The sound of laughter could be heard all around. The crackling of wood burning mingled with the laughter as meat sizzled and beer was passed amongst the soldiers. Only the ones on guard duty weren't allowed to enjoy such pleasantries. True, it wasn't a good idea to be drunk on your guard shift but still…
Why did the others have to rub it in everybody else's face?
As one of the guards watched from his post, he pouted openly. He always enjoyed the time being merry as his comrades below him were, but having to look out into the darkness of the night—especially when the chill off the mountains were blowing in at full force—did nothing to cheer him up. He was supposed to be down there, getting drunk off his ass and getting into fights with the other drunks. One of the guards on duty just had to get sick on his night off. Just perfect.
The sound of gravel crunching alerted him to a presence in the night. Whipping his blitz rifle into a ready position, he was surprised to see his Sergeant-in-command standing before him, a quick look of surprise written on his face before it became a face of stone. "I see we're more preoccupied with something else, huh Private?"
The private hastily lowered his weapon, standing into attention. Of all the people he had to point his rifle at, it just had to be his commander. Typical.
As the sergeant watched him with cold eyes, daring him to answer him, he finally spoke. "Maybe we should get the private to do something other than sitting on his ass, hmmm? Maybe the private should go patrol the east wall by the barracks. Well, what do you think Private?"
"Sir, yes sir! I'll take care of that sir!" the private shouted. Snickers could be heard from the occupants by the fire. It was always a funny sight to see the sergeant bust someone's balls for idleness.
"You do that Private," the sergeant said before walking past the rigid guard. As soon as the commander disappeared, the private fell at ease before heading off to his new assignment grudgingly. Out of all the places on the base, the east wall by the barracks was the least favorite of all the men. It was dark and vulnerable to attack. It gave off an ominous feeling, as if anything that could go wrong would go wrong. No soldier wanted the task of patrolling that stretch of wall for any amount of time. It was like begging the enemy to take a shot at killing you.
As he navigated his way between the fire pits to his despised location, he couldn't help but envy the others as they carried on merrily. That should be me right now.
As he carried on, the glow of the campfires casting eerie shadows on the surrounding buildings, the man continued his sulk. The base itself wasn't very large, but compare to some of the other frontier outpost as the men called them, it was one of the bigger ones. The base was built at the base of a cliff, the cliff's edge jutting over the base. Dull grey buildings of one to two stories were scattered at random places, but still gave the impression of being organized. Tinted windows were at predictable places on the walls of the buildings. Surrounding the encampment was a twenty foot wall, protecting the base from all sides until the walls met the sides of the cliff. It was towards the cliff that the barracks were positioned, the weapon storage and provisions lying further away from the cliff.
Finally, he reached his destination and began marching up and down the dark corridor. A sick feeling rose in his gut, which wasn't unusual when he was around this spot. He could only wish that his replacement was coming to relieve him soon.
As he reached the far end of the corridor, a hand reached out from behind him and clamped down firmly to his mouth, muffling any protest that escaped his lips. Then a long blade was stabbed right through his back, skewering him from front to back. Any cries he made for help or mercy were drowned out by the hand covering his mouth. The guard struggled with all his might before his mind shut itself down, his legs weakening from the weight of his body as he collapsed.
He was dead before he touched the ground.
"Gee Trunks, you must be getting soft or something. That one took longer than usual."
"Shut up Goten," Trunks hissed. Yeah he might have underestimated the guard's will to surviv,e but he still got the job done, didn't he? He would have loved to see Goten give it a try. Sneaking up and killing a man was hard work!
"Both of you, quiet," the ever-present Gohan whispered. "I don't know about you, but I don't want the whole base knowing we're here."
The younger Saiyans just nodded their heads in confirmation. Switching back into their game faces, the two prepared for the next move.
Gohan watched the two carefully before he gave them a little smirk. Turning his attention to Trunks, he gave the slightest movement of his head, tossing his head up. Trunks nodded his understanding before disappearing into the darkness. As Goten and Gohan waited, they felt a small ki disappear. Trunks had done his job perfectly.
Turning to Goten, Gohan pointed to a position on the west wall of the fort. Goten repeated Trunks' confirmation before he too disappeared. Some time passed as one by one, small kis were extinguished before a ki spiked, signaling to Gohan that Goten was in place.
Turning around, Gohan headed down towards the south end of the corridor. Unfortunately, he was delayed.
As he approached his position, a guard coming to replace the one Trunks had just killed, appeared. Thinking fast, Gohan shot himself at the man and before he could utter a sound of surprise, Gohan snapped his neck, the deceased body collapsing at his feet.
Gohan look at the crumpled heap in disgusted. Such weak bodies, yet they had managed to conquer one of the strongest races in the universe. So disgraceful.
So ironic.
Arriving at his position, Gohan crouched down behind several stacked creates before peeking over them, taking in every man, object, and ki signal. He would not be surprised again. If he so much as sensed a trap, he would pull Trunks and Goten out without hesitation. Sensing none, Gohan smirked.
It was time.
With the slight movement of his finger, Gohan shot a small ki blast at a stack of explosives, detonating them. The explosion rocked the base furiously. Nearby soldiers came running over to the fiery scene, trying to put out the flames before the fire consumed everything.
That's when Gohan launched the first wave of attack. Racing out of the shadows, Gohan attacked the men viciously. Men went flying through the air, holes in their guts and chest areas from the Saiyan's deadly fists, their bodies slamming into walls or skidding on the ground. Whipping himself to his right, Gohan fired a ki blast at the retreating men, who were making beelines for their weapons. They, like their weapons, were consumed in the destructive blast.
However, some soldiers were managing to regroup, their weapons in hand as they began to counter attack.
A second explosion knocked them off their feet, landing roughly on their stomachs or backs. What was impressive though, was the fact that the explosion had occurred from the opposite side of the base.
Gohan smirked. "Man, Goten can get carried away." Then his cold expression returned. He had to make sure the men recovering from the shockwave stayed down. Without a moment's hesitation, each recovering man found themselves proud owners of broken bones, necks and torn limbs. As they cried in misery and pain, Gohan decide to be nice for a change and show them some mercy.
He blasted every last man with their own special ki blast, courtesy of Son Gohan.
Screams rang out towards the northern wall before another explosion erupted, rendering the wall into rubble.
It carried on like that for the next hour. The Saiyan trio killed every last human, destroying their weapons and their ammo stashes. To them, it was one less weapon used to kill a Saiyan and all three boys would not begrudge such a simple chore.
Approaching the center of the presently ruined base, Gohan found Trunks sitting on some rubble; one leg hanging off the edge, his hands clasped around his other leg, the foot resting on the rubbles edge.
Gohan look towards him. "I see you're done early."
Trunks smirked. "It's not that hard killing weaklings," he stated as he turned his attention to the approaching Goten. "It took you longer than usual Goten. You must be getting soft."
Goten grimaced. "You wouldn't be saying that if you had been surrounded by fifty guys with blitz rifles."
Trunks just shrugged. "That's no excuse. We both saw Gohan take down a hundred men, each of them with two rifles and a blitz pistol."
"But that's because Gohan caught them by surprise! They had me completely surrounded!"
"Excuses, excuses."
As Gohan watched their banter, he couldn't help but smile. At least they weren't letting the killing get to them. That was all he could ask for considering their situation.
Sadly, he had to interrupt. "Do you guys want to keep fighting with each other or do you want to grab a bite to eat? I'm pretty hungry from our little exercise."
Happy looks adorned their faces. If there was one thing that made a Saiyan happy, it was food.
After rummaging around the camp, they found their spoils and indulged themselves. It wasn't like anyone would just pop out of nowhere and challenge them. Yet, they stayed cautious all the same. Once they filled their bellies, they packed as much food and other supplies as they could carry and left the fallen fort. They had once tried waiting for the recovery teams to arrive and attack them, but they had learned quickly that that was not a very good idea. They had to wait out a whole season before raiding another fort.
As they trudged through the forest, Gohan sighed. He wished they had more than just the three of them fighting, but he couldn't take that chance. He had heard rumors of a traitorous Saiyan amongst the surviving Saiyans. Many a time, a raiding Saiyan group would be ambushed or tricked into annihilation. The rumors went on to say that a wandering Saiyan was turning over his own kind to the humans. Although Gohan didn't like the sound of it, he couldn't help but feel its truth. It explained what Vegeta had told him before his death.
Since then, Gohan refused to travel with anyone other then Trunks and Goten. Anytime they ran into another Saiyan or a group of them, he would gather rumors and news of other raids and human troop movement before leaving them in the dead of night, leaving enough food for his acquaintances' breakfast.
At first the two young ones had complained. It wasn't often they saw other people besides the ones they killed, but after hearing Gohan explanation, they complied. As much as they honored their fathers, they wouldn't make their mistakes.
As they worked their way through the underbrush, they ran head first into a lone Saiyan. Immediately, they dropped their spoils and dropped into fighting stances, Trunks drawing his sword and pointing it towards the Saiyan.
Seeing that he was outnumbered, the Saiyan raised his arms in surrender. "I give," he said in as much of a neutral voice as he could muster.
Trunks slowly crept over to the man keeping his blade between the two, stopping when he was within striking distance, keeping the sword point at his neck.
The Saiyan looked uncomfortably at the sword point. "Is that really necessary?"
Trunks answered him. "You've heard of the traitor rumors?"
"Good point."
Taking over the conversation, Gohan started his interrogation, never relaxing from his stance. "What's your name and why are you heading this way?"
The man cleared his throat. "My name's Celeon. I'm in the middle of escapin' a very persistent human platoon. I think I've shook them off, but I'm not very sure."
Gohan's eyes harden. "You do realize that you're heading straight for another human fort."
Celeon returned his glare. "It's not like I have a choice. I didn't know about there being a fort out here, but I've been surrounded. At the time they were right on my tail."
The sound of twigs breaking was heard, catching all of the Saiyans' attention as they snapped their heads towards the west.
A look of hatred flashed on Celeon's face. "They're here."
Reacting as fast as he could, Gohan seized Celeon by the arm and threw him into a bush, Trunks diving in after him and returning the sword point to his neck. Goten took off into some brush, readying himself in case he had to defend himself. Gohan stood behind a tree, prepping himself for an ambush. This was one platoon that wouldn't see home.
As the four warriors waited, the strenuous seconds ticking by, nervous sweat pour down their faces, the question of if they would survive weighing heavily on their minds.
Slowly, the humans appeared. Surprising to Gohan, they weren't as heavily armed as he thought they would be. Out of thirty men, only seven carried blitz rifles while twenty had regular pistols and the remaining three had blitz pistols. This would be easier then he thought.
As the unsuspecting men entered the grove that the Saiyans once stood in confrontation, looks of uneasiness appeared on their faces. It was as if they were in unfamiliar territory and had just lost the Saiyan's tracks that they were following. They knew he wouldn't risk flying, since it would alert every garrison within a five mile radius to where he was. For them, this was a bad situation.
Before they could even recant their thoughts, Gohan unleashed a huge ki blast, swallowing the rifle men and the three blitz pistol carriers. 'Good,' Gohan thought, 'now they can't harm me at all.'
The remaining men let loose their meager firearms. They didn't know if they could kill the Saiyan or whomever their attacker was, but they would try anyhow.
Approaching the men like an angel of death, the bullets bouncing off harmlessly, Gohan moved in for the kill. With brutal efficiency, the men fell victim to Gohan's power. Even as they fled into the woods, Gohan hunted them down and slaughtered them. Like he said, this was one platoon that wouldn't see home.
It was a quarter of an hour when he returned to his comrades. Trunks still kept his sword at Celeon while Goten kept the Saiyan in his sight. If he made one wrong move, he was a dead man.
Before them, a small fire was burning and their packs were brought together in a somewhat neat pile. Good, Trunks and Goten weren't playing around.
Celeon turn his attention to Gohan, still wary of Trunks' sword. "Ya think that you can call off your friend here? It's getting a little uncomfortable with this thing pointing at me."
Gohan ignored him and sat down, his eyes looking deep into the small flames of the campfire. His silence carried on for several minutes, Celeon shifting in his uneasiness, until Gohan finally started to talk. "What proof do you have that we can trust you?"
Celeon stared in deep thought before answering, "You can bind my hands to my feet, restricting my movement. I'd prefer that rather than a sword point."
Gohan smiled a small smile. "Trunks, you can lower your sword."
Slowly, the young saiyan complied, laying the blade in his lap. His eyes never leaving Celeon.
Celeon let out a deep breath and gave a small smile. "I thank you for your unintended rescue. I didn't think they were that close to me."
Gohan waved it off. "As long as those humans don't spill any more Saiyan blood, that's all I care about."
His guest nodded. If he could have done the same thing as Gohan, he would've. But without the element of surprise, he would've just died trying. "I don't blame you for your distrust. I would've done the same thing."
Gohan got a sick look. "It shouldn't have to come down to this. We're already victims of that coward's treachery."
Celeon's eyes widen. "What happened?"
Gohan's eyes narrowed. "My father, Prince Vegeta, and I were on a routine raid on a human garrison when we were attacked. My and Goten's father was the first to fall. Vegeta died while we were escaping. He took as many of those wretched parasites before they got him."
Celeon started in disbelief. "Prince Vegeta survived the attack on the capital?" Then his eyes became downcast. "Not that it matters since he's dead. He was the last royal wasn't he?"
Gohan smirked. "The young man with the sword is his son. Trunks here is the last of the royal bloodline unless I'm missing someone. If we can get rid of the humans, we still have a chance of rebuilding our civilization."
Hope shown on Celeon's face, a huge smile encompassing it. "That's the best news I've heard in ten years."
Gohan frowned. "I trust you'll keep this a secret."
A confused look replaced the saiyan's look of hope. "What? Why?"
"If word ever got out that Trunks is still alive, the humans will tear the planet apart just to get rid of him. And as long as I'm around, I won't let that happen, even if he's capable of taking care of himself," Gohan said as he gave a quick glance to Trunks, the implications of Gohan's words settling in his mind.
"Now, I don't know about you, but I want to get out of the open. You never know when the humans will pop up."
After extinguishing the fire, the four companions made their way into the hills, finding an abandon stone building, half destroyed by the recent war. Nightfall soon came and the Saiyans fell asleep. It was about one o' clock at night when Gohan roused his "brothers" from their slumber. They left Celeon some food and a note explaining their sudden departure and took off into the night, putting as much distance between Celeon as they possible could. In times like these, they couldn't afford to make mistakes.
No matter how genuine a person seemed.