In the training area, I was flying around in the air, heavy weights locked on my arms, chest, and legs as I strike out with punches and kicks.
The door opens and I glanced down to see that my father, Tora, and Fasha had walked in.
"Thought you guys were getting ready for landfall." I said as I continued on with my training.
"We did. Everything's ready on our end." My father replies before asking, "Speaking of landfall, you sure you should be training this hard? I mean we're landing in just a few hours."
"I'll be fine, since when do you worry?" I asked him, looking down with a smirk.
"I don't, I just don't want your mother blaming me if you die." He responded.
"Want me to put it in writing?" I asked sarcastically.
He scoffs, shaking his head as he mutters, "Smartass..."
"Leave him alone, Bardock. If the little maniac wants to train until he dies, who are we to stop him?" Fasha says as she gave a little shrug.
"And that is why he'll always be stronger than you." Tora told her as he walked out of the room.
"What was that you bastard?!" She yelled as she stormed out to chase after him, "Don't you walk away from me!"
Bardock shook his head and let out a tired sigh before looking back up towards me, "I gotta go and try to keep them from killing each other. Make sure you take a break before we land. We don't need you holding us back because you were too out of breath."
"You sure you don't want the handicap, old man?" I asked, "I thought you would jump at the chance to finally one-up me."
"Screw you." He retorts, his eyebrow twitching with annoyance as he walks out of the room.
I chuckle and shake my head before continuing my training. I continue for a long while after my father left until I hear the door open once again.
Glancing downward, I see that it was the Queen who had entered. I raise an eyebrow, not having expected her presence, but I quickly shrug it off.
"Queen Sela." I acknowledged her presence as I continued on with what I was doing.
"Zyleth." She returned my greeting as she watched me train, "Aren't you training a little too hard this close to landfall?"
"You sound like my father." I tell her before flipping myself upside down, trying to get myself used to fighting this way.
"Perhaps you should listen. There is such a thing as training too hard." She said as she crossed her arms.
There would be if I didn't have Senzu Beans to fix that issue. One little bean and all the soreness and exhaustion just go away like nothing at all.
Honestly, I would've been a little touched by her "concern" if I didn't have the sneaking suspicion that she came for something other than idle conversation.
Shame...
"Is there a reason that you've come to see me, Queen Sela?" I asked.
"Yes." She says before she paused for a moment, causing me to feel a bit confused as looked on in silence.
"Please protect my son."
Ah, the old cliche of a cold demeanor woman secretly lowering herself for her son.
I honestly should've expected this sooner or later. Despite what you might expected from the King and Queen of the Saiyan Warrior Race, they actually care a great deal about their son.
They don't outwardly show it as much as Gine and Bardock do with Raditz and I, but you can definitely see it. It's in their eyes, the love and pride, every time they look at their son it's there.
Although, they'll never be caught dead actually saying it.
"I thought that was in the job description." I said, momentarily pausing my movements.
My answer seemed to cause her some sort of shock as her eyes slowly widened.
"I'm the one who's supposed to look out for him. For all of them. They're my team and I'm their leader." I look down into her eyes with a serious expression.
Her shocked gaze slowly fades as a small smile starts to form, "Sometimes it's hard to believe that you are just a child."
I don't bother responding to that statement and just resume my training. It seems that we both agreed that the conversation was over, as she left the training area without another word.
Knowing that I only had a few hours left, I kicked training into high gear and increased the weight as much as my muscles could handle without breaking my limbs. One final push before taking Senzu and getting ready for landfall.
---
A few hours later, all of the Saiyans on the ship gathered in the cargo hold after a call came through on our Scouters, telling us to gather. We were all waiting for the King to arrive, apparently he wanted to relay a few orders before we touched down on the planet.
Vegeta, Broly, Raditz, and I had all gathered together beforehand, bored out of our minds as we waited more than twenty minutes for that damned King. I didn't see my father or his team anywhere, but I had no doubt that they were around here somewhere.
"Where is he? I'm tired of waiting, damnit!" Raditz growled.
He turned his gaze to Vegeta, who rolled his eyes and scoffed.
"Don't look at me. My father doesn't inform me on anything, remember?" He asked.
I tune them out, my eyes closed as I silently meditated, even in the crowded cargo bay. It was a great opportunity to see if I could do it without being distracted by events going on around me.
There were three above average power levels standing next to me, go figure, but there was also five very high power levels near the back of the room. Seems I found my father and his team.
Just then, I suddenly felt a large and familiar power signature walk into the room, my eyes flying open as soon as I sense it.
"He's here." I told the impatient duo.
Vegeta looks to me, skepticism written clearly on his face, "How do you know?"
Almost as if he heard, King Vegeta flew up and looked down at the crowd from above. Seeing their King, all of the Saiyans in the room went silent, not one of them making so much as a peep.
King Vegeta took a moment to observe all of us, his eyes scanning the room full of Saiyans before finally getting to the topic at hand.
"Listen and listen well. Our target is within a large castle built into the tallest mountain on the planet. The castle itself isn't important, it is what's underneath the castle that we're here to obtain."
As he said this, an image appeared on all of our Scouters, showing the castle in question. It zoomed in towards the castle before it suddenly stopped and highlighted a small room in yellow. The room looked to be about fifty feet underground.
"And it is for this reason that the use of the Great Ape is prohibited by any Saiyan who hasn't learned to control it." His words seem to have a negative impact on those mostly in the Lower Classes, who then collectively voiced their outrage, "SILENCE!"
The room immediately went quiet at the King's command.
"This is an order, not a request! I don't need you wretches screwing up by destroying the very thing we came here to obtain!" The King exclaimed, his angered tone leaving no room for negotiation.
"Your Majesty... What is it that we came here for exactly?" One of the Saiyans towards the back asked.
The King's gaze hardened, causing the Saiyan who asked the question to flinch.
"That doesn't concern you. All you should worry about is clearing out the planet's inhabitants." The King replied before another image popped up onto our Scouters, "The inhabitants are an amphibious form of Saiyanoid creatures that evolved to live on the surface despite the intense gravity of the planet. It isn't as strenuous as Planet Vegeta's gravity, but it is fairly close."
The information that popped up on the Scouters indicates that the Planet has almost the same amount of gravitational force as Planet Vegeta, which has ten times the gravity of Earth. Looking at the data, it looks like the Planet has nine times Earth gravity.
The alien inhabitants didn't look like slouches either. They looked like a bipedal combination of a Xenomorph and the Sangheili that seemed to enjoy hitting the gym.
Their colors were a lot brighter, which set off alarms in my head since the King just said that they are an amphibious species.
Back on Earth, nature usually makes it so that animals blend into their surroundings so that they wouldn't be easily targeted by predators. The only reason something wouldn't blend in was because they had something that made it so they didn't need to blend in.
Spikes, a tougher hide, stink...
But since they're amphibious, there's only one option that's pretty consistent.
Poison.
"I taught all of you how to make shields of energy around yourself, right?" I quietly asked my team members.
They all looked at me curiously before nodding their heads.
"Good." I said before turning my focus back towards the King.
"There will be two waves of attacks in this raid. The initial wave will be the largest and will be in charge of clearing out the majority of the inhabitants. The second wave will be considerable smaller force consisting of Elite Saiyans that will focus on taking care of the strongest inhabitants near the castle. Your Scouters should indicate which wave you will be assigned to." The King explained as multiple beeps started to sound off as the teams were assigned their assigned wave.
A message came through on my Scouter from my father, saying that he was assigned to the second wave.
Expecting to be assigned to second wave as well, my eyebrows furrowed a small bit when it read that my team and I were assigned to Third Wave, and that we were to report to King Vegeta.
"Third? What the hell is the--"
"Shut it, you dolt! Do you want everyone to hear you?!" Vegeta muttered as he smacked Raditz on the back of the head, shutting him up before he could say anything more, "If my father didn't say anything about it, then he must want it kept quiet for a reason."
Raditz gritted his teeth and was about to strike him back before the King started speaking again.
"Some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Report to your stations and wait for the order to move out. Dismissed!"
All of the Saiyans started to pile out of the cargo hold. Following the instructions on our Scouters, my team and I walked towards the King.
"Zyleth." He greeted.
"King Vegeta." I nodded my head.
We exchanged our pleasantries before he motioned for us to follow him.
"I'm sure that you and your team are wondering why you have been assigned to an unmentioned third wave." He said.
"I have my assumptions." I said as we turned a corner.
The King looked at me with a bit of intrigue, "Oh?"
"If the first wave is to take out the majority and the second is to take out the ones near the castle, I'm assuming that the third wave is to actually go into the castle and collect the object we're here to obtain?" I replied, giving him my thoughts.
His eyes widened for a bit before his mouth formed a small smirk, "Anyone ever tell you that you're particularly intelligent for someone of your age?"
"Only my mother." I tell him.
He chuckled for a moment, which caused Vegeta to look at him father with widened eyes.
Seems like his father isn't much of a chuckler.
I mean... it's really not all that surprising to me...
It's Vegeta.
"Uh, King Vegeta, sir... What is it that we're going to go get?" Raditz raised his hand hesitantly and asked the question on everyone's mind. "I mean... how are we supposed to grab something if we don't even know what it looks like...?"
The King glanced towards Raditz for a brief second before turning back towards the front, "Don't worry about that. I'll be going with you to make sure that everything is accounted for."
Oh, great... This is going to be something...
Vegeta seemed to be excited about the idea of his father joining us on a mission, probably because it gave him a chance to show off his newfound strength, but the others weren't as enthusiastic.
Broly didn't give much of a reaction. Not surprising, he usually just goes with the flow anyway.
Raditz looked nervous. Most likely reason is that he's afraid of doing something stupid in front of the King.
Meanwhile, I was thinking that this was going to be annoying. Seriously, what item is so valuable that you need this much secrecy to obtain the damned thing?
We arrive at one of the ship's main entrances and the door behind us shuts as the skylight opens up to reveal the darkness of space.
The King flies outside and I hesitate for a brief moment before I follow suit. Surprisingly, we could all breathe even though we were outside the ship.
"I take it this is your first time ever being in space outside of your craft?" The King asked as he looked down and saw my surprised expression.
I nodded my head before asking, "How are we able to breathe out here?"
"Oxygen dome. Every advanced ship in the Frieza Force has one built into it for large raids such as this. Or if someone were to attack a ship whilst in space." He answered.
Accepting the explanation given, I looked towards the planet and see that it was a unique mixture of purple, pink, and green.
It was honestly quite beautiful.
"Do you want to give the order?" The King asked.
I looked towards the King and saw that he wasn't speaking to me, but to Vegeta.
Vegeta looked at his father with widened eyes as he watched him kneel down and hand him his Scouter. Grabbing it, Vegeta took off his own and placed his father's on his ear.
"First wave... commence the attack!"
[Word Count: 2,411.]