Orishi huffed as he stared down at the reports strewn across his desk. The captain of the Vistri wasn't in a good mood, that much was clear by the set of his massive shoulders and the heavy scowl on his face.
The reason for his ire was one that had become all too common as of late. The reports he was currently staring at were casualty reports from the latest battle the Vistri had participated in. Over seventy of his slaves had met their end, that wasn't what had him so angry.
No, the biggest issue was that he had lost two of his actual fighters. Viva and Melon, a Vissuri and Fruitian respectively. Visurri were already a hot commodity in the first place given their naturally high power levels and complete lack of ability to replenish their population, and while Fruitians were basically a dime-a-dozen, Melon had been rather competent and powerful on top of that. Their loss would be felt.
Orishi sighed, leaning back in his chair as he thought about the events that had led to his current situation, specifically Lord Cooler's actions and the consequences that arose from them.
A little over six years ago, the eldest Cold sibling had decided that his brother's rule over the West Quadrant was one to be contested. Cooler had demanded his brother relinquish control of the territory he had been treating as his own personal plaything, costing the PTO and the Empire as a whole, trillions in credits in his casual destruction of perfectly good planets.
Frieza of course, refused, and the resulting battle between the brothers had left the planet they had found themselves in nothing but rubble floating in the void. There were no witnesses to the bout, but when Cooler had returned to his Capital, the entirety of his territory received the call to prepare for war.
King Cold himself apparently found the whole thing amusing, and had decided he wouldn't be interfering so long as they kept the conflict between themselves and continued their duties to the empire. What those duties were beyond destroying random planets, Orishi had no fucking clue..
And thus began the Cold War, a civil war held between the two brothers that was still occurring to this day, six years later. Hundreds of species were dragged into the conflict, and thousands more were snuffed out as a result.
Orishi himself was a Neijin, a somewhat weak but plentiful species whose home planet was located near the center of the North Quadrant, under the rule of Lord Cooler. Now, while most of his species had rather average power levels, ranging around five to ten thousand, Orishi himself was classified as a Mutant. It was a classification given by the PTO to members of species who were exceptionally powerful or talented. The entire Cold family was comprised of Mutants and while Orishi was nowhere near their level, he was certainly leagues above the rest of his race.
As a result of his exceptional genes, Orishi was enslaved aboard the very ship he now commanded. For two grueling years he toiled under a man he knew by all accounts, was inferior to him, taking abuse and insults as he performed the fool's bidding.
One day, the ridicule grew to be too much and Orishi snapped. He had stalked to the captain;s office and strangled him with his own entrails, giving him a death that, in his opinion, was more peaceful than he deserved.
Orishi had though he would be executed for his actions, had been prepared to destroy the ship with himself inside of it, if only to take his captors with him. Instead, he was commended for his actions, killing someone that the PTO as a whole believed was inadequate for his position, and was given the position instead.
By that point, Orishi had grown somewhat used to life aboard the Vistri, had even made a few people he would tentatively call comrades, and so he had accepted, becoming one of the few captains directly under Lord Cooler himself.
As captain of the Vistri, Orishi's duties revolved around repelling the many incursions by the Frieza Force into the North Quadrant. It was not an easy job in any sense of the word, but Orishi had more or less gotten it down to a science.
Unfortunately, their last battle had not gone according to plan, and the end result was Orishi having to glass the planet they had been fighting on from orbit, losing numerous lives in the process. They would take a while to replace as well, the Vistri got most of its manpower via the being they enslaved, and they were currently weeks away from the nearest populated planet; even further away from the nearest PTO outpost. That meant that their stockpile of fresh bodies was not going to be replenished anytime soon. How annoying.
Luckily, while most of the members of the Vistri were nothing but canon-fodder, there were a few rare gems here and there. Those gems, if proven useful enough, earned their freedom aboard the Vistri as an actual crewmember. Currently, and thanks to the deaths of Viva and Melon, there were only a dozen or so of these individuals, but they should be enough to take over for the dead fodder.
For the moment at least. He would still need to find a way to supplement his forces.
His musings were interrupted by the hissing of his office door as it slid open. He looked over, slightly annoyed to be interrupted, and found a nervous looking grunt standing in the doorway. The captain didn't recognize the grunt. That either meant that he was weak enough that Orishi didn't expect him to survive the week, or he was a slave.
Judging by the collar around his neck, it was the latter.
Orishi gave the shaking man a narrow-eyed stare, finding mild amusement in the way the man shook with terror, "What do you want? You better not have interrupted me for something idiotic." he threatened.
The grunt gulped loudly, before pulling himself together and giving Orishi a sharp salute, "S-Sir! Davik has returned from his mission to Planet Grinn!"
Finally, some good news. Davik was an extremely effective soldier and one Orishi had often found himself falling back on in difficult times. The man was powerful, level-headed, and most of all, didn't have any designs on Orishi's position despite being nearly as powerful as him. Orishi didn't know what race Davik was a member of (nor did anyone including the man himself) but they must have been incredible soldiers.
Stil, from the look on the grunt's face, he still had more to report. Orishi gave him a motion to continue, and he did so hesitantly.
"There were casualties on the mission." Orishi's ears perked up at that. Had Davik actually gone and done it? "According to Davik's report, Buri is dead and Pumm is missing an arm and in critical condition due to ki burns on the majority of his upper body. The doctor is unsure if he will survive the night."
That was interesting. Buri was far from below average, having possessed a power level of over fourteen thousand, and while Pumm may have been relatively weak, his battling abilities usually more than made up for it. To hear they both suffered such a fate was… interesting.
Either way, their loss was not a great one. "So Buri's dead, huh?" Orishi said casually, "That's good, I was getting sick of that meathead getting into fights and breaking shit. Too bad that orange idiot didn't die with him, but those two always were a matched set. Maybe Pumm will kill himself if I'm lucky." He laughed to himself quietly.
He turned back to the grunt, "So what killed the idiot? Did Davik finally get fed up with his idiocy?" Orishi asked.
The grunt hesitated, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, and Orishi could make out microscopic tremors in his form as he opened his mouth to speak. The Neijin smirked, wondering if Davik had been the one to put the man in this state.
"I-it was a… a S-Saiyan sir."
Orishi froze as the words registered in his ears. Any earlier mirth disappeared from his body, replaced with blinding rage as his fist clenched in the arms of his chair, crumpling the sturdy metal with a shriek that caused the grunt to let out one of his own. Purple eyes glowed with barely restrained ki as Orishi brought his gaze to the trembling grunt.
"There is a Saiyan on my ship." Orishi spoke the words slowly, and the grunt's face paled even further if that were even possible as Orishi turned his way, "And this is the first I am hearing of it?"
The grunt bowed hastily, "I-I'm sorry sir! It must have slipped my mind! Please forgive me!" He pleaded, staring up at Orishi with terror, "S-she is unconscious in the medical bay! I can take you to he-!"
His words were cut off as Orishi's massive hand enclosed his face entirely. He jerked in surprise, before the hand began to glow and he let out a muffled scream of agony. Orishi gazed dispassionately as the grunt grabbed at his hand, squirming in sheer pain, before his struggles began to slow, and then cease entirely.
As the man went limp, Orishi let go of his face, revealing it had been scorched a sickly black, blood seeping from his nose and mouth as his skin cracked and his melted eyes began leaking out of their sockets. He fell back, hitting the floor with a thud. Dead.
Orishi's face twisted at the smell of burnt flesh, and he gave the now-dead grunt one last look before exiting the office, wiping his soot-covered hand off on his armor, "No need. I'll find her myself." He spoke deadly quiet as he began making his way through the halls.
Saiyan. Even the word itself caused Orishi 's stomach to bubble with rage. He could feel his ki stirring beneath his skin as he stalked down the halls of the Vistri towards the medical bay. A buzz akin to ozone filled the air around him as his agitation caused his energy to leak, filling the halls with its heavy presence and causing all of those in his way to change that as fast as physically possible, darting into rooms or into walls in an attempt to flee from his path.
If there was one race that Orishi hated more than anything, it was Saiyans. They were nothing more than barbaric savages who cared for nothing but the next fight. Countless species had been rendered extinct by their savagery even before Frieza got ahold of them, and it had only gotten worse afterwards.
Before the destruction of their home planet, the Saiyans had been a scourge on the galaxy as a whole. Despite having a population in the mere thousands, they had devastated countless planets with populations more than a hundred times their own. And it was all owed to that damned transformation of theirs, even more savage in nature than the Saiyans themselves.
Orishi's chest ached with phantom pain, bestial roars echoing in his ears as his face twisted into a snarl as a memory made it's way to the forefront of his mind.
A Saiyan in green and black armor, broken into pieces by Orishi's own fists just as easily as his fellows. Hands clad in blood-red guards clenching at his arms as Orishi rose him high into the air, and a scarred face twisting into a massive, victorious grin as his eyes locked onto something high in the sky, sealing Orishi's fate as the pumping of his heart rang in the Neijin's ears.
Orishi growled angrily, doubling his pace as he shook the memories from his brain. He couldn't just kill the Saiyan that was currently holed up in his med bay, Lord Cooler had specifically stated that any Saiyans that were potentially found were to be kept alive just to spite his brother and Cooler himself informed. Word had no doubt already gotten out that there was a Saiyan in the med bay, Orishi wouldn't be able to hide the Saiyan's death even if he wanted to.
That meant he would have to keep her aboard, loath as he was to do so.
Still, just because he needed to keep them alive, didn't mean he couldn't make them for death. For what their race had done to him, he would ensure that this ape's every waking moment was as painful as possible. That he swore.