The Foreboding Storm

Umirion, that was the name of the world he had devoured. Its indigenous people, a race of small, bulbous headed sentient beings, whose presence had been quite established on the world. In the first few hours, Gelth had destroyed their infrastructure, ruining their architecture and vehicles with a shower of ki blast waves. Then, soon after, he had begun the feeding process, invading their small towns, allowing his tendrils to feed themselves to absolution on the weak, pathetic, brittle creatures. He had been planet side for only a few hours, and already this colony world was in ruins, with its leaders and its military incapacitated and no more.

Gelth stalked through the streets, his imposing posture lurching above his frantic pray, as they ran in fear for their lives. This was the third town, comprising of what he estimated to be over a thousand of these succulent sentient beings. Upon his quick arrival at the town, the aliens had already been alerted of the carnage he had previously wrought on their brethren. They had mounted giant contraptions of projectile weaponry, and massive cylinders of an acidic based substance, all in preparation for battling the scourge that he had become. But alas, this town was also too late, as within seconds of his arrival, his overwhelming power and prowess has rendered the town defences obsolete. To maximise efficiency, Gelth had made use of his multiform technique, transforming himself and his hunger into four identical beings. Now, the mania and the cravings were four times greater, now his thirst and his unrelenting force was extended. Within seconds, his four forms has ripped and shredded the weaponry with nothing but their bare claws. The metals churned and bent to their will, and the acids seeped into their skins, feeing their resolve as apposed to damaging it. By the time Gelth had become whole as a single being again, any chance of their the town’s self defence had been brutally annihilated.

As the beast continued forward through the small streets, frantic citizens attempted to avoid him. Some ran, but they were the unlucky ones. One female of the species was particularly notable. As she had began to run, Gelth’s inescapable tendrils had wrapped their cold embrace throughout her body. She’d struggled, but the power of his head tails was overwhelming, restricting all of her frantic movement until she became unwillingly stiff. Then he began to feed, electrical impulses ran through the female’s body, snatching her life force, transferring each drop of soul and energy into Gelth’s already brimming well of power. She screamed and pleaded, her voice pathetic and raspy, but her words were beautiful. She spoke in her native tongue, it was a complex language, but thankfully, Gelth in his infinite waiting had learned and understood every language.

“Why? What are you? Free me, I have younglings and a life partner. Please spare me, spare us all, we are a peaceful people. Please, please, why? Why?!” The answer to her question was simple, and in sheer ecstatic joy, Gelth obliged with a response.

“You exist to flee and survive; I exist to stalk and prey. You exist to plea and beg; I exist to feed and devour”.

She spoke no more words, instead surrendering to her fate. Gelth felt her bodily impulses forfeit, and as her flesh turned to bone, he literally swallowed her fear whole. Many like her had come before, and many would come after, but the beast kept hold of that one moment, cherished it and bathed in its beauty, because that exemplified his reason and purpose.

As he continued, militia gathered in the streets, they were armed with personal projectile weaponry, and they appeared to be armoured, as if such coverings would protect them. A seeping grin slid onto the monster’s black face, his tendrils danced with anticipation, whispering words of hunger into his ears. The force of a dozen aliens took fire, bullet-like shells approached Gelth, simply bounding off of his body, and crushing under the strength of his aluminous, pulsating green aura. He exploded in laughter, they continued to fight back, believing he could be stopped. They were not intelligent prey…

Gelth remained still, this time his tendrils behaved, remaining close to his form. Instead his irises shone from a dull glow to an empowering ray of light. Erupting from his vision were two powerful ki beams. They fired with unrelenting accuracy, scorching the first alien to an explosive mess. Then they devoured the second, having quite similar effects. And finally, with the few that remained, Gelth amplified his laser vision, allowing one devastating scorch of his sight to cause every alien in that radius to instantaneously combust.

Only a few hours, and already he was beginning to discover the depths of his hunger…

It was after the wasteland encounter that the nightmares began. Celeria slept sparsely, yet effectively. Even after her years of service as one of the highest-ranking commanders in the PTO army, she had never had so much as a bad dream, let alone anything worse. Initially, she shrugged it off, blaming the time spent in cryo-stasis for messing with her cerebral mechanisms. But as the dreams continued, their unique vividness unsettled her more deeply with each night. She dreamed of destroying entire civilizations. She couldn't see herself and thus confirm that it was indeed her, but she felt every action performed and the intent behind it. Celeria had killed before, civilians too. However, she had obliterated them, their deaths were instant and painless. In these dreams, she felt herself actually enjoying the suffering of those who are far beneath her. She intently let them writhe before her feet, in their futile attempts to stop her. She relished in the sight of them losing hope even before the flesh was stripped from their bones.

Celeria woke up, immediately darting upwards into a seated position, gripping her neck and chest vehemently, as if she were choking. She got up and ran to the small cubicle bathroom in the corner of the room and instinctively lurched over the waste disposal unit. She gagged, but did not vomit. She coughed roughly before collapsing onto her knees and rubbing her eyes. She rose back to her feet and went to the shower, letting a cool stream of cold water run over her head. She breathed easily now. Flipping her wet hair back, the sensation of icy droplets of water sliding down her back relaxed her. She got up and exhaled slowly, throwing a towel over her head.

Celeria sat back on the bed, wondering what should be done about her situation. In normal circumstances, she would ignore it until it would eventually die down. She ascribed it to frustration, going into battle unprepared - indeed, she was looking for just about any reason to pin it on. However, the fact of the matter was, the reason was not important. What was important is that soon this sleeping-pattern irregularity would threaten her performance. Given the dire situation she and the remnants of her race were in, there was absolutely no place for error. She would have to fix this and she would have to fix it now. She decided that the best course of action would be to consult the only person around here who was knowledgeable on the matter - the resident doctor. She would do so first thing the following day, but for now she hoped to get at least a bit of sleep, preferably uninterrupted.

Twenty-eight hours had passed, and Umirion was no more. Where skyscrapers proudly decorated the horizon, and vehicles once travelled in abundance across the metropolis of air lanes, there was now only rubble and stone. It had once been a bountiful world, technologically advanced and civilised. But now, to the untrained eye, one could only detect havoc and disorder; fear and despair. But to Gelth, he saw beauty and clarity; art and music. To the beast, this world had been enlightened and resurrected in n flare of dread and emotion. Umirion was now void of light, and its shadow cast a haunting tale…

A little girl wondered lonely, she clutched a small bag in one hand, and under her arm she clung to a teddy bear. The streets were silent and vacuous, once living bodies decorated the road with their limp form, and old military vehicles scattering their shrapnel across the sidewalk. The heat radiating from their steel still scorched, burning a crimson lingering hue into the centre of her eyes. As she averted her gaze to the ground, she noticed craters below her feet. Some were small, with only minute fractures running deep like veins into the bowels of the dying planet. Ahead however, the craters became significantly larger, burrowing into the earth like gaping wounds and swallowing whole city districts like ravenous mouths. Some buildings were still visible, their roofs poking out from the hungry craters, like teeth protruding from a beasts mouth. These few surviving structures were in flames, and spewed enveloping black smog into the already murky sky. This created a canopy of darkness, with natural sunlight only ominously peaking through breaks in the dark clouds for seconds at a time. Death and destruction was bountiful.

As the little girl continued to stumble, pattering seemingly aimlessly across the dead street, she became aware of a faint rustling. It was quiet, but it was persistent, and it was coming from a small rubble pile of a building to the left of her. She turned sluggishly, almost clumsy in her expression as she wobbled towards the small burning structure. As she slowly approached, the ruffling became audible, and it sounded like sentient voices. There was three of them, maybe four… and they were talking amongst themselves, their voices were hurried, and agitated.

“This place is gunna fall to pieces, that roof won’t last much longer!” A young male voice exclaimed. His tone leaked with anxiety, he was very afraid.

“Shh! It’ll hear you, it’s still out there.” Said a woman, she was a little more assertive, but every syllable she spoke still rattled like the male’s.

“We can’t leave here! That’s unthinkable. It left this city hours ago. It probably thinks everyone is dead. Let’s leave it to its assumptions. As soon as we know it’s gone we make a break for the control tower…” This was an older man, his tone was frail, but he had no fear…

“That’s assuming the control tower still stands… you saw what that thing did, I-It was brutal. It came here for blood and destruction, and it got it.” the female’s voice filled with disgust, her voice shattered into unnecessary pauses as she continued to speak. “Maybe… if… if we’re lucky… we might get out of here… alive.”

The little girl still plodded forward, she was within reaching distance of the door. She dropped her small bag and reached out with a hand, pushing the rickety door wide open. The three voices within exploded in fear.

“Go!”

“Run, run!”

“Out the back door!”

“The back door?” She uttered, seemingly in confusion. Her face remained vacant. She seemed very confused…

“W-Wait. It’s, it’s a child!” The female spoken, poking her large bulbous head out from behind a toppled piece of furniture. She had a tuft of green hair that was dirtied, and her face was slightly cut and bruised. She must have only just avoided the destruction.

“Poor thing. Her parents must be gone…” The older male said. He too poked out from the furniture. He was slightly taller and completely baled.

“Quick, close the door behind her!” The young male hid beneath a table, but he was still visible. He had a full head of blue hair, but from where she stood, he seemed to be in the worst state, he maintained some serious injuries.

The female jolted from behind the couch, and touched the little girl caringly on the shoulder, before slamming the rickety door shut. She then fell to one knee, her eyes level with the child’s.

“You’re safe now. It’s okay. Just stay with us, we’ll get you to safety. The bad man is gone now.” Her tone was hurried, but it became caring, as she stared deep into the child’s eyes. She was lying, she could tell…

“What’s your name little girl?” The younger man asked, as he scurried out from below the small table.

“I don’t… know.” She said, her face was not fearful, nor was it happy. She had no expression.

“She must be terrified. Heaven knows what that thing did to her parents. We need to send a distress beacon. The PTO sometimes fly through this area, they’ll land and give us aid.” The older stood up, and dusted himself off. “In a few more hours we’ll leave.”

“The… PTO? Is that your plan. They’ll take one good look at this world and destroy the rest! What next? Will you be asking them to deploy the Ginyu Force?!” Again the young man spoke with haste and worry, he was the weakest link of the group.

“PTO?” The little girl seemed confused, she had never heard of this PTO.

“D-Don’t worry about it honey” The woman said, in a warm tone. “He’s right, the PTO are too dangerous, but it we do send a distress signal to them, at least we have a ship off of this planet… If they deploy a force to survey the area, we might be able to jump into the cargo hold while nobody’s looking…”

“Forget it, let’s make a run for the tower now… send that signal while we still have time!” The young man made a run for the door, signalling the other two who seemed worried. They both looked towards one another, doubt was in both their minds, the little girl could feel it. They knew it was a long shot, but it may be the only chance for survival. Finally, they both nodded, as they made their way towards the door. The woman kept hold of the little girl’s hand, she squelched it protectively.

“If we call them, will they come?” The little girl pondered, her tone docile and calm…

“Yes honey, and then we can get to safety, let’s go!”

Then it was decided, that was what she would do. This PTO seemed to be a promising option, and if she could get to the signal tower, she could alert them to this baron world. Finally, more prey…

“Honey, why aren’t you moving?!” The little girl stopped dead in her tracks. Her expression morphed from docile into an insidious grin. Her small teeth became apparent, as a seething laugh began to heave from her mouth. Spouts of hysterical laughter escaped her, the sound altering from faint and feeble, to deep and menacing. Her small frame grew, and her features changed, as she revealed her true, terrible form. In moments, the little, docile defenceless girl was no more, and exploding from her ashes was a beast as imposing as a giant, and as black as singeing coals. The three beings looked on in horror, their mouth’s agape as they stumbled and panicked to get away. They tried to run, but their efforts were in vain. Already, his tendrils were whispering of marvellous hunger, and already they had set their sights on their next meals. Without hesitation, they lurched forward like serpents, each slithering, vicious tendril securing its prey in a cold embrace. The screams were unmerciful, and the pleading was beautiful, but in the end, the cries died to silence. The three survivors were survivors no more, and all that was left of their forms was hollow bone, and empty clothing. They had sated Gelth’s hunger in the short term, but he required more…

This PTO, whatever it was would no doubt fall into his trap if he released a distress beacon. And then, he would have more lambs to slaughter, and even a mode of transport. Finally Gelth would be free to traverse the whole wide universe, and finally his hunger would expand towards every star.

“To the signal tower it is…” His brooding voice resonated from his essence freely. Now to get off of this world…

Despite her best efforts to calm her mind, peaceful sleep would not come. What was even stranger was that the nightmare she had not too long ago seemed to continue right where it left off, as soon as Celeria drifted into sleep once more. There were subtle differences, however. The terrain looked even more desolate and the number of bodies scattered across the ruins deemed to have tripled. The population of the surroundings seemed truly wiped out. The air was rife with noxious fumes of debris from no doubt recent explosions.

The scene suddenly shifted and Celeria beheld three aliens above her, with concerned and frightened looks on their faces. Despite her crippling fear, a female approached her and caressed her cheek with genuine care and affection. Celeria felt safe. It was then that their expressions changed from what looked like survivors' resolve to grimaces of sheer dread. Celeria felt as if she elevated in height slowly, much like if she were taking into the air. Yet, her feet remained firmly on the ground. She tried her best to look down upon her own body, but all she could make out is a chilling blackness that spouted extensions of sorts. These... things slithered through the air grotesquely, eventually wrapping around the flesh of the petrified victims. Her mouth was filled with the taste of putrid blood.

Celeria jumped off the bed, clutching desperately at her throat until she keeled over and coughed so intensely, tinted tears came gushing out of her eyes. She did not vomit, but the gag reflex was so powerful, it had burst nearly all of the capillaries in her eyes, that were already severely strained by over a week of little to no sleep.

"Enough..." - she muttered under her breath, still heaving from disgust and physical shock.

"Enough." - with some effort, she pushed herself off the floor onto her knees and into an upright stand. It took her but a few moments to emerge from her quarters in full battle gear. She clicked her scouter several times to make sure the rest of the colony was still having their deserved rest. Hasty footsteps clicked along the marble floor of the hall leading to the main control room. Celeria seated herself at one of the consoles and began typing away. She had no idea what she was doing and wondered if fatigue had indeed taken over her mind. She found herself accessing the old databases that contained a thorough map of the surrounding systems. She went through the data on the planets, surveying their environments. Ten, twenty, fifty... still nothing. She slammed her fists on the desk and took a deep breath and shrugged, exhaling and trying to compose herself. She knew she had to get the bottom of this mess. She had never had a history of any physical or psychological deficits, she wasn't even genetically predisposed for potential mental disorders of any kind. All of this had to be coming from somewhere. It had to...

Feeling disturbingly helpless, her fingers hovered limply over the keyboard. Instinctively, she pressed the letters "u" and "m". The image and analysis of the planet that appeared on screen stunned her breath away. It was real, right there. She was certain she had never been there before, yet the planet was there - exactly as she had seen it in the nightmares. And she was on Delta NW-74, so she couldn't have committed the atrocities she beheld.

Darting from her seat, she instantly made for the docking bay which housed the travel pods. She took out a remote from her armor and clicked it several times as her pace quickened the closer she got to the bay. Her eyes still stung from the ruptured vessels and her muscles quivered with exhaustion, yet Celeria felt as determined as ever to get to the bottom of this ordeal. If there was any truth to the nightmares, the colony might be facing a threat even greater than... him. Even greater than Frieza. For all Frieza's hinted sadism and ruthlessness, he did not go around eating people and absorbing their very life-force. She wasn't particularly sure about the first, but she could bet on the second. Otherwise, he would not have destroyed her homeworld, he would have simply devoured them all.

She needed to go to Umirion. Whether she would find something there, she was not sure. If she found nothing, she would reprimand herself, but find peace in the fact that the colony is safe. But if something was indeed out there, she needed to about it... before it would be too late.

Gelth

There had been little that remained of the control tower, other than rubble and stray shards of technology, strewn across the city. But what had remained was a huge satellite, dwarfing the now crushed structures like a mountain dwarfing a mole hill. Yes, it was degrading and literally falling to pieces by the hinges, but from what Gelth understood of sentient technology, he believed he could get the machine working quickly. The beast pondered, his hunger quelling just for an instant, as he surveyed the wreck. The satellite was fine, but there was no power feeding the device, in order to send a distress beacon, he’d need energy. It was convenient that he was a well of indomitable power…

Spreading the talons on one of his monstrous claws, the beast fired short waves of his own energy in rapid succession towards the transmitter. In seconds the satellite grew from dead and rusting to being active once more. Childs play. Now he proceeded to the innards of the dilapidated buildings, his tall spine hunched as he stalked through the door’s small peripheries. Nobody within the tower lived, they had all be brutalised in his initial invasion. It was a pity, really, he would have enjoyed devouring more lives as a precursor to the coming of this PTO vessel. Within moments, Gelth quickly utilised his ki to blast him to the utmost floor of the tower. He shattered through level after level like butter separated to the knife. When he reached the transmitter module, he simply scanned the surrounding worlds. Initially, the beast found nothing of interest, other than a few low profile worlds of the system. He even noticed the planet on which he had been birthed, the ancient volcanic world where he had seethed his hunger, and implanted his first seed within the mental recesses of an unconscious Saiyan warrior. Soon enough, she would be harvested.

After a moment, the beast noticed an unchartered section of the star chart. This was PTO space, and for some reason, this world had worked hard to avoid confrontation with it. The beast was intrigued, perhaps this PTO was powerful, perhaps it was a race of warriors or conquerors? He relished in the thought for an instant, his tendrils danced at the thought of feeding on such power. He would call them to this world, he would alert the hunters, and in turn they would be hunted. With the touch of a few keys, Gelth released a powerful signal to the PTO quadrant of space. Before long, they would come calling, and he would have his prey.

- - - - - - - - - - (4 hours later) - - - - - - - - - -

The atmosphere screeched as the indistinguishable raw of engines cried out across the planet. Gelth was watching intently, he was lurched atop the large, shattered satellite, his figure low and bent into a pounding stance. The ship looked like a colourful saucer, it whizzed and spun at incomparable speeds, a stream of energy surrounded its flat, oblong shape like a personal hurricane. Aboard, the beast could sense power, and plentiful amounts of it. After a few moments, the powerful vessel landed, carelessly setting down on top of heaps of rubble and corpses. After another few seconds, the ship hissed, releasing a flume of gasses through its vents, before an access ramp opened, and revealed a battalion of armoured troops. These men and women, ranging from many skin colours and different sizes, were similarly dressed to the Saiyans the beast had encountered days earlier. But he could sense that the similarities ended there. The lines of troops began to spread, they were surveying the area, just as Gelth would now survey his prey…

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

Kale

Kale had completed his medical examinations for the day, and his head buzzed with the familiar sensation of exhaustion. It was early morning, and the darkness was beginning to creep into his station at the medical quarters. As he fought a yawn, junior doctor Grape emerged from one of the patient quarters. He was ready to retire for the night, he too had been at work all day…

“That’s all the examinations finished. I suppose the Commander can choose her prospective team for our away mission based on the medical reports. I think Espara was pretty strong…” Grape retired his medical jacket to a pin on the wall, before revealing a gargantuan yawn of his own. “Night doctor!” Kale weakly smiled in response, his eyes peeling back as his head tipped towards the desk. This could be his resting place for the night, for all he cared. He’d been on duty all day, and right now, he wanted to collapse into his own personal brand of oblivion. Maybe he’d even jump into a healing tank, he did like the giddy sensation he received when he used one of those things. But then, he was sure that was called addiction, and therefore he sounded like an addict… maybe he’d refrain, for now. Choosing against his initial option to sleep where he dropped, the doctor took to his feet, making a tremendous stretch of all of his knotted limbs as he did so. He’d go to his quarters after all…

As he left the medical bay, the fresh air attacked Kale like a violent winter. His skin itched against the winds and his eyes siphoned to tiny slits. Here he was, a Saiyan, a warrior if you would, and he wasn’t used to the out doors. Even for a doctor, that was pretty weak. In that instant, the doctor decided to straighten his back and man up. Now, standing tall and unopposed he placed both of his hands firmly on his waist. That felt better, now he felt like he could take on the world again.

“Just call me Commander Kale!” He whispered slightly too loud to himself, as he stood with a boisterous stance in the middle of the colony. “No… seriously, don’t say that too loud Kale, you’ll get court marshalled…” the doctor quickly shuck his own head. Sometimes it was like living with a clown when it came to dealing with his own antics. As he continued down one of the large open ramps of the colony, he passed the ship that resided on a suspended docking bay. He glanced without apprehension at first, until he noticed something out of the ordinary. Was that the Commander? What was she doing around this area at this time? Raising a brow in bewilderment, the doctor hesitantly approached Celeria, who from his point of the docking bay seemed hurried and in a panic.

“Trying to get off this rock too Commander? I was thinking of running off to Yardrat myself, I hear it’s more temperate.” He smiled widely, trying to defuse whatever was happening with his own brand of comedy, but then, what else was new?

Celeria detected footsteps long before the company actually entered the docking bay. She wondered if she should have made an effort to conceal her presence. Again and again she went over the legitimacy of this outing, whether it was a just cause for depleting even a miniscule amount of resources. She decided that she would not perform clandestinely. Instead, she calmly continued typing away at the main console, prepping a pod for departure, when she recognized a familiar voice behind her.

“Trying to get off this rock too Commander? I was thinking of running off to Yardrat myself, I hear it’s more temperate.”

Celeria did not say a word. For a few minutes that seemed to stretch into a greater length of time, only the sound of her fingers lightly tapping on the glass panel of the main console filled the room. Resources were difficult enough to compromise, she did not wish to go as far as to compromise lives which were already too few in number. But she could not leave without an explanation, either. Without turning around to face Kale, she slowly began:

"I've come across some data which was... disturbing, to say the least. I would even go as far as to say the colony itself might be endangered. So I will go out into the field and investigate. If I'm wrong, then the only thing I have to worry about is justifying my foolish outing..." - for a moment, Celeria stopped and a light tremor went through her shoulders, no doubt fatigue trying to overcome her. Eager to get across the urgency of the matter, she turned to Kale so he could see the gravity of the matter first hand. Although her posture and gestures were still as dignified as would be expected, Celeria's face was no longer a perfect expression of health, capability and propriety. Her eyes were chillingly bloodshot and the color had all but faded from her face.

"But if I'm right... and nothing is done about it... we're all as good as dead." - she fixed her bloodied gaze upon Kale before turning around once more to finalize preparations for her brief trip.

"If I do not return, take it as a sign that I was right. Until then, I would ask for your silence. No, I insist that your silence about my departure be absolutely vital. Far too much pressure already weighs down upon our little colony." - she cracked a half-smile, even a sour grin and chuckled to herself. The odds were really against them. Genocide, deficit of just about everything, surrounded by mostly uncharted systems... Then again, deep down, every saiyan loved a challenge and Celeria was no different. With heavy steps, she made her way towards the pod.

Gelth

“The planet’s clear of all life Captain, but the scouter reads fairly recent plasma scorches across the land…” The trooper scanned the panorama with an enveloping turn of his head from left to right. He fiddled with the mechanisms on his scouter before continuing. “It’s almost as if something just incinerated all life forms on this world in a matter of… hours.” He huffed, obviously perplexed.

“Move out boys. I wanna make sure this world’s completely dead before we make any assumptions. It’s just as well the job has been done for us really, it spares us the manpower of clearing this pathetic world ourselves.” The Captain stood with both hands clutched firmly at his waste. He was taller than his small battalion of troops, and his figure was hefty and imposing.

“What if whatever did this is still out there? Shoot to kill?” The trooper momentarily pondered, as if there was any real alternative…

“No. Shoot to annihilate.” The Captain’s voice was cold and careless. “We’ve got a reputation to uphold, even when faced with megalomaniacs. No one matches the Planet Trade Organisation and lives to tell the tale. This quadrant is under the direct control of King Cold, and he demands penance.”

“Yes sir!” The small battalion all shouted in unison. They were loyal, and all quite powerful.

Gelth stalked forward under the shadows cast by shattered skyscrapers. His form was loose and beast-like, as he manipulated each of his advanced senses to hone in on everything the battalion of troops was saying or doing. He was just a couple of hundred metres from his prey, so he could easily make out their numbers and their formation. At the forefront of the ship was seven perfectly garrisoned soldiers, each sporting Saiyan armour and scouters, with laser rifles attached to each of their wrists. At the back of the perfectly regimented line was the Captain, who wore a slightly modified version of Saiyan armour, with a crimson cape that draped from shoulder to shoulder. He lacked any form of artificial weaponry, Gelth assumed that he had no such use for petty trinkets. Now that the troops were clearly in the predator’s line of sight, he could begin eliminating them, one by one. Of course, it was possible that they’d cause him more trouble than the average sentient being, so he would have to be strategic. He had not yet acquired his full power, and still existed in a basic form. He would have to use his mind as much as his natural strength in this situation…

“C-Captain, there was just a blip on my scouter, and then it disappeared. It was in the western direction… very close.” The trooper reached out with his left hand, sharply pinpointing the direction of the power fluctuation.

“What kind of blip?” He Captain seemed impatient.

“A couple of hundred sir, nothing we shouldn’t be able to-”

The soldier was cut short by the torrential sound of a fizzling explosion. Before he could react, the ground around him erupted in an emerald consortium of energy. Green blasts surged at devastating speeds towards him, before penetrating his armour like paper, and singeing his flesh to a sunder. Smoke escaped his splintered remains and hung solemnly in the air, hiding the trooper’s battered body from the rest of the battalion.

“Red alert! Red alert!” All of the soldiers organised themselves into a pack formation, as they reeled back slowly towards the ship. They each placed a wrist out in front of them, and fired their blasters with rapid succession into the smoke cloud. By now, their comrade’s form had fallen lifeless to the soil, but in his place, concealed by the thick smog, was Gelth.

Each blaster bolt entered the smoke with devastating speed, illuminating it with a red ominous hue. The occasional stray bolt bounded off Gelth’s solid, concrete figure. The projectiles were weak, and inflicted little to no damage upon the beast at all. Instead he braced himself, closing his green florescent eyes to the tip. The sensation of mild pain was entrancing to say the least. It sent niggles of minor pain up his beastly spine and caused rapid synaptic firing in his complex, otherworldly brain. Was this what a tickle felt like?

Finally, the smoke cleared, leaving with it a faint residual fog. The soldiers paused, spreading out once more, their eyes rapidly scanned the area for the threat. But by now, they were already his prey. Bounding into the air, Gelth had managed to fool them as he hung above them in perfect flight. As he descended, he couldn’t help but allow a sinister chortle to escape him, as he dug his large blade-like talons into the first soldier’s chest. Instantly, he penetrated his armour, and a splatter of blood exploded from the wounds, soaking Gelth’s ghastly face. Next, the beast raised both of his claws to the frantic soldiers head, quickly he snapped his neck, leaving him hurtling towards the ground. Now, two more troopers were upon him, from two alternate directions, but this was child’s play, no being could ever stand against him in hand to hand combat, he was the perfect hunter. As they both approached, Gelth raised and extended his right leg, forcing it unrelentingly into the first soldier’s jaw, causing his head to snap back, rendering him instantly dead. Then, without another moment to spare, the beast dealt with the second soldier with a quick whip of his four serpentine tendrils. They bounded against the fools body relentlessly, beating him as if he were meat being tendered by a butcher. He too fell limp, inhaling in horror as he did so.

Four left, five if you counted the Captain. But he remained stationary, with his arms crossed, and a wide smile plastered across his alien face. His demise would come soon enough, of this Gelth was sure. One of the remaining troops bravely jolted towards the beast, becoming air born as he did so. His gloved hands extended into an offensive posture, as his expression morphed into a battle cry. Gelth grinned, his own posture became neutral, as he tapped into his powerful telekinetic abilities. Instantly, the soldier stopped dead in the air, his form became rigid. A small disgruntled sound escaped his panicked lips, before he exploded into a frenzy of gore with the power of the beast’s telekinesis. After a second, the blood and body parts settled, as a fine layer of bodily moisture covered the remaining crowd. Gelth was not in a patient mood however, and within moments he was upon two more soldiers. This time he extended two talons each to the two approaching soldiers, snapping their necks with little effort. As they fell, the final trooper was upon him, his feeble fist connecting with Gelth’s face. A punch… what a strange sensation. Of course, he felt no pain from the encounter, and instead the soldier fell back, clutching his now shattered hand in agony. He let out a small whimper, how comical. Feeling obliged to extend the same gesture to the weakling, Gelth clenched a fist, injecting a small amount of energy into his fingers as he did so. Then, unleashing his arm, his hand penetrated the soldiers stomach completely, leaving the other side of him like a tunnel. The trooper became limp in his hand, as the beast lashed him to one side. Those weaklings were finally out of the way, now came the real challenge.

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

Kale

"I've come across some data which was... disturbing, to say the least. I would even go as far as to say the colony itself might be endangered. So I will go out into the field and investigate. If I'm wrong, then the only thing I have to worry about is justifying my foolish outing...But if I'm right... and nothing is done about it... we're all as good as dead. If I do not return, take it as a sign that I was right. Until then, I would ask for your silence. No, I insist that your silence about my departure be absolutely vital. Far too much pressure already weighs down upon our little colony."

The Commander seemed to fill with an enigmatic concoction of what Kale could only assume was both fear and exhilaration. The doctor was still confused however, and even with the crystal clarity at which Celeria spoke, he took a second to mull through her words. What data could possibly prove to be so disturbing that a powerful Saiyan Commander was brought to her wits end with emotion? And how had she obtained such illusive data without even leaving the system? Kale’s brows simultaneously lifted, his lips pouted as he formed a perplexed expression. He was sure whatever Celeria was talking about held the greatest importance, but as an academic, he chose to dissect a situation first, before jumping head in.

“What could possibly endanger this colony that we don’t already know about?” Kale whispered, addressing the Commander, but mostly himself. The doctor placed both of his dangling arms firmly at his waist, before he huffed, letting out a powerful gust of air. From how Celeria was speaking, this threat seemed to be external, and completely new to the colony. He assumed that it wasn’t Freeza, otherwise the Commander would have no doubt outright admitted it. He even assumed that the threat probably wasn’t something that the Saiyans or Celeria herself had encountered before. If so, the Commander would have confided in him by now. That, or he was overestimating his importance in her eyes, which could have been a possibility. He even considered her mental wellbeing for a second, but quickly disposed of the thought, after remembering that previously the medical staff had run a brain scan on the Commander. Maybe then, she was right, perhaps something was endangering the colony…?

“If this danger is off world, then how do you know about it Commander?” Kale sharply shook his head, it didn’t matter right now. “No… that’s not important. What’s important is that you explain the situation Commander.” The Doctor nodded, his gaze averted to the floor, as scenarios continued to run through his mind. He kept one image safely plastered across his mind, and that was of Celeria, in a frantic state. Not many things could do such a thing to a Commander, something had to be amiss. “But maybe you should explain in the pod… because as your doctor, I’m going to have to accompany you.” He hadn’t needed to consider it for very long. Whatever was out there was obviously dangerous, and losing Celeria would be no good for the colony at all. “If we lost you Commander, we’d be in an even worse situation. My presence can at least fortify your position. And if you’re looking for the element of surprise, then there’s only two of us, and we can move about with a relatively small footprint.”

Kale felt like an agent or a spy, it was irregularly exciting, he had to admit. But on the other hand, he had no idea what they were going into, and even less idea as to why they were going into it. Before they continued however, the doctor attempted to strengthen his position before the Commander, by pleading his case for the mission. “I’m medically trained, so if anything happens to you, I can help. And I also have combat training, so I’m not completely useless on the field…”

Celeria felt as if she had no choice. She would attempt to do her best at persuading the doctor to stay and hopefully keep his mouth shut, but she assessed the prospects of both as poor, at best. Her breath was heavy with frustration - she didn't intend to bring anyone else on this mission. There was no way for her to know whether there was actual danger or not, not to mention that she might as well run into PTO recon crews who always crept around the galaxy, spying on the planets the organization set its eyes on. Celeria would have pondered on it further, but she was keen on getting to the planet as soon as possible. For whatever reason, she felt like there was no time to waste.

She didn't reply to the doctor and instead simply grunted under her breath and turned on her heels, making her way to one of the available space pods, whose door was already lifting open. Celeria secured her scouter and, glancing once more in the doctor's direction and noticing that he was indeed serious about joining her, activated the adjacent pod and set in the coordinates. When the doctor was standing next to her, she gave him another silent and solemn look before seating herself inside her pod, checking the coordinates one last time as the door slowly closed.

Celeria crossed her arms and closed her eyes, attempting to relax. The planet wasn't far enough for the pod to require initiating a temporary stasis program. She just did her best to sit tight and wait until she got to the scene, she though to herself as the pod blasted off into the dark sky and flew past Delta's atmosphere within seconds. She wondered why she hadn't spoken to Kale in more detail, but the truth was, she felt like there really wasn't anything to say. If he really wanted to come, she would have poor luck dissuading him verbally and she didn't want to damage the colony's most capable doctor. But now she had him in her care, and she found herself thinking knocking him out would have been preferable to risking the danger of losing him to the field.

She was still in shock as to why she felt such fear in the back of her mind; she even reprimanded herself for taking off on what was objectively no more than a hunch. But that planet, that terrain - she was absolutely certain she had never seen it before. Yet, there it was, exactly as she had seen it but minutes before she sat down at the console. Something was amiss no matter how you slice it, and Celeria was determined to get to the bottom of the situation. She thought about Kale again and how it must feel to be flying in an unknown direction, with no instructions, following a commander whom he no doubt conjectured to be insane at this point. After a few moments of pause, she clicked her scouter a couple of times and established a secure link with Kale. She began speaking in a soft and hushed tone, one Kale would certainly not expect to hear from her. She began narrating her ordeal from the very beginning.

"The first thing I remember when I awoke in the healing tank after returning from that barren rock was how I survived. I was at the gates of death, doctor, and I am sure you would have affirmed this, had you a chance to examine me at that point. Yet, I apparently had the strength not only to pull myself away from said gates, but also summon my ship, get inside it, fly back to the colony, walk out of the pod and to the medical bay. That is a little too much activity for what was recently a good as gone warrior, I'm sure you'll agree."

She made a small pause before continuing.

"When I mused over the question in the days that followed, each time it chilled me that I hadn't even a semblance of an answer. My condition allowed no possibility of a recoil back into consciousness, let alone moving around. More importantly, since that day, my sleep has been severely disturbed. When I sleep, in my mind I see horrific scenes of slaughter. I see many people devoured in a gruesome, morbid and grotesque way. I see their flesh torn from their bones and consumed by darkness. I have seen my fair share of the battlefield, doctor. I never had so much as a bad dream, or a waking flashback. As illogical as it sounds, I don't think these dreams are coming from me. They feel alien to me, as if someone put them there.

I couldn't make sense of this situation, although I tried my best to do so. I've become so sleep-deprived, it's affecting my performance. To make things worse, the visions have intensified, both in their vividness and their terror. Hours ago, I witnessed a similar scene on a planet I have never seen before, only to find that planet on the console, by chance. I am sure I have not visited it before, yet it is a perfect match to what I had seen."

Celeria took a moment to think over how absurd this story must sound. But she had no other means to explain what was going on. Apparently, Kale trusted her enough to follow her, without even as much as a reasonable explanation. She felt touched by the display of faith and loyalty. It is exactly because of this faith that she couldn't allow herself to falter any longer.

"I need to see what's out there, doctor. If all things are well, then I will attribute it to some damage that escaped you during the initial medical screening. If I am right, then we will have at least some idea of what we're up against." - she let out a long sigh, before adding - "Either way, the colony will be safe."

Her soft sigh was faintly audible over the comlink.

"Celeria out."

There was not much time for any kind of exchange. They would arrive to the planet Umiron soon and they both needed to collect their composure and get some rest. Celeria had a hunch that this journey would test both their mental and physical strength and she made a promise to herself that they would be up to the task.

“Impressive. I don’t know what you are or where you come from, but I haven’t seen a fight like that for years.” The Captain exchanged his own malignant grin with Gelth. “This is going to be fun.”

Gelth maintained his eerily calm exterior, as he too broke a wide smirk. The Captain’s response to the deaths of his men was intriguing, the beast actually felt compelled to talk to this one. “And you feel no remorse for your fallen comrades?” His tone was inquisitive but flat.

“Hahaha!” The Captain moved a step closer to Gelth, although the beast towered over him, he seemed to harbour no fear. How foolish… “ They were pawns to our grand Planet Trade Organisation. Their lives would have been thrown away sooner or later. At least I’m rid of their incompetence now.” He untied his arms, another puff of laughter escaped him before he continued, “And on the plus side, when I secure this world all by myself and destroy you, I will be duly rewarded by my superiors.”

Gelth was sure to measure the exact distance between himself and the PTO Captain. From where he was standing, his mind had concocted multiple means for which he could kill the arrogant fool. He could simply drain his life force by giving in to his desire to feed, or he could enjoy his agony, and cut off all oxygen to his jugular with a single fist, and watch as he slowly slipped out of existence. Gelth could imagine hundreds of ways to kill the fool, but only by truly fighting him, would he fulfil his deep-seated desire.

“The population of this world was pathetic. I consumed them all in little more than a single day, and still I hunger for more.” Gelth also proceeded to take a single step forward, now the height difference between the two combatants was even more striking. “Your battalion also failed to sate my hunger, so I too am going to enjoy this.” The grin on his bleak face faded, as he stared down into the Captain’s eyes.

The Captain touched a mechanism on his scouter, which began recording Gelth’s visible power. “Ha! Just as I suspected, you’ve got a power level of 7,000. Barely even worth my time creature. I’ll make quick work of you…”

This time Gelth took a step back, and as he fell onto his hind leg, he unleashed a gurgling raw. His voice filled the sound waves with incredible volume, as a wild emerald aura exploded from his body. It fluctuated wildly, and emitted a chaotic hissing sound. The beast was increasing his power level to its maximum, and he was taking advantage of all of the souls he had previously absorbed on the planet to do so. As his energy continued to grow, the stray rubble and the surround airborne spores around them began to vibrate. The Captain huffed in shock, taking his own step back. He seemed to be focused on his scouter display.

“Your power level, it’s… 25,000. But that’s impossible, mine is 18,000... This stupid thing must be malfunctioning!” He banged a flat palm against the device, before grimacing and bearing his teeth. “I’ll finish you monster!”

The Captain fired forward, propelling himself with the force of his ki. His fists readied themselves, and in no time flat he was swinging a flurry of punches at Gelth. The beast anticipated his movements however, and easily moved from left to right accordingly, dodging all incoming attacks. This wasn’t the end of the onslaught however, as the Captain touched down on the ground, and knelt, before swiping with his leg in an attempt to force Gelth off of his feet. It was close, and most definitely a surprise, but the beast managed to bound himself into the air, and force the heel of his leg flat into the cheek of the Captain. As he did so, the fool flung backwards, travelling a metre or so, before he managed to recover himself and land on his feet.

“Hm.” The Captain grunted. Rubbing his cheek where Gelth’s foot had connected. “That was the warm up…” All traces of the fool were gone, as he seemingly disappeared into thin air. Gelth knew what this was, it was super speed, and he too was capable of such a feat. But before the beast could react accordingly, the Captain appeared quickly behind him, delivering a strong elbow to the back of Gelth’s neck. His vision blackened for a moment, as his muscular head fell forward, he’d never been fooled before, this was new. Following his attack with another repertoire, the Captain delivered two sharp punches into Gelth’s back, forcing him forward, and then he completed his attack with a swiping kick, which in turn sent the beast hurtling towards the floor. All was not lost however, as Gelth placed both claws out in front of him, and balanced his weight upon them. He successfully transformed his fall into a forward flip, before he returned to his feet once more with a backward recoil.

“Impressive.” His face morphed into pure sadism, there was a narcissistic enjoyment about all of this. “Perhaps you are not as weak as I had previously thought.” Gelth too disappeared, his form seemingly dissolved into the airwaves of the baron world. Both fighters were now invisible, but in the seconds that followed the two quickly reappeared, locked in a savage engagement of blows. As Gelth delivered a series of kicks and punches, he found them being diverted by the Captain via a sequence of blocks and dodges, and as the Captain delivered his attacks, Gelth too managed to avoid them. This stalemate continued for minutes at a time, as the two combatants disappeared from the line of sight, and reappeared again for mere seconds. They were travelling and attacking at such speed, that their responses were purely instinctual. After a further moment however, Gelth put an end to the continuous brawling by diving away from his opponent, and landing atop the ship he soon planned on commandeering. Then, placing both of his dark, muscular arms out at either side of him, the beast charged two large orbs of green energy. He charged them for a moment, keeping his eyes busy as he did so, scanning both his centre and his peripheral vision. Soon, the Captain jumped out of his super speed, and hung in the air in front of Gelth. He smiled, as he prepared his own blast with his two hands situated closely in front of him.

“Galactic Buster!” Gelth yelled with unrelenting might, as he placed both of the energy orbs together and fired a continuous wave out in front of him. The blast grew in size as it approached the Captain, its centre radiated a deeper green hue as it collided against the opponents own blast. Gelth’s raw increased in ferocity as he was again locked in another stalemate with the Captain. Both blasts were evenly as powerful for a moment, as they clashed vigorously against one another. But as the seconds passed, Gelth found himself taking control of the struggle, and as the beast collected more of his bountiful energy, he unleashed a final onslaught of energy towards the Captain, causing his own beam to be annihilated in the process. As the Galactic Buster made contact with the fool, a smashing of energy and raw flesh could be heard. Smoke surrounded the air in the aftermath, and only Gelth’s superior eyesight caught the image of the Captain falling limply towards the ground.

Quickly following the charred body, Gelth touched down on the ground, and used the talons upon his foot to surround the Captain’s neck. He crushed his claw together, causing the fool to gag and reach for his throat. In a last ditched effort to survive, the Captain unleashed a barrage of eye lasers surprising the beast so much so, that they split the flesh upon his cheek. Green, florescent liquid proceeded to drip from the gaping wound… Gelth’s first draw of blood.

“Ha. Y-You’re a fool.” The Captain was brave, still he spouted his nonsense. “Y-You may have defeated me b-beast, but there, there… are those in our organisation that a-are infinitely more powerful than m-me.” The beast’s hearing picked up. The fool was telling the truth, already he had witnessed the power of Vegeta, it was staggering. Surely, others existed out there with similar energy levels? “Y-You stand no chance.” This caused Gelth’s skin to bubble and his teeth to grit. Currently, he was powerful, but this was just a prelude to what he would have to become to consume everything. If he tried to go for the most powerful now, he would be destroyed. The very thought of his failure filled him with incomparable rage. His grip on the Captain’s neck tightened, as his tendrils slowly wrapped themselves around his form.

“When I feed Captain, my strength increases, and I quickly close the gap between myself and those who would call themselves stronger than me. Soon I shall shatter all resistance, and you should be proud, as you are the start.” Gelth’s tendrils began to feed, draining the fool of his deep well of energy. The power felt restorative, as the beast’s body began to rejuvenate from the previous conflict.

The last words that managed to escape the Captain’s mouth, were “L-Lord Freeza…”

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

Kale - pending

"The first thing I remember when I awoke in the healing tank after returning from that barren rock was how I survived. I was at the gates of death, doctor, and I am sure you would have affirmed this, had you a chance to examine me at that point. Yet, I apparently had the strength not only to pull myself away from said gates, but also summon my ship, get inside it, fly back to the colony, walk out of the pod and to the medical bay. That is a little too much activity for what was recently a good as gone warrior, I'm sure you'll agree."

The doctor nodded in contemplation, but he couldn’t help the raise of a brow from what the Commander was suggesting. Perhaps she merely underestimated herself? In his time as a doctor with the PTO, Kale had seen young Saiyan warriors crawl back from the bloody pulp of near-death hundreds of times. Saiyans were a lot of things; they were brash, largely ignorant, and self involved, but they certainly weren’t weak.

"When I mused over the question in the days that followed, each time it chilled me that I hadn't even a semblance of an answer. My condition allowed no possibility of a recoil back into consciousness, let alone moving around. More importantly, since that day, my sleep has been severely disturbed. When I sleep, in my mind I see horrific scenes of slaughter. I see many people devoured in a gruesome, morbid and grotesque way. I see their flesh torn from their bones and consumed by darkness. I have seen my fair share of the battlefield, doctor. I never had so much as a bad dream, or a waking flashback. As illogical as it sounds, I don't think these dreams are coming from me. They feel alien to me, as if someone put them there.

First of all, every ounce of sense in Kale’s mind pointed to post-traumatic stress, or some other form of prolonged trauma. After all, spending so many years in cryo-status had to have an impact on the mind, surely? Just hours ago, the young doctor had observed that even the low class Saiyan warriors and the civilians had been remarkably transformed, now boasting the power levels of super elites. If such an incredible change could occur in the body, then what could happen to the mind? But there was something else, the Commander was right, she had experienced battle and its consequences many, many times before. She was on to something.

I couldn't make sense of this situation, although I tried my best to do so. I've become so sleep-deprived, it's affecting my performance. To make things worse, the visions have intensified, both in their vividness and their terror. Hours ago, I witnessed a similar scene on a planet I have never seen before, only to find that planet on the console, by chance. I am sure I have not visited it before, yet it is a perfect match to what I had seen."

"I need to see what's out there, doctor. If all things are well, then I will attribute it to some damage that escaped you during the initial medical screening. If I am right, then we will have at least some idea of what we're up against." - she let out a long sigh, before adding - "Either way, the colony will be safe."

And that obviously explained why the Commander was out in the middle of the colony during the early hours. She knew something was wrong, and even a doctor’s advice wouldn’t persuade her otherwise. But perhaps she was right, perhaps something else was lurking in the periphery of their vision. After all, everything had been deadly silent since their awakening, even Prince Vegeta had silently disposed of the colony, it was as if something was amiss in the galaxy. Perhaps they were supposed to feel isolated at the edge of space, and something, somewhere was waiting to pounce? The thought brought a shiver from the tip of Kale’s tail and up to his spine. He liked living, even if it was in seclusion. He had to follow the Commander, it was his duty. If she was wrong then it was better to be safe than sorry, and if she was right they would get to the bottom of this.

“Commander, we should take the space pods.” Kale immediately thought. “Grape informed me that the ship needs new engine cylinders which would make the journey turbulent at best, and I don’t fancy piloting such a massive thing just the two of us. We’d end up joyriding around the whole galaxy.” He huffed pleasantly, a slight laugh escaping from his lips. “I’ll follow your pod.”

Both Saiyans embarked on their journey, and as Kale climbed into the claustrophobic Saiyan space pod, he felt as if he was regressing back into his mother’s womb. There was no space in these things at all, and the chair was hard and mildly uncomfortable. The doctor wondered how some Saiyans managed to literally live in their pods for years at a time. He would have difficulty lasting it out for this single journey, no doubt.

With incredible speed, the pods blasted out of the atmosphere of the colony world. Kale felt a familiar sense of vertigo as the vacuum of space morphed into black and white lines with the ferocious agility of the pods. A small computer terminal began to bleep from his left side, and as he scanned the output, it revealed that they were heading for Umirion, estimated time: 1 hour 34 minutes. Although ostensibly, such a time was remarkably fast to reach another world, it would no doubt feel like an eternity whilst trapped in the space womb.

--- --- --- 1 hour 34 minutes later --- --- ---

The pods churned and screeched as they broke the planet’s atmosphere. Kale gripped at the sides of his pod to prevent himself from jerking around in his limited space. Landing was always uncomfortable. Just seconds before, Umirion had looked like a marble floating in space, now it looked like a grape fruit, massive and swollen. After a couple more seconds, the doctor’s vision was filled by the panoramic of a devastated landscape. Tall buildings stood against the horizon scorched by fire and falling to pieces. Smoke plumed from trashed vehicles and travelled into the sky, collecting like a misty screen that made it difficult to see the chaos below. Commander Celeria was right after all.

“Initiating landing sequence… 3... 2... 1...” BOOM.

The ground shuddered and made way for the two space pods, large craters opened up below them, which finally cushioned the crafts to a complete stop. When the usual wave of nausea passed, Kale slammed the release button on the door and jumped free of the cockpit, immediately hovering into the air and out of the crater.

“Commander, you were right. Something has devastated this world.” The doctor activated the scouter over his left eye and scanned the vitals of the world. The little machine ticked and ticked until it identified two power sources. The first read a power level of 8, and the other 6. Perhaps some indigenous life was alive after all. “Shall we follow it, sir?”

The journey had lasted even less than Celeria had expected. Her rushing chain of through was broken by the sound of the pod door hissing open. She hadn't even noticed the landing. Placing a steady hand on each end of the exit, she emerged slowly and gracefully, yet as if a heavy burden was upon her shoulders. As soon as she straightened her back, she hovered off the ground and into the air. Her eyes widened at the sight she encountered. Around their landing perimeter, there were a few more craters, but these were made by fire arms, as well as ki. There were pillars of smoke rising from all corners of the horizon. It was just as she had seen it. But now, floating here, she was even more certain she had never been here before. Celeria raised her hand and tapped her scouter a few times. Both her scouter and Kale's went off at the same time.

“Shall we follow it, sir?”

Celeria gave a curt nod and blasted off in the direction of the signal. As the mad waving of her cape in the wind rung in her ears, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she knew exactly where she was going.

"I don't like this." - she murmured mid-flight, via the comlink. "Stay sharp."

The flight wasn't very long; it was made even shorter by Celeria's constant quickening of pace. She was eager to find out just what was going on. Eventually, she came to behold a ship on the ground below and she immediately stopped in her tracks and let herself fall to the ground, stopping short a few inches and effortlessly stepping onto the dark soil below. In front of them, there were two bodies. She approached them steadily, with keen eyes. They were two aliens, in full battle armor with ray guns attached. Celeria knelt on one knee and grasped the armor collar of one of them, pulling him sightly closer for examination.

She could detect faint breathing, but she was sure that there was no one home. Out cold or completely unconscious - it was hard to tell. She released her grip on the armor and slowly let the alien back down on the ground. There was something, however, that felt even more familiar than her recollection of this place. The armor, the weapons... the ship.

"Doctor, these are Frieza's men!" - she exclaimed. "But what are they doing here...? And where are the others?" Celeria murmured as she made her way towards the ship, hoping it could provide some answers.

Kale

Try as he might, the doctor struggled to keep up with Commander Celeria as she travelled at unrivalled speed towards the faint power level readings. Kale was barely adjusted to being on this war torn world, his retinas were stained by the image of molten metal and the plumes of wild smoke coming from the charred corpses dotted around the landscape. A feeling of dread had already begun to grip at the doctor, beginning in the pit of his stomach, it now gripped his entire body and made him feel nauseous. He had seen devastation from war before, but nothing this extreme. When the Saiyans had taken planets, they had been quick and tidy about it, leaving no evidence of their dirty work whatsoever. After all, Saiyans conquered worlds to broker them on an intergalactic market, everything had to look clean. Whoever had ravaged this world was much less subtle, and entirely savage. Had this world been the victim of a hunt?

“I don’t like this. Stay sharp.”

The doctor trusted a soldier’s intuition on the battlefield, this was their domain after all. He hung a little further back, he knew he was quickly approaching the energy readings, but the closer he came, the more he could feel that something was terribly wrong. As the two Saiyans finally arrived at the source of the power readings, they saw a spaceship, circular in design, with all of the mechanics of a PTO vessel. Kale felt tense, what was such a thing doing all the way out here in the back end of space? Suddenly, the doctor caught sight of the two energy readings. There, on the ground in a pools of blood were two humanoid aliens, gasping for life almost hopelessly. Kale quickly landed, his training kicking in at the sight of living beings in critical condition.

“Doctor, these are Freeza’s men! But what are they doing here…?”

Of course they were! It all made sense. The spaceship, the armour, the heavy armaments. This was a patrol of the PTO, and as such they were connected to Freeza. The doctor froze in his tracks, standing just a couple of metres away from the dying warriors. He struggled with internal strife as he planned his next move. These aliens needed help, they were dying fast, they probably couldn’t stand to lose anymore blood. But they were connected to Freeza, the same Freeza that had destroyed Kale’s entire world. If he helped them now, what would stop them from reporting back to the tyrant who had killed his entire race? The Saiyan huffed, and placed two fingers against his temples. He’d never let anybody die if he could help it.

“These… soldiers, they need medical attention quickly. They’re power levels are dropping rapidly, and they can’t stand to lose anymore blood” With closer inspection, the doctor saw that one soldier had severe lacerations around the neck, and probably was severely oxygen deprived. “I have to do something Commander, they can give us the information you’re after, no doubt. And they can give us a strategic advantage about our general position in the galaxy. After all, I’m not even sure what year it is, at the current moment.”

Feeling entirely serious (which was a rare sensation for Kale), the doctor dropped to his knees and scanned the vitals of the two soldiers. The man with neck lacerations was deteriorating quickly, the wound would have to be closed. Kale quickly whipped off his white doctor’s coat and tore off the right arm. He then proceeded to wrap it around the lacerations to restrict the free flow of blood and loss of oxygen. Then he reached for his belt and retrieved a single syringe, filled with a powerful sedative. This would be enough to kill the pain, but not send either soldier to sleep. Quickly injecting both of them, the doctor waited a moment for both men to gain some clarity before talking.

“It’s alright, I’m a doctor, I’m here to help. What happened here? Who did this to you both?” Kale whispered.

“It was, so… so dark. Its eyes, t-they were like green swamps of-” One man frantically spoke, stuttering over his words.

“It’s fine, you can tell me, you’re both safe…”

The other man spoke, his lacerations making his voice weak and almost unintelligible. “It hunted us like prey. O-Our own world fell to the beast. The c-captain, our t-t-troops, all of them.” The soldier entered hysteria as he coughed uncontrollably.

The doctor rose from his perch on the ground with even more terror than before. Something on this world was strong enough to irradiate an entire species, and a squadron of PTO soldiers. All of Kale’s intuition was pointing in the direction of his space pod. This had been a very bad idea, they had to get these men to isolation for further questioning… hell, they had to go anywhere other than here.

“Commander, we-” Before Kale could finish, he felt a sharp snap at the back of his neck, followed by the embrace of darkness around him. He fell to the ground in an instant, and was helpless to resist as consciousness quickly slipped away.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Gelth

How disappointing. The beast had been just moments from leaving the ravaged world of Umirion on the strange alien vessel left by the soldiers he had slaughtered, when suddenly two more energy signals had appeared out of nowhere. He was never too hungry to feed, his tendrils, being the innocent children they always were, cried out for more flesh and more energy. Who was he to deny them this pleasure? But all had not been as it seemed, Gelth could feel it. There she was, the first living being that his new eyes had set its sights on. She was back, albeit prematurely, but she had returned to him. It was to be expected however, as they were now connected, an intimate part of his being welled in Commander Celeria, a Saiyan Commander of the remote colony of 200 at the edge of the system. Her knowledge was his knowledge, and he knew that she was bound to come.

It had taken only seconds to render the thin, weak, passive Saiyan unconscious. There was no real gains to be had from Doctor Kale, the colony chief medical officer. He was no warrior, and thus enjoyment from his slow eradication would be menial at best. The real feast was yet to be enjoyed, and perhaps now was the time after all. This time the shadows would not conceal the beast, he was powerful enough to face Celeria alone, and he would truly relish the challenge.

Gelth stood above the unconscious body of Kale, and the two dying warriors that he had neglected to finish entirely. Two of his tendrils slowly slid inconspicuously down his back, and wrapped vigorously around the two soldiers. Within moments his children had bled the weaklings dry, their flesh smouldered, as they lay lifelessly. How he gazed on in anticipation of his ultimate feast…

“How unfortunate that you should find me now. Here, of all places, on this insignificant planet. I had planned our foray into battle to be very different to this, Commander Celeria. I had imagined that you would find me at the height of my power, when billions, no… trillions had already fallen before my claws. How very depressing that you should end so soon, before I could truly infiltrate the consciousness of the remaining Saiyan race.”

Gelth pressed forward, taking several steps over the dead soldiers and the unconscious doctor, before stopping a few metres before the Commander. “I must of course sincerely thank you for all you have done Celeria. It was after all, your resounding failure against Prince Vegeta in battle that gave me the anchor I required to find this universe and form anew. And it has been your consciousness and knowledge that has fed me in the subsequent days since your defeat. Now, because of you, I know much of life and the Saiyan race. I know of the 200 hundred survivors that populate this system, and I know that you were all chosen by King Vegeta as the best of a doomed race. And what of this ’Freeza’ that you currently spare a thought to? I am indeed quickly learning much of him. A tyrant, who your race deeply resents. He is responsible for your exile, no?” The beast malignantly grinned, his sharp tongue brushed against his thin lips in satisfaction. “It will be such a shame to let you go so soon, but my hunger in unquenching, and you are far too appetising to say no to.”

Gelth’s eyes suddenly lit up with a blinding emerald green, and laser beams fired at the breastplate of Celeria’s armour. No doubt she would put up a strong fight. This was exactly what the beast needed, if he was to become more and more powerful.

As soon as they landed, Kale began tending to the two dying soldiers. Celeria felt a pang of anger tug at her heartstrings because this was the hand of the force that eradicated her race off the face of the universe. But she did nothing. Kale was acting more instinctively than willingly. In battle conditions, a doctor patches up wounds - he has no time to examine who he's patching up. Also, Celeria had scanned the soldiers. In their current state, she would wipe them off the face of the universe if they so much as look at her wrong. So she let the doctor do his medical bit and turned her attention back to the ship.

Much to Celeria's surprise, the ship was a PTO standard spherical cruiser. She had seen many in her time on the battlefield. That alone told her a lot more about their current situation. Either the PTO was adamant in keeping their technology traditional, or not much time had passed indeed. She began circling the ship and attempting to scan it with her scouter. The scouter beeped a few times at her touch and she found that the ship indeed had a computer main frame that could be accessed from the control room within the ship itself. What the scouter had also detected were not three, but four power levels behind her. Celeria's eyes widened as she felt a wrench in her gut - she did not need the scouter to tell her something was amiss.

By the time she turned around, the two dying soldiers were now very much dead, strange black tendrils drawing away from their lifeless corpses and gliding over Kale who lay prostrated beneath what looked like some kind of large skulking beast. Celeria could barely make out what it was - initially it seemed amorphous, but she could gradually make out extremities in the pulsating, flowing chaos. Her face assumed a grimace somewhere between disgust and dissatisfaction. What had made her frown even longer was the fact that the creature erupted into one of those pompous speeches that instantly made her think he was one of Frieza's hirelings. But the creature was eager to prove her wrong.

It related a lengthy tale about how it came into being. That part didn't interest her much. But the moment she realized that the creature had actually fed on her first and that they were somehow linked as a result made her cringe, albeit not visibly. What was worse, it had a thorough insight into her mind. Her knowledge was now its knowledge and Celeria felt herself overcome by a wave of panic. However, she soon realized that this knowledge had rendered the creature obsolete and the feeling of panic was instantly substituted by cold, tactical reasoning.

She began to inspect the creature keenly. Her gaze drifted from one tendril to the other, trying to figure out the little details which would give her greater insight into the creature's general physionomy. What slightly ticked her off was the fact that she had no idea what she was dealing with. Whatever it was, she would need to keep it occupied long enough for Kale to- Right, Kale. So that was the first step. She needed everything that PTO mainframe contained.

Not long after, the creature had finished its little tirade on how knowledgeable and superior it feels itself to be and Celeria felt eager to get a move on. If the creature indeed had access to a certain portion of her mind, it was time to sever the connection. The creature had fired two menacing beams towards her. Celeria's face remained stone cold and expressionless until the beams were at arm's length, at which point she swiftly brushed them away with a casual backhand.

Kale first. Celeria's frown twisted into a confident grin as she exhaled and tightened her muscles. An aura of wild, flaming silver energy erupted around her - Celeria had instantly assumed half of her full power.

"So, you want to learn about saiyans, hmm? -" She tilted her head playfully and disappeared into thin air only to reappear again right in front of the creature, with two blindly bright spherical green torrents of energy raging around her clenched fists.

"Lesson one." - she outstretched both of her hands, releasing a massive beam of energy that swept the creature clean off its feet and propelled it far away, ramming it deep into a particularly menacing rock formation. What followed was a great explosion that blew the formation up into thin air and sent sharp rock shards flying in all directions. The shards fell upon Celeria's aura and were instantly disintegrated. Although the attack was powerful, she knew she would see the creature far sooner than she'd like to. Celeria knelt down on one knee and lifted Kale's head up to examine him. He seemed to be in perfect condition, just unconscious.

Without the luxury of time for more sophisticated methods, and frankly, without a care for them either, Celeria slapped the doctor into consciousness. His eyes flew open and started darting around and he trembled slightly.

"Doctor! Listen closely!" - Celeria leaned in mere inches from Kale's face and pierced him with an intimidating glare, urging him to focus all his most likely scattered attention on what she is about to say - " There is a mainframe on the ship, scan the vessel with your scouter and you will be able to find the control room. I need everything on that main frame, is that clear, doctor? All of the data. Collect it on your scouter. You will not be able to use the ship to get back to the colony, you will have to run back to your pod." Celeria briefly looked over her shoulder and then turned her gaze back to Kale, propping him back to his feet. "When you've collected the data, notify me through the comlink. I will secure your safe passage to the pod and off the planet if need be. Now go, get to it." To fortify Kale's trembling mental stability, she repeated herself and cried out - "GO!"

Not long after, she heard the sound of crackling stones upon the ground. She looked over her shoulder and smiled.

"Ready for lesson two?" - she turned to face the creature, fists clenched and body hunched into a defensive position. To herself, Celeria vowed to eradicate anyone and anything that had the audacity of threatening her and her race. And right here's one particular bug that simply begged to be crushed.

Kale

The silence of sleep was inevitable, Kale could feel himself inescapably drowning in his own unconscious mind. What had happened? Who had attacked him and why? His thoughts drifted, and for a few moments the peacefulness of a deep slumber dominated his usually buzzing brain. That is, of course, until he was awakened by a the sharp stinging sensation of several slaps to the face.

The doctor’s senses quickly flooded back like a burst dam. First came his hearing, “Doctor! Listen closely!"

“-It‘s not time to get up yet…” He muttered in confusion, before his vision returned and he was met by the intense glare of the Commander. “COMMANDER?!”

"There is a mainframe on the ship, scan the vessel with your scouter and you will be able to find the control room. I need everything on that main frame, is that clear, doctor? All of the data. Collect it on your scouter. You will not be able to use the ship to get back to the colony, you will have to run back to your pod. When you've collected the data, notify me through the comlink. I will secure your safe passage to the pod and off the planet if need be. Now go, get to it. GO!"

He suddenly remembered everything. He’d been attacked! And from the colossal sound of a rock face collapsing in the foreground, Kale was intelligent enough to piece together that Commander Celeria was currently in the middle of kicking ass. He unsteadily clambered to his feet, his eyes were a pulpy haze, but still the doctor could easily make out the PTO saucer. Then with haste, he sprinted -or perhaps clumsily stumbled- towards the ship, and leapt into the dorsal entrance. When inside, Kale did as commanded, and punched his scouter into gear, activating the sensors.

“Mainframe, mainframe, come on, come on, come on.” The small device beeped and clicked before it pinpointed a station on the ship that possessed the data core. Much to Kale’s surprise, everything on the ship was exactly as it would have been before his race’s hibernation. They mustn’t have slept for very long at all then?

As the doctor reached the mainframe he halted in front of the mega-console. Here, in front of him, were the answers to everything he had asked himself over the previous days. He paused, froze even, as if in fear of the next move. The colony needed this information, hell it was vital to their survival, but he would finally know how they all died. Was he ready for that, really? “Damn it!” He formed a fist and smashed it against the console. This was more difficult than he had imagined. Reaching for his scouter, Kale ejected a small chip and placed it into a free slot on the computer console. He feared this more than any adversary, but orders were orders. After playing with the computer for a few moments, the download had begun… what he needed more than ever now was time…

- - - - - - - - - -

Gelth

The rock crumbled like a sandcastle, as Gelth crashed into the mountain with brute force. The beast barely had time to release a disgruntled muffle, before he was buried below thousands of feet of stone. How curious? He pondered, as he reflected on his inability to deflect Celeria’s onslaught during the previous attack. Perhaps her strength had rapidly grown as his had? She would make a compelling hunt indeed.

“Ready for lesson two?”

Without too much effort, Gelth unleashed a torrential storm of his own energy and melted the surrounding rubble away in moments. Where once stood a great mountain, now remained a hollow gorge, and the beast would see to it that the entire planet met a similar fate. He locked his sights on the Commander, who now assumed a defensive position. He recognised this move from her memories, it was a highly aggressive combat form, and a classic of a Saiyan warrior. Celeria was planning on using brute force to flatten Gelth, but he had other plans for her yet.

A green erratic aura burst from the beast’s form, as he jolted towards Celeria through the air. Within moments he was upon his opponent, but before he could make contact with her, he seemingly disappeared. The creature was nowhere to be seen for a couple of moments, and all must have felt unreasonably eerie, until finally he appeared behind Celeria and delivered a sharp elbow to her back. Her form fired across the floor and the rubble, but she was not deterred too much, no doubt it was merely a small annoyance.

“Lesson two. Whilst a Saiyan might possess brute force, they lack in ingenuity what they have in strength.” Maniacally laughing, the beast flung open both hands and unleashed a barrage of green blasts into the air above. Soon the sky was littered in glowing, pulsating energy, each orb was like a menacing star glaring down at his adversary. Then with the clench of his fist, the blasts fell from the heavens and collided with a kilometre of ground. The ground exploded in a green hue, and smoke erupted from the debris.

Before he could give Celeria a chance to retaliate, the beast charged forward and attained an offensive position. His heart raced and his blood boiled in his veins as the exhilaration of battle was upon him. In no time at all, Gelth was locked in fierce combat with the Commander, as each combatant traded equal blows with matched speed and strength. As the two skirmished, Gelth continued his vile barrage of verbal sentiment.

“Resistance is impossible Celeria, I am the creature that exists in the periphery of your vision. You will never escape the darkness. I will consume your entire race, and continue until the universe is flat at my claws. I will never relent! Never!”

The battle had finally entered the main act, but victory was not yet reached.

The wretch returned faster than Celeria could have anticipated and he sent her flying across the ground. She quickly regained her footing as a barrage of ki blast came down upon her. What was more, the beast lunged at her with full speed. Trivial. Celeria parried each and every one of his blows - as the beast increased the intensity of his attacks, Celeria rose her power level accordingly. Soon enough, the battle had become a stalemate . She needed to get back to the colony - there was no telling how many PTO ships were alerted. Celeria knew from experience that when one failed to report, many would soon flock to the site. If she was going to get anywhere, she would have to go all out.

Evading a blow, she remembered the monster's tendrils and wondered if they worked the same as a saiyan tail does. While it was drawing back for another hit, Celeria grabbed it by the tendrils and soon more instinctively wrapped around her arm. She flung the imposing beast over her head but found that the tendrils would not release her arm. What was worse, they had begun digging into her skin. Celeria squinted at the burning pain in her arm.

“Resistance is impossible Celeria, I am the creature that exists in the periphery of your vision. You will never escape the darkness. I will consume your entire race, and continue until the universe is flat at my claws. I will never relent! Never!”

She had enough of this creep.

With her free hand, she charged an energy disk and flung it around and forward. The disk sliced clear through the creature's tendrils before crashing into a nearby rock. As soon as she was free, an immense energy barrier erupted around her, propelling the creature even further into the air. Finally, she flung her arms back and charged all of her ki into one devastating mass.

"FINAL FLASH!"- she flung her arms forward and released an immense energy beam straight at the beast. The spine-chilling screech that filled her ears made her sure the beam did its job. When the blinding light and the subsequent smoke cleared, the beast was nowhere to be found.

"Funny way to relent." - Celeria cracked a smile, although her breath was heavy. She let herself fall back onto the ground and immediately clicked her scouter.

"Move it or lose it, doctor. We have to get off of this rock."

Kale

"Move it or lose it, doctor. We have to get off of this rock."

Commander Celeria’s voice crackled through the ear piece of the scouter. Kale impatiently pattered his fingers against the computer console as he watched the progress of the download through the display. The entire database of this PTO vessel was around 50% downloaded, however, because his scouter’s tech was naturally aged, the incompatibility of the software was slowing things. It was either remove the chip and leave with an incomplete dataset, or finish the job he’d been ordered to carry out. The doctor was focusing on the latter option.

“If I move it, I WILL lose it Commander. This scouter’s so old I’m sure my grandpa used to use it to tell the time. Sparing you all the techno-babble-jargon, this system is like a super computer, and my scouter is an antique telegraph, and they’re not getting on too well right now…”

As the download surpassed 50%, the display flashed orange and red repeatedly in quick unison. Small bulbs built into the computer console and the rest of the ship also began illuminating. A shrill siren sounded throughout the ship that sounded like… something unpleasant dying. Kale’s initial instinct was to cover his ears from the painful sound, but soon he was frozen still by the realisation that the ship’s distress beacon had been activated.

“…Not getting on too well was a bit of an understatement I’m afraid Commander. Let me rephrase. There’s a fire in the house and it’s all because my scouter burnt the bacon!” The doctor’s eyes widened in surprise, he felt like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. How could he be such an idiot? Of course this plan was never going to work. He was from the past, and so was his technology. Attempting to hack into the PTO mainframe with a fossil for a metaphorical pickaxe was never going to work. Times had changed, and firewalls were now apparently made of actual flames.

As the display flashed and the ship screeched, Kale recognised that the download was still completing, albeit cumbersomely. He had a few minutes at max, and the advanced radar system of the PTO saucer would already have successfully transmitted its coordinates to a sister ship in a nearby region. If he could just deactivate the firewall in that time…! His hands raced to the console keyboard, and he began furiously punching at any and every key. At every corner he counteracted the signal with every trick in the rulebook. Unfortunately, the rulebook was a couple of decades out of date, and some of the rules were in fact no longer rules. As he continued to fight the transmission, he was met by a loud blasting sound from the central console. The machine sounded incredibly pissed.

“Don’t shout at me!! You’re the one that’s so sensitive!!” Yelled the doctor in response to the console‘s screeching. “Why am I talking to a hunk of metal?! And they let ME make other people better… really?” After a few more moments of tweaking the console, four console keys illuminated. One of these had to deactivate the distress beacon, but which one? Logic would prevail, surely he would pick the right one? But there was no logic to the situation, the four illuminated keys were in random order. One of them had to stop this madness.

“So… it comes down to my oldest trick then.” Kale’s brows lowered and his eyelids siphoned to tiny slits, as he focused on the keyboard. Desperate times called for equally desperate measures. “Eeny, meeny, miny, mo…” He began to hum as his finger hovered above each key, “catch a Saiyan by the toe. If he bites let him go, eeny… meeny… miny… MO!” And with the final line of the children’s nursery rhyme he punched the key his finger currently hovered over. Suddenly the flashing lights and the screeching sound receded, and the ship fell silent once again. Kale fashioned his fingers and thumb in the shape of a blaster pistol and raised it to his lips. Playfully he blew at the tip of his fingers, a sign of victory. The doctor smiled, panic was averted for now, but the download still had at least three minutes left. If Commander Celeria really wanted this information, she’d have to stall for time…

“The situation’s back under control Commander, just please don’t ask me how. I need three more minutes, THREE more and then we’re outta here!” Kale closed his eyes and released a long breath. Only he could get into a fight with an intergalactic mainframe.

- - - - - - - - - -

Gelth

The beast’s tendrils clung to Celeria’s flesh, as he attempted to feed on her irresistible energy. But she was resistant, and not weak enough for him to process her into roar fuel. The Commander thrashed and mauled at Gelth, her ferocity was indeed marvelling. She was powerful, and he could see as he looked deep into her cold warrior’s eyes that she would never relent either. The beast cackled maniacally, he could barely control his exhilaration. He raised his claws and scratched at Celeria’s breastplate. He would enjoy destroying her, he would-

Slice

With the use of an energy disk technique, Celeria had managed to slice two of the beast’s tendrils in half. He watched in absolute horror, his face agape, as his children fell far into the canyon below. He bellowed in anger and shame, and his powerful voice filled the air and the space around them, and caused a tremor in the planet. Quickly, his final two tendrils struck out at Celeria, but it was too late. She had already propelled him away with a force field, and before he could act she unleashed the mightiest blast he had ever witnessed in his rather short lifespan.

"FINAL FLASH!" A colossal beam fired from both of her hands, filling Gelth’s vision in a blur of pure and uncontrolled energy. He had seconds to respond, a blast of that magnitude would render him unconscious, or worse. Now was not the end of the devourer of worlds, he knew that he was far too hungry and impatient to let it all end here. Gelth screamed out as he focused his ki into two halves. He would confuse the Commander with one of his greatest techniques, then he would strike on her when she least expected it. Suddely, the beast divided into two bodies; two versions of the same monster. One stayed to bare the brunt of the brutalising assault, and the other quickly vanished, burying himself deep underground and out of sight.

As the blast collided with Gelth’s other half, he heard the scorch of the energy melt his skin, and the sound of rubble fall freely from around the planet. As his other half faded into smoke, the ki that had been required to form his clone returned to the beast. However, this technique had cost him dearly, and he felt heavily fatigued. Gelth would have to act now and destroy Celeria, or he would be unable to stop her at all. Hiding deep underground, the beast relied on his senses to find the Commander who was suspended in one place in the air. He used his claws to shred the rock and soil like butter as he travelled secretly, directly below his foolish adversary. Soon he felt Celeria return to the ground, and he distinctly heard her having a conversation with the previously unconscious doctor. They were planning an escape, and trying to get off of Umirion as fast as possible. He would stop this plan in its tracks.

His children whispered sweet nothings into his wanting ears, and Gelth exploded with energy. They would feed, he would give them a feast of a lifetime! He fired through the soil above him and burst through the planet’s crust. Both of his strong claws grabbed at the Commander’s legs and forcefully dragged her underground. As she collapsed into the planet, Gelth’s eye lasers scorched her armour until it pierced in several places, and he drove his hungry fists into her battle hardened face.

“You are mine!!!” Using a telekinetic field, the beast cleared the soil and rock for hundreds of metres. Now they were in an underground cavern, the ideal setting for their final standoff. “You removed my tendrils, I won’t soon forget that. Just as they won’t forget you.” Suddenly the two severed tendrils buried themselves into the cavern beneath the ground, and like hungry predator worms they targeted Celeria. Yes, they were no longer attached to Gelth’s being, but he still felt their cry. Then in a final move, the beast made use of his telekinesis once more and lifted three large boulders from around the self made cavern, and flung them towards the Commander. Was this the end?

There was no way Kale wasn't even done yet! Too many variables, too many inconsistencies. What could be keeping him? Celeria felt herself become impatient, rage had begun swelling within her. She clicked her scouter and yelled furiously:

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO-"

And suddenly, an all too familiar sound suffocated any remaining sound left in her throat. The PTO scouter recon. Without having to remember, she knew what it was - every PTO ship now had evidence of where the signal was received. The PTO effectively knew the location of every surviving saiyan in this quadrant.

"Kale... what have you done?" - she thought to herself as her eyes widened with terror.

Celeria stared blankly at the vessel, not even noticing the slight tremor in the earth below her. Suddenly, sharp claws erupted from the soil, grabbing her by the ankles. In the darkness, she saw him. She saw Frieza. She saw her own death and the death of all the others. She saw her revenge foiled.

"KALE!!!" - the commander cried out in desperate horror as she was pulled below ground.

The creature had burned her armor off with lasers, his remaining tendrils wrapped around her. Yet, Celeria let herself be dragged down, she remained motionless, her gaze blank. She fell to the ground and the creature drew away from her only to launch three great boulders in her direction. The boulders smashed against her bruised body, cutting her flesh and cracking her bones. As the dust settled, Celeria rose to her feet, her stare still blank and lifeless. When she had the creature in her sight once more, she began walking towards it, her gait wary and uneasy. The beast seemed to beam with delight the more she approached it. Weakly, she raised her arms toward it and wrapped them around the creature's waistline. Celeria waited until the creatures claws and tendrils softly pressed upon her.

Suddenly, Celeria tensed her muscles and her power began rising exponentially. The Ginyus, Frieza, Cooler - from this moment on, she would show the universe how she deals with those who dare threaten the commander of the saiyan race. Celeria started increasing the pressure of her embrace on Gelth as her hands slowly started breaking into him. She felt the beast wriggling, trying his best to get away - but it was too late. Black blood started spilling over her hands as she stared into the blank viridian orbs in the darkness.

"But I am yours. Don't you want me anymore?" - she goaded him, in a mocking, primal growl.

Her expression changed instantly from mock romance to ruthless calculation.

"Well too bad." - Celeria cracked a sinister grin as she leaned forward and sank her teeth into the creature's flesh, ripping out a large chunk clean out of its neck, a torrent of black blood gushing down the creature's body. The creature was nearly broken in half when Celeria decided it was time to finish this once and for all.

"Bye now." - she smiled at it, her face covered in a mix of their blood. While holding it down, Celeria unleashed an energy barrier even greater than the last, obliterating the creature's upper body. The lower half limply fell to the side. The sight made Celeria's grin draw wider as she stomped upon it eagerly until the remains were pummeled beyond recognition. In the corner of her eye, she noticed the two tendrils still slithering towards her. Celeria had stepped on one and grabbed the other - she would have Kale do some homework, provided she would decide to keep him alive after his grave mistake.

Her ki still burning around her, she slowly hovered out of the immense crater, the tendril flailing wildly in her tightening grasp. She emerged a frightful sight, her armor half-destroyed and her face bloody, contorted in a murderous grimace, while an oozing black liquid flowed from her lips down onto the remains of her suit. She spat out whatever was left of that foul thing and beheld Kale in front of her, seemingly more afraid of his commander than the beast that threatened his life.

"I should execute you where you stand." - Celeria growled. "You've alerted the entire PTO fleet in this whole quadrant. But we'll need a doctor of your expertise where we're going." She disappeared from where she was hovering and appeared mere inches in front of Kale, her face stained with grit and blood.

"From this moment on, your every breath is a gift from me."

Without another word, Celeria darted off in the direction of the space pods. She was more than ready to get off of this forsaken rock. If the saiyan race was to stay alive, much planning needed to be done.

Kale

As soon as the display read ‘Download Complete’ Kale ripped his scouter chip from out of the console and back into his aged device. “So this is how it feels to be an antique… Mid twenties and already an old man. Geez, when will the universe give me a break?” The doctor sprinted through the saucer until he again found the dorsal entrance. Quickly (and significantly more elegantly than last time), he dived out of the ship and onto the floor. With a clean summersault, Kale landed on his feet and scanned the surrounding area. He had absolutely no clue what had taken him out previously, all he knew was that his neck felt like it’d collided with an Oozaru’s fist. From a quick survey of the area, the doctor could easily make out the devastating damage added to the already ravaged planet from the Commander’s battle with… whatever she had been fighting. Kale’s guess was some kind of mammoth warrior attached to the PTO? The doctor stood straight and used his scouter to scan the surrounding area for Commander Celeria and her anonymous combatant. Everything seemed eerily quiet, and Kale from experience knew that that was never a good sign. As he pressed forward he noticed a large space pod crater dipping into the planet’s crust. Had somebody else landed when he had been in the ship? Kale shook his head lightly, that was impossible, his scouter would have picked up SOME sort of reading.

When the doctor reached the crater, he came to a realisation. This hadn’t been caused by a space pod at all! His scouter flashed and the display read a huge power emerging from… right under him. Kale recoiled and fell into a defensive position. Had he been foolish leaving Commander Celeria without the assistance of an alley? Was she safe? His medical mind scanned the vast possibilities. Suddenly, and to Kale’s great relief, Celeria emerged from the crater, looking entirely worse for wear however. His first thought was typical, she needed medical attention. Her plated armour had been forcefully removed it seemed, and she bled from multiple orifices. Perhaps most strikingly, a sort of black glop like substance protruded from her mouth and ran down the creases of her cheeks. Perhaps it was inappropriate, but the doctor grimaced at the sight of his own commander. And then…

"I should execute you where you stand." It was as if the Commander barked as she spoke. "You've alerted the entire PTO fleet in this whole quadrant. But we'll need a doctor of your expertise where we're going."

Kale retreated into his jacket, almost like a tortoise retracting into its shell in fear, or worse, shame. He couldn’t have, he’d prevented the signal before it could possibly have reached a nearby PTO vessel. Technology simply didn’t… and then it dawned on him. He was a fool! A complete, bumbling, incomprehensible fool! The distress signal was detected by HIS scouter, and the Commander had received a similar signal through hers. The beacon had indeed stopped transmitting its signal in time, this was true, but the scouters (of which every Saiyan in the system had one) amplified the signal and pushed it out, all over the galaxy like a sort of sonar ray. Every single existing Saiyan would light up on the map like wisps in the dead of night, and the PTO would hunt them relentlessly. What had he done?

Kale stuttered and stammered for words. For the first time in an age he was speechless, and reduced to the contemptuous sensation of silence. His eyes widened and they welled with a sense of helplessness as Celeria materialised in front of him with bolstering speed.

"From this moment on, your every breath is a gift from me." Quickly the Commander made for her shuttle, her speed was devastating as the doctor traced her movement in a daze.

Their position was compromised and they were all in danger. Preparation was trivial at this point, and resistance was nigh impossible. The Planet Trade Organisation was headed by the most powerful beings in the galaxy, and Kale had just single-handedly handed them the location of every single Saiyan alive, he might as well have topped it all off with a charming little red bow and an inscription. He exhaled, his lungs bared down heavily on him, as his breath sounded raspy and horse. There was no hope.

“NO.” He exclaimed, as loud as his miniscule voice would allow him to. “No. I can put this right. I WILL put this right, I can’t be the one who finishes us all.” Both of his fists clenched at his side. Previously they had been the precision tools of a medic and an intellectual, but now these hands had to be so much more. They had to be stone and iron, the hammer and the sickle. Kale could feel his fingers digging deep into the soft flesh of his palm and soon droplets of blood protruded through his fingers. “I’m a Saiyan, I’m a warrior god damn it. Shed the doctor’s robe and all the trinkets, and I’m… practically built for this. I’ve got to help the Commander NOW.”

Kale blasted off into the air and quickly pursued his commanding officer. His speed rivalled her own, and the vigour in his face… well it didn’t quite meet Celeria’s standards just yet, but he was more determined than ever. He caught up to the Commander as she climbed into her pod, she seemed to have no words for him, he could hardly blame her but he wasn’t the only one at fault here. Following suit, the doctor climbed into his own pod, this time disregarding the cramped space and uninhabitable living conditions, and continued back to the Saiyan colony. For a few seconds he chose his words carefully, he needed to say the right thing, the wise thing. For a lifetime his intellect and his conscience had isolated him from his people, so he’d have to speak with the plainness of honestly.

“Commander.” He said, punching the com-link in his pod. “It was a terrible mistake, my terrible mistake. I’ll live with that and hold myself to judgement, don’t worry. I should have known that we’d all light up like Zarbon on his birthday, but it was OUR mistake. We needed that data, and you made a judgement call, so did I…”

- - - - - - - - - -

Gelth

The planet lay dormant once more. The colossal towers of a once blooming colony now wilted in the dampening sunlight, and the fauna and indigenous life of the world existed as ash, accumulating in mighty dunes that threatened to swallow the planet anew. Nothing remained, not even a whisper of previous life, just the echoes of a battle that had recently transpired. That is of course, until his consciousness rekindled with a flint of pure and unadulterated hatred. He was returning, he would always return, and he would do it through the font of his eternal hunger. Again and again the consumer of worlds… Gelth would return from the darkness. And as he had previously asserted, he would never relent, he would never even alter course.

A gust carried through the empty valley of the silent battle zone. It carried with it an onyx sheet of dust that rested on the unsteady ground and began to cling together in a pulpy mass. Layers and layers of blackness emerged from the wind, and with a growing tide, it swept together with increasing ferocity and speed until the blackness created a single form. That form resonated with a green glowing hue, and it pulsed outwardly from a singularity. The heart of the beast was returning, and with it his hate would consume the universe once again. In a blinding array of emerald light, Gelth stepped out of the nothingness and back onto the baron world of Umirion. He had reformed, but he was different this time.

“GEEEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!” His usually eloquent voice morphed into a nonsensical screech that carried through the core of the planet. He was angry, hateful even, and he’d never felt emotion at such intensity. He held his talon-clad claws towards his dark faces and pierced his own ebony skin. His claws buried deep as he rooted for the fibre of his being that failed him during his conflict with Celeria. Blood protruded through the wounds on his face, and collected at his chin in a black ooze, before the beast removed his hands from his bare flesh and cursed the very ground in which he stood. “I will find you Celeria. If it is the last thing I do I will find you and annihilate you. My hunger has not declined, it is stronger than ever, and you are at the centre of its desire!” He trashed around with his rabid claws, and an unkempt aura of energy blasted in a blind green light around him. “You will suffer, and burn, and cry, and fall, and fail, and surrender!” And soon he was calmed by a striking realisation.

“My seed…” The single instance of himself that he had imbedded in Celeria, all that time ago when she lay unconscious after her defeat to Vegeta, “It still runs deep within you. I can feel your life force in the distance. If I reach out, I may be able to hear you again…” But he hated her, and any aspect of her that existed did so as an insult to Gelth… “I will come for you Commander Celeria, when I am truly powerful. When a legion of souls lies dead at my feet, and I sit on a jagged throne in the centre of death and the void itself, I shall come to consume you.” A smile lingered below his raging exterior, and eventually a small smirk escaped him. “Yes, yes… I can feel my power growing already.”

There was the ship, the one belonging to the one they called Freeza. It looked ruptured and broken, but Gelth would fly it to a new world, one full of promising life. His story was just beginning.

((OOC: Exit Gelth))

Celeria bolted off the ground with such intensity, that she left behind a crater. She was by her ship within a minute. Celeria didn't make a habit of flying at such speed, but she was eager to see the last of this accursed rock. Without as much as a thought, Celeria immediately seated herself in her pod, which hissed to a close as Kale touched down. A few moments later, both pods blasted off, soon reaching the planet's atmosphere. Deep down, Celeria felt herself filled by a mixture of apprehension and resentment. A plan would have to be devised quickly to make up for this grave mistake. She was in the middle of remembering PTO signal travelling patterns, when Kale's blathering interrupted her train of thought.

“Commander.” He said, punching the com-link in his pod. “It was a terrible mistake, my terrible mistake. I’ll live with that and hold myself to judgement, don’t worry. I should have known that we’d all light up like Zarbon on his birthday, but it was OUR mistake. We needed that data, and you made a judgement call, so did I…”

The little shit. How dare he.

But his nonsense reminded her of another little detail that needed taking care of. Celeria halted her pod in the planet's mesosphere. The door pushed open as Celeria rose from her seat and out of the pod. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Kale did the same, albeit out of confusion. She did not even dignify him with a look. Instead, she raised her right hand, forming a small sphere in her palm. The energy within the sphere pulsated softly, until it suddenly exploded, increasing four times in size, then the size doubled and then tripled. Soon, Celeria was holding a raging torrent of ki within a sphere that dwarfed their own two pods. Her eyes drew to Kale.

"I let you live. It would be wise not to make me regret that decision." - she muttered to him in a detached and uniform tone before flinging the ball of ki at the planet with some effort. As her energy dived into the ground below and started drilling its way into the planet's core, Celeria seated herself back in her pod, which blasted off on its way back to the colony. As the planet glowed and then burst into a million pieces with a blinding flash and a devastating shockwave, Celeria mused on how her trail home was once again escorted by a spectacle of annihilation. It had been too long. The events on Umirion had far from hindered Celeria. Instead, they awakened her, melting the remaining ice off her bones and reminding her of her purpose in the universe. Rather than fearing what the future had in store, Celeria found herself welcoming it with open arms.

((OOC: Thread complete: PL reward - 3,000 per post

Celeria 10 posts x 3,000 PL = 30,000

Gelth 10 posts x 3,000 PL = 30,000

Kale 8 posts x 3,000 PL = 24,000

Thread locked))