18

2,963Chapter 18: Smell of First Blood

"Is it done yet?" I asked, looking over at a technician with a pair of smaller arms attached to his regular-sized arms. In the smaller pair of hands were a pair of tools that I didn't know the name of. What I did know was when it pressed the tools to the scouter that laid on a table in front of it, sparks flew while wisps of smoke drifted upwards.

"Juuuuust…" the technician started to say, turning its gaze to a hologram that had all kinds of bars and jagged lines. They were graphs, I knew that much, but whatever information they were trying to convey to me, I didn't understand in the slightest. What I did understand that they were good because the technician let out an approving noise as it nodded. "Onnnnne second…"

Withdrawing the tools, the technician started to pull wires that attached it to a monitor before closing it. I stared down at the unique scouter, the only one of its kind. The plane of hard crystal was a deep red that my...family seemed to prefer, but the earpiece was different than the standard. It was slimmer, but wider while at the bottom was a port.

"So, what you do is you hook this wire into whatever you're downloading the info from, it should work with any Frieza-force tech, but I included a hookup for Reach tech as well. Just in case, you know?" The technician explained, handing me the scouter, letting me inspect it, but I had no idea what I was supposed to be inspecting it for. "Then, if it's just general info you want to find out, you pull it up like this."

I watched the technician start to press several buttons that were now placed on the side of the scouter rather than a single one that there was before. Paying close attention, I watched him pull up information about our destination, planet Rench. Since it was a planet that the Trade Organization sold the Reach, we had a fair bit of info about it.

The planet's radius was 43,441 mi - I didn't really understand what that meant, but it was roughly the same size as Planet Vegeta. Also, like Planet Vegeta, it had gravity that was ten times the galactic standard, so a lot of our weaker species were going to be useless in this fight since their hearts weren't strong enough to pump blood to their brains. There was a bunch of other stuff too - temperature, day-night cycle, air composition and so on.

Though, the info was at least four years old since the Reach clamped down tight on any information leakage. I'm pretty sure that we had spies in the Reach empire, but if we were getting any information from them, then it didn't make it down to my level. Since the list still marked that it had a moon, I'm guessing that I couldn't fully believe it.

"And these sensors right here are used for the general scan," Technician continued, pressing a few more buttons so the eyepiece showed me the conditions of the ship's interior. Now I would know if they were doing anything to the weather like they did on D'xe. All in all, it was a greatly improved scouter that would feed me more info beyond power levels.

"Thanks," I said, pushing the scouter in place, shifting my head to test if it sat comfortably. It was different than my old scouters, but I will get used to it.

"Er, no problem...but…" The technician's beady black eyes that reminded me of a bug darted down to the green ring that hung from my neck. "If you wouldn't mind, could I check out that-"

"No," I denied, turning around and walking away, ignoring the alien's protests. Thankfully, the bulkhead door slid shut behind me, silencing them as I started to make my way down the halls of the spaceship. All the while, I fiddled with the settings, trying to master it as much as I could in the time that I had left. We had less than a day until we arrived at Rench.

My feet carried me to the command deck. It was repaired at some point, a display of the planet hovering above a command center. The admiral was staring hard at it, its arms crossed while other attendants discussed what they were seeing. I knew what they were doing only because it was the same thing that they've been doing for the past two weeks - trying to hammer out a battle plan with rough estimations of the Reach's strength.

"The entire battle for the sky hinges on the element of surprise. If their ships manage to get in position before we inflict enough damage, then we'll be repelled long before we can touch down on the planet," one of them repeated that same line again after saying it for two weeks straight.

"In that case, we'll do a full retreat-" One started to argue, but another cut them off.

"If they have defense platforms, then we won't have time. We have to approach from here fly in otherwise we could jump inside their defensive perimeter."

"Approaching from that far out and we'll completely lose the element of surprise!" The first one argued, sounding frustrated. I know I was. Despite two weeks to prepare, we were still arguing about what the plan was instead of how to best enact it.

"This entire mission is a suicide run," the cynical one spat. "We don't have the strength to challenge them on one of their most secure planets in this sector with a significant fleet behind them."

"We're going in blind, we knew that going in. Suck it up and deal with it." The first spat right back at the cynical alien. Before it could descend into shouting and name-calling, like it had the first week, the admiral held up a paw to forestall any arguing. It let out a sigh before it glanced over at Queen Teach, who stood in the corner, her arms crossed as she looked like...no, she was asleep, she was just sleeping with her eyes open.

"Queen General Teach?" The admiral spoke, his voice grave, "your thoughts?"

Predictably, Queen Teach was silent, her chest steadily rising and falling as her blank eyes stared at the hologram. The rest of the staff waited in silence as they thought she was carefully considering the question, the tension in the room steadily growing thicker with each second my mother was silent. Eventually, after about a minute, the staff started to share glances- ah, they were about to figure out that she wasn't paying attention.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat as I walked onto the deck, bringing their attention to me. Queen Teach probably wouldn't care at all if they caught her sleeping, but I know I would be really embarrassed by getting caught. So, I wouldn't let that happen to her. "It sounds like we still don't have a plan?"

The admiral grimaced but it nodded all the same, "we do not. There are too many variables. Too many what-ifs," it agreed with a small sigh as it turned its attention back to the hologram. "We don't know their fleet positions, and this entire endeavor hinges on taking them out in a surprise attack."

"Which is why we should go to another planet that'll be undefended," Cynical spoke, and, despite its whining, it did have a point. There were dozens of worlds that were left unprotected except for whatever garrison they might have.

"But, this prize is too big to pass up," I reminded lightly, frowning at the hologram. "Their fleet is still significant, when they regroup, their going to cause some damage whenever they pop up." I could practically see it now. While all the other fleets and armies were ravaging the sector, the Reach's fleet appears in system with their pants caught around their ankles. "It's too big of a force to leave alone."

"I am much the same mind," the admiral agreed with a nod, trying to sound confident but I couldn't help but remember it cowering before my mother. It gave into this entire thing because of her threats, not because it was a daring admiral. "As risky as it is, we won't have a better chance than this. Even if we don't take the planet, damaging it enough could greatly help the war effort."

I nodded at that, agreeing there. "It sounds like we're stuck between two choices?" I commented more to myself, mulling over what I had overheard. A blind leap or a careful approach - each had their flaws. A blind leap was riskier but had the greatest chance to pull out a victory, though there was a significant chance we'd be destroyed if the fleet was in position. The cautious approach meant we'd likely be forced to flee the system if they noticed us before we were in position.

"I don't suppose you would have a tiebreaker, prince Tarble?" The admiral asked and, after two weeks, I've stopped trying to correct people that I wasn't a prince yet. It just caused a lot of confusion because everyone kept calling me prince Tarble.

I sent the admiral a startled look, not expecting to be put on the spot like that. For a moment, I thought it was joking, but there was a serious expression on his teddy bear looking face. I...I needed to figure out what rank I was because I'm pretty sure offering advice on fleet tactics on this scale was way, way, way, way above my paygrade. Though, I'm not sure I got paid in the first place.

"I…" I started to deny offering any kind of advice, feeling like I shouldn't, but I held my tongue. The old me would have denied any role in strategizing, choosing to leave that to Bardock. But I couldn't be like that anymore. I was the leader of a team now, I had to be better than that. I had to be like Bardock.

So, what would Bardock do in this situation?

Taking a deep breath, I thought about Bardock's countless successes over the years. His plans were always daring, high risk, but he was always prepared for those risks. His thinking was out of the box, coming at problems in ways that no one would have ever expected, and winning the fight before the enemy had time to figure out what was going on.

Turning to the admiral, I spoke. "How far out would we have to be to go unnoticed?" I asked, a plan forming in the back of my mind. I had to think like Bardock, only this time the plan didn't involve a small elite team but a powerful fleet of ships. The premise was the same, though and that had to be good enough.

"Out of the solar system," Cynical answered promptly, getting a nod from me. That wasn't ideal, but I could work with that.

"Or," Optimist offered after a moment before another planet appeared on the hologram. "There's Skrew, it's a highly irradiated planet that could mask out entrance if we pull up behind it." It said, making Cynical scowl at it.

"We ruled that out - the ambient radiation-" it started but I cut it off with a hand, a gesture that Bardock used whenever he wanted me to shut up.

"Will it hide our entrance?" I asked, looking at the solar system. Skrew wasn't that far away from Rench, almost close enough to be called a moon. That would bring us much closer.

"It's a dangerous maneuver, especially for coming out of hyperspace, but it would work," Optimistic confirmed with a nod. That was better. Much, much better.

"If we can get that close, then we could send a team to scout and sabotage the fleet. We did it back on Rockoroad and destroyed a reactionary fleet that way. Do we have any antigrain warheads?" I asked, picturing the plan in my head. It almost felt like I was stealing a plan from Bardock, but I couldn't let my lack of originality stop me. It was a good plan.

A team, my team most likely, flew in undetected. We could scout to see what position the fleet was in, then plant the antigrain explosives. With enough of them, we could possibly take out the entire fleet in the opening move of the battle. Though, admittedly, it was going to be a high-risk mission for the team that went in because, four years ago, they had vastly inferior scouting tech and I was a lot weaker so I went unnoticed.

"No," a woman's voice spoke up and it took me a moment to realize that Queen Teach had woken up. I glanced over at her to see that she was frowning at me - that caught me so flat-footed, I froze in place by a deep-seated natural fear of parental disapproval.

"Er...we don't have any antigrain warheads?" I tried to guess why she was frowning at me. However, my words just made her frown deepened as she shook her head.

"You want to use weapons?" She asked with obvious distaste, making it clear that she wanted my answer to that question to be no. But, I couldn't exactly say that because my plan did involve weapons.

"Well...yeah," I nodded slowly, feeling like I was standing on thin ice. Without the ability to fly. "If we manage to go undetected, we could destroy a lot more enemy ships in the opening move of the battle than we could by using our techniques," I explained, recalling the lesson that Bardock had taught me on Rockoroad. The mission, the team, then pride. "At most, we could destroy...maybe...ten before they start to react, but if we use antigrain warheads to prep the field, then we could destroy a lot...more…"

I trailed off when I noticed that Queen Teach was tapping her foot, evidently unconvinced with my logic. When she pinned me with a Look, I couldn't shake off the feeling of impending doom. "You want to ambush them as well?" She asked, the questions phrased similar to 'if your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you as well?'

"I...I do…?" I confirmed, feeling like I just signed my own death warrant. Judging by the absolutely furious expression that appeared on her face, I think I might have. She crossed the distance between us in a split second, that deep-seated primal fear kept me from moving as she reached down and pinched my ear.

"OW!" I hissed as she pulled me up as if to bring me closer to make sure I could hear her yelling at me.

"Honestly, what has Bardock been teaching you?!" Queen Teach shouted, "You want to use weapons? No son of mine will be using technology to kill his enemies! Do you understand me?!"

"I-I understand!" I've broken bones, had my organs used as a pincushion and pushed myself to the absolute brink of death more times than I want to count, so why did this hurt so damn much?!

"Do you? How are you going to kill your enemies then?!" Queen Teach demanded to know, pulling on my ear until I'm pretty sure she would have yanked it off if I didn't fly a little bit to help with the pain.

"I-I'll kill my enemies with my bare hands!" I shouted, saying whatever she wanted to hear. And those seemed to be the magic words that she wanted to hear because she let go of my ear. I dropped to the floor, rubbing pain out of my throbbing ear.

"Good, and don't you ever forget that! I'm going to throttle Bardock when I see him - using weapons? Ha!" Queen Teach muttered to herself as she shook her head, going to leave the room. The admiral started to panic and that was fair, I guess since Queen Teach was the general of the army so she really should be involved in this discussion.

"But, Queen General Teach, the-" The admiral started to protest, only to cut itself off when Queen Teach made a dismissive gesture as she strode out of the room.

"Tell me what you lot decide later," Queen Teach dismissed the issue of leading the army rather easily. "And Tarble-" She turned around, making me go stiff again. "None of your plans can involve weapons. Got it?"

Fuck. "Got it," I agreed with no small amount of reluctance. This...became a lot more difficult than it needed to be.

"You better, young man. If I find out you're lying to me…!" Queen Teach warned, leaving her threat unfinished. I swallowed thickly, something that didn't go unnoticed by my mother. She smiled almost patronizingly at me before she stepped outside of the command room. She left silence in her wake, none of the command staff ready for that kind of restriction.

I knew Bardock was different from most saiyans, but since I spent most of my life with the team, I never realized just how different he was. From the sound of it, Queen Teach would rather lose the battle and die than use a weapon like an antigrain warhead.

"I don't suppose you have something else for us with that restriction?" The admiral asked, rubbing its eyes with its paws. Yeah...I felt that. I ran a hand through my hair as I blew out a sigh, turning my attention back to the hologram. If we couldn't use weapons, then what did we have?

I stared at it for another minute, then I smiled.

"I think I do."

"Is everyone clear on the plan?" I asked as I grabbed a mask from a hook and double-checked my secondary air tank. It was topped off, but, with any luck, we wouldn't need them. Unlike most missions, we had to wear hard suits because of the radiation given off from Skrew and the amount that it was giving off wasn't something that a saiyan could tough out. Though, I did learn that it was a naturally occurring thing rather than an unfortunate accident rendered it inhospitable.

According to my information on the Rench, constantly being bombarded with intense radiation gave the mineral-rich planet unique resources that the Reach mined for hundreds of years. For the most part, drones made up the population, but the machine world's surface acted almost like lead shielding so a small population of organics could survive in some places. Though, the amount of radiation that bombarded Rench meant we couldn't spend more than twenty-four hours on the surface, or we would start to suffer the consequences. And that was in our hard suits.

"Yes, my prince," Matillo confirmed with a nod before he secured a mask over his face. I glanced at him and the others - all mid-class saiyans, my team, Matillo, and Parslee. Queen Teach was needed to coordinate the ground assault, so she couldn't partake in the mission. But...that was probably a good thing.

The hard suits had a lot in common with regular armor, only there was more of it. There was leg and arm armor, that was made of the same material as my chest armor. The undersuit was very different - it was about half an inch thick of some kind of black material that filled the small gaps that the armor didn't cover. The helmet, on the other hand, was an unwieldy bucket with filters around the bottom, though, with the black eyepieces, it almost looked like a face in a way.

Turning to my team, I noticed they were all wearing the helmets so I couldn't tell what they were thinking. However, Tora nodded at me. I doubted that he was happy, or any of them were, to be following my orders but I could only hope that they would obey them. There was far too much at stake over pride.

Hopefully, they got the same lesson that Bardock gave me.

Turning to Parslee, I got another 'yes, my prince' so I tapped the side of my helmet that was hooked into my scouter, while a secondary one was attached to my leg. "The away team is ready," I informed the admiral as I turned my attention to the ships that we were using. They were shuttle cars, or so I was told. A sleek looking brick painted black and blue in a simple design. Though, since everyone here could fly, we wouldn't be using them for their intended purpose. Four of them in total, enough for teams of two with me being the remainder.

"We will be leaving slipspace in one minute. Spirits watch over you," the admiral said dramatically as we began to count the seconds to our next battle. It was weird, a few years ago, and each second would have felt like a separate eternity. Now, I was...well, not relaxed, but my heartbeat was in a steady tempo and my mind wasn't filled with what-ifs. I had a plan, and now it was just a matter of making sure that it worked and everyone got back alive.

"I don't suppose your mother is aware of the specifics of your plan?" Matillo questioned, a note of humor in his voice as he stood by his shuttle car, his arms crossed as he waited patiently for the light to turn green so we could start the mission.

I grimaced behind my helmet, but the answer must have been obvious because he let out a soft laugh. "No…" I answered with more than a little reluctance, worrying that she might be listening. When I didn't get an earful after a few moments, I continued, "but they aren't weapons, so it's fine."

"I doubt Queen Teach will see it like that," Matillo commented, earning another grimace from me. I figured that would be the case, but I could take a little pain if it meant my team came back alive. I doubt they would appreciate my sacrifice too, but such was the burden of being team leader.

With that, the light flashed green and no sooner than it had, I pressed a large red button to open up the hangar doors. They cracked open and starting with me, we picked up the shuttles and flew out into the vacuum of space. To my left, I saw Skrew, and all of a sudden it made a lot of sense that the ambient radiation and whatever masked our exit from slipspace because that planet was actually glowing.

I was mesmerized by the sight, it still had an atmosphere, so the glowing shades of green, blue, yellows and oranges blended together in a beautiful pattern. Almost as if someone was stirring a pot slowly with all the colors mixing together, but not combining. But it wasn't the time for sightseeing.

I gestured to my left before I started to fly around the planet, keeping my speed down until it was practically a crawl. The others flew behind me, the distance between us slowly becoming greater to space us out to better avoid detection. Minutes went by before I cleared the edge of the planet, letting me catch my first look at Rench.

Much like I expected, it was another machine world. The entire surface of the planet was made of metal and concrete, the clouds of smog drifted over the surface in place of clouds and from this close, I could see hundreds of space elevators that dotted the surface. However, far more pressing, I also saw the fleet hovering around the massive planet. The remainder of the fleet from Sereall bolstered with a garrison fleet, bringing the total to over a hundred ships.

The mass majority of the fleet was set up in a defensive position around the defense platform, so it was a good thing that we didn't do a blind jump in. But, it seemed that not every ship managed to escape unscathed. I saw other ships that were obviously not made for combat conducting repairs, some of them looked completely powered down.

So, they were in position for a fight, but they weren't ready for one. Perfect.

Taking in a deep breath, I slowed down my speed and started to fly towards the planet.

Hours passed as we slowly made our way towards the planet. I had the others flank out wide, thinking that the further spread out we were would prevent us from being detected. Our shuttles were cold, so the Reach shouldn't pick them up on anything other than radar, or if someone looked out a window. And even if they did, what they would see were shuttles with Reach colors.

In the end, I was far more concerned that the fleet would be discovered. They were hidden behind Skrew, bombarded with so much hard radiation that the fleet was going to be radioactive for the next thousand years, and all it would take is one satellite or probe to notice them before we reached the fleet. If that happened, they would be forced to flee the system and we would be stranded here.

Pushing the what-ifs out of my mind, I waited until the next stage of the plan.

And waited.

And waited.

And kept waiting.

And then I waited some more.

Hours upon hours ticked by in utter silence, unable to communicate with my team or the fleet because the risk of being caught was too great. With each hour, the fleet and planet drew closer and closer and closer until it finally became time to reach the next step of the plan.

Slowing down to make sure that they didn't notice our entry.

Another hour ticked by incredibly slowly before I was finally close enough to enact part three of the plan. I looked at the stationed fleet and tapped on the side of my secondary scouter - regrettably, I didn't know much about spaceships or defensive positioning since I was only ever on the offense, so I was forced to make best guesses. I selected a coordinate, marking it, then I did the same with the others until each team had a destination.

Each coordinate was located in a gap in the formation, between the cruisers and flagship, a fair amount of distance away so we should be easy to miss. Between all of us, we should have pretty good coverage over the entire fleet. Then I started marking priority targets - the defense platform, but not the flagship. I highlighted cruisers, dreadnaughts and anything else that had punching power.

Satisfied with my work, I took off my scouter and left it floating in space for Tora's team to pick up to fly to their destination. From there, the next in line would pick it up, learn their orders, then leave it behind for the next. The last, Parslee, would take the scouter with him and use it to begin the operation.

After that, it was more waiting.

And more waiting.

And more waiting.

And some more waiting.

Until, finally, we began to near the planet itself. I stared hard at the location, my gaze sweeping over the ships. My heart pounded in my chest, my body tense as I got ready for the plan to go to shit. However, as I drifted towards their flagship, I noticed a distinct lack of the fleet going on high alert with hundreds of thousands of drones pouring out of the transports.

Much like with Rockoroad, I flew so close to the ships that I could reach out and touch one, but they didn't notice my presence. That was...good. We knew that the Reach had a variation of our scouter tech, but it seemed that they only installed it on their vanguard units and up. I had worried that they installed it into their ships or sensor tech, but they didn't, just like we haven't in our ships for reasons I didn't know.

What it did mean was that I managed to get in position without trouble, letting me look around at my targets. A dreadnaught in repair, several cruisers and a transport were the obvious first picks. There were smaller ships that I decided to hit before they dispersed too much and became a pain in the butt to deal with. I rested a hand on my shuttle car, double-checking the air gauge to see that I was still firmly in the green, the needle having barely budged over the hours of flying.

I couldn't see the others, but given there was a lack of response from the fleet, I'm guessing that they managed to slip by without being noticed. Now, it was a simple task of waiting for the signal-

A light on my HUD flashed green signaling that we were all in position. Right. It was finally time. I formed a Power Ball in my hands before tossing it up, ripping off my helmet to stare up at it. Instantly, I felt the oozaru transformation beginning, and this time I didn't fight it. My body grew, my armor stretching to accommodate my new body and within a few moments, I was a hundred feet tall.

I summoned upon the sea of ki inside, letting it travel up my throat at blasting a dreadnaught with it. The attack punched through the shields, causing them to fail nearly instantly before it slammed into the hull. For the briefest of moments, it seemed like the hull was going to hold out, only for my attack to punch through it after that moment passed. Yanking my head to the side, I cut the ship in half, my attack destroying a cruiser that had been behind it as well.

That got a reaction out of the fleet. The transports began to open up to deploy drones, some of the ship's thrusters flared to life, forcing me to ignore the burning sensation in my lungs and fire another ki breath attack.

This one slammed into the transports, destroying the drones before they could pour out and run interference. In a way, they were the biggest threat to the mission. As if to confirm that it was okay, I reached out with a massive hand and gripped the space shuttle filled with air. A makeshift air-tank with a mask fit for an oozaru strapped to the top of it.

There was only enough air in it for about five full breaths, but that was enough to get the job done.

Ignoring the pain in my lungs, I turned my attention to the cruisers that aimed their defensive turrets in my direction and hit them with a ki breath attack before they could fire a volley. The hull of the cruisers proved to be far less durable than the dreadnaughts, letting me rip through three of them with a single attack. After that, I was forced to grab the mask and take in a deep breath.

In that moment, through the wreckage, I spotted another oozaru causing chaos. Even if I didn't know already that it was Matillo, I would have suspected because of his stark white fur. He fired off a ki breath attack, destroying a dreadnaught, but I noticed something. My eyes widened a fraction when I saw that yellow balls of ki were forming in his hands.

It was slow, so slow that he fired off another attack as I took off my mask and unleashed my own ki blast to destroy another ship, but he was definitely forming a ki attack in his hands. I...didn't think that was possible. Ki in the oozaru form was...heavy, for lack of a better word. Dense and sluggish, it was so much easier to fire it from the mouth, natural almost.

But, contrary to my beliefs, Matillo formed two ki balls in his hands before he launched them at a cruiser while he fired another ki breath attack. They slammed into it before the entire ship exploded, one of them hitting a reactor or something.

For the briefest of moments, I considered trying to copy the move, but the mission came first. I could experiment later when I wasn't completing a vital mission for the war effort.

Instead, I resolved to ask him about it later while I fired off another ki blast attack. This time, I got about ten ships from hitting the small ones, but our time was up. It had only been a minute, maybe less, but the fleet was starting to respond, recovering from the surprise attack. The remaining ships began to drift apart, turning towards us, and breaking up their formation to avoid friendly fire.

Exactly according to plan.

That was the signal for our fleet to move, jumping into slipstream, they used the coordinates that Parslee should have given before he gave the all-clear to start the operation to guide them. Since slipspace was weird, in the few seconds it was for us as the Reach fleet began to respond, it was hours to our fleet.

Hours to prepare a plan that would capitalize on the opportunity that we provided.

The fleet came out of slipspace dangerously close to the Reach fleet, our fleet perfectly poised in front of all major threats. In a wall of firepower, our fleet unleashed hell on the unprepared flanks of the Reach armada, destroying dozens of ships in brilliant explosions. From my view, I saw the flagship go down, broken apart as our flagship hit it with a massive solid hunk of metal that punched through it, through another ship, then raced towards the planet.

Even as I unleashed another ki breath attack, I smiled.

My plan had worked.

The battle for the skies was won.