In Aira's perception, those evil auras weren't just powerful—they were terrifying. They eclipsed even the distant, intimidating presences of Frieza's Ginyu Force she'd once sensed. Her blood sang, her body thrummed with a primal vibration. Shock warred with a fierce, thrilling excitement—the deep-seated Saiyan lust for a challenge that could break her.
Yet, beneath the thrill, cold logic held. The opponent was formidable, and the vacuum of space was a brutally disadvantageous battlefield for her.
"Universe Pirates?" Rhode's voice, transmitted via ki, held no surprise. Such malevolent energy could belong to nothing else. Despite their strength, his own demeanor remained calm, analytical. He condensed his ki into a focused command directed at Aira:
"Aira, lock onto them with the ship's energy cannons. Fire at will."
The cosmos was too vast. They were in the deep void, the enemy likely still just a sensor blip at extreme range. Leaving the ship to engage was impractical. Long-range bombardment was the only viable counter.
Buzz~
Aira didn't hesitate. The ship's targeting systems locked on. She maxed out the power output and fired.
A searing white beam lanced from the cannon, streaking past Rhode's position on the hull and vanishing into the starry dark.
In the future, I need to develop a way to sense pure energy like this, Rhode mused, watching the beam he could not 'feel' with his ki sense. Otherwise, against purely mechanical or artificial threats, I'm blind beyond visual range.
After an agonizing delay, Rhode's senses registered a distinct flare of agitation from the distant evil auras. A hit, or a near miss.
"Continue!" he commanded.
One after another, retaliatory beams blasted from their ship towards the unseen foe.
The Universe Pirates, after their initial panic, seemed to rally. The bombardment they returned was not just equal, but more intense, a torrent of energy seeking to overwhelm them.
Swish-swish-swish!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Rhode became a blur of motion on the hull. His hands flashed, intercepting and dissipating incoming beams with precise ki bursts, shielding the ship beneath him. All the while, their vessel sped onward, closing the distance with the pirates.
Soon, by triangulating the source of the malevolent ki, Rhode could just make out a faint, shapeless blot against the stars—the pirate ship.
The moment it became a visible speck, Rhode acted. He dropped into a low crouch on the hull, hands curling at his waist. A brilliant sphere of white light blossomed between his palms, growing with terrifying speed.
Kamehameha!
As the pirate ship's silhouette sharpened into definition, he unleashed it.
"HA!"
The iconic beam of concentrated energy erupted, a river of destruction streaking across the void towards its target at relativistic speed.
Inside the pirate vessel, a very different scene was unfolding.
The crew was small—only three. They were humanoid with pointed, elven ears, but their features were sharp and vicious. The leader, Pasda, was tall with a chiseled, cruel face and a shock of long green hair. To his left was Geti, a short, mohawked brute barely a meter tall. To his right was Panai, a fierce-looking female with a severe purple bowl-cut.
"Pasda, something's wrong!" Panai shrieked, her eyes glued to her scanner display, her face draining of color.
The leader, Pasda, lounged in his command chair, annoyed. "What now, Panai? Stop screeching and focus on the bombardment!"
"But—but Big Brother, this is serious!" Panai stammered, her throat dry with terror. "I... I think I saw it clearly now. The person on that ship... they're wearing Frieza Army battle armor!"
"Frieza Army armor?!" Pasda shot upright, his casual demeanor vaporizing. "You said it was an unmarked civilian vessel! Geti! What in the blazes did you get us into?!"
Pasda's blood ran cold, a phantom chill sweating down his spine. Provoking Frieza's army meant a death sentence—or worse. He cursed his underling inwardly, but panic wouldn't solve this. His expression turned grim as he locked eyes with Panai. "Are you certain it's one of Frieza's?"
Panai, her super-vision strained, peered through the viewport again. After a tense moment, she gulped. "Big Brother… the ship doesn't have Frieza's insignia. But the armor… it's genuine Frieza Force battle armor. What do we do?"
Under their collective gaze, Pasda felt a crushing weight. A simple hijacking had turned into a potential confrontation with the Cosmic Emperor. His mind raced.
"Big Brother, let's run! We can't afford to cross Frieza!" Panai urged, her voice trembling.
"Quiet!" Pasda hissed, forcing his own fear down. "No insignia means they might not be official. They could be deserters, scavengers… survivors." He turned his burning gaze to Geti. "How many on that ship? What are their power levels?"
Geti fumbled with the ship's long-range scanner. After a moment, a grin split his brutish face. "Big Brother! Only two life signs! One's a weakling, battle power in the low hundreds. The other… just over thirty thousand. They're no match for us!"
The numbers were like a shot of adrenaline. Pasda's shoulders relaxed. The fear receded, replaced by cold, calculating ruthlessness. If they weren't official Frieza Force, and they'd already attacked… leaving witnesses was out of the question. Better to erase all evidence.
"Close the distance," Pasda ordered, his voice now steel. "We kill them. All of them." If they were connected to Frieza, they'd be long gone into another warlord's territory before anyone was the wiser. The plan felt solid, almost clever.
"B-Big Brother!" Panai's shriek shattered his brief moment of smugness. Her finger was shaking, pointing past him, out the main viewport. Her face was a mask of pure, unadulterated terror. "LOOK!"
Pasda spun. What he saw froze the blood in his veins. A torrent of blinding white energy, massive and terrifyingly fast, was tearing through the void directly towards them. In the airless silence of space, it was a sight of utter, silent doom. None of them could survive in the vacuum outside their hull. There was nowhere to run. The Kamehameha was upon them.
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