Earth has approximately one year before two extraterrestrial warriors arrive with the apparent intention of killing everyone who gets in their way.
Normally, this would be the part where humanity places its hopes in a small group of martial artists, a dead man training in the afterlife, and one extremely angry five-year-old.
This time, however, someone appears to have made a different phone call.
Because waiting for Vegeta and Nappa is an entire chapter of Adeptus Astartes.
Yes.
All of them.
The approaching Saiyans were first detected after intercepted communications revealed that two surviving members of the Saiyan race had learned about Earth and its Dragon Balls. According to intelligence gathered from the transmission, the pair intends to travel to the planet, locate the seven artifacts, and use them to grant immortality.
Their names are Vegeta and Nappa.
Vegeta is believed to be a Saiyan prince and an experienced combatant capable of destroying entire populations without significant difficulty. Nappa is approximately the size of a commercial refrigerator and appears to solve most problems by screaming and blowing something up.
Neither has shown any indication that they intend to negotiate.
Ordinarily, that would be bad news.
Then the drop pods started arriving.
Witnesses around the world reported massive objects entering Earth’s atmosphere before slamming into remote military staging areas. Shortly afterward, footage emerged showing towering armored soldiers carrying weapons that appeared to be roughly the size of normal humans.
Officials initially declined to identify the new arrivals.
That became considerably more difficult when one of them announced over an open communications channel that the planet was now under the protection of the Imperium of Man.
The Adeptus Astartes, commonly known as Space Marines, are genetically enhanced super-soldiers created for warfare on a scale that makes most conventional Earth conflicts look like disagreements over parking spaces.
A standard chapter consists of approximately 1,000 Space Marines.
Earth apparently got the whole thing.
Military observers described the force assembling to meet the Saiyans as “an absolutely unreasonable amount of firepower.”
The chapter has deployed infantry companies, armored vehicles, heavy weapons, aircraft, dreadnoughts, and enough ammunition to make several national defense ministries visibly uncomfortable.
Their exact plan is unclear.
Their enthusiasm is not.
One Space Marine commander reportedly asked for everything humanity knew about the incoming threat. After being shown footage of Saiyan combat abilities, he remained silent for several seconds before asking whether Vegeta and Nappa were “xenos.”
He was told yes.
The meeting ended shortly afterward.
The Saiyans, meanwhile, do not appear to be aware that anything has changed.
Based on their last intercepted communication, Nappa continues to expect little resistance upon reaching Earth.
Analysts believe this confidence may be understandable.
Even by extraterrestrial standards, Saiyans are extraordinarily dangerous.
Nappa alone possesses enough strength to overwhelm conventional armies. Vegeta is considerably more powerful and has demonstrated the ability to survive attacks that would obliterate almost any normal living organism.
Both can fly.
Both can project enormous amounts of energy.
Both are fast enough that conventional human soldiers would have difficulty even following their movements.
All of which raises an obvious question.
Can the Astartes actually stop them?
Experts disagree.
Individual Space Marines are enormously stronger, faster, and more durable than ordinary humans, but neither Vegeta nor Nappa qualifies as an ordinary opponent. A direct fistfight between a single Astartes and a Saiyan would probably end very quickly, and not in favor of the man wearing several hundred pounds of powered armor.
But that is not what the Space Marines appear to be planning.
They have 1,000 men.
They also brought the big guns.
Earth defense observers have reported the deployment of plasma weapons, lascannons, missile batteries, heavy bolters, tanks, and several weapons that officials have politely requested not be fired near populated areas.
Orbital assets have also taken position.
This may prove significant.
Saiyans are accustomed to fighting powerful individual opponents. They are somewhat less accustomed to landing in the middle of a carefully prepared military kill zone operated by a thousand genetically engineered religious fanatics who consider dying in battle an acceptable workplace outcome.
Nappa may discover this first.
Analysts familiar with Saiyan behavior believe his tendency to underestimate weaker opponents could create problems almost immediately.
If projections are correct, Nappa is likely to exit his space pod, insult the assembled defenders, and possibly destroy something nearby as a demonstration of strength.
At that point, approximately 1,000 Space Marines will begin shooting him.
This is not expected to improve his mood.
Vegeta presents a more complicated problem.
Unlike Nappa, he is both extraordinarily powerful and relatively intelligent. Experts believe he would quickly recognize that the Astartes are more dangerous as a coordinated force than as individual fighters.
He may attempt to destroy them from a distance.
He may also simply destroy the surrounding area.
Space Marine commanders appear to have anticipated both possibilities.
Defensive positions have been spread across a large region rather than concentrated around the expected landing site. Armored units are being kept mobile, while aircraft and orbital support will remain outside the immediate combat zone until the Saiyans commit to an attack.
There have even been unconfirmed reports of a contingency involving a battle barge.
Nobody on Earth appears eager to ask what that means.
Not everyone is convinced the plan will work.
Several martial artists have reportedly argued that raw military force is the wrong way to approach a Saiyan.
One suggested waiting for a man named Goku to return.
The Astartes declined.
“He is currently dead,” one officer was reportedly told.
The Space Marine stared at him.
“And?”
Preparations have continued ever since.
The strangest part of the situation may be how quickly humanity has adapted to it.
One month ago, most people did not know Saiyans existed.
Now television networks are running countdown clocks to their arrival while defense analysts debate whether a power-armored super-soldier could survive being punched through a mountain.
Merchandise has already appeared.
One popular shirt reads WELCOME TO EARTH, HERETIC.
Authorities have asked people to stop selling it outside military staging areas.
The Space Marines appear to approve.
For now, Vegeta and Nappa continue their journey toward Earth, apparently convinced that the planet contains nothing capable of seriously challenging them.
That assumption has worked well for them so far.
It may even be correct.
Saiyans are terrifyingly powerful opponents, and no amount of armor, discipline, or religious enthusiasm changes the fact that Vegeta can erase entire sections of the battlefield with a gesture.
But when the two Saiyan pods finally descend through Earth’s atmosphere, they will not find Goku standing alone in a field.
They will find trenches.
They will find tanks.
They will find gunships.
They will find orbital weapons platforms.
And they will find roughly 1,000 eight-foot-tall super-soldiers who have spent the last year waiting for somebody to point at the aliens and tell them they are allowed to open fire.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Vegeta may look at an opponent and wonder whether he should have stayed home.