Elec's mind went blank.
His eyes were fixed on Jass, who had crashed into the ground and left a crater.
Jass lay motionless in the shattered rock.
His back rose and fell slightly, showing that he was still alive.
Meanwhile.
Amond let out a long breath.
He turned to look at Daiz, who happened to look back at him.
The two exchanged glances that said they had escaped danger by a hair.
Above them, Turles slowly descended from the sky.
He paid no attention to Jass on the ground.
He raised his head and glanced at Elec and the other two as they approached.
Elec's expression was grave as he came before Turles.
He bowed solemnly.
"Mr. Turles, thank you for showing mercy."
Turles walked past Elec as if nothing had happened and patted him on the shoulder.
"I told you, inner demons aren't so easily cut away."
Turles passed between them.
He headed straight for the spaceship.
As Elec and the other two watched, Dallas boarded the spaceship with Amond and the others.
At last, it slowly rose into the sky and departed...
Only then did Elec lead Maki and Oil over to Jass.
Maki lifted Jass and examined him carefully, then gave Elec a look of relief.
Elec breathed a sigh of relief as well.
Then he sighed. "The Frieza Force isn't something we can challenge yet. We still have a long road ahead of us..."
The Turles had already entered cruising mode.
In the main control room.
Turles was listening to what Reiz and the Lakasei brothers had gathered during this time.
They were conversations between members of the Heeters Family.
Turles's expression went through an interesting series of changes. He was not the only one; Daiz and Amond also wore odd expressions.
Among the recordings were conversations the Heeters Family had about the Frieza Force.
Even their practice of pocketing kickbacks until less than a tenth remained was not the most shocking part.
What was even more staggering was the Heeters Family's astonishing ambition to replace Frieza. For a moment, they all fell silent.
Good grief!
After a strange silence, Amond ventured a question. "Lord Turles, this stuff... should we hand it over to Frieza?"
"Put it away for now."
Turles rose from the console, pulled the storage chip from its port, and flipped it between his fingers a couple of times.
"Lord Turles?" Amond pressed.
"Don't worry about it. As for this, I need to think about how to make use of its value first."
After Turles spoke, the others did not really understand what he meant, but they said no more.
Turles then put away the audio recordings and headed for his quarters.
At the other end of the ship's corridor.
Tights pulled her door open a crack.
The voices from the main control room had stopped, and footsteps were dispersing in different directions.
Amond's footsteps paused as he passed her door.
Tights's heart leaped into her throat.
But Amond only glanced in her direction without saying anything, then strode on.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Tights closed the door and returned to sit on the bed.
Whenever she thought about having to stay with that group of frightening, vicious-looking fellows, with no way to escape, she could not help feeling dejected.
She still had to find a way to contact Jaco, or rather, the Galactic Patrol.
Of course, it was not to help Turles obtain Earth's coordinates!
She, Tights, would never become an accomplice to an evil Saiyan's invasion of Earth!
On the contrary, she would expose Turles's evil deeds to the Galactic Patrol!
The Turles's return journey went smoothly.
The outline of the Frieza Force's headquarters planet appeared outside the viewport.
The planet, beautiful and teeming with life, gave off a soft glow against the black backdrop of space.
The Turles entered its landing approach.
Turles stood before the viewport, his arms folded across his chest.
The landing field's guidance lights came on below.
The Turles's engines switched to vertical landing mode, and the ship settled steadily into its assigned berth.
Before the hatch had fully opened, Turles spotted the welcoming party outside.
Zarbon stood in front of the berth.
The gentleman who usually carried himself so haughtily came forward to greet him.
"Mr. Turles." Zarbon's voice held a courtesy it had never shown before.
"King Frieza has been waiting for you for quite some time."
Dodoria stood behind Zarbon.
His face also bore a rare trace of a friendly smile.
"Mr. Turles, thank you for your hard work on the mission," Dodoria said.
"It was nothing." Turles walked between the two of them.
"Lead the way."
Zarbon and Dodoria exchanged a glance, then followed him.
Amond, Daiz, and the others did not follow.
For the time being, they were not qualified to be summoned by Frieza alongside him.
The three soon arrived at the command room.
The command room doors slid open before Turles.
Frieza's hover chair faced away from the entrance. At the sound of footsteps, it slowly turned around.
"Mr. Turles." The corners of Frieza's lips curved upward. "Thank you for your hard work. You handled this mission beautifully."
Turles knelt on one knee.
"Thank you for the praise. It was all thanks to your excellent arrangements, Lord Frieza."
"Ho ho ho, get up. There's no need to be so formal, Mr. Turles."
Frieza raised a finger.
"Elec of the Heeters Group has already given me a detailed report." Frieza moved around to the front of the control console.
"Without you, Mr. Turles, they would never have been able to complete this deal."
Frieza's hover chair stopped in front of Turles.
"So, starting today."
His tail flicked lightly behind him.
"Mr. Turles, you are formally promoted to the Force's A-rank roster, with the authority to command independently and launch independent operations."
"Mr. Zarbon will arrange the details of your other privileges."
With that, Frieza gave Zarbon a look.
Zarbon understood and withdrew.
Frieza looked back at Turles. "Mr. Turles, please come forward. Next, let's discuss where you'll go from here. I'd like to hear your thoughts and suggestions."
Frieza's hover chair moved around to the front of the control console.
He raised a hand and swept it through the air, and the lights throughout the command room abruptly dimmed.
A huge three-dimensional star map rose from the center of the console, densely speckled with stars and slowly revolving. Only then did Turles see the full extent of the Frieza Force.
Compared with the star map before him, the information he had previously learned from public sources did not even amount to the tip of the iceberg.
Countless points of light marked the star regions under the Force's control, radiating outward from the center in four directions and swallowing up nearly seventy to eighty percent of the discovered regions of the North Galaxy.
Frieza raised a finger and tapped the star map three times.
Three key star regions on the edges of the map, bordering the other galaxies, were enlarged separately, each lighting up with a different-colored marker.
"Mr. Turles, before we discuss where you'll go, I'd like to introduce you to a few people."
Frieza's finger settled on the first star region, marked in red.
"This is the buffer zone on the border between the Force and the East Galaxy. Its commander is called Sorbet."
A brief video appeared.
A short alien with a stern face stood at the command console of a medium-sized warship, dressed in the Force's standard senior officer's uniform.
Turles's pupils contracted slightly.
He knew this guy too!
He was the one who had revived Frieza in the Dragon Ball: Resurrection 'F' arc Turles had watched in his previous life!
"Mr. Sorbet has no exceptional combat power, but even Mr. Zarbon considers himself inferior when it comes to his sensitivity to numbers." Frieza paused. "My father told me that when Sorbet took over the eastern frontier fifty years ago, its annual losses to the Force were enough to buy three A-rank planets."
"Now it's the Force's most profitable region, without exception." The tip of Frieza's tail swayed.
"He maintains the greatest output with the fewest troops."
"I admire Commander Sorbet's intelligence," Turles said.
He was not putting on an act. A holdover from the previous regime who had managed to stay on and earn Frieza's praise was genuinely capable, and Turles was never stingy with his recognition of capable people.
Frieza wore a satisfied expression that seemed to say he agreed, then moved his finger to the second star region, marked in blue.
The image showed a woman who was likewise short and stout.
She had blue-purple skin and short white hair, and wore a set of the Force's splendid standard robes as she stood in the center of a circular conference hall.
"Ms. Berryblue is one of the Force's most senior members. She taught me a great deal before I took over the Frieza Force." There was something more in Frieza's tone, though Turles could not tell whether it was respect or wariness.
"She has been in charge of the southern frontier for over a hundred years. In that region, her word is law."
"The territory under her control isn't the largest, but it's the foremost front where the Force directly borders the powers of the South Galaxy."
"In over a hundred years, no outside force has ever managed to cross her defenses by so much as half a step."
Turles looked at the short, plump woman in the image and nodded slightly.
More than a hundred years.
That span of time said everything in itself.
Moreover, she was a veteran with ties to Frieza.
Not only had she held a position of great power since King Cold's time, she had also served as Frieza's guide.
In the ancient times of Turles's previous life, that would have put her on the level of an imperial tutor from the previous dynasty!
She was someone he needed to keep an eye on!
The image changed.
Two obese aliens appeared, their looks even somewhat resembling Dodoria's.
Their builds were nearly identical, their faces fierce, and they gave off a pressure that could be felt without a detector.
That region lay to the northwest of the star map, a vast, chaotic area where the Force's territory bordered the West Galaxy.
"Abo and Cado."
"The two brothers jointly serve as commanders of this region."
"However, because that area is so chaotic, and the brothers actually haven't been in their posts very long-less than twenty years."
"Captain Ginyu is there now, helping them keep the situation under control."
The tip of Frieza's tail swayed slightly.
"The brothers excel in combat power. After they fuse, their combat power is considerable."
"Order across the entire northwest region is maintained largely by the brothers' fists."
Weren't these the two brothers Son Goten and Trunks beat up in one of the movies?
Turles was reminded of familiar memories once again.
The two brothers had rather comical faces that made them look less than bright.
Now Frieza had given them a precise assessment as well.
They really were pure fighting men!
They relied entirely on their fists!