I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 45: Breathing
For the next week and a half I practiced turning invisible as I wondered the ship. Meal times were kind of hard to manage though, keeping focus off of food was understandably difficult. Any other time I was doing decently, as long as I wasn't in an area that featured many people coming and going. I stuck to a few hallways that featured random figures going to and forth, for the most part meditating in the middle of it but next to a wall. I would focus myself to watch all of the area with my senses, and release or take back energy as needed, depending on traffic mostly. The tricky spots were the ones that featured both Terran and Protoss running around. Many times I couldn't easily guess which one was about to enter or exit, not to mention their energy levels were different and I had to keep my own in check. I reappeared many times during this, scaring the shit out of whoever was there all the time. I scowled slightly, I was going to need to master this before trying it in the wide open outdoors, where the energy field would be much larger. It bothered me to no end that it was close to impossible to remain in that state in a populated area. If no one was moving around, never mind entering or leaving the area, it would be no sweat. Can't have everything easy I suppose, I wonder how Zeratul handles the unpredictability.
After several hours a day of this, I returned to my room and meditated some more, but only generating Psi energy around myself at regular intervals. Zeratul didn't request for me to come see him again until I felt that I had mastered the Invisibility trick. I found that a bit odd that he didn't seem to check on me from time to time, but then again he could be sneaking around at any time and I may not have known it. That thought alonefreaked me out a bit from time to time, causing me to turn invisible just to check my room at times. Occasionally Goku or Gohan would stop by my room, just seeing if I was okay since I rarely saw them at meal times. I was still running on a different schedule than anyone else was, andso many times I was actually sleeping when they came by. I got a lot of comments on how blue my eyes were after power downs, which at least allowed me to know that I was doing things right. The other four Saiyans were doing a lot of light sparring in the lower levels of the battle ship, mostly because their gravity chamber had been destroyed thanks to Broly. Only our mission seemed to keep Vegeta from requesting to stop at some other abandoned planet so they could train harder, or as far as I could tell. I went down there a few times to practice my invisibility focus, finding it easier to concentrate with fewer life forms around. It was still no picnic with four Saiyans fighting with each other with super speed. I kept up pretty well with the energy fields, but many times I couldn't keep going after about five to ten minutes, usually whenever someone did something I didn't expect or anticipate. I felt that five to ten minutes in a major battle was excellent to be able to pull off, especially if I needed a way out against a stronger opponent. I still declined sparring matches per Zeratul's orders, though I was quite eager to engage in them.
I also had been practicing something new during those light sparring matches. I began to create thick barriers of Psi energy around myself as a shield and had someone fire some ki blasts at it. All of the minor blasts were either deflected or canceled out, and we didn't dare try a big one. Whichever happened, my new energy shield didn't seem to decrease in power even if I was taking on a lot of small ki blasts at a rapid pace. I remembered Aldaris doing the same to me, and figured that if he could learn it, so could I. It had saved him a lot of trouble dealing with dodging and repelling attacks, not to mention it was a very quick way to use the Psi storm technique on anyone within close proximity. I also figured that this could be an easy way to deal with the Zerg and save energy. I recalled what happened to Zerg when low amounts of mixed energy hit them, instant death. Gohan told me that he had been able to adapt that very well when they got to Char, saying that in Super Mystic form it was very easy to do by just spreading out the fused energy. I was already becoming an expert at that. It just so happened that I beat Zeratul to the punch on the shielding technique, he was going to teach me how to do that the next day after I got it down, saving me a day of lessons in vague language. He also had sent Tassadar to me for learning how to use a Psi Storm attack, something Kerrigan had already showed me how to do.
It was on the eleventh day off of Char that I was rudely introduced to an unknown ability. I was mentally exhausted because of all the energy and focused mind training I had been doing lately. I had gotten to the point where I could walk around the ship and stay invisible for about thirty to forty minutes, but I had to move rather slowly while doing so. There were just too many people walking around at times, and differing energy levels didn't help either. I didn't stop until I ran into Zeratul, literally. He sent me back to my room to simply meditate and no longer attempt the technique until I was rested. I about collapsed when I got to my bed, I wanted to sleep so badly that my stomach's growling was ignored. Halfway through that sleep cycle I had to get up and feed it, but I was back to bed pretty quickly after devouring a meal that would put Goku to shame. I wasn't sure how long I was asleep when I swore I heard a loud explosion from somewhere. When I woke upthough, I thought I was still dreaming. I was floating in a black void filled with stars, like many I had imagined during meditation. There were pieces of metal debris floating around nearby as I glanced over them. I sighed slightly, quickly realizing that my breath was short. I tried to take in a breath, but couldn't. I thought I was choking at first, but then I realized that I couldn't breathe because there was no air. My remaining exhale came out as a scream as I panicked.
Interlude 45.1: Hyperion
"Report!" Captain Raynor shouted as he picked himself back up into his captain's chair. Artanis and the other Templar on the bridge were shaken just as much as the humans were, wondering themselves what had happened. Bardock and Vegeta were present as well, but were otherwise unaffected.
"We hit something. Looks like one of General Duke's shock mines!" an officer named Butler said from his station.
"Damage?"
"We hit it on the port side, decks four and five, sections fifteen through nineteen were destroyed!" Raynor sighed slightly, it was not a vital area of the ship.
"Emergency force fields are up and holding around the affected areas, I recommend we seal them off!" Artanis suggested.
"Yeah go ahead, what the hell is down there anyway?" Raynor asked.
"The tail end of guest and crew quarters, empty ones, except for," Butler paused and glanced at Vegeta and Bardock. Vegeta was instantly gone, and the cameras barely caught him streaking down the halls until he reached the edge of the containment area. He stood there silently before putting a few dents in the walls. His audio was cut off, though most everyone knew what he was saying. Goku and Gohan arrived a few minutes later, asking Vegeta what happened. He grimly glanced at them before walking off, coming back to the bridge area with the other two Saiyans a few minutes later.
"Where was that mine before we dropped out of hyperspace?" Artanis asked.
"About one half of a parsec behind us now, we were moving at maximum speed!" Butler answered.
"We go back and search the wreckage, if we hurry we can still save him!" Vegeta said.
"That is impossible! How can any living being survive in space for any amount of time? It's been nearly six minutes now, there is no chance that anyone could be alive out there!" Butler argued.
"Don't underestimate a Saiyan, I know he can make it!" Vegeta said in a low tone.
"Alright, set a course back to where we hit the mine and scan for any and all life signs. We have to at least try!" Raynor said.
"Setting course sir!" Butler said with a hopeless shake of the head. Before he could engage the engines, another violent shake shook the ship.
"Captain, we've been hit by an ATA laser beam on the starboard nessel! Reading partial engine failure. Sir we are detecting multiple Terran ships dropping out of hyperspace from all sides, we are surrounded!" Butler shouted.
"Battle stations! Prepare to return fire!" Raynor ordered.
"I am activating our plasma shield generators, that should keep some of their firepower deflected, but it can't take too much of a beating!" Artanis warned.
"I'm picking up seventeen battle cruisers and approximately sixty wraith flyers out there. Sensors say, we're screwed! We're receiving a hail from the Dominion flagship Norad Three, it's General Duke!"
"As I should have guessed. A stray beacon or shock mine are his favorite surprise ambush calling cards! It probably won't do much good, but open a channel!" Raynor ordered. Duke's much older face appeared on the view screen, along with a very country-born accent.
"Ah, Commander Raynor. What a pleasant surprise it is to find your ship out here in the middle of nowhere. Yet you are tearing through this area of space like you've stolen something! Tell me, what are you in such a hurry for?" Duke asked. Raynor didn't answer at first, Bardock did instead.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"Pardon me Captain, I didn't realize that you had such brash new recruits, and a few Protoss on your ship as well? Can't make a living so you just shuttle around anyone don't you? I'll make you a deal, surrender your ship and companions and we may let them off easy. You are going to stand trail on all counts of treason that we have to offer! Surrender now or be destroyed!" Duke warned.
Bardock snorted slightly, "Where are your space suits located? I think we should take this outside!" Vegeta nodded, looking quite eager to get into a fight. Gohan followed the pair to the elevator shaft, before Goku shouted at them to stay.
"Wait guys! I sense something strange out there, we should stay here!" he said, looking up and around.
"What is it Dad?" Gohan asked.
"I don't know, but I don't think we should get in the middle of it!" he warned.
"So what does the fearless leader have in mind?" Vegeta growled. Goku didn't answer, only looked on as Raynor and Duke continued their argument.
"There's no way I'm surrendering to you Duke! I should have left your sorry ass to the Zerg on Antiga when I had the chance! It's you and Mengsk's fault that I split from the Dominion, your ambitions to rule the sector are wrong! I'm gonna finish what should have been done long ago!" Raynor shouted at the screen.
"And what is that dear boy? You are surrounded by the Dominion's armada. Even your ship has no chance against this many warships!" Duke said with a grin. Raynor cut the connection immediately.
"Fire a shot at Duke's bridge!" Raynor ordered. Soon the ship rocked with incoming laser blasts, some bouncing off the shields, some not.
"If we're going to save the ship, we need to get those suits on and get outside to deal with them directly dad. We need to do it now!" Gohan said, raising his voice a little more.
"Can you sense them well enough to transmit over to their ships?" Vegeta asked Gohan.
He shook his head, "No, being somewhat normal humans, their signals are very low. Their ships are made out of a hard material similar to the cave walls. I can't get a clear cut signal!" Goku still didn't move, he seemed frozen in wonder about something. What he sensed was somewhat familiar to him, but with all of the shooting going on he couldn't be sure of himself.
-
"Concentrate all laser batteries on the Norad Three. If we're going down, we're taking that heartless bastard with us!" Raynor ordered. The firefight between one ship and many continued, with the Hyperion taking a beating but not taking superficial damage.
"Protoss shields down to thirty-six percent sir, we are not going to hold up against this barrage without some help!" Butler announced.
Raynor glanced at Artanis, "Can your people do anything about this?"
"Not in space, if we were on a planet surface we could do something about it. Our shield enhancements will not take much more of this barrage, I suggest you allow the Saiyans to suit up and head out there themselves. Our plasma shields are strong, but not against this battery of weapons," Artanis suggested.
"Fine then, you'll find the extra environmental suits on deck three, section twenty-eight. Then proceed to section thirty-two, where the nearest airlock is!" Raynor said, looking grim about it all. Goku seemed to snap out of his frozen state and followed the others quickly. A few minutes later a loud beeping came in, signaling that the shields were gone. The laser fire ceased momentarily, long enough for Raynor to flip off Duke when another surrender call came over the line.
"Damnit, are they out there yet?" Raynor asked with impatience.
"Scans show nothing has left the ship sir, probably still putting on the space suits!" Butler said. His station soon sparked on a really nasty sounding laser beam hit, sending him to the ground in surprise.
"Damn it all, get ready to move the ship! Set a collision course for the Norad Three!" Raynor ordered. Some of the Protoss glanced up in surprise, but minded their stations.
"Captain Raynor, maneuvering thrusters not responding. Aft ATA weapons have been destroyed and half of the forward laser banks have been blown up as well!" Butler announced from a different station.
"Can we power up the Yamato Cannon? Surely that can give Duke something to think about!" Raynor suggested.
Butler quickly responded, "No, it may require more power than we currently have. Most of that energy is being used to supply the plasma shields!"
"Shit, hope no one minds if I enable the auto-destruct sequence, we'd take at least some of them out!"
"I'm getting a reading on Vegeta and the others, they have just left the ship!" Artanis shouted quickly.
"On screen!" Raynor ordered. The screen was starting to be a bit distorted, but it clearly showed the Saiyans spreading out around the ship, firing energy blasts at the Dominion ships. The smaller aircraft didn't stand up to the hits, but the larger ones took them without much difficulty. The laser fire redirected to the Saiyans, who powered up to fly out of the way of them. Almost all of the lasers missed, their targeting computers no easy match for a Saiyan's agility. Laser fire and ki blasting continued, and the Dominion ships kept pressing, getting to the point where at least fifty or so different cannons were locked onto each Saiyan. The ki blasts had little effect on the armor of the battleships, and none of the Saiyans had enough time to stall and fire off a bigger attack. Most of the smaller flyers got wiped out quickly, but this caused the attention to be turned from the bigger targets. When a vast majority of the firing stopped in one particular spot, Gohan sighed with relief. He shouldn't have, because an incredibly volatile beam shot out a few seconds later, right towards Bardock.
"Grandpa!" Gohan shouted, heading for him. Bardock had been partially hit with what the Terrans referred to as the Yamato cannon. He had dodged most of it, but not enough to keep from being hit. Bardock spat up blood into his helmet, the Yamato beam had burned a hole in the suit and burned a large chunk in his abdominal area underneath the suit. Luckily for Bardock, the space suit was made to withstand high temperatures, otherwise most of it would have been gone. Unfortunately, Saiyan skin didn't seem to stand up to it that well. He stopped moving a few seconds later, drifting around a bit as Gohan flew towards him. He placed his grandfather carefully over his shoulder and began flying back towards the ship, before seeing that a majority of the Dominion ships were locked onto them.
"Surrender now and you may yet live past today!" Duke's voice came over the speakers outside. Vegeta and Goku were back to back firing ki blasts, but stopped when they heard this.
"Why are you doing this, what did we do to you?!" Gohan shouted at the much larger Norad Three.
"You had better hurry up and declare surrender! Your comrade is not likely to survive the next few minutes!" Duke announced. Gohan cringed, knowing how true that statement was as he covered the hole in Bardock's suit. He wanted to send a big Kamehameha wave at Duke's ship, but he was more concerned with saving his grandfather at the moment. A loud explosion tipped his head to the right, but Vegeta and his father were not the cause of it. A few ships on the tail end of the armada had exploded.
"Wait a sec, we didn't fire those, and the ship couldn't have," Gohan said as he turned around. A large green energy beam smashed into the bow of another capitol ship, cutting right through it and going into the next three. Gohan flew up a little higher to see around the Hyperion. What he saw made his jaw drop in shock. It was Verto, and he was not wearing any sort of spacesuit.
-
To say I was surprised when I found myself alive was an understatement. I had panicked for obvious reasons but I had also thought up a quick plan. If Goku or Gohan could sense me powered up in space, they could teleport me back to the ship as long as they weren't too far away. When I powered up to Super Mystic, some sort of air went through my nose and down my throat, giving me oxygen to breathe. Where it came from though, I had no clue. There was but stars and debris around in the black vacuum. I figured it out quickly though; I now had the ability to survive in outer space when I was powered up. I could literally feel my own energy creating air around myself in a bubble of about ten feet in each direction. The air that was created was somewhat soothing in my panicked state. I noted that it was rather cold in the blackness of space, but my power kept me very warm by comparison. Okay, so I can breathe in space now. Nice to know, now what the hell happened? I glanced around the wreckage that I woke up in, noting it had to be parts of Raynor's ship. It wasn't enough to be the whole thing, unless all of it blew up and I had gotten lucky. I spotted my chest plate armor floating around and flew over to put it on. I retrieved my gloves soon after and scanned around as far as I could for any and all energy signals. I picked up Gohan and the other Saiyans powering up a few minutes later. Great, they're in a battle, but since I can breath I can just fly there, hopefully they aren't too far. They were a pretty good distance from where I was, no doubt because the ship was moving so fast, but still in my sensing range because of their higher levels. I blasted off towards them, moving at top speed. It was about ten to fifteen minutes before I saw anything except stars. I was flying hard, but luckily it wasn't a huge pull on my energy. I saw a laser and ki blast firefight going on with the Hyperion and other battleships that resembled the Terran Dominion's. So that is who it is, must be Duke again. He better not hurt my friends or there will be hell to pay! I thought angrily.
Once I got within a good sight range to see the other Saiyans despite their constant flying around, I noted that they had on space suits of some kind. Then I saw a very large laser beam shoot out of one of the battle cruisers, and felt Bardock's signal plummet an instant later. He wasn't dead, but he would be if I didn't act. I snarled loudly and fired a big mixed energy beam at the first few ships I saw on the Hyperion's left side. As soon as they blew up, I fired one to the other side, cutting through about four of them before flying into the fray. The ships stopped now that I had their attention. To say Gohan and the others were surprised to see me was another understatement, but an obvious one.
"How in the hell?" I heard Vegeta aloud. I flew over to Gohan and Bardock, removing Gohan's hand as he was covering Bardock's wound.
"Don't Verto, he doesn't have hardly any air to breathe!" he warned as I did.
I stared at him sharply, "He does now!" Gohan tried to ask what I meant until he visibly saw his grandfather choking on his own blood before opening his eyes and gave me his own astonished look.
"Stay still," I ordered, summoning a light mist of mixed energy into his space suit. I ran it through and around his wounds, sealing it and healing it.
Once done I pointed to the ship, "Hold your breath until you get there, I'll take care of these guys!" I said. Bardock didn't need to be told twice and took a long breath of air before flying quickly back to the ship.
"How in the hell can you survive out here boy?" Vegeta asked from directly behind.
"I'll explain later, get back inside the ship!" I ordered again despite looking almost straight up at him. He growled slightly but complied as Goku followed himself and Gohan towards the side of the ship as I turned to the battle ships.
"Back off now, or pay the price!" I warned with a loud voice. I heard Duke's intercom kick on from the lead battle cruiser, hearing his orders of sensor scans and such to figure out how I was breathing in space.
"I remember you from Tarsonis and Char, you destroyed our fleet and our emperor! I didn't think you could survive in space as well, but nevertheless, you will pay for what you have done! All ships, target the boy with all weapons, blow him out of space!" Duke ordered. I instantly sensed the ships turning toward me and a lot of laser cannons lit up from various sections of each ship, including the big ones that I remembered from the battle on Tarsonis. They had wounded Bardock with him being a Super Saiyan, and despite having a much higher power level, I didn't want one hitting me. I quickly crossed both arms in front of me and concentrated on my energy. I spread it out around me in a thick layer using the shield technique I had developed not long ago. The red lasers and missiles came flying out a moment later, pounding my green energy shield, but not breaking it. The barrage of enemy fire continued until all I could see around me was smoke as the missiles clouded both my view and probably theirs. I heard Duke chuckling over his intercom as he ordered Raynor to surrender, saying that their greatest weapon was now dead. I smirked brightly, none of the laser fire had gotten through, not even the smoke. When it cleared, I heard several gasps of shock all at once. I saw a few ships fire again, this time at the Hyperion and striking a section that was already on fire. I growled, I was done with this crap.
I rushed the few ships that were firing on the Hyperion, firing a couple of energy blasts at it. I kept the green blasts much lower in power than I had the previous ones. I recalled from previous encounters that it didn't take a huge amount of power to damage these ships if I could evade them long enough, unless I wanted to kill them all in a flash that is. I hit them well enough for the control of the ships to wane, before seeing many escape pods jettison. I moved on, doing the same with the other ships before the only one left was the Norad Three. Thousands of escape pods left the ships, and headed towards a small planet I spotted in the distance a moment later. Ignoring the harmless pods, I summoned my bright green sword, and swooped towards the right side of the bigger capitol ship. I cut through the outer hull and got inside before a force field turned on to stop the atmosphere inside from leaking out. Alarm klaxons sounded everywhere around me, telling the entire ship about a hull breach and an intruder alert. I entered the hallways of the ship without resistance. I encountered about a dozen uniformed soldiers a few moments later, all of them armed with marine machine guns. I held my sword at a ready position and promptly warned them.
"I'll give you one chance to leave this ship before I destroy it! I suggest you get out of my way!" The marines shook nervously, obviously knowing what I had done to their fleet just minutes ago.
"All security teams, do not allow the boy to get to the bridge!" Duke said through the communication system.
"You had better let me pass and get off of the ship, I'm only giving you one chance to live!" The marines opened fire anyway, their bullets came at me slowly though. I sent a very low-level energy wave at them, knocking them all over while I dodged the bullets with ease.
"That was a warning shot, the next one won't be nearly as weak," I growled. The ones that weren't knocked out then grabbed their comrades and hightailed it in a different direction, obviously getting the picture. As I proceeded down the hallways, I presumed that the bridge of this ship was the same as the Hyperion, I turned out to be right. As I entered the bridge, I found Duke alone on the bridge, but he didn't notice me come in.
"All hands, any of you that abandon this ship will be persecuted by the courts and be banished to the worst work prison I can think of, do not abandon ship!" he shouted to anyone who would listen. I heard several sounds of pods leaving the ship in a big hurry, seeing them a moment later on the viewer.
"Damnit!" he shouted again.
"I told you to stop your attack, the soldiers that escaped were the smart ones, now surrender!" I shouted at him. He jumped at my voice, and visibly shook, I swore I saw a wet spot appear on his uniform below his waist, followed by a stench in the air. He's so old and afraid that he's losing his bowels, I thought in disgust. He kneeled and bowed like I was his former Emperor.
"P-p-please spare me. I didn't mean for this to happen!" he said with clear-cut nervousness.
"Patch me through to the Hyperion!" I ordered. He looked at me like I was insane, until I charged an energy blast with his name on it in my non-sword hand.
"Are you deaf or something? Patch me in!" I repeated. He quickly complied, punching buttons at what must have been the communication station as quickly as he could. Raynor's face appeared a moment later, before everyone on the other bridge all stared at me in surprise.
"The ship is clear of his soldiers. If you guys want a ship that isn't so beat up, then transfer over. We only need to repair the small part of the ship that I cut open!" I said with a grin.
"You can't steal my ship!" Duke argued. He shut up when I looked at him like he was begging for death.
"On the other hand, I am feeling generous today," he muttered, putting his hands back up.
"Will do, but we're going to repair this ship as well. Two capitol ships might come in handy later on!" Raynor said, nodding towards Artanis and the others.