scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/6mblon.md

## Next r!Animorphs update ~7/19; in the meantime, speculation request

* Author: u/TK17Studios  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning**
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/6mblon/next_ranimorphs_update_719_in_the_meantime/
* Score: 34

* Created: 2017-07-10T02:13:14

### Post:

Hi, all.  Mods, let me know if this kind of post is annoying and I won't do it again (a few people requested last hiatus that I give them better clues as to when releases would be, but if it's clutter I apologize).

In the meantime, just in case anyone wants to play, I'm writing Tobias and Ax chapters in response to all the recent events, and while I've already got a pretty wide set of options for the Animorphs to take, I wouldn't mind enriching that with everyone else's thoughts and ideas.

Let's say all the Animorphs are regathered in one place with ~21 days to spare.  What would you do now, with the looming time pressure and your current state of knowledge?

### Comments:

> **u/CouteauBleu** [+14]  *We are the Empire.* (4 hours later)
> 
> Ask Elfangor for advice.

>> **u/kleind305** [+7]  (21 hours later)
>> 
>> Somehow I doubt he'd be thrilled with many of Ax's decisions the last few weeks/months.

>>> **u/None** [+2]  (4 days later)
>>> 
>>> Hand Elfangor a cinnamon bun first, to help him understand Ax's struggle.
>>> 
>>> ^^^And ^^^then ^^^hold ^^^the ^^^buns ^^^back ^^^till ^^^he ^^^decides ^^^to ^^^be ^^^helpful.

>>>> **u/kleind305** [+3]  (4 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> Elfangor has spent years among humans, that would be cartoonish and completely ineffectual.

>>>>> **u/None** [+3]  (4 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Not everything has to be serious.

> **u/DaystarEld** [+10]  *Pokémon Professor* (an hour later)
> 
> Tell the Chee and let them know that convincing the andalites that V3 is dead is the only way to save the planet (and thus all its dogs), just incase they have some ability to trick them and give us more time that doesn't run afoul their programming.
> 
> More ideally maybe they can help nonviolently capture him so that no trick is necessary, presuming the andalites are okay with a captured-in-stasis V3.
> 
> Getting to his ship or getting him down to earth seems the main hurdle. If humans can't jumpstart their tech fast enough or make use of the bug fighters on their own, the chee are basically our only hope to bring V3 out of the immunity of space.

>> **u/Alphanos** [+6]  *The Bright Powers* (an hour later)
>> 
>> To tack on, maybe the Chee are sufficiently advanced to be able to defend against the Andalite strike even if they can't prevent it.  E.g. open some kind of z space rift to have the incoming projectile sent somewhere else.

>> **u/CCC_037** [+6]  (6 hours later)
>> 
>> The Chee might just be advanced enough to create the illusion of Earth blowing up, as seen from outside the planet, at least...
>> 
>> But this is definitely something that's worth asking Chee advice on, at the very least. They've either got useful suggestions to make, or they'll tell you straight-up that they don't; significant potential benefit, as against a few minutes' time (they have Eric's phone number, right?).
>> 
>> I don't think they can capture V3 directly. This might go against their non-violence programming.
>> 
>> The downside of that is that, once the threat has been neutralised, the Chee might have to take steps to prevent it happening again. But even then, the threat will have to be neutralised *first*.

> **u/Badewell** [+6]  (5 hours later)
> 
> Just spit-balling here.
> 
> So could they just tell Esplin about the assassination deadline? He doesn't want Earth destroyed either, and if he's in on it they could possibly fake an assassination successful enough to be convincing. Of course then Esplin has to keep the secret but that might not be as challenging as I think it is? I would think that he would have to let the Council of Thirteen know he's just faking, but I'm not sure how good Visser One's information gathering is, or if she'd really tip off the Andalites and have them blow up Earth just to screw Esplin despite the cost to the Yeerks. Especially since if the Yeerks realize it's her it's treason ~~then~~.
> 
> Alternatively, can they just do what they did in canon and [very late canon spoilers](#s "Get a direct line to the Andalite civilian communications network and let them know that the military is going to blow up the planet?")
> 
> ...and re-reading the conversation between Lirem and Ax and Ax and Rachel I just caught that Lirem asked about whether Earth had shielding technology in relation to blowing up the planet, then lied about there not being a counter-measure to Rachel. And thinking about how Garrett did something similar is making me want to re-read the Jake chapter where he tries to stop everyone taking unilateral action without consulting anyone else because you think you know best...
> 
> Speculating for this story a bit hard, because with a story this complex I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few things. I keep having thoughts about things that happened earlier that I would need to find and re-read to properly address, and if I let myself go down that rabbit hole suddenly it'll be three in the morning.

>> **u/ZeroNihilist** [+8]  (6 hours later)
>> 
>> > So could they just tell Esplin about the assassination deadline? He doesn't want Earth destroyed either, and if he's in on it they could possibly fake an assassination successful enough to be convincing.
>> 
>> Keep in mind that Esplin knows the Earth won't actually be destroyed on time due to the Z-space barrier. It may not even be destroyed at all, since the destruction has to be targetted to a particular point in Earth's orbit. The Animorphs don't know Esplin knows, so they can't actually use that to make a decision, though.
>> 
>> However, Esplin would have good reason to let the people of Earth know just who it was that screwed up. Since he knows that *he* didn't leak the information, he can work out who it really was. That'd be a pretty big propaganda victory for him.

>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+5]  *We are the Empire.* (10 hours later)
>> 
>> > I just caught that Lirem asked about whether Earth had shielding technology in relation to blowing up the planet, then lied about there not being a counter-measure to Rachel.
>> 
>> Oh crap! I didn't catch that! (though I did think his "no one knows how to stop it, so no one ever tried" explanation sounded dubious)
>> 
>> > making me want to re-read the Jake chapter where he tries to stop everyone taking unilateral action without consulting anyone else because you think you know best...
>> 
>> Well that's the thing about cooperation: it's really cool when other people do it.
>> 
>> > So could they just tell Esplin about the assassination deadline?
>> 
>> I'd say 'no' on general principles (you don't hand the professional blackmailer with superior intel the threat of your entire planet being destroyed).

> **u/eroticas** [+7]  (14 hours later)
> 
> Visser three is on Mars. Call the Andelites and tell them to nuke Mars instead of earth.

>> **u/Evan_Th** [+6]  *Sunshine Regiment* (a day later)
>> 
>> Do the Animorphs know he's on Mars?  They could find out from the their new friend Telor, but that'd involve telling him, and I'm not sure they trust their fragile new friendship enough to do that.

>>> **u/eroticas** [+8]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> They do. Well, Tobias and Garret know. That human guy who figured out how to pinpoint morphing signatures told them.

> **u/CouteauBleu** [+6]  *We are the Empire.* (11 hours later)
> 
> In no particular order:
> 
> - Inform the USA military. They have slightly more experience dealing with threats of global annihilation through WMDs than the Animorphs do.
> 
> - Don't even consider Lirem's blackmail. There's no proof of Esplin's death they could present to him that he couldn't (reasonably) claim is fake. Besides, he decided to kill everyone on Earth in twenty seconds, and thought up his "Kill V3 and we'll talk" in the spur of the moment. His reasoning probably is "Let's see if we can't get some use of this asshole cadet (and the humans) before we blow up the planet. If it works we'll have both defeated the Visser and eliminated this new threat!"
> 
> - Try to contact Andalites again, this time with preparation. Either civilian channels, or other officers. Lirem might be an extremist, and other generals might not allow him to blow up a planet with 7 billion people on it without at least *some* consideration. Try to convince them that the governments of Earth have the situation under control, and will not be easily consumed.
> 
> - Tell Telor about this threat. They might know how to protect a planet from spontaneously becoming a  Z-space piñata, or how to retaliate against the Andalites. (though this runs the same sort of risks as directly telling Visser 3)
> 
> - By the way, isolate Marco's dad from any tactical decisions until he makes his trip to Telor.
> 
> Also, not exactly related to the meteor threat, but use the Serenity Z-space detector and Ax's ship to map out the yeerks' supply lines, and coordinate with local police forces to capture / take out all of their bases at once (or only some of them, for added "you don't know how I got this intel" flavor).

> **u/None** [+3]  (4 days later)
> 
> Work out the spaceship paths with the Z-space scans, take a pilot, morph them or a lice on their head, get to the pool ships and blow them the fuck up.  If they can headshot V3 the better, but right now there's no time, and no ways to win a battle, the enemy's gate is down.
> 
> *Afterwards* salvage tech, conscript freed hosts, anything and everything to get humanity off world, save everyone you can and run.
> 
> And grab Ax's extraterrestrial combat morphs if he has any.  I can't imagine a spacefaring race skipping on a morph that can survive in space for significant amounts of time.

> **u/None** [+3]  (5 days later)
> 
> Actually, since this is a speculation thread:  Why did V3 use that psychic form in reach of an animorph? If that animorph had the foresight to acquire the morph instead of decapitating it V3's plans would be debilitated.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (5 days later)
>> 
>> Note that what he was doing was activating a blank transfer Yeerk and controlling the body remotely like a puppet—that gave a conduit for access to his mind, but it didn't confer upon either the body or the Yeerk within it any sort of enduring memory that the Animorphs could've accessed by acquiring.

>>> **u/None** [+3]  (5 days later)
>>> 
>>> That makes sense, thank you.

> **u/FireNexus** [+3]  (a month later)
> 
> So...

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a month later)
>> 
>> https://m.popkey.co/0c34a2/LWYby_f-thumbnail-100-0_s-600x0.jpg

>>> **u/LazarusRises** [+3]  (a month later)
>>> 
>>> At this point /r/rational can attribute ~10% of its traffic to people checking for the Reckoning update. I can't goddamn wait, but I know it'll be worth every second <3

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a month later)
>>>> 
>>>> *blush*
>>>> 
>>>> ^(of both the "aw, shucks" variety and also the "crushing guilt" variety)

>>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+2]  *We are the Empire.* (a month later)
>>>> 
>>>> IT'S NOT SKINNER BOXING THE UPDATE MIGHT COME OUT AT ANY MOMENT.
>>>> 
>>>> I'm also one of those guys who have been checking the Prequel website and seeing the same damn "Khajit on the store front" image for the last two years.

>>>>> **u/LazarusRises** [+1]  (a month later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'm ashamed to admit this comment is almost 100% gibberish to me.

>>>>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+1]  *We are the Empire.* (a month later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> "Skinner Box" is the popular name of the "operant conditioning chamber", which is a type of experiment developed by B. F. Skinner where you put a rat in a box with a button that delivers food under certain conditions. Parallels are often made between this and people pressing F5 on their news feed because they're hoping for new content.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> "PREQUEL", or "Prequel Adventure", is a popular webcomic fanfic of TES:Oblivion, that has been in a hiatus for almost two years. Despite that, many people are still checking the front page regularly and commenting in the last comic's comment box.

>>>>>>> **u/LazarusRises** [+1]  (a month later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thank you Couteau. Much appreciated.

> **u/entropizer** [+4]  (a day later)
> 
> Honestly? They should make a space-ark, or several space-arks. Get a collection of humans and human culture and history, and shoot it into outer space. Send several in various directions, and send one towards the Visser and ask him to protect it or infest it or something, and send one towards the Andalites, and get the Chee's help to send another one with some dogs aboard. Essentially, I think they need to plan to lose, but to lose in a way that minimizes the damage done to their values, or at least in a way that maximizes the amount of harm done to the Visser's values. I can imagine Marco thinking this way, at least.
> 
> I can also imagine Marco or Cassie choosing to morph into Elfangor and remain in morph past the time limit in order to bring the group needed reinforcements. Maybe even Jake, as he's already died once. Or Rachel, since she doesn't belong anyway? The possibility of resurrection via morph backups would be salient. The most important thing would be winning the war. Losing 22 days in an attempt at improving one's odds at living 1000 years seems like a potentially good bargain.
> 
> I'm assuming that if you morph into someone past the time limit, the new version of them doesn't get a copy of all their old morphs? If they don't, would the new version of them instead get a copy of all *your* old morphs? This seems testable at the cost of only a couple hours of personal identity. If morphing Elfangor past the time limit would give them access to a large new library of morphs, it would definitely become worth it. Seems unlikely. Still worth trying.
> 
> Feeding misinformation to the enemy would potentially become possible if you were willing to overwrite the minds of toddlers or willing volunteers in order to gain clones who could be given incorrect information about Animorph plans before being allowed to fall into Yeerk custody.
> 
> I don't think there are any ways to win. I don't even think there are any good ways to minimize losses. But I'm sure that there are no good ways to do either that don't involve taboo tradeoffs. Sorry, Cassie.
> 
> Apologies if I've forgotten anything important in the story that contradicts what I've suggested here, it's been a long time since I've read through the earlier chapters.

>> **u/Evan_Th** [+5]  *Sunshine Regiment* (a day later)
>> 
>> > They should make a space-ark, or several space-arks.
>> 
>> Good idea, at least as a backup plan, but... how, in 21 days?  Humans can't, we haven't had any evidence the Chee can, and I'm not even sure Telor can (and it definitely can't without betraying its rebellion.)  The only vaguely-possible way is to hijack a Yeerk ship, and that'd be far too risky given that you're foreclosing a lot of other possible courses of action.

> **u/thestarsallfall** [+2]  (10 days later)
> 
> I don't mean to be impatient, but I've been compulsively checking this sub all day for the update. Its quite a compelling story you've got here.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (10 days later)
>> 
>> It'll be a couple of extra days—last week's workshop wiped me out harder than I expected.  But thanks for the encouragement!

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+3]  *We are the Empire.* (16 days later)
>>> 
>>> [Judgemental stare]

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+1]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (16 days later)
>>>> 
>>>> There were four of us with vacations scheduled.
>>>> 
>>>> A combination small crisis + large opportunity arose.
>>>> 
>>>> Guess which one of us canceled his vacation so as not to defect on the team (while the rest went ahead and went out of town).

>>>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+2]  *We are the Empire.* (16 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> That... sounds pretty familiar.
>>>>> 
>>>>> (wasn't *actually* judging you, to be clear)

>>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+1]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (16 days later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> <3 I know.

>>> **u/thestarsallfall** [+1]  (10 days later)
>>> 
>>> Thanks for the response!

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