His voice echoing through the metal planet gave birth to a symphony almost as dull as the look on the Tumatians' faces as they bowed their heads.
Raditz looked at them, and he knew that he was right; he asked: "Then what?"
"Then, we gathered hundreds of the planet's top scientists, linguists, historians and archeologists to crack the secrets of our ancient science and technology, and finally found the reason behind the past prosperity of Tumat!"
"Your ancestors turned it into a Metal Planet?" Raditz asked.
"No! That was a mistake; we don't know that happened!" The old man frantically shook his head; "We copied the original data perfectly, and finally produced a chip that the ancients named the "Big Gete Star!
This chip was to become the core of the planet, and to use its resources based on self-evolving algorithms to absorb stellar energy and provide for more and more power for all. On top of that, it could also create technology with that energy, and learn how evolve it with time. It was supposed to determine the path for Tumat to evolve and grow more powerful and prosperous!"
(Translator note: The author is imagining the untold background story of the Big Gete Star here; this was not explicitly explained in the movie "Return of Cooler".)
When the old man arrived to this point of his narrative, he couldn't speak anymore. He looked around, for the state of the planet spoke for itself.
Obviously, the Tumatians failed. The planet had definitely been a lively planet similar to earth at some point. However, with the Big Gete Star, almost all vegetation and life critical resources were gone. The planet was becoming "dead" from its core to its surface.
"The chip soon began its first evolution. It autonomously turned a part of the planet into metallic area, similar to the whole planet now. Then, it stole a lot of energy from other planets, building this mechtronic army. When it gained enough power, it turned on the Tumatians, turning them into slaves and beginning the transformation of the rest of the planet. As you can see now, almost all the land is now covered with metal, and it's still expanding! It's intending on devouring other planets to grow stronger!
"How long did it take?" Raditz suddenly asked.
"What?"
"I mean, how long has it been since this disaster?"
"It's been over a decade. With the decline of science and technology, the average life expectancy of a Tumatians is only 50 years now."
The old man lowered his head. Looking at his gray hair, Raditz frowned, for he had estimated the Tumatian's age by around 80 years by the features of his fatigued face. However, he turned out to be under 50, and this change started only around a decade ago!
Anyway, by this time, Raditz finally understood what was going on. Their spaceship had been attracted by the Big Gete Star for it wanted to take advantage of its energy and technology.
More importantly, Raditz realized the chip's weakness. His level is over 100.000, but the Big Gete Star was having a rough time dealing with it. This meant that the chip had not reached its Super Saiyan-challenging full potential that was once depicted in the movie; it was still in its 'infancy'!
"Let me liberate you!" Raditz reached out to break the chains.
All the Tumatians started to panic and shouted to stop him: "No, it will kill us!"
The old man explained: "You may be not afraid of it, but we are! It knows where we are, and we know well that some machines will show up very soon! You should leave right now! Its intelligence is far beyond your imagination!"
Everyone was shaking in panic.
"Do you want to be slaves forever?" Raditz was a little angry.
The old man shook his head, and did not answer continuing: "Now the Big Gete Star just wants to study your bodies to enhance his knowledge about sentient life. It may not threaten you directly, but taking over your spacecraft could give it great power. If you feel so capable of doing the impossible, then please stop it from taking that!"
"Damn!" Raditz reacted. The prime goal of Big Gete Star was to collect energy objects, and their spaceship was a feast within this immense and empty space!
The old man was right, even if Raditz was to save the slaves right now, the planet wouldn't let them go so easily anyway. The real key was to stop this chip. Anyway, these people weren't in danger for the time being. Raditz glanced at them and immediately rushed back.
Going back to his spaceship, he encountered debris of machinery everywhere, along with shattered mechanical limbs that was still sending sparks within the smoke they emitted as they were burning.
Sure enough, some machines returned, Dark blue in color, bigger in size and more varied in form. Besides the now usual bullets, they sent out Lazer Beams, electromagnetic missiles, used light-sabers and so on…
It seemed that the Big Gete Star had sent an elite group of Mechanical Fighters to retrieve the ship. It's just that it underestimated Goku and the others, and the robot troops were easily annihilated.
"Raditz, what's going on?" Vegeta was just through with destroying the last robot, and he was still energetic.
Everyone looked at Raditz, their minds full of doubts.
"These are the guards made by the planet itself. Their target is our spaceship. Let me explain everything in detail…"
Raditz explained to everyone what the old Tumatian told him. Hearing those words, everyone was surprised. It was the first time they hear about a sentient planet, autonomous consciousness, powerful mechatronic forces, and such unusual powers…
"Alright, since that's the case, let's save those people!" Goku punched his palm, excited to break into the chip's zone.
"Wait, don't we have any other way to get out of here?" Krillin looked afraid, holding his arms and shaking.
"Even if the spacecraft regains its power and breaks through the obstacles, the metal giant and the tentacle-like arms around it will be difficult to deal with, and maybe there could be more than one next time." Raditz whispered.
As they spoke, the ground started to shake, and a sullen and huge sound echoed on the ground, as if there were tens of thousands of beasts coming from below!
"An earthquake?"
"No, the Gete Star's powers might be approa…"
Raditz didn't have time to finish his sentence! Dark Golden slabs of metal rose from the ground, forming a whirlpool like shape. The spaceship was is the centre of this circle, which was at least 500 meters in diameters. Bellow everyone's feet, a hole appeared out of nowhere, leading to what seemed like infinite darkness. Everyone, along with the ship, fell inside!
Things went worse than they've ever imagined, for while they all had the reflexes to try to fly out of the pit, they were all crippled by some sort of force that pulled them in. The deeper they fell, the stronger the force was, and just like the pit was formed, it was sealed again before anyone could fly out.
Falling down the deep pit, stopped hearing each other yell at some point, and their free fall seemed to last forever!
Finally, with a bang, Raditz hit a solid surface.
"My back!"
Raditz felt a sharp pain in his back, as if a sledge hammer had shattered his spine. He took a while to cope with the pain, but then took a deep breath.
Although he could not see in the dark, the pain and the moist feeling on his arm made him realize that his hand had been injured during the fall; blood was slowly flowing down his arm.
"Damn it! Goku! Vegeta!" Raditz couldn't see the others in the dark, and he just kept calling calling: "Piccolo, Gohan! Anyone?"
His voice was completely muffled and dry, without any echo. The surrounding area seemed to be fully soundproof! It completely absorbed his voice, letting no sound escape…
Raditz knew that he was alone, and the others had to be somewhere else; the Big Gete Star separated them!
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