19 Touch Down

Frieza's saucer touched down on the large green planet. The level of tension on the vessel was running high throughout the ranks of soldiers. Their mission was going to commence soon. They knew their lord wanted the Dragon Balls at all cost. If they made any mistakes, it would mean the end of their lives.

Frieza was in his hover chair floating in front of his ship. His two Generals, Zarbon and Dodoria, stood behind him. The ground forces were lined up before them to await their orders.

Five Attack Balls crashed down near Frieza's ship ten minutes later. When the doors to the ships opened, their pilots emerged at lightning speed. They appeared in front of their master's hovering vehicle, striking a bizarre pose. The odd group was wearing customary Frieza Force armor with the exception of the Ginyu Force crest on the breastplate.

"Lord Frieza the Ginyu Force has arrived!" the horned purple alien who was knelt down said.

"Captain Ginyu, it is good you arrived so quickly." Frieza praised.

"The pleasure is ours lord Frieza. How many we serve you?" Captain Ginyu asked still holding his pose.

"Attention! Everyone!" Frieza raised his voice and everyone stood straight, including the Ginyu Force.

"I have come to this dirtball for one reason, the Dragon Balls! You will find them for me! If you meet any formidable resistance you will inform the Ginyu Force, is that clear!" Frieza continued as his chair rose above the crowd.

"Yes! Lord Frieza!" the soldiers collectively replied.

The tyrant, after hearing the soldiers' answer, pressed the button on the side of his Scouter. The device beeped, searching for the power level of any nearby Namekians. He was surprised that the only signals he was picking up were from his men. The short horned alien could only concluded that either the natives were too weak to be picked up at this range or they could hide their power levels. This was going to slow his mission down.

"The natives may be able to hide their power levels! Soldiers spread out and find them, so that they may assist in our quest!" Frieza commanded, "And remember, if I am not informed of developments you had better wish you were dead!"

The soldiers dispersed to locate their targets. If the Scouters really couldn't pick up the natives, they would need to visually locate the villages. Once they located a village, they could then contact everyone else to group up if needed. With the Ginyu Force on the planet for back up, the soldiers felt they had an extra layer of security.

After just over an hour of flight, Appule still had not found a Namekian native or a village. He was an amphibious alien with an elongated head, Frieza Force armor, and full black under suit. The alien guessed the population of the planet was sparse because there was yet to be any signs of life, other than fauna.

Appule just happened to look up at the right time to notice two Attack Balls crashing down in the distance. He decided to investigate because there was no word about anymore troops arriving, and the fact they might have landed near a village. If he was quick he could reach the location of the ships in about half an hour.

The two ships were empty by the time Appule arrived at the scene. One of Appule's a fellow soldier also arrived after noticing the landing of the pods. His name was Oren, and he wore helmeted Frieza armor and carried a wrist mounted blaster.

"Appule, did you see anyone?" Oren questioned his comrade.

"No, but whoever it was couldn't have gotten very far." Appule answered.

"Maybe we should we call this in." Oren suggested. He wasn't ready to get blamed if this was a problem.

"We should see who we are dealing with first." Appule wanted to take as much credit as possible if this discovery somehow led to the Dragon Balls.

"Fine." Oren shrugged.

The helmeted soldier checked his Scouter to see if he could locate the occupants of the vacant Attack Balls. Oren slowly rotated his head from one side to the other as he scanned the distance for any power levels. He was curious as to whether the device would return any result, since it had been useless so far.

BEEP! BEEP!

"I picked up a power level of five thousand moving away from us!" Oren said with excitement.

"Let's get moving then." Appule grinned.

The two soldiers flew off after their target. Whoever landed wasn't very strong so the pair was confident they could handle the situation. Oren and Appule had power levels of seven and eight thousand respectively. If the person they were tracking was moving with their partner then that person shouldn't be too strong, either.

As they moved closer they were able to detect a secondary power source near the one they were tracking. It was only a measly power of 400 so they were still confident in their odds of success against the duo. The soldiers could see two beings in the distance hovering in midair above the green Namekian ocean.

They sped to the figures waiting in the distance to see just who was foolish enough to get in the middle of lord Frieza's mission. The soldiers immediately halted their flight after seeing who the two intruders were. They recognized them from the work they had done in the past for lord Frieza. The pair were none other than the Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa.

"What are they doing here!" Appule was frantic. He knew from reports that the Saiyans had become some of the strongest warriors in the Frieza Force.

"I'm reporting this!" Oren said pressing the button on his Scouter.

"Make it quick, they're flying over!" Appule urged his partner.

The report was sent right before the two Saiyans closed the distance. Neither of the soldiers were ready for a fight now. They hoped the Ginyu Force or back up would be along to save them before they would have to fight.

"How did you find us?" the widow peaked Saiyan asked.

"We saw your ships land and used our Scouters to track you down." Oren answered.

"See, Nappa, I told you your power level wasn't suppressed far enough." Vegeta chided his long time ally.

"I'll learn it properly, Prince Vegeta." Nappa said sheepishly.

"You had better, or you'll be sorry if Frieza catches you. Now finish these two off, since their being here is your fault." the Saiyan prince ordered, "I'm continuing on. Catch up after you're done."

Vegeta flew off as fast as he could while keeping his aura as low as possible. He was traveling towards a group of Ki he sensed close by. If he were to guess, it was a Namekian village. He could tell they were suppressing their energy. Vegeta concluded they were attempting to avoid being picked up by Frieza's Scouters.

Vegeta came to a stop, hovering over a Namekian village. From what he could see, the village looked abandoned, but he could feel energy sources coming from the houses. If his senses were to be believed, there were less than twenty people hiding in the homes.

Nappa was able to join back up with Vegeta in no time. The soldiers, Appule and Oren, were no match for the bald Saiyan. Even suppressing his power to avoid detection, he managed to mop the floor with them.

"Are we going to destroy the village from here?" he asked Vegeta.

"Don't be a fool, Nappa. A Dragon Ball could be in there." Vegeta answered floating to the ground.

Nappa followed silently behind Vegeta as he landed on the lush, grassy Namekian surface. The Saiyans came to a stop near the center of the village. Vegeta was standing confidently with his arms crossed.

"I know you are there! I am Prince Vegeta! You might be able to hide from Scouters, but not from me!" the Saiyan boldly declared, "If you come out now, you might get to survive this encounter!"

A door to one of the houses flew open revealing a sight Vegeta was not expecting to see. He knew his plans were already coming apart.

"What is this!" the vein on Vegeta's head looked like it was about to exploded.

Elsewhere on the planet, other groups of soldiers located the position of four more of the Namekian villages. Contact with the soldiers was lost following the report of their locations. Zarbon had to be the one to inform Frieza about the loss of contact with the troops.

Their master was not one to concern himself with the loss of personnel, but if it prevented him from obtaining something he wanted, it was a different story. To the displeasure of the galactic emperor, no Scouters were able to send back any power level scans or transmissions. The only thing available for Frieza to do was to send more soldiers to the locations to investigate further.

"There is one more thing, Lord Frieza." Zarbon said.

"What else has happened?" Frieza questioned his kneeling General.

"It seems Vegeta and Nappa are on the planet, my lord." Zarbon reported.

"So... it seems Vegeta is all grown up and trying to interfere with my plans." Frieza's tail slapped the side of his chair as he spoke, "Give me the location. I'll take Dodoria to see just what level of strength Vegeta is hoping to challenge me with. It's past time I dispose of the Saiyans once and for all."

"Lord Frieza, no doubt the Saiyans are no longer in the area they were spotted." Zarbon advised, "It may be prudent to have the Ginyu Force investigate their last known location. The five of them should manage to reacquire the location of the Saiyans."

"Very well, Zarbon." Frieza accepted his General's suggestion and turned to the Ginyu Force leader,

"Captain Ginyu track down that traitor Vegeta, and his useless comrade Nappa, and bring them to me. I want Vegeta alive. I don't care about the other one."

"You heard Lord Frieza, men! We have a couple of Saiyans to find!" Captain Ginyu said full of enthusiasm.

The rest of the Ginyu Force had faces full of excitement. They were clearly on board with their leader's passion. The group's aura flared as they rocketed off towards the location reported by Frieza Trooper Oren. Search and retrieval was one of the Ginyu Forces' favored mission types. It was right up there with planetary destruction for the group.

Only a handful of troops, including Frieza, Zarbon, and Dodoria remained at the ship. The space tyrant's anger was growing by the minute. They already had been on the planet for just under three hours and only a few villages were found. This mission should have been a cakewalk, yet he had lost contact with the troops sent out. The strength of the natives must have been underestimated.

Although, if that were the case, it is strange no energy signals were picked up from battles. That would have to mean his minions were taken out quickly without time to retaliate.

After causing him this amount of inconvenience already, there was no way Frieza was going to allow Namek to stay intact. As soon as he had what he wanted, the planet was going to become space dust. At least the Ginyu Force would be bring Vegeta back. The torture he would subject the Saiyan prince to would go a long way in relieving his stress at the situation.

The Ginyu Force arrived at the location Oren and Appule reported. They found the bodies of the two soldiers floating the the ocean below them. The corpses were torn to pieces. It was as though someone was having fun torturing a weaker creature. The Ginyu Force admired Nappa's handiwork for a moment. They also knew the pleasure of utterly destroying the weak, another of their favorite pastimes.

"Alright, men!" Captain Ginyu said, "We'll start our search here and spread out!"

"They couldn't've got far!" Jeice the orange skinned humanoid of the group said.

"Yes, we'll find them in no time!" the taller blue skinned Burta hissed.

"I can't wait to teach the bald one a lesson. He always did try to talk a big game!" the hulking humanoid Recoome added.

"Ok, enough talk! Ginyu Force head out!" the Captain ordered.

The five members of the Ginyu Force flew in a spiral pattern out from the location Oren sent. They were trying to cover as much ground as possible without missing their targets. Normally they wouldn't use this tactic, but even their high powered Scouters were useless in locating the Saiyans.

"Well, well. Fancy meeting you way out here, Vegeta." Raditz said emerging from a Namekian house flanked by Prometheus Empire soldiers.

"Raditz! How!" Vegeta was shaken to see Raditz waiting for him in the Namekian village.