Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty

Written by: Feraligreater328 and StevenBodner

Chapter 12: The Hunt Begins

25 days later, On Planet Namek…

The elevator from the Kami's old ship slowly descended and the four travelers from Earth took in their new surroundings. Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma all marveled at the amazing, rolling fields of Planet Namek. The air smelled different, the atmosphere felt different, and the three-party members who had never left Earth before were all quite impressed.

Bardock, however, was barely whelmed at the sights. If he had seen one planet like Namek, he has seen a million like Namek. He took a deep breath, tightened his bandana around his head, and then he turned to the other three. "Okay, listen up! Standard procedure!"

The older Saiyan pointed at each of them. "We need to split up, find Namekian settlements, and establish a chain of communication with these slugs in order to earn their trust and achieve our goals as quickly as possible. Once that is done, we can open a dialog about our demands and-"

Bulma, her face red, shouted right at Bardock. "Who the hell said you were the leader of this mission!?"

Bardock turned to face her with a sneer. "Seniority? Actual experience in space travel? Not being deadweight on this mission?"

As Bulma was ready to retort, Bardock's eyes suddenly widened and he raced right at Bulma. The human woman screamed in terror, afraid that Bardock might hurt her, but was surprised when she felt a hot explosion very close to the back of her head.

She looked up and saw that Bardock had pulled her close to his chest, his other arm extended behind her head to block it from being stricken by an energy blast. Bulma turned to see that Gohan and Krillin had already taken up a fighting stance. Bardock shoved her behind him and then he did as well.

Bulma scanned around for the problem and eventually found it hovering in the air. Two aliens wearing the same armor as the Saiyans glared at the four of them. And then, the one on the left spoke. "Who the hell are you people and how dare you enter a restricted area!?"

Bulma's face turned blue. "R-Restricted? Why is-"

Not letting her finish, the two aliens charged at the four of them with their hand-mounted blasters drawn.

The two soldiers charged at the new arrivals to Namek. Gohan and Krillin immediately charged back, meeting these two new foes with a punch and a knee strike. The two soldiers, stunned, were sent flying back. They glanced at each other and charged again, this time meeting Gohan and Krillin for close-combat. The fight seemed even for only a moment before Gohan and Krillin overwhelmed the two of them and sent them flying back again.

In the meantime, as this brawl raged on, Bulma immediately ran back towards the ship to hide. The mustache-bearing soldier glared over at her and motioned to his partner. "Sui! Destroy that ship!"

The purple reptilian smirked. "Right, Banan!"

He quickly turned his blaster towards the Namekian spaceship and fired. The beam launched right at the front of the ship but, just before it could hit, it was handily deflected away. Sui gasped. "Wh-What the hell?"

Bardock landed and glared at the soldier. "Just what the hell is the Frieza Force doing on this boondock of a planet?"

Sui sneered. "If you know that we're part of the Frieza Force, then you should know that you ain't getting an answer to that!"

The soldier aimed his blaster at Bardock, but Bardock quickly closed the gap between them. He clamped his hand around Sui's blaster and crushed it, along with purple lizard's hand, into bits. Sui cried out in pain, but Bardock quickly silenced him with a fist through the chest.

Sui dropped dead and Bardock turned his attention to Banan. The Frieza Force soldier was stuttering and terrified, turning tail and attempting to fly away. Bardock quickly overtook him and kicked him in the jaw. Banan plummeted back to the ground and slid into a nearby rockface. He struggled to get up, but Bardock landed on top of him and wrapped his hands around his throat.

After a moment and a desperate gurgle, Banan stopped moving all together and Bardock stood up. "Goddammit... Why the hell is the Frieza Force here?"

Before Bardock could think any harder, Krillin, Gohan, and Bulma came running up to him. Krillin and Gohan were both in awe. Krillin chuckled. "That was amazing, Bardock! You took those guys out like it was nothing!"

Gohan added on. "Nice moves, Grandpa!"

Bardock looked down at his two younger travel companions and smirked. "Yeah. It wasn't all that hard. They were just fodder."

After a moment, Bulma spoke up as well. "Thank you! Y-You saved the ship too! If that beam had hit it, then we would have been stuck here!"

Bardock glanced over at Bulma and nodded. "Yeah. Gotta protect valuable assets. That's Rule #1 when dealing with a planet that is possibly full of hostiles."

Bardock turned from the group and walked over to Banan's corpse. As he messed with it, Bulma began to fret. "Th-Those guys were wearing the same armor as you Saiyans. And... they tried to kill us the moment they saw us! I have a bad feeling about all of this..."

With a grunt, Bardock pulled the hand blaster off of Banan's arm and tossed it to Bulma. "Listen to that feeling. It'll keep you alive."

Bardock picked up Banan's corpse and then walked over to Sui and began to mess with his crushed hand blaster.

Bulma glanced down at the weapon. "Wh-What's this for?"

Bardock tore open the side of Sui's blaster and shouted to Bulma over his shoulder. "Self-defense. We can't be babysitting you for this entire trip. That blaster is powerful enough to kill any weakling if you place the shot well enough. You've got a decent aim, right?"

Bulma nodded. "Y-Yeah... I landed a shot on Goku right between the eyes when I first met him."

Bardock snorted and threw the battery from Sui's hand blaster at Bulma. "Well then, just pretend every enemy you see is Kakarot and you should be just fine."

Bulma stared down at her new weapon and began to fiddle with it. Bardock, meanwhile, slung Sui's corpse on top of Banan's and carried the two dead soldiers over to the water, tossing them in. Once their bodies had safely sunk into the depths, Bardock walked back over to his group. "Well, guys... 5 minutes in and we've already started a body count of 2. I'd say this trip is off to a decent start."

Bulma slotted the blaster over her hand and fitted it to her arm. "Y-Yeah... I guess so."

Gohan and Krillin both nodded and Bardock smirked. "Now...let's start out by finding a Drag-"

Bardock looked up into the air and sighed. "Ah shit..."

Krillin and Gohan both cocked their heads. Bulma, meanwhile, began to panic. Gohan and Krillin both turned to look up into the sky and gasped in terror. An Attack Ball was falling from above.

Bulma stammered. "Is... Is that...?"

Krillin, Gohan, and Bardock all closed their eyes and felt out the energy in the pod. Krillin and Gohan's faces turned green. Bardock merely sighed. "Vegeta..."

Quite a way away on Namek…

The hatch to the Attack Ball opened and out stepped Vegeta, looking smug. The Saiyan Prince knew what a good position he was in at the moment. His knowledge that Frieza was constantly listening in through the Scouters played to his advantage. He had no one on his tail and he could leak whatever information, or misinformation, he wanted directly to his enemies.

Vegeta chuckled to himself and took a deep breath of Namekian air. "I smell blood in the air. I wonder who will die first?"

Back with Bardock's group…

Bardock, Krillin, and Gohan flew with Bulma tightly holding on to Bardock's back. All four of them were scanning the ground for a cave big enough to allow them to hide out in. Bardock turned to his travel-mates and shouted. "Hey, woman! I'll admit, it was a pretty smart move to make sure that we could store the ship so easily."

Bulma called back. "Well duh! My father is the owner of Capsule Corp. Why wouldn't I make our only means of travel easy to store and hide?!"

Bardock nodded. "Yeah. Guess Earth isn't as primitive as I thought."

Gohan and Krillin both scanned the various islands of Planet Namek intently. Krillin piped up. "So, once we find a place to make our base of operations, what's the plan, Bardock?"

Bardock called back. "We start hunting for the Dragon Balls! There are four of us and seven of them. So, if we all put our best effort into it, we should be able to gather most of what we need in under a day!"

Gohan smiled. "I can't wait to meet some Namekians. I wonder if they're all like Mr. Piccolo?"

Bardock grunted. "Just be wary, boy. You never know how locals will react to alien life..."

The four of them flew for another 5 minutes before Bulma finally called out. "I see a cave!"

They all came to a stop and landed on the island that Bulma was pointing towards. In front of them was a massive rock face with a gigantic hole in the side.

Bardock motioned to Gohan. "Stay here and with the woman. Krillin and I will check it out."

The two older warriors walked into the cave, leaving Gohan and Bulma waiting outside. Bulma, finally having a moment alone with Gohan, turned to the boy. "So, that grandfather of yours..."

Gohan looked up at her. "Yes?"

Bulma put on a sour face. "He's a rude, gruff, overly macho, loud, angry, prickish dick..."

Gohan nodded. "Uh-huh..."

Bulma sighed and her shoulders sagged. "But if you look past all of that... he's basically Goku but older... so I can't be all bad..."

Gohan smiled. "I don't think so either. He just seems angry most of the time... at least to me."

Bulma glanced away from Gohan and at the blaster on her hand. "Hmm..."

After a few moments, Krillin and Bardock re-emerged from the cave. Bardock pointed at it with his thumb. "The thing goes pretty deep. Deep enough that we could set up a proper hiding spot. Vegeta shouldn't be able to find us with a Scouter unless he was specifically looking for us. And even then he'd be hard-pressed."

Krillin smirked. "Yeah, and no hostile wildlife. So, that's a plus!"

Bulma reached into her vest and pulled out a capsule case. "I have a Capsule House we can set up in there. So, we can at least have some level of comfort while we're here."

Krillin nodded. "Sounds good. Let's-"

But then, the monk stopped dead in his sentence and his jaw dropped. "Wh-Wha...?!"

Gohan's face turned a ghostly white. Even Bardock was rendered utterly speechless by what he felt coming right towards them. Bulma looked confused as her three travel-mates all stood there, rendered almost braindead by what they felt. "What's going on?"

No response.

Bulma's voice got a bit more frantic. "Guys!?"

Suddenly, quick as a bolt of lightning, Bardock shoved Krillin and Gohan into the cave. And then, he grabbed Bulma, clamping his hand over her mouth, and pulling her in as well. Bulma attempted to cry out under the hand, but Bardock gripped tighter.

Carefully, the four of them peeked out of the cave and towards the approaching force. And after a moment, they were met by the sight of several more soldiers flying by. Immediately after these soldiers was the source of the power: a short, long-tailed demon of purple, pink, and white complexion with sharp, black horns flew by in a hover pod.

Flying right next to him were two other aliens, a tubby ball of pink spikes and a green, princely-looking fellow. Both of them were carrying a set of two very familiar looking orange spheres. Krillin and Gohan were both aghast at this massive army of superpowers. Bulma, under Bardock's hand, was panicking at the sight of these people holding four rather large Dragon Balls.

As for Bardock... a piercing ringing noise was screaming through Bardock's head. His hands were firm, but chilly and white. All at once, bitter memories of the past flooded through his head. Pain and agony and rage and heat and death all at once. Bardock's voice wavered as he mumbled a single word to himself. "Frieza..."

Once the threat had well-passed, Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma all spilled from the cave, heaving for breath. The three terrified travelers all looked at once another and spoke in wavering tones.

Gohan gasped. "They were all so strong... Especially the one in that chair..."

Krillin nodded. "And there were so many of them..."

Bulma swallowed a lump in her throat. "And they had FOUR Dragon Balls..."

The three of them turned to look at Bardock for advice on what to do next, but they were met by an even more unsettling sight. Bardock was standing there, in the entrance to the cave, with the most unsettling, unhinged smile on his face he could muster. "Yeah. Frieza..."

Gohan was a bit worried. "G-Grandpa?"

But Bardock didn't hear Gohan at all. Instead, the gears were turning in the veteran Saiyan's head. It was time for him to right a wrong that had happened so long ago. If Bardock played his cards right... then maybe he might be able to leave this planet with that bastard Frieza's head!

That thought gave Bardock more joy than nearly anything in his life. This time he would-

Bardock's eyes widened as another vision ran through his head: this vision was much clearer than the visions prior. He saw Vegeta massacring an entire village of Namekians, taking the Dragon Ball that they were guarding, and tossing it into the Namekian sea.

Gohan called out again. "Grandpa Bardock!"

Bardock snapped back into his senses and shook his head, staring down at the fearful look on his grandson's face. Gohan stared up at him. "Are you okay?"

The grandfather nodded. "Yeah, kid. I'm fine. Just thinking..."

He sighed and muttered to himself. "Looks like Gine was right."

Bulma walked over to Bardock, cocking her head at his muttering. "What do you mean by that?"

Bardock turned to his allies with a grim look. "There's something I didn't tell you about traveling in space. At least, this part of space."

Bulma was getting visibly nervous. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

Bardock let out another deep breath. "To recap, you already know that the Saiyans were basically space pirates, conquering planet after planet. Sometimes enslaving, but more frequently killing off the sentient life-forms there."

Krillin raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Yeah, so? What does that have to do with anything?

Bardock continued. "What you didn't know is that we weren't actually the ones who were reigning. The truth is that for generations, the Saiyans were basically as enslaved as any planet we conquered. Our talents for battle made us ideal foot soldiers. The true commanding group is known as the Planet Trade Organization, more commonly known in recent history as the Frieza Force."

Bulma immediately hated the way that sounded. "And that was who you were dealing with, wasn't it?"

Bardock nodded. "The 'Saiyan' Armor you are so familiar with is actually Frieza Force in design, merely remodeled from the technology that made the Saiyans' original armor after we were annexed into their group. The leader of this business-empire is a bastard named Frieza. Before my demise the Frieza Force, and by extension the Planet Trade Organization as a whole, was doing business in three out of four of the known galaxies and slowly encroaching into the fourth."

He sighed. "They advertise as a real estate solution for species displaced by natural phenomenon, but anybody who's worked in the trenches for those monsters knows that their real goal is total conquest."

Bulma grabbed Bardock's shoulder strap and dragged him down to face-level. "Are you saying we flew into enemy territory?! Why the hell didn't you Saiyans warn us about this?!"

Bardock shrugged Bulma's grip off him. "Because we knew how badly you wanted to revive your friends. Because Namek is a planet with little resources of concern to Frieza, other than the Dragon Balls which are supposed to be a well-kept secret, meaning he shouldn't have been interested in coming here any time soon. And because with Vegeta still alive and eager to get immortality, we knew it was a race."

Bulma reluctantly conceded to Bardock's reasoning. Bardock cracked his neck. "There's one more thing you need to know about this. Frieza personally is a threat unlike anything you have ever dealt with. Lazy and self-entitled as he is, he is the single most powerful warrior in the entire universe."

Krillin swallowed a lump in his throat. "Even compared to Vegeta?"

Bardock turned to Krillin. "He makes Vegeta look like a hissing kitten."

Gohan walked up to his grandfather. "Is he really that dangerous?"

Bardock frowned. "Frieza was the one who personally destroyed Planet Vegeta with a single attack."

The Earthlings were speechless. After a minute of silence, Krillin was the one to find his voice. "B-B-B-B… But Raditz said a meteor was responsible for that."

Bardock scoffed. "It figures that Frieza would make such a lie to keep the loyalty of the few Saiyans he chose to spare so he could keep working them like dogs."

Krillin spoke up. "Well... can you think of a single thing we can actually do right now? Those smaller soldiers would be easy to beat, but the two that were holding the Dragon Balls are way out of our league. You're probably the only person here who can stand up to them! And if Frieza is as bad you say-"

Bardock gave Krillin a hearty slap on the back of the head. "Oh, shut the hell up! Have some damn confidence! We aren't dead yet, we just have to be a bit covert..."

Krillin cocked his head. "Covert?"

Bardock nodded. "Yeah. We have to be the smart people in the face of the strong. At least for now."

Bulma, significantly cowed by the sheer power they had just faced, stepped up. "So... what do we do?"

Bardock cleared his throat. "It's simple, kids. We each have a job to do that plays to our strengths!"

Bardock pointed to Bulma. "You stay here and set up our base! Get that Capsule House up and establish contact with our people back on Earth. When you do, you need to let everyone know that Frieza is on this planet. And don't worry, Raditz and Gine will know what that means..."

Bulma nodded and immediately ran into the cave to begin setup. Bardock smirked and turned to Gohan and Krillin. "Here's your job, you two. It's dangerous, but I think I can count on the two of you to handle it."

Krillin was a tad unsure. "O-Okay..."

Gohan was listening intently, determined to do his part. Bardock pointed in the direction that Frieza and his troops had flown. "You need to follow them and gather as much intel as you can without being seen. Account for every Dragon Ball and every piece of information they let slip! We need to know every detail we can get our hands on if we wanna come out on top here. Got it?!"

Gohan nodded immediately. "Yessir, Grandpa Bardock!"

Krillin swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded as well. "O-Okay... I think... I think we can handle that..."

Gohan spoke up again. "What are you going to be doing, Grandpa?"

Bardock smirked and turned away from the two of them. "We need a competitive advantage here. If we don't hurry, Frieza is going to clean sweep this planet before we even get a point in! So, I'm going to use my free time and higher level of experience on dealing with alien life to go and hunt a Dragon Ball for us to have and hold! Afterall, just being deprived of a single Dragon Ball means Frieza can't get whatever wish he wants."

Bardock sounded confident as he stretched and walked away. "We'll regroup in an hour or so. You two had better stay safe..."

The Saiyan squatted down, stretching his legs, and then took off with a shout. "Gine would kill me if anything happened to you!"

And with that, Bardock was off. As he got smaller and smaller over the horizon, Gohan and Krillin turned to each other. Krillin was unnerved, but Gohan was ready to go. After some goading between the two of them, the two Earthlings took off in the direction that Frieza had flown.

Meanwhile, with Vegeta…

Vegeta took an easy stroll across the plains of Namek, being in no particular rush. The Saiyan Prince was smug as he listened in on his soon-to-be prey. Dodoria and Zarbon were running their mouths to each other. Zarbon sounded as haughty as ever. "I swear, I am going to skin Banan and Sui alive when they return! They were supposed to be back with reports of more Namekian villages by now!"

Dodoria chuckled. "Knowing those two losers, they probably got taken out by the worthless slugs! Hell, maybe they got taken out by one of those Cold-forsaken giant crabs!"

Zarbon shuddered. "You puffy, pink dolt! Don't take King Cold's name in vain! It is very disrespectful to Lord Frieza!"

In the background, Vegeta could hear Frieza chime in. "Calm down Zarbon. I don't care about my father enough to let a simple blaspheme bother me. Honestly, the old fool would probably take pride that Dodoria is substituting him for God..."

Frieza sighed. "But that doesn't matter. I see a Namekian settlement ahead. Prepare for engagement."

Vegeta smirked as he listened to Dodoria, Zarbon, and Frieza continue to talk. None of them realized that this planet was going to be their grave!

Meanwhile, with Gohan and Krillin…

After a short time of flying, Gohan and Krillin finally got to the point where they could feel the insane power level of that Frieza guy once again in its full breadth. The two travelers from Earth chose to land on the furthest reach of the landmass they felt Frieza on and walk the rest of the way in order to better suppress their energy and totally avoid detection by their more powerful foes.

Gohan and Krillin crept up to the top of a nearby ledge. Crawling to the very edge of the overlook, the two of them came upon a horrifying display. Several Namekian corpses were strewn across the burnt plant fields and, clustered nearer to the buildings, the final three Namekians were huddled in fear. Two children and an older Namekian stared at Frieza and the tyrant glowered right back at them.

Krillin shivered at the display and turned to check on Gohan, only to be shocked by the boy's already mounting anger. Krillin whispered to his partner. "G-Gohan... calm down. Remember what Bardock said, you can't let your anger get the better of you..."

These pleas were falling on deaf ears. The more Gohan examined the situation, the more apoplectic he was becoming. His knuckles were white as he gripped his fists around two shocks of grass.

Down in the village, Frieza smiled a polite, venomous smile at the Namekians. "Hello there. It is very nice to meet you. Now that I have made my ways perfectly clear to you... perhaps you might be willing to divulge the location of your Dragon Ball?"

Meanwhile, with Bardock…

The village of the Four-Star Dragon Ball was functioning in peace, blissfully unaware of all of the horrors that were ravaging their planet. Children played in the fields as farmers tended to the plants. The warriors that were assigned to guard the Dragon Ball stood in ever-constant vigil. All was calm, as far as they were concerned, on Planet Namek.

And then, like a lightning bolt from the heavens, Bardock dropped to the ground below. The entire village was shocked into silence by this non-Namekian intruder. The warriors all took up fighting stances, ready to strike on this invader. However, they didn't budge. In their stead, the village elder marched right up to the still crouched down Bardock. The older Namekian had a concerned grimace on his face as he approached this visitor. "Pardon me... might I ask who you are and why you have come to this village?"

Bardock grunted as he stood up straight, towering over the older being. "Sorry to say, pops..."

Bardock summoned an energy ball into his hand and steeled his gaze at the old man. "But you all are going to die over that Dragon Ball..."