24 Commencing the Attack

I'm in the training area, hovering up in the air with weights on my arms, chest, and legs as I strike at the air.

"You sure you should be training this hard? We're going to be landing in just a few hours." Bardock asked as he looked up at me.

"I'll be fine." I told him as I continued on with my training.

"Leave him be, Bardock. If the little maniac wants to train till death, who are we to stop him." Fasha said 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?!" Fasha yelled as she stormed out to chase after him.

Bardock shook his head and let out a tired sigh before looking back towards me. "I gotta go 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 out of breath."

"You sure you don't want the handicap, old man?"

"Screw you." Bardock retorted with a twitching eyebrow before walking out of the room.

I continue long after he leaves until I hear the door open once again. Glancing downward, I see that it was the Queen who had entered. I raise an eyebrow in confusion, 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 going at it a little too hard this close to landfall?"

"You sound like my father." I said as I rolled my eyes.

"Perhaps you should listen. There is such a thing as training too hard." She said.

There would be if I didn't have Senzu Beans to fix that issue. 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.

"Is there a reason that you've come to see me, Queen Sela?" I asked.

"Yes."

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've expected from the King and Queen of the Saiyans, they actually care a great deal about their son.

They don't outwardly show it as Gine and Bardock do with Raditz and I, but you can see it in their eyes that they love and take pride in their son.

They'll just never be caught 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 their leader."

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. One final push before taking Senzu and getting ready for landfall.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of the Saiyans on the ship gathered in the cargo hold, waiting for the King to arrive. Before landfall, the King apparently wanted to relay a few orders for us once we had 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 there were around.

"Where is he? I'm tired of waiting damnit!" Raditz growled.

"Don't look at me. My father doesn't inform me on anything." Vegeta said as he rolled his eyes.

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.

I suddenly feel a familiar power signature and my eyes flew open.

"He's here." I told the impatient duo.

"How do you know?" Vegeta asked with a skepticism written all over his face.

Just as he asked, King Vegeta flew up and looked down at the crowd from above. He took a moment to observe all of us gathered 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, causing a decent bit of 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 angry 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 asking Saiyan to flinch.

"That doesn't concern you. All you should worry about is clearing out the planet's inhabitants." The King replied as 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 bipedal combination of a Xenomorph and Sangheili that seemed to like 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.

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.

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 said that I was assigned to Third Wave and that my team was 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 as me and my team walked up to the King.

"Zyleth."

"King Vegeta."

We exchanged greetings 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 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?"

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 told 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 not that surprising.

"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...

Vegeta seemed to be excited about the idea of his father joining us on a mission, probably 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 in the middle of the ship and the door shuts behind us 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 in space?" 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.

"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 knelt down and handed him his Scouter. Grabbing it, Vegeta took off his own and placed his father's on his ear.

"First wave... commence the attack!"