I woke with a start at what must have been hours later. My heart thundering in my chest and my body already tensed for a fight. Energy flickered at the edge of my range, getting closer every second. Each signature was far stronger than the norm of this planet, and each one was familiar enough for me to recognize. They had finally gotten moving.
I pulled myself up, cutting through the already quiet whispers of the people around me. I was surprised to see none of them had tried to escape. I already knew that in their eyes I was the lion in the middle of the room, mercifully allowing them to live, but fear can fade. I had expected someone to grow some balls at some point.
Oh well, didn't matter now.
I strode over to the door I had come in through, bringing my hands to either side of the wall and closing my eyes. My range had gotten a bit better since I landed on this world, but it was what I could feel inside that range that had really improved. I had needed to pick up real talent for sensing just to survive, and I was eager to use it now.
I hadn't tried to the best of my ability yet, being too distracted by my pain, exhaustion, and constant movement to really sit and examine the extent of my power on something that wasnt trying to hide.
They came in mass, approaching the city in far greater numbers than the first attack had been. Likely because their attention wasn't split between several targets. If this city wasn't the last than it was definitely one of them. I kept my focus on the moderately weak members of the crew, figuring that if they came upon any of the stronger soldiers I'd get a good perception of how an actual battle feels.
The ground shook as the signature I recognized to belong to the captain of the ship unleashed an energy blast big enough to kill dozens of Xecrosians hiding behind rubble and ruin. I could practically see the buildings falling and the soldiers incinerating under the sheer explosive power of it. I shook my head, forcing myself to watch other combatants as the woman cut through the enemy like a damned blender.
Watching her work was like watching a train crash, horrible to behold but impossible to look away from. Yet I already knew i couldn't learn a thing watching her.
I managed to find a battle of relative interest at the cities center, where the defenders had been most concentrated. A crew member I've felt before but not seen in person descended upon three soldiers, one of which had a fair bit more power than the norm.
He dove downward, expecting his speed and power to see him through the rush. His hands nearly managed to wrap around a Xecrosians throat, only to sent flying by a kick through what I assumed to be several walls. When the crewmember emerged he changed his approach, flying from the rubble at a much more controlled pace, firing off a few energy blasts as he did.
One soldier was lightly wounded by a stray shot he only partially managed to dodge, before the powerhouse of the group took the lead, attempting to cover his compatriots and match the crewmember. He must have come to the realization that his friends weren't likely to survive the fight without help. I felt the fear and determination he exuded on the surface, but ignored it to focus on how he manipulated his energy, and how he fought as the two traded blows.
Another soldier jumped in, giving his comrade a chance by throwing out a useless energy blast. It went almost entirely ignored, but managed to slow the invader enough for him to take real damage. The Freeza force combatant's ki froze at the pain of a hit he took around his head, and after a few moments of observation and guesswork I figured out that he had lost an eye. As he writhed on the ground, screaming as the soldiers finished the job. The soldiers combining their power to kill him while he was down.
When he died I looked on to the next fight, treating each as the educational experience it was. I was seeing how they fought, how they felt and what the results were in real time all around me. The soldiers were skill, desperation, and fear. The warriors were raw strength, rage, and brute force learned from a lifetime of success without desire or need for real training.
My focus sharpened as a desperate battle became a rapidly failing last stand. Soldiers died defending their people, knowing their was no place to run, civilian shelters were seized and wiped out seemingly at random, and I watched as these people were more and more rapidly crushed under the boots of an empire I now had to serve.
Sometimes the strong were worn down, sometimes the weak were lucky or smart enough to succeed, but in almost every conflict skill, numbers and determination was overwhelmed with nothing more than a sheer difference in power.
A thousand other fights went on all around the city, and I felt the ground shake with every explosion, I felt the rage and fear of every combatant as they struggled to survive. I felt each burst of light shining across the empty night sky, the battle going on in the air, in the buildings, and on the streets. Hundreds of lives ended in seconds, and thousands more wouldn't be far behind them.
It was all nothing more cruelty, greed, sadism, and bloodlust mixed in one constantly growing explosion of feeling around me. The last gasp of a dying race. My heart fell.
Horrible, Disgusting, and absolutely beautiful to behold.
It took a half hour. No more than thirty minutes for it all to end. With the full might of the crew the city fell pathetically easily. I opened the door when I felt several PTO members start making their way downward, ready to kill at a whim. I I turned, and stalked over to my prize. I stuffed some of the food I figured was simple enough to figure out into one of the coolers, before dragging it off to the side and away from the others. When I was done I tied my sword to my waist with the tattered jacket I had stolen.
I didn't wait long, even when it was clear they were in no rush. And why would they need to? These weren't conscripts or soldiers, they were warriors of a power beyond almost everything this world was capable of. A simple look through their scouters told them all they needed to know. There wasn't gonna be a real fight here. They found me casually leaning against the door, my skin, stature and clothing marking me as a conscript over a native.
A bug man walked inside, laughing to himself at the immediate fear his presence brought out of the civilians, soon followed by a lizard-like alien. The lizard shot an amused look my way when I took a step toward them.
"Well now, the little conscript actually managed to make it through. Never woulda guessed." His voice was nasally, and rather high-pitched, yet somehow it still carried an air of intimidation. "and you even found company almost as useless as you are."
The anger that brought up in me was difficult to control, but made simpler by the surety of my own death should I chose to show it. I laughed with them, twitching as they got louder, their wretched faces twisting with arrogance they learned with their own birth. A subserveince to an altar of strength they couldn't possibly conceive, let alone understand.
I caught myself reaching for my sword, before I relaxed. I was falling apart, getting riled too easily. I forced a smile on my face. "Yeah, I suppose your not wrong. Still, I managed to live through the purge didn't I?" And damn if that didn't feel good. Soon I'd be back on the ship. I nearly shivered at the thought of gravity I was actually built to survive in, and a maybe even a bed if I impressed somebody important.
"I was told I might be your new cook if I could get my hands on the right supplies. I'm thinking I found enough to make do. Help me get this crate up to the ship and I'll see about making you something." My thumb pointed back to my prize just as I realized my mistake. My eyes widened and an apology almost made it past my lips before a palm swung lightly in my direction, sending a good portion of my teeth and a significant amount of blood to the floor. My legs almost buckled, and when I blinked past the red spots and pain I was faced with the steadily growing light of the lizard mans blaster.
"Trying to command your betters?" He tsked at me, his head shaking at the thought. I choked down the blood welling in my throat and wheezed out the only argument I could think of.
"No-" I coughed, lisping as my face grew more numb. "-But I'm too weak to get the food up to the ship." The energy didn't fade, but the blast didn't go off, so I kept going. "I know there isn't anybody who can cook aboard the ship, and I know you want something real to eat between trips to worlds like this, even if you steal from them or eat the locals. If you help me get it aboard I can make that happen, and if you don't like it, you can always kill me."
It was true. I don't have any kind of power over one of the real warriors. I could only rely on their 'mercy'. What a fucking joke.
"Come on, what have you got to lose?" He thought for a moment, the barrel of his blaster growing close to my head. I listened distantly to the sound of my flesh sizzling at the proximity, the ice in my heart growing with every moment I suffered. Eventually he let the energy fade, nodding at the scar he had likely left on my temple.
"Well, if you're half as good a cook as you are at talking it can't be too bad, and you're right. No ones gonna stop me from killing you if you can't keep your word." He looked over to the bug man, who was poking a few scared civilians with his blaster, enjoying the sound of them begging for mercy. "Draln, you take care of the new meat, I'll humor the conscript for now." He grabbed the cooler, lifting it easily with a single hand, where I struggle to drag it across a room.
I followed him through the halls, fighting unconsciousness as I did. We emerged to a city half in flames, and half gone. Prisoners and slaves were guided in the direction of the ship that once again hovered over the land, weeping and dying in equal measure. I ignored their pain as best I could, partly out of guilt and partly as an effort to avoid thinking on just how I felt about it all.
I followed the lizard as he took to the sky, managing to trail him only because I could sense were he was. I entered through an open hangar door on the side of the ship, glancing at the warriors inside as they were celebrating a victory that actually provided them some challenge. They let me pass without any trouble, easily assuming I was a conscript. I felt some surprise by a few of the ones who I assumed recognized me as the weak conscript. A power level as low as the Gerresians was apparently already considered rare, one like mine must have been as much of a surprise as finding someone with a power over a few thousand.
I followed the ki of the lizard man, and a few of the arrows along the walls, to the kitchen. I eventually found him waiting for me, his arms crossed and his expression curious. "Lets see if this was worth my time." He drawled. I grimaced. I hoped I would have more time myself.
I wiped the blood trailing down my face, before numbly turning to the crate. I grabbed some raw meat, steak from an animal I was certain I wouldn't be able to recognize, and whatever will I had left, before I looked around the kitchen, mercifully recognizing something resembling a grill in the corner of a room filled with shit I couldn't recognize, and wasn't even sure existed on earth. Just one more trial, and I could rest.
Just one more.