Post by Ginge on Apr 14, 2017 22:52:40 GMT
The sun was setting on yet another day at the capitol city of the planet Arila, a grandiose and imposing place of the same name. The normally-blue sky was giving way to a deep orange, which was quite beautiful in its own right, and a gentle wind could make one nearly forget the sandstorm that had dominated nearly the entire southern half of the planet. From one direction, the smells of industry and progress rolled from the city, and the other, the sweet scent of the ocean that began just out of sight.
Four figures sat around their own circle in the grass, each armored in the style of the Saiyan Empire and sporting a tail. The remains of their meal were piled outside the circle, and a collection of five pods rest in their craters just a little further. The lot of them laughed and joked at each others expense, sharing tales of battles past and crude jokes to pass the time.
-Bzzt-
The old scouters they wore had taken their fare share of beatings recently.
“Can you hear me?” A man's deep voice finally came through the small radio, prompting the smallest of the four to press the device closer to her ear.
“Yes, sir. We hear you. How did the talks go?” Ginge replied back in a formal fashion, a much different attitude than only moments before. In the short time that she'd known him, Rise had been very strict when it came to addressing him as squad leader.
“Damned things. They didn't. The Arilians refuse to give us the land the Empire's requested. -Bzzt- when the moon is high.” Another of the four, a burlier man named Been, with a beard that was bisected by a deep cut in his cheek, reached up to press the device on his head closer to his ear. Ginge thought about requesting replacements for the group when they returned to Planet Vegeta, but quickly quieted her thoughts to listen.
“Come again, boss? You cut out there.”
“I said, we're attacking at dusk, when the moon is high. This planet's lunar cycle lined up with our arrival quite nicely, and the moon stays out longer this time of year.” The faceless man over the comm sounded pleased by that fact, and Ginge couldn't disagree. In fact, she reveled in the opportunity to flex the Saiyan Empire's might in this quadrant of the galaxy.
“Should we expect you to return by then?” The next to speak up was the slimmest of the men, a younger Saiyan named Tomats, whom Ginge had known for years now. He was a good fighter, and it was always a pleasure to watch him.
“No need. I've been invited to stay for the night.” They could each hear Rise laughing from the other end of the call. “I'll be right where I need to be. You four, just be ready to act when the time comes.”
“Yes, sir.” The four responded in tandem before the comm went silent. For a few moments, they just looked at one another before beginning to laugh again. There was a newfound edge to their jovial attitudes, as expressed by the turn in their conversation.
“What do you think? Will he even need us?” Been laughed wholeheartedly from across the circle.
“Who, Rise? His Oozaru can dominate the planet on its own.” The last of the four finally spoke up, a younger woman named Rampierre. The group had taken to calling her Rampi, and as far as Ginge could surmise, she had been on enough missions to fit one hand. She was fun to be around, though.
“Yeah, but where's the fun for us if we just sit around?” Ginge interjected with another laugh. “We can't let that asshole hog all the glory, can we?” The group joined in her laughter, as they passed the time before they were to move in on the city.
Less than two hours later, the mood had changed entirely. The moon's early rise had chased away the sky's deep orange color, only for it to be replaced by a glowing red. The high-reaching skyscrapers of the city had all but been demolished, and the anguished cries and pained screams of Arilians could be heard for miles.
That is, until the sounds of the rampaging Oozaru drowned out all others. Four great beasts of battle, clad in their Saiyan armor and all but invincible, tore through the capitol of Arila without hesitation. One beast roared after another, driven by nothing more than its instinct to kill and destroy, viewing the living as either friend or foe, with no room for middle ground.
The Arilian military might've been able to fight back against the five Saiyan warriors, but there was nothing in the galaxy that could stand up to a rampaging Oozaru clan. The galaxy's most fearsome creatures had reduced the city walls to rubble within minutes, crushing stone and metal alike underneath their heels.
It was almost too easy.
Four hours after the attack had begun, the city had razed almost entirely to the ground. Nothing remained of its grandiose design, nor of its boasted army. However, the men of Arila had done their jobs, for the Saiyans had been wrong in one respect. Their mindless forms had failed to notice how quickly the moon moved across the sky, and it was too late when the four mighty beasts roared with rage as they shrank.
Been was the first to regain his senses, followed shortly by the others. None of them wore their scouters, for they had been left behind to not be destroyed by the transformation. As Ginge rest with her palm against what was left of a wall, the burly, bearded man returned from the skies with his report.
“DAMMIT!” He shouted, as his fist knocked the wall to the ground, nearly taking the smaller Saiyan along with it. “They played us for fools. Reinforcements are on the way, AND WHERE THE HELL IS RISE?”
Ginge, Tomats and Rampi all looked at one another, at a loss for what to say. However, they knew what to do, and that was to locate their commander and come up with a new plan of attack.
“He was staying at the governor's mansion.” Rampi beat the others to the punch, as it were, and raced off towards the unknown building.
“Damn girl is going to get herself killed!” Tomats growled in his anger, as Been flew off after the less experienced warrior. Quickly, he reached out for Ginge to take his hand, and the two flew off in chase after their comrades.
The governor's mansion was easy enough for the group to find. Even without its sheen and imposing design, the massive yard made it easy to spot from the air, and the fountain still ran, somehow. Few guards still remained inside the ruined building, so the group played a game of chance to see who would get the right to lead the charge.
Ginge won the honors, as scissors beats paper, and led the small force through the crumbling hallways. Blaster fire met her head on as they went, but the woman found that pieces of the walls and furniture made for great barriers. In one instance that she swore to remember to tell later, she'd thrown a chandelier with such force that the man's chest cavity was made all the more decorative for it.
Within the hour, they'd scoured the building for the location of their commanding officer. It was Rampi who finally called out for the others, distracting Ginge just long enough to take a bolt of ki to the arm. In return, she tore off the guard's own and beat him with the limb until he'd stopped twitching.
She followed the gathering voices, nursing her injury. As she turned into the doorway, her brown eyes widened, followed by a low, disgusted growl. In the large bed before her lay the body of Rise, his throat cut and the sheets stained a dark and foreboding red. His armor had been removed, tossed aside without a care, as far as she could tell.
“Mother fucker! I told him, this'd get him killed one day.” Been exclaimed. He had known Rise the longest, and had often told of how the commander liked to lay the women of each planet he'd visited, but Ginge had always thought he'd put the mission first.
Apparently, she had been wrong.
“What now?” Rampi spoke up after a brief silence had washed over the room, as she looked around at the more experienced members of the group. From the look of things, nearly everyone present was at a loss for words.
“We return to Vegeta. We've taken their capitol, so the mission is a success.” Tomats was the one to answer the much younger Saiyan. He wasn't the last to speak, however, even as he made his way towards the doorway.
“Bullshit! What about Rise? Should we just forget that they killed him in cold blood?” Been didn't seem to be taking this very well, and if she were to be quite honest, Ginge didn't blame him. She didn't feel it was right to just leave, now that they've got the upper hand.
“With Rise dead, I'm in command! I say the mission is done, seeing as we've just cut the head off the snake known as Arila.” Tomats again, and he'd raised his voice quite loudly. Ginge wondered briefly just what it was about Saiyan men and positions of authority, but the heating argument caught her attention again quickly. “Or, is that not enough for you?”
“You're damn right it's not enough! The girls agree with me, don't you?”
“Been is right. We've shown how strong the Saiyans are, so why should we stop here?” Rampi was taking sides, then. That left Ginge in the middle, torn between Tomats and her own gut instinct. Been and Rampi were right. They were clearly stronger than what the Arilian people could throw at them, but... Then again, Tomats...
“Ginge? Are you going to insist that we stay, too?” He was calling her out now. Ginge looked up at the man she had sometimes called friend, more often getting into drunken brawls at the bar. The ache in her arm had made up her mind for her, though, and she nodded.
“I do feel we should stay and finish them off, but it's not my decision to make.” It was a little middle-ground, but she had said her piece.
“One man down, no reinforcements, the full moon is gone, and we've lost the element of surprise. We don't even have scouters.” Despite his points, Tomats laughed briefly at the group. “You know what, though? I think it's about time we showed the Saiyan Solar Empire what we're made of; power levels be damned! We'll bring them the head of their general to make up for Rise!”
The group broke into relieved laughter, each remarking how the Arilians were easy to kill, anyways. In the midst of it all, Ginge even forgot the pain in her arm.
Few minutes later, the squad's jovial attitude was interrupted by several loud explosions that caused the ground to shake, and the remains of the mansion threatened to collapse around them. Rampi was the first to make it to a front-facing window, followed shortly by the other three.
“Oh, you have got to be fu-” Been was cut short by an extremely loud speaker from the rubble-laden courtyard.
“Invaders! You have twenty minutes to exit the compound and surrender yourselves to the Arilian military! If you do not comply, we will bury you in what remains of that building! There will be no negotiations!”
It was difficult to see the man who was speaking, but he was clearly an older male. What was visible in the dark courtyard, however, was the equipment that'd been brought to deal with the group.
“Tanks, artillery and more men than I can count.” Tomats remarked aloud before cursing underneath his breath.
“Well, we won't be needing those scouters. They've brought the entire planet to us!” Been laughed aloud, not caring if the enemy heard them.
“How many blasters do you think they have? “ Ginge could hear the excitement in her own voice.
“It doesn't matter.” Tomats interjected before anyone could answer. “The artillery's just for show. They couldn't possibly fire it at such a close range.”
Before the group could say anymore, a faint clattering drew their attention towards the way they had come, then a loud hissing filled the hallway with dense smoke. The four had acted before any order from their leader had needed to be uttered, running down the hallway towards the large doorway that had once held a rather ornate portal into the mansion.
Unfortunately, more canisters were fired into the coming windows, stopping the group in their tracks. Ginge had already begun to cough as the gas tore at her lungs, and Rampi cried in shock as blaster fire tore through the wall just above her ducking frame. Been and Tomats huddled behind each side of the doorway as bright light flooded into the large and open room.
“Invaders!” Ginge scoffed as the man's voice boomed over some sort of speaker system that surrounded the mansion. “I lied.” Almost as soon as his words had stopped ringing in the Saiyans' ears, and Ginge swore that she could hear the smirk through the speakers, blaster fire started again to tear through the relatively weak material around them.
“Tomats! We can't stay here!” Ginge called out over the deafening arsenal that had been aimed for them. She and Rampi had taken shelter behind a staircase, but it was quickly being wittled away and wouldn't have lasted long enough for them to think of a plan of attack.
As if he'd been thinking exactly what she'd said, Tomats held a glowing ball of yellow ki aloft in his palm, then Been followed suit. A moment later, Rampi began to build her own orbs, and Ginge tensed for the coming onslaught.
Despite their situation, each Saiyan warrior wore the widest grin possible.
Just as the smoke began to fill the larger room, the two men fired their blasts into the ground several dozens of yards from the door. The resulting dirt cloud stopped the blaster fire for just a few moments, as Rampi flew through the doorway and up and out of reach of the floodlights. Not to be outdone, she proceeded to rain her attack down upon the gathered Arilians and their paltry might.
Ginge shot out from the door next, moving faster than the eye could see towards the nearest tank. Favoring her uninjured arm, she grabbed inside the wheel well and hoisted one side of the machine into the air, letting it fall on its top side atop the soldiers who had been taking shelter beside it. She wasted no time before flexing her strength against the soldiers crouched behind her who had yet to notice her presence.
The minutes to follow were pure and utter hell. The four Saiyans made quick work of the individual soldiers, and the heavier equipment was little more than trash when it couldn't be turned or aimed. It nearly crossed Ginge's mind that things were a little too easy several times, but the adrenaline rush of battle was hardly letting her think. It wasn't until the ground shook again that she'd even considered they would take damage.
Though Rampi was safe above, the three warriors fighting on the ground were taken by surprise. Following a loud thump of sound, the dirt and rock underneath their feet was shoveled skyward, then fire sought to consume the courtyard in its entirety.
Ginge, missing a large portion of her armor from the same side as her arm was covered in burns, fled to the side of a nearby building. From here, she could see the progress they'd made, but more than that, she could get a glimpse of the massive crater the bomb had blown in the ground. At the edge of the crater, a bloodied and exhausted Tomats was dragging Been to safety, and waving towards her and Rampi.
It took only moments to notice that the ringing in her ears was drowning out all other sound. The blast had rendered her deaf.
Whatever the blast had been, the two women seized advantage of the ceasefire it'd caused to return to their comrades. Tomats and Rampi were visibly shouting at one another, but Ginge couldn't bring herself to pay attention. This close, it was easy to see the damage that'd been done. Been had been closer to the center of the blast, and much of his lower half was missing; the lower half of one leg, a piece of shrapnel nearly bisected his hip, and his tail was nowhere to be seen.
“THOSE BASTARDS!” Ginge shouted, perhaps more loudly than she'd realized. With each arm injured as they were, it was a wonder what she was thinking she could do, but the enraged woman had turned to chase after the retreating forces, nonetheless.
“We can't stay! Whatever that weapon was, it damn near killed us all in one go!” Tomats was still shouting at Rampi, who seemed adamant in continuing the fight. He'd lost his armor to the fire, revealing burns as severe as those covering Ginge's arm across his chest. It was amazing that he could move at all, let alone reach out for the smaller Saiyan before she could get out of arm's reach.
Perhaps it was the adrenaline, or maybe forest of pain she'd already been subjected to, but Ginge hardly felt a thing when her body betrayed her and went limp without warning. An arm caught her underneath the stomach and kept her from hitting the ground, though she wasn't entirely to whom it belonged.
“Just, grab Been. If we hurry, there might be a chance the healing pod will do him some good.” Tomats shouted angrily to the younger Saiyan who had yet to take much battle damage. Ginge could see the look of disappointment on her face as she was slung over her captor's shoulder, forced to watch her two remaining companions follow from behind.
The group moved quickly after that. Whatever had caused the blast, it surely wasn't going to keep the Arilians away for long, or maybe it had been their doing in the first place and they were lying in wait to attack again. As Ginge's hearing began to come back to her, she could hear Tomats cursing loudly against the night's cool wind.
Unfortunately, her body still disobeyed her, even as she heard the sharp whistle fast approaching them.
“Tomats! Ginge!” Rampi shouted out, just as she'd lurched forward with incredible speed and kicked the large metal bullet out of the sky. The slight pause as Tomats scanned the dark horizon was all that'd been needed.
As Been's dropped body fell to the ground below, more shells than was necessary filled the space around the three. Tomats and Rampi tried to avoid the heavy fire as they raced to retrieve their comrade, but the dim light of the distant fires offered little aid in their defense.
Ginge regained her senses as the air rushed past her face, her battered body in free fall for few precious seconds. Something had struck Tomats and knocked her loose, but she couldn't see what. Before she could think of a way to break her own fall, the ground met her with haste, greeting her with the sickening crunch of breaking bones.
Things came and went after that. The blackness of the Arila night gave way to a much more peaceful darkness, and the explosions and shaking ground seemed to be so far away. Every now and again, Ginge could swear that she smelled Tomats, or heard him, but she could never place a finger on where they were.
“Ginge? God dammit! Stay with me!” Her eyes opened a little that time, as his beaten and torn face was illuminated by a floating ball of ki in his palm.
“Rampi! Rampi, can you hear me!?” Again, there he was, now carrying her on his back. The ground shook some more, then was replaced by the whirling of wind around her ears.
“I told you... I fucking told you three...” Now, she was in a bed of softness, held upright by a seat of sorts. Her limbs were folded in on themselves, as Tomats' scent mixed with the blood in her mouth. “Ginge... I'm sorry. I'll be there soon. I've got to find Been and Rampi.” Her tired eyes opened just in time to see the pod door closing between them.
The next time that consciousness graced her with its light, everything was tinted with a soothing green color. Her skin itched and hurt in places that she didn't even know she'd had, though the wounds she'd sustained were comfortably numb.
Slowly, her brown eyes fought to open themselves wider. Her teeth and jaw tested the plastic tube that reached down into her throat, and torn muscles tried in vain to move setting bone. The immediate surge of pain put a stop to her struggling, as the beaten Saiyan drifted into the darkness of sleep once more.
Four figures sat around their own circle in the grass, each armored in the style of the Saiyan Empire and sporting a tail. The remains of their meal were piled outside the circle, and a collection of five pods rest in their craters just a little further. The lot of them laughed and joked at each others expense, sharing tales of battles past and crude jokes to pass the time.
-Bzzt-
The old scouters they wore had taken their fare share of beatings recently.
“Can you hear me?” A man's deep voice finally came through the small radio, prompting the smallest of the four to press the device closer to her ear.
“Yes, sir. We hear you. How did the talks go?” Ginge replied back in a formal fashion, a much different attitude than only moments before. In the short time that she'd known him, Rise had been very strict when it came to addressing him as squad leader.
“Damned things. They didn't. The Arilians refuse to give us the land the Empire's requested. -Bzzt- when the moon is high.” Another of the four, a burlier man named Been, with a beard that was bisected by a deep cut in his cheek, reached up to press the device on his head closer to his ear. Ginge thought about requesting replacements for the group when they returned to Planet Vegeta, but quickly quieted her thoughts to listen.
“Come again, boss? You cut out there.”
“I said, we're attacking at dusk, when the moon is high. This planet's lunar cycle lined up with our arrival quite nicely, and the moon stays out longer this time of year.” The faceless man over the comm sounded pleased by that fact, and Ginge couldn't disagree. In fact, she reveled in the opportunity to flex the Saiyan Empire's might in this quadrant of the galaxy.
“Should we expect you to return by then?” The next to speak up was the slimmest of the men, a younger Saiyan named Tomats, whom Ginge had known for years now. He was a good fighter, and it was always a pleasure to watch him.
“No need. I've been invited to stay for the night.” They could each hear Rise laughing from the other end of the call. “I'll be right where I need to be. You four, just be ready to act when the time comes.”
“Yes, sir.” The four responded in tandem before the comm went silent. For a few moments, they just looked at one another before beginning to laugh again. There was a newfound edge to their jovial attitudes, as expressed by the turn in their conversation.
“What do you think? Will he even need us?” Been laughed wholeheartedly from across the circle.
“Who, Rise? His Oozaru can dominate the planet on its own.” The last of the four finally spoke up, a younger woman named Rampierre. The group had taken to calling her Rampi, and as far as Ginge could surmise, she had been on enough missions to fit one hand. She was fun to be around, though.
“Yeah, but where's the fun for us if we just sit around?” Ginge interjected with another laugh. “We can't let that asshole hog all the glory, can we?” The group joined in her laughter, as they passed the time before they were to move in on the city.
Less than two hours later, the mood had changed entirely. The moon's early rise had chased away the sky's deep orange color, only for it to be replaced by a glowing red. The high-reaching skyscrapers of the city had all but been demolished, and the anguished cries and pained screams of Arilians could be heard for miles.
That is, until the sounds of the rampaging Oozaru drowned out all others. Four great beasts of battle, clad in their Saiyan armor and all but invincible, tore through the capitol of Arila without hesitation. One beast roared after another, driven by nothing more than its instinct to kill and destroy, viewing the living as either friend or foe, with no room for middle ground.
The Arilian military might've been able to fight back against the five Saiyan warriors, but there was nothing in the galaxy that could stand up to a rampaging Oozaru clan. The galaxy's most fearsome creatures had reduced the city walls to rubble within minutes, crushing stone and metal alike underneath their heels.
It was almost too easy.
Four hours after the attack had begun, the city had razed almost entirely to the ground. Nothing remained of its grandiose design, nor of its boasted army. However, the men of Arila had done their jobs, for the Saiyans had been wrong in one respect. Their mindless forms had failed to notice how quickly the moon moved across the sky, and it was too late when the four mighty beasts roared with rage as they shrank.
Been was the first to regain his senses, followed shortly by the others. None of them wore their scouters, for they had been left behind to not be destroyed by the transformation. As Ginge rest with her palm against what was left of a wall, the burly, bearded man returned from the skies with his report.
“DAMMIT!” He shouted, as his fist knocked the wall to the ground, nearly taking the smaller Saiyan along with it. “They played us for fools. Reinforcements are on the way, AND WHERE THE HELL IS RISE?”
Ginge, Tomats and Rampi all looked at one another, at a loss for what to say. However, they knew what to do, and that was to locate their commander and come up with a new plan of attack.
“He was staying at the governor's mansion.” Rampi beat the others to the punch, as it were, and raced off towards the unknown building.
“Damn girl is going to get herself killed!” Tomats growled in his anger, as Been flew off after the less experienced warrior. Quickly, he reached out for Ginge to take his hand, and the two flew off in chase after their comrades.
The governor's mansion was easy enough for the group to find. Even without its sheen and imposing design, the massive yard made it easy to spot from the air, and the fountain still ran, somehow. Few guards still remained inside the ruined building, so the group played a game of chance to see who would get the right to lead the charge.
Ginge won the honors, as scissors beats paper, and led the small force through the crumbling hallways. Blaster fire met her head on as they went, but the woman found that pieces of the walls and furniture made for great barriers. In one instance that she swore to remember to tell later, she'd thrown a chandelier with such force that the man's chest cavity was made all the more decorative for it.
Within the hour, they'd scoured the building for the location of their commanding officer. It was Rampi who finally called out for the others, distracting Ginge just long enough to take a bolt of ki to the arm. In return, she tore off the guard's own and beat him with the limb until he'd stopped twitching.
She followed the gathering voices, nursing her injury. As she turned into the doorway, her brown eyes widened, followed by a low, disgusted growl. In the large bed before her lay the body of Rise, his throat cut and the sheets stained a dark and foreboding red. His armor had been removed, tossed aside without a care, as far as she could tell.
“Mother fucker! I told him, this'd get him killed one day.” Been exclaimed. He had known Rise the longest, and had often told of how the commander liked to lay the women of each planet he'd visited, but Ginge had always thought he'd put the mission first.
Apparently, she had been wrong.
“What now?” Rampi spoke up after a brief silence had washed over the room, as she looked around at the more experienced members of the group. From the look of things, nearly everyone present was at a loss for words.
“We return to Vegeta. We've taken their capitol, so the mission is a success.” Tomats was the one to answer the much younger Saiyan. He wasn't the last to speak, however, even as he made his way towards the doorway.
“Bullshit! What about Rise? Should we just forget that they killed him in cold blood?” Been didn't seem to be taking this very well, and if she were to be quite honest, Ginge didn't blame him. She didn't feel it was right to just leave, now that they've got the upper hand.
“With Rise dead, I'm in command! I say the mission is done, seeing as we've just cut the head off the snake known as Arila.” Tomats again, and he'd raised his voice quite loudly. Ginge wondered briefly just what it was about Saiyan men and positions of authority, but the heating argument caught her attention again quickly. “Or, is that not enough for you?”
“You're damn right it's not enough! The girls agree with me, don't you?”
“Been is right. We've shown how strong the Saiyans are, so why should we stop here?” Rampi was taking sides, then. That left Ginge in the middle, torn between Tomats and her own gut instinct. Been and Rampi were right. They were clearly stronger than what the Arilian people could throw at them, but... Then again, Tomats...
“Ginge? Are you going to insist that we stay, too?” He was calling her out now. Ginge looked up at the man she had sometimes called friend, more often getting into drunken brawls at the bar. The ache in her arm had made up her mind for her, though, and she nodded.
“I do feel we should stay and finish them off, but it's not my decision to make.” It was a little middle-ground, but she had said her piece.
“One man down, no reinforcements, the full moon is gone, and we've lost the element of surprise. We don't even have scouters.” Despite his points, Tomats laughed briefly at the group. “You know what, though? I think it's about time we showed the Saiyan Solar Empire what we're made of; power levels be damned! We'll bring them the head of their general to make up for Rise!”
The group broke into relieved laughter, each remarking how the Arilians were easy to kill, anyways. In the midst of it all, Ginge even forgot the pain in her arm.
Few minutes later, the squad's jovial attitude was interrupted by several loud explosions that caused the ground to shake, and the remains of the mansion threatened to collapse around them. Rampi was the first to make it to a front-facing window, followed shortly by the other three.
“Oh, you have got to be fu-” Been was cut short by an extremely loud speaker from the rubble-laden courtyard.
“Invaders! You have twenty minutes to exit the compound and surrender yourselves to the Arilian military! If you do not comply, we will bury you in what remains of that building! There will be no negotiations!”
It was difficult to see the man who was speaking, but he was clearly an older male. What was visible in the dark courtyard, however, was the equipment that'd been brought to deal with the group.
“Tanks, artillery and more men than I can count.” Tomats remarked aloud before cursing underneath his breath.
“Well, we won't be needing those scouters. They've brought the entire planet to us!” Been laughed aloud, not caring if the enemy heard them.
“How many blasters do you think they have? “ Ginge could hear the excitement in her own voice.
“It doesn't matter.” Tomats interjected before anyone could answer. “The artillery's just for show. They couldn't possibly fire it at such a close range.”
Before the group could say anymore, a faint clattering drew their attention towards the way they had come, then a loud hissing filled the hallway with dense smoke. The four had acted before any order from their leader had needed to be uttered, running down the hallway towards the large doorway that had once held a rather ornate portal into the mansion.
Unfortunately, more canisters were fired into the coming windows, stopping the group in their tracks. Ginge had already begun to cough as the gas tore at her lungs, and Rampi cried in shock as blaster fire tore through the wall just above her ducking frame. Been and Tomats huddled behind each side of the doorway as bright light flooded into the large and open room.
“Invaders!” Ginge scoffed as the man's voice boomed over some sort of speaker system that surrounded the mansion. “I lied.” Almost as soon as his words had stopped ringing in the Saiyans' ears, and Ginge swore that she could hear the smirk through the speakers, blaster fire started again to tear through the relatively weak material around them.
“Tomats! We can't stay here!” Ginge called out over the deafening arsenal that had been aimed for them. She and Rampi had taken shelter behind a staircase, but it was quickly being wittled away and wouldn't have lasted long enough for them to think of a plan of attack.
As if he'd been thinking exactly what she'd said, Tomats held a glowing ball of yellow ki aloft in his palm, then Been followed suit. A moment later, Rampi began to build her own orbs, and Ginge tensed for the coming onslaught.
Despite their situation, each Saiyan warrior wore the widest grin possible.
Just as the smoke began to fill the larger room, the two men fired their blasts into the ground several dozens of yards from the door. The resulting dirt cloud stopped the blaster fire for just a few moments, as Rampi flew through the doorway and up and out of reach of the floodlights. Not to be outdone, she proceeded to rain her attack down upon the gathered Arilians and their paltry might.
Ginge shot out from the door next, moving faster than the eye could see towards the nearest tank. Favoring her uninjured arm, she grabbed inside the wheel well and hoisted one side of the machine into the air, letting it fall on its top side atop the soldiers who had been taking shelter beside it. She wasted no time before flexing her strength against the soldiers crouched behind her who had yet to notice her presence.
The minutes to follow were pure and utter hell. The four Saiyans made quick work of the individual soldiers, and the heavier equipment was little more than trash when it couldn't be turned or aimed. It nearly crossed Ginge's mind that things were a little too easy several times, but the adrenaline rush of battle was hardly letting her think. It wasn't until the ground shook again that she'd even considered they would take damage.
Though Rampi was safe above, the three warriors fighting on the ground were taken by surprise. Following a loud thump of sound, the dirt and rock underneath their feet was shoveled skyward, then fire sought to consume the courtyard in its entirety.
Ginge, missing a large portion of her armor from the same side as her arm was covered in burns, fled to the side of a nearby building. From here, she could see the progress they'd made, but more than that, she could get a glimpse of the massive crater the bomb had blown in the ground. At the edge of the crater, a bloodied and exhausted Tomats was dragging Been to safety, and waving towards her and Rampi.
It took only moments to notice that the ringing in her ears was drowning out all other sound. The blast had rendered her deaf.
Whatever the blast had been, the two women seized advantage of the ceasefire it'd caused to return to their comrades. Tomats and Rampi were visibly shouting at one another, but Ginge couldn't bring herself to pay attention. This close, it was easy to see the damage that'd been done. Been had been closer to the center of the blast, and much of his lower half was missing; the lower half of one leg, a piece of shrapnel nearly bisected his hip, and his tail was nowhere to be seen.
“THOSE BASTARDS!” Ginge shouted, perhaps more loudly than she'd realized. With each arm injured as they were, it was a wonder what she was thinking she could do, but the enraged woman had turned to chase after the retreating forces, nonetheless.
“We can't stay! Whatever that weapon was, it damn near killed us all in one go!” Tomats was still shouting at Rampi, who seemed adamant in continuing the fight. He'd lost his armor to the fire, revealing burns as severe as those covering Ginge's arm across his chest. It was amazing that he could move at all, let alone reach out for the smaller Saiyan before she could get out of arm's reach.
Perhaps it was the adrenaline, or maybe forest of pain she'd already been subjected to, but Ginge hardly felt a thing when her body betrayed her and went limp without warning. An arm caught her underneath the stomach and kept her from hitting the ground, though she wasn't entirely to whom it belonged.
“Just, grab Been. If we hurry, there might be a chance the healing pod will do him some good.” Tomats shouted angrily to the younger Saiyan who had yet to take much battle damage. Ginge could see the look of disappointment on her face as she was slung over her captor's shoulder, forced to watch her two remaining companions follow from behind.
The group moved quickly after that. Whatever had caused the blast, it surely wasn't going to keep the Arilians away for long, or maybe it had been their doing in the first place and they were lying in wait to attack again. As Ginge's hearing began to come back to her, she could hear Tomats cursing loudly against the night's cool wind.
Unfortunately, her body still disobeyed her, even as she heard the sharp whistle fast approaching them.
“Tomats! Ginge!” Rampi shouted out, just as she'd lurched forward with incredible speed and kicked the large metal bullet out of the sky. The slight pause as Tomats scanned the dark horizon was all that'd been needed.
As Been's dropped body fell to the ground below, more shells than was necessary filled the space around the three. Tomats and Rampi tried to avoid the heavy fire as they raced to retrieve their comrade, but the dim light of the distant fires offered little aid in their defense.
Ginge regained her senses as the air rushed past her face, her battered body in free fall for few precious seconds. Something had struck Tomats and knocked her loose, but she couldn't see what. Before she could think of a way to break her own fall, the ground met her with haste, greeting her with the sickening crunch of breaking bones.
Things came and went after that. The blackness of the Arila night gave way to a much more peaceful darkness, and the explosions and shaking ground seemed to be so far away. Every now and again, Ginge could swear that she smelled Tomats, or heard him, but she could never place a finger on where they were.
“Ginge? God dammit! Stay with me!” Her eyes opened a little that time, as his beaten and torn face was illuminated by a floating ball of ki in his palm.
“Rampi! Rampi, can you hear me!?” Again, there he was, now carrying her on his back. The ground shook some more, then was replaced by the whirling of wind around her ears.
“I told you... I fucking told you three...” Now, she was in a bed of softness, held upright by a seat of sorts. Her limbs were folded in on themselves, as Tomats' scent mixed with the blood in her mouth. “Ginge... I'm sorry. I'll be there soon. I've got to find Been and Rampi.” Her tired eyes opened just in time to see the pod door closing between them.
The next time that consciousness graced her with its light, everything was tinted with a soothing green color. Her skin itched and hurt in places that she didn't even know she'd had, though the wounds she'd sustained were comfortably numb.
Slowly, her brown eyes fought to open themselves wider. Her teeth and jaw tested the plastic tube that reached down into her throat, and torn muscles tried in vain to move setting bone. The immediate surge of pain put a stop to her struggling, as the beaten Saiyan drifted into the darkness of sleep once more.
