Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny Calls ❯ Planetfall ( Chapter 5 )

Destiny Calls
Chapter 5 - Planetfall

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Ossu minna! Sorry it took so long, but my father fried our computer's motherboard. Literally. Smoke and everything. (sighs)

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A loud bell sounded, waking the small room's lone occupant. Sitting up, Bulma Briefs yawned and stretched before preparing for another long day. After breakfast and a quick shower, she pulled on her bodysuit and grabbed her I.D. bracelet before heading down to the labs, just as she had every day for the last fourteen years. Scanning her I.D. bracelet at the lab door, Bulma stepped inside and headed to her workstation. 'I hate this,' she thought as she ran over the equations from her latest project. 'I hate this and I hate my life.' Now don't get confused here, you see Bulma didn't hate working in the labs, using her intellect to make the impossible possible. What she hated was that she had no freedom. Beautiful and brilliant, in the days before Frieza she would have had no limits as to what she could do or where she could have gone. The one-time heiress to Capsule Corp had lost all hope of being anything more than a slave. The only thing that had spared her from a life of being a pleasure slave was her unparalleled genius. She did have a dream though. When she was very young, her mother had told her stories about faeries and dragons, unicorns and knights, and damsels in distress who were always rescued by a handsome prince. So it was no surprise that the beautiful genius dreamed of being rescued by her own handsome prince. One who would save her and her planet, then whisk them both off to his palace on his fine white horse. Bulma sighed, it was just a dream though, 'Things like that never happen in real life.' The blaring klaxon and flashing lights jolted her rudely back to reality. The base was under attack! "Is it the Z senshi again?" she asked her father who was manning the central computer.

"Iie. This attack is coming from outer space."

"Nani?!" Bulma shrieked, "Who is it then?!"

"Hold on, hold on. I'll see if I can recognize the ship codes. They're using standard space pods." Dr. Briefs smiled suddenly, "Well I'll be . . . I can't tell which race they are . . . however, those are definitely ships from the Intergalactic Planetary Alliance."

"You mean . . ?" Bulma's eyes were shining with hope and the other scientists were listening eagerly.

"Hai, Bulma-chan. Someone's come to liberate Chikyuu."

"Banzai!!" Bulma shouted gleefully. "Come on minna! Let's see what we can do to help!"

"Yeah!!"

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"I hate this part."

Vegeta had no time to respond to Jianu's comment as he was too busy maneuvering his pod through the blasts being leveled at their ships. It happened like this everytime, as soon as they got within range the enemy bases would open fire and they would have to dodge their way to safety. Kakarott grunted as one beam clipped his pod on the side, "Kuso! That last one brought my shields down to fifty percent!"

"They've got better defenses than any other planet we've been to before. If this keeps up we're going to start losing ships!"

"Nani?! What do you mean "start losing ships", Jianu?!" Vegeta demanded.

"Just this sire, half of our pod's shields are down to fifty percent and another quarter of them are below that."

"Chikusho!"

"Heads up! Here comes another wave!"

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"Hayaku minna-san! They can't survive out there much longer!" Bulma was near-panic, the enhanced defense system was making short work of their rescuer's shields and would soon start picking off ships.

"We're having trouble over-riding the final code, ma'am." In an instant, Bulma had tapped into the main defense system. She had to disable the cannons before they were all blown away!

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Jianu screamed as her pod shook from the blast impact. Sparks flew up from her control panel and her lights flickered. "Back-up systems activated," her computer announced.

"Son of a bitch! My shields are down and my maneuverability is almost entirely gone! One more hit and I'm finished!"

"Jianu fall back! Radditz, Turles, keep her covered!" Vegeta ordered. 'This isn't good. We'd better pass through this before . . .' "Nani?!" Vegeta stared in shock. "They stopped firing? But why would they . . ?" he wondered aloud. "Kakarott! What's going on?!"

"I-I'm not sure, sire. It appears that they've ceased fire."

"But they had the advantage . . . no matter. Continue on course, but keep your shields up and maintain your current formation."

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The Chikyuu commander was furious, they had been mere moments from destroying the invading ships when the entire weapons grid had shut down. "I want every available unit at their landing spot now!!!! Then I want the base units on full alert!!" He turned to his lieutenant, "Get down to the labs, force those damn Chikyuu-jin to repair the weapons grid, then kill them all!!!"

The lieutenant was startled, wasn't this a little extreme? "S-sir?"

"They're the cause of this and any rebellion against Frieza-sama is punishable by death."

The lieutenant nodded. Death was always the punishment unless Frieza himself ordered otherwise. "Hai, sir. I'll take care of it at once."

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Radditz watched in amusement as the door from Jianu's pod came flying off, followed by a muffled curse. "Baka piece of shit!" she snarled, kicking her pod.

"Well, if you could steer better . . ." he teased, trailing off. He didn't need to finish, Jianu glared at him in response.

"It won't take them long to get here, sire," Kakarott warned his prince.

"We'll divide into two groups. Nappa," he turned to face the older saiya-jin, "take Oribu, Mekyabetsu*, Kyúri**, Endoumame*** and three squads with you and deal with our "company"."

"But sire, that will only leave you with one squad and five of your team!" he protested.

Vegeta understood his concern, but it was unnecessary. "You worry too much Nappa. It will be far easier for a small group to penetrate their defenses." The large saiya-jin nodded but Vegeta could still see the concern in his eyes. "Let's get going," he said, turning and signaling the others to follow him.

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"Quick! Divert more power to the shield! We almost lost it!" Bulma yelled. Not five minutes after the ships had landed safely, a group of guards had come to kill them. Having anticipated this response the scientists had set up a shield around the room and were doing everything they could to keep it up until help arrived.

"We can't keep this up much longer Bulma-chan," her father told her.

"Chikusho*^! Is there any other way out of here?"

Her father checked, "The air duct leads into one of the storage facilities . . ."

"Good. Everyone into the duct. I'll set up a secondary program to shield our escape." Bulma's fingers flew over the console while the other scientists slipped into the air duct. As the last one entered, Bulma finished the program. As she hefted herself up into the duct there was a loud explosion behind her, the soldiers had broken through the shield! She screamed as a hand grabbed her ankle and hauled her back out.

"Well, well, well. Look at what we have here," the lieutenant chuckled as Bulma screamed and thrashed in his grip. He dropped her to the ground, "Whatever you worthless Chikyuu-jin did to the weapons systems, I want undone now!!"

Fully realizing that this was probably the last thing she'd ever say on Chikyuu, Bulma remained defiant, "Never!!"

"Nani?!! How dare you talk back to me, slave!" the lieutenant snarled, back-handing Bulma in the face. She started to rise and he leveled an arm at her, "Shinei*^^!!!" There was a loud explosion and Bulma was sure she was dead. "What the hell?!" the lieutenant cried out. Standing between him and the slave were two very angry-looking saiya-jins and behind them a third was holding the Chikyuu-jin protectively in his arms.

"Shall we take care of this trash, sire?" Kakarott's voice was calm, deceptively hiding his rage.

"Of course."

With a wicked grin, Kakarott and Jianu tore into the soldiers driving them from the room leaving Vegeta alone with his rescued Chikyuu-jin. He looked down at her and smiled. Her eyes were shut tight and she was shaking. "You can open your eyes now."

Bulma jumped at the sound of his voice, it took her a moment to realize that she was being held in someone's arms. Slowly opening her eyes, Bulma looked up and promptly forgot what she had been going to ask. 'He's so handsome!' The only thing she could manage to say was, "Y-you mean I'm not dead?"

Vegeta wasn't faring much better, at the sight of her sapphire-blue eyes he could only stare. His face lost it's usual scowl to a look of wonder, he'd thought she was beautiful before but now . . . It was the sound of her voice that brought him back to reality. "Baka, of course you're not dead." Now for those who really knew him, and there weren't many who did, they would have known that the saiya-jin prince was teasing. But Bulma didn't know him.

"Baka??!! Kisama!! How dare you call a lady of my intelligence "baka"?!! I should . . ." and abruptly she cut off, cringing in fear.

Vegeta looked down at her, completely baffled. 'Now what's wrong? One minute she's insulting me and the next . . ?' his internal musings trailed off when he felt her trembling in his arms. 'She's afraid of me? But why? She can't possibly know who I am so why is she frightened?' "Woman," he said aloud, "What's wrong?" he asked gently brushing the hair from her face. When she cringed at his touch, Vegeta suddenly knew why she was so afraid. He looked at her wrists and saw the bracelet, identical to ones he'd seen all over the galaxy. A slave I.D. bracelet. A wave of anger and revulsion washed over him, Frieza had no honor or decency enslaving weaker peoples to do his bidding. Pushing those feelings aside he tried to reassure the Chikyuu-jin that she was in no danger. Sitting down he began stroking her back and hair, "Woman, you need not fear me. No one will ever beat you again for being defiant. You are a free woman," as he said this, Vegeta removed the bracelet from her wrist and couldn't help but notice how delicate she was.

Bulma raised her head, her eyes meeting his nervously, "Hontou ni?"

Not taking his eyes from hers, Vegeta nodded, "Sou ka, and if anyone ever raises a hand to you, they will answer to me."

Bulma stared at him wide-eyed with wonder, 'Did he just say he'd protect me?'

"What's your name woman?"

"Bulma. Bulma Briefs."

Vegeta chuckled, "That's a strange name."

She scowled at him her temper returning, "Oh?!" she said tartly, "and just what is your name?"

"Vegeta, Crown Prince of Vegeta-sei."

Bulma laughed, "And your name is any better? At least I'm not named after food." Then she blinked as the rest of what he'd said registered, "Did you say you're a prince?!"

He smirked at the astonished look on her face, "I did."

The smile that lit her lovely features was indescribably bright, 'Maybe my dream will come true.'

June 07, 2001

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*~Mekyabetsu-brussel sprouts
**~Kyúri-cucumber
***~Endoumame-pea
*^~chikusho-d amn it
*^^~shinei-die

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Disclaimer: Here we go. I do not own any of the characters from Dragonball, Dragonball Z, or Dragonball GT. They are all the property of Akira Toriyama, Bird Studio, Toei Animation, and Funimation Inc. However, all the other characters in my stories are mine. I'm not making any money off of this, its just for fun. And to top it off I'm a college student who works part-time at Wal-Mart so you know I don't have any money. So if you sue me you won't get anything.

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