“Vegeta’s squad is already on their way back.”
Dodoria immediately pressed his communicator, pulling up the newly received logs.
“They just finished the purge mission on Planet K-18x.
They are expected to arrive at headquarters within five days.”
The tip of Frieza’s tail tapped twice against his armrest.
Looking at the holographic image of that Saiyan tail, a light, cheerful smile spread across Frieza’s face.
“Well, isn’t that just wonderful.”
“It has been quite a while since I last saw Vegeta.”
“I’m sure he will love the ‘new friend’ I plan to introduce him to.”
Sarbo and Dodoria exchanged a glance.
What would happen when two monkeys bumped into each other?
They were quite curious to find out themselves!
Sarbo adjusted his scouter.
“Lord Frieza, should we notify Mr.
Dalles in advance?”
“No need.”
Frieza raised a finger, tapping it against the armrest.
“Surprises are much more fun.”
…
The Frieza Force barracks were vastly more spacious than The Destroyer.
They featured an independent training ground, maintenance pods, a small supply depot, and a terminal room connected to the army’s internal network.
Dalles looked at Rez and Lakasse.
“How is the system access?”
Rez turned the terminal screen around.
Lakasse added, “The public commercial planet files only show vague coordinate ranges.
The exact routes, colonization grades, and native population records for life-bearing planets are all locked behind Class A clearance.”
Armond leaned in, staring at the rows of red restriction symbols.
“Tch, this garbage system is pretty troublesome.”
Just as the two brothers were about to dig deeper, Dalles raised a hand and grabbed Rez’s wrist.
“Stop.
Leave it at that for now.”
The Frieza Force headquarters wasn’t some rundown black market, nor was it one of those outdated, loophole-ridden bases under Lord Slug.
Every access attempt here could be logged.
Every attempt to bypass authorization could become a noose around their necks later.
Pulling little tricks right under Frieza’s nose was a quick way to get killed.
Rez immediately pulled his hand back.
“Lord Dalles?”
“Don’t touch it for now.”
Dalles turned off the screen.
“Your excuse is that you are familiarizing yourselves with the army’s system, not testing it.”
“Understood?”
Lakasse nodded at once.
“Understood.”
Rez also backed the terminal out to the public interface.
“The access logs have been scrubbed down to a normal browsing scope.”
“We didn’t touch any restricted ports.”
Dalles gave him a look.
“Good.”
Dalles reached out and closed the permissions page.
“Just get a feel for the public archives first.”
“Don’t touch the red restrictions.”
Lakasse chimed in.
“We can reverse-engineer the activity levels of certain star sectors from the public routes.”
“We can’t get the exact coordinates of life-bearing planets, but we can deduce which areas are heavily maintained by the army.”
Dalles looked at him.
“That works.”
“Only run deductions; do not hack.”
The two brothers immediately sat back down at the terminal.
Their fingers flew across the control panel.
A star sector heat map popped up on the screen.
Amidst large swaths of gray, a few bright spots were marked as commercial nodes.
Armond felt dizzy just looking at it.
“Can you really figure anything out from this thing?”
Rez replied, “Only those who don’t understand it would think it’s useless.”
Armond scratched his head awkwardly; he really couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
Dalles stepped toward the door.
“You two keep at it.”
“I’m going for a walk outside.”
Armond immediately followed.
“I’ll come too.”
Daiz and Cacao also followed him out.
At the end of the corridor, army soldiers were passing by.
Several soldiers of different races slowed their pace, their eyes sweeping over the tail wrapped around Dalles’s waist.
The status of Saiyans in the Frieza Force was truly abysmal.
As Dalles walked, he couldn’t help but sigh internally.
Over the next few days, Dalles and his crew took a walk through the mid-level corridors at a set time every day.
They nodded in greeting when they encountered patrols and kept their distance from members of other units.
Finally, the day arrived.
Three scorching points of light plummeted from the sky, trailing long, fiery orange tails.
One in front, two behind, they plunged precisely toward the landing pad.
Spherical, single-occupant space pods.
A massive cloud of steam billowed over the landing pad.
The scorching metal hulls hissed as coolant sprayed from around the pods.
The first hatch popped open.
Out stepped a bald man.
He was massive, his broad shoulders nearly blocking the hatchway.
Traces of some dark green biological fluid stained his battle armor.
A furry tail was casually wrapped around his waist.
Next, a man with messy black hair falling to his waist climbed out of his space pod.
He looked exhausted, sporting a fresh scrape across his brow bone.
Yet, under the landing pad’s lights, his eyes remained piercingly sharp.
The third hatch opened last.
The person who stepped out was the shortest of the three.
But the moment he stood there, the army soldiers lined up on the landing pad instinctively tensed their bodies.
Nappa reined in his boisterous demeanor.
Raditz stood quietly behind him.
Vegeta swept his gaze around, a faint layer of impatience hanging on the corners of his mouth.
His boots stepped onto the alloy floor of the landing pad.
The cooling steam hadn’t fully dissipated, and the heat rolling up from beneath his feet blurred the edges of his vision.
He stood right at the hatch, waiting for the white mist to clear on its own.
A figure was blocking the corridor entrance ahead.
A fleshy, pink body with a few spikes jutting from its head, wearing a condescending smirk on its chubby face.
Dodoria.
Vegeta threw his gaze toward the entrance.
“Yo—”
Dodoria strode forward on his thick legs, taking his time.
Every step made the landing pad tremble slightly.
“Rough work out there, Vegeta.”
“You did a pretty good job wrapping up that K-18x mission.”
“It was just some trash.”
Vegeta replied coolly, walking straight toward the corridor.
Dodoria didn’t make way.
His massive frame just stood right in the middle of the path, arms crossed over his chest.
Vegeta stopped right in front of him.
The temperature between the two plummeted.
“Move.”
Dodoria didn’t budge an inch.
He even leaned in a half-step, bending down so his fat face was much closer to Vegeta’s.
“Don’t be in such a rush, little Vegeta.”
Dodoria was well-versed in this kind of deliberate belittlement.
“Lord Frieza wants to see you.”
Dodoria straightened up, brushing imaginary dust off his arm.
“He wants to introduce you to a new friend.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now.”
From behind, Nappa’s hushed curse could be heard.
“This fat bastard…”
*Thud.*
Raditz elbowed Nappa in the ribs.
Nappa glared at Raditz, who gave a slight, expressionless shake of his head.
Dodoria stepped aside.
“Hmph.”
A snort escaped his nose.
“Follow me.”
Without hesitation, Vegeta stepped forward and kept walking.
Nappa and Raditz exchanged a glance and quickly followed.
Vegeta didn’t ask who they were going to see.
This silence was, in itself, a form of resistance.
The displeasure in Dodoria’s heart quietly deepened a few degrees.