Interlude: Meanwhile, Out in the Wider Universe

Emperor Pak the Sixth of the Khundian Empire was perturbed. His forces had suffered a recent string of setbacks on the field of battle against the Reach and now it looked as if he might be forced to sue for peace. Likely, he would be forced to relinquish the Early Conquests that they had seized in the first half of the war in exchange for regaining lost territory in Sector Six-twenty-One, where the Reach had made vast strides.

Emperor Pak had hoped the offensive in Sector Seventeen would have provided enough breathing room to retain enough worlds after the peace that he could call this a successful conquest. Unfortunately, that fool Lorca had failed in achieving all but the very first of the objectives of that offensive, which was to seize control of Garnet to provide a staging point for attacks further into Sector Seventeen. As soon as Lorca engaged the Reach on Shako though, things had gone bad swiftly. Honestly, if Lorca had not been slain in the fighting, Emperor Pak would have been tempted to make an example of him to avoid future bungles.

Garnet hadn't been a challenge worthy of the Khundian Imperial Forces. It really hadn't belonged to anyone at the start of the war. In fact, it had been run by criminal scum before Lorca attacked, and they defended themselves poorly against an organized aggressor. The Empire would likely be allowed to keep Garnet because of that former criminality, and because of the fact that holding it would be more expensive than whatever worth could be wrung out of it for years to come. That was unfortunate, but it was simply how the situation was.

Emperor Pak would simply have to see how much he could get away with giving up to the Reach in the peace talks. Turning to Guardswoman Tann, Emperor Pak commanded her to bring in the Reach Ambassadors. The Royal Guard nodded and moved to do just that, leading a team of three, Green-Skinned, Yellow-Eyed, Reachfolk led by a blue-and-black-robed, smiling Negotiator.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I bid you greetings on behalf of the Reach Empire and thanks for your hospitality. I am Negotiator Durana and it is truly wonderful to see that you recognize the value of peace as well as that of the more martial aspects of society." Greeted the Robed Reachfolk, Negotiator Durana.

He did so with an obsequious bow and an oily smile that reminded Emperor Pak of nothing quite so much as a Used Shuttlecraft Salesman. No doubt this negotiator would say or do anything so long as it got his masters in the Reach Imperial Council the terms they wanted. It was all a pretty sheen covering over an edge, like a knife made of glass, and much too performative for Emperor Pak's tastes.

"Peace. Let us not mince words, I assume that the Reach have a list of non-negotiable terms? I would hear them before we start to haggle like old women." Scoffed Emperor Pak.

"Right to business, then? I must say, I was told you Khunds were direct, but I had no idea how much so." Mused Negotiator Durana.

"I am eager to get on with the actual business of running an empire." Grunted Emperor Pak.

"Of course. If you must know, the Imperial Council of the Reach is offering quite generous terms. A reversion to pre-war borders, at least as it involves the Khundian Empire and the Reach, we care little enough about worlds like Garnet as it is. Having a stabilizing presence there is good for everyone." Began Negotiator Durana.

"So you'll not demand we hand Garnet over, then. What about Orgen?" Questioned Emperor Pak.

"The Wolfman Planet in Sector Six-Thirty-Eight? What about it?" Queried Negotiator Durana.

"There was a small reach base on the moon there. A trade post, which I'm given to understand is how you lot sometimes begin conquests. You would just let us keep the system? Even after fighting over it early in the War?" Asked Emperor Pak.

"Orgen was very early in the assimilation process, and as you said, the battles fought there were early in the war. The Imperial Council is willing to let you keep any technically neutral territories that had not yet reached the stage to apply for Reach Membership. I have a list here." Offered Negotiator Durana.

The Negotiator handed a Datapad to one of his two aids who in turn handed it to Guardswoman Tann, who finally, handed the Datapad over to Emperor Pak. Frowning, Emperor Pak perused the list of systems that the Reach were allowing him to keep from the war. There were a dozen of them on the list, including Orgen and Garnet. This was far more generous of a peace than he had been thinking of, which made Emperor Pak suspicious.

"This will allow me to save face in front of my people." Frowned Emperor Pak.

"Is that not a good thing?" Questioned Negotiator Durana.

"This deal is too good to be true. What is the catch here?" Queried Emperor Pak.

"Does there have to be a catch?" Asked Negotiator Durana.

"With a deal like this, you are either hoping to get me to do something for you in exchange or the Reach is more wounded than I thought. You had best convince me the former is the case before I decide that the latter is true and continue the war." Warned Emperor Pak.

"Perceptive. In this case, the Catch, as you say, is that we require your aid for something." Informed Negotiator Durana.

"What would that be?" Demanded Emperor Pak.

"As you may know, the Reach was not solely concerned with the War. We also had several feelers put out for various other means of expansion. One such feeler ran into a problem near the Western Fringe of Known Space. A race possibly as powerful as the Arcosians, but far less circumspect in how they go about things slaughtered the expedition, and took their spacecraft. As far as we can tell, they call themselves the Chofan. Have a look." Intoned Negotiator Durana, before producing a small holographic viewer.

With a press of a button, a scene was projected for all to see of a group of three tall, noseless, red-eyed, green-skinned, Amphibian-looking people wearing a mixture of white, black, and blue desert robes. They were fighting a squad of nine Scarabs seeking to protect their ship from the hostile Natives after landing on their planet. One of the Scarabs was already fully armored up when the footage began but soon found himself being torn in half by an attack from one of the Aliens. The Alien wreathed himself in an aura of burning energy before launching himself forward in a shoulder check that literally tore the Scarab in half. The other Scarabs fared little better, with the Aliens not taking a single loss.

"Those scarabs were rated for threats of one-hundred-thousand of the Arcosian's Power Levels or higher. There is a whole world of such monsters. Fortunately, they seemed to have been stuck without a way to leave their desert wasteland of a homeworld. Until now, that is. In exchange for allowing the Khundian Empire to retain those dozen worlds, the Reach requests an alliance against these Chofan." Informed Negotiator Durana.

Emperor Pak frowned as he thought about that. On the one hand, keeping those dozen worlds would allow him to spin this as a victory to his people. The various Warlords and Field Marshals in charge of the Khundian Forces would no doubt seek to overthrow him if he returned from negotiation with nothing to show for it. On the other hand, in order to keep those worlds, the Reach would effectively be forcing the Khundian Empire to join them in their war against these Chofan in the Western Fringes, a race that clearly produces strong warriors and was perhaps equivalent to the Arcosians in terms of sheer potential.

Of course, on the other, other, hand thanks to the Reach's bungling, those same Chofan now had a way to leave their homeworld, which meant they could expand through the Galaxy. It wasn't lost on Emperor Pak that both the Reach and his own Empire had territories that could be considered close enough to the Western Fringes of the Galaxy to be in the potential blast zone of such a rampage.

And that was something that Emperor Pak couldn't just ignore. In the end, there really was only one logical choice, damn Reachfolk always thinking of ways to box others in. It had certainly worked this time. The Khundian Empire would sign peace with the Reach and keep the dozen specified worlds. Then, they would join their former enemies to destroy these Chofan and ensure that no one else went near their homeworld with any technology they could use to get off-world.

It really was the only logical way forward. . .

XXXX

Frieza was looking over the quarterly reports from the PTO. He sighed as he realized that profits were tapering off. The Khunds and Reach entering into Peace Talks really had burst the bubble that the Used Planet Market had been in. Of course, Frieza had made a killing while it was going on, literally even. Still, he couldn't help but shudder at how such a slowdown might give him more leisure time. More leisure time meant more family time, and the Cold Family did not get on.

Oh, certainly, Father was tolerable. He'd abdicated his position as CEO of the Planet Trade Organization, though he still sat on the board, and Frieza had always been his father's favorite, but his brother. Well, the less said about Cooler, the better. Cooler never could stand that Frieza was always better at everything than he was, the prick. It didn't help that Frieza still had to interact with Cooler during board meetings either. If he was forced to actually talk to his prick of a brother outside of the confines of work, well, the word fratricide came to mind.

Best to find something else to occupy his suddenly cleared schedule. After all, no one could push you to truly world-shattering heights of rage quite the same way family could. Literally, in this case. Just as he thought that, however, the solution presented itself in the form of Dodoria saying something about a loose end. That could be the hobby Frieza would need to avoid having to kill his older, but weaker, brother for annoying him. After all, if he had to murder Cooler, father would be upset with him. As strong as Frieza was, King Cold was still stronger, at least for now. Age did so have a way of catching up with people eventually. That was a thought for later, though.

"Dodoria, you mentioned something about loose ends?" Questioned Frieza, looking over at his Chief Security Officer.

"Yes, Lord Frieza. I've been tracking a loose end from that Monkey Business from a few years ago." Grinned Dodoria.

"Monkey Business, whoever knew you had such wit, Dodoria?" Chuckled Frieza.

"Indeed. Though I must say, it's not exactly the most productive use of your time. Who cares what any surviving Saiyans can do? It's not like they actually have any of the power they boast of." Chimed in Zarbon, Frieza's Chief Operating Officer.

"Still, I could do with a good joke. Tell me about this loose end, Dodoria." Commanded Frieza.

"Well, originally, this was just me checking up on Turles. He's a lower-class Saiyan, before we lost track of him, we had his power level clocked at three thousand." Began Dodoria.

"That's stronger than the average Soldier, but it's hardly groundbreaking." Scoffed Zarbon.

"I agree with Zarbon. Why would this need to be brought to my attention?" Queried Frieza.

"Cause we got a scan off him at a Bar in Space City Robinson a few weeks ago and he's not so puny anymore. Twelve-thousand, four times his last-recorded Power Level." Grunted Dodoria.

"So? That's still nowhere near enough to be worth warranting. Why bring it up and waste Lord Frieza's time?" Asked Zarbon.

"Because, Zarbon, the jump in and of itself is noteworthy. It should be impossible for a lower life-form like one of those damned Monkeys." Frowned Frieza.

"Exactly." Huffed Dodoria.

"It's just one Monkey. No matter how big of a jump, we ought to be able to kill him just fine." Shrugged Zarbon.

Frieza, though, was thinking. Such jumps in power had become more and more frequent for those wretched Monkeys in the leadup to his decision to finally get rid of them. It was one of the things that had cinched his decision. Of course, such things could be useful as well, and so Frieza had allowed Prince Vegeta and his team to live as his retainers, but the majority of the race had to go before they could even begin to think of attempting to throw off his overlordship. Their legends hadn't helped in that regard, talk of Super Saiyans would only fuel rebellious sympathies in the Monkeys. The only problem was, that some would still slip through the net even with the recall order in preparation for Frieza Massacring them. Indeed, they'd known that had been the case for some time. Perhaps it was time to revisit that list of at-large Saiyans?

"Dodoria, refresh my memory. How many Saiyans did we fail to account for with the recall order?" Demanded Frieza.

"That we know of? At least two Infiltration Babies, Turles, and four teams that went AWOL. Fifteen Monkeys in total." Grunted Dodoria.

"I see. And do we have dossiers on these missing Monkeys?" Pressed Frieza.

"Some of the records are incomplete. We know that the Infiltration Babies were Kakarot and Rugulo, that Rugulo had a Power Level of Twenty and Kakarot a Power Level of Two, but we only know that Rugulo was sent to a Planet called Suirpalam. We have no record of where Kakarot was sent. Likewise, we know almost nothing of Turles' last mission for us, just that whatever happened caused the ship they were using to break apart and kill Turles' two teammates. The others are more-or-less similar." Informed Zarbon.

"You can take Skallon and his team off the board, by the by. Cui and his team ran across them on a mission. Apparently, they'd set themselves up as Kings on some backwater named Vasden or something. Skallon, Shallon, and Onya are already dead." Added Dodoria.

"Which leaves nine other Monkeys unaccounted for, aside from the two Babies." Mused Frieza.

"Tchard, Biit, and Spinak were sent to clear a world called Arlia, a bug planet stuck in their Iron Age. The Recall Order went out while they were in transit to Arlia and they never acknowledged it. We found their Attack Balls for sale at a trade station near Mohado. More Mid-Class Monkeys, with Power Levels ranging from five thousand to eight thousand." Continued Zarbon.

"Then there's Karn, Squas, and Beenz. Those three were Low-class Warriors, all of the rest of these are gonna be Low-class Warriors, by the way. Power Levels ranging from two-thousand-six-hundred to four-thousand-two-hundred. They were on an R-And-R rotation near one of the bases close to Planet Brench when the recall order went out and just never reported back in once their furlough was up." Explained Dodoria.

"Lastly, there's the Team of Articho, Parsnap, and Potota. All three were close to the Mid-Class when the Recall Order was sent out, with Power Levels between four thousand and four-thousand-eight-hundred. We sent them to handle a world in the Eastern Reaches, a Planet Rox full of Silicon-based Lifeforms. They reported mission success a few days before the Recall Order went out, but they just never checked back in. We tracked their Attack Pods to War World, but you've declared a hands-off policy when it comes to Mongul." Finished Zarbon.

"I can't imagine Mongul not enslaving a few lost Monkeys for use in his arena. He can have those three. Let's focus on tracking down the others for the time being." Ordered Frieza.

"Even the Infiltration Babies? They're hardly a threat, not even good enough to be worth sending on a proper mission." Scoffed Zarbon.

"Even them, Zarbon. At least what we can find on their whereabouts. I'd rather not have any Simian Surprises crop up unexpectedly after all." Nodded Frieza.

"Still, this will take time out of operations." Cautioned Dodoria.

"Time that we'll have soon enough since the Reach and Khunds are making peace. There won't be quite so much demand for used planets as there has been for the past few years, I imagine." Smirked Frieza.

"As you say, My Lord." Agreed Zarbon.

"You're the boss." Shrugged Dodoria.

"I am, and don't you forget it." Sniffed Frieza.

Then he went back to looking over the PTO's quarterly reports. He smirked as he saw that while their main business might be starting to see a dip back down to normal levels, their entertainment division had just broken a record with the latest Ginyu Tokusentai Movie. Those films were doing much better than Cooler's attempt at an Armored Squadron Series, something that tickled Frieza to no end. At the same time, industrial tithes from Planets Brench and Planet Litt were up. Even with the slowdown in the used planet market, the PTO could more than cover the loss.

Even with Frieza's new hobby. It was only when he saw that Cooler's branch was making more revenue in technology sales that Frieza felt his mood dip. His brother just couldn't content himself with being in second place and it was grating on Frieza's nerves. He had needed this little project to distract him from Cooler's pointless struggle to replace him badly. Perhaps Frieza would send Vegeta and his team in to kill one of their few remaining fellow Monkeys as a test. That seemed like it would be interesting enough to watch that not even Cooler could spoil the fun. He chuckled to himself at the thought.

It was good to have a hobby. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the last of the pre-written bits that I had lying around on my computer. I ran through them just in time for my recovery from the flu to take effect, which is some pretty damned good timing, if you ask me.

Here we get a look at some events going on in the wider universe while Rugulo was trying to figure out a way off Suirpalam. The Khunds are getting a generous peace from the Reach because the Reach Fucked up and accidentally contacted Pikkon's Species, who then proceeded to do what Warrior Races do at first contact and murder the Scarabs and take their ship. Now the Reach want the Khunds help in cleaning the mess up, in exchange for letting them keep a dozen or so of the technically neutral worlds they seized in the war.

Meanwhile, Frieza, seeing that he'll be having a decent amount of free time coming up and not wanting to risk filling it with family visits that could very well end in a literal world-shattering argument, has decided he needs a project. Then Dodoria brought up that Turles somehow managed to quadruple his power level in the few years since he went AWOL, which has drawn Frieza's attention to the relatively few Saiyans that were off-planet when Frieza blew up Planet Vegeta and who didn't heed the recall order he put out ahead of time to try and trap as many Saiyans on Planet Vegeta as possible.

At any rate, in the next chapter, we'll be back with Rugulo for the attempt to capture Arkillo.

Stay tuned. . .