Blade ship

Blade ship
Creator(s)	Yeerk Empire
Owner	Yeerk Empire Tom's Yeerk †
Users	Esplin 9466 Tom's Yeerk †
Passengers	Jake Berenson Rachel † Tobias Cassie Marco Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill †
Status	Assimilated (Esplin 9466's ship) Unknown (others)
Appearances
First Appearance	The Hork-Bajir Chronicles (chronologically) The Invasion
Last Appearance	The Beginning
TV series	Animorphs
Game	Animorphs

"The Blade ship is far larger than the Bug fighters, and very different. It is jet-black. It's built like some kind of battle-ax from the middle ages, with two curved ax-head wings, and a long, diamond-pointed "handle" aimed forward."

―Marco

A Blade ship is a Visser's personal fighter and spacecraft. The design resembles a battle-axe, with the "handle" serving as the ship's bridge.

History

Creation

"The Yeerks are also constructing a new type of ship, quite large, very heavily armed. It seems almost to have been inspired by Hork-Bajir physiology. We... Aldrea and I... have taken to calling it a Blade ship."

―Dak Hamee

In 1968, after conquering the Hork-Bajir homeworld, the Yeerk Empire began mining, using their newfound knowledge to create Dracon beams, Bug fighters and Blade ships, replacing the stolen Ongachic, Hawjabran and Andalite spacecraft they had stolen. The term "Blade ship" was created by Aldrea-Iskillion-Falan and Dak Hamee, and the name was then co-opted by the Yeerk Empire.

Usage

"Visser Three's ship was built like some ancient weapon. It reminded me of one of those battle-axes the old-time knights used when they were hacking off the heads of their foes. There was a main part, like the handle of the ax, with a big, triangular point on the front. That part had to be the bridge. At the rear were two huge, scimitar wings. It was eight or ten times the size of the Bug fighters."

―Jake

In 1997, Edriss 562 and the Council of Thirteen passed on the duty of overseeing Earth's invasion to Esplin 9466, who still held the rank of Visser Three. Knowing that the Andalite military would be coming out of Z-space to attack them outside Earth's orbit, Esplin parked his Blade ship within a crater of Earth's moon and waited. When the Andalite Dome ship GalaxyTree exited Z-space around Earth's orbit, Esplin ambushed them with the Blade ship and shot down the Dome ship, which ignited as it entered Earth's atmosphere and plumetted towards one of its oceans.

Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, who had disembarked from the Dome ship in his personal fighter, fled from the battle and landed in an abandoned construction site in the same city in California where the Yeerk Empire was basing its invasion. Having tracked Elfangor, the Blade ship, along with a pair of Bug fighters, also landed at construction site without using any cloaking technology. When Elfangor's fighter shot and destroyed one of the Bug fighters, Esplin ordered the Blade ship's crew to fire one of the ship's Dracon beams, which coupled with the other Bug fighter's beam successfully disintegrated Elfangor's fighter.

The Blade ship returns to the construction site

A little over a week later, the Blade ship returned to the construction site, once more flanked by two Bug fighters. Esplin exited from the Blade ship to speak with Iniss 226, who had brought him a cat carrier containing Rachel in cat morph. As a Hork-Bajir-Controller brought the cat carrier onto the Blade ship, a Taxxon informed Visser Three that it would take two minutes until they could lift off. Jake, who had been on Rachel's back in a flea morph, then jumped off and found himself in a dark corner of the Blade ship, where he began demorphing. Rachel then partially demorphed her paws to form fingers, allowing her to open the door of the cat carrier while Jake had remorphed into a Siberian tiger. Together, the cousins in their feline morphs jumped out of the open doorway of the Blade ship and escaped, much to Esplin's fury.

Not too long after, Esplin boarded his Blade ship and followed the Truck ship to a lake in the mountains where the Truck ship began draining water from the lake. When the Yeerks noticed a red-tailed hawk in the sky that had been interfering in their recent actions, the Blade ship, along with Bug fighters and helicopters, took to the skies to shoot him down. Tobias then landed on the Truck ship to prevent the Yeerks from shooting him, and Esplin had the Blade ship brought up above the Truck ship to hover in front of Tobias. However, when Tobias stole a Dracon beam and destroyed the controls of the Truck ship, it began to careen and collided with a helicopter and a Bug fighter, although the Blade ship and the other aircraft were able to avoid its trajectory.

When they discovered that the GalaxyTree had survived and was located on the sea floor in the Pacific Ocean, the Yeerks worked on locating it. After it was found, Esplin boarded the Blade ship, which was flown to the ocean. Arriving right above where the Dome ship was, the Blade ship was uncloaked and began to use sonar to detect the Dome ship. The Yeerks then dropped depth charges to destroy the Dome ship, but not before sonar revealed that a group of aquatic creatures had emerged from it. Realizing they were the Andalite bandits, the Blade ship dropped Taxxons into the water, although the Andalite bandits quickly killed them all. Esplin then morphed into a mardrut and jumped from the ship into the water while the Blade ship cloaked itself, although Esplin was unable to kill the Andalite bandits.

The Yeerk Empire was alerted to a distress signal coming from a quarry in California, not too far away from the city where they basing their invasion; however, the signal was coming from an outdated frequency, specifically a frequency that the Andalite military had used to send them false instructions before. Realizing it was a trick by the Andalite bandits, Visser Three flew down to the quarry in his Blade ship, which he kept cloaked, along with one uncloaked Bug fighter. As the uncloaked Bug fighter landed, the Blade ship deposited a hundred Hork-Bajir-Controllers armed with Dracon beams around the edge of the quarry. The Hork-Bajir then fired at the Animorphs below, and Visser Three made his presence known. The six 'bandits' were then marched onto the Blade ship; as Rachel approached in her elephant morph, the metal of the Blade ship expanded to accomodate her size. The Animorphs were confined to a dimly-lit room on the Blade ship as the ship departed from the quarry. The Blade ship flew into space, where the metal of the ship formed itself into a window so that the Empire could show the Animorphs how Earth looked from above, but most importantly, the Pool ship. The Blade ship then flew into one of the Pool ship's entry ports and docked within, and the metal of the ship expanded once more to create a door for the Animorphs to disembark.

This section requires expansion

Capabilities

"The Blade ship is a very powerful offensive weapon. As a warship it is even more dangerous than a Pool ship since it is as heavily armed and far faster and more maneuverable."

―Ax

The Blade Ship is a fairly large and very powerful spaceship that is designed and shaped like a battle-axe, with two scimitar-shaped wings at the rear, with the main, lean part leading to a triangular point at the front that serves as the ship's bridge. Its hull is jet black, and it is very fast, very heavily armed and also has a cloaking ability, making it an extremely dangerous warship. It can also carry at least two Bug Fighters in hangars under its wings.

Appearances

This section requires expansion

Book Series

• The Invasion
• The Visitor
• The Encounter
• The Message
• The Predator
• The Capture (mentioned)
• The Andalite's Gift
• The Forgotten
• The Extreme
• The Unexpected

TV Series

• My Name is Jake (Part 1)
• The Stranger
• The Leader (Part 2)

Gallery

"Someone took a picture of me? Not cool. Do you see what I'm wearing? I'm Spandex-boy. Totally not cool." The image gallery for Blade ship may be viewed here