"Captain Ginyu, who are they?" Recoome was drenched in sweat, his whole body soaked as he panted heavily.
"Cooler's Armored Squadron," Ginyu replied, calming himself before he spoke.
"Cooler's men? How come we've never heard of them?" Burter asked, still shaken and deeply confused.
Frieza and Cooler each had their own territory. They didn't go so far as to kill each other, but there were occasional clashes between them.
Burter and the others were the strongest special forces under Frieza, yet they'd never even heard of this armored squadron. Wasn't that terrifying?
"They're an elite unit. They only carry out top-secret missions, and their identities have never been made public." Ginyu sighed.
"Lord Frieza never brought them up either, so you've always thought you were the strongest force in the universe."
Cooler had sent all three of them here. It seemed he was determined to get the Dragon Balls.
"Captain Ginyu, how do you know all this?" Jeice asked curiously.
"I found out by chance." Ginyu didn't want to say more about it.
A long time ago, he'd applied to join Cooler's Armored Squadron and hoped to become its captain. But he'd run into Salza, the current captain of Cooler's Armored Squadron.
The two had fought one-on-one, and Ginyu had suffered a crushing defeat.
After Ginyu's loss, Frieza took an interest in him. Following Cooler's example, Frieza formed his own unit and appointed Ginyu as its captain.
Frieza had kept the matter under wraps. It had eventually become top secret, and no one had ever brought it up again.
"What do we do now?"
Guldo looked as if he were about to cry. His Scouter showed that three members of Cooler's Armored Squadron were rapidly closing in.
"Brother Nail!" Dende suddenly spotted Nail arriving and cried out happily.
"Whoosh!"
Nail flew past Ginyu and the others and landed in the village, holding a Seven-Star Ball.
Dende hurried to his side and quietly told him what had just happened.
"Damn, there's no time to make a wish with the Dragon Balls."
Ginyu saw that Nail had indeed brought the last Dragon Ball. He was furious with frustration. He'd been so close to carrying out Lord Frieza's orders.
Frieza had ordered the Ginyu Force to go to Namek and make a wish first. Once the mission was complete, they were to destroy the Dragon Balls and kill all the Namekians.
"You're with that cruel Saiyan, aren't you?" Nail demanded, glaring at them.
"Power level 4,200. This should be fun." Recoome felt he'd made a fool of himself earlier and wanted to take out his anger on Nail.
"Let me at him!" Burter and Jeice both rushed to volunteer.
"Quit messing around. All of you attack together and force him to tell us how to make a wish with the Dragon Balls." Ginyu waved impatiently.
If they returned without completing King Frieza's mission, they would surely be punished. And if they couldn't even find out how to make a wish with the Dragon Balls, the consequences would be unthinkable.
"Boom!"
A series of explosions shattered the silence.
Dodoria fired a purple energy blast that struck a house with pinpoint accuracy. The roof erupted, and purple flames swallowed the entire building.
The two Namekians hiding inside screamed and collapsed in a pool of blood.
"Stop!"
Nail's eyes turned bloodred as he roared and tried to rush over. Recoome, Burter, and Jeice surrounded him, and the fight began.
The moment they clashed, blood sprayed from Nail's body. One of his forearms was broken clean off and fell to the ground.
Recoome, Burter, and Jeice were each stronger than Nail, to say nothing of the three of them attacking together.
"Tell me how to make a wish with the Dragon Balls."
A cruel smile crossed Zarbon's handsome face. A hair-thin blade of energy gathered at his fingertip, and he neatly sliced three Namekians in half.
"Troublesome visitors are here." Ginyu stared in one direction.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The three figures had been flying at tremendous speed just a moment earlier. Now they abruptly came to a halt in front of Ginyu, displaying extraordinary control.
"Well, if it isn't Ginyu. Long time no see. What happened to you? You look like a different person."
Salza had ice-blue skin and neatly parted short hair. He began taunting Ginyu as soon as they met.
Salza had seen Ginyu's original body. When they'd competed for the captaincy of Cooler's Armored Squadron, Ginyu hadn't had his current body with its purple skin and horns.
"Salza, why are you here?" Ginyu suppressed his anger, not wanting to start a conflict with them.
He still didn't understand. The Ginyu Force had accepted Frieza's orders and set out first, so how had they run into these men?
"It's simple. Lord Cooler was worried Lord Frieza might try something, so he sent us here early to wait." Salza gave a cold smile.
He really wanted to bury the entire Ginyu Force here, but he was also afraid that doing so would spark an all-out war between Cooler and Frieza.
In the universe, only Cooler or King Cold could make the Ginyu Force disappear without a trace.
King Cold clearly wouldn't do that, and he had no reason to.
"The Dragon Balls are here. My men are forcing someone to tell them how to make a wish. If you want to get involved, I won't stop you."
After saying that, Ginyu ignored the three members of Cooler's Armored Squadron. He knew they wouldn't dare attack him.
"You can do the work for us. The strong only need to sit back and enjoy the rewards." Salza stepped aside, found a spot, and sat down.
Just then, the entire sky over Namek went dark. A colossal object forced its way through the clouds: a massive black ship.
Even the people fighting stopped and looked up at the imposing steel vessel.
"Who are these people now?!"
Ginyu was so angry he almost laughed. He looked at Salza and saw that the other man was just as bewildered.
Hadn't they all come to Namek in secret? At this rate, the place had turned into a tourist attraction.
"Could they be people sent by King Cold?"
"Go!"
Nail was covered in gruesome wounds, green blood streaming down his body. He was so weak he could barely stand.
He forced himself to muster a final burst of strength and seized the trembling Dende from the corner, breaking through the encirclement.
Recoome and the others glanced after them but didn't give chase. They knew the battle-type Namekian was too badly wounded to survive.
There were still some living Namekians here. That would be enough to find out how to use the Dragon Balls.
"Rumble!"
The black ship was covered in heavy armor. It crashed onto Namek's surface, shaking the earth violently. Spiderweb cracks spread through the ground as dust and boulders blasted into the air.
The ship had landed near the Namekian village. Its massive hatch slowly opened with a dry, grating metallic screech.
A flood of soldiers marched out in orderly ranks, clad in dark heavy armor and carrying bulky energy machine guns.
"Hand over the Dragon Balls!" one of the leading soldiers shouted.