"The Vegeta Squad is already on its way back."
Dodoria immediately tapped his communicator and pulled up the record he had just received.
"They just completed their cleanup mission on Planet K-18x."
"They're expected to arrive at headquarters within five days."
The tip of Frieza's tail tapped twice against the armrest.
Frieza looked at the Saiyan tail in the holographic image, a lighthearted smile on his face.
"Well, that's wonderful."
"It's been so long since I last saw Vegeta."
"I'm sure he'll like the 'new friend' I'm going to introduce him to."
Zarbon and Dodoria exchanged a glance. What would happen when the two monkeys met?
They were eager to find out too!
Zarbon pushed up his glasses.
"King Frieza, should we notify Mr. Turles in advance?"
"No need."
Frieza raised a finger and tapped it on the armrest.
"A surprise is more fun."
The Frieza Force's barracks were far more spacious than the Destroyer.
There was a private training ground, a repair bay, a small supply depot, and a terminal room connected to the force's internal network.
Turles looked at Reiz and Lakasei.
"How is the system access going?"
Reiz turned the terminal screen around.
Lakasei added,
"The publicly available data on commercial planets only gives approximate coordinate ranges."
"The precise routes to life-bearing planets, their colonization levels, and records of their native inhabitants are all locked behind A-level clearance."
Amond leaned closer, staring at the rows of red restriction markers.
"Tch, this damn system is a real hassle."
Just as the two brothers, Reiz and Lakasei, were about to dig deeper,
Turles raised a hand and caught Reiz by the wrist.
"Stop. That's enough for now."
The Frieza Force's headquarters was no run-down black market, nor was it one of Slug's old bases riddled with security holes.
Every instance of access here could be logged.
Every attempt to exceed their clearance would become a noose around their necks later.
Pulling tricks under Frieza's nose was a quick way to die.
Reiz immediately withdrew his hand.
"Lord Turles?"
"Don't touch it for now."
Turles turned off the screen.
"Your reason for being here is to familiarize yourselves with the force's system, not test it."
"Understand?"
Lakasei nodded at once.
"Understood."
Reiz also exited the terminal to the public interface.
"The access logs have been cleaned up to stay within the bounds of normal browsing."
"We didn't touch any restricted ports."
Turles glanced at him.
"Good."
Turles reached out and closed the permissions page.
"Start by familiarizing yourselves with the public files."
"Stay away from the red restrictions."
Lakasei chimed in.
"We can work backward from the public routes to estimate activity levels in some sectors."
"We can't get the precise coordinates of life-bearing planets, but we can tell which regions the force focuses on maintaining."
Turles looked at him.
"Fine."
"Analysis only. No intrusion."
Reiz and Lakasei promptly sat back down at the terminal.
Their fingers tapped rapidly across the control panel.
A heat map of the star sectors appeared on the screen.
Across vast gray areas, a few bright spots were marked as commercial nodes.
Looking at it made Amond dizzy.
"You can really tell anything from this?"
Reiz spoke up.
"Only someone who can't understand it would think it's useless."
Amond scratched his head awkwardly. He really couldn't understand it.
Turles headed outside.
"Carry on."
"I'm going to look around outside."
Amond followed at once.
"I'm coming too."
Daiz and Cacao followed them out as well.
Force soldiers passed by at the end of the corridor.
Several soldiers of different species slowed their steps, their gazes sweeping over the tail around Turles's waist.
The Saiyans' standing in the Frieza Force really was precarious.
As Turles walked along, he couldn't help reflecting on it.
Over the next few days,
Turles and his group took a walk through the middle-level corridors at a set time each day. They nodded in greeting when they encountered patrols and kept their distance from force members in other units.
Finally, on this day,
Three blazing points of light plunged from the sky, trailing long orange-red flames. One in front and two behind, they headed straight for the landing field.
Spherical, single-occupant spaceships.
Great clouds of steam rose from the landing field. The scorching metal shells hissed as coolant sprayed out around the pods.
The first hatch popped open.
A bald man stepped out.
He was enormous, his shoulders almost wide enough to block the hatch.
Some kind of dark green bodily fluid remained on his battle suit. A furry tail was wrapped loosely around his waist.
Next came a figure with a mane of unkempt black hair hanging down to his waist.
He climbed out of the spaceship.
His face was weary, and a fresh scrape marked his brow. But under the landing field's lights, his eyes were still piercingly sharp.
The third hatch was the last to open.
The man who stepped out was the shortest of the three.
But when he stood there,
The force soldiers lined up to receive them instinctively tensed.
Nappa dropped his carefree manner.
Raditz stood quietly behind him as well.
Vegeta surveyed his surroundings, a faint look of impatience on his face.
His boots stepped onto the landing field's alloy floor. The cooling steam had yet to disperse, and heat billowed up from beneath his feet, blurring the edges of his vision.
He stood at the hatch, waiting for the white mist to clear on its own.
Someone was blocking the entrance to the passage ahead.
A massive pink body, several spikes jutting from the top of his head, and a condescending smile on his fleshy face.
Dodoria.
Vegeta turned his gaze toward the passage entrance.
"Well, well-"
Dodoria strode over slowly on his two thick legs. Each step made the landing field tremble slightly.
"Thanks for your hard work, Vegeta."
"You did a good job on the K-18x mission."
"Just some trash."
Vegeta responded flatly and walked straight toward the passage.
Dodoria didn't move aside.
His massive body stood squarely in the middle of the passage, his arms crossed over his chest.
Vegeta stopped in front of him.
The temperature between the two plummeted.
"Move."
Dodoria didn't budge. He even stepped half a pace closer and bent down, bringing his fat face considerably nearer to Vegeta's.
"Don't be in such a hurry, little Vegeta."
Dodoria was well practiced at deliberately belittling him like this.
"King Frieza wants to see you."
Dodoria straightened up and brushed nonexistent dust off his arm.
"He wants to introduce you to a new friend."
"Now?"
"That's right, now."
Nappa's muffled curse came from behind them.
"That damn fatso..."
Thud.
Raditz's elbow struck Nappa in the ribs.
Nappa glared at Raditz, who gave a slight shake of his head, his face expressionless.
Dodoria stepped aside.
"Hmph."
He snorted through his nose.
"Follow me."
Vegeta didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and walked on.
Nappa and Raditz exchanged a glance and quickly followed.
Vegeta didn't ask whom he was going to see.
That silence was itself a form of resistance.
Dodoria's displeasure silently deepened a little.