A Warrior’s Pledge

          After walking down the corridor through the same route he took with Jackson before, Capisa wanted to ask where the meeting would be held, but Dairyu had put his finger on the panels that went to the highest floor, where they once were. Some minutes later, they reached the top floor, and both were surprised at the crowds gathered.

          The crowds consisted of many alien races that represented the Federation. At first glance, it looked like the gathering of civilians, but then, the civilians were mostly nobles and entrepreneurs who lost everything after the parasitic attack.

          Capisa then noticed some heavily equipped aliens standing on one side of the room. All of them, while not getting along very well, still discussed about the recent attacks. Somehow, Dairyu wasn’t the only famous intergalactic special operations member who stumbled upon the problem at hand. There were many other special units from many alien races who gathered there.

          One of them then took notice on Dairyu (which wasn’t surprising, considering how Dairyu’s physical appearance actually told them it was him) and called him to them, alongside Capisa. With the presence of some As’karans there, he became more or less nervous. He was face to face with the heroes of his own race.

          “So what has the Black Orient fall into?” said one of the As’karans when Dairyu came. He was wearing a black armor/enviro-suit and carrying a big laser rifle, engraved with As’karan symbol. He was a white scaled Aquros and looked buff, not because of his suit, but because of his own body.

          “The same thing as most aliens currently gathered in this room,” said Dairyu with a smile. “Did you get a problem too?”

          “Not really. I’m just guarding the great leader, that’s all, unlike you Warriors.” He then took notice on Capisa. “Well, well, what do we have here? A S’hor walking around with a Warrior? If I recall, you’re Capisa, right? The crazy-ass cadet with extraordinary flight skills?”

          “I-It’s an honor, As’karan,” said Capisa blushed.

          The As’karan then turned to Dairyu. “Dairyu, you gotta return him back to his family, you know. You might get a…price.”

          Though both of them laughed, Capisa wasn’t all that pleased with the joke. He had his own reasons to leave the family’s business.

          “Anyway, with all of us here, it might make a misunderstanding, considering that we were once enemies….”

          There was a sudden silence when the council of all Federation’s races came out of the curtain to the open, addressing the crowd with charm that caused them to actually hear them talk. All the special soldiers also hear them, but not seriously.

          “Truth be told, I don’t want to be mixed in some intergalactic crap, but this is now our problem, too,” said an Aldoon Greyhound (an equivalent to warriors, not to be confused with the actual dog). “Though I don’t want to see my home planet to become like Rendhas.”

          Hearing about Rendhas made Capisa felt uneasy. He had just seen Dairyu killed them for the money promised to him, but still, the Greyhound didn’t talk about it with Dairyu.

          “Still, I must give my thanks to you, Tsukasa. Without you, those sorry sods would’ve caused a problem and we would need to purge the planet when the parasites attack. I am still grateful some of them managed to get out of the planet before it was attacked. One of them said that it was because of a red ruby that glowed and giving him weird visions.”

          “Now that you mentioned it, I did hear noises of people getting massacred…but then I lost consciousness and the next thing happened is me and Capisa trying to escape a horror movie scene,” said Dairyu rubbing his head. “But…I need to meet with a Rendlok to confirm that it wasn’t a dream.”

          This piqued Capisa’s interest. A Rendlok was one of the Federation aliens with an ability to see into minds. Capisa himself wanted to know if it could really happen.

          Just then, the Federation Council went silent again, and one of them, an Aldoon Ambassador, said, “Right now, we will call the heroes of the previous war to give out any statements that they can make regarding this problem, including our witness, Dairyu Tsukasa, known to most of you as the Black Orient, a dragon Warrior from planet Terra.

          At this point, all eyes went to Dairyu, who silently walked to the witness platform in front of them. Many aliens looked at him like he was some kind of a hero, but it wasn’t for the Terran races, as they looked at him in great disdain, some whispered to each other that he was ‘that freak’ who ‘messed up the war’, which made Capisa sad.

          As Dairyu talked at the podium of what occurred, the As’karan who knew Dairyu put his hand on Capisa and said, “You hear them, don’t you, of him?”

          “Why? He’s a Warrior. A proud member of his race.”

          “He’s what the Terran storytellers call the fallen hero,” said the Greyhound. “He may be a Warrior, and he’s equally hated like the rest of them, but he’s different. Most of them became bounty hunters to survive the harsh politic that destroyed their reputation locally, while making them famous elsewhere. We all respected each other, but all of us respected Dairyu for the sacrifice he made for the peace of the galaxy.”

          “That would make him a hero, Greyhound…”

          “He’s the hero for the aliens, but not for the Terrans. During our time, the Terrans were strong aliens with a mindset of territory expansion. Most were xenophobic and considered our attempts to make contact as a ‘close encounter’. The one who started the war wasn’t the Terrans, but the Aldoons, but they had superior strength than our more science-oriented community. We were afraid that they would destroy the lives of all aliens, so we fought them.”

          “Most others were not afraid to fight, as most had better technologies, like us,” said the As’karan. “But their determination and stubbornness gave birth to Warriors, the military unit with weird powers.”

          “Or magic, as many would say,” said Jackson, who approached them. “I don’t practice my kind of magic, but many did, and we had a new direction of the war.”

          “After 3 years of fights, we all realized that without peace, we would continue this without end, and so we started to cease fighting. We thought we would unite against the Terrans, but then, the Warriors went along with our plan and started convincing officials to stop the war.”

          “Yeah, it would be happening sooner if not for those goddamn world leaders,” said Jackson. “Because we didn’t want to fight, the Warriors were faced with false rumors that destroyed our reputations, and they continued with the war effort to expand.”

          “In truth, the Federation wouldn’t be formed if not for Tsukasa’s attempt.”

          “What did he do to be given such treatments?” asked Capisa.

          They all hesitated to give the reason, which made Capisa realized that it was a grave matter. Capisa wanted to back out, but Jackson said, “You deserve to know, Capisa, for he’s now the only one we can put our hopes upon, and somehow you’re his first friend for many years. The Terrans had strong weapons and soldiers, but there’s nothing stronger than the draconians. Being the descendants of the strongest creatures in Terra, they are the frontline of the Terran’s assault and would effectively rival the other Warriors if not for his sacrifice.”

          “What…did he do?”

          “He told us of in over a drink many years ago,” said the As’karans. “The draconians have many subspecies, but the most mysterious one is the Orients. Descended from Oriental dragons, they can control aspects of the elements they can use, but only one type of any Orient. This made them highly respected and encouraged to be in the frontline with the Westerns if I’m not mistaken.”

          “But again, you do realize that Warriors undergo a rite than increased many physical traits while corrupting some, right? Dairyu was the first Orient to be with the Warriors, and could possibly be the last Orient to be in our rank.”

          “That doesn’t give a reason of the hate given to him! He’s a nice guy…well a little bit out of hand, but he’s not the bloodthirsty Terrans you told me about!”

          Many Terrans turned their stare to the special soldiers with a cold gaze upon hearing Capisa’s remark. This prompted them to stand in front of them and giving them the look back, which convinced them to return to Dairyu’s statements and his court proceedings.

          “You’ll risk a conflict with that statement, young shark,” said Jackson. “That treatment is proof that we Terrans are too prideful to accept defeat.”

          “You mean…that war…”

          “No, it reached a stalemate where we decided to start this Federation business, but that’s the turning point of Tsukasa’s life, a decision that changed the attitude of the Terrans towards him,” said the Greyhound.

          “An Orient is known to be a fearful draconian in term of strength, but they rarely wanted to be involved in a war. Many Orients were actually being pushed by the Terrans to do a feat they hated the most: killing. Yet, because of that, Dairyu sacrificed the purity of his race to get into the Warrior’s rank, thereby giving him commands over the common soldiers. And guess what he did? He represented his own race to withdraw any Orients in the military, reducing the fierceness of the Terrans and allowed us to fight back, putting the war into a stalemate.”

          “This Federation is formed to prevent such problems to occur again, by striping the Terrans of their military advancements to the point of our level. This caused uproar in Terra and most branded Dairyu Tsukasa as a freak, calling him the Black Orient, a corrupted divine being equivalent to a Devil.”

          “The rest of the galaxy hailed him as a hero, and the name became known as the bringer of peace. But the Terrans hated the atmosphere given to the Warriors, so they stripped any command given to them, reducing them to bounty hunters. Terra became off-limits to aliens, and Dairyu was treated as a war criminal and could never return to Terra until it is lifted.”

          After hearing that, Capisa realized who his companion was. He was both a hero and a villain, and a respected one with the other special soldiers. He didn’t stumble upon a normal black scaled draconian, but one of those remembered for different reasons. In such a young age, Capisa couldn’t understand the horror of the war, and what those veteran soldiers must endure. He felt like a naïve Aquros, with a big history of the space frontier laid in front of him like rugged underwater terrain of his world, never a smooth story would ever emerge in a lifelong war with dark secrets.

          There was no reaction whatsoever after Dairyu finished his story, yet the ambassadors agreed that he was telling the truth, and continued their speech and reassurement of the dealings of the threat. 30 minutes later, the crowds had dispersed. The soldiers wanted to go on their own way, before the Station’s guard locked the elevator behind them, with the ambassadors now facing them at the bottom floor.

          “Gentlemen, I assume that all of you know of this dire situation,” said the Aldoon ambassador. “We’ve identified the parasitic aliens as an extinct alien race wiped out many centuries ago by many of the first alien colonists throughout the galaxy. They’re very dangerous and always try to assimilate with their victims, regardless of race.”

          “Not only that, based on Dairyu’s testimony, they somehow possessed a spaceship,” said the human ambassador. “I believe all of you can relate on the Black Orient’s statements, right?”

          When the soldiers nodded, they were each given a paper. Capisa peeked on Dairyu’s one and upon first glance, it looked like an assignment.

          “Behind the scene, we secretly put out these assignments to each one of you to investigate everything behind this outbreak. We can’t involve representatives from each alien race, for it would disturb the peace by giving false understandings of a racial importance,” said the human ambassador.

          “May I ask why we are chosen for this matter?” asked Jackson.

          “All of you realize the freedom you get to work behind the lines. As’karans, Greyhounds, Warriors…they were all the secret weapons for each of the three leading Federation Races. I know most of us have given a different directives and missions after the war ended, and I believe all of those actions are not beneficial for your own livelihood. All of us wanted to give you the chance to prove yourself to be more than forgotten heroes. Yet, upon assigning this, we also realized the risk that will fall upon you, so all of us hand-picked the best soldiers in the universe to assert this problem.”

          “Hmph…so much for giving a statement,” said Dairyu.

          “All of you are free to proceed from this point on without further directives. You can recruit trustworthy allies, do jobs for money, and relax on anytime, with one definite goal to find the source of this galactic panic and restore peace back to the space we all loved.”

          “When you get out, this conversation never happened. Destroy that assignment and make sure everything that happens in this room stays in this room. Dismissed.”

          After the Aldoon ambassador said so, all of the special soldiers left the room via a secret elevator on the other side of the room. Yet, when both Capisa and Dairyu wanted to leave, a voice stopped them.

          “Ryu, follow me.”

          The human ambassador and the Aquros ambassador beckoned both Dairyu and Capisa to follow them into an enclosed room near the side of the secret elevator, where they sat in there, waiting for someone to start talking, until the human ambassador said, “There’s something in your mind that’s bugging you since you took the stand. What is it?”

          “I don’t know if I can tell you with certainty, Al, but I saw something when I was in Pascoforta. It’s like a vision or some sort, but I can’t see anything except sound. That’s why I wanted to ask you a favor to find me a Rendlok currently in this space station, or maybe elsewhere.”

          “I can’t help you with that, but we’ve given you some freedom to proceed as you please, whether it’s morally acceptable or not. No, we also called you here for another reason.”

          “Of all the soldiers gathered, you’re the only one who’s suspected of starting this outbreak,” said the Aquros ambassador. “As one of the most infamous troublemaker of the galaxy, you’ve gain quite a distress in your home planet.”

          “Yeah, what about Terra? I thought I’m through with your politics.”

          “About Terra…there’s a massive riot happening inside of the planet after one of the world leader was found guilty for manipulating tax, which damaged the credibility of the leaders and sparked a massive debate whether the aliens can get into Terra or not. You’ve become the biggest scapegoat for what happened that time, Ryu, so prison sentence won’t help you when you attempted reentry. The public opinion has started to hail you as a pioneer of galactic peace, but of course you won’t get the same results with military and politics.”

          “I’m through with that.”

          Al then cleared his throat, and said, “Ryu, the Terrans are suffering from overpopulation and economic stagnant after we stripped them of their weapons. Scientific advancement for domestic approach was held by the government to ensure that their suffering is because of you. Now, I’m giving you the chance to pledge yourself for the Federation again, instead of working solo as a Warrior.”

          “And why would I do that? I’ll get more enemies than…”

          “You’ll get the Federation’s compensation for your equipment and a head-start in this investigation,” interrupted the Aquros ambassador. “Not only that, we’ll help the Warriors in rebuilding their former glory and cleared you of all restrictions you had to dock to any Terran colonies throughout the galaxy.”

          This offer caused Capisa to think “What the fuck is wrong with the alien?” when he was seen by the ambassador, who shook his head. Dairyu went silent, and he contemplated his decision, while Capisa was pulled by his ambassador to a side of the wide room.

          When they were out of earshot, the ambassador said, “The Terran government is a mess, so he’s desperate to clear Dairyu Tsukasa’s name in order to save his own face.”

          “What?! So there’s some motive behind that slick offer! Why can’t you stop him?!”

          “We gave him a warning regarding the economic status and domestic problems. If he couldn’t sort this out within a year, the Terrans will be kicked out of the Federation and banned from intergalactic problems, which could severely damage their space exploration. We wanted to help with the problems, yet his race is so prideful that they closed their home planet from the trade system. Some, like Albert, is not as block-headed as the rest of them, and he’s trying to appeal with him to be a hero again.”

          “But it’s called blackmailing!”

          “That’s why I’m giving you our own proposal. You must become Dairyu’s voice of reasons or he’ll resort to undermined actions that can ruin his credibility among the aliens. Help him find a reason beneficial to himself and to you.”

          “But, why? I’m just caught up in this mess!”

          “Like I said, Capisa S’hor, I know your grandfather Harlak would negotiate with a positive result. As a S’hor, you must help him. It runs in your family.”

          Capisa didn’t know for certain what the ambassador told him, but what actually made him think all the way through was Dairyu’s willingness for doing a job for the Terrans, despite of all the insults he was given from them.

          As promised, Dairyu took Capisa to a bar where both asked for a drink that could satisfy both races. With Capisa’s aquatic enviro-suit, he could drink one from a glass like Dairyu beside him. The bar was very crowded with live music being played. With the EDM songs blaring around them, with youngsters dancing on the music, Capisa felt light-hearted for a second. He never felt that much of an excitement since escaping Pascoforta. Maybe because he himself was still young?

          Capisa returned to Dairyu when the Orient tapped him on the shoulder. They both stayed in silence for a while, when Dairyu said, “Hey, what do you think of me now? Those guys are telling the truth about my involvement of the last war. That’s what I am.”

          The Aquros couldn’t talk about it, knowing that Dairyu would be hurt, yet the Orient just shook his head and said, “I don’t expect you would understand what I felt during the war, and I don’t want you to know. There’s no good to give me sympathy over a past I’ve tried to forget.”

          Again, Capisa couldn’t say anything to him. He felt guilty to know what Dairyu was. He wished he knew it earlier so it wouldn’t make him feel bad to take him for a drink.

          Somehow, he felt Dairyu knew what he was thinking, so Capisa unknowingly said, “But, have you ever considered what your actions ever do to you? Do you know the consequences it would do to you?”

          Capisa wanted to know if that question would cause something inside Dairyu to know that there was an Aquros who wanted to know him better. Dairyu paused for a moment before rubbing his hairy head. He then said, “Capisa, when you’re older and wiser, remember that not all of your actions during your youth will help you. Just like when you kill those bandits. You may regret this now, but on the long term, you have to learn to let it go, or it will haunt your life. Now, what did you talk about with your ambassador?”

          Deep in his heart, the shark alien didn’t want to talk about the details. His mouth was in sync with his heart, as both wanted to lie to Dairyu of what his real intentions were.

          “I…want to travel with you, Ryu,” said Capisa slowly while drinking his share of drink. “I know this is a mission that decided the fate of the galaxy, and I want to at least help, not to be ignorant about it.”

          “This galaxy holds many secrets and danger, Capisa,” said Dairyu while drinking his liquor. “I won’t take you if you’re half-hearted, and I can be a very harsh companion. Also, you won’t always have the permission in many places.”

          He knew everything went according to what he wanted to be.

          “But you’ll gonna need a better pilot than me to venture through the dangers of this galaxy,” said Capisa with a toothy shark grin. “I bet you don’t travel much around with the Quantum Gates, right?”

          Hearing that, Dairyu finally made another smile and held out his hand, a scaled hand with talons on the end. He then said, “You’re good at bargaining yourself into my crew, huh?”

          “I can’t help it, draconian. I’m a business Aquros, that’s all.”

          At least, he found a reason that convinced the hard-hearted draconian with him. The ambassador gave him a job to keep Dairyu in check, as he knew how free they were to investigate the true nature of the aliens that could destroy a colony faster than a war.

          Right now, he could employ his flying skills to help Dairyu anyway he could, for it was in his heart to be other’s support.