A few minutes ago...

"Father," Colla said.

She watched the battle against the experimental Ikondan ship unfold. Both of her arms were folded and she couldn't the nagging sense of frustration creeping up inside. Normally she kept her mouth shut when Supreme Commander was working. But, this was getting to be a bit absurd.

"Don't you think it's a bit unfair for us to sit up here while Emperor Carambolis is out on the front-lines?"

The grizzled Saiyan had been busy orchestrating the attacks, probably with little moment to think about how it may mar his reputation. Then again, he didn't care much about that kind of thin anyway. Ever the pragmatist. He pointed and commanded his ships to move into a wedge position, they were going to break through the fighters with overlapping fields of point-defense fire. A majority of the crewmen were xenos, all of variety of shapes and sizes. The Dominion was ran by the Saiyans, but they didn't turn anyone down who wanted a seat at the table. A lot of them were good men who had suffered far too much at the hands of the Frieza Force. The Dominion had made the hard move against the tyrants and earned far more friends than enemies in the early years. 

But, sometimes the galaxy could be a polarizing place. The flow of recruits had been staved since the whole debacle with the freshly anointed Galactic Empire. Colla wondered if the entire idea of a galaxy united under Saiyan rule and protection was a pipe dream. If it was pointless. Brokering peace wasn't something Saiyans were used to. They were far too feisty, far too hungry for war and battle. It was in their veins.

Some in the Dominion saw that. Queen Radia was ambitious, but disconnected from her people's real concerns. Colla admired the woman for her power and her grace, but often thought she left her warriors hanging far too long. Until recently, she had been gone off on some forlorn training trip. Strength meant a lot, but at the cost of guidance? Commander Taro had died. So many others. Kabocha had been lost.

For what?

Regardless, Colla was loyal to her father and to her people. She was here as a sacrificial lamb, a way for the Dominion to solidify their alliance. Onyon hadn't dreamed up the idea, she had. And he could see that during their encounter the Kabochan Emperor had tested his patience and his pride. But, the Black Lightning had seen his share of war and bloodshed. He was the type that only fought the good fight, the one he thought right.

Keeping the Kabochan's in chains didn't serve the Dominion in the least bit.

"What do you suggest?" Onyon said and turned to her.

"Let me lend a hand."

Onyon perked an eyebrow. "How can you help? We're in a full engagement here."

"They're getting chewed up by those point-defense guns and are trapped inside of the shields. If we focus fire on one of the shield sections we can bring it down long enough for me to slip in unnoticed using one of the new stealth pods."

The Supreme Commander barked some more orders and then rubbed his stubble laden chin, thinking about her plan for a few moments. "Don't you think that the Emperor will see that as an affront?"

Colla shrugged. "At first, maybe. But, if we're going to secure this alliance through a marriage proposal, I think he should also know what his potential wife is capable of."

---

Onyon's cruiser focused its fire onto an upper section of shielding. The Ikondans were no doubt be confused about this strategy. It wasn't optimal, and they thought of precision before all else. Bringing down a single section of shield would be a fleeting thing over the course of a fleet engage. It was far better to spread the damage over a wider area and tax the generators until they overheated or gave out. In this case they would part the defensive sea for a brief moment.

Sizzling bolts of plasma rained down, one after another until the section collapsed. Only to reform mere seconds later just as it had been. Yet, in those seconds a needle shaped space pod had slipped through. Equipped with stealth technology, it went undetected as it thudded into the outer hull, using kinetic force to burrow its way in. Gel sprayed out and made a seal, so that the compartments inside didn't decompress. The hatch opened and Colla clamored out into the belly of the beast. Ikonda ship design was all smooth chrome and sleek lines. Quite stylish, if not a little egalitarian in its manifestation. Nothing stood out, nothing was unique. It would be easy to get lost in the honeycomb of chambers.

Her power level was detected as soon as she emerged from the pod. Clad in her armored vac-suit, she charged down corridor. Ikondan troopers emerged to intercept her. Each one was stronger than the average Saiyan warrior. Good thing Colla was the daughter of the Black Lightning and not some weakling rabble.

Twin ki fuchsia blades erupted from both of her hands. She weaved her way through the lot of them, deflecting their ki blasts, chopping limbs, slashing necks. She was a whirling dervish of destruction, but unlike most Saiyans--she had precision.

After felling the opposition, she checked her wrist computer, displaying a holographic map. Much of it was an educated guess from her father's ship scans. The point-defense systems on the ship were mostly analog, to prevent hacking and systems infiltration. They had isolated targeting computers, communicating only through line of sight laser-relay. Redundant tech, was the best kind of tech for the purpose. Ikondans could get fancy, but only where it made sense.

However, the trio of them that battered the Emeperor's squad were all interlinked to the same power source. A slight flaw perhaps, but giving each turret their own special reactor would have been far too expensive. Even for a giant mother ship project like this.

Blades still buzzing, she cut open a section of the bulkhead and kicked it in, forcing it to land with a resounding thud. The power conduit lay behind inches deep of katchin mesh. Her ki blades wouldn't do the job here, so she dismissed them, pulling out a small cylinder from her utility belt. She pressed against the conduit shielding and activated it, flickering from sight and ducking behind cover. The white flare of super-heated plasma filled the chamber, along with a shrieking and hissing noise as it burned its way through the cross section. It then exploded inward with a violent burst, cutting off the power flow.

The entire experimental ship rocked from the force of the force of the sudden detonation.

---

Cam, Meiku, and Absolut would notice the defense turrets stop shortly after. Not just the three they faced, but also dozens more along the length of the great vessel. It gave them a moment of reprieve.

A moment ended as Ikondan troopers emerged to repel the invaders by hand, blasters leveled. Until Colla swept in from behind and mopped them up. She used the zero-grav environment to her advantage, weaving death in a flurry. She rolled and flowed, using her ki to adjust her trajectory between targets and to avoid harm.

Since no voice could be heard in a hard vacuum, she opened a scouter channel to the trio.

After a chuckle she said, "Emperor, I'm here to help. My name is Colla, daughter of the Supreme Commander. I think we have a shield generator destroy, do we not?"

---

OOC: Feel free to RP wiping out the shield generator and whatever else you want to. We can freeform this to a close. Hopefully in the next two posts.

WC: 1,276
Legume , Cam , Cassava

 

Colla sighed with relief inside of her mask once the shield array went down. As soon did, the Saiyan fleet began hammering away. The entire Ikondan ship rocked and shuttered as concentrated plasma fire pelted it. They weren't shots meant to destroy, rather to disable. The engine blocks went first, erupting into great plumes of flame and escaping atmospher. 

The Saiyan warrior tapped a button on her wrist computer, her boots buzzing with electromagnetic energy to keep her pinned to ship's hull. She heard Cam's message loud and clear. "Headed to you now."

The Ikondan's were starting to jump ship, like the gross cybernetic rats they were. Well, she guessed they were more crustaceans than rats, but the analogy held in her mind. Escape pods and shuttles streaked away from the belly of the big vessel, shimmering specks among the black of the void. Commander Onyon belayed any attack against their retreat. There was no honor in cutting down a defeated foe. She held her breath as he ran along the length of the vessel to where the trio were forming up to evacuate.

It was the moment of truth. Were the Ikondans going to scuttle the ship? If so they probably had seconds before annihilation.

Those seconds ticked away and she arrived just as Meiku opened the crackling rift. So the hive-mind bastards didn't blow their ship to oblivion.  What a dumb move.

That is because it would be gifted to Cam and turned against them in the future, without a doubt. Kabocha and Ikodan didn't ever stop being at war. It would go on for eternity until one side fell to the other. In the hands of the Kabochan military and the Crusher Corps, the experimental cruiser would be one of the most state of the art war vessels in the galaxy. Maybe somewhere in their collective consciousness the Collective expected to come back and reclaim the ship with force. She didn't blame them for keeping that sort of hope. No doubt the thing had been extremely expensive to plan and build. But, they were fools for underestimating the Emperor.

Colla had never traveled via portal or teleportation before. She hesitated a moment and finally allowed herself to exhale. With a silent prayer and eyes closed, she pushed herself into the swirling vortex.

It felt like she was being sucked through a straw, spiraling, twisting, turning and then--

She was standing on the bridge once again, her magnetic driven footsteps thundering onto the deck. She disabled the charge and reached up, clicking the side of her helmet. The gas inside released with a hiss and she pulled it off, her mane of black hair cascading out.

Onyon loomed at the view-port, studying the smoldering ship, face all hard lines and dark leering eyes. The rear half of it had been reduced to slag from the bombardment, so it wasn't going anywhere. It would take some considerable work to get it operational again. But, it was no doubt worth it in the long run, if the Emperor had the patience. 

"Get some lines onto that ship. We're going to tow it back to Kabocha. The ship is yours Emperor," Onyon said. "A measure of good faith between us. Also--"

He turned and strode forward, clapping his big mitt like hand onto Colla's shoulder. "We wish to further extend our offer after seeing you in action. We want to secure this alliance for years to come. My daughter here, as you may have seen, is a fine warrior and skilled tactician. She is a natural leader as well. If you would have her as your wife, our allegiance would be set in stone. So long as one of us rules by your side, we shall be an unstoppable force in this galaxy."

Colla smiled at Cam, her eyes wide with excitement at the notion. "Don't for a minute think that my father is peddling me off to you. I was the one that suggested the idea. I admit, perhaps in conquering Kabocha we Saiyans were bit too hasty in the way we assimilated your planet into our ranks. Perhaps there was a better way, and that should have been liberation not occupation. The Dominion wishes to see a galaxy secure and at peace, under leadership that is truly strong enough to protect it. The Galactic Patrol have been ineffectual, and now they have gone the way of a relentless autocracy in their desperation to remain the top dogs. The Frieza Force only wished to squeeze resources from those they ruled. And they did, to the point that the fruit of their bounty withered and died. Now they are defunct. We wish to elevate all that allow pledge their loyalty to us. That is the Saiyan way after all, always getting stronger, always improving."

WC: 809 | TWC: 2,085
Legume , Cam , Cassava

Meiku hadn’t thought much about the commander sending his own daughter to their aid---frankly, she was pretty oblivious when it came to politics. However, give her a goal and she would blow away a space fleet with extreme precision. The nuances of talk and lobbying however, those fell on deaf ears with the Earthling. After stepping through the portal they were back in the presence of the brute of a Saiyan, his guard, and his rather beautiful warrior daughter.

However, once safely aboard the ship, it was clear that there were always hidden agendas beneath. They offered the remnants of the plasma melted ship, but also offered something much more valuable. A body.

Still, this body was no mere mercenary or talent, she was asking to be Cam’s wife. Meiku stood there agasp; it felt as if the woman was watching a live reenactment of a daytime soap opera. She sunk back away from the exchanges the others had. It wasn’t her place to come into such a conversation, besides--she hadn’t much input either. The emperor’s affairs were his and his own, her own thoughts or feelings of the arrangement were unnecessary.

Colla too expressed her interest in being his bride---it was a rather odd situation. Currently Meiku found her gray orbs marveling the smoldering ship they held in tow. She only hoped that Onyon wouldn’t go back on his offer if Cam shot down his daughter.

Cam didn’t however----he didn’t turn her down, no. Still, he didn’t accept her proposal either. Like the rationally thinking leader he was, he declined for the time being. Instead, he boasted about wanting to fight a ‘Super Saiyan’.

Is now the time for such talk?

---

Lute Cam Emperor Absolut