Going Native: Loss of Touch (ch.30) (Patreon)

My scouter was ridiculous. I looked ridiculous. It covered the upper half of my face, including my nose, leaving only a small portion of my forehead near my hairline visible. My lock of hair that drifted downward seemed to separate the blood-red visor that hid my eyes from view, both of my ears were covered now, which I didn't like. 

But, as stupid as I looked, it was completely worth it to see Elery's dumbfounded expression. She was carrying a mountain of food on a small plate, it shattered when her arms went limp, dropping a slab of meat that was halfway to her mouth. My lips twitched upwards as Elery just gaped at me, her jaw slack as she simply stared with naked disbelief. I knew my next line, but took a moment to work up the will to say them. 

I'm still on the fence about murdering the producer, but the lines...they didn't exactly help their case.

"Prince Tarble of the Hero-force is here!" I announced myself, planting my hands on my hips, puffing out my chest. At least I didn't have to do poses. I've seen images of Bardock with the Ginyu-squad, and he might be smiling on the outside but I knew him well enough to know he was dying on the inside. I waited for a reaction to my proclamation, but Elery simply stared at me dumbfounded. 

And she kept staring. 

And kept staring. 

And kept staring. 

I think I might have broken her. 

"See?" I said, letting a smirk tug at my lips. "I told you I'm Prince Tarble. Believe me yet?" I questioned, my hands falling from my hips. Elery gave me a slow blink as if she was processing what I had just said. I saw the exact millisecond that it clicked into place that I was Prince Tarble leader of the...Hero...force…

However, instead of breaking out into a wide smile, maybe gushing how awesome it was that I was the character that she liked on that awful animated show...instead, she frowned. Then her face twists like she was about to cry. Then, instead of crying, her face became a fierce scowl. The transition took place within a second, giving me some warning about what was coming next. 

“You tricked me!” Elery cried, launching herself at me. Frustrated tears gathered in her eyes as she tried to uppercut me, only to try to plant a knee in my groin when I caught it. “I thought Prince Tarble was really here!” I swear…

I heard a snort behind me. I didn’t even need to know his presence to know that it was Tora. Letting out a small sigh, I turned around to look at him, effortlessly blocking Elery’s barrage of attacks. Which probably wasn’t helping with stopping her being mad at me. “How did everything go?” 

Tora shrugged his shoulders, stepping into Saiyan only kitchen. It was by the other aliens' request and my race were too happy to oblige. After all, it meant more food for us, and the aliens didn't have to see body parts in the fridge. A win-win scenario if I ever saw one. "No issues of any kind. Another day, and we'll be mopping them up," he reported, eying a slab of meat resting on the top of the mountain that Elery had dropped. She didn't even notice as he snagged it before taking a seat on a counter, looking too amused for his own good. "What's with the scouter?" 

"He used it to trick me!" Elery informed, trying to bring an axe kick onto my head before lashing out with her other foot to kick me in the face. She was improving. Her gaps were a lot smaller when she attacked, and she was becoming creative with her angles of attack. Her biggest issue was that she was too aggressive -- I could stand here all day and she would never even consider backing off or trying anything different. 

"They want me to play a cartoon version of myself-" 

"You aren't Prince Tarble! You're too mean!" Elery spat, trying to sweep my legs. I allowed the action, but I spun quickly enough that I was back on my feet before she could even think about seizing the opportunity. 

"So they gave me a special scouter. I had Technician add some stuff to it since it has a lot more space," I said. As an example, I pressed the general scan button, making an unseen wave erupt from my scouter. The room became a grid pattern -- chairs, tables, and everything in between were marked in low detail as the scan streched outwards. It continued down the hall, marking doors and before long, the vast majority of the HQ building was mapped out.

Pressing a button, a hologram of the map appeared, rendering what the scouter was able to race. Looking at Tora, I saw him nod in appreciation. "That'll be useful for finding their tunnels," he pointed out my main reason for getting the upgrade. The Reach had taken to building underground defenses because our scouters couldn't read them. Which made them the perfect hiding place for surprise scarabs behind your lines. 

"I thought so. I'm going to have more made and sprinkle them out throughout our forces so they can stop getting ambushed," I said. "It can't penetrate thick walls, or piles of rubble yet, but Technician is working on including x-ray vision, which will help." 

Elery's face twisted, looking like she was about to cry. I could guess why. "You can have one too," I told her before she could either cry or continue her barrage of attacks with renewed vigor. She paused, her leg smacking against my hand that caught a foot trying to plant itself into my stomach. "Would you like one like mine?" 

"No!" Elery refused forcefully, frowning as she gave the question an abnormal amount of thought. Her face twisted into one of extreme concentration, and not even Tora choking on a laugh could break her from her thoughts. And Elery hated being laughed at. "I...want a blue one- no!" She quickly corrected, "I want a green one." 

I nodded in acceptance as Elery seemed satisfied with her choice. "I'll put in an order, and he'll have in a couple of-" 

"I'm going to go get it now," Elery decided before she blasted off out of the kitchen. I watched her leave, knowing exactly where she was headed. 

"Technician?" I started, "Elery is incoming. She wants a scouter like mine." I informed, hearing the tech-savy alien suck in a sharp breath. 

"I'll get started immediately," he answered with the kind of urgency that only belonged to those who knew their life was on the line. Not that it was...hm. 

"Shugesh?" I switched channels, feeling his presence nearby to Technicians. "Could you go make sure Elery doesn't kill Technician? She's going to get a scouter and he might not have it ready." Shugesh got the message, understanding that Elery would lash out in frustration like she normally did. Only Technician wasn't strong enough to weather her blows. 

I didn't want Elery to go through what I did. I didn't want her to realize her strength by accidentally killing someone. And I especially didn't want it to be Technician that she killed. 

"Sure thing, little boss," Shugesh agreed, his presence taking off towards Technician's. He would beat Elery there. Good. I heard Tora let out a light laugh, drawing my attention back to him. The question on my mind must have showed because he gave a small shrug before he answered. 

"You're finally getting used to ordering people around," he pointed out. I frowned at that, mulling it over for a moment as Shugesh beat Elery there because she got lost. Eventually, I nodded because it wasn't wrong. 

I guess there was some truth to the saying 'fake it until you make it.' 

"It started to feel normal, I guess," I admitted with a small shrug as I went about picking up the fallen meat and broken crystal. 

"So what's next for us?" Tora asked, knowing that this campaign was drawing to a close. It was a question that was on my mind a lot recently. 

"A shield world," I answered, putting the meat back in the freezer. Tora stiffened, surprised, and that prompted me to explain. "We're mopping up what's left in this sector, but it's busywork that others can handle. We still have them on the back foot, but I want to keep them there. We push in far enough, the other fronts will feel the strain." 

In the past two years, our front has made the most advancement. A great deal of it was because Lord Frieza opened the way for us, but the fall of Rench also helped. They lost a significant portion of their military might at Sereall, and without Rench, they had a hard time outfitting the troops that they had. They did the best they could, but, in the end, the past two years felt like busywork leading up to the next big push.

"The other fronts are stalling out. The one on the opposite side of us is still bashing their head against the first shield world and the ones around it haven't fallen either. That entire chain of them is holding up the Cooler-force. If we break into their inner core worlds, then they’ll divert forces to tie us up and slow our advance. That could give them a chance to push.” I said, thinking aloud. 

“Hm. I heard that the Cooler front is a meat grinder,” Tora said, borrowing from one of my phrases. “Both sides,” he said, chewing thoughtfully. “Bardock did some work over there to help move things along, but some Reach alien is starting to push them back. He also said it was like Cooler has no interest in advancing the line.”

I nodded, having heard much the same from the previous team leader. Not to mention that if Lord Cooler had any interest in advancing, then he could always do what Lord Frieza did. I figured there had to be a reason why he was dragging his feet. It was either that, or that front was unlike anything that we had seen so far in the past six years. 

Which could be possible. This front could be the knife in the back that killed the Reach. If we advanced fast enough then we could reach their core worlds, seize them, then from there it would be a matter of cleaning up what was left. It could still be years, but taking the core worlds was the key to making the Reach collapse. 

“But, it would be nice to get employee of the year again for the squad,” Tora mused, throwing his arms back as he chewed on the bone. 

I let out a huff of laughter, “not sure if Bardock can survive that. Captain Ginyu is getting pretty desperate to earn it. Did you hear how he took out two high ranking members of the Reach government deep in Reach territory?” Somehow, they managed to slip by their FTL blockers and everything else. There were reasons why war had never touched their inner core worlds and it was because they were next to impossible to get to. Jammers, barriers, and so on. The Reach had them all. “Apparently they were related to that Reach alien we had captured.

“Yeah, I figured we were going to lose it that year, but I guess dozens of planets are worth more than two heads,” Tora agreed, angling his head back as the bone was slowly crushed underneath his teeth before he swallowed what was left. “Have you heard from him recently?” 

I shook my head as I took a seat on the counter, idly aware how Elery started darting around some distance away. “No, not in a couple of months. Last I heard, he was going back deep into Reach territory for something. Probably to hit their industrial centers,” I answered. They were the Reach’s biggest weakness and their greatest strength. Their armies were massive, and their equipment specialized and it needed maintenance. And replacement. 

And the moment they couldn’t get maintenance or replacement, then the Reach armies fell apart. Even disturbing them was well worth the effort, and if anyone could hit their biggest production planets then it was the Ginyu squad. 

Tora nodded, scratching at his chin in thought. “Hm. I know Queen Teach has been itching for the next big fight, but I don’t think we’ll be able to take a shield world with what we have right now.” He was right about that much. Shield worlds were designed to hold up entire armies and fleets, we wouldn’t be able to do it alone. Then Tora’s eyes narrowed, “you have a plan,” he accused.

I offered a small shrug, “more of an idea,” I admitted. “The 501st will be put back up to full strength soon enough, and that’ll give us some options. And if we link up with the main force, then that’ll give us more. Don’t want to make any promises until I know what I’m working with,” I said, earning an amused huff of laughter from Tora.

“Good luck convincing those cowards to do anything,” he said with a scoff, his tone full of scorn and it wasn’t wholly undeserved. Our army, under the command of Mom, were the ones pushing the line. For every ten planets we took alone, the main force took two and those were the leftovers that Mom passed over because she didn’t think there would be a decent fight.

“We might be able to pull something if they think they’re getting something out of it,” I nodded. I never noticed it before I was in charge of the 501st, but there were some serious feet dragging throughout the Freiza-force. “It can’t be helped though. A lot of them are slave-soldiers that don’t like fighting. Not everyone enjoys war as much as we do.”

Tora shrugged, conceding the point. Just in time too because Elery was flying down the hallway at breakneck speeds. Turning around, I saw her appear at the door, her deep green visor matching mine in appearance and half of her face being covered couldn’t hide the sheer joy she shot out of every pore as she sent me a wide smile. 

“Pretend like you need help,” she ordered before grabbing the door and slamming it close hard enough that it broke. I blinked once, glancing over at Tora, to see him shrug again. 

“Ahhh. Help me?” I tried, my voice flat. In response, Elery grabbed the door and flung it to the side, thoroughly running the doorway as she leaped into the room with a megawatt smile that could light up any room. 

“Have no fear, for I am here!” She announced, planting her hands on her hips much like the animated version of myself. There was a moment of stunned silence before it was broken by Tora letting out a snort of laughter. Elery snapped her attention to him, that megawatt smile transforming into a pout as Tora started laughing in earnest. “Hey, don’t laugh at me! If you do, I won’t save you. Ever!” She warned and that just made Tora laugh that much harder. 

“You were really heroic, Elery,” I placated her with a small smile. Taking a step forward, I patted her on the top of the head, a much gentler version of what the others did to me a couple of years ago. She preened under the praise, beaming happily before she turned to Tora to make a face at him. 

Before I could remind her not to pick fights that she wouldn’t win, my scouter flared to life as a familiar voice spoke. “Prince Tarble?” Avery’s voice filtered through, sounds of explosions echoing out in the distance. “We’re ready for the hammer, sir.”

And just like that, the good cheer evaporated from my body. Elery seemed to notice the change when I paused rubbing her head, making her growl in annoyance before she grabbed my hand to manually force me to continue. I nodded to myself, feeling myself shift gears from enjoying the moment to going off to war. 

“I’m on my way,” I told him before ending the call, taking my hand away from Elery. She looked like she was about to argue, but she stopped herself, surprisingly. “I’ll be back in a bit, okay?” I said, offering her a weak grin before I walked by her. 

“Okay…” Elery agreed, letting the topic drop. I waved over my shoulder at Tora, neither of us said goodbye since I would be back soon enough, exactly as I said. Flying out of the HQ, I secured my mask onto my face -- this one was larger than the others. It covered the bottom half of my face, going up to cover my ears and locked into my scouter. 

The Reach killed the planet's ecosystem by releasing toxic poison into the atmosphere, and evidence of it could be seen wherever there was plant life. A spongy fungus that acted as grass was dried up and lumpy, a dark brown while the mushroom trees were withered husks. If it got inside it would kill. Now, it was more common for soldiers to die if they got hit, their suit burned through and exposing the wound to the elements. 

Flying up, I punched through the energy barrier to expose me to the elements. In the past few years, even our armor was forced to change. The skintight undersuit stretched from my toes all the way to the tip of my fingers, the armor covered more places as well. The skirtlike thigh guards were gone in favor of armor directly covering my legs and arms. 

“Maybe I should invent a technique to restore planets?” I muttered, blasting off in the direction of the massive pocket of enemies we spent the past week creating. The surface of the planet looked dead. Greenery was dried out and brown, wind storms tore everything up and when it rained, the water was a powerful acid that could eat away at metal if it was exposed long enough. 

One day, perhaps, but not today. The list of techniques I was creating was miles long at the point because now I had ideas of what we needed. It would take me years to create them all. 

I let out a small huff of grim laughter as I blasted through a dust storm that ravaged the ruins of a once sprawling metropolis. “I guess I’ll save that when it looks like I won’t get employee of the year,” I said as I drew upon the power of the oozaru, familiar pain flooding my body but after two years, it was almost normal for me. 

I managed to snag it from the Ginyu squad for the past two years, and I wanted that trend to continue. If only because I expected it of myself -- Bardock managed it for ten years, and I was going to do the same. At least. 

With power coursing through me, I surged forward through the storm. It was a massive one -- there was a desert biome on this planet and it was like every grain of sand was in the process of swirling through the air to relocate. Even still, I could still see lights flashing on the horizon as I rapidly approached the pocket. 

In the end, it was like herding animals. The soldiers were the fence that kept them from going a certain way, while my team and I were the ones that pushed them in the direction that we wanted them to go. From miles back, I could clearly see where our defensive lines were set up -- our soldiers were entrenched, artillery bombarding the wreckage of a city while thousands of drones circled above the city. 

The Reach, by now, realized what position they were in. They realized it days ago and they hadn’t stopped trying to break out of the pocket since. What was left of the city was filled with flashes of light, of plasma, lasers, and fire. Smoke poured upwards as the Reach forces tried to encroach on our defensive lines -- with the sandstorm still tearing through the area, it looked like a hellscape. 

My scouter pinged Avery down below, so I headed down behind him. The capsule tech really was being used for everything. A line of bunkers made of heat resistant plaster was set up around the pocket, enclosing it and pushing back any that darted to push forward. A new gun turret was set up -- balls of electricity firing forward, the arcs of it connecting them together so they had a much higher chance to hit. When they did, it was like the balls were snapped together, entering the target before killing it. 

Avery was in a forward base overlooking a hologram that roughly outlined enemy positions. He looked up just in time for a bit of glass from all the plasma hitting sand, only for it to not do any damage. A yellowish hue flared up around him for a moment, but other than that he was fine. An energy shield that I had the entirety of the 501st outfitted with. 

“We have them where we want them,” he informed, telling me that everything had gone to plan. I nodded, glancing out at the city for a moment. Times like these it was really hard to separate presences. In the end, they all lumped together, and only a few stood out. I could feel Matillo's presence inside of the city, preventing them from breaking out of the pocket. 

"Any issues?" I asked, floating back upwards, trying to find Matillo with my eyes. It was easy enough to spot him. Ki swirled around his hands as he blasted through a scout class scarab, laying waste to a tank division that was trying to push through the rubble covered streets.

"None. Casualties have been minimal, and we dropped a ground shaker to collapse any nearby tunnels. They're as cut off as we can make them," he answered, giving me a grim nod.

"Then I'm up," I decided, flying upwards. As I did so, I noticed that the few forces that we did have in the city begin to pull out. Matillo flew towards me, abandoning the area until the only things left were the drones fighting above the city. Matillo barely looked winded, even as a vein throbbed in his forehead, his eyes blazing yellow. 

“My prince,” he said, dropping the Wrath State as soon as he was able to. I nodded at him as I looked down at the city. I opened my mouth, only for my scouter to interrupt me. A voice that was becoming irritatingly familiar. 

“Prince Tarble, could you perhaps offer them a chance to surrender? We have them surrounded, surely they must understand their position? It would be a good look when we can confirm it that you chose to show mercy when you didn’t have to,” Ada’la spoke up as I soared upwards, overlooking the city. 

“No point,” I answered as I formed a ki ball that rapidly grew in size. I heard her suck in a sharp breath in response. 

"Are...are you going to take prisoners?" She asked as the ball of ki swelled above me. I took a moment to think about that question -- not how I would answer it, but the question itself. Two years ago, I would have hesitated. I would have thought about it. I would have searched for a way to make the Reach forces surrender. 

But...that was two years ago. 

"No," I answered shortly before I let the ki ball fall. It drifted down, tearing through whatever stood in its way before it exploded when it hit the ground. The explosion started small, a small one that started in the center of the city that began to expand in every direction. Block by block, it expanded outward, claiming buildings and whatever it happened to touch. Wind battered me, forcing Matillo to grab my shoulder to balance himself. As ridiculous as the scouter was, at the very least it made it easy to stare into the pale blue light below. 

The pocket was a massive one. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and with a single move, that number shot straight down. I didn't get all of them. I couldn't when the defensive line was so close. Couldn't risk friendly fire. 

"Impressive as always, my prince," Matillo commented. I could hear Ada'la breathing on the other end of the scouter, the call hadn't ended. 

I thought about what I should say for a brief moment, something to make her understand what she had asked me to do was stupid and pointless. Instead, I simply ended the ca with a tap of my finger, turning to Matillo. "Clean up?" I asked, earning a nod from him as we drifted downward. 

The explosion cleared the storm that raged, dust still hanging heavy in the air, but the crater below was impossible to miss. The city was gone, replaced with a hole in the ground. Only the fringes remained, and they suffered greatly even if they weren’t outright destroyed. The silence was deafening -- a mere moment ago, the sounds of war echoed out so loudly that they shook the planet. Now it was just quiet. 

We touched down, glancing at each other before we traded a nod. After two years, we didn’t need to talk about what came next. It became a routine, almost. We pushed the Reach armies into pockets than one of us would drop a ki bomb on them. Between me and the others, we hard countered their vanguard scarabs, and we hadn’t seen a champion since Rench. 

I reached out, feeling presences that were trying to recover from the powerful blast. My scouter picked them up as well -- I found working with both helped a great deal because my ki sensing couldn’t pick up on scarabs, and ki sense helped pick up on things that my scouter missed. Walking over, I blasted through the entrance of a collapsed building, going to the basement and saw what I was sensing. 

Soldiers barely had time to react before I slaughtered them. From building to building, seizing the opportunity, and they died in droves. No quarter was given because there was none to give. It was quick, efficient, and effective. Within minutes, what was left of the military on this planet was washed away, leaving up completely and utterly victorious. 

Just like we had been for dozens of worlds. The victory wasn’t hard-fought. It wasn’t climatic. It was routine. 

“The army is moving it to secure everything, but I’m not picking anything up on the scanners. The planet is ours,” Avery said as I flew upwards. My gaze lingered on my handiwork for a moment. I used to just stare at it, marveling at the power that I had. Nearly my entire life, I was weak, and now I felt strong. 

“I’ll leave you to it,” I said, flying upwards, Matillo in my wake. “I’m heading back to the HQ.” I had a promise to keep with Elery, after all. We traveled in silence until we reached the HQ, and the first person that I saw was Ada’la. She waved at us, gesturing us to come down, and against my better judgment, I did. Flying down, we landed in front of her to see that she was pinching the hem of her second skirt flap thing, her expression hesitant. 

“If you have something you want to say, then say it,” I said, walking by her to enter the building. She clearly wanted to say something, otherwise, she wouldn’t have flagged me down. My words seemed to be the kick that she needed because she nodded. 

“I...understand it that no prisoners are taken?” She asked, sounding like she was risking her life by asking the question. I slowed to a stop, glancing at her with some confusion -- not over her tone, but the observation itself. 

“The Reach armies don’t surrender,” I informed bluntly, an edge of bewilderment creeping into my tone. How did she not know that?

“But-”

“But nothing,” I interrupted, but not harshly. “The Reach specializes in mind control -- do you think it would be a good idea to let capture them then incorporate them into the Frieza-force? Have...have you just not heard the stories?” I asked, feeling compelled to. It was something that I never really encountered before. I was a warrior. I grew up surrounded by warriors and soldiers. 

And Ada’la wasn’t either of those things.

“I have,” she confirmed with a slow nod of her head, easily keeping up with me by virtue of my short legs. “It just seems...so...is there really no better way?” She asked, the question sounding like a genuine one. Two years ago, I asked myself that same question. Now I was the leader of the 501st, in charge of thousands of soldiers. Mom was the general, and if I pitched it to her right, then I could have done something about it. 

However, I didn’t have to think about the answer. 

“There isn't,” I said, entering the HQ, heading towards the command center. I could feel Mom’s presence up there, likely making plans for our next destination, and it was time to make my pitch for what target we hit next. I searched for that better way for a time, only to give up when I realized that it was costing lives on my side. 

The aliens that the Reach conquered were conditioned to the point that they were zealots. They acted as sleeper agents. I heard of entire fleets simply vanishing in an ambush because of those sleeper agents feeding the Reach information. For every one of them that I chose not to kill, I could be risking hundreds of thousands of lives. And, no matter how I looked at it, that wasn’t worth the risk. 

Ada’la fell silent at that as we made our way to the command center, and we were greeted by a ki blast busting down the bulkhead door. For a split second, I thought we were under attack, only once the smoke cleared, I saw that wasn’t the case. Mom stood in front of a hologram, her posture was absolutely furious similar to how she acted in the Wrath State. 

The hologram was of King Vegeta, his face impassive as he sat on his throne. He stared down at Mom, his face unchanging in the past six years it's been since I’ve seen him. He didn’t seem to notice me as he let out a soft sigh and spoke to Mom. 

“Be here,” he spoke those two words, then his hologram vanished without a trace. 

“Who in the hell does he think he is, ordering me around when he’s been sitting on his ass for half a decade?!” Mom snarled, kicking the projector, reducing it to torn metal and sparking wires. The command center wasn’t empty either, but the dozen or so aliens that worked in the room pretended like they couldn’t hear anything, simply looking down at their screens and hoping they weren’t next. 

I hesitated at the doorway, “Mom?” I started, making Mom go very still. She let out a harsh breath, turning around to throw on the fakest smile that I’ve ever seen in my life. 

“Tarble…” She started, a sigh escaping her as her shoulders slumped and said the very last thing I ever expected her to. 

“Looks like we’re going back to Planet Vegeta.

…

Let me know what you think of the chapter. Originally, there were going to be...let's call them war crimes committed in the chapter, but I decided against it in favor of something else down the line. So, I tried to turn it into a contrast between civilian and soldier's outlook and to show how Tarble has grown into being a far more ruthless leader. Not sure how it turned out, though.