The Planet Turles.
The once bustling and imposing drill ground now appears empty and deserted.
The last team of peacekeeping soldiers, fully prepared, boarded the transport ship on the tarmac amidst the leader's shouts.
The roar of the engines echoed through the sky as the spaceship lifted off, quickly transforming into a tiny point of light and disappearing into the gray-blue sky.
On the watchtower of the barracks, only Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu remained.
"Another team has been sent away..."
Chiaotzu stared at the data terminal in his hand, its screen covered with dense red distress signals that showed no signs of decreasing. His little face was filled with worry.
"The troop strength at the Tien base seems to be almost depleted."
Tien Shinhan crossed his arms, silently gazing into the distance, before finally letting out a helpless sigh.
"There's no way around it, the universe is just too vast."
There was a hint of bitterness in his voice.
Even a powerful Frieza Force's inevitably faces manpower shortages when trying to cover a sufficiently large area...
This was even after the general himself, along with top combatants like Son Goku, had voluntarily taken on the most dangerous battlefields.
Without them, the entire legion's defenses would likely have been completely overwhelmed by the undead souls pouring out of Hell long ago.
Just then, Tien Shinhan's wrist communicator suddenly emitted a rapid beeping sound.
He connected the call.
On the other end of the channel was the voice from the base's near-Earth orbit monitoring tower, its tone tinged with uncertainty.
"Instructor Tien Shinhan, a return signal has been detected in the base's near-orbital orbit! It's... it's the spaceships of Lords Android 17 and Android 18!"
Tien Shinhan was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.
" Android 17 and Android 18?"
He subconsciously pulled up the task schedule for the two of them on his personal terminal.
The clear data suggests that after purging the undead from the previous densely populated planet, they should have immediately headed to the nearby " Lagus Galaxy ".
There, the highest level of distress signal was also sent out.
"Strange, they shouldn't be coming back at this time..."
Tien Shinhan frowned slightly.
"There are still so many signals waiting for support... Could it be that Dr. Gero has some special circumstances and urgently recalled them?"
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Tien Shinhan prepared to contact Dr. Gero's lab to confirm the situation.
But before he could even make a call...
The voices from the control tower were now tinged with obvious panic.
"Instructor! Their spaceship... has forced its way into the landing path! It's going too fast!"
Before he could finish speaking...
A streak of light tore through the atmosphere of the Planet Turles and hurtled straight toward the central helipad at the heart of the base with an almost brute force!
boom--!
With a loud metallic scraping sound, the familiar spherical spaceship slammed heavily onto the helipad.
The powerful impact caused the entire tarmac to tremble.
"Let's go! Let's go take a look!"
Tien Shinhan's expression changed, and he immediately grabbed Chiaotzu and flew at full speed toward the helipad.
When they arrived, the spaceship's hatch was already open.
The figures of Android 17 and Android 18 walked out from inside, one after the other.
The surrounding logistics personnel and several officers who remained on duty immediately went to meet them.
"Lord Android 17! Lord Android 18! Welcome back!"
"How did the mission go?"
"Why did it return to base early? Did the spacecraft malfunction?"
Faced with the greetings and inquiries from the crowd, Android 17, who was walking in front, and Android 18, who was following behind him, seemed to have not heard them at all.
The two remained silent throughout.
His face was expressionless.
They simply walked with stiff steps straight toward the exit of the tarmac.
This eerie silence instantly cooled the previously lively atmosphere.
"You?!"
Tien Shinhan fell from the sky, landing in front of the two and blocking their way.
His expression was serious, and his sharp gaze swept back and forth between the two of them.
" Android 17! Android 18! What happened?!"
The two completely ignored Tien Shinhan blocking their way and simply brushed past him.
Something just doesn't feel right with Tien Shinhan!
The two had a clear objective, and they even headed directly to the Central Research Institute where Dr. Gero was located...
However, as soon as the two entered the research area, two guards immediately crossed their arms and blocked Android 18's way.
Please wait!
"According to regulations, no one may approach key scientific research areas without permission!"
One of the guards, steeling himself, shouted a warning.
The corners of their mouths, which had been expressionless, began to slowly turn upwards in an extremely strange and stiff arc.
A bone-chilling cold instantly enveloped the entire passage.
Pfft!
The two attacked simultaneously.
It pierced through the chests of the two guards in front of him in an instant.
Time stood still at this moment.
Blood splattered on Android 18's fair cheeks, but she ignored it.
He simply withdrew his arm mechanically and coldly, and flicked it away casually.
The two still-warm corpses were treated like trash and slammed heavily against the metal wall, making a dull thud before sliding limply to the ground.
"You...?!"
Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu had just caught up from behind when they witnessed this extremely bloody scene.
A chill ran from the soles of their feet straight to the top of their heads, and cold sweat instantly soaked their backs.
How could he not realize it? Android 17 and Android 18 were absolutely out of control!
Android 17 and Android 18 are planning to continue their journey.
Suddenly, two extremely piercing whistling sounds rang out from the sky!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two homing shells, trailing long plumes of flame, hurtled towards the two men's heads!
They simultaneously raised one hand, palm up.
Buzz--!
Two semi-transparent, light blue energy shields instantly opened above their heads.
"BOOM--!!!!"
The extremely violent explosion resounded throughout the entire Planet Turles base!
The violent shockwave transformed into a visible ring of air, sweeping wildly in all directions!
The originally closed passage, along with the dome above it, was instantly blasted open with a huge hole!
Smoke and dust filled the air, obscuring everyone's view.
Tien Shinhan used his arm to protect the Chiaotzu in front of him.
The smoke and dust slowly dissipated.
At the epicenter of the explosion, a bottomless crater was revealed.
At the edge of the giant crater, Android 17 and Android 18 remained unharmed.
Directly in front of them, a burly figure in silver and red robes slowly descended.
It was none other than Cacao, a former member of the Turles Crusher Corps who, after being continuously enhanced by Dr. Gero, had theoretically evolved into the ultimate cyborg!
"Cease all actions immediately, or else..."
"Execution order to proceed!"
They continued to ignore Cacao's warnings.
They showed no intention of stopping.
Seeing this, Cacao didn't hesitate!
His body began to float slightly, and then all four limbs arched backward at once!
The entire launching device on his body was exposed!
At this very moment, Dr. Gero, in the central laboratory, had also noticed the unusual activity at the base.
I immediately saw the situation at Android 17 and Android 18 on a monitor.
Dr. Gero frowned deeply...
"What's going on with these two guys?"
He immediately activated all the scanners, wanting to investigate the situation of numbers Android 17 and Android 18...
"Strange, where exactly is the problem? It doesn't seem to be a programming issue..."
After a long while, it seemed there was still no result... Dr. Gero shook his head, got up, went to a hibernation pod in the corner, and opened it...