You are amongst the last of our noble species, Galick," A hologram told me, and wasn't that a sight to see as a yawn ripped from my throat. There were a lot of things wrong at the moment, but most of them were shoved beneath the haze of sleep that I hadn't quite shaken off. "You, and the few others like you, are all that remains of the Saiyan race. But fear not, child. Warrior blood flows through your veins, and yours is a legacy that stretches back a thousand years to the first tribal leaders to rise to prominence when our kind first landed on Planet Plant."
I rubbed gunk from my eye and blinked away the haze, and it was only then that something like alarm started to echo in the back of my mind. For one, I wasn't in my bed. Secondly, I was in a small pod thing with a window directly in front of me, hurtling through space to a planet that I don't think is Earth.
"Much as our ancestors of old, you will arrive on this planet a refugee, but you shall be dominant. You will conquer this world, and it shall only be the first of many." The hologram continued, and now that I got a look at him…
"Vegeta?" I muttered, and of all things, that's what cast off the last vestiges of sleep. There was no mistaking that hairline. Or that hairstyle that effortlessly defied gravity. The hologram was of Vegeta, wearing some weird-looking armor, a cape, with a weird emblem on his chest. Then I blinked -- no. Not Vegeta. King Vegeta, his dad. He was the one with the goatee in the anime.
Spoiler: Vegeta the ThirdFather of Vegeta the Fourth, and ruler of the Saiyan race.
"This Attack Ball possesses all that you need to accomplish your mission. The history of our people, techniques that allowed our people to carve an empire across the stars, as well as knowledge of our most hated enemies," King Vegeta continued before he made a dramatic gesture, sending his cape dancing out. "Your mission parameters are simple -- conquer this planet, and others. Do whatever it takes to reforge the Saiyan Empire. Eventually, you shall encounter other remnants of our race. Conquer them as well. Let the mightiest of you charter the course for the Saiyan's future, as it should be."
There's a whole lot to unpack there, but my attention was stolen by the planet fast approaching me, and I had no idea how to operate the brakes. My eyes darted around for something that would make the ship slow down even as the window became obscured by flames licking at the surface of the ship. Yet, even as it raced through reentry into the planet's atmosphere the ship didn't so much as shudder. If I weren't looking out the window, I'd never know I was blazing towards the ground at hundreds of miles an hour.
"This is the last order your Emperor gives you, Warrior Galick," King- or Emperor Vegeta, I guess, finished before the hologram winked out, and I found myself alone in the spaceship. My body grew tense as I held on, looking at what looked like a GPS system that gave me a countdown until-
I hit the dirt, and I barely felt it. It felt more like a car hitting a speed bump rather than a ship slamming into a planet like a meteor. I wasn't dead. That was a good sign, at least. The ship stilled, and there was a hiss of air as the door to the ship popped open, revealing a massive crater that the ship sat in the bottom of.
Uncertain what to do, I stepped outside to find that the bedrock was steaming with heat from the impact. It didn't bother my feet as I stepped outside, waving a hand before my face to get rid of the dust. Slowly, uncertainly, I climbed out of the crater to see…
A forest.
"Dude… I'm on an alien planet and the first thing I see are normal ass trees?" I muttered, feeling a little cheated. Normal ass grass, normal ass dirt, and normal ass trees with normal ass leaves. What an absolute let down. Where were the aliens- or natives, since I guess I'm the alien in this scenario? A familiar kind of alien at that. Looking down at myself, I saw it -- a fury brown tail was tied around my waist. It took a little effort, but I could wiggle it a bit. It felt like I gained an extra arm or something.
I looked down at it, then at the rest of me. I was fitter than fit with heavily defined muscles, all the way down to an eight-pack. Kinda wild. The same kind of weird armor that Emperor Vegeta wore was on me -- a black undersuit that covered me up to the neck and ended mid-forearm, a partitioned skirt thing that ended mid-thigh to avoid restricting my movement, and a pair of dark blue armored boots that came up to my knees.
What was more notable was that the armor looked like it had seen some use. Heavy use. It seemed to be cosmetic damage, as I didn't feel injured.
I wasn't an infiltration baby, at least. I don't know if I could have put up with looking like a child for the better part of fifteen years like Goku had. Instead, I had the body of a… teenager, if I had to guess. So, I had definitely evicted someone from their body, huh?
"What in the hell is going on?" I asked no one in particular, looking up before I saw that someone had heard the question anyway. My heart stilled when I saw a toe- a big toe.
Big as in the size of the entirety of my body kind of big. It was peaking out from behind a tree some couple of dozen feet away, and I slowly looked up to meet the gaze of a massive, fifty-foot-tall man staring at me from behind the tree.
The guy was straight up leering at me with one eye peeking out, hiding most of his face, and he wasn't blinking.
Okay.
I think I'm going to go back to bed and start this entire day over.
I didn't turn around, but I slowly took a step back. Then another. And another. I was thoroughly discouraged when the fifty-foot man emerged from behind the tree and, in doing so, revealed that he wasn't exactly a he because he was as smooth as a Ken doll down there. 'He' moved to a tree that was a bit closer to me, but still hid behind it and leered at me like we weren't making eye contact.
"How about you back off?" I said, making a shooing gesture at him as something about his appearance tickled the back of my brain. My head still felt like it was full of cotton, my thoughts were slow and sluggish, but there was something about the guy being fifty foot tall and lacking a dick or any clothes to hide that fact that told me I should recognize him.
In response, the big guy darted to another tree and hid behind it. He waited a second… then, sure enough, he peeked from the tree and continued to stare at me.
I think I'm going to have to fight this guy. The thought sent a surge of adrenaline through me, and there was an itch in my blood that needed to be scratched. Far from being daunted at the prospect of fighting a fifty-foot-tall man, I was excited. The same kind of excitement you felt when you were a kid and heard the song of an ice cream truck and had some cash in your pocket.
Before I was even really aware of what I was doing, I moved with the boundless joy of a child who just couldn't stand still. There had to be at least a hundred yards between us, but it felt like I crossed it barely a second before I jumped up, effortlessly clearing the world record for the pole vault, and used the surface of a tree to send myself further up and at the creeper.
The big guy was big, and he was fast, but he felt slow. An utterly oversized hand lunged to grab me from midair, and for a split second, his palm was all I could see. Yet, even as my heart lurched in my chest, my body reacted on instinct. I flipped in the air, landing lightly on his palm, and before he could close his grip, I darted between his fingers to run up his arm.
Cocking back a fist, I found my lips parting in a feral grin as I planted the fist against his nose with enough force to not only snap his head back and send him flying a good dozen feet, but to leave the entirety of his skull smashed in. The creature slammed into a tree, toppling it over as he crashed through it and lay on the ground.
Not dead. Even as steam erupted from his shattered face, the creature was getting up.
"A titan," I realized, blinking in surprise as the pieces finally clicked into place. "Attack on Titan?" I continued, tilting my head. I was a Saiyan in Attack on Titan? Those felt like two extremely different settings to cross. Attack on Titan was a gritty dark anime about the nature of people and war. Dragonball was a gag shonen turned battle shonen setting where stuff like blowing up the moon was done casually.
Wait. I was a Saiyan. So… ki?
As the titan rose to his feet, I looked inward, and it honestly only took a second to find what I was looking for. I'm not sure if I had ki as a human, but as a Saiyan, it felt like there was an entire ocean of it inside me, and controlling it felt as natural as breathing. A bead of ki flickered to life in the palm of my hand, and it began to grow.
I had no idea how powerful it was. Not until I thrust my hand forward and energy erupted from my hand like a cannon. Dark blue ki enveloped the titan from the knees up, vaporizing him, and the trees behind him. And the trees behind them. And the ones behind them. Eventually, I could see the ki blast punching through the clouds before it finally lost its energy.
The giant legs fell over after a split second before evaporating into nothing, leaving only the scorched trees as proof of what I had done. I looked at the destruction, then down at my palm, realizing that I probably just casually threw the equivalent of a nuke. No, more than that. I think if I had put just a little more oomph into it, then that was a 'blow up the moon' tier attack.
That was mildly alarming.
"Okay, what in the actual hell is going on?" I asked, shaking my head to get rid of that cotton feeling. It wasn't actually sleepiness, I don't think. Didn't Saiyans hibernate during space travel? So, I had some kind of drug in me, slowing everything down and making everything feel less real. But it was. I got the isekai treatment, somehow, and I really needed to get a handle on what was actually going on.
Heading back to my spaceship, I searched through it more thoroughly now that I wasn't distracted by the whole… 'alien planet' thing. I soon found a number of things that I had missed before in a little compartment beneath the seat that I had woken up on.
There were a couple of odd crystal things inside, but I had no idea what they were, so I instead focused on the scouter. It looked a bit like an ear muff with a piece of red glass jutting out from it. Pressing it to my ear, it stayed there while it took a quick second to boot up with scrolling text before my eye.
There were a couple of options written in a language I didn't recognize, yet somehow understood. Selecting the option for a general scan, I blinked in amazement as in the span of about five seconds, the scouter scanned the entirety of the planet.
The highest power level was 72pl. Not only that, it gave me directions to the highest power levels, but it directed me towards clusters of them.
Doing a self-scan, however, revealed my power level -- 1,574pl.
There was nothing on the planet that had a chance of challenging me. And, I'm guessing that was the entire point. Apparently, the Saiyan race had been taken out behind the barn, and this was some sort of attempt to keep it alive. So, the Saiyan leadership teed up a weak planet for me to conquer. Further searching the ship revealed that there was more data on the hologram projector.
A lot more data. It was organized into various folders, some of which were restricted until I reached certain power levels. But, from what I could access, I found a lot of interesting stuff. Including an up-to-date map of the planet that I was on… which was just Earth flipped upside down. But bigger?
"Threat ranking: point one," I muttered, looking over the data. "Primitive projectile weaponry, no space program to speak of, with no satellite technology. Notable for the 'Eldian' subspecies for potential as disposable shock troops due to 'Titan' transformation," I read the short report on the planet that I was on. It was way more in-depth than I was expecting, and everything seemed to line up with what I knew of the setting.
The planet wasn't chosen at random -- that was for sure. They even had plans for how to conquer it, though those mostly consisted of blowing up the major population centers and holding the rest hostage.
I also found the techniques that Emperor Vegeta mentioned. Most of the good stuff was locked behind some power level requirements, but there was stuff readily available to me, like flying and ki blasts. More interestingly, however, was technology.
They essentially gave me an entire tech tree for everything I would need to turn this rock into a civilization able to reach the stars. There was a lot in here. A frankly overwhelming amount as I came face to face with technology that was firmly in the sci-fi genre.
Terraforming tech. FTL drives. Healing fluid that could not only heal any injury short of death, but also somehow worked on every species of alien the Saiyans had encountered. Blueprints for mass drivers, space elevators, anti-gravity technology…
I breathed in deeply, shutting down the hologram and taking a moment to think. It still didn't exactly feel real to me at the moment. And I think that might have influenced my thoughts.
"Eh, why not?" I asked myself, really considering it. I knew Attack on Titan pretty well. Honestly, even if I went with the recommendation of blowing up a couple cities, the death toll would be a fraction of what Eren had inflicted upon the world in the series. I couldn't exactly do much worse than the stations of canon, which saw eighty percent of the world population trampled to death in the Rumbling. Not without outright wiping everything out at least. But I knew all the twists and turns of the plot -- from the wider world, to Eren's ability to send his memories to the past, to who the major players were…
I scratched at my cheek, giving it a little more thought. I didn't particularly care about the whole 'Saiyan Empire' thing. Kinda hard to feel any attachment to something you only learned existed ten minutes ago. But the idea of conquering a planet?
It sounded fun.
How all of this happened was puzzling, but I was more powerful than I thought possible. Conquering a planet wasn't just possible, I genuinely couldn't think of a way for the people of Attack on Titan to stop me from doing it. The Titan Shifters? The nine of them in total? My scouter had them clocked already, and what could they realistically do to me? In the very first chapter of Dragon Ball Goku got shot a half dozen times by Bulma and barely felt it before throwing her car with her still in it.
And he'd been a kid at the time. A particularly weak one by Saiyan standards.
Really, what was stopping me from just taking the place over? Morals? I'm not even sure this was real, and it wasn't like I was beholden to my morals in a dream of all things. But, even if I wasn't dreaming… was that a reason not to do it? The idea of conquering an entire planet like a run-of-the-mill power fantasy…
And wasn't the point of the isekai experience to be a self-indulgent power fantasy?
…
It took me a couple of hours to get acquainted with my new body, and in that time, the hibernation drugs were slowly flushed from my system. I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert on ki yet, but those quick few hours had been enough for me to get a handle on the basics. Such as flight, which I found that I was quickly falling in love with.
My hair was ruffled by the air as I followed the scouter's directions. My Attack Ball was resting on my shoulder, propped up with a hand. I took it with me because it didn't seem like a good idea to leave it behind, considering all the info stored inside it and the entrance I had made with my arrival. I doubted there was anything on the planet that could damage it, but I still didn't want anyone stumbling over it.
That, and I had a use for it in mind.
"I landed on Paradis, huh? I wonder if that was on purpose?" I asked myself, first seeing the massive walls that emerged from the ground. They stood at around a hundred and fifty feet tall, made out of what looked like solid gray stone. Most of the wall stretched across the horizon for as far as the eye could see, though there was a gentle but noticeable curve to it.
I had also landed at an interesting time, I noticed, as thick black pillars of smoke rose up from one of the outcroppings of the wall. One of the poor districts, I think. So, either I was arriving at the very start of the series with the fall of Shiganshina, or I was arriving at the attack of Trost, and I had landed somewhere between… Wall Maria and Rose? Couldn't remember the specifics, sadly, but that sounded about right.
From above, I could see the tide of titans that were venturing forth towards an opening in the wall. As well as the cannons that were going off one after another, trying to stem that tide to little avail. I flew high above and fast to make sure that I arrived undetected, and within a minute, I had arrived at my destination.
"Alright, where are the shifters?" I asked, doing another quick scan. Sure enough, five of them were inside the district. Which would be… Ymir, the Jaw Titan. Bertholdt, the Colossal Titan. Reiner, the Armored Titan. Annie, the Female Titan. And, lastly, our protagonist, Eren Yeager, the Attack Titan and Founder Titan.
The scene was vaguely familiar to me -- the marble buildings with orangish clay tiled roofs, all of them nestled tightly together in the small district. The gate, which was meant to serve as the barrier keeping out the titans had been smashed inward. And, a quick glance at it revealed the defenses set up around it -- the pits that had a handful of titans inside, trying to get out, or the large wooden towers meant to catch debris.
Meaning that this was Trost.
I searched my memories of Trost for anything prudent. There were a handful of things. The rookies are stranded on roofs because they didn't get a resupply, which came from the giant castle-looking thing near the center of the district. Eren got his squad slaughtered because he recklessly charged an 'abnormal' titan. Which would lead to his first shift into the Attack Titan…
With a quick look, I saw that the castle-looking thing was still besieged by titans. So, at the very least, Eren hadn't slaughtered them yet. Meaning that this was before he had been revealed as a shifter.
The average titan was around 25pl according to my scouter. The titan shifters, which were the nine strongest power levels on the planet, ranging from 50pl to 70pl. With the strongest, I'm guessing, being the Colossal Titan by sheer size. From what I remember, Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt were grouped up, pretending to be stranded along with the other cadets. I can't remember what Ymir was doing at that time, but it meant that one of the two other highest power levels was…
"There you are," I remarked, flying down towards the smoldering city while gray clouds gathered overhead, shifting the Attack Ball in my grasp. I found exactly who I was looking for as he wandered through the streets at random. The Attack Titan -- Eren Yeager, who was unconscious and acting on pure instinct.
The Attack Titan looked different from the other titans. No lips to speak of, only a row of teeth. His ears tapered off into points while his dark hair was a shaggy mess. Unlike the oddly shaped titans or the ones who look like a dad complete with beer gut, he was well-muscled. Eren was inside, acting only on his desire to kill titans, so he moved with a sense of purpose.
Spoiler: Attack Titan
"Hm," I hummed, ki flowing over my hand, and I shaped it to look like a rough blade. I gave it a moment of thought -- sticking to the stations of canon, at least for a time, to use my metaknowledge to get a handle on things. If I had been reborn as a human, I might have done exactly that.
But, I hadn't been.
I was a Saiyan. There was nothing on this planet that could earnestly challenge me. I didn't need to nudge the rails of canon to go my way. Not when I could pick up the train itself and fly it wherever I wanted.
"Sorry, Eren. But your ability to time loop or whatever the fuck is too much of a pain in the ass to put up with," I told him, setting my Attack Ball on a rooftop before diving in. With two quick slashing motions, I cut upward along the nape of the titan's neck, my rough ki blade easily cutting through flesh and muscle to reveal the pilot of the meat mech.
Eren plopped out of the titan, his severed arms and legs steaming as I ripped his face away from the connection point. His shaggy brown hair was a mess, various fluids staining his uniform, which I carried him by. His titan body immediately flopped forward bonelessly, rapidly evaporating, while I carried Eren to my spaceship.
Spoiler: Eren YeagerFormer Protagonist of Attack on Titan.
I felt a bit bad about it, honestly. I rather liked Eren as a character. But, it couldn't be denied that I would benefit greatly from his absence. And, frankly, I'd prefer a more… permanent arrangement for his absence, but I couldn't kill him without killing that worm thing.
The Hallucigenia. The 'Source of All Living Matter.' It was the source of the titans, after grafting itself to Ymir some two thousand years ago in Attack on Titan canon. It was also a whole can of worms that I wasn't yet interested in opening.
It was currently resting inside Eren's spine, him inheriting it with the Founding Titan powers. I couldn't kill it without destroying all titans across the world, and I didn't want to do that yet. Possibly ever, honestly. I could use that worm, so for the sake of my future plans, I had to keep Eren alive. And, admittedly, given the nature of the time loop, I'm not sure that I even could kill Eren given that he had to send his memories into the past to create the fu- ah, fuck it. I didn't even want to think about that nonsense.
"Activate hibernation mode," I ordered the Attack Ball, throwing the protagonist inside the ship unceremoniously. He barely stirred as the ship began to close the door, sealing with a hiss of air, filling with a mist that would keep him unconscious for as long as needed. For decades even, as space travel often required. Then, with my scouter, I continued. "Go into stealth mode on the dark side of the moon. Remain there until ordered."
With that, the Attack Ball floated up before sharply racing to the sky above, obeying my orders. There, Eren would stay, out of sight and out of mind, until I either needed my ship again or I had a way to deal with that worm.
I watched the ship vanish beyond the dark gray clouds, and only when it was gone entirely did I turn my attention to the only person nearby. She was strong enough I almost mistook her for a titan, in all honesty. It was only the scouter labeling her as a human that convinced me of who she was.
Flying over, I arrived at a familiar scene.
A thirty-foot-tall titan was walking through a back street, swinging wildly at a cadet, who just barely managed to throw herself out of the way from being swatted like a fly. Medium length black hair, steel gray eyes, and a lean form with a red scarf around her neck. There was no mistaking her.
Mikasa Ackerman.
Spoiler: Mikasa AckermanMember of the 104th cadet class. Placed 1st. Best girl.
She tumbled uncontrollably from the shockwave that rang out, but she managed to rise to her feet. Yet, there was a certain detachment in her movements. I recalled this moment from the anime quite well -- almost to the point that I could see the flashback going on inside of her head.
Honestly, it made me feel a little bad about sending Eren away. As far as Mikasa was aware, he had been eaten by a titan, and he was dead.
Then I saw the moment that I had been waiting for. Mikasa shifted, grabbing her sword at her waist and taking a wide stance as the Titan loomed closer to her. A primal cry of determination ripped from her throat as she stood defiant of the lunging titan.
And it was at precisely that moment that I chose to step in.
A bead of ki formed at the tip of my finger, and I fired it directly at the lunging titan, eviscerating it until it was split in half. That brought Mikasa up short as she quickly reacted to my arrival, looking up before her eyes filled with incomprehension at the sight of me. I crossed my arms, lowering myself down to her level, and I wore a very self-satisfied smirk.
Nailed that entrance. Ten out of ten.
"W-who… what are you?" Mikasa breathed, and… honestly…
Why not?
"My name is Galick, a Saiyan Warrior," I introduced myself. Might as well go all in on it. It might be a dream, so there was no reason not to. And if it wasn't…? Well, it wasn't like I was human anymore. A saiyan named Bob would just be… "You didn't give up. Good. I wouldn't have bothered saving you if you had."
Mikasa blinked, but she still gaped up at me, drinking in the sight of me. "You… wouldn't…?" She whispered, struggling to come to grips with what she was looking at. I'm sure the tail was part of it, but I'm guessing it was mostly the unaided flight.
"Of course not," I replied. "Living isn't for the meek. There's no point in saving someone who isn't willing to fight to survive." Oh, I was pushing all the right buttons because Mikasa flinched back as if she had been struck. It was manipulative as all hell, sure, but still true. And now, more so than ever before, the words resonated with me because of my Saiyan blood.
Mikasa seemed to swallow a lump in her throat, a hand drifting up to touch the red scarf around her neck and she closed her eyes for just a moment. When she opened them, her gray eyes were clearer. The doubt and hesitation had been cleared. "Thank you."
The moment came to an end when others arrived. Two people, and I recognized them both. One was blonde while the other had a shaved head, both young.
Armin is one of Mikasa's childhood friends and one of the protagonists of the story. The skinhead was Connie, who nearly face planted the moment he saw me.
"You- woah… Armin… Armin! You're seeing this too, right?!" Connie blurted, gaping up at me before he rushed over and waved his hand beneath me to find some wires. "I don't think it's a trick?! The guy is flying?!"
Spoiler: Connie SpringerMember of the 104th cadet class. Placed 8th. Professional idiot.
"We came when we saw a beam of… light? Was that you?" Armin asked me softly, his tone uncertain but there was a spark of wonder in his eyes.
Spoiler: Armin ArlertMember of the 104th cadet class. Childhood friend of both Eren and Mikasa. Certified genius and endlessly curious.
"I think this is a poor time for idle chatter. I'm not entirely sure what's happening on this planet, but you do seem to be under attack," I noted drily, raising a finger up and firing off another weak ki blast that tore through an approaching titan. I resisted the urge to scowl and pretended that firing through the building behind the Titan had been intentional. The three of them were awed by the casual display of power.
"He's right! The others! The others are making their way to the storehouse!" Connie blurted, fidgeting as he looked like he wanted to do a dozen things at once. "Flyin' guy, you'll help us, right?"
"I might as well, I suppose," I said, offering a shrug. I had a plan coming together in the back of my mind, but even if I didn't, it wasn't like I'd just leave them to be eaten. Without Eren to pave the way for them, the cadets would be stranded and probably get slaughtered. "I'm not one to start something and leave it unfinished."
With that, I floated upward while the others used their ODM gear to attach to the buildings around them and reel themselves up. And, I had to say, it was interesting to see ODM gear work in person and not on a screen. Mikasa watched me from the corner of her eyes, though the action didn't seem hostile as they led me through the district.
Every errant titan was dealt with a weak ki blast as they led me right to the castle thing which had a bunch of titans crawling all over it. My scouter picked up three other shifters in the building, telling me that the rest of their class had already arrived inside. Sure enough, Connie, Armin, and Mikasa all sailed through the busted glass windows.
The titans were clawing at the building to get inside so they could feast on the humans within, so I made myself useful.
Flying over, I grabbed one by the hair and yanked back with enough strength that the titan was sent crashing into the buildings across the street. It wasn't just my overwhelming strength that let me toss them around like this, but also how unnaturally light the titans were. They were still heavy, but only hundreds of pounds rather than the thousands that their size would imply.
Wanting to try something a little new, I formed a ki ball above my palm, and I flicked it at a titan. Instead of 'letting go' of the ki, I tried to maintain my grip on it, allowing me to control it and send it at another titan. They weren't much fun to fight, I decided, finding myself bored with them already as I cleared the courtyard. More titans were coming, but they were few and far away at the moment.
Leaving me free to fly up to the roof of the building, where all the cadets and garrison troops gathered. There weren't that many of them -- around a hundred or so. All of them wore expressions of naked disbelief, but it was Mikasa who approached.
"Could you take care of the titans in the store room? Please?" She asked, and I shrugged, simply descending through the roof and floor. Solid stone was like tissue paper to me, I realized with some amazement. They offered the same resistance as wet cardboard. Because of it, I arrived inside of the store room at the bottom floor of the castle, and ki gathered around one of my hands.
It was another rough ki blade. Not pretty, but functional as it allowed me to destroy the titans' weakness with single swipes of my hand.
"Thank you," Mikasa said, dropping down the hole that I made. The others were swift to follow, the prospect of salvation stealing their attention from me. Yet, I still noticed the glances. In particular from Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt. I paid it no mind. I had some plans for them. "You've helped us a great deal. How can we repay you?"
Spoiler: Reiner Braun, Bertholdt Hoover, Annie LeonhartFrom left to right: Reiner Braun (The Armored Titan), Bertholdt Hoover (The Colossal Titan), Annie Leonhart (The Female Titan)
The question was softly spoken, but earnest.
"I require a meeting with your military commanders," I replied, watching as the cadets filled the air canisters for the ODM gear. All the while, the plan started to piece itself together. I saw a lot of designs in my ship, most of which I couldn't make any sense of. But, I understood the gist of them -- acquire resources, set up foundries for refinement and processing, turn the refined resources into materials, and then bit by bit, assemble something that could reach the stars.
I had cards up my sleeve that didn't require brute force. And, while I imagined that I would be plenty of brute force, a softer touch would bring more allies to my side when I did take over the planet.
"Is that why you're here? Why you came in the first place?" She asked me, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"In a manner of speaking," I deflected, not really answering the question. Mikasa seemed a bit disappointed, but she accepted the answer for what it was. I also saw Armin mulling over that answer, casting subtle glances at me then looking like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar when I caught one of those glances. He sharply looked away and his hands began to tremble as he refilled his gas canisters.
The entire process took about twenty minutes for everyone to be topped up, and once they were, they entrusted their safety to me to lead them to the wall. I would like to say it was exciting, but the truth of it… it was rather boring. We came across about a dozen titans, and they were dealt with effortlessly before the survivors reached the wall and climbed up it with their gear.
"H-Halt!" A voice shouted as the survivors arrived at the top of the wall. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the word was directed at me. "Stay where you are! What manner of creature are you?!"
I looked over at the source to find another familiar face. Light brown hair with a beard. His eyes were overflowing with fear, and he trembled like a leaf even as he gripped his ODM gear blades with white knuckles. I had absolutely no idea what his name was, but I recognized him easily enough.
Spoiler: Kitz WoermannCommander of Trost Garrison troops. Very glad that he wore brown pants and is scared out of his mind.
At our arrival, the garrison on the wall formed a semi-circle, with the majority of the other cadets scrambling beyond the line. Only a few remained with me -- Mikasa, Armin, and, very interestingly, Reiner. The three of them all wore severe expressions, contrasting my own amusement. There were around fifty people surrounding me at the moment, their blades drawn, and they looked upon me with fear. Borderline terror.
And they weren't threatening in the slightest. It was like a kitten hissing and swatting at you -- it was more adorable than anything.
"Is that your commander?" I drawled, making it clear that I was unimpressed with the man.
"It is," Mikasa confirmed before stepping forward. "Commander Woermann! Stop this! He is an ally of humanity! He saved us!"
Woermann sucked in a sharp breath, looking up at me and the longer our eyes met, the more fearful he became. I raised an eyebrow at him, and that got him to flinch. He swallowed thickly before yelling out, "Humanity is on the cusp of annihilation! He- whatever he is, he is an unknown in a time of strife! Humanity is one mistake away from extinction, and for all we know, he could be working with the titans!"
Fear. The man allowed fear to completely rule his sense of judgment. And that was infecting all the others with him.
I could reassure him. Speak softly. But the man was simply too far gone for that. "How insulting," I remarked drily, and the tension swelled until you could choke on it. For them, at least. "Allow me to make something abundantly clear for you -- you have built these walls out of fear of the titans as, to you, they are an existential threat."
I held Woermann's gaze, even as the man trembled. "To me, the titans aren't fit to serve as entertainment. I don't need to ally myself with such pathetic creatures. If I were to be your enemy… well, you wouldn't have questions of whether I was or not."
A sadist was never something I considered myself to be, but I couldn't deny it was gratifying to see the man flinch at that. To know that, as afraid as he was, as desperate as he might be, there was genuinely nothing that he could do to me. The feeling was almost intoxicating. The idea that I could be untouchable.
It was actually alarming how intoxicating the idea was, so I forced myself to temper it.
There was a very loud silence in the wake of my declaration. The people around me didn't dare to so much as breathe. I'm not sure if they really believed me or not. Most of them hadn't seen me kill a dozen or so titans, but they didn't understand me. And, honestly, I think that scared them more.
However, because they were so silent, the crank to the lift that brought up supplies from the ground on the other side of the wall echoed out until it came to a stop. And it was then that I saw the man whom I was really waiting for.
He was an older man. A silver mustache with a closely shaven head. Wrinkles gathered in the corners of his golden brown eyes, and in his hand was a silver flask that he took a swig of as he approached fearlessly, breaching through the line of soldiers that surrounded me.
Dot Pixis. The real man in charge, and a centerpiece for my future plans.
Spoiler: Dot PixisCommander of the Garrison branch of the military and the southern defences of humanity.
"Well, well, well. Looks like these old eyes of mine aren't playing tricks on me. You really are flying. And you have a tail. Interesting," Pixis remarked, sounding remarkably at ease with the situation. It contrasted harshly with the man he chose to stand beside, Woermann. "I don't suppose you also have a name I could call you by?"
"Galick. A Saiyan Warrior," I introduced myself, measuring him as much as he was me. The deck was thoroughly stacked in my favor, and, to be frank, Pixis had no idea just how many aces that I had up my sleeve. He couldn't. Not when he, and nearly everyone else within the walls, was completely ignorant of what lay beyond them walls and their small island. Between my metaknowledge and my raw power, I had a position of absolute strength. "You seem to be holding yourself together better than that one. Are you the one who's in charge of this mess?"
"That I am. Dot Pixis, commander of Trost and the entirety of the southern territory," Pixis formally introduced himself. "A pleasure to meet you. Especially in such auspicious times and dire circumstances. I understood that you went out of your way to save a number of our youngsters. I thank you for it."
"It was hardly a bother," I replied evenly, making the older man hum before taking a swig of his flask.
"So I hear," he admitted. He must have been informed on the way up the wall. For a man tossed into the deep end head first, he was treading water well enough. "I don't suppose you would care to share what brings you here? I'm unaware of what a Saiyan is, or where you come from. But, from the looks of things, you seem to be a stranger in a strange place."
He was sharp. "My origins are a topic that I doubt you would have the context to understand, but as for why I'm here… I am a Saiyan, and I am amongst the last of my kind. I was sent here to your planet to reproduce as our species are genetically compatible." That got a blink out of the man and, amusingly, he checked his flask to make sure it wasn't drugged or something.
This was the first step of my plan.
Paradis was isolated by the titans and the world at large. They were in a position of weakness, as the titans feasted on them while the world hated them. No matter what, they had no allies. None except for me, and with me on their side, losing became impossible. As such, they would give me what I wanted to protect themselves and their people.
Each time they came to me, hat in hand, they would cede more control to me because they wouldn't have any choice to. Not unless they were willing to throw hundreds of lives away to accomplish what I could do with a wave of my hand. They wouldn't be blind to that fact either, but what could they do?
So, I would start with this. If I were really going to forge the Saiyan Empire, then I would need Saiyans. They would be half-breeds, sure, but unless I could reproduce asexually then that was always going to be the case if I didn't run into one of those other Saiyans Emperor Vegeta mentioned. And, admittedly, I was a little curious.
What would a Saiyan-Ackerman hybrid be like? The Ackerman family was basically a natural super-soldier. The people around me had an average power level of 5pl. And that was with weapons in hand, which my scouter accounted for.
Mikasa? She had a power level of 50pl. Swords sheathed.
In the grand scheme of things? Not that impressive, admittedly, but it was wildly impressive in the context of her setting.
"You want to… reproduce with us?" Pixis echoed, swirling his flask as he came to grips with that. "I hope you don't mean me, young man. I'm not sure if I'd survive it."
That got a slight smile out of me, "I ask that your government provide female warriors who would consent to bearing my children. The more powerful and skilled they are, the better, as my species is a warrior race." That got a ripple from the crowd that listened in, making them exchange glances. I saw quite a few blushing faces, too.
Pixis held my gaze for a moment, still swirling his flask. "And, naturally, you would protect your children while they grow up."
"Naturally," I agreed. It would be a few years before I planned to actually have any kids, however. In Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta had voiced a concern, and it echoed with me -- I didn't want one of my kids getting any wise ideas and trying overthrowing me while I was still getting a handle on my Saiyan abilities. Later down the line, when I had fully puzzled out how ki works and how to take advantage of my Saiyan heritage? That's fair game. If I get overthrown, then I had it coming.
Pixis took another deep swig of his flask and bottomed it up. When he was done taking a few large gulps, he inclined his head to me. "I'm not sure if the government will order young women to carry your children… but I imagine that you'll find plenty willing to if you save humanity. Such as… killing the titans in Trost."
They might not order it, no, but once they understood my preferences, they would lean on those that met them. To pressure not only to offer their hearts to save humanity, but also their wombs.
"Then you find partners attractive through merit? Good," I nodded, pretending that I didn't quite understand humanity. Just a touch to make it clear that I was alien, and that would always put them on the back foot when dealing with me. Because, if I was an alien… What were my values? What would I find offensive? Admirable? "But there's little point in killing them now if that hole remains."
"Quite true. I don't suppose you would have a way to amend that, would you?" Pixis he asked, judging and measuring.
I probably should play it on the safe side… but there was an itch in my blood. A desire to push myself. Test myself. So, heedless of whether I could really do it or not, I found myself saying, "I saw a big rock when I flew above Trost. I'll just grab it." The very same rock that Eren has lifted to seal the breach.
It had to weigh tons. Hundreds of tons, even. Maybe even a million. That rock was as large as Eren had been in his titan form, and it was solid stone. And it was nothing but pure pride that motivated me.
If Eren could do it as a titan, then I could surely do it as a Saiyan.
"Well… that'd do it, I think."
"I'll take care of it then. Wait here," I instructed easily, flying off the wall and down towards Trost. I could feel hundreds of eyes on my back as I spotted the massive stone that sat in the middle of a district near the wall itself. Not that far from the gate, honestly. A couple of hundred yards.
There was a hum of anticipation with my heart fluttering in my chest. It'd be embarrassing as all hell if I screwed this up but that fear was tempered by the confidence that I would succeed. And in doing so, I would solidify myself as an asset in the eyes of the people who were actually important within the wall.
The lords who controlled that puppet of a king? The petty nobles?
I'd kill them. Probably soon, in all likelihood. Might as well strike while the iron is hot.
But, first, I had to move a big ass rock.
"So long as I remember to lift with my legs, I should be fine," I told myself, flying down to the base of the stone. Placing a hand on it, I felt the rough stone under my palm and I began to gently push the stone up and to the side. The surface of it began to crack a bit, but that was stopped by infusing the rock with a little bit of my ki. Enough to keep it intact.
It made it easier to push the rock over a bit, so I could start to shuffle underneath it. I didn't mind the dirt or the insects that clung to the bottom, as I was far too distracted by a crushing weight that was saddled on my back and shoulders. I had the raw strength to move the rock, so, I could just roll the thing to the gate but that wasn't enough. I wanted to lift it and carry it there.
And I could sense what a task that would be.
Yet, I found myself undaunted by the task as I settled the rock on my back. I was excited. My Saiyan biology demanded that I meet the challenge that I had set for myself and go beyond my limitations. So, I obeyed.
"Hnnnhhh!" I grit my teeth as I began to lift the stone up. The veins in my arms began to bulge with the strain, my fingers sinking into the stone despite my reinforcement. I trembled with exertion, going red in the face as I had to force myself to breathe as I shifted the crushing weight to my shoulders when I stood tall.
Despite the feeling that I was about to be crushed like an insect, there was a smile on my face as I took a step forward. Each step had to reinforce the ground with ki, else I'd slide right through the soft stone and dirt. But I also couldn't channel too much, or the stone would shatter above me.
The challenge was exhilarating. Even as my arms began to scream for respite, I found myself elated by the fact that I could train myself physically and train my ki control at the same time.
I'd never considered myself lazy before. I worked and I relaxed, and I worked so I could relax. There was nothing special about me in that regard. I didn't possess an inhuman work ethic that could power through forty-eight hours of nonstop labor. I wasn't someone who was a workaholic either, who simply couldn't help himself from working at all hours of the day.
I was still me, but I was starting to see the changes that being in a different body was having on me because every step I took with the stone felt like an orgasm. The feeling of making progress and overcoming a challenge hit harder than any drug. Even as my body begged for me to put the rock down, even the idea that I could die from being crushed… they just weren't compelling enough reasons to stop.
So, I walked. One foot after another, carrying a stone so large and heavy it felt like the world itself was resting on my shoulders. Unwilling to drop it or be crushed by it until I reached my destination. Even as one step turned into ten, then ten a hundred, and a hundred a thousand. Sweat dripped from my brow with every movement, but I found it bothered me none.
And that became all the more true when I spied the gate. Step by step, I approached it. I could see titans approaching from the other side of the broken gate, but I paid them no mind. I simply took a bracing breath as I shifted my grip, pivoting ever so slightly.
Then, with the last bit of distance, I thrusted the massive stone into the gap. The ground trembled as the stone settled in its place, where it would stay for good.
I was grinning ear to ear as my muscles got the respite they had been begging for. All I had to do now was a little clean up…
"Phase one of world domination complete."
…
This is a placeholder story of sorts. The TLDR is that I've had some stress-related health issues that resulted in me needing to get surgery, and I wrote this to distract myself. This story will be posted every couple of days while I'm in recovery in place of my usual updates. The first chapter covers the attack on Trost, so there wasn't too much I could change about that, but starting next chapter, the train doesn't so much as go off the rails as it flies off.
I've been playing around with the idea that I've been using for the story Life is Rough on the Rim (Rimworld/Multicross), in which I essentially dumped every single setting on a single planet to see how I could make them interact to tell a story. This is me expanding on the idea a bit by taking some inspiration from Kingdom Hearts and Embers (DC/DBZ/MULITCROSS) by Infinite6.
I found that I really liked the idea of each setting being its own planet in a galaxy, in which you could fly there with your spaceship. So, one thousand years ago, through unknown means and for an unknown cause, various settings were thrown into a new XXXL galaxy to become a melting pot.
The galaxy is a hodgepodge of settings -- Avatar: TLA, RWBY, Resident Evil, Pokemon, Code Geass, Fate/Stay Night, Asoiaf, Naruto, etc. Each is its own little planet floating in the cosmos, either waiting to be discovered or trying to carve out a place for itself in a hostile cosmos.
Likewise, for space-faring civilizations such as Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, Warhammer 40k, etc -- all the planets within the settings have been transferred over, but that does not mean that their empires managed to remain intact. Hyperlanes in this new galaxy might not be the same as those in the old galaxy far, far, far away, so planets might be isolated. Or some planets found themselves becoming the next-door neighbors to species like the Saiyans, Orks, or Viltrumites.
Which is the basis of the story. Our protagonist, Galick, will be flying around the galaxy with the intent of building his own empire. Attack on Titan is the first stop, as it's a setting that I've always wanted to write in, but never found the right story until now. It won't be a particularly long jump either, at six chapters in total, as there's genuinely nothing on the planet that could reasonably challenge him, and there is no massive mystery like the titans to explore.
And, to preface this -- this is a pure power fantasy story. He will face threats as his empire grows, of course. DC, Marvel, and Invincible will ensure that. But, in general, he will encounter other settings that either found their way to the stars, were uplifted/conquered, or found ways to defend themselves from would-be conquerors. However, he won't face those threats for the first three 'jumps' of the story.
Which are Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and RWBY. Each one will showcase a method of his approach to conquest -- AoT, he allies himself with a faction of a planet, then uses that faction as a veneer for global conquest over the course of years. Demon Slayer, he finds something or people that he wants, like Breathing Techniques or Muzan's demon blood, and knocks over the rest of the planet solo. Then, with RWBY, he pulls up with the army, makes what allies he can on the planet, but it very much is an outright global conquest.
With each planet he conquers, his empire grows. The base human armies get access to stuff like Aura, Breathing Techniques, Dust weapons, etc. Additionally, Galick will be pumping out Saiyan hybrids like no tomorrow. As they expand, the greater threats they face, and the greater rewards when they win.
I think that's about everything. As I said, this is a placeholder story, but if it receives enough attention and positive feedback, I'll put it in the running for the next story poll when one of my current stories ends.
Hope you enjoy.Last edited: Thursday at 4:18 AM Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:CelticMonk, Rashomon, Kaaron and 692 others