Hey friends! New chapter here, long one as well. Give it a read and leave a review! Thanks.

Chapter 21: Outpost Conflict

Noca was resting up in the medical bay, but he wasn't one for sitting around and doing nothing. Even though there was no place for him to train he at least needed to get up and move about. Even if it was just checking out the ship, and maybe talking to the others, it was something at least. The teen stood up and stretched, but he felt a sharp pain in his leg. It hadn't quite healed right. His arm was significantly better though. Noca wiggled his leg about, but that wasn't a good idea. At least he could become accustomed to the pain though.

Noca stepped out of the medical bay and took a stroll up towards the cockpit. He saw the robot up at the front piloting their ship. They were moving very, very fast. Faster than the Capsule-Ship could go, but that was expected. Space travel seemed vastly more common than Noca had expected. That wasn't surprising when you think about how the Cold Empire used to get around. As Noca entered the cockpit properly he noticed Talia to his left. She was sitting in a chair behind some sort of computer, but she looked rather bored. Noca nodded to her.

"Good to see you up and about," She said, not bothering to look up from the computer screen. Noca didn't say anything and continued forwards to the front of the cockpit.

"So, where are we going?" Noca asked. It seemed like an entirely relevant question. Airen turned around in his seat and looked at Noca.

"We have already told you that," Airen said as he turned back to face the front. Noca's brow furrowed and he didn't know what to say to that.

"The trader's outpost on Eoz," Talia answered. Noca looked over his shoulder and nodded again.

"Thank you. I'm new out here in space… I don't exactly know where I am right now," Noca explained as he took a seat himself. He continued to look forward out of the window. He still had something else on his mind. "So, I'm after them because they have Vegeta, but why are you guys chasing these scavengers?"

"They took something of ours," Talia said as she shut off the computer she was on and walked over to Noca. Leaning on the back of his chair, tilting it back slightly. "Well, Guida's to be specific. We just tagged along… it's a long story."

Noca nodded and looked forward again. Talia glanced down at him and walked around to stand in front of him. She glared at him, but Noca didn't budge. He just looked up and smirked.

"So, what's a Saiyan like you doing out here?" She asked. Noca chuckled and looked to the right, shaking his head. Talia didn't really appreciate this.

"Vegeta and I are looking for something…" Noca scoffed and then looked back at Talia, "It's a long story."

Talia rolled her eyes and walked off. Noca just watched her leave, not really knowing what to do with himself now. He looked forward to Airen, but realised that the Robot may not be the best company. Really, Noca should continue to rest up so he can be ready for when they arrive at this outpost. Noca stood up ready to leave, but then Airen spoke up.

"The Scavengers know the location of someone that Guida has been trying to hunt down for a long time," Airen explained. Noca stalled and turned around. He wasn't overly fond of the word 'hunt' being used. That meant that either a fight or a killing was going to occur at some point. Noca would've questioned further, but decided against it. "Do not worry, Noca. We will save your friend and acquire what we need."

"Yes, we will," Guida said, now standing in the doorway and looking right at Noca. He was still untrusting, but Noca simply nodded to the group leader. He just hoped that Vegeta was ok.

Meanwhile, the large Scavenger ship was currently soaring towards the Outpost. Down at the brig of this ship, inside one of the cells, lay an unconscious and injured Saiyan Prince. Vegeta started to stir and move about, eventually waking and sitting up. He couldn't shake the splitting pain that had taken residence in his head. His eyes took a second to adjust to the new environment, but it didn't take long for the Prince to realise he was in a cell, and then he started to remember what had happened to him.

He tried to get up, but found that his hands had been bound behind his back. He tried his best to break out the bindings, but it was no use. They were military grade. Vegeta managed to get to his feet and charged for the bars on his cage at full speed, and full strength. That didn't seem to be a good idea, not when he was suddenly being electrocuted by the bars. The Prince fell back to the ground and shook his head, the pain feeling worse now. He looked up at the bars and growled in anger. He stood again and walked to the bars to look around.

A door opened at the end of the room and someone entered. It was the one from Dodoria's race. Shibo. Vegeta glared as the fat alien made his way towards the cage.

"You better let me out of here if you want to be spared," Vegeta threatened. Shibo just stared laughing.

"And what're ya gonna do, monkey?" Shibo questioned, while laughing out loud. "You belong in that cage."

Vegeta calmed himself, but you could clearly see the rage on his face. He didn't want to be in that cage and he wasn't planning on staying very long.

"Don't get any ideas, Saiyan filth," Shibo said, "We're nearly at the outpost, we'll have some back-up there."

Vegeta huffed and backed up against the wall watching Shibo as he went through supplies. All the Prince would need to do was set off an energy blast and this ship would go down, but he didn't want to risk his own life. He would have to take a page out of Noca's book and be patient. He closed his eyes and planned to bide his time. Apparently, they would be arriving somewhere new very soon, so the Saiyan Prince had to be prepared to fight his way out.

Eventually, they landed, and doors to the brig opened again, and in stepped the leader of this crew. He walked up to Shibo, not bothering to spare a glance at Vegeta. The Saiyan kept his eye on this new presence. He didn't look overly tough, but there was something about him that told Vegeta he was composed, this could mean there was strength hidden within. The Prince would need to be wary.

"Head out into the port," Shirken ordered Shibo, as the others entered. "I need you to go meet with our contact, but you two."

Shirken turned to Kuiku and Tufa as they stood to attention, showing that they may have a military background. Vegeta furrowed his brow at this. Their armours did have similar styles to some of the other factions within the Cold Empire.

"Kuiku, I need you to get to work on that map, find out what it's for…" Shirken said, basically waving Kuiku away. The Serpent-like alien nodded and headed off, leaving Tufa. "Grab whatever supplies you can from the nearby stalls, here's some credits. See if you can sell some of this stuff too."

Tufa took the credits, nodded and walked over to pick up some of the boxes and began to load them onto some sort of hovering platform. Shibo had not yet left.

"What do we do about that one?" Shibo asked, pointing at Vegeta in the cell. Shirken turned to him and then looked at the Prince's ship.

"We keep both for now, I think they may be worth more than we think," Shirken glanced back to Vegeta, "To someone…"

Shirken waved Shibo away and stood in the same spot for a second. Shibo helped Tufa load some more stuff and both left the ship at the same time. Shirken waited to be alone and then turned to face Vegeta. He walked right up to the cell and stood close to the electrified bars.

"Your armour?" Shirken said in a questioning fashion, "It's reminiscent of Cold Empire attire. That specific style usually catered more to Saiyans. Is that what you are? A Saiyan?"

Vegeta looked up and glared at the alien.

"Of course, you are, it makes complete sense," Shirken walked over to Vegeta's ship. "We were all part of the Cold Empire. Different parts, perhaps, but we all served Lord Freeza, I heard he was resurrected."

"Well, fortunately he's dead, once again. Both times he was killed by a Saiyan… and most recently, me." Vegeta finally spoke up, and it would have to be to brag. Shirken chuckled, but had nothing more to say, He just walked away. Vegeta leant back and looked down to the damage he had sustained on that Planet. He needed to recuperate soon.

It didn't take much time for Noca and his new allies to arrive at the Eoz outpost. Noca looked out of the window down at this new place and was surprised by how many ships were flying in and out of the port. The Saiyan was in awe for a second, but the ship landed quickly and settled. Noca was immediately to his feet and moved towards the exit. Niku stood up and grabbed his shoulder.

"Woah, where are you off to, in such a hurry?" The large alien asked, half a smirk on his face. Noca moved his shoulder to get Niku's hand off of it.

"I need to get out there, find those scavengers… and Vegeta," Noca said. He was determined to get on with his task, but that didn't seem likely as Guida stepped up.

"You don't even know where you'll be going," Guida told the boy. Noca looked over his shoulder, back at Guida, but he wasn't pleased.

"I have good senses, I am sure I'll find Vegeta," Noca responded, preparing to walk off again. Guida just chuckled.

"It's a shame that I have a plan then…" The leader said, leaning against a chair. Noca stopped and slowly turned around.

"Fine… what is your plan?" Noca asked, even though he clearly couldn't care less.

"I don't want to run at them in a panic. I don't want them to have a chance of getting away. They have an informant who works on the dock. We just find him, and he'll take us to them," Guida explained. Talia and Niku looked from their leader, to Noca and then nodded. Noca looked at them all and shrugged his shoulders. "Talia, you go with Noca and see if you can find him."

Noca looked back to the green-skinned girl. She rolled her eyes and brushed past Noca. The Saiyan nodded to Guida and followed after Talia. Guida stood there for a second and appeared to be pondering something. Niku walked over to him.

"Get us some more supplies… I have a feeling we won't be back for a while," Guida instructed Niku. The larger alien nodded and moved off to do what he had been told. Guida stood in the same place for a second, contemplating something. He shook his head and walked off to his quarters.

Noca and Talia were already out and making their way through the port. Noca was still fairly mesmerised by this new locale. It was truly like nothing he had witnessed in his life before, but that was because this was the first time he had been in space. There were lots of little stalls with various aliens selling various types of foods or trinkets. Some had parts for spaceships or other bits of technology. Noca was interested in taking something back for Bulma and Bra to look at, but didn't have any money to spend out here.

Talia made sure to keep him moving along and did her best to keep him from getting too distracted. The girl was keeping her eyed peeled and focussed on finding this informant, but Noca didn't appear to be of any help to her. She was about to start complaining to him, but remembered that Noca didn't even know what the informant looked like. She turned around to let him know, but Noca was standing at a stall looking at stuff.

"And you say this is a delicacy on your home planet," Noca said as he tried to swallow something he had been given as a free sample. Judging by his face Talia could tell it was something he didn't like the taste of.

"Will you hurry up," Talia said walking over in a huff. Noca looked at her and made a face of disgust, she didn't want to admit it, but Noca's face amused her and she almost let a full smile cross her face. She remained composed and grabbed Noca's wrist, walking off quickly with the Saiyan in tow. "You can't keep getting distracted."

"Sorry, it's my first time somewhere like this," Noca apologised, sounding genuinely sorry, but Talia didn't say anything in response. "Why do you need me so close to you anyway, I don't need protection."

"Yes, you do," Talia scoffed, "You said yourself, it's your first time somewhere like this, you don't know what these freaks are capable of."

Noca looked around, but he wasn't convinced. He just shrugged his shoulders and continued to follow the girl. Eventually they arrived at a bar and Talia walked in first. Noca stalled for a second to look around and then followed on.

Upon entry, Noca was greeted by a rather unfortunate looking alien. He had a large, scarred head. Very wide, blue eyes and a large mouth with few teeth. Noca gave him an awkward smile and stepped past him. Now he got a better view of the rest of this bar. There were tables full of strange looking aliens of all shapes and sizes. Noca tried not to stare at any of them and simply made his way to the bar, where Talia was standing. The Saiyan stopped next to her and looked at all the drink options. Talia glanced over at him.

"Do you want something?" She asked him.

"Uh… yeah, I guess…" Noca turned to face the bartender. "What's the strongest thing you have?"

The bartender didn't even answer Noca. He just poured Noca a glass of some sort of green liquid. He then took Talia's order and served it to her. Talia paid the man and started to sip at her drink. Noca took in the scent of his drink, it didn't really have something recognisable. It wasn't a bad smell though. Noca was about to drink it when he noticed that loads of people in the bar were watching him.

"Why are they watching me, Talia?" Noca asked his ally. She looked around and then at the glass.

"It's the drink… it's probably far too strong for you," She responded. Noca just chuckled and downed the drink in one. Talia went wide-eyed, she was worried about what the effects may be. Some people in the bar stood up and moved an inch or so closer to Noca. It was as if they expected him to die.

Noca put the glass back on the table and looked up at the bartender, "Is that it?"

The bartender grunted and walked off to serve another customer. Other people in the bar turned back their drinks slowly, but they appeared to be wary of Noca now. Talia was surprised, but she couldn't stifle the little laugh she let out.

"Anyway… we need to find this informant," Talia said as she stood up to take a look around. Noca quickly stopped her.

"Um, I don't know what he looks like," Noca said, smiling at her in a goofy way. She shook her head and smirked. She started to tap at the device on her wrist and soon an image came up. It was an alien with a small trunk instead of a nose, he had a mouth hidden under that trunk and had two eyes sticking up out of his head like antennae. Noca raised an eyebrow. "Creepy…"

"Well, I'm going to take a look around the bar, you just wait here for me," Talia instructed before heading off. Noca sat there and looked around from his seat at the bar. Talia didn't take too long to scout out the bar, but by the end of it she hadn't managed to find anything new or peculiar. She was beginning to get a little frustrated with her futile efforts. She returned to Noca's side and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, there's nothing here. We may as well leave," She said, then turned around and walked towards the exit. Noca stood up and followed her, taking a quick glance around as he left. They got outside and stood there for a second. Talia looked around, through the crowds, trying to find something… anything. Noca just looked at her, not really sure what to do now.

Noca was about to say something to his new ally, but all of sudden she pointed and yelled.

"There he is!" She said, before breaking into a run and rushing towards her target. Apparently, the commotion drew some attention and the alien turned to look at her. He certainly seemed panicked by this and stumbled to the side before running off as well. Noca saw them both get off into the distance and he attempted to use Instant Transmission to get after them, but he couldn't. The teen was finding it too difficult to get a lock on that alien's energy, even Talia's for that matter. He had left it too long, he needed to find a quick way to try and catch up to them. He just hoped Talia could manage on her own for now.

Talia was running as fast as she could through the large crowds, but she wasn't managing to break into enough of a sprint. She knew she could be fast enough to catch up to the ridiculous alien, but the crowds were making it difficult to navigate and find small gaps. Meanwhile, the alien was just pushing people out of the way and making sure to use his strength to push through. He stumbled a little, almost falling on his front but managed to keep himself up and keep going.

Talia moved on and managed to slide through groups and squeeze through any tight gaps she could spot in the crowds. The alien informant was beginning to lose distance with Talia strong on his tail, but he did his best to avoid her catching up with him. He knocked over one of the shopping stalls. Talia was very close behind and couldn't move out of the way quick enough to avoid the falling stall and tripped over it, falling forward on to her front.

She slowly pushed up and broke into yet another run. She had fallen behind, but had to keep on going as best and as fast as she could. The informant stops to look back and see where Talia had got to, but only to see that she was catching up again. The runner quickly headed down an alleyway and turned a corner once down there. Talia spotted him and reached the entrances of the alley, skidding to a halt and sprinting down there, avoiding any dumpsters or pieces of rubbish on the ground. She reached the end and turned down towards the informant and noticed he had reached a dead end.

Talia stopped running and started to walk down a little slower. She had him cornered now. The informant turned around and looked towards her, looking rather shocked by what was going on. He wasn't ready for this. He looked down at the ground and then up at Talia.

"You've got nowhere to run," She said, smirking. She finally stopped and placed both her hands on her hips. The informant looked down again, quickly glanced all around him and then charged forward, kicking a piece of garbage at the girl and he then jumped onto a dumpster. Talia looked back and watched as the informant moved rapidly to grab onto a ladder, climb and then quickly jump from the ladder to the other side and climb onto a small roof.

Talia cursed herself for stopping and quickly followed up. She reached the roof and saw that the informant had broken into a faster run and was jumping from roof to roof. She started sprinting again and followed his path to the best of her ability. The informant dropped down to a lower roof, landed on a balcony, rolled forward a little and then leapt across to another building. Talia rushed to the edge and watched the balcony fall as the informant left it.

She made sure to avoid falling down there and looked for a new path. The informant, meanwhile, had climbed to a higher point and looked across to Talia. He smiled and started laughing. Talia glared at him and wanted to find a way to get across. The informant began to taunt her and Talia couldn't deal with that. She spotted a sort of power line between the two buildings and rushed to it. The informant didn't think much of it.

Talia took a second to position her right foot, looked up, and then burst across it in a powerful run. She made it to the end and without losing her balance, but the informant had started running off, yet again. Talia was very close to finally catching him, but the informant began to fire his gun back in her direction. She avoided the shots and watched as the informant tripped over a loose panel and fell down on to a lower roof. Talia reached the edge and looked down to see him roll away and run off quickly.

Talia dropped down, took a little stumble, but then managed to run again. The informant was heading towards a crowd once more, but took a quick look back and ran into someone by accident. He fell back on to his ass and looked up to see Talia's ally, Noca, standing there. The Saiyan shook his head. The informant lifted his arm, ready to fire his gun, but Noca kicked it away and stood there with his arms crossed. Talia finally caught up.

"Took your time," She said to her new 'friend' before lifting the informant up and holding his arm behind his back. "Tell us where those scavenger scum are?"

She did her best to sound menacing, but the informant just started laughing. Talia didn't like this and thrust him forward into a wall. Noca rushed up.

"You don't want to injure him… he may not talk after that," Noca explained, trying to talk some sense into her. Talia looked to him, saw the seriousness in his eye and nodded. She didn't want to delay finding the scavengers and rescuing Noca's friend anymore. The two of them took the informant back to the ship.

As ordered by Shirken, Shibo had arrived at the spot he was designated to meet with the informant. The scavenger stood around for a little bit. He knew exactly who he was looking for, but for some reason the guy was nowhere to be seen. Normally he would already be there waiting to meet someone, but this time… this time was different, and Shibo was concerned. He lifted his communicator to his mouth and contacted Kuiku.

"Hey, the informant isn't near you guys, is he?" Shibo asked, clearly feeling nervous about the answer.

"No, why would he be?" Kuiku replied. This wasn't what Shibo wanted to hear. He hung up the communicator and started to look around a bit more. He moved away from the spot and pushed through crowds trying to find what he was looking for, but nowhere. This alien informant wasn't exactly unnoticeable. He was pretty unique in appearance. Shibo cursed himself and quickly headed back to the ship. He would have to speak with Shirken about this.

Noca and Talia returned to the ship and immediately took the informant to Guida. He had no weapon, no way out. Guida had him right where he wanted him and he was ready to do whatever it would take to get the location of the scavengers out of him. Talia dropped him to the floor and stood back as Guida stepped forward. The leader knelt down and lifted the informants head up to look at him.

"Where are they? The ones you were supposed to meet?" Guida asked, getting straight to the point. The informant just stared back, but Guida wasn't in the mood for intense silences. He simply backhanded the informant across the face and grabbed him by the throat. "Where are they?!"

Guida had yelled into the informant's face and he certainly started fearing for his life.

"Docking bay 94…" The informant gave up, almost instantly. Guida dropped him to the ground and stood up straight. Noca turned around and started to head off.

"Where do you think you're going?" Guida asked, walking after him.

"We need to go and get Vegeta," Noca answered. Guida caught up with him and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

"Without a plan?" Guida questioned, Noca stopped and pulled out of Guida's grip. He turned to face the older alien. "We need to strategize. We can't just rush after them. They'll be expecting something after their informant went missing."

Noca looked down and nodded. Guida was right. They did need to rush, but they still had to have a plan. It could be dangerous otherwise. Noca looked up at him, a serious expression on his face.

"What's the plan then?" Noca asked, needing answers right away. Guida turned away and started thinking on it. He didn't currently have an idea, but he would soon have one, he hoped. Noca didn't want to wait for something they needed to act quickly. "Well?"

"Bay 94 is on the other side of the outpost, we don't want them to hear or see us coming," Guida explained, leaning back on the door frame. "I think we should wait until it gets a little darker, only a little though."

Noca looked away and didn't appear to be very happy. He walked out of the room and stood alone for a second. Guida took a couple of steps forward and stopped.

"Noca, we will help your friend… but we have to be smart about this," Guida explained, just to soothe Noca's concerns. Noca turned and nodded to Guida before heading off back to the quarters he had been allocated. He thought it was worth getting in some rest before they were ready to go and fight the scavengers.

About an hour passed them by and Guida had decided to get the crew together to explain their plan.

"We'll wait until it's dark so that they can't see our ship. We're gonna get Airen to fly around and box them in, making it hard for them to leave…" Guida explained, but Airen stood up to interject with something.

"This ship has a weapon, a weapon that will be able to temporarily disable their controls," the robot suggested, but Guida shook his head.

"That might draw too much attention… unwanted attention," Guida suggested.

"But it makes it impossible for them to leave until we have what we need," Talia butted in, supporting Airen's idea. Guida looked over to the young girl and then over to Niku. The large fighter just nodded, showing his agreement. Guida sighs.

"Fine… we'll do it that way, the rest of us will approach on foot," Guida explained further, "Airen, we'll give you the signal when we want you to come in."

The crew were all in agreement about the plan, and the sun was already starting to set. It would soon be dark enough for them to put the plan into action. Noca was ready for it. He was prepared to go in, full power, and get Vegeta back. This was not how he had expected this quest to go, it had severely taken them off track.

Soon enough, it was time. Noca and the crew headed off through the docks and made their way towards Bay 94. In the meantime, Airen took the ship into orbit, ready to descend when he received the signal from Guida. It didn't take them long to reach 94, and once they arrived they made sure to stay in cover and monitor the situation. Guida used his binoculars to see what the crew were doing. They were just loading on their supplies, so it was likely they had arrived just in time. Noca was ready to advance, but Niku put an arm out and shook his head.

"Wait for Guida's call," The larger alien said in a hushed tone. Noca sighed but nodded, understanding the situation. Guida looked over his crew and then over to the others once more. He reached his left hand over to his right wrist, ready to call in Airen. One last look over to the crew to check they were ready. All three of them nodded to Guida, and he nodded back. It was time.

Guida pressed the button and they could slightly hear the sound of their ship's engines as it closed in. The scavenger crew weren't fazed by the sound and continued loading the ship, but their attentions were certainly grabbed when a spotlight suddenly shone down on them.

Kuiku and Tufa looked up, clearly taken by surprise. They grabbed their rifles and immediately started firing, but it was clear that the shields were up on the ship. Airen aimed and fired the stun weapon and all the systems of the scavenger ship shut down immediately. And all the systems did mean all the systems.

Inside the ship, the power cut out as Shibo continued to organise the storage bay, which happened to be where Vegeta was also being held. Out of nowhere, the door of the cage Vegeta was being kept in opened and the Prince started to move out.

"Well, looks like I'm free, and you're in my way," Vegeta said, smirking and walking towards Shibo. The large alien started chuckling.

"Your hands are still bound and you're injured… you can't hurt me," He taunted, hoping the Prince would back off. Vegeta started chuckling, but that soon grew into a bellowing laugh as he shot towards the alien and started kicking him.

Back outside, Shirken had finally got out of the ship to see what all the commotion was about. He saw that he men were firing up at a ship. He looked at the ship and thought he recognised it, but couldn't place it in his memory. He looked down at his crew, ready to shout an order, but that's when he saw Kuiku get hit from behind. The tall alien stumbled forward and saw that it was just a rock. Shirken looked over to see where it came from and saw that three people were heading towards him. Two of which, he recognised.

Shirken walked down the ramp of his ship.

"Don't worry about their ship, attack them!" Shirken ordered, pointing at the enemies. Kuiku and Tufa turned around and started firing their weapons on them. Even Shirken advanced on them, ready to join the action.

Guida lifted his communicator to his mouth as he walked forwards. "Talia, get on the ship, get what we need and save Noca's friend."

Still hidden behind the boxes, Talia lifted the communicator to her mouth. "Copy that, boss."

She peered over the boxes and watched as Niku took on Tufa, Kuiku leapt towards Noca… and Shirken clashed with Guida. It was in this moment that Noca learned something new about Guida. He was the same race as the Scavenger leader. A question for later. Talia, meanwhile, found the perfect moment to come out of cover and make a break for their ship. She looked over at her allies once more, making sure she wouldn't be seen, and then sprinted towards the ship.

Noca was busy taking on Kuiku and realised that these aliens were stronger than he realised. He hadn't yet transformed and didn't really want to, but knew it could really help him. Kuiku was very fast and hadn't given Noca much of a chance to get an attack in. That wasn't to say Noca was losing, in fact, he hadn't even been hit yet. Noca leapt up and over Kuiku, but as he did, the alien turned around and tried to throw a punch at him. Noca dropped down, avoiding the punch and went for the alien's legs. Kuiku jumped over and tried to whip Noca with his tail. The Saiyan jumped back narrowly avoiding it.

Niku and Tufa were in a proper tussle. Both of them being the bulky fighters in their teams. While Guida and Shirken were in an all-out fight. Punches and kicks flying between the two. Talia seemed to be the one that had it easy, going into an empty ship. Almost… empty ship.

In the storage area, Vegeta was still trying to fight Shibo with his hands bound. Vegeta was still doing well enough to stay unharmed, but he was still feeling a little weakened and his injuries were causing him some discomfort. He leapt up and attempted to kick Shibo, but the alien grabbed Vegeta's leg. He slammed the Prince down on the ground and pulled out a gun.

"Sorry, but I have ta kill you now," Shibo said, laughing to himself. Vegeta grunted and tried to swing around, but as he did someone entered the room and kicked Shibo back into the wall. Apparently knocking him out. She immediately turned to Vegeta and broke his bounds.

"I'm here with Noca, we're rescuing you," Talia explained. Vegeta was still wary, but happy enough to be free. She rushed over to the Capsule-ship and was about to press the emergency release for the bay, but Vegeta stopped her.

"Wait, don't do that," he said, knowing there was an easier way to get that ship out of here. She was a little confused. Vegeta walked over to the ship and pressed a button on the side, capsulizing it. Talia just raised an eyebrow. Vegeta pocketed it and looked over her shoulder, "What's your name?"

"Talia. Sorry, but you should get out of here, I have something else to do," Talia explained before rushing off. Vegeta watched her leave and the looked around to see if there was anything he could take. He finally made his way outside and saw that there was a lot of fighting going on. He took a moment to watch Noca, but then Guida spotted him.

"Vegeta, get on our ship!" Guida called out, pressing a button on his wrist and pointing at the ship. Airen brought the ship in lower and opened the ramp. Vegeta leapt up on the ship and entered.

Meanwhile, Talia was still inside the ship and rushing through the halls, making her way towards the control room at the top. She stopped upon hearing the sound of something opening. She was under the impression that the ship had no power. Apparently, there were some sort of guard robots that activated in the case of emergency. They had some form of electrified staffs and luckily there were only two of them. Talia backed up and then unsheathed her own two blades that had been hidden on her back.

She rushed forward at them and started slashing with her blades and blocking the electrified staffs. She did her best to dive past them and then swung around severing their heads and stabbing through their bodies to make sure they wouldn't move anymore. She was proud of her work and rushed on. She eventually made it to the control room and ran up to the main computer. She sheathed her blades and started rebooting the main computer, making sure to not reboot the whole ship's systems.

Talia scoured through the ships systems looking for what it was that she needed. She lifts her wrist to her mouth and started to contact the ship.

"Airen, I need you to temporarily open all communication channels. I've found what we need… I'm gonna transfer it right away," Talia explained. Airen gave her an affirmative and told her he was ready. The girl immediately transferred the files and was ready to leave the ship. She turned around and was immediately greeted by some more defence robots. Talia took her swords out again and leapt up, jumping onto one of the computers and pouncing towards the robots. She swung her swords as she went past them, slicing them up and landed, falling into a roll and getting back to her feet. She immediately ran off, making it outside and joining the others. Upon seeing Talia, the crew knew it was time to go. They all started running towards their ship and jumped on. Airen closed the ramp and turned to fly away.

Shirken turned to Tufa, "You, get in the Dart and get after them," he ordered his man. Tufa quickly ran inside of the large ship and boarded a smaller, one man ship. Apparently, it was called the Dart, and that was appropriate as the ship was shaped like one. He powered up and shot off after the enemies. Shirken re-entered his ship and started trying to power it up, but there was nothing happening. The controls were still down. He noticed that the main computer was still open and files had been taken. Now he knew what had to be done.

He managed to get his communication channels open and got in contact with the Dart. "You know what you need to do, Tufa. Kill them."

Tufa accepted the order and continued to chase after Guida's crew. All of the crew entered into the control room to see if they were in the clear.

"Unfortunately, not…" Airen said, "We are being chased by one of them. They are occupying a small, one-man ship."

"Can you shake them off?" Guida asked, just wanting to get away.

"I can, but it would require me to navigate through the outpost, to try and confuse him," Airen explained as he hit the thrusters and spun the ship around, flying into the city. The Dart did good enough to catch up, being small had its advantages. Airen tried to keep the ship higher above the outpost, but the Dart opened fire on the ship, meaning that Airen had to manoeuvre and head down, actually into the city. The Dart swung around and headed right after Airen. Tufa continued to fire his weapons.

Airen performed a spin to avoid the blasts as best he could. Luckily the shields were still up and working properly. Airen took the ship lower and was flying past all the buildings and doing best to avoid any other small ships flying through. Tufa, however, didn't care and continued to fire the weapons, destroying smaller ships and hitting buildings. There were giant screens and billboards with advertisements that were getting hit and destroyed. They would collapse and fall down on to the streets below.

Some of the billboards and screens ahead of Airen were getting hit and falling towards the crew, but the robot did his best to navigate through. Some of the rubble got in the way and Airen couldn't see properly, but at the last minute noticed they were getting close to some buildings. Airen quickly turned right and managed to swing around and continued flying straight. The Dart turned and continued to follow after them.

Due to the destruction being caused some police ships had started to come and try to take down the two ships. The Dart continued to fire the weapons and started to take down some sort of signal tower. The tower started to fall towards Airen's ship and he was moving so fast that this would be very dangerous for them. Airen had to fire their weapons to break through the falling building. They managed to come through basically unscathed, but the back of the ship gets knocked by some rubble and they become unbalanced for a second.

The Dart managed to get through the smallest gaps, while the police ships can't slow down on time and crash and explode. The Dart fires a rocket once in open space and it turns out to be a homing rocket. Airen notices that something had locked on and knew he had to make evasive action. Airen spins the ship and then shoots up and makes lots of erratic turns. The rocket manages to stick very close, but seems to be catching up. Airen spins again and shoots back down towards the ground, but turns up soon enough and flies along the street.

Airen realises that they aren't making any progress with getting rid of the rocket. He hits the thruster again and flies right towards the end of the street, where there happens to be a building. The others on-board start to become a little worried that they will crash, especially with the rocket keeping very close. At the very, very last minute Airen turned up, shooting back into the atmosphere, but the rocket was so close that it didn't turn in time and crashed into the building.

The crew started to believe they were in the clear, but out of nowhere the Dart appeared behind them and continued to fire. Tufa, believing he was smart, continued to fire at towers and buildings around them, hoping they would collapse on them. Considering both ships were flying up, it would put both in a tough situation. The rubble started to fall down in large quantities and Airen had to make a hard decision. He cut out the engines and let the ship fall back. Tufa was shocked by this action and had to avoid the ship as it fell towards his. Airen turned on the engines once past the Dart and blasted off again.

Tufa had to turn and fly away at a speed as well, fortunately for him, he managed it. That's when he started to look around and see where the crew would go to, but they were nowhere to be found. They got away. That would be a hard conversation to have with Shirken once he returned.

Meanwhile, Airen had taken the ship out of orbit and was ready to blast off, using the hyper-drive. They needed to get to a safer location.

Tufa returned to Shirken and went straight to the control room. Shirken turned in his seat and glared at his ally.

"The slippery little bastards got away," Tufa said, sitting back in a chair. Shirken stood up and pulled out a pistol, shooting it right next to Tufa's head. The large alien fell out of his chair and backed away.

"You're lucky I didn't kill you. But it's only because I learned something about the ship we took," Shirken started explaining. The others all looked at him in confusion, "It was from Earth… and they were Saiyans, so… we have new information for Yamo, and his friend."

Tufa stood up, "But what did they take?"

"They copied the coordinates and map, but I'm not entirely sure what else," Shirken explained, "Luckily, it wasn't too much and we should be able to deal with things as they happen, but we will see them again."

Guida and his crew had finally managed to get to a safe distance away from the Eoz outpost, and took the time to relax. Vegeta needed a little bit of time to recuperate and rest on the journey to the new outpost in orbit around planet Zarile. Once they arrived Vegeta was completely healed and Noca said they should leave right away.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Guida asked, as Noca and Vegeta exited the ship and headed towards their own one. Noca stopped and Vegeta walked on a little more before stopping and turning to face his younger ally. Noca looked at the Prince and then turned around to address Guida.

"We're on a quest to find planet Sadala, the original home planet of the Saiyans," Noca explained. Guida raised both eyebrows and turned to his crew.

"That doesn't sound like a safe journey," Guida started. Noca looked up at the team leader and furrowed his brow. "I don't think it's a planet that will be easily accessible. It has been lost for centuries now… nobody believes it actually exists."

"It has to," Noca interrupted, "We need to get there… we just have to."

Noca really couldn't explain the full story to this crew right now. He couldn't go into all of it. He didn't need them to understand why he had to do this, he just needed to get back on his ship and go. Noca turned around and Niku step forward.

"You should join our crew," He suggested. Noca stopped and turned back.

"Sorry, I can't. We both have lives back on Earth," Noca responded, smiling at Niku and the rest of the crew. "Plus, we need to finish our quest."

Noca and Vegeta turned to start walking back towards the ship, but this time it was Airen that grabbed their attentions.

"You will most certainly die," the robot said, cheerfully. Noca shook his head and smirked to himself. Vegeta entered the Capsule Ship, but Noca turned around and walked back a little bit.

"Thanks for helping me, us… it was… an experience," Noca said to them all. Smiling at them. He landed on Talia and did a little bow, "Thank you… and I have a question. What was it you took from them?"

The crew looked at each other and then Guida stepped forward to answer.

"A map… it belongs to us and will help us complete our missions…" Guida explained, but he definitely didn't want to say any more. Noca just nodded and turned around one last time.

"Be careful," Talia called out. Noca simply raised a hand as he continued to walk on. He boarded the ship and then they took off, heading back on their quest to find planet Sadala. The crew on the ground watched them go and then Guida turned to walk back to his own ship. Airen followed closely. Niku walked over to Talia and placed a hand on her shoulder. Talia smiled up at her ally and then headed off. They soon took off and headed in the opposite direction to the Saiyans.

…

Guida, Niku, Talia, and Airen will all return…

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I didn't realise I would be able to tell this entire part of the story in two chapters, but there you go. Also, did you pick up on the two Star Wars references in here. One of them was obvious, the other a little more subtle. Why not guess both and leave a review with your answers. Leave a review anyway because I love to read them.

Thanks for reading!

Next Time... Chapter 21: Welcome Back