On the surface of Cooler Planet-555, the three members of the Onyx Squadron navigated through the dense jungle planet, ripping through the foliage and trudging through the marshy wetland ground that slowed their journey almost to a crawl.
They had to navigate this way, as above them, the trees covered the skies, making it near impossible to search for the plant whilst flying in the air.
It had been almost 24 Earth hours since they had started their search and they hadn't found anything that even remotely resembled the godforsaken plant or even a trace of it.
Slicing through a tree limb, Raditz let out a grunt of both irritation and weariness as he looks up towards a small gap between the trees.
"Vegeta, we need to head back to the ship." He spoke out. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be out here searching in the damn dark."
Hearing his comrade's words, Vegeta looked towards the sky and saw that the sky was indeed darkening, showing that system's resident star was about to fall under the horizon.
Looking towards Broly and Raditz, Vegeta saw them both looking back at him and he let out a tired sigh, realizing that they were right. As much as he wanted off this damp rock, they were all tired as it was, and continuing the search in the dark would only be making the situation even worse with all of them stumbling over each other in the dark.
"Alright." He said, slowing ascending up through the trees and turning towards the direction of the ship. "Let's head back for now. We'll continue our search tomorrow."
Broly and Raditz followed him back towards the ship, equally as frustrated as their leader for not having found what they came here for. There were thousands upon thousands of different types of fauna growing on this planet and some even look the same as others. Trying to find one specific type of plant was like trying to find a needle in a haystack made of needles.
After returning to the ship, they removed most of their armor and clothes, leaving only their undergarments as the rest of their clothing were soaking wet.
As Raditz took off his boots, he watched as the murky water from the marsh poured out onto the ground, shaking his head and scoffing at the situation they found themselves in.
"This is some mess..." He said with an annoyed look. "This planet stinks."
"You say that about every planet." Vegeta groaned as he sat down on his bunk.
"I do, but this time I mean it literally." Raditz replied as he tossed the boot into the cockpit of the ship, where all the other pieces of clothing were laid out to dry. "This planet smells like what Dore eats."
"What? That Keerax Steak?" Vegeta asks with a raised brow.
"It's good." Broly comments.
Vegeta nodded at Broly's words. Everyone knew that the Keerax Steak was one of the better foods for species with levo-amino diet.
"No, not the damn steak, the one with the ground up worms." Raditz told them.
"That's not Dore, that's Neiz, you idiot." Vegeta replied, rolling his eyes at Raditz.
"Whatever, I don't care enough to tell them apart." Raditz said, waving off Vegeta's insult. "Doesn't matter who eats what. Point is, this planet smells like crap."
"Well, Raditz, if it bothers you so much, why don't you go out and find the plant so we can leave?" Vegeta suggests with a smirk, motioning his thumb out the door, towards the marsh that has now turned completely pitch black.
Raditz looks out and sees just how dark it has become and paused before shaking his head.
"I think I'm good." He says.
"Then stop complaining." Vegeta tells him.
Rolling his eyes, Raditz stood up and went inside the ship. Broly did the same, heading inside and pressing the button beside the open door, causing it to close behind him. The door let off a small hiss, sealing itself from the outside. As soon as the door sealed, the air in the ship kicked on, filling the ship with cold air.
Raditz let out a sigh of contentment as he laid down on his cot, the tension leaving his body instantly.
"I've never been this happy to lay in a bed..." Raditz muttered.
While Vegeta didn't voice it, he also couldn't help but agree with Raditz inside his own mind. Not that he'll ever admit to such a thing out loud.
"Listen up." Vegeta spoke after Broly sat down on his own bunk that was on top of Raditz's. "Tomorrow, we should search in a different direction."
He then took out a small disk-like object and tossing it in the middle of the floor. The object instantly lights up when it touched the floor and casts a holographic map in the middle of the ship, with part of the map having a faint a red glow on a small part of it.
"This is where we searched." Vegeta said as he pointed towards the area lit up with red. "If we continue like we did today, we can find that plant in a day or two."
Raditz and Broly examined the map, both agreeing with Vegeta's logic.
"Sounds good, but..." Raditz leaned forward and zoomed in on the red area, using his finger to circle it with a yellow light.
"I think it would be better if we split up rather than stick together. See how the area we've searched is cone shape?" Raditz asked, getting a nod from Vegeta. "If we split up, we'll cover more ground, but it'll look more like this."
Highlighting the other directions they were supposed to search, Raditz added three yellow zones on the map, but they were thinner than the first zone they had searched.
"They're thinner, but we would cover all three directions at once rather than one at a time."
"That is true..." Vegeta groaned.
Vegeta had to admit that Raditz had brought up a good point. If they split up, they would cover three directions, but then they wouldn't be as carefully checked over like the first had been.
"You sure that it's wise to split up like this?" He asked Raditz.
"I think it's a good option." Raditz replied. "There's nothing on this planet that would cause us any trouble, and it seems like the most effective way to find the plant."
Letting out a sigh, Vegeta pondered over Raditz's suggestion. He saw the logic, but he didn't want to spend anymore time on this backwater planet than they'd already had.
Sure, it seemed more efficient, but it was all dependent on whether or not they were observant and thorough enough when searching.
"Seems like we're at a crossroads..." Vegeta says as he pinches the bridge of his nose.
It's situations like these that make him wish that Zyleth and Turles were still members of the squad.
As much as he hated to admit it, Zyleth was good at handling these types of things. He tends to answer the most complex issues with the simplest of solutions, something Vegeta himself wasn't very good at.
His tendency to overthink sometimes caused more work than they realistically needed.
And Turles, simply put, was the best at scouting amongst all of them. It was partly the reason why Cooler made him the leader of the Crusher Squadron, which last he heard, was searching for something.
"Broly." Vegeta called out to the only member that hadn't given his thoughts on the matter yet. "What do you think we should do?"
Out of all of them, Broly was the most like-minded with Zyleth when it came to situations like this.
Looking at the map, Broly pondered over what would be the best course of action to take before voicing his opinions.
---
It was now early in the morning and the Onyx Squadron was up, ready to spend another day searching for this elusive plant.
Walking out of the ship with a sizable container in hand, Vegeta placed it on the steps of the ship and opened it, revealing their Scouters. Two had green colored lenses whilst the one in the middle had a red colored lens.
These Scouters were not the First Generation models, but instead the Second Generation models, which had a more sleeker and more rounded design than their First Gen counterparts.
After Cooler's takeover of Planet Vegeta, he naturally overtook any and all development, including technology. With that, he discovered that the Saiyans had reversed engineered a considerable amount of technology from a highly advanced race, to which he then took those advancements and developed a vast array of new technologies for the Cooler Force, including the Second Generation of Scouters.
Taking them out of the container, Vegeta tossed them over towards his teammates.
"Remember, if anything out of the ordinary happens, press the emergency alert on your Scouters and we'll immediately zero in on your location." Vegeta told the others. "And set a timer for just before dusk. We don't want to be stuck out here in the dark."
"We know." Raditz replied as he caught his Scouter.
Broly nodded as he caught his, acknowledging the words of his leader.
Ever since Zyleth had taught them how to sense each other's energy, they never needed to use their Scouters unless the situation called for it, such as communications, mapping, scouting, or recording data.
They did this because they didn't trust that Cooler wasn't listening in.
Actually they didn't trust Cooler in general.
He was a better employer than Frieza and his father, but that wasn't saying much. A wild animal may be better than a rabid one, but it was still wild. Doesn't matter how nice it seemed, it was still liable to rip you apart the second you do something it didn't like.
"Good, then hurry up and move out. I don't want to spend a second longer on this planet than I have to." Vegeta said, motioning for them to move out.
The three Saiyans all broke off to search their respective areas for the elusive plant. Vegeta took off towards the West, Broly went towards South, and Raditz flew towards the East.
---
[22 Earth Hours Later.]
After twenty-two hours of grueling searching the marsh, Vegeta and Raditz had come up with absolutely nothing. Not a single trace of the plant that they had came for.
With the timer that they had all set going off, they immediately backtracked to the ship, seeing each other, but not Broly.
"Where's Broly?" Raditz asked, looking around at their immediate surroundings.
"Does it look like I have the answer to that question?" Vegeta asks back before pressing the button on the side of his Scouter and trying to contact Broly. "Broly, you there?"
He waited a few seconds for a response, but Broly didn't answer the call.
"Broly?" He tried again, getting nothing.
"Let me try. Broly?" Raditz said as he did the same. "Come on, big guy, it's going to get dark soon."
There was still no response.
"You think his Scouter fried or something?" Raditz asked as he dropped his arm back to his side and turned to Vegeta.
"I doubt it, but I suppose it's possible..." Vegeta replied, looking thoughtful.
"Should we go looking for him?" Raditz asked.
Vegeta looked off towards the South, wondering what it could be that was holding Broly up.
"Let's give him some time before we go out looking. If it is a problem with his Scouter, then he should come back when he realizes that it's getting dark." He told Raditz. "In any case, let's increase our power a bit so he can make his way back."
Nodding, Raditz took off his Scouter and placed it back in the container, with Vegeta doing the same. They both then perched on top of their ship and increased their power levels so that Broly would be able to send them more easily.
They waited for a couple hours, but Broly still hadn't returned. As the system's star set over the horizon, Raditz and Vegeta had grown tired of waiting.
"Vegeta-"
"Let's go." Vegeta cut Raditz off, already knowing what he was going to say.
The two Saiyans grabbed their Scouters and put them back on before taking off towards the South, trying to lock onto the signal from Broly's Scouter.
"What could've happened?" Raditz asked.
"I don't know." Vegeta shook his head before gritting his teeth. "Damnit... I knew we shouldn't have split up..."
---
Current Power Levels:
Vegeta (Base) - [1,180,000]
Raditz (Base) - [1,020,000]
Broly (Base) - [1,790,000]
[Word Count: 2,106.]