet every person's eyes. Now he decided to address what others had said. <<Drake. Yes, this mission is dangerous, and anyone of us could easily be killed, but that is the risk we must take. But this mission is possible. If we have enough of a distraction then we might be able to pull it off. And I agree with Diana, Suji, and Ember. We have to do this mission.>>
Steve's thoughts were reeling. How could Robert say that? He was talking about killing possibly millions of lives! He tried probing Rob's mind to find out anything else but Rob didn't respond. It was his turn to vote.
"This is genocide, Rian. If we complete this mission, then yeah, we will have hurt the yeerks. But in the process, we will have kiled many yeerks in cold blood. After all, there is almsot a 100% chance that there could be non-oppressive yeerks in the pool. Like Yeerk Peace Movement. Think of them. Are we going to sacrifice our allies for the chance to kill more yeerks?"
He took a deep breathe and resumed speaking in a slightely strianed voice. "And what happens after this? The yeerks will not let this just happen without doing anything. They will undoubtabley bring in reinforcements and possibly wipe out all of the good the Animorphs have done here. You guys have told me about stealing draocn grenades and freeing..birth mothers. Well, if more Yeerks arrive, that can mean more dracon grenade shipments, more security on everything, less of a chance for us to do anything. Our chances of good will be severely decreased."
Steve stopped talking and looked around with an earnest expression before returning his gaze to Rian. "I vote no Rian, but if we must do this, I will still help and support everyone. No less than before."
Rian:
Rian had been keeping careful count of the vote. He wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that almost everyone was willing to go ahead. Even the ones who had voiced doubts had been doubting their ability to do what they proposed instead of whether they should. Only Steve brought up what killing millions might mean and Rian was reminded that he was the youngest here. But should his opinion be discounted for all of that.
There were still two to hear from, Ray and Chloe since Nadia was out on patrol at the dam, but Rian decided to speak up now.
"Before we go on I wanted to lay out a bit of what the plan is going to be so. We're going to be on four teams though I haven't made up all the teams yet. One team is going to be in charge of the actual bombing. That team is set. Luce and Suji have that job since they have the most experience with explosives. That and they have large bird morphs which is going to be the delivery system. As Suji said they don't need to be too precise to accomplish our goal.
They'll need ground support. Someone to hand them the grenades, dynamite and whatever else we can cook up. I want two people there since I think everyone should have back-up."
He was specifically not addressing Steve's concern about genocide. Mostly because he didn't feel like he could answer it without using the word genocide himself and that was the one word he had hoped would not be brought up in the conversation.
"Then there are two more teams. One is going to try to take down the Kadrona tower on the north bank of the lake. The other is going to be the distraction.
After the bombing team gets attacked, and it will eventually they can't afford to just let us continue to bomb, they have to fall back to the dam and we're going to set some explosives in the dam itself and hope that the combination of the underwater bombing and the explosives cause enough strain to bring it down. Even if we can't bring the dam itself down we'll have struck a significant blow."
He looked at Stevert but he talked to Steve. "Steve, I'm sorry, I know their might be innocent yeerks in there. But the fact is that they came to our planet, not the other way around. Even the most lowly yeerk, by being a citizen of their Empire, is an enemy."
Rian had heard once that Al Qaeda had justified bombing the Twin Towers because every American citizen was responsible for electing their officials and therefore responsible for the government's and so by default, the military's actions in the middle east. Rian had thought it was ridiculous and dangerous thinking at the time and it had made him angry. So many dead because of a bullshit justification about voting. But he wondered if they weren't doing the exact same thing.
Luce:
Luce's head was still resting on her folded arms though her eyes followed the various speakers in the room. When Robert had spoken up, separate to hs brother's opinion, Luce's interest had been sparked. She hadn't known they were really separate. She should have, she'd been a controller once and if anyone knew the difference between the host and the yeerk it should have been her. But since Stevert wasn't really a controller Luce often forgot Robert was there.
"Uh, well like I said if we have a plan that has a chance of working I'm in. I'm wondering what we're going to do after though. Like Steve pointed out, this will only put them on higher alert in Vegas. And the yeerks know half our faces." She didn't mention that it was actually more than half thanks the grenade mission because the truth was, if she hadn't let Sedra go, they wouldn't have a problem and she didn't want the others to be reminded of that. "How are we gonna move around once this is over."
She didn't address the moral issues. As far as she was concerned their weren't really any. The slugs were slugs. Sure they were people but so were the humans they wanted to infest. Better them dead than anyone having to live through the hell of being a controller. And better the human dead than they remained controlled so she wasn't really worried about the controllers that might be caught in the cross fire either. All except one. But she buried that thought very deep. She couldn't let her personal feeling put her faction in danger again, especially not on something this important.
Robert:
Drake was surprised at how much his opinion had been swayed by what everyone had said. Especially Robert's statements. For some reason a yeerk saying they should destroy the pool had a much bigger impact on him. He did not expect anyone to be able to come up with good reasons for why they should do this, but everyone had actually contributed quite a few. "I would like to change my vote," Drake interjected, even though he had not really given one yet. "I think we should do this."
"It may be dangerous, and it will surely put us at a higher risk, but you can not make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, even if we are those eggs. Like Diana said, we will regret it if we do not act, and we may never have a better opportunity than right now like Suji and Robert said. I also agree with Ember. If we are going to do this, we gotta go all the way. We have to hit them with the sledge instead of the hammer. The yeerks need to feel this."
"People also brought up good points about what would happen afterwards. How we would be bigger targets and whatnot. Sure, we would have to quit our day jobs, but we are animorphs for crying out loud. Disguise is what we do. We are like the autobots, hiding in plain sight. If people are looking for us, we disappear."
"That is my opinion anyway. You can take it or leave it." Drake leaned back on the couch's arm rest and relaxed, having gotten a little worked up during his mini-speech. He had stayed away from the morality of killing the yeerks, because he was not yet sure how he felt about it. He knew that he would blow them up if he had to, but he was not sure if he would enjoy it.
Suji:
Suji had heard about Steve & Robert's situation, though it still struck her as almost impossibly strange: and they were living in a world that had had to redefine the words 'impossible' and 'strange'. It gave her an odd twisting in her stomach to realize that Robert and Steve were disagreeing... to be stuck in someone else's head (vice versa) would be bad enough. But disagreeing? That wasn't too far from the clinical definition of insanity. Steve called their plan one of 'genocide' and Suji literally felt her jaw clench, if only for a second.
And not because she was angry. Suji didn't get angry at people who wanted to hold on to their innocence, as long as they weren't leaders, who she felt had forked over that privilege when they'd taken on the responsibility of safeguarding both their faction members and their race. No, she had to bite down on the words that suddenly came to mind, were begging to be said.
Genocide? God, I wish.
Luce mentioned that half of their faces were known, and Suji felt her skin crawl. They'd let their faces be seen, recognized as Animorphs--and what's more, let whatever Controller had seem them, that wasn't YPM, live? That made Suji angry. That was bad form, risked so much... She made herself let go of the anger. It was a situation that couldn't be helped, at least not now.
Drake spoke up again, and Suji was glad to see that they'd begun to cement their collective vote. Of course there were a few others who still needed to chime in, but so far only one person was on the side of not doing this, and even his body was divided when it came to the two people living in his head.
Suji also appreciated the fact that they were seeing past just this one mission. You had to see the effects down the line; backlash would occur, and they had to understand that. At the same time, they also had to understand that there were some things in war worth the backlash, and the fact that they could see it coming, intuit it, meant that they could be ready for it. And as Drake had said: their specialty was hiding, much moreso than fighting, even.
Suji turned to the other who hadn't spoken yet.
Chloe:
Chloe held her tounge for most of the meeting. Something inside her told her that she didn't really have a say in the matter. What could she really do? As long as Essi was in her head, she would always be a threat. That's all these people would ever think of her as. Hey, wait a second, yes I do have some sort of say. Rian asked me here, didn't he? At least he trusts me.
"I don't like it," Chloe admitted. "I think anything with explosives is too dangerous," she added, before looking at Suji. "But as long as we've got someone who knows what they're doing..." She nodded in Suji's direction. "Then I say we go for it. I'll do whatever I can to help."
The more yeerks we take out the better, she thought, hoping that Essi wasn't paying attention.
Ray:
Ray had listened in as everyone voiced their opinions staying deathly quiet. His back against the wall, he focused mainly on the eyes of the speaker's and the passion that they held as they voice their opinion of this extremely dangerous mission. Everyone brought very valid points to the table but there was one person's opinion that struck the right chord in him: Ember's.
After everyone else had spoken and the room gaining the appropriate silence Ray voiced his opinion. "I think we all have very valid points here, but I agree one-hundred percent with Ember."
Ember's summary of the situation was right on track with how they should feel about their enemy whether they used human hosts or not. For this, Ray's respect level for Ember shot through the roof at that moment even though he had always highly respected her.
"I'll go along with whatever offensive action we choose, but I don't think there's really any opportunity to wait this out and I'm fully for destroying every slug. We either take a stand or just hide in the shadows and annoy them. I don't know about you, but the yeerks have done more than just annoyed me..."
Rian:
Everyone had spoken and so far only Steve was against the act itself but they had Rob's vote. So that made 9 for and 1 against and even Steve had said he would go along with the majority. Still, Rian didn't like asking him to go along with it. Unfortunately they would need both Steve and Rob on this one and he couldn't afford to let them sit it out. He couldn't even send Steve with Ray because Drake would need back up.
"So, the vote is 9 in favor and 1 against." He looked around, meeting each person's eyes as he said what he did next. "I know this sucks. I know what I'm asking you all to do and to live with and if anyone doesn't think they can live with it tell me now. I want you all there but I'm not going to force anyone to go." He ended looking at Steve, a question in his eyes.
Stevert:
Steve glanced down at the floor as Rian swept his field of vision over. He knew it would happen that way. He knew that his debate would not sway the tide of the council. He knew that it was going to happen mostly because he knew most people's personalities by now.
Ember was gung-ho, he'd always known that. Luce was an ob ediant soldier, at least Steve assumed. Drake usually preferred to be a spectator and was usually nuetral, so Steve expected no help from him. Ray, Suji, and Diana seemed ruthless, like they would do absolutely anything to win. Chloe at least, Steve had expected help from her. But she hadn't. His own brother had voted against him. There was no way Steve could have won.
But he did see the neccesity for this mission. It would be a major blow to the yeerks and would create a name for the Animorphs in the Yeerk Empire. Right now, the name 'Animorph' rarely made it above the resident Sub-visser in an area where the Animorphs were located.
When he finally looked up to meet Rian's gaze, Steve's face looked unusually tired. With a slow, and small smile, Steve spoke softly, yet clearly, "Let's do it."
Rian:
Rian hated seeing that look on Stevert's face. It was so different from his normal expression and seeing the world weary expression on his young face bothered Rian. He hated to think that he had done anything to put it there but what he had said to Suji had been true. He wanted to protect his faction mates but in the end they had all signed up for a war. They were all here so that others didn't have to face the decisions (and the nightmares those decisions led to) they had to.
Rian nodded, doing his best to squash the sick feeling he got from Steve's reaction. "Ok then, well since we are going to do this we better be prepared for the consequences. As many of you pointed out there will be a lot of heat on us and Vegas after we do this and it won't be safe for us to stay here anymore. Hiding in plain sight has worked ok up until now but they know too many of our faces, we can't risk staying in the city anymore. So this is going to be our last week in the Den. We're moving."
He looked at Ray and Drake since they knew the place he was talking about best. "A while back Ray and Drake went out to Nellis Air Force Base. Since then we've used it to store some stuff and we've all made trips out there in the past couple of days to get the dracon grenades and such. We're going to move out there for a while, maybe permanently. So that is Ray and Nadia's job."
He had really wanted Ray on the mission. Ray was one of his more experienced members and Rian trusted him. But that was also why Rian was sending him to prepare the base. The animorphs would need a quick exit from the Hoover Dam area and they'd have to disappear and stay hidden for a while afterwards. It would require planning and preparation and Ray was the best one to handle it. And between the other two members who had been out there Rian would need Drake the most so Ray got Nadia.
<<For everyone else, here's the plan.>> Rian began telling them what they would be doing in three days.
Rian:
Rian looked around the room. He had called everyone into this suite because it was one of the biggest in the hotel and it actual had places to sit for all of them. The room had beige double doors and a small open space with a floor that looked like marble but maybe wasn't.
There was a large common area with a cracked plasma wall screen tv on one wall and a couch, two chairs and a padded bench set up to face it. Behind the couch was a small circle with four chairs set up around it. Forming one wall of that little dining area was a bar with two stools at it, the stools having four legs of wood and grey leather or pleather (couldn't tell) padded cushions. There was also a door leading into a bathroom from that area.
It was obvious that the room had once been nice. The California Hotel and Casino had once been a nice hotel, not supper rich but not a motel either. But it had not fared well in the invasion. One tower was completely knocked down, collapsed, and closing off a lot of the amenities on the first floor leaving only the north section of the hotel open.
And in this suite specifically the wall to wall windows had been blown out in some sort of attack or another opening the room up to the elements. Broken glass was scattered over the floor and part of the couch below the window and the fabrics on that side of the room were faded from rain and sun.
But for all the damage the room was still nice and the broken windows actually provided a nice breeze in to break up the constant desert heat.
Rian himself was sitting on one of the stools at the bar though the others had all chosen their own seats, some at the table and some on the couches and chairs. Some were even standing.
But all looked at least a little serious after Rian had explained the implications of dynamite fishing. Now he asked for their vote. Should they do it? Or should they just try to destroy the dam.
If they just destroyed the dam the yeerks would be washed away anyway but that didn't mean they'd die. The yeerks might be able to recover them and the dam might be rebuilt. But if they killed them....well maybe the yeerks would think twice before building there again. Hopefully they would be deterred completely.
But it meant killing millions.
It was not a decision Rian would make for them.
"So, what do you guys say?
Drake:
"It sounds like suicide, to tell the truth." Drake was sitting on the couch, half reclined. During Rian's whole speech he had listened carefully, trying to imagine how the whole scenario would play out. He kept having visions of himself exploding, or someone getting sliced in two by a stray dracon beam.
"There are so many ways that this could go wrong. And even if we do all make it through in one piece, then it does not exactly mean that we won." Drake wanted to want to do this mission, but just could not quite bring himself to do it. At least not yet. Maybe he could be persuaded by the opinions of some of the others, but right now he could not imagine how that would happen.
Diana:
It had been, in part, Diana's idea. It was only now that she considered the weight of the mission and it's impact. She frowned, tapping her light fingers on her knee.
"It is dangerous. But if we stand by and do nothing when we have this chance to strike the Yeerks where it hurts, I feel that we will regret it until the day we die." Diana spoke frankly, the severity of her statement was not cushioned by her alluring French accent. "Surely the other Animorphs around the country will see the success of such a mission. We do this not for glory, but to give hope to mankind."
With her statement, Diana lowered her head and rested her cheek on the knee she had been tapping. The tension in the room weighed heavy on everyone.
Suji:
Suji was half-standing,half-perched on the armrest of the couch. She listened to Rian, stony-faced. She was appeased that he really had thought about it, and though she felt a little unnerved by the idea that anyone would have problems with killing Yeerks in wartime, he'd earned some of her respect by asking for their opinions. If nothing else, no one could blame Rian if they had misgivings about what happened five months from now, or years from now. The guilt, if there was any (Suji did not expect to feel any, not when Yeerks had decided to come here to take over their planet and their people) would be spread amongst everyone.
Unless someone pulled the pseudo-pacifist card, thereby giving themselves a reason to wash their hands of any wrongdoing. Suji hoped that wouldn't happen.
She listened to Drake. His concerns were valid, and he sounded more worried about their safety than killing the enemy. Diana spoke after him, and Suji felt that that gave her the appropriate moment to speak. Better not to be the first one to speak in support of it.
Suji looked around, and then spoke clearly--keeping her tone neutral, and open. "You're right," she said to Drake. "But we can be smart about this, and the opportunity is... well, it's probably going to be a one time thing. Defenses and security won't be as entrenched as they will be merely a week after it's opening. If Rian is right and there's some sort of opening ceremony, that's a further distraction point." She tried to make eye contact with each of them, gauging where they stood.
Suji nodded towards Diana. "If we don't strike now, we will never have this window again. And Vegas'll have possibly millions of fresh, new neighbors. I understand the risks, and I'm not one to be foolhardy about anything. But this plan, if we work it right, has a good chance of success." She looked back to Rian. "My vote is in."
Luce:
Luce was sitting in one of the chairs around the dining table though she was straddling it backwards, arms crossed over the back of the chair and her head dropped down on them while she listened. For the most part her forest green eyes were locked on Rian as he talked though she spared a glance for Diana when she spoke up, mostly because she hadn't expect her to be so gung-ho for the idea. Then again she didn't know much about Diana. She looked frail especially sitting as she was, but she had survived the invasion on her own so she couldn't be weak.
Luce surprised herself by speaking out against the idea. "I'm not sure it is worth the risk." She looked around at the others. "We were already pushing our luck with the explosives anyway. Almost no one here has experience with them which is why we brought Suji in in the first place. If we make the lake itself a target as well then that is just more explosives and more exposure even though we wouldn't have to be as precise to blow up yeerks as we will to blow up a dam. If you give me a plan that I think has a chance of working then I'm in otherwise I'd just limit ourselves to the dam."
Ember:
"No."
Ember finally spoke up from her position by the broken window where she had been leaning against the frame, gazing out across the city and letting the breeze play on her face. "No." She repeated, turning to look at the room full of her comrades and friends, her blood rushing even as she spoke. "We can't go half way. We've got to kill them all."
How could she describe how much this meant? The chance to strike at the heart of their enemy. A decisive if once in a life time opportunity, something that could get them all killed if they weren't ready for it. But her head was pounding and all she could say was, "Don't be a bunch of half-asses. We either do this, or we don't. If we go in with any uncertainty about who our enemy is in this war, then we don't deserve to be fighting."
Ember matched eyes with Rian, "I'll back you up one hundred percent on whatever you decide." She turned back to the window, "But you know my vote."
Suji:
Suji nodded at Ember. She didn't know this girl's name yet, but she appreciated that she, like the other one who had been for the plan, had focused on the right thing in all of this. This was a war, and if you had a good shot, you took it. Especially when those shots came rarer than blue moons, and the stakes in all of this were so high. Suji wasn't going to propose acting on impulse, but the risk of not acting (or, as Ember had put it: half-assed acting) was greater than the risk of bombing the pool.
"Setting off bombs doesn't take expertise, Luce." Suji kept her tone neutral, though she felt more than a little betrayed. What, Luce was doubting her now, too? "Not when you're hitting a big target. After all, it's chucking dynamite into a lake versus dinking around with setting charges. To be honest, we have a better chance to damage the internal structure of the dam from bombing the water itself, than bombing around it. And we're a lot less likely to accidentally harm one of us--or any humans, captured or Controller--as long as we stay on dry land. You'd need a lot more firepower to accomplish the same amount of strain you'd get with an underwater explosion."
Suji leaned forward on her perch on the couch's armrest. "A great enough explosion in that pool will cause massive damage to the dam itself, and will kill every invertebrate swimming in it We're talking hundreds of thousands, maybe millions." Suji's eyes flicked toward Rian. She did not smile as she said it, there was no trace of glee. Only rationalism, logic, determination, though her voice wasn't cold. "Rian and I have talked a bit about this, and one of the main concerns is: are you all ready to be responsible for the deaths of millions of creatures, sentient, thinking beings--regardless of who they are and what they're doing?"
Suji looked around. "I know there are Animorphs that wouldn't be able to do that, though I haven't been here long enough to know if anyone here is among that number. That's what you really need to think about in all of this, before Rian goes into the possible plans we came up with."
She focused on the center, staring at the ground for a moment. Her voice was low, but clear, though it trembled, if only for a second. "The way I see it is, a million dead Yeerks is a million or more people who never have to go through being enslaved. And that's what I'm fighting for."
Stevert:
Steve had actually sat silently through everyone's opinion. He listened to what tthey had said and didn't like it one bit. Rian was asking them to commit genocide! Steve had killed one or twice in the war already. He wasn't too proud of that. But in each time, the controller had been personally trying to kill him. But these yeerks weren't killing anyone...yet. He felt wrong about it.
He looked up at everyone and said, "Robert and I--". He was interrupted as Robert's thoughts broadcasted another meesage. <<I vote we do this.>>
Steve's expression was one of complete shock. But Robert ignored that. He continued, saying, <<I say we must do this. We may never get another chance to strike so much of a blow to the yeerks. We cannot pass this up. And who knows? If we play our cards right, this might be the first step to freeing Las Vegas of yeerks within our lifespans.>>
As he talked, he moved Steve's eyes to meet every person's eyes. Now he decided to address what others had said. <<Drake. Yes, this mission is dangerous, and anyone of us could easily be killed, but that is the risk we must take. But this mission is possible. If we have enough of a distraction then we might be able to pull it off. And I agree with Diana, Suji, and Ember. We have to do this mission.>>
Steve's thoughts were reeling. How could Robert say that? He was talking about killing possibly millions of lives! He tried probing Rob's mind to find out anything else but Rob didn't respond. It was his turn to vote.
"This is genocide, Rian. If we complete this mission, then yeah, we will have hurt the yeerks. But in the process, we will have kiled many yeerks in cold blood. After all, there is almsot a 100% chance that there could be non-oppressive yeerks in the pool. Like Yeerk Peace Movement. Think of them. Are we going to sacrifice our allies for the chance to kill more yeerks?"
He took a deep breathe and resumed speaking in a slightely strianed voice. "And what happens after this? The yeerks will not let this just happen without doing anything. They will undoubtabley bring in reinforcements and possibly wipe out all of the good the Animorphs have done here. You guys have told me about stealing draocn grenades and freeing..birth mothers. Well, if more Yeerks arrive, that can mean more dracon grenade shipments, more security on everything, less of a chance for us to do anything. Our chances of good will be severely decreased."
Steve stopped talking and looked around with an earnest expression before returning his gaze to Rian. "I vote no Rian, but if we must do this, I will still help and support everyone. No less than before."
Rian:
Rian had been keeping careful count of the vote. He wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that almost everyone was willing to go ahead. Even the ones who had voiced doubts had been doubting their ability to do what they proposed instead of whether they should. Only Steve brought up what killing millions might mean and Rian was reminded that he was the youngest here. But should his opinion be discounted for all of that.
There were still two to hear from, Ray and Chloe since Nadia was out on patrol at the dam, but Rian decided to speak up now.
"Before we go on I wanted to lay out a bit of what the plan is going to be so. We're going to be on four teams though I haven't made up all the teams yet. One team is going to be in charge of the actual bombing. That team is set. Luce and Suji have that job since they have the most experience with explosives. That and they have large bird morphs which is going to be the delivery system. As Suji said they don't need to be too precise to accomplish our goal.
They'll need ground support. Someone to hand them the grenades, dynamite and whatever else we can cook up. I want two people there since I think everyone should have back-up."
He was specifically not addressing Steve's concern about genocide. Mostly because he didn't feel like he could answer it without using the word genocide himself and that was the one word he had hoped would not be brought up in the conversation.
"Then there are two more teams. One is going to try to take down the Kadrona tower on the north bank of the lake. The other is going to be the distraction.
After the bombing team gets attacked, and it will eventually they can't afford to just let us continue to bomb, they have to fall back to the dam and we're going to set some explosives in the dam itself and hope that the combination of the underwater bombing and the explosives cause enough strain to bring it down. Even if we can't bring the dam itself down we'll have struck a significant blow."
He looked at Stevert but he talked to Steve. "Steve, I'm sorry, I know their might be innocent yeerks in there. But the fact is that they came to our planet, not the other way around. Even the most lowly yeerk, by being a citizen of their Empire, is an enemy."
Rian had heard once that Al Qaeda had justified bombing the Twin Towers because every American citizen was responsible for electing their officials and therefore responsible for the government's and so by default, the military's actions in the middle east. Rian had thought it was ridiculous and dangerous thinking at the time and it had made him angry. So many dead because of a bullshit justification about voting. But he wondered if they weren't doing the exact same thing.
Luce:
Luce's head was still resting on her folded arms though her eyes followed the various speakers in the room. When Robert had spoken up, separate to hs brother's opinion, Luce's interest had been sparked. She hadn't known they were really separate. She should have, she'd been a controller once and if anyone knew the difference between the host and the yeerk it should have been her. But since Stevert wasn't really a controller Luce often forgot Robert was there.
"Uh, well like I said if we have a plan that has a chance of working I'm in. I'm wondering what we're going to do after though. Like Steve pointed out, this will only put them on higher alert in Vegas. And the yeerks know half our faces." She didn't mention that it was actually more than half thanks the grenade mission because the truth was, if she hadn't let Sedra go, they wouldn't have a problem and she didn't want the others to be reminded of that. "How are we gonna move around once this is over."
She didn't address the moral issues. As far as she was concerned their weren't really any. The slugs were slugs. Sure they were people but so were the humans they wanted to infest. Better them dead than anyone having to live through the hell of being a controller. And better the human dead than they remained controlled so she wasn't really worried about the controllers that might be caught in the cross fire either. All except one. But she buried that thought very deep. She couldn't let her personal feeling put her faction in danger again, especially not on something this important.
Robert:
Drake was surprised at how much his opinion had been swayed by what everyone had said. Especially Robert's statements. For some reason a yeerk saying they should destroy the pool had a much bigger impact on him. He did not expect anyone to be able to come up with good reasons for why they should do this, but everyone had actually contributed quite a few. "I would like to change my vote," Drake interjected, even though he had not really given one yet. "I think we should do this."
"It may be dangerous, and it will surely put us at a higher risk, but you can not make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, even if we are those eggs. Like Diana said, we will regret it if we do not act, and we may never have a better opportunity than right now like Suji and Robert said. I also agree with Ember. If we are going to do this, we gotta go all the way. We have to hit them with the sledge instead of the hammer. The yeerks need to feel this."
"People also brought up good points about what would happen afterwards. How we would be bigger targets and whatnot. Sure, we would have to quit our day jobs, but we are animorphs for crying out loud. Disguise is what we do. We are like the autobots, hiding in plain sight. If people are looking for us, we disappear."
"That is my opinion anyway. You can take it or leave it." Drake leaned back on the couch's arm rest and relaxed, having gotten a little worked up during his mini-speech. He had stayed away from the morality of killing the yeerks, because he was not yet sure how he felt about it. He knew that he would blow them up if he had to, but he was not sure if he would enjoy it.
Suji:
Suji had heard about Steve & Robert's situation, though it still struck her as almost impossibly strange: and they were living in a world that had had to redefine the words 'impossible' and 'strange'. It gave her an odd twisting in her stomach to realize that Robert and Steve were disagreeing... to be stuck in someone else's head (vice versa) would be bad enough. But disagreeing? That wasn't too far from the clinical definition of insanity. Steve called their plan one of 'genocide' and Suji literally felt her jaw clench, if only for a second.
And not because she was angry. Suji didn't get angry at people who wanted to hold on to their innocence, as long as they weren't leaders, who she felt had forked over that privilege when they'd taken on the responsibility of safeguarding both their faction members and their race. No, she had to bite down on the words that suddenly came to mind, were begging to be said.
Genocide? God, I wish.
Luce mentioned that half of their faces were known, and Suji felt her skin crawl. They'd let their faces be seen, recognized as Animorphs--and what's more, let whatever Controller had seem them, that wasn't YPM, live? That made Suji angry. That was bad form, risked so much... She made herself let go of the anger. It was a situation that couldn't be helped, at least not now.
Drake spoke up again, and Suji was glad to see that they'd begun to cement their collective vote. Of course there were a few others who still needed to chime in, but so far only one person was on the side of not doing this, and even his body was divided when it came to the two people living in his head.
Suji also appreciated the fact that they were seeing past just this one mission. You had to see the effects down the line; backlash would occur, and they had to understand that. At the same time, they also had to understand that there were some things in war worth the backlash, and the fact that they could see it coming, intuit it, meant that they could be ready for it. And as Drake had said: their specialty was hiding, much moreso than fighting, even.
Suji turned to the other who hadn't spoken yet.
Chloe:
Chloe held her tounge for most of the meeting. Something inside her told her that she didn't really have a say in the matter. What could she really do? As long as Essi was in her head, she would always be a threat. That's all these people would ever think of her as. Hey, wait a second, yes I do have some sort of say. Rian asked me here, didn't he? At least he trusts me.
"I don't like it," Chloe admitted. "I think anything with explosives is too dangerous," she added, before looking at Suji. "But as long as we've got someone who knows what they're doing..." She nodded in Suji's direction. "Then I say we go for it. I'll do whatever I can to help."
The more yeerks we take out the better, she thought, hoping that Essi wasn't paying attention.
Ray:
Ray had listened in as everyone voiced their opinions staying deathly quiet. His back against the wall, he focused mainly on the eyes of the speaker's and the passion that they held as they voice their opinion of this extremely dangerous mission. Everyone brought very valid points to the table but there was one person's opinion that struck the right chord in him: Ember's.
After everyone else had spoken and the room gaining the appropriate silence Ray voiced his opinion. "I think we all have very valid points here, but I agree one-hundred percent with Ember."
Ember's summary of the situation was right on track with how they should feel about their enemy whether they used human hosts or not. For this, Ray's respect level for Ember shot through the roof at that moment even though he had always highly respected her.
"I'll go along with whatever offensive action we choose, but I don't think there's really any opportunity to wait this out and I'm fully for destroying every slug. We either take a stand or just hide in the shadows and annoy them. I don't know about you, but the yeerks have done more than just annoyed me..."
Rian:
Everyone had spoken and so far only Steve was against the act itself but they had Rob's vote. So that made 9 for and 1 against and even Steve had said he would go along with the majority. Still, Rian didn't like asking him to go along with it. Unfortunately they would need both Steve and Rob on this one and he couldn't afford to let them sit it out. He couldn't even send Steve with Ray because Drake would need back up.
"So, the vote is 9 in favor and 1 against." He looked around, meeting each person's eyes as he said what he did next. "I know this sucks. I know what I'm asking you all to do and to live with and if anyone doesn't think they can live with it tell me now. I want you all there but I'm not going to force anyone to go." He ended looking at Steve, a question in his eyes.
Stevert:
Steve glanced down at the floor as Rian swept his field of vision over. He knew it would happen that way. He knew that his debate would not sway the tide of the council. He knew that it was going to happen mostly because he knew most people's personalities by now.
Ember was gung-ho, he'd always known that. Luce was an ob ediant soldier, at least Steve assumed. Drake usually preferred to be a spectator and was usually nuetral, so Steve expected no help from him. Ray, Suji, and Diana seemed ruthless, like they would do absolutely anything to win. Chloe at least, Steve had expected help from her. But she hadn't. His own brother had voted against him. There was no way Steve could have won.
But he did see the neccesity for this mission. It would be a major blow to the yeerks and would create a name for the Animorphs in the Yeerk Empire. Right now, the name 'Animorph' rarely made it above the resident Sub-visser in an area where the Animorphs were located.
When he finally looked up to meet Rian's gaze, Steve's face looked unusually tired. With a slow, and small smile, Steve spoke softly, yet clearly, "Let's do it."
Rian:
Rian hated seeing that look on Stevert's face. It was so different from his normal expression and seeing the world weary expression on his young face bothered Rian. He hated to think that he had done anything to put it there but what he had said to Suji had been true. He wanted to protect his faction mates but in the end they had all signed up for a war. They were all here so that others didn't have to face the decisions (and the nightmares those decisions led to) they had to.
Rian nodded, doing his best to squash the sick feeling he got from Steve's reaction. "Ok then, well since we are going to do this we better be prepared for the consequences. As many of you pointed out there will be a lot of heat on us and Vegas after we do this and it won't be safe for us to stay here anymore. Hiding in plain sight has worked ok up until now but they know too many of our faces, we can't risk staying in the city anymore. So this is going to be our last week in the Den. We're moving."
He looked at Ray and Drake since they knew the place he was talking about best. "A while back Ray and Drake went out to Nellis Air Force Base. Since then we've used it to store some stuff and we've all made trips out there in the past couple of days to get the dracon grenades and such. We're going to move out there for a while, maybe permanently. So that is Ray and Nadia's job."
He had really wanted Ray on the mission. Ray was one of his more experienced members and Rian trusted him. But that was also why Rian was sending him to prepare the base. The animorphs would need a quick exit from the Hoover Dam area and they'd have to disappear and stay hidden for a while afterwards. It would require planning and preparation and Ray was the best one to handle it. And between the other two members who had been out there Rian would need Drake the most so Ray got Nadia.
<<For everyone else, here's the plan.>> Rian began telling them what they would be doing in three days.