A/N Standard disclaimer

Hi loyal readers! Has it really been five months since my last update here? Wow. Well, things have been a bit crazier than usual. On top of the usual life and university, I managed to progress the human race. By that I mean that I had a kid. Well, not me but my other half. So yeah, had a lot to do with that, as those who have kids would be able to relate. I have taken over primary carer responsibilities for a while until the missus gets back on her feet which means I have been doing everything short of feeding the baby (as I lack the proper organs). So let me tell you some things I have learnt since my kid was born: 1. I make a mean choc chip cookie. 2. Cooking the family dinner every night is not really difficult but it can be time consuming, especially clean-up. 3. Bag salads are usually cheaper than buying the individual components and making it yourself. 4. It is possible to not leave the house for days at a time and not go insane, though it is a close thing. Anyway, enough about me.

Comments: Thanks to all those that reviewed since my last update. I appreciate each and every single one of them. Thank to you all.

There seems to be a mixed response of the Goku/Caulifla pairing idea I had, mostly leaning in favour of it. For those that don't agree, don't worry, it will probably not actually be focussed on in this story. If anything it will be background noise or filler that we may get a comment on once every few chapters but otherwise not a big thing will be made of it. Really, the idea for this came up from the good chemistry they had together in the show. I just built it from there.

MrBogus – according to the information that I have seen on DragonWiki, Master Roshi and his sister Baba are functionally immortal. They can die if someone kills them but otherwise they seem to be living forever. That's what I used for this.

Guest, 123GOHANZ – sorry you couldn't like the story. Can't please everyone I guess but I am sorry that you didn't even make it passed the first chapter 123GOHANZ. At the time it wasn't planned on having this as anything other than a fun side story that became something more due to the interest of some amazing readers. Oh well, I hope you find plenty of stories you both enjoy.

Rangle – no nerfing of saiyans here. If that's what you are looking for, this is not the story for you.

On with the story!

…

CHAPTER 12 – ATTACK ON MINDOIR

Balak sat in the captain's chair of his new cruiser, Mighty Hegemon, as they made their way to the last of the relays they needed to pass to get through to the pretenders' planet. The saiyans. Just thinking the name almost had Balak snorting in derision. To think that a race could try and bully their way onto the galactic scene. To be arrogant enough to be able to bluster their way through that disgrace of a meeting on the Citadel and then claim that they were too good for the all of the races that were part of it, including the batarians, made Balak's eyes twitch in anger.

How he would enjoy enslaving their race.

He had been given the Mighty Hegemon in preparation for this raid. It was the promotion he had worked hard for. Unlike many of the leaders in batarian society, who made their name based on politics and who they knew, Balak wasn't born to a high family. He had had to work and prove his worth to get his promotions. It took longer to get results, but no one could question his competence. Not even the admirals in the Hegemon's inner circle.

Not that he was the leader of this raid. A promotion to a light cruiser was noteworthy but hardly grounds for him to take command of the whole slave fleet. That honour had been given to one of the batarian navy's former captains turned slaver, a man named Hirashka. The man had a proven track record of successful raids on worlds in the Terminus systems, particularly budding colony worlds full of people seeking their independence from whatever moronic two-eyed people they came from. Mostly asari and humans that didn't think to cough up enough credits to pay for decent defences. Weak idiots. Or, as Balak thought of them, easy pickings.

Still, Balak didn't get to where he was today by just being confident and believing in the might of the Hegemony. He had to be damn good at what he did, with a mixture of efficiency, ruthlessness and good gut instincts. And right now, his gut was feeling uneasy.

He didn't know why it was that his gut was telling him that things would be going wrong. He just knew that it was telling him that the raid wasn't going to be as easy as the hegemon believed. It didn't make sense to Balak. The hegemon had paid for the largest slaving fleet the galaxy had seen since the krogan rebellion. Hundreds of ships of all sizes from heavy cruiser down were being brought in from more than forty 'independent' contractor groups. Balak had never seen anything like it since he had left the batarian navy. There just wasn't a single collection of ships this large in all the Terminus systems. With a fleet this size, Balak could imagine that they would be able to challenge the power of Omega without any worry about the strength of the pirate queen, Aria. He just couldn't imagine anything outside of the established militaries of the Alliance, Hierarchy, Asari Republics, the Migrant Fleet and the Salarian Union being able to pull out the forces needed to stop an attack by this fleet. They could conquer any of the other races without too much of a challenge if they chose to. And from any intelligence they were given, these saiyans didn't have any fleet at all. They had a few cruisers and frigates that were used as cargo freighters and nothing with a spinal cannon. By all rights, they were even more defenceless than the vorcha.

But Balak's gut was still uneasy.

So, he did something that could possibly backfire on him if things went wrong. He kept his ship to the rear of the mercenary fleet and didn't try and push further forward. He got a few odd looks from his bridge crew, and a glare of frustration from the ground commander of his slaver mercs, but he was a man that valued his instincts enough to be able to stick to his decision. A leader that was easily swayed by the opinions of those around him wasn't strong enough to be a leader.

So he approached the saiyan planet at the rear of the merc fleet, the feeling of trepidation growing ever metre of space that they moved closer to the alien world. Every second they moved closer, he kept asking himself the same question.

What was going to go wrong?

…

Vegeta sat in his council room, glaring out over his advisors as they talked about the continued expansion of their planet, Mindoir. The population of his people was now more than three million, nearly a million more than there had been when they had been resurrected after the first Tournament of Power. It was something that made him deeply satisfied as it was proof to him that his people were starting to rebuild properly, that they would be able to get back to their former numbers one day. Not their former strength, because now they were far stronger than they had ever been, between himself, Kakarot, Gohan, Trunks, the other SSG and the thousands of Super Saiyans and the few SS2 that were now numbered among his people. They would never be brought into subjection again. This was the strongest age that the saiyans had ever had throughout all their known history.

And Vegeta was the king of it all.

It was a nice little nugget that soothed Vegeta's ego and pride; to know that his legacy would survive for as long as saiyans existed, that he would be known as the first immortal king and the first saiyan to ascend to the title of God of Destruction. His warrior pride demanded that he be the best at something and never give up. He felt like being the first to achieve what he had would go towards sating that pride for the time being. Even if it left him less time for training. Good thing he had access to the Void Zone for that, otherwise Kakarot would get the jump on him and leave him in the dust, something his warrior's pride could never accept.

The current baron finished his report on the expansion of the meat distribution centres to account for the expanding population. Vegeta was satisfied. Another sign that things were going right for his people.

"Good," he said simply. A warrior doesn't waste time with fancy words, after all. "And what of the sensu bean plantation?"

It had been an idea of Trunks' to try and find places that the sense beans could grow on Mindoir. There were not many places that they were able to grow on Earth, with made the small amount that the old human samurai Yajirobi had once grown, and Dende grew these days, far more important than they probably ought to have been. Once Trunks had brought the idea up, Vegeta had agreed and immediately ordered an investigation for where those precious plants would be able to grow and hopefully flourish on their new home.

It wasn't easy though. One of the saiyans that had come back to life was an old botanist who brought up the information of plants growing in certain climates, temperatures, even different altitudes. It made Vegeta's head spin. They had died but not before they were able to pass on their knowledge to a few protégés. Eventually though, they found a suitable place on the eastern continent where there was an extremely tall mountain range. As the beans had been grown high on the Lookout on Earth, they needed to be higher up in a thinner atmosphere. The mountains were the only place that they could get the right conditions for the beans to grow on Mindoir. Unless they decided to build a special lab for it and Vegeta couldn't see the point of that if there were other options.

"The latest crop is almost ready to be harvested," the head botanist, an old woman named Shanti, reported. "We should be expecting another eight thousand beans ready to go in a few weeks. We still have ten thousand left in usable condition from the last three harvests." The old woman had taken it as a matter of pride to increase the harvest every season and her pride shone through at the boosted numbers. In Vegeta's mind it certainly beat the days that they had had to scrounge for the one plant that was being cultivated at the Lookout to give off a few beans. Now, they had plenty to use in emergencies. The miraculous plants were flourishing and now they could almost stop worrying about using them in only the most dire of emergencies.

"And how much longer before the older beans expire?" Vegeta asked.

"In the right conditions, the beans can be kept in storage for four years before they start losing potency," Shanti replied immediately. "By the end of five years they are nearly useless and are only good for restoring mediocre amounts of energy. Enough to help a fighter carry on but not enough to completely restore a super saiyan."

Vegeta nodded. It was good to be able to stockpile their precious beans. A lot of things could happen in five years; the z fighters had found that out the hard way.

"Good," he grunted in reply. "As beans reach the end of their useful life, give them to the trainers to use. No point throwing away perfectly good sensu beans, even if they are no longer as good as fresh ones."

Shanti nodded and sat back, her piece done for this meeting.

"Now, how goes expansion into the northern continent?" Vegeta asked. "Are we still getting all the materials we need from the humans?"

"We are growing crops there," one of the dukes said immediately. "But as we are still living with such few numbers, we are only seeing marginal settlements there, mainly to grow the cattle that we are selling off to the meat plants. We are starting more coastal fishing productions to be able take advantage of the native edible fish, but everything is still pretty small scale."

"Hmm, very well…" a beeping from a saiyan communicator on the desk caused him to frown in annoyance. Everyone knew that he hated to be interrupted, so whoever this was better have a damn good reason. He looked at the incoming ID. The satellite sensor station. Vegeta's frown deepened. What the hell could they want? He tapped the icon and connected the call. "Speak."

"Apologies King Vegeta," the man on the other end began. "But we have a very large force of unscheduled ships arriving at the edge of the system heading towards the planet now."

Vegeta's frown deepened further. "How large?"

"Uh," the man looked away for a moment. "The screens are telling me that there are nearly eight hundred ships of different classes. The largest seems to be what the humans classify as a heavy cruiser. The rest are all smaller, mostly frigates though with plenty of corvettes and a fair number of other cruiser classes. They…" the man froze and stared for a long moment. "They just destroyed the out-system communication satellite."

Vegeta scowled. The satellites would normally be necessary on any other world to keep in contact with other planets for a number of things, from galactic news to trade negotiations. However, a common purpose would be to request aid in the case of threat or distress.

Being a SSG, that last one was unnecessary.

"Well, it looks like that attack we have been waiting for is finally happening," Vegeta declared to the room. He let his face slide into a smirk. "Let's go and meet them, shall we?" he stood from the table. "Trunks!" he barked. "Get all warriors capable of becoming a super saiyan to power up and transform. These animals were happy to fire on Shanxi from orbit. I want everyone prepared for that to happen again. Don't let a single shot hit this planet. Vegeta Jr, assemble with all the saiyans capable of Instant Transmission. When these ships get closer, I want those captains taken and brought down here. Don't bother about the rest of the crews. I want to have proof that those pathetic batarians were behind this and I won't be able to do that without the captains."

He looked at the highest ranking female SSG on the planet. "Pan, ensure that there are extra warriors placed around the nurseries. I don't want anything risking our children. And Duke Luchen, send a dozen extra warriors with Shanti to the protect the sensu bean plantations." There was no way he was going to risk that, not for anything.

Everyone nodded and left the building. Vegeta took one last look around, before he sent a mental message off to Gohan on the Citadel where he was waiting and serving, telling him to expect his arrival in the next few hours. He then sent off another one to King Kai to tell Kakarot who was in the void zone. He frowned at that thought briefly. Kakarot had been training there constantly to get ready for the upcoming Tournament. Vegeta knew he would have to get his own training in with Whis, or he was going to get left behind. His pride wouldn't allow that to happen.

Then he gave a grin as outside he could hear and feel the strength of thousands of saiyans powering up to transform to SS or higher.

These aliens, most likely batarians, were planning on making war with the saiyans. They wouldn't be living long enough to see saiyans fight a war.

…

"Uh, sir?" a batarian crew member sitting at a sensor station called out. "I'm getting some weird readings here."

Balak glared at the crewman. "Explain 'weird' to me."

"I, uh, don't really know," the sensor operator confessed. "I am getting a weird increase of energy from all over the planet that doesn't match anything that I have seen before. I am also getting weird geological readings. It looks like there are isolated earthquakes happening all over the planet. It's almost like the tectonic plates are completely unstable. But that doesn't make sense because nobody would live there if the planet was like that and there would be more volcanic activity that I am just not reading here."

Balak frowned. The crewman was right. It didn't make sense. Rising power levels wasn't too difficult to think of an explanation for. It was most likely some form of planetary defence system that he had never come across, likely an invention of the humans or the saiyans themselves. But for the planet to suddenly have massive levels of tectonic instability at the same time. Maybe the defences were causing the issues. But that couldn't be… could it? The power required to cause that much movement in the lower planetary crust would be massive.

The unease in his gut grew almost overwhelmingly strong.

"Helm, full stop!" he barked. Hirashka would likely not notice them for a couple of minutes. The fleet was still nearly fifteen minutes from being in standard bombardment range. The range for ground team disembarkation was usually another five minutes on top of that. "Comms, open a line up to Bloody Fist immediately."

"Yes, Captain."

A moment later a light flicked on at his command console. "Balak," Hirashki's voice growled out over the speaker. "What is the purpose of this call? And why are my sensor operators telling me that you have stopped?"

"My engineers are saying that there is an unusual fluctuation in the thrusters," Balak lied smoothly. "I had to stop to give them a few minutes to run a diagnostic. And the reason I am calling is to see if your sensor officers have reported the readings from the planet."

There was a pause down the line for a long moment. "What of it?"

Balak clamped down on the impulse to swear at the man. "Unusual surges of energy that are causing planetary instability? This could be some unknown form of defence."

Hirashki snorted down the line. "There are barely more than three million life forms down there," the senior commander declared. "They are an immigrant species. Where could they afford to buy powerful defences?"

Balak frowned. "Not sure. But something is causing localised earthquakes that seem to be related to the unusual energy readings."

There was a long pause. "Orders are unchanged," Hirashki growled out. "Frigates will go in and disable defences, cruisers will come up behind and drop their ground teams at population centres. I expect you'll be there." The implied threat couldn't have been any clearer. The comm clicked off.

"Orders, Captain?" someone asked.

Balak stared out the front viewport. "Wait two minutes then move forward with the rest of the fleet," he said. "But keep us at the rear of the rear. If something happens then I want us to be in position to get clear before we get caught in It with the rest of them."

It was a credit to trust the bridge crew had in his ability that they did not question his orders. They were a good crew and he had been able to work with the in the past. While the ground teams would be among the last to reach the surface, there should still be plenty of slaves to grab. Meanwhile, the unease continued to grow.

…

The roars of the last super saiyans powering up had died out minutes ago, the last of the planet shakes had stopped and Vegeta noted with some satisfaction that the buildings and other structures all seem to have survived completely intact. Not like those weak human built structures on Earth. Proper saiyan architecture that held up against the stress of fighters raising their power levels for battle.

"King Vegeta," his sensor operator called out. "Alien ships are in range for them to blockade the planet. We are reading the smaller frigate and corvette class ships moving in to attack the cities. Attack profile matches information gained from the humans about strategies to attack defences and surface to space weapons."

Vegeta couldn't help smirking. Saiyans had no need for artificial installations to defend them. A true saiyan was capable of defending themselves. The invaders would be in for a nasty surprise at seeing a saiyan in battle.

"Trunks!" he barked. "Be ready to catch any of their projectiles like they used at Shanxi. Vegeta Jr, the moment their smaller ships reach the atmosphere, I want the captains of the larger ships in your custody right in front of me so I can begin interrogating them immediately."

He got two acknowledgements and waited with a hint of impatience for the inevitable first strike.

"The ships are firing!" the sensor officer snapped.

Vegeta nodded. Trunks and his several hundred super saiyans would be enough to protect the planet. "Vegeta Jr, go!"

It didn't take long, only the matter of a minute, and there were already nearly thirty captains lying on the ground in front of him, all captured by Vegeta Jr and the three others he had under his command that could use instant transmission. Still, Vegeta couldn't show favouritism. It just wasn't his style.

"You can travel faster than the speed of light into these ships and you have only managed to grab thirty of these captains?" he sneered.

"Well, it takes a few seconds each time to make sure that we have the right person," Vegeta Jr said defensively, hunching his shoulders.

"Don't slouch," Vegeta barked. "Stand up tall. You are a prince, a descendent of a king. Act like it." He glared down at the prisoners. As he suspected, there were a vast majority of batarians, though there were two turians and an asari. Most of them looked either puzzled or afraid. As far as he could tell. He hadn't interacted much with these aliens since that day on the Citadel. He left that to Gohan. He could see a couple of the aliens glaring at him but he was very unimpressed.

"Which of these fools was in charge?" he growled.

Vegeta Jr pointed out to a batarian in grey armour with a gold filigree on the shoulders. "That one."

Vegeta gave a grunt. "Then get back to it." The junior warrior nodded and disappeared after a moment.

Vegeta let his face harden as he glared at the batarian. The creature didn't flinch. Clearly it wasn't smart enough to know the situation he was in.

"Now," he growled in English, knowing that the human language had been installed into the alien translation matrix, "normally when people get interrogated, there is a whole big thing about who are you, why are you here and it would be that I demand the information and you refuse to tell me. Then I would start to get physical and rough you up a little until you start getting the message." He stood directly over the alien. "The thing is, I don't care about any of you. What I do want to know, is who sent you."

The batarian spat at him, the phlegm spattering harmlessly against his saiyan armour. He looked down at the fluid, unimpressed with the display of defiance. He pulsed his energy ever so slightly and pushed the saliva off him.

"You know, if I were anyone else, that might have been considered brave," Vegeta remarked casually. "The thing is, by asking you to tell me I am actually doing what I can to let you keep your mind. I don't need you to say anything." His smirk turned vicious. "I just need to know who you are."

He stretched out with his mind and invaded the batarian's thoughts. He wasn't gentle as he forced his consciousness through the panicking alien's mind, sifting through the information that he needed. It took only a moment for the benefactor's information to be sifted out from the batarian's mind. Just as he'd thought; the attack had been sponsored from the Batarian Hegemony, on order from the hegemon himself. Well, that made things easier.

Just as he was withdrawing from the batarian's mind, he noticed something that he missed on the way in. It was the reason that the enemy fleet had been sent here by the hegemon. Vegeta hadn't been kidding when he said he didn't care why the fleet was there, but that was because he had thought that the aliens were just coming to attack them and push them out of the system. He hadn't thought that the batarians would be stupid enough to have another plan in the works for the saiyan people.

Slaves. The fleet wasn't just an attacking fleet, it was a slaving fleet. The hegemon himself had sent the pirates to Mindoir to make slave of the saiyan people. This pirate in charge, Hirashki, had planned on having saiyan children as bed slaves! Children!

Vegeta's fury was absolute, his rage ignited and his power level was increasing exponentially. How dare these worms think that they would take his people and enslave them?! They were saiyans! They would never be slaves again! The wind around him pulsing from his energy, the pressure forcing all of the captives to collapse from the strain that his proximity put on them.

He tore through the pirate's mind, taking every scrap of information the thing had. He tore the mind as viciously apart as he could manage, making sure to not miss anything. He was vaguely aware of the alien yelling in protest but there was nothing it could do to stop him. When he had taken as much as he could he withdrew, glaring at the alien commander full in the face. There was only one suitable response to this and Vegeta wanted to deliver it personally.

"Keep this one alive," he barked at Vegeta Jr the moment that the younger SSG appeared. "I don't need the others." He turned away from the nervous captives. "Kill the rest."

The pitiful screams of those captured captains were cut instantly short with the tell-tale sounds of energy blasts ripping through soft bodies. He ignored it all. In a blast of energy, he powered up to SSB and roared into the black of space above the planet.

…

"Captain," the sensor officer called out, "sensors indicate no damage from the bombardment. It's like the MAC shots never arrived or missed completely."

"Emergency broadcast from the Bloody Fist!" the communications officer snapped.

"Put it on speaker!" Balak ordered.

"..'s gone! I repeat Hirashki's gone! An alien appeared on the bridge, grabbed him and they both disappeared!"

"Captain Gruu is gone too!" another voice cried out. "An alien teleported in and took him right through the shields!"

"Mikak was taken to!"

"So was…

And it continued, dozens of captains taken right from their bridge. The mayhem was building as people started crying out for orders. The only thing that continued was the ships that were still firing at the surface. Not that it mattered. Whatever defences the saiyans had in place it was clearly enough to stop the entire onslaught of the full slave fleet without difficulty. That sinking feeling was feeling justified now.

"Helm, turn us about and get out of the system as fast as you can!" Balak ordered. "I don't care if you burn out the thrusters, just get us the hell out of here!"

In a credit to their haste, the cruiser made a turn that would have impressed a frigate captain and they immediately began to burn towards the outer system. Balak looked at his sensors and could see he was the only one, though two or three other ships were starting to make the turn to leave too. They were the only ones though.

"ETA to lightspeed?" Balak demanded. The continued reports of disappearing captains had passed three hundred before they stopped. Somehow, the stopping hadn't settled Balak's nerves. If anything, he was more on edge than before.

"We will be clear of the planet's gravity well in fifteen seconds," the navigator called out.

Hopefully that would be enough.

"Balak, we got something odd on screen," the sensor officer snapped.

"What?" Balak growled

"I… uh, don't know. Here, I'll put it on the display."

The holographic display lit up with the view of the space above the planet. There was nothing out of the ordinary that Balak could… wait, no. there was something. A bright blue flash was rising far too rapidly from the atmosphere and had burned its way into space, going to the middle of the fleet. Something in Balak's mind troubled him as he tried to think what it could be. All four of his eyes shot open as he remembered where he had heard about a blue flash before. The turians over the human world of Shanxi had seen it just before…

An explosion, of far greater power and violence than any Balak had ever seen lit out, blinding anyone within eyesight of a viewport facing rearward, lit up the space over Mindoir, engulfing the entire fleet that it had been in the midst of. It had the power and fury of a supernova, pushing on to destroy everything in its path, but somehow sparing the planet. The outer edges were blasting towards them far faster than their ship was capable of travelling outside of lightspeed. Fear and panic gripped Balak's heart tightly, matching the frightened screams of the bridge crew as they watched their doom heading closer. The three other ships that had been retreating were caught in the edges of the destructive energy and Balak watched in horror as they were shredded in an instant.

"Get us the hell to lightspeed!" he roared in unmitigated terror watching the blinding energy about to overtake them and send them all to the afterlife.

Only a moment later, as the edge of the energy was about the hit them, less than a second from erasing their existence, the ship lurched and the space outside morphed into the safe streaky lines of lightspeed. All was silent for a moment as it sank in; they were safe. They were alive. They were alone.

With a groan, Balak collapsed to his knees, letting the stress from the last few minutes go as he let out a shaky breath. "Good work," he croaked, his throat hoarse from shouting. "We're alive."

"Everyone else though," a voice hesitantly spoke up. "They're all dead. All of them. The largest pirate fleet ever assembled and those… monsters destroyed all of them in barely a few seconds."

"But we're alive," Balak said, his voice growing stronger as he considered the next step. He stood up and put a bracing hand on his console. "Thank the Pillars we are alive. But we need to go to ground for a while. The hegemon isn't going to be happy about this and we are the only ones left for him to take it out on. We're going to our bolthole in the Terminus for a couple of months. No need to let either the Hegemony or the saiyans find us."

A murmur of assent was all that he received as he closed his eyes, the realisation of how dangerous their position was washing over him. There was danger enough in the galaxy with having the hegemon after him, if he found out Balak was still alive after that failed raid. The Batarian Hegemony had quite a far reach into the Terminus systems and their influence was not far behind Aria T'Loak in the lawless reaches of the galaxy. But as dangerous as the hegemon was, after what he just saw, Balak would rather take the risk against the Hegemony than against the saiyans.

…

Vegeta blinked onto the Citadel in the office set aside for human and saiyan diplomats. It was a smaller place than an official embassy but it had a couple of decent offices for the human contingent with a spare office for Gohan to be able to stay on his own whenever he was on the Citadel, which was a few times a week. As he had the ability to instantly teleport wherever he wanted, Gohan didn't actually keep premises on the Citadel, though Vegeta had heard the rumour that the asari councillor, Teves or whoever she was, had been trying to convince Gohan to make this place his residence for a few years now.

Right now though, Vegeta only had one thing on his mind and it was related to the batarian that was struggling feebly in his grasp.

"Vegeta?" Gohan queried, standing up from his desk. "You never come to the Citadel. What's happening?"

Vegeta let out an angry growl. "Watch this worm," he ordered, throwing the batarian at Gohan's feet. He stomped through the doorway, barely waiting long enough for the doors to hiss open. He was mad enough that he would have just kept walking through it if the doors hadn't moved in time. Not that it would have mattered. Against his strength it might as well have been made of paper.

He had barely stepped out of the doorway when he saw what he was looking for; a human guard was standing at attention in the hallway. That would do it.

"You!" Vegeta barked at him, making the man jump. "Call the ambassador and the head of security or whoever else you need to and tell that bloody Council that they have five minutes to get to their meeting room or King Vegeta is going to blow up the damn Citadel!"

The guard stared at him dumbly. "Move it!" Vegeta bellowed at him, annoyed at the hesitation. He was already furious at the slavery attempt on his people. He did not have the patience right now to deal with stupid peons.

As the guard sprinted away, Vegeta stormed back into Gohan's office. The batarian was still cowering on the floor and Gohan was still standing over him looking confused.

"Alright, you've done that, now do you want to explain things to me?" Gohan asked, his voice deadpanned. He had known Vegeta for quite a while, after all.

Vegeta spent a couple of minutes explaining the slave raid on Mindoir, detailing the plans that the batarian cowering at their feet had for some saiyan children. When he finished, Gohan's face looked as if it was made from stone.

"So, we are at war with the batarians?" he asked.

Vegeta nodded. "We will be by the time that I finish with those moronic councillors. The only thing that they can hope for is that the fools don't try and stop me."

Gohan gave a slow nod. "You know, dad isn't going to be happy completely wiping out the batarians."

Vegeta growled. "I don't care what Kakarot would think!" he snapped. "I am king, not him, and this was a direct attempt to enslave the saiyan people. He wasn't there living as a slave under Frieza, he doesn't know how things were for us, how quickly our entire lives were destroyed by the destruction of our planet. These same creatures came to Mindoir and fired on us from orbit, trying to destroy us again. I will not allow that to go unanswered!"

Gohan gave a small sigh and nodded. "Yeah, I know you Vegeta. But before you go destroying their planets, just remember that nearly half of their population are already slaves. Dad will want us to save them first, and I will agree with him."

Vegeta though that about for a moment. Destroying the batarian worlds from orbit would reduce him to Frieza's level. But he could justify it if he freed all of the slaves first. They might be weak pathetic individuals or just poor unfortunate souls, but it would add insult to injury for the batarian leaders to go to their deaths knowing that all of their slaves were out of their grasp before they were killed. Vegeta could live with that.

"Fine," he bit out. "We'll save the slaves first. But after that, not even Kakarot will stop me from showing them all what saiyan revenge looks like."

Gohan nodded. "I think I can live with that. He will too."

"He'd better. Now, use Instant Transmission to go pick up the batarian ambassador and take him straight to the council chambers. I don't care what he is doing, just take him there as soon as you see him. Don't bother letting him talk; he can explain himself in the meeting."

"Right." A moment later Gohan disappeared. Vegeta stooped down, grabbed the pirate and teleported directly to the council chamber. The asari and the salarian councillors were already waiting there. The salarian was a different one than Vegeta had seen last time, not that he really cared, but the asari was the same as the one he remembered.

"King Vegeta," the asari, what was her name… Teves?... greeted him politely. "I must say that it is not a common thing for us to be demanded to attend anything, let alone threatened if we do not."

"Indeed," the unnamed salarian concurred. "Though, having not met you last time you were here, I do find myself curious as to why you would demand an audience."

Vegeta glared at them for a long moment. "Where's the last one?" he grunted.

"I'm sure that Councillor Sparatus will be here momentarily," Teves assured him.

Vegeta couldn't help but sneer at the condescension in her tone. More likely the turian was making him wait on purpose. "Well, then, let's see if we can't hurry him along now, shall we?"

Without waiting to let them figure out what he meant, he raised his arm, pointed at one of the statues that sat innocently on a raised platform, and let off a ki blast. In less time than it takes to blink, the entire statue exploded violently and the once proud figure of an asari commando was demolished to rubble and the area around it was scorched.

"What are you doing?" the asari exclaimed when she stood back up, having ducked down when the explosion happened.

"Making a compelling argument for speed," Vegeta deadpanned. "I told the guard I encountered that if you councillors had not assembled in five minutes, then I would destroy this station. I don't want it to be said that I am a liar."

The blue woman stared at him gobsmacked. The lizardman's face was far harder to understand.

In less than a minute, the turian councillor that Vegeta recognised from his first appearance came sprinting into the chamber, followed by a number of security guards. Not that it mattered. They wouldn't be able to do anything here today. At almost the same moment the turian appeared, Gohan appeared, holding a hand on a blustering batarian in fancy clothes.

"What is the meaning of this?" the batarian demanded the instant that he had his bearings.

"I would like to know that myself," Sparatus growled. Funny that Vegeta could remember his name. Oh well, there is just something about remembering those who you threatened to blast into oblivion.

"I believe that King Vegeta of the saiyan people would be able to enlighten us, the salarian commented drily.

Vegeta sneered up at them. "About an hour ago, a fleet of around seven hundred pirate ships, led by this pathetic worm here," he kicked the pirate on the floor next to him, "attacked our planet Mindoir. Their purpose was a slave raid to capture our people on behalf of the batarian hegemon."

"Preposterous!" the batarian ambassador cried out, looking visibly uncomfortable. "There is nothing to implicate that the Hegemony had anything to do with any such raid."

Vegeta's eye twitched in annoyance, feeling a strain on his already thin patience at dealing with morons. "Perhaps this fool is forgetting that we can read minds," he said to the councillors, ignoring the batarian. "I had my warriors teleport to their ships to capture their captains, thinking it was just a push to get us to leave the planet to them." His sneer hardened in hatred as he glared down at the wincing pirate. "Imagine my surprise when I was able to see and hear the direct orders given to this filth right from the batarian leadership in his mind."

"Lies!" the batarian ambassador interrupted again. "There is no proof other than the imaginations of either this saiyan's head…"

Vegeta snapped. Before the four-eyed alien could utter a single syllable more, he threw the pirate, screaming loudly, high into the air, kept his arm pointed at him and unleashed a ki blast. The pirate exploded into miniscule chunks of burnt flesh and viscera. The entire audience stared in wide eyed shock at the violence. Even Sparatus looked paler than before. He must be remembering the time I had threatened to do the same to him, Vegeta thought with satisfaction.

"This isn't up for debate, nor discussion," Vegeta spat out. "I am not here asking for concessions or apologies. The fact that I came here at all is a courtesy you are lucky to receive right now. I am here to tell you what is happening. The batarian leaders thought that they could enslave a warrior race. My race. I personally destroyed all their ships except for one who had already fled before I attacked. When we met here last time, I warned you that if any of you were stupid enough to attack us then we would be at war with you until your extinction. So hear me now. I, Vegeta, king of the saiyans, declare that a state of war exists between the saiyan people and the Batarian Hegemony and will continue until such a time as the Hegemony no longer exists. I warn you now that any race that attempts to come to the aid of the batarians will likewise find themselves our enemies. If you as the Council attempt to defend the batarians, if you try to provide a sanctuary for them, then I will destroy you just as thoroughly as I will them. If you stay out of this, then our neutral stance against you will remain unchanged. I don't care either way, but you will find that your people will die rather quickly if you tempt me."

"Your people barely number three million," the batarian ambassador sneered, finding his voice again after his shock wore off. "You think you can handle the might of the…"

The man stopped, his ability to speak, eat and breathe removed by the large hole where his chest had been. Vegeta lowered his still-smoking hand as the body dropped to the ground. The guards next to the councillors stared on in shock, only two of them raising their weapons at the saiyans. Gohan just gave him an exasperated look that he ignored.

"He was beyond annoying," he said, as casually as if he was talking about the weather. "Now, do I need to expand our war to include all of your races, or do I keep it as a saiyan-batarian matter?"

The councillors shared a brief look.

"The prospect of war is troubling," the asari spoke up. "But we recognise the complaints of the saiyan people against the actions of the batarian leadership. Such action taken by the batarians was without the permission or laws the Citadel community strives to uphold. The asari in particular will not go to war if it is made to appear that we are doing so to support illegal slave raids. The Republics will not be aiding the batarians."

"The Salarian Union likewise will not be supporting the batarians in the coming conflict," the lizardman said simply.

"The Hierarchy also will not interfere with the upcoming conflict between the saiyans and batarians," Sparatus said stiffly. He let out a whistling sigh. "I may not like you King Vegeta, but the Hierarchy military has wanted to hold the Hegemony accountable for their slave raids for some time. I daresay that you will find many turians that will be rather delighted with your actions."

Vegeta grunted in amusement, already feeling less angry now that the batarians had started dying by his hand. "Good. We'll get in contact with you when it's done."

With that he put his fingers to his head and teleported back to Mindoir, Gohan following. Now the fools were going to learn a new level of fear in a saiyan going to war.

…

A/N Review/Favourite/Follow as you please.

I type this A/N one handed while holding a fussy baby. I wasn't kidding about what I have been doing. I split this chapter in two to get something out faster because the retaliation deserved its own chapter and has not been finished yet. Not sure when the next chapter will be out. I will try before New Year but don't hold your breath.

Also, not sure why but there don't seem to have been any other DBS/ME stories out there. I was hoping that someone else might have come up with something.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and stay safe.