"Where the hell have you been, Raditz?" Rycelo shouted. "We're going to be running late on our first mission!"

Raditz had burst into the locker room, throwing on the new uniform and armor Turles held out to him.

"Kakarot came out of incubation," he replied. His head twisted around the room to look for the scouters and Turles handed that to him as well, looking as though he was about to laugh at Raditz's flustered state.

Rycelo gave him a confused look. "Who the fuck is Kakarot and what does that have to do with anything?"

"He's my brother. My parents wanted me to see him."

Turles threw his head back and laughed while Rycelo scoffed. "Your parents are weird."

"Shut up. Did I miss anything?"

"Planet report and scouter IDs," Rycelo said, holding up a tablet and a few disks. "You and Turles were both late. I got all the information here as well as some manuals and our personal information to install into our scouters. Turles already registered our pods by the docking station so I got some supplies put in them-"

"Supplies?" Turles scoffed. "Come on, Rycelo. We don't need all that stuff. How hard can it be to purge a planet? Just get in, transform and get out."

"You say that now," Rycelo said. "But what happens when one of us destroys our pods when we're transformed? Huh? What if our scouters get destroyed? Hell, could be a rebellion hiding on that planet and we'll need to call for back up-"

"Alright, alright, I get it," Turles huffed and snatched the disk with his name on it. "Lemme see that." He inserted it into his scouter and tapped a few buttons to install the data it held.

Rycelo tried to hand Raditz his disk but Raditz waved him away and went outside to where their new pods were docked. "I'll do it later, come on, lets get moving!"

"Oh, now someone's in a hurry," Rycelo muttered, tucking the disk behind his breastplate and following his comrade. "At least sync your scouter with ours."

With a growl, Raditz raised a hand and waited for the others to follow suit so they could sync their scouters all on the same frequency. After a few beeps on confirmation that the sync was successful, Raditz ran up to his pod, unable to prevent his tail from unraveling around his waist and wave in excitement. Rycelo was inspecting his pod thoroughly while Turles leaned against his own, hands behind his head and probably trying to look cool. A few older Saiyan soldiers were watching them from their own pods with looks of amusement while some teenagers laughed at them outright. Raditz found that this time, he didn't care.

"Everything in order?" Raditz asked Rycelo.

"Yes, surprisingly Turles did everything right."

"I'm not fucking incompetent," Turles snapped, leering at them.

"Anyway, I set the coordinates so we're ready to launch. I'm setting it for three minutes. Raditz, you're in the lead."

"Three minutes?" Turles asked, looking behind them at the crowd of Saiyans seeing some of their comrades and companions off. "Raditz, I thought your mom was gonna be here to see you off with that surprise."

"Why, want a kiss goodbye?" Raditz asked teasingly, though his eyes scanned the crowd just in case his mother had changed her mind and decided sending Kakarot off could wait.

"Fuck you," Turles said, blushing. "I'm just used to you being babied by her so much."

"Mother and Father are sending Kakarot to a planet, I'm going to assume they're with him now," Raditz sighed. "I already said my goodbyes since they can't make it."

Turles was unable to cover the look of disappointment on his face. When he realized Raditz saw he crossed his arms. "Fuck, fine, I like your mom, alright?"

Raditz smirked while Rycelo cackled, causing Turles to blush harder. "She has that effect on people," Raditz said. He elbowed Turles as his comrade climbed into his pod to escape them. "Hey, she said for me to tell you bye and good luck on our mission."

"Yeah?" Turles muttered. He smirked. "I won't need it, but I guess I appreciate it."

Raditz rolled his eyes as Turles shut his pod. Rycelo had gone inside his already and as soon as Raditz was satisfied they were secure, he climbed in his own with about a minute to spare. When the pod launched into the air, he was surprised by how smooth it was. It hardly felt like the ship was moving. He waited a few minutes before contacting his squad through his scouter.

"Successful launch?" he asked.

"Yes," Rycelo said.

"About time," Turles said. "Hey, what's this yellow light flashing?"

Raditz frowned and looked around his pod. He was about to say he didn't see anything before it flashed in front of him. It was an announcement. He flicked a switch under the light to listen, hoping they hadn't done anything wrong.

"All Saiyans are to return to planet Vegeta immediately as ordered by Lord Frieza," a voice announced. "All Saiyans are to return to planet Vegeta immediately as ordered by Lord Frieza."

"What?!" Turles barked over the scouter so loudly Raditz flinched.

"You can't be serious," Rycelo growled.

"No way, they can't do this!"

Raditz groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead. All of this work, all of these dramatics… just to lead them back home! He could hear Turles and Rycelo arguing over the scouters and the voice continued to repeat the order through the speakers… it was giving him a headache.

"Raditz!" Turles shouted. "Come on, we're not really going to head back now, are we?"

"It's an order from Lord Frieza," Rycelo snapped. "We can't ignore an order on our first day as soldiers!"

"Why didn't they tell us before we got in the damn pods? Why so sudden? This is ridiculous!"

"Rycelo's right," Raditz sighed. "This is an order and our first day. Just be glad we didn't land on the damn planet."

Turles cursed loudly but didn't argue against it, though Raditz could just imagine his face and lashing tail. As Raditz leaned forward to push a button and announce the order was acknowledged by his team, the image of his parents popped into his mind. Gods, he had planned to make them proud…

"This mission you're on… I need you to go all the way on this. Don't let anything or anyone stop you from getting to that planet, alright?"

Raditz hesitated.

"Uh, Raditz?" Rycelo called. "Need me to do it?"

"I need you to trust me on this."

"Father…"

"Eh?"

"Trust in me…"

"My father, Bardock… He said… No, I think he knew this was going to happen."

"What do you mean?" Turles asked, anger gone from his voice.

Raditz pulled his hand away from the button and instead muted the order, though he could still hear the echo coming from Turles and Rycelo's pods through their scouters. "Ignore the order. My dad said we had to go on this mission and not let anyone stop us. He knew something was up!"

"Your father is a low-class soldier, what the hell does he know?" Rycelo scoffed. "Old man's taken too many hits to the head and has been insubordinate from the start. Trust me, Raditz, you don't want to be like him."

"Hey!" Turles snapped before Raditz could lose his own temper. "Bardock is the strongest and most respected low-class soldier! He's strong because he takes his missions into his own hands. Raditz is gonna follow in his footsteps and I'll be damned if I don't let him take me with him. Raditz, I'm with you on this. Let's go to that damn planet, we have a mission."

Raditz grinned when he heard Turles mute the announcement on his end. "Rycelo? You in?" he asked.

"If he wants to fly back home to his daddy with his tail tucked between his legs, just let him," Turles said, snickering.

"Ugh! Fine!" Rycelo snapped, muting the announcement as well.

"They won't miss three Saiyan brats," Raditz assured. "Besides, I'm sure we're not the only ones staying off-planet. There's gotta be a bunch of Saiyans a year out who would never make it in time."

"I guess…"

"Ah, they'll miss us when they see how quickly we finish this mission," Turles said confidently. "How far is planet Pecha anyway?"

"Four months."

"God damn…"

"Yeah, we'll have to be held in suspended animation," Raditz said. "Might as well engage it now."

He kept his eyes on his screen, waiting for his friends to activate their sleeping gas. As soon as they did and his pod sent confirmation that they were unconscious, he engaged his own. It wasn't too long before his eyelids got heavy and he fell asleep.

Kakarot had woken up in his arms and stayed where he was grudgingly, though he was sniffing Raditz and biting some of his armor when he wasn't paying attention.

"You're a little beast," Raditz said, shaking his head. "Won't be much longer now. Mother and Father said they'd be back soon and they know I have a mission to get to."

Kakarot slapped at Raditz's chest with an open palm as if trying to attack him. Raditz raised an eyebrow in amusement. "For a weakling you sure like to pick a fight. That's good. You'll get strong in no time if that Earth planet is weak as father says." Kakarot wiggled out of his arms and was now hanging halfway over his shoulder to tug at Raditz's hair. Raditz didn't mind too much, he was used to opponents aiming there and Kakarot was extremely weak compared to his past opponents. He was, however, surprised when Kakarot giggled in delight. "I'll take that as a compliment. People usually make fun of my hair."

Raditz picked him off his shoulder and put him on the ground, holding him up by the hands so he could stand. He was a bit wobbly at first, but after a minute or two of Raditz's support, he was stumbling around on his own and attempting to find anything of interest in the hallway. It was, of course, bare so he got bored quickly and went back to Raditz to attack his hair.

That was how Gine and Bardock found them. Raditz waiting patiently while Kakarot went into fierce battle against his tangled mane.

"Hello, Kakarot," Gine said, picking him up and holding him close. Kakarot responded by angrily chewing on her arm but she didn't even seem to feel it.

"Does this mean I can go now?" Raditz asked, leaning back and forth on his heels.

He couldn't help but yelp when Gine pulled him into a fierce hug, blushing at Bardock's unimpressed look. Raditz's face was buried in her neck and Kakarot pushed against his own.

"Oh, Raditz," Gine said. "We need to send Kakarot away now, we won't be able to see you off. This is where we have to say our goodbyes. You won't be seeing your brother for a long while." She pulled away and then held Kakarot out to him so they were face to face. Kakarot swiped at him viciously.

"Eh, I think I've had enough of him for now," Raditz said, crossing his arms and looking away with a huff. He didn't want to admit to himself that he was just a little bit jealous that his parents would be seeing Kakarot off instead of him. "You take him wherever you want."

"You sound like your father," Gine sighed. Bardock hummed in amusement and put an arm around her waist, gently pulling her closer in a rare moment of affection. At the sudden movement, Kakarot squirmed in her arms and glared up at the older Saiyan suspiciously. Bardock bared his teeth at him with a low growl, causing Kakarot to press himself closer to Gine's chest in the hopes she would provide protection.

"Coward," Raditz snickered.

He yelped when Bardock cuffed the back of his head and Kakarot giggled and clapped his hands together.

"You have a mission to get to, brat," Bardock said.

Raditz perked up a little. "Y-Yeah! Um…" He looked at his parents awkwardly. A big part of him wanted to say goodbye, but another part was wondering if that would be seen as weak. What was the point of goodbyes when you knew you were going to see them again?

"Hold on," Bardock said suddenly, surprising Raditz. He tore off the ends of both of his armbands so that he now held two rings of red cloth and tossed them at Raditz. Raditz looked at them in awe and then at his father. "When you get back we'll do something together."

Although Bardock said it and it filled Raditz with anticipation… there was something about his father's eyes that bothered him. An uncertain… or a guilty look. Raditz got a sense of disappointment. It was likely his father knew it wouldn't happen and the only reason for that Raditz could think of was that he knew he'd forget. Still, the fact his father was trying to give him something to look forward to encouraged Raditz not to call him out on it.

"Great!" Raditz said, sliding the armbands onto himself.

"Be safe," Gine said, drawing his attention towards her. His eyes widened when he saw she looked as though she was holding back tears. This, and Bardock's guilty look were beginning to worry him as he considered that the two just had a private conversation and perhaps there was something bigger going on that they didn't want him to know.

"Mom-"

She handed Kakarot to Bardock (who suddenly had an uncharacteristic look of panic on his face) and gave Raditz another hug that he couldn't help but return this time.

"Just follow your mission and remember everything your father told you. Even if it seems weird."

Raditz pulled away. "Of course, but mom-"

"He has to go now," Bardock said suddenly. He was holding Kakarot upside down by one of his legs and was rubbing at his temple like he'd just received another headache.

"Go along, Raditz," Gine said, putting a hand on his head and giving him a gentle push. "Oh, and tell Turles and Rycelo we said goodbye as well… and good luck!"

"You have arrived at your destination. Entering planet's orbit," the pod announced as Raditz shook himself awake from his dream.

"Turles? Rycelo?" he called over the scouter. "You guys up?"

He smirked when he heard their tired grunts of affirmative.

"Wait, shit, we're here!" Turles shouted, wide awake now as he spotted the purple planet in front of them. "Finally!"

Before Raditz could say anything, a green light flashed in front of him. Someone was attempting to transmit a message. Someone from Frieza's army. Turles and Rycelo had gone silent as they received the same alert. The timing was too convenient and they all knew they had just been caught disobeying an order.

Raditz cursed loudly a few times and then took a deep breath. He knew there was a chance that someone would contact them about ignoring the order, but he had hoped it'd be a slim one.

"Squadron Leader, Pod C068, this is Frieza Planet 124. State your business," a voice said through the pod. It was coming from the planet Pecha, surprisingly.

"Confirm that," Turles commanded Rycelo over the scouter.

"This is Squadron Leader, Pod C068," Raditz said. "My squad and I were sent on a mission to purge planet Pecha of all sentient life four months ago. We've just come out of suspended animation and are preparing to land."

"Scans indicate you have two young Saiyan recruits with you. Saiyans received a summons to planet Vegeta four months ago." The voice sounded irritated.

Raditz frowned. Two Saiyans? There was three, including himself. Something must have been wrong with their scans.

"Must have missed it," he said, deciding they'd probably be in less trouble if they thought there was only two of them. "Is there a problem?"

"Planet Pecha has already been purged." Raditz almost didn't need his scouter to hear Turles yell 'fuck' at the top of his lungs. Rycelo was currently confirming the report. Planet Pecha had indeed already been renamed Frieza Planet 124 and held a base. "However, we have another planet in the area well suited for takeover by Saiyans if you are willing."

"We have to take it," Rycelo said, surprisingly. "They're not mad at us at all. Take it, Raditz!"

Raditz frowned. Bardock had said to make sure they get to the planet his mission was on. The mission planet changed, did Bardock know that as well? Probably not, since he had just found out that day that Raditz was even going on a mission. To Raditz, it seemed like Bardock just didn't want him on planet Vegeta when Frieza sent that summons. He didn't think his father would be too upset about this…

"That won't be a problem," Raditz told the base. "Send the coordinates and we'll be on our way."

The coordinates popped up on the small screen in front of him and Raditz was relieved to see it was only about an hour away. He relayed the information to Turles and Rycelo and they input the coordinates, shooting off to their destination.

"So, what's the mission this time?" Turles asked.

Raditz scrolled through it, frowning. "There's not much info on the inhabitants, but the mission is to prep it for takeover. It's not a purging mission, looks like we just gotta give 'em a good scare. These guys might be a suitable addition to the Frieza Force."

"So we're playing peacekeepers? That's no fun at all," Turles grumbled.

"Not necessarily," Rycelo said. "If there's a ruler, they'll wanna fight us with their best soldiers to defend their planet and see if Frieza's army is an actual force to be reckoned with."

"That's right," Raditz said. "It's not purging but…"

"But we get to fight in actual battle instead of shooting at useless meat sacks!" Turles finished excitedly. "Hell, maybe this is better than purging!"

Raditz sent the information to their pods so they could look over the information themselves and leaned back in his seat to look out the window of his pod. Space was much too large to notice anything actually moving out there, but he didn't want to have himself sent to sleep for an hour after four months of being unconscious.

"Never heard of planet Desset," Raditz said as the planet came into view an hour later.

"I'm sure there's a lot of planets we haven't heard of," Rycelo said.

"Report doesn't show a ranking or class on the planet though. I don't like us going in this blind."

"They wouldn't have sent us if we couldn't handle it."

Raditz grunted and decided to request any updated information about Desset from Frieza Planet 124 as soon as they received it. He got no response but didn't let it get to him. It wasn't like he wanted to chat.

It wasn't long until they were rotating around the planet. Rycelo chose a spot for them to land and they crashed down with no problems. None of them said a word as they climbed out of their pods and flew out of the craters they made to meet up in one spot. Raditz could practically taste their excitement and smirked.

"Nice secluded spot," Turles said, looking around for anything interesting.

"One sun, no moons," Raditz observed. "Least we don't have to worry about rampaging around and ruining the mission. Probably could've helped in a pinch though."

"Kind of looks like planet Vegeta," Rycelo said. "Except less red and more dead."

Indeed, the landscape around them looked barren. Not a sign of any plants or wild life. While planet Vegeta was a desert planet, there was still plenty of wildlife to eat and desert plants to sustain them. Here, it just looked like a bunch of rocks and dry, grey dirt. The sky was covered with dark clouds, yet Raditz was pretty sure they held no rain. It gave the planet an ugly, sick look that made his fur on his tail stand up a little.

"What's the highest power level?" Raditz asked. "It'll probably be the ruler of this planet or their soldiers."

Turles tapped at his scouter, flinching back when he saw the number. "The fuck?" Rycelo looked up from his pod remote curiously as Raditz gave Turles a look to hurry up. "It's… I mean, the power level I'm picking up is 1,000. About 40 miles east..."

Raditz stiffened. "…Ok. That's probably the leader. If it comes down to it we can just use numbers-"

"Raditz," Turles interrupted, looking pale. "That was just the first one I picked up. There's others. I'm picking up 2,000 and 7,000 northwest of here. Multiple ones."

"Bullshit!" Rycelo shouted, pushing the button on his scouter. His tail bushed up. "4,000… 6,000…"

Unwilling to believe it, Raditz tapped his own scouter. "18,000?! 8,000… 12,000… Gods…"

Turles shook his head and a determined look crossed his face. "Shit. There's four coming this way. Power levels are between 1,000 and 6,000." He looked at Raditz. "What do we do?"

"Looks like we're playing fucking peacekeepers," Raditz said, sweating. There was no way he and his comrades could fight them. Their own power levels were only between 500 and 600 and there was no moon. "In theory, these guys know Frieza is coming to take over and recruit. We just have to avoid the conflict."

"We're Saiyans. That might be pretty difficult if they start provoking us," Rycelo said.

"Try contacting that base. If they don't respond to the signal from the pod, try contacting someone through the scouters. We need a fucking explanation as to why they sent us here," Raditz said. "Turles and I are going to meet these guys halfway. We don't want them getting to the pods if they're hostile."

Ryeclo nodded and dived towards the pods. As soon as Raditz heard him attempting to establish contact, he nodded at Turles and they both flew towards the natives of the planet that were approaching them.

"This is bullshit," Turles growled. "How the hell are we supposed to do this? We were only trained to fight!"

"I know. Something reeks," Raditz said, tapping at his scouter again to get a more accurate reading on the average power levels. "Average power level here has to be around 10,000. That makes this planet a class S. This is more of a job for Frieza's right hands, Zarbon and Dodoria and their crews. Maybe some experienced low-class Saiyans in their Oozaru form."

Turles cursed. "This is the worst first mission."

Raditz was about to agree but was cut off by a bloodcurdling roar. Both he and Turles halted in midflight, laying eyes on four of the largest and ugliest beings they had ever seen.

They were green bipedal aliens covered in light and dark blotches and easily stood over fifty feet tall. Thin but defined arms stuck out from their thick, sturdy bodies with three clawed digits at the end of each limb. Their mouths seemed to always be hanging open due to having four tusks sticking out at awkward angles, dripping with saliva. Their eyes were blood red, staring at them with the barest hint of sentience. Monsters.

"What the hell," Raditz hissed. "These aren't… What the hell is this planet?!"

A clawed hand twice the size of them crashed down and they just barely managed to dodge.

"Fuck this!" Turles shouted, firing a powerful blast of ki at the one that had struck at them.

It dissipated when it made contact on its belly, not leaving a mark of any kind.

"Nothing," Turles said, drawing back closer to Raditz.

"They're too strong," Raditz said. He couldn't say anything more because the monsters lurched forward to grab them and he and Turles split up briefly though they made sure to keep each other in sight. They both had the same idea to fly up high out of reach since it was very likely the beasts couldn't fly.

Unfortunately, this didn't deter them because all four of them shot enormous beams of ki out of their mouths and into the air. Raditz managed to dodge all of them and Turles flew higher to get away, though one of his boots got singed. He shot a few more ineffective blasts at them in retaliation. There was nothing they could do, they were too strong for them and they couldn't dodge forever.

"RYCELO!" Raditz shouted into the scouter. "Prep the pods! We're getting the hell out of here!"

"What's going on?" Rycelo asked, panicked and confused.

"We're outmatched!" Turles shouted. "Raditz! Get above the clouds! They can't see us and we can make an escape! We're fucking dead if they land a hit on us!"

Raditz dodged another beam, keeping an eye on Turles who had sped up higher. He made a move to follow but as soon as Turles had reached the clouds, he halted and slammed his hands over his mouth and nose, dropping from the air a few feet and wincing. Raditz glanced up at the clouds again and their dark, ugly color. Shit, were they-

"Toxic," Turles coughed, color draining from his face. "Get away from them…"

Their scouters beeped and they were forced to dodge another onslaught of beams. Raditz looked down and saw that three more monsters had joined them and were now firing beams at random intervals. Before he could bring it to Turles' attention, his comrade completely lost control of his flight and dropped out of the air.

"Turles!"

"What happened?" Rycelo shouted in his ear.

Raditz ignored him and dived down to catch Turles. The sudden weight threw him off for a minute, almost costing him and his comrade's life when he was just a hair away from getting hit. Turles squirmed in his arms, attempting to support himself but whatever toxins had been in the sky seemed to have really affected him. Raditz quickly shifted him so that he held Turles' arm was over his shoulder and he wrapped his tail and other arm around his waist. He felt Turles' tail wrap around his own waist in response, further supporting him. To his relief, Turles was able to at least use his ki to keep himself in the air, only needing Raditz to steer them.

Still, they were slower than Raditz would have liked and no matter how far he went, his scouter beeped continuously, alerting him of different power levels approaching him. All of the natives seemed out to get him, charging towards him as soon as he was in sight and he couldn't hide above the clouds since, apparently, they were toxic. He felt as though he was getting too far from the pods in his endeavor to keep the monsters away from them and Turles was feeling heavier and heavier by the second.

"Raditz," Turles groaned. He coughed some more and he looked extremely pale. "Flying… beacon…"

"What?" Raditz hissed.

"Run," Turles said. He shut his eyes as he attempted to swallow a cough and get his point across. "Hide. Ground."

"Shit!" Raditz said. Flying around was what was attracting them! He'd be slower on the ground but if they could hide (his entire being wanted to reject that word) they could wait it out and make it back to the pods. He stopped midflight, head whipping around in all directions for a suitable spot. Luckily, there was a lot of crack and crevices in wasteland around them. He narrowly dodged a beam that was shot at him and then dived down to the ground.

The monsters still saw the direction he had gone and were now all approaching the area to search for him. Raditz could feel his entire body trembling in fear. If they surrounded him there was no where to go and he wouldn't be fast enough to dodge anything. There were several cracks to hide in but each one just felt too out in the open and he was running out of time.

Raditz felt their footsteps getting closer and decided to choose a tiny cave amongst a collection of cliffs and boulders. When he reached it, he realized it was more of a hole with a narrow opening that just went down. Without a second thought, he dropped Turles inside and squeezed in after him. It was smaller than he would have liked but the hole wouldn't be visible to such giant beasts. Turles let out a shuddering breath against him and Raditz hoped the toxins weren't lethal.

He had no idea how long they would have to hide.