Clash of Empires (Special Chapter)
As Vegeta's and Yajirobe's ships continued to travel in space, Vegeta pressed a button on his remote. Immediately both the pods were filled with a sedative gas.
Yajirobe felt alarmed. 'What is this?!' His panic was short-lived however as he couldn't resist dozing off.
Meanwhile, Vegeta too dozed off, drifting away to a land of the past in his dreams...
150 years ago...
The Saiyan king, Sabzar, led his army against that of the species called Arcosians.
The King had a golden aura surrounding him, his hair was spiky and golden and his eyes were blue.
"Come on, men! Attack!"
The Saiyan army roared at their King's order and pounced upon the arcosians.
Cold who led the arcosian army was having a tough time. "Don't run away, men!" he pleaded. However, the arcosians were so terrified that they ignored their ruler and ran away like anything.
King Cold looked furious. "I will be back, Sabzar!" he yelled before blasting away.
Soon the sky was filled with spaceships taking off. The Saiyans were firing ki blasts at the getting away spaceships. Many of their attacks were hitting, causing the affected Arcosian to fall down into the horde of Saiyans and get ripped apart.
King Sabzar chuckled. Once again he had won the battle. He calmed down his aura as his hair and eyes turned black. His hair now looked less spiky as well.
This had been going on for some time. The Saiyan and Arcosian scuffles were nothing new. This time, the planet trade organization had failingly tried to exterminate the population of a planet in the outskirts of King Sabzar's kingdom. The few Saiyans who were stationed on the planet were killed. As soon as this news reached King Sabzar he had rushed with his troops to try to save the planet.
The Saiyans were a tribe of battle-thirsty warriors whose life was nothing but conquering planets and adding them to the Saiyan kingdom. After a planet's conquest, a few dozen Saiyans would be posted to manage the planet's affairs and to collect revenue from the inhabitants and send it to their King.
The Saiyans were a ruthless bunch of people. The word mercy was a stranger to them. Causing bloodshed and destruction ran in their blood.
Despite their violent tendencies, however, the Saiyans were an honourable group. The governor of a planet would try his best to do justice among the inhabitants. He would not look at the economic status of a person when carrying out judicial orders. The Saiyans hated scheming and lying. Whatever one of them had to say he would say to the face. They stood by their words. They were very brave and charity was considered highly admirable in their society.
On the other hand was the planet trade organization run by the Arcosians. Despite the innocent name they ran the shady business of exterminating the population of a planet and than selling it to some rich buyers who would then use the planet as a resort, a home, or whatever they wanted.
The two had been in minor and major scuffles for decades now. This latest battle was a heavy blow to the Arcosian power. The Arcosians were strong fighters in their own right but still were no match to the Saiyans.
The thing which gave the Saiyans the edge was the Super Saiyan transformation. Everytime, one of them went gold, he would almost become impossible to handle!
Currently there were about half a dozen Super Saiyans and each of them was a thorn in the eyes of King Cold.
King Cold sat on his throne, fuming with rage.
With a shattering sound, the glass of wine in his hand broke into pieces. The tyrant stood up and grabbed a courtier by the neck.
The courtier's eyes bulged. "Long.. live.. King.. Cold."
However, King Cold still snapped his neck.
Everybody in the court was sweating. King Cold was looking angry.
DISHOO!
Another courtier was reduced to ashes by a ki blast from the tyrant.
It was than that a chuckling old arcosian walked into court. "What's the matter, Cold? Another defeat by the Saiyans?"
King Cold looked away, frowning. "What is it, Glacier?"
The old arcosian who had been the Prime minister since King Cold's grandfather held a certain degree of respect in the PTO like no other. King Cold couldn't lay a finger on the old man.
Glacier calmly walked up to the fuming King Cold. "If only you would listen to my advice, Cold.."
King Cold stayed silent. Normally he would pass-off the old Arcosian's advices as the mindless babble of an old man. But today.. he was willing to listen to him seriously. Cold had already tried out nearly everything he knew to put a stop to the Saiyan's growing power. There was a slight chance that this time the old man would tell him something useful.
Glacier smiled. Cold looked in the mood to listen today. The old man opened his mouth. "I have told you many times that your main target should be the Saiyans' honour. That is what allows them to achieve the legendary form of Super Saiyan."
King Cold rolled his eyes. "Don't bother me with that honour bull-crap again."
Glacier looked agitated. "Fool. The Saiyans' strength and their honour are inseparable. Their strength feeds off their honour and their honour feeds off their strength. If only you could take away their honour from them, they would be reduced to a pile of putty in your hands. That is what I would tell your father also but he refused to listen to me. And look where it got him to.. a death at the hands of the same monkeys he loathed."
King Cold looked to the ground. Maybe he could give the old man's scheme a chance. "What should I do, Glacier?"
Glacier snickered deviously, rubbing his hands together. "Attack the youth. Make obscenity, adultery, intoxicant drinks, drugs, and musical instruments widespread among them! Feed them with their desires! You can kick me out of the palace if my scheme fails."
King Cold raised his brows. This was the old man's grand plan? Anyway, he was willing to give it a try.
After an hour or so of discussions, their plan was made.
The tyrant called for a couple of men from the press department. When the men came, Cold instructed them to put up certain advertisements in the Saiyans' planets. The men nodded.
"It would be done, sir!"
King Cold smirked. The tyrant looked towards Glacier. "We will see how your scheme plays out."
100 years later (50 years ago from Vegeta's perspective)...
The Saiyans lay sprawled intoxicated on the floor of a club. Dance and music filled the atmosphere around them.
Suddenly, an alarm sounded... someone on the road was making an announcement.
None of the Saiyans cared to budge however...
A Saiyan was running around the town with a loudspeaker in his hand. "Planet Vegeta is under attack! We have to depart immediately!" he was yelling yet only few people were responding. "Lazy pigs," he muttered under his breath. "THIS IS PLANET VEGETA WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE!"
...
Some of the Saiyans in the club woke up. What did they just hear? Planet Vegeta...under attack? No, how could it be?!
...
Slowly but surely the Saiyans began to come out.
The Saiyan with the loudspeaker grinned with relief as he saw a crowd beginning to gather in front of him. "Depart for Planet Vegeta immediately. The king needs our help."
Everybody nodded. Soon the sky filled with space pods taking off.
King Vegeta gritted his teeth as he looked from the door of his palace. The king was quite young, his face hinted that he was still in his late teens. His father's untimely demise to a mysterious illness had led him to be shouldering the burden of the whole Saiyan empire at such a young age. The capital city had been surrounded by the PTO army from all sides. A strong but not indestructible energy barrier surrounded the city's walls except at its three gates. This had so far prevented the city from being flooded by the attackers.
"Kappa," he addressed his general, a large well-built Saiyan who stood beside him. "You take a quarter of your men and head to the North gate. Tell Gajar to take a quarter with him and defend the East gate. I will take the rest and fight at the West gate."
Kappa nodded. "As you command, my king," he said respectfully before running away to fulfill the orders.
For the last 50 years, PTO had been making progressive inroads into the Saiyan empire. This time, King Cold's organization had went a step ahead and attacked the heart.. Planet Vegeta itself.
King Cold had been sly enough to attack in the dead of the night when most of the Saiyans were fast asleep. He too had been pleasantly surprised that his large army stuffed inside one gigantic spaceship had managed to reach the planet undetected. Yes, his spaceship was made of a reflecting material which made it difficult to spot but still he had expected the Saiyans to do better. Maybe it was because never in their dreams had they imagined someone would dare to attack the feared Planet Vegeta.
The PTO army consisted of about 20 per cent Arcosians and 80 per cent the elites of other species. It had slaughtered all the Saiyans of four out of the five inhabited cities on Planet Vegeta. Now only the capital city remained.
The battle was extremely furious at all the three gates as the two armies collided with each other. The best of Saiyan warriors were up against the best soldiers of King Cold's empire.
Many spacepods were trying to land but King Cold had his men scattered to prevent any of the pods from landing by destroying them before they did. Only a few Saiyans managed to land and proved to be only of minimal help.
The ground was littered with dead bodies.
It was soon evident who was going to be the victor. The Arcosians appeared to be clearly having the upper hand.
King Vegeta gnashed his teeth as he could see his army begin to scatter. He couldn't believe it. He had to make a decision and fast. Swallowing his pride, he finally did. "TRUCE! WE CALL FOR TRUCE!"
All the fighters of both the armies stopped in their tracks. The Saiyans looked especially dumbstruck. Was their king accepting defeat? No, it couldn't be!
King Cold smirked. He had hoped for this very thing. The Saiyans were too valuable of a tribe to be completely eliminated.
Soon, the terms and conditions were laid out and it was clear who was on the losing end.
Gajar, a Saiyan with palm-tree like hair, stood beside the King. "My king, we can't possibly be serving them.."
King Vegeta shook his head. "We don't have any choice. We are completely outclassed here. It's the only means to survive.."
Gajar's mouth dropped open. "But.. my king, you still have not transformed.."
King Vegeta growled. "I can't! And Cold knows this! Now don't speak any further!"
Gajar looked amazed. So, at this point of time, their was not even a single one of them..who could turn Super Saiyan...
An aura of grief and dismay swept over the warrior race. The reality of what had just happened slowly sunk in...
Some of the terms and conditions of the truce were:
-All of the planets formerly belonging to the Saiyan kingdom would henceforth belong to King Cold.
-The Saiyans would from now on serve under the Planet trade organization.
-The Saiyans would be given positions in the PTO reflecting the positions they formerly held in the Saiyan empire. King Vegeta would be the governor of Planet Vegeta.
It was the start of a new era for the Saiyans...
25 years later (25 years ago from Vegeta's perspective)...
King Vegeta stood on the deck of his spaceship looking at the rising sun of Planet Vegeta. The king's hair had begun to grey. Twenty five years had passed by since that fateful battle. King Cold had now mostly handed the helm of affairs to his two sons, Frieza and Cooler. Cold had currently resigned himself to enjoying life to the fullest before his inevitable death due to old age.
King Vegeta looked on at the horizon with a sparkle of hope and determination in his eyes. Standing beside him was his youngest and most promising son.. Vegeta. He had named his son after himself, hoping him to be the one to redeem the Saiyans from King Cold's slavery.
All of his other children were worthless spoilt brats. Vegeta however was something different...
"Son, you see the sun rising from the horizon?"
"Yes, father," the young prince Vegeta who was 15 years old at the time replied in his raspy adolescent voice.
"Just like that a Super Saiyan will emerge and restore our former glory."
"Who will it be, father?"
"He should be someone from my bloodline," the king said before looking at his son. "And I expect him to be you."
Prince Vegeta smirked. "Right."
A Super Saiyan... the royal bloodline had been lacking one since King Vegeta's grandfather, Sabzar.
Back to present...
Vegeta opened his eyes. Only the blackness of space sprinkled with tiny looking stars was visible from his pod window. So it was a dream...but it appeared so real.
"A Super Saiyan... I am coming for you, Frieza."
To be continued...
Author's note:
The rest of history of Saiyans will be dealt with in another special chapter. And as you may have made out already it is going to be highly different from the original.