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The Arrowhead

A month had passed since the Azure’s crew’s rescue mission to the laboratory. They were finally able to acquire the newer model starship they had ordered, which, unlike the older Azure, this one had all the equipment for an extended roster of crew. It was, like Azure, not big enough for a multi-functional class, but big enough for 15 crews. The bird-like ship looked fierce, very different from the Azure which looked very normal. It was acknowledgeable, given the fact that Azure was an older model of a scout cruiser. This new ship fell into a destroyer scout cruiser class.

Upon seeing the ship, Dairyu nodded in approval, even saying, “My, this feels like it is the best decision to leave Azure. It’s even far cleaner than Azure.”

“Oh, but this ship is not quite finished yet, draconian,” said the mechanic who Dairyu talk to before. “You still need a livery so it’s recognizable by vessels out in space. How about making it a Warrior Black Dragon?”

“No, I may be a Warrior, but I’m no longer involved in any of their affairs. I’ll consult with the others, so just keep it that way, okay?”

But when he returned to his apartment, the others were not as eager as him for choosing a livery. Instead, he was approached by Amhyr. The green draconian the said, “Dairyu, as much as I hate to tell you this, that ship is no for our bounty mission anymore.”

Dairyu had thought the worst.

“Our new ship is going to be used by the Federation as a battle ship.”

This piece of news clearly made Dairyu less enthusiastic. He just made a sigh and calmly said, “Then I suppose they have found out about the main signal the black creatures operated from, right? Those idiots. A big attack won’t help anything.”

“Well, the council are very desperate to end this problem. For the last one month, five more planets are under siege by the black creatures. Three are colonies and two are mining colonies. The fear of the black creatures are starting to disrupt all legal and illegal economies.”

“Illegal economies? Where the hell do you get that information?”

“I have my contacts.” Said Amhyr short. “Anyway, they wanted to mobilize everything they can muster, which is not as big as it was in the last war...”

“Then let them use the confiscated Terran weapon.” When Dairyu saw Amhyr wanted to object, he said, “If those pesky Terran world leaders object, just say ‘to hell with it’, and if they threaten to leave the Federation, tell them ‘you and what army’. They have no choice but to comply. Just look at the state of the domestic planetary problems they are in.”

“Guess we can try that. Anyway, since the Alain colony problems, the former slaves are all drafted into the fight. Let can be their commander due to his Chieftain status, but we still have provisional problems.”

“Just…let me talk to the Federation leaders, Amhyr. I think this proposed strategy will not make anything better.”

Amhyr obliged to it. Aside from knowing that the strategy would devastate both sides, he was glad Dairyu’s bitterness toward the Federation had lessened somewhat after he opened up about Seiryu almost a month ago. Capisa mysteriously knew about it, claiming that he heard Dairyu talking in the sleep, while Atho read their minds. In the end, Rose also knew, but it was when she noticed that Dairyu was different.

With his bitterness and ambiguous choices gone, Dairyu could move on from Seiryu’s memory and would be glad to see what the future might hold for his life. He kept that in mind in every waking hours and in his dreams.

The subspace emergency quantum bridge message opened its line and there was the holographic body of a human and an aquros. From their clothes, the group knew they were the Federation Ambassador, with the Aquros being none other than Tarsha.

“Yes, agent Rithola? Is there any particular thing you want to brief?”

“Are you out of your minds? You do realize how their black creatures operate, right? It’s parasitic. With a full-power attack strategy you use, I can say they won’t need to muster as big of a force. We are feeding them all the necessary army!”

“Dairyu Tsukasa?” said the human ambassador. “Rithola, what are you doing giving him the comm?”

“I demand to speak with Alan Forthering at this instance!”

“Ambassador Forthering is currently in the mission control room.”

“Then what the hell are you doing there? Haul your ass to the mission control!”

The line abruptly closed, then returned, now with Ambassador Alan Forthering, the man Dairyu could depend on in his affairs.

“Al, I want you to listen me now,” said Dairyu with a reassuring tone. “Letting that much of a weapon and soldiers into the battle is a suicide in our side. We haven’t even know any weakness those black creatures had except fire, or maybe space. But you know they can assimilate as a parasite, right?”

“We all know about that, Ryu, but the Federation members are desperate to end this threat. We recently found out of the result of the experiments conducted to the black creatures and managed to triangulate the source of their signal. A direct offensive would benefit all of us…”

“I said no! Did you forget what happened 35 years ago? Terran people are destroying themselves for challenging for something with the same power. It’s a mutual destruction to both race, but this is a suicide!”

“So what do you propose? If you have a better idea, just say it.”

Dairyu took a glance to everyone in the crew. They seemingly understood what he wanted and nodded. Dairyu swore to himself and said, “Do you still remember ‘Arrowhead’, right?”

The mention of that was enough to cause Forthering to panic and said, “No! I am not going to authorize that! One underage soldier’s death is enough to put us to guilt and you still want to fucking do it? Do you realize it is a suicide mission?!”

“Yes, but I’m more than capable to do it now. I will remember Seiryu as my failure, but Arrowhead can only be done by a small ship, and of all the ships, my ship is the only one with capable arsenal for a direct attack into the enemy’s territory.”

“You do realize you’re carrying all the precious cargos, right? You have a cryogenically frozen heiress of the Van Helsing family, a S’Hor heir, a Scylla Chieftain, a Federation agent, and a Rendlok in your ship!”

“Yes, but they are not as useless as their title may sound. We are all ready to use Arrowhead. We will do it like what the Commander told us 35 years ago, but with no casualties. What will you say about this?”

There was a silence while Forthering discussed this with the generals. He then exhaled sharply and said, “Alright, we’ll do the ‘Arrowhead’ strategy. Just, this is your own risk. If you die in there, we will cover it up, got it?”

“You do your job, I do mine. Tsukasa out.”

The line closed, giving the group pondering on the decision they had made.

“Well, at least we die together, right? Do you mind telling us about the Arrowhead strategy we are talking about?”

“It’s simple, but very grim. Our ship will go through enemy’s frontline and infiltrate the main target. There, we can sabotage anything so the advancing soldiers could retaliate. It’s the same strategy used in that war…with me and Seiryu. As you all know, it doesn’t end well. Yet, you still want me to go using that strategy.”

“Then we can’t launch the ship as it is now,” said Let. “If you want to safely go through the system, then we must refit our new ship with some equipment. Can anyone give any hint?”

“All I can give you are prismatic shielding, crystallite hull with chainmail pattern, anti-EMP device, and most importantly, EMP mines.”

“I can utilize Scylla’s cloaking technology,” said Let. “And maybe throw in some regenerating living metal aid for good measure.”

“Whoa, guys, wait! We can’t fit these things to our small ship! We don’t have that much of a time! They will commence attack 5 hours from now and those installations would take 10 hours top!”

“Then screw the cloak! Capisa, I hope I can trust you in flying the new ship.”

“Unless it has an updated Aquran ship navigation you can trust me.”

“Right, so prismatic shielding and the hull upgrade is very important. Then the living metal aid can help, too. Right! Give them the specs and let them install them as fast as they can, Amhyr. Do it!”

He ran away as fast as he could, disappearing when he turned on a corridor. Dairyu sighed and said, “He runs pretty fast, huh?”

In just short three hours, the new ship was ready to be launched. Federation soldiers had started issuing orders of leaving the space station to a nearby colony except those volunteering as militia, which were the best option to commit suicide like a brave person. The whole of Azure’s crew had prepared for the ‘Arrowhead’ strategy, which had been relayed to all army group. Most agreed of the plan, some were skeptical. Some were downright objecting the approach, citing it as ‘unnecessary bravado’. Except for Dairyu, the rest of the group were given prayers by their respective races, even to Rose, who was given the moon’s blessing by some werewolves.

Capisa realized that Dairyu didn’t get much attention, which was weird. When asked, he just said, “I prefer to stay out of fame. You guys better earn it in my place.”

Their ship blasted off away from the dock, and was driven by the newly updated computer system Capisa was more accustomed of. While they were being flown into the battle ground, Dairyu stood by the bridge, watched his crew, and said, “My friends, this event may not end as well as we hope, and we will see casualties along the way. You have a choice, but you didn’t back down, and I’m grateful for that. Do not let your heart falter. The road ahead may look bumpy, and the enemies are tough, but if we believe in ourselves, we will strike down the enemy like thunder! We will triumph over them! And we will reap victory!”

Dairyu then took a big Oriental Wine bottle. “Let the day we break this bottle be the day where our victory is given without exchanging our lives. To battle! For victory!”

The rest of the group made a great uproar as the wine bottle was broken. Dairyu made a roar that he never believe would he made again after 35 years of mourning. Seiryu may be gone, but he still had friends; those who trusted him, and dependable to each other.

The computer initiated an auto clean feature as the rest of the group familiarize themselves with the ship. Dairyu went to the pilot’s seat to check on Capisa. The Aquros then said, “We may have doubts on this plan, but your speech gives us strength to continue. I am so glad to have ever be in your company, Ryu. I wish, after this is over, we can continue our paths on our own, but we will believe in stumbling on each other again.”

“There’s only one way to find out. You feel nervous, Capisa?”

The shark smiled. “I am not alone.”

The cross-fire had started when they drop out of FTL. The organic-looking saucer of one side was clearly menacing and it was even bigger than some of the biggest destroyer created by Aqura. It was a tied fight with no one side relenting. The group knew it was their time to get deep inside enemy territory. So on Dairyu’s mark, Capisa started the main engine. As he instructed, the Aquros blasted off the fusion engine to maximum, giving them a push that almost threw the rest of them off their seats. Capisa had a great experience with small ships like the new ship, and he easily dodged some stray fires and some smaller scouter ships that found them. It was a very tense experience, but they managed to reach the other side of the battlefield unscathed, with the ship itself only sustaining a minor scraping damage.

Unfortunately, though, their forceful entry was too fast, and they crash-landed inside a giant mothership, surrounded by some infected Black Creature victims, aiming weird organic guns to their ship.

Inside, the group were preparing to get out with guns blasting. Being an Endragas, Let went out first, and with a strong will, he pushed most of the attackers away from the ship with his telekinesis. The distraction was enough for Rose to come out second and start viciously attacking the group with her werewolf attacks. The rest came out shooting wildly to all direction. The positron gun, in particular, was very effective to kill many of their attackers, and they tried not to relent. They pushed through until they finally managed to get inside. Amhyr blew the door to prevent any backup to attack them.

They couldn’t rest, though. Dairyu sensed some hosts trying to ambush them. He wasn’t trying to hold back, as he concentrated enough to use a versatile technique which made the rest of them baffled.

Some black stream of wind started forming a tornado on Dairyu’s feet. They levitated him, making him looking just like a true Oriental dragon. He pulled out two daggers, then made a roar. The tornado propelled him in such a speed where he basically cut through the group of ambusher. At the end of the corridor, the tornado thing on his feet let him drift to one of the corridors, and a carnage soon followed, away from the view of his allies.

“This is why the Terran empire really want them to get them into their rank,” said Amhyr while pulling out a laser rifle.

“That’s one ruthless draconian,” said Rose. “I like it.”

“C’mon, we gotta cover him. He may be good in offense, but he’s not in defense.”

They continued on with the strategy. Rose, in particular, helped more than they could imagine, despite of her role as their medic. Let just pushed away some hosts behind them, while the rest tried to follow. Atho gave the group a sense of direction, to which he found a corridor split by two sides.

“Okay…we gotta split here. Let, Atho, Capisa, you go to another one and see if you can secure the corridor. Amhyr and Rose, follow me. We gotta see what’s in the end of the corridor.

They split up, hoping each of them got a way to regroup after they had cut down the offensive from both sides.

What they didn’t know, though, was that they had to fight a final enemy that was far bigger than any bounties or enemies they had encountered so far