Going Native: Desire for Closure (ch. 67) (Patreon)

The announcement of my promotion could be felt throughout the galaxy. The Trade Organization, at least the armed forces division, seemed to let out a sigh of relief. They were practically overjoyed with the news. Some generals and fleet commanders, less so, but the soldiers and rank and file were largely glad. I hadn't expected that. Not really.

To the rest of the galaxy, the news was something to dread. I could hear the chatter about it from the TO's spies in the various enemy empires. For a year, they had thrown their collective might at me while I stood alone. I weathered the blows, sapped them of their strength… and now I could bring the full weight of the TO's military weight down upon them. There was simply no other way to describe the galaxy's collective response to my promotion other than fear. Terror, even.

All the years Ada'la had spent crafting my reputation had a noticeable effect. People were calling it the biggest shift in the war so far. Blatantly ignoring the fall of the Thanagarian Empire, or the submission of the Khundian empire, and even the fall of the Shield Wall. According to enemy military news sites, my promotion was possibly the worst thing to happen to the entire universe.

I didn't often feel flattered, but it would be a lie if I said I wasn't a little by all the attention my promotion got. If only they all knew it had been a desperate gamble to convince Frieza that I was worth more alive than I was dead, despite the incredible loss of planet Thanagar.

"I didn't make Zarbon suffer enough," I reflected, looking at the battle plans. Galactic spanning strategies of war. Nearly half of the reinforcements that I had requested over the course of a year had been withheld and discreetly stationed on defensive planets that would become the frontline after my empire fell. The other half had been redirected to other generals who had sucked up to Zarbon.

Ironically enough, it was they that were the most… disappointed by my promotion.

"Welcome to politics, Tarble," Bardock remarked, earning a grunt from me.

"Since when did you ever deal with politics?" I questioned, sorting through the massive influx of information as the Warworld sailed through slipspace. I needed some time to create an effective strategy that would leverage the resources that were now available to me. It was almost daunting. Hundreds of trillions of troops, trillions of quintillions worth of equipment. Secret plans and operations that I had never heard of.

It was a scale of war that I had never experienced before. And it was also infuriating. In the past year, I saw next to no progress on the Reach. The past year could best be described as stockpiling for when my empire failed and the TO would find itself besieged by the galaxy. Zarbon was a petty idiot that shouldn't have been in charge of a goldfish, much less a galactic spanning war.

"All the time. I was the employee of the year for over a decade, remember? We weren't at war then," Bardock reminded, looking over the information with me. I guess that was true. "How are you going to end this mess in a few years?" And that was a good point.

"I'll go to the Vega System on my own and start things there. The reserves that Zarbon built up are going to be leveraged. All of them," I muttered, thinking it through while I started crafting a plan. One that would need fine-tuning, but it would be a serviceable start. "The priority should be knocking others out of the war."

"The Reach?" Ada'la voiced, watching us work. Matillo was elsewhere in the Warworld, likely doing his own training. He and Bardock didn't really get along, so they tended to avoid each other.

I frowned deeply, "No," I answered, feeling… I don't know. Annoyed was probably the most accurate word. "The Reach shifted to a defensive posture when Koter Ve'sk rose to power. They're still our largest and most powerful enemy, but they aren't actively invading. It would be best to focus on smaller empires."

The Reach had been my enemy for the entirety of my life. The one I had spent over a decade trying to defeat. Before Thanagar, defeating them meant the end of the war. Now that I was the Supreme Commander and I had the entirety of the TO armed forces at my disposal… focusing on the Reach was the worst decision I could make tactically, and that was irritating as all hell. Especially when I knew that they were gathering their strength. It felt like I was allowing them the time they needed to win the war.

Not only that… "We scale back the front with the Reach." I decided, and I heard a dramatic gasp from Ada'la. I gave her a curious look, because that was a real reaction to a simple decision.

"Are you certain?" Ada'la questioned and it was Bardock that answered.

"Makes sense, I guess. That Koter guy seems to realize that the Reach has been getting their ass kicked the entire war." Bardock voiced. I nodded in agreement.

"Even if we scale back, Koter won't take the bait. He's building the Reach's strength back up and hiding behind that second Shield Wall," I seconded. I still remembered the bitter taste of defeat when I walked into the command room to see the plans he had left me. Plans that invalidated years of work. People could call that a victory all that they liked, but that would remain my first tactical defeat in my book. "The front has stalled. Best to spend resources where they're better used." I hated the words that were coming out of my mouth, but I had to think like a general- no. I had to think like a Supreme Commander and not let my personal feelings influence anything.

Well, not entirely.

"All the Saiyans are being recalled," I decided, pulling up the list, and my lips settled into a grim line. Of the three million Saiyans that had left Planet Vegeta, only about a hundred thousand or so had left with me. The rest were scattered across the fronts. And out of that three million, nearly half of them had been killed in battle.

I wasn't surprised. I had heard about hunting games like these amongst the troops -- games where a soldier will try to kill at least one alien race that they were at war with. Between me and my brother, even Bardock, a Saiyan became a rare prize. So they were targeted specifically by the enemy. All for bragging rights.

Ada'la offered a grave nod, realizing how dangerously close my race was to extinction. Just not as close as it once had been. In a handful of years, when the current generation had grown, genetic material would be collected to grow the next generation of Saiyans. With all of the Saiyans under my direct control, I could ensure that we retained enough genetic diversity so our next population jump would be more than just three million.

I just had to make sure that they would live until then.

It was almost too radical a change, I realized. For the past year, my forces had been stretched so very thin and now it felt like I had a surplus of everything. As far as problems went, it was probably the best kind to have. Between the TO, the Khundian empire, and the support that Vegeta would offer… I was ready to stop being on the defensive. It was finally time to start pushing the line again.

With that thought in mind, I spent the next few days making plans, making use of the precise time dilation that the Warworld offered. It was then that I realized that I had inadvertently fallen into an old habit during the past year. I had been too passive. So obsessed with the idea of holding the line that I hadn’t considered pushing forward on my own. I had options. Most of them wouldn’t have worked.

Still, I had them. Deep strikes at enemy capitals and the like. I would have had to focus less on the Khundian empire, but bold strikes like that could have worked better to impress them. It would also mean that I wouldn’t have weakened them with the war. The curse of hindsight.

The Vega system would be the key to winning the war. I would make it so.

Days later, I had the barebone outline of a plan. And in that time, the others arrived at the calling point. The empty space where Thanagar had once been. As soon as the Warworld appeared, I was hit with a barrage of hails. And gunfire from my Mom’s fleet. I answered the hails, informing them that it was me, and flagged an entranceway that I altered to take them right to me.

I leaned back into my chair. It was an odd thing to think about, but for me, I hadn’t seen any of them in three years. For some, four years, because I was forced to spread them out so far and wide. I felt their presences grow near, each familiar even if they had grown more powerful in the time away.

Elery was the one that reached me first. She didn’t even bother to stop and wait for the sliding doors to open in favor of slamming right through them. There was a wide smile on her face as she scammed the room, her fists clenched at her sides. "You better get ready-" Elery started to announce her challenge, only to fall silent when her eyes landed on me. Her eyes narrowed into slits as she looked at me, settling into a fighting stance, only for her eyes to widen a moment later when she realized who I was. "W-why are you so tall?!"

Of all the things she could have greeted me with, I wasn't too surprised that's what she went with. It had always been easy to guess what her priorities were. Typically because they revolved around eating and fighting.

"I grew," I answered with a small shrug, knowing that would set her off. And it worked like a charm. Elery let out a frustrated roar as she launched herself at me while the others arrived. I heard Bardock let out an amused huff as Elery raced towards me, aiming a foot at my face. Effortlessly, I reached up with a hand and stopped the attack cold. My hand didn't even nudge a millimeter.

Elery responded by twisting, slipping her foot out of her boot while ki gathered in her palms. Her other foot lashed out, attempting to kick me in the side of the head, before she fired her ki blasts.

My hand moved in a blur, and with the same gesture that I caught the second kick with, flicked the ki blasts away. I was stuck in Stage Ten of the Wrath State, so I had millions of PL over her. Elery wasn't weak. She just wasn't strong enough. Just like I hadn't been strong enough to be taken seriously by Mongul.

"You really are my brother," Elery muttered, landing on the ground minus a shoe. "Only he could have done something like that…" she muttered in clear disbelief as if it finally clicked that I really was myself.

Beyond Elery were the others. Tora, Fasha, Shugesh, and Borgos. Beyond them was Mom. I slowly stood up from my chair and Elery's face twisted into a deep scowl when she saw that I now towered over, her as most others did. I was taller than Mom too, I noticed as she walked past the others to meet me in the middle. And Fasha. And Shugesh. Of them all, the only ones that were taller than me were Borgos and Tora. The latter only barely.

"You and Vegeta look just like your father," Mom remarked, her gaze roaming my face as if she were searching for any hint of herself in it. "Neither of you are allowed to grow a goatee, got that?"

"Wasn't going to anyway," I reassured. It would take me years to grow any facial hair. It wasn't worth the effort. Shaving once a year wasn't that big of a hassle. Mom seemed to approve based on the lopsided grin. Her eyes seemed to soften a fraction as she lightly thumped me on the shoulder.

I wasn't a child anymore. I never had been. The war wouldn't let me. But now I also had the body of a man.

Fasha spoke up next, "Heard about the promotion, Supreme Commander. That's a weird thought," Fasha remarked, earning a chuckle from Shugesh. Even Tora smirked.

"Makes me feel a little inadequate," Tora added. "The rest of us have been stuck at the same rank for… how long now?" He questioned Bardock, earning a shrug.

"Twenty-something years?" Bardock hazarded a guess.

Tora shook his head, clearly amused at my promotion. None of them seemed particularly surprised by it. If anything, they all seemed like they had expected it. I guess I hadn't exactly made it a secret to them what my aim was.

Elery flew by, shooting me a look, "Is the whole planet yours?" She questioned, looking around the place. And I saw which way that the wind was starting to blow. As much as I would enjoy catching up, it wasn't the reason that I had ordered them here.

"It is," I answered Elery, before I sent a silent command to turn on the hologram projectors. The large room began to dim as the room was filled with holograms of star systems and star maps. "The Warworld will serve as a mobile HQ for the frontline. Allowing us real-time updates, reactions, as well as being a weapon of war." I spoke, drawing attention to the map that displayed the current state of the galaxy.

My empire, Vegeta's, and the Khundian empire were all colored blue. The TO was purple. Pretty much everything else was red. It was a sobering sight. I started a playback of the plan I had crafted, showing the gist of what I wanted to do. "The team is being gathered up to do what we do best -- deep strikes at the heart of the enemy," I started.

The recording showed the lines shifting, empires falling and retreating, until it all led up to one single point of contention. "The goal is to make all roads lead to the Vega system. I'll be going there shortly to start prepping the battleground."

Fasha frowned, "Why the Vega system?" She asked, not seeing the point of it. "I get trying to gather up all the enemies in one spot and just wiping them out at once, but I don't see why they would."

I nodded, "The Vega system was chosen because it's a unique system. Over thirty planets in it and all are habitable. More than that, it’s a system that has no green lantern presence. For millennia, the Green Lanterns have refused to enter, even when in hot pursuit. It makes it a natural staging ground for what I have planned."

“As for why they will go there?” I echoed the question, “Because that is where my top-secret weapon to wipe out all of our enemies will be held.”

Mom, predictably, had an adverse reaction to that. “Weapons?” She questioned, not sounding happy about it. Time had eroded her natural distaste for them, but I doubted that she would ever willingly use one.

“It’s the bait that will draw them to the system. As far as they’ll be aware, they’ll have no choice but to fight for the system,” I answered, pulling up a map of the Vega System. The thirty-six planets and the sizable asteroid field. “Each planet will be converted into a Shield World. The fighting in the system will be some of the worst seen in the war so far.”

To maintain a presence in the system, they would be forced to send trillions of soldiers to the system. Armadas upon armadas. That was where I would make the galaxy commit to a decisive battle. It sounded so very simple. It was anything but. It would be years of constant effort, of keeping secrets. Of manipulation on a galactic scale. The task was anything but simple. But, if it worked, then I could end the war.

It would end. The war that had lasted for nearly all my life… it could finally end. And then there would be peace. People would get to go home. They would be able to live their lives, start families… they wouldn’t just be numbers on a screen from a casualty report. The insanity and brutality would stop. All I needed was… was one last bloodbath of a battle. But, after that, it would end. It would be the final one.

And that made it worth it. All of it. To end the war. Because winning… it had to make it all worth it. It had to.

“I’ll be sending all of you out behind enemy lines with small teams. You'll have free reign and whatever you need to get the job done. Your only orders are to survive and check in once a month,” I informed them all. I met their gazes and saw eager smirks all around. Every single one of them were nearly overjoyed at the prospect of heading deep behind enemy lines and raising hell.

Elery seemed especially excited by the prospect. “Broly’s on my team!” Elery shouted before glancing at Bardock, “So is Kakarot,” she added, not caring in the slightest if Bardock wanted to team up with his son. Bardock cocked an eyebrow, but if he said something, then I didn’t hear it. A deep frown tugged at my lips. I… had wanted to avoid the topic for as long as possible, but…

“Broly is dead,” I lied to Elery, making her go very still. She slowly turned to me, a look of absolute disbelief etched on her face. I met her gaze unflinchingly. It had been four or five days for him, so he had probably reached Earth by now. And there he would stay. For his own good.

At first, it was to protect the Saiyan race, because if Broly lost control, then… but that changed now that I was the Supreme Commander. Things had changed. Yet, I stood by my decision to send Broly to Earth. The words that he had said, that he screamed at Mongul… they applied to myself just as much as they did to Mongul. Or Frieza. I didn’t even know how many millions I had killed. Billions, maybe.

Broly shouldn’t have ever gone to war. He wasn’t made for it. His power meant nothing compared to his innate compassion, and this war was destroying him. I had been destroying him because… he was just too strong not to use. But he wasn’t a tool. He wasn’t even a soldier. He was my friend. Earth… Shayera had said that Earth was a peaceful place.

And maybe when the war was over... when the Cold family was gone… I could see him again. He could come back.

Elery glared at me, “Liar!” She shouted at me before she flew up and out of the room, not letting me get another word in. I watched her go -- it was in my power to stop her, to explain to her… but I didn't. In the end, she was right. I was lying to her. I just didn't have much of a choice in the matter. In the end, Elery was still young. Counting the years she would have spent in the gestation tank, Elery was only nearing ten years old.

And I knew that if I told her that Broly was still alive, then she would demand to see him. She was so wrapped up in her own world that she didn't understand Broly's suffering, because war wasn't something that bothered her. Because she couldn't understand. She wouldn't understand any of the reasons that I gave her that explained why Broly's death had to be faked. More than that… Elery could only ever be herself. Acting wasn't a talent she had. She had to believe that Broly was dead for appearances sake.

Mom sighed, "She'll probably tear this planet apart looking for him."

"Elery hasn't had a friend die before," Fasha added, her lips thinning. She spared a glance at me, a silent question in her eyes. The fact that there was concern there surprised me. I simply nodded, showing that I was fine. I had three years to come to grips with the fact that Broly was gone. I just had to hope that he found a place for himself on Earth.

"Outbursts aside, the plan remains unchanged. Take whatever you need. Equipment, supplies, people. Each of you are capable leaders, and I need every single one that I can get." Which reminded me that it was worth considering undergoing a… purge of the upper ranks. Root out the ones that had bought their position, or used it for their own gain, and replace them with competent generals.

To start, it was best to start with my own race. My troops had leadership experience. They had been crafted into leaders. Now it was time for them to lead. The rest of the Saiyan population would be broken up into squads and placed under their leadership -- there, they could learn and develop their potential.

So much to do. If I could spend another three years in slipspace I wouldn't begin to scratch the surface of my list. I might have been tempted to do exactly that, but I needed more information first. I needed to know the reaction that my promotion would cause amongst the galaxy. They were afraid, that I knew, but how would that play out in action? A wholesale surrender? Stop fighting amongst themselves and focus solely on the TO? I needed to know.

"What will you be doing?" Tora spoke up, bringing my attention back to the issue at hand.

"After I secure the Vega system? I will go wherever I'm needed. The Warworld will produce drone armies endless as reinforcements while I break the back of whatever defensive measures I find, or halt any advance." In a sense, what I had been doing already. Just on a galaxy-wide scale.

Tora nodded, "So, this'll be the last time we see each other for a few years, huh?" He remarked, looking at me and the others.

I offered a nod, "At least until the war ends," I offered. To that, Shugesh let out a snort.

"I thought this war was going to last forever," he admitted. "Especially when it became a free for all. Now… eh, just try not to end it all on your lonesome, alright? Save some fun for the rest of us," Shugesh requested lightly.

My gaze drifted to the hologram of the Vega system. I saw into the future, a future that I would craft with my own two hands. I saw the battle that would be raged there. I saw billions die, armadas reduced to scrap… I saw the single largest battle that this universe had ever seen. And, if I had any say in the matter, the largest battle that would ever happen, for there would be no more war in the galaxy after it.

"By the end of this… even all of you will have had your fill of fighting." That much, I promised.

…

Elery was the last to leave. The others had taken off, all having their own orders. Mom had been more than a little disappointed that Elery didn't pop up to say goodbye, but she seemed to trust that they would see each other again.

It would have been a simple task to find her even without my ability to sense ki, or being tuned into the Warworld. The trail of destruction was obvious.

Eventually, I found her tearing through a drone as it attempted to fix a door that she had busted. Then she attacked the drones that attempted to salvage the first broken drone. Her eyes were red, her face splotchy. She had been crying… and when she saw me coming, it was easy to tell that she was on the anger stage of dealing with her grief.

"Go away!" Elery shouted at me, launching a ki blast at me. I effortlessly deflected it away as I swallowed a sigh of disappointment.

"Elery, I know. I understand. Broly was my friend too, but-" I had to deflect another ki blast. "Elery. You can't act like this. Are you going to throw a fit every time a squadmate dies?" I questioned, my tone severe. Elery adopted a murderously furious expression.

Her hands clenched into fists, a snarl on her face. “He’s not dead! Broly was way too strong to die to that Mongul guy!” She screamed at me, absolutely correct, and it killed me that I had to tell her that she was wrong.

I shook my head, “Mongul… Elery, he just about killed me.” I told her, and that caught her off guard enough that she lost the edge of her anger. “I would have died if it wasn’t for Vegeta. We didn’t so much as defeat Mongul, but survive him. Broly… Broly was strong. Incredibly powerful… but he fought Mongul alone. Elery, I know how awful it is to accept, but you have to. Broly died.”

Before I had even finished speaking, Elery was shaking her head, “No. No, he’s not! He… he can’t just die! He was my friend! He can’t be dead.” She shouted, denying it with everything she had. The brother in me… my heart went out to her. The general in me… was disappointed.

Elery wasn’t me. She couldn’t be. But she was also a soldier. She was young… but she had also been at war for years. Yet, to her, the deaths of friends was something that happened to other people, because everyone around her was strong. Elery killed with ease, but she didn’t understand death or loss. Nor the value of life.

“He’s dead, Elery,” I repeated with a quiet sigh. “You knew him just as well as I did. Do you think he would want this?” Elery’s lips thinned, the anger leaving her, replaced with a deep sorrow and anguish.

She hovered in the air for a moment before she floated down to the ground, paying no mind to the drones that worked around her. “How… do you…?” Elery questioned, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.

“By promising myself that next time I’ll be strong enough to make sure no one dies,” I answered. Elery seemed to consider that as she slowly walked towards me, her head hung low and her shoulders slumped.

“Does it work?” She questioned, cutting to the heart of the matter.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Up until this point… I had been strong enough to avoid any serious losses. The most grievous had been Leek. I had lost plenty, but never the kind of loss that Elery was experiencing. Any advice I could give would be hollow. I had lied before, but this one tasted the worst on my tongue.

Elery didn’t wait for an answer in favor of hugging my leg, burying her face against me as she silently cried. I swallowed a sigh -- when was it that I stopped thinking age was a valid excuse for acting like a child? When did I become so jaded? When-

The moment was ruined when I felt the Warworld being hailed by an unknown ship. Elery seemed to sense the change in me, because she looked up. Using a drone, a hologram was projected of the source of the hail. It was then that I saw that it wasn’t a ship at all, but a Red Lantern.

“State your business, Red Lantern. I find I have little patience for your kind,” I greeted the Red Lantern. He looked different than the first one that I had killed. His teeth were needle sharp, he lacked a nose, and his skin was a stone gray.

“I am Atrocitious of the Red Lanterns. I wish to speak of an alliance between my Corps and Prince Tarble. We have… mutual enemies,” Atrocious greeted, catching my attention. It only took me a second to think it over.

“Then speak.”

///

The next few chapters are kinda weird. The plan has been for some time now to have Meet and Greet be a canon storyline that covered Tarble's time in the Vega system. That way, I could jump to another point in the way and not have to rewrite anything. However, when I read Meet and Greet... I've decided to rewrite large sections of it. 

So, at the moment, Meet and Greet is tentatively canon. I'll post the final version of it when this chapter goes live. If you haven't read Meet and Greet and you would like to, it's in the Monthly Poll tag.