Cold Planet 93
January 30, A763

"Unidentified warrior, identify yourself!" a Freeza Force officer ordered.

"Stay out of my way. Turles is mine, fool," Yamcha replied. His suit distorted his voice; near as anyone could tell, he was entirely encased in the suit, which was preferable to the uncomfortable and ridiculous prosthetics they'd proposed early.

Yamcha ignored everyone firing at him; his speed and defense was too much for most of them anyway. He kept his eyes directly on Turles. As a part to make everything look as realistic as possible, Turles hadn't been told when 'Cacao' would appear and attack him.

The New Saiyan Empire army forces were unable to track him right until he slammed into Turles, sending him straight through the building that was behind him. The city had been abandoned by civilians, so Yamcha didn't have to worry about hurting anyone.

"You left me to die!" Yamcha declared.

"Cacao? You're alive?!" Turles gasped. Yamcha aimed his hand at him.

"If you could call it that."

He fired a series of Ki blasts at Turles. Normally this kind of attack was pointless, but Yamcha had been focusing on his aim, and managed to lay down several hits on Turles. The Saiyan launched himself at Yamcha, and they went back through the building, which started to crumble after the second impact. The pair of them began to exchange blows in midair.

A Freeza Force artillery piece fired, forcing Yamcha to blow it out of the sky. Turles landed a blow on Yamcha, denting the armor, to which Yamcha replied by punching Turles hard enough to crack his armor.

"Fools! This Saiyan is my kill! Interfere again, and I'll destroy your army!" Yamcha broadcast to the Freeza Force. Thankfully for the Saiyan army, Shive was there to lead the battle, and was conveniently away from the duel, and unable to assist Turles.

"If I had known you survived I'd have come and gotten you!"

"Your weakness is what led to my defeat! I suffered because of you! The Ginyu Force weren't there for us!" Yamcha punched Turles into the ground. He hovered over him. He began to fire blasts at Turles.

"They came for you. And because you were so pathetic! The other fools were pathetic! But I was strong! I survived where you failed, and now I! Will! Have! My! Revenge!" Yamcha screamed as he fired into Turles. He rose into the air, and charged an attack.

"NEBULA WAVE!" he shouted, firing a shimmering ribbon of energy into Turles, which exploded on impact. When the dust cleared, Turles was not moving, presumably having taken the paralytic for this purpose. His own scanners declared that his energy had plummeted to zero.

"Hmph. Dead fool!" Yamcha declared. Medics arrived, and declared Turles dead, and moved him off the battlefield. Satisfied, Yamcha flew off back across the Freeza Force lines, ignoring their hails, and returned to his ship.

Despite the demoralization of 'losing' Turles, the New Saiyan Army still managed to win the battle with Shive's power and leadership. Turles was shuffled off to a secret location, where he would train in private until his survival was to be revealed. Days later, they would abandon this world, along with a few more, giving the illusion that the New Saiyan Army had been dealt a massive blow by Turles's 'death', and that they were now on the retreat.

Weeks later, the Saiyan Elite would be revealed, having been training in the lesser gravity chambers and undergone training by the Saiyans and Yamcha previously. This revelation allowed the New Saiyan Empire to expand again and retake lost ground, which had largely been worlds they were having difficulties holding anyway. Morale in the Empire's army plummeted, but the liberated worlds that relied on them for defense remained loyal, and the Empire stood.

Shive himself led a vigil, adding Turles's name to the Wall of Martyrs. Little did everyone know, the engraving that added Turles was meant to be removed later.

XXX

Outside system of Cold Planet 255
February 3, A763

"All right, now or never," Lemo said, "They'd identified us, and we've got to give the right hails. I hope they don't shoot us just for having old codes…"

Lemo tapped into the console, sending out his Officer codes that he'd had for all of two hours before he'd set Freeza's vessel to self-destruct. Yamcha couldn't sweat due to the temperature control of his suit, but he sure felt nervous enough to. The wait seemed to stretch on for hours, but it was only a few moments.

"This is system control to Shuttle One-Three-Three-Seven. Identify yourselves and state your business," a voice declared.

"This is Commander Lemo of the Freeza Force-err, I mean, the Cold Force, accompanied by the Bounty Hunter Cacao. We have captured high-value criminals, and are looking to hand them over to Captain Wata for imprisonment," Lemo replied.

There was another wait.

"Enter the system and follow this flight path. Deviation will be considered hostility and you will be destroyed. Captain Wata will meet you at the prison," system control said. Lemo instructed his vessel to follow the flight path, and let out another sigh of relief.

"So far so good," Lemo said. Yamcha wanted to reassure him, and tell him everything was okay. Under the circumstances, however, he had to remain in-character, in case there was some kind of monitoring of their vessel already.

"For your sake, it had better stay that way. I'm going to check on our prisoners," Yamcha said, and he left the bridge, mostly to get himself moving. The suit was comfortable and had been meticulously designed for him to wear for months, even years if he needed to. He still felt like he was sealed in a coffin. Yamcha looked at the readings of the cryo pods Meys and Vegeta were kept in. To maintain the illusions, the two of them had actually been beaten to the brink of death before being stuffed into the pods to keep them alive and easy to deliver.

The readings gave Yamcha a pang of guilt for having helped deliver those beatings. Sure, they'd come out stronger for them, and it had largely been a fight between Meys and Vegeta, but the memory of it sickened him, kicking and blasting them while they were exhausted, on the ground.

"Cacao, we're on final approach," Lemo said. Yamcha left the pods, and headed to the shuttle's ramp. Lemo joined him, put on an oxygen mask, and the ramp lowered. About twenty Freeza Force soldiers, each registering no less than 10,000 on Yamcha's built-in scouters, were waiting for them. One of them registered at 110,000. He was a purple alien with wide, gill-like frills sticking out of the side of its head as wide as its shoulders, thick lips, a hole for a nose, a heavy brow, and stood with a slump. All of them wore oxygen masks.

"Welcome to the Ice Box, gentlemen. I understand you have some prisoners for us?" the powerful alien asked.

"Yes, we captured-" Lemo began.

"Who are we talking to? I don't deal with mooks, we speak with the warden," Yamcha said.

"I am Captain Wata, I am the warden. I'm well within my authority to negotiate with you," the alien said. Yamcha crossed his arms and nodded.

"We captured two Saiyans. Well, Cacao did most of the work, but I played my part. We tracked them to a remote system and laid an ambush for them," Lemo said.

"Oh? Commander Lemo, there isn't much information about you, except that you specialized in training beasts, and it seems Lord Freeza's last known order was to grant you an officer's rank from Enlisted. And then your only known order as an officer was to self-destruct Lord Freeza's ship. Why should I believe anything you say, especially when every other soldier on Namek was killed by the locals?" Wata asked.

"Don't talk to me like you know what happened on Namek. Freeza himself couldn't handle that hell. I'm lucky to be alive, and you're lucky I was looking to repent by capturing some of the Saiyans. We've got Vegeta and Meys on our ship, and we're looking to get paid for our good work. But if you're not interested, we can just kill them in their pods and sell our services elsewhere," Lemo said. Wata chuckled.

"I suppose you're right. I wasn't there. And if the Ginyu Force and Lord Freeza couldn't survive what you managed, I suppose I'm not one to argue with results, especially results like these," Wata said, "The bounty for Vegeta is five billion credits, and the bounty for the other Saiyans is two billion."

The Captain gestured, and they all waited on the spacedock until a soldier came out with a cart with boxes on them. Lemo and Yamcha inspected them, and verified the amount.

"You've got a deal," Lemo said.

"Excellent. I'll be sure to remove you from the KIA lists and into retirement. With prizes like these and money like that, you've more than earned it," Captain Wata said.

"No," Yamcha said.

"No, what?"

"I captured two Saiyans, but I killed a third. I killed Turles on Cold Planet 93. That's another two billion. Plus, you'll need to hire me onto your prison staff if you want any chance of holding these two," Yamcha said. Captain Wata considered.

"You have the qualifications, and it is true we recorded you killing him during that battle. You'll get your extra pay, but I'm not sure what you mean by needing you," Wata said.

"I'm one of the most powerful warriors in the galaxy. More powerful than you, that's for sure. The only ones that surpass me are maybe the Regent, King Cold, two Namekians, and the Saiyan that killed Freeza. If anything happens, and these Saiyans get out of containment, I'm the only person capable of putting them back, or putting them down. You'll pay me fifty million credits per month until King Cold decides to come and execute them himself," Yamcha said. Lemo crossed his arms.

"Plus, I'm not ready to retire until this damn war is finished. You'll need a vet like me on your team, even if I'm not a warrior. I'm good at organizing people, you'd be a fool not to take advantage of my experience," Lemo said, "I know you use this place as a training ground as much as a prison. There are things I know that can keep someone alive better than any suit of armor or blaster. Fortunately for you, my rates are a lot more reasonable. Besides, the trap we laid for the Saiyans was my idea."

Wata smiled, and nodded, "Welcome to the team, then, gentlemen."