Engage

WHAM!

Trunks and Pan nervously flinched at the ear shattering crackle of General Goten's cybernetic fingers crushing into the metallic base of the table; they gulped and feared his next reaction. Goten stared angrily at the 2 teens.

"What the HELL were you two thinking, have you lost your freaking minds? Were at war here, WAR, and you go off gallivanting into enemy territory?" Goten shouted.

Pan replied "But Uncle Goten".

Goten snapped back "DON'T uncle Goten me. Just because you two returned from the dead after 20 years of absence, doesn't mean you can just walk out and risk vanishing off the face of the Earth again. Do you have any idea what kind of shit we've had to endure since you've been gone?".

Both of the young Saiyan's regretfully shook their heads no and admitted their failure, though knowing it meant little. Goten has suffered the loss of his closest friends and family time after time. His father, his brother, his niece, his best friend, Goten could hardly take anymore of this.

Trunks sighed "I understand what we did was wrong, but if we stayed here then we never would have found Goku. You guys didn't show up until an hour after. The androids would have already had him by then".

The general shook his head "That's no excuse for putting your lives back in danger. I'm happy dad's back, don't get me wrong, but getting yourselves killed over a simple rescue mission is unacceptable. Especially since you guys have no idea just how dangerous this war has made things".

Pan gulped "I'm sorry Uncle Goten, I didn't mean to make you mad. Neither of us did. You see I".

"I was screwing around with the computer and I found Goku on the scanners, I pushed Pan to go with me. It's my fault" Trunks said.

Pan gasped as her friend suddenly decided to take the blame for himself, Goten raised a curious black eyebrow to his friend's actions. Trunks frowned and angrily repeated his statement.

Trunks continued "I'm dead serious, you can be angry if you want but then leave Pan out of this. I dragged her outside of the base to go look for Goku so if anyone's to be punished, it's me".

Goten crossed his forearms and idly rubbed his torn, sleeveless war shirt with his flexing mechanical fingers. The cyborg arm rubbed lightly at a tattoo of Goku's old training camp symbol on Goten's right arm. Pan looked to Trunks and smiled, her eyes sparkling as she mouthed "thank you" to him.

A beam of light burst from the dark interrogation room as Goten noticed someone standing outside the open door.

Lance coughed "Sorry to bug you chief, but we got something you definitely have to see".

At the war room……

Piccolo frowns "There regrouping their forces towards this one spot, right here in sector 16. There's a lot of heavy tank movement and an increase in android storm troopers. Whatever they got, they sure don't want anyone else to get it".

Goten smirked "A spyder pod depot".

Pepper curiously asked "How can you be sure?".

Goten added "When Trunks and Pan were ambushed, dad said that Android 19 was damaged and escaped. Being the number 2 android, 19 probably immediately alerted Mastermind to dad's arrival. Not to mention it's there biggest weak point".

"How so?" Goku asked, the young Saiyan curiously examined the massive computer map.

Goten smirked "The machines rely heavily on the energy output of human slaves; they use them to power their machines and construct their soldiers. It's cheaper then having automated factories suck up power. The more people we free, the slower their progress becomes. After so many hard years of fighting and suffering, it looks like were FINALLY making a difference.

Now with Trunks, Pan, and dad here, we could maybe put an end to this war and shutdown the Red Ribbon Empire once and for all".

Trunks, Pan, and Goku looked at each other and smiled happily at each other, each one eager and ready for battle.

"Sounds good to me, now let's go show them how powerful the human race really is" Goku said.

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WHOOSH!

The choking smog of the suffocating engines clouded the depot with mile high clouds of black smoke. Spyder pods descended from the sky like mechanical vultures, landing at the depot and unloading with their human cargo. Android storm troopers approached the back compartments of the spyder pods; they opened up and dumped hundreds of small white pearls into large, steel crates. The white pearls were hauled off into the depot.

Android 8 nodded as he firmly kept a sharp eye out for any foolish, rebel resistance. The sky was thick with darkness that night.

Android 17 shouted "Shipment secure and complete, processing next delivery".

The spyder pod ejected from the mechanical restraints of the large, sweatshop looking depot center. The pod soared back into the sky preparing to capture more humans. A pair Android 18 units were seen recharging the electromagnetic fuel tanks of one spyder pod, while a single Android 17 unit was busy repairing damaged headlights on another pod. The Frankenstein faced commander turned around as the human pearl crates rolled past him.

Android 18 opened up a door and revealed a storage room, packed to the brim with hundreds of small, pill shaped containers roughly the size of a toy super soaker. The blonde android opened up the pill container as two 17 units dumped the crates contents into the pill tube. Android 18 locked it up tightly and tossed it back into the storage room, amongst the other tubes. It was a holding room for all human slaves until the skybat jets had arrived.

One of the Android 17 units approached Android 8; he was wearing a white, silver version of the RR uniform and had an electronic clipboard in his hands.

"I trust you have good news?" Android 8 asked.

Android 17 nodded "Affirmative sir, at least 128 perfect deliveries so far sir. We've had security increased just as you said sir and the skybat jets should be arriving any minute now to pick up the human cargo cubes".

Android 8 frowned "What of the recent attacks that have been surrounding our spyder pods?".

17 shrugged "Unable to comply sir, the attacks have been rather erratic. They jumped up at least 40 percent in the last 12 hours, but lately, all of the pods have arrived with minor damages. Most of the damages have been caused by expected instances, such as dust or the occasional rock scrape".

Android 8 half smiled "That's sufficient for now. Increase storm trooper surveillance and reconnaissance until the skybat jets arrive, after they acquire the human cube supply, have headquarters dispatch an Ominbot to this location. I suspect those slimy organics are up to something".

"Yes sir" Android 17 said as he headed off to return to his duties.

"Hello……is anyone out there……I need help……I've been hurt"

Android 8 gasped as the voice from the darkness suddenly called out to him. The other androids froze as they could have sworn that sounded like a human's voice, 8 frowned and extended his scanners into the fog filled darkness. No power levels could be detected but a voice was still audible. Android 8 nodded towards the voice and signaled for two android units to check it out. Android 18 and 17 grabbed their blasters and headed out.

The spyder pods continued to descend and dock, operating their daily functions until any signs of real danger should occur. 17 and 18 followed the voice's echoes into the barren world, dust and ancient bones crunched under 18's tan cowboy colored boots. A shape was soon seen in the choking mist.

"Help, somebody, I think I broke my ankle"

The 17 unit smirked and charged up his shock blaster and followed the source of the plea for help. Android 18 and 17 gasped as they spotted a little boy in a yellow and blue fighting outfit, with spiky black hair and a brown monkey tail.

Goku laughed "Holy cow, you guys look exactly like the old Android 17 and 18. Piccolo told me but I just had to see it for myself".

17 gasped "It's impossible, there is no conceivable explanation for how you can exist. You should be dead".

Android 18 blinked "Wait a minute, did he just say Piccolo told him?".

CRUNCH!

Massive mechanical forearms suddenly crunched the 2 androids heads into each other, their headless bodies sparked wildly as they collapsed to the ground. Goku laughed playfully as Piccolo dusted off his steel claws from the androids leftover parts.

"Boy they sure didn't see that one coming" Goku said.

Piccolo smirked "I'm not particularly fond of playing possum like that, but that certainly was a lot more fun then I imagined".

Goku giggled "And the best part is, there's millions more where those guys came from. I didn't think war would be this fun".

Miles, and miles above the two warriors, Vegeta scoffed as he could easily hear the irritating child like chuckling of his hated rival from the Earth below. The Saiyan prince bitterly snarled at the thought of Goku taking all the fun by destroying the spyder pod depot before he made it back down.

"Leave it to Goku to break all the good toys before I even get there, HMP! Let's just hurry up so we can get to the good part" Vegeta said.

Vegeta raised up his hands and charged a powerful blast, already hearing the roaring engines of the super sonic skybat jets racing towards his position. Android 17 and 18 piloted the skybat jets as they zoomed closer and closer. The jets were planning to dock with the depot and pick up the stash of human cubes they were holding. Unknown to the two androids, Vegeta was waiting for them, completely undetectable by their digital radar scopes.

Vegeta smirked "I've got a special delivery to make of my own, BIG BANG ATTACK".

A gigantic energy ball blasted from Vegeta's gloved hands and sky rocketed towards the oncoming jets. Android 17 screamed in horror as a blinding surge of light engulfed his cockpit bubble.

KABOOM!

The jet was completely vaporized and Android 18's jet soon followed as it too was swallowed up and destroyed by the powerful energy attack. Sky fire and raining metal danced upon the blackened heavens. Android 8 gasped as he realized what was happening, the rebels had arrived!

"WERE UNDER ATTACK, BATTLE STATIONS, NOW" Android 8 screamed.

Black orbs suddenly rained down and bounded onto the docks, androids gasped as the small devices started to open and glow brightly. Screams echoed from 17 and 18 units as they suddenly were vaporized in a flash of synthetic flesh and blinding lights. Android 8 gasped and saw more EMP bombs exploding by the spyder pods. Three pod ships crashed from the explosions, their drivers were either melted or the ships became damaged.

Pan laughed "Let's see you guys run away for a change".

Trunks smirked "You heard the lady, start running".

The Saiyan teens were the ones dropping the bombs down onto the android troopers like air bombs, dozens of screams and explosions rocked the depot. More and more androids were being destroyed by the powerful EMP bombs.

Android 8 snarled "Evacuate all spyder pods at once; get those ships air born and call for reinforcements. The rest of you must protect our human cube supply at all costs. That's an order".

"When exactly did you get to be so mean……8er?" Goku asked.

The Frankenstein faced android growled as he turned his snarling, cybernetic eyes towards the sound of that hatefully cheery and familiar voice. The rebels had blown straight into the heart of the pod depot and were now blocking off the only way out. It was Goku, Trunks, Pan, Piccolo, Pepper, and Lance, ready and willing to liberate the humans and battle Android 8.

Android 8 hissed "Arrogant organics, it's about time you crawled out of the hole you've been cowering in".

Goku frowned "I'm sorry it has to be this way 8er, but you're no longer my friend. You've killed and captured innocent lives and that is unforgivable".

Android 8 laughed "The robot you knew is dead, merely a shell of what was truly underneath. You'll find no sympathy in my software organic filth".

Pan replied "Same here jerk".

"HA, you don't scare me. I don't care if there are 5 or 500 of you, no force in this world or the next is going to move me from this spot. You want your precious humans back? Then you'll have to go through me" Android 8 said.

The warriors flashed their fists ready and locked sights with Android 8 and the remaining androids. Goku shook his head and removed his power pole, twirling it in his small hands and firmly holding it in place above his head.

"So be it 8er, so be it" Goku said.

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To be continued……