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The Dragon Warrior

Rendhas Colony, Terran Space Year 256...

"Shit, a Terran warrior! Scram!"

In a trading stop colony in sector X55, one of the outer rims in the Local galaxy, there was a dangerous pirate group composed entirely of grey aliens called Gray Stone. The aliens, called Aldors, had hindered many aliens from coming to the trading stop, and effectively cutting off the only quantum gates of sector X55 system. Our story starts here....

The warrior ran through the gate easily, cutting off many of the Aldors guarding it. His blade was sharp, imbued with an enhancement magic which cut many Aldors into half. The grey aliens had no chance, even with their specially crafted energy blade that would have the same sharpness.

The compound was small as it was only an outpost, yet those inside were Aldors' finest. Despite of that, they were no match with the Terran Warrior.

What's even worse for them, was the fact that the Warrior was also a dragon, called Draconian by many aliens.

He easily ran past the sentries, even leaving bodies behind. He was ruthless and unmerciful, killing many of them without remorse. He finally reached the leader's room, where they were taking an Aquros hostage.

"Don't do anything stupid, draconian. You don't want this fish head to lose his face, right? Now back off, and leave your weapons!"

"Just don't mind me, Terran! Shot a copper up his face!" said the Aquros despite of wheezing due to his mask being ruptured. The draconian stood there, as if contemplating of the next move he would do. After a while, he sighed and throw away his sword and his guns, but held out his hand.

"Hah, you idiot! This is the formidable Terran Warrior?! Your compassion can kill, and I'm not going to let this Aquros live!"

"You'll be dead before he loses his water, Aldor. Hikurai!"

The Aldor suddenly burst into dark flames. Aldors had low tolerance to any types of fire. He shrieked in pain, in a usual high shriek of an Aldor, before falling down to the floor death and badly burned. The draconian moved to the Aquros and untied his bindings. When he stood up, he said, "Thank you, Terran Warrior."

"May I ask why are you being held by this pirate? You're far away from home and you're barely into your adult age," said the draconian.

"I was abducted from Dardon when they raided the place. It's embarrassing, yes, but Aquros in my age is a victim to trafficking. Fuck, I'm barely starting my own shop and this happened!"

"Return to Pascoforta, kid. X55 is not for greenhorns like you."

"Y-yeah, I guess.... It's easier to relate with other Aquros than with aliens."

The draconian escorted the Aquros to the colony, where many waited and watched the carnage. They were eager to see the Warrior, and some were amazed when they saw him walking with a rescued hostage.

"Those pirates are not a problem anymore," said the draconian when he met with the colony leader. "You can start the Quantum Gate again, and the Aquros needs to go back to Pascoforta."

"Yes, we can arrange that, Warrior. And, as we promised, here are the credits we have dealt upon."

After taking care of the whole affair, the draconian helped himself with the food and drinks for supplies before going to the spaceport into his spacecraft, an old scout cruiser name Hachi-Ryu. It was sufficient enough to sustain five to six more persons, and it was an old second generation scouter ship that was decommissioned 5 years ago, in favor of the newer third and the recent fourth generation.

Because of the colony's halted economy, the Warrior couldn't find any equipment for the Aquros, so he resorted to turning the bathroom into an emergency aquatic habitat for the Aquros to live for a while until he could go to an Aquros colony. The Aquros didn't mind, as long as he had access to clean salt water, which the Warrior could provide in a limited account.

"There, Aquros, your room is ready," said the draconian slowly. "Damn, I guess I need to take a public shower with you in there..."

"Hey, draconian?"

"What is it?"

"Nothing...just, I want to thank you..."

"Save it for later, kid. I don't deserve that kind of thank you."

They blasted off the station to the great outer space, where they went into the Quantum Gate just outside the colony planet. As always, when the plane went into the gates, it quickly moved in a higher speed into FTL speed. When the draconian turned it into an autopilot, he returned to the middle room, where he had the same bathroom/aquatic habitat for the Aquros, where he promptly became wide-eyed when he saw the Aquros.

"What is it, draconian?"

"No...it's just...you're smaller than your suit suggested...and half-naked."

The Aquros smiled, presenting his toothy grin akin of a Terran shark. The draconian had seen many Aquros out of their enviro-suits, but this one was different. Based on what the Warrior knew from the Aquros race, they were shark-like humanoids that inhabited the planet known as Atlantis. The race had many similarities with a Terran shark, except that they actually had ear lobes and also had hair (or fur). Much like the Terran sharks, they had a fin that become their tail, with humanoid limbs and webbed hands and feet as a base difference with their more bestial counterparts. While they had long evolved from their savage Terran counterparts, they were still a formidable foe, if only their enviro-suits wouldn't get in the way.

"By the way, what's your name, Terran? I'm Capisa, by the way."

Since he was young, he had a lean streamlined body, yet the one that completely distracted the draconian was Capisa's outfit. After being out of the suit, he only had briefs under his suit, while most Aquros the draconian knew always wore skin-tight aquatic suits when not in their enviro-suits. Because of Capisa's choice of outfit, his greyish shark scales were visible, with some scale colors different from the base grey.

"You don't need to know my name, kid," said the draconian.

"I insist. We may meet again sometimes, eh?"

The Warrior then sighed, and said, "I'm Dairyu. Yes, I know, it's a weird name."

"Is it weird in your culture?"

"Most aliens find it weird."

When Dairyu moved to the kitchen corner to make some foods, Capisa said, "When I was a kid, I followed my father to go to a Terran colony, and I met some draconians along the way. But, they don't seem to look like you. I mean, you're leaner and hairy. Care to explain?"

"Well, I'm an Oriental dragon, a subspecies of draconians. Orients don't go around space-travelling like I do, and not many are Warriors, so you don't get to see many Orients around. The Terrans called us Noodles because of our feral brethren's snake-like body. Why do you even care, Capisa?"

"I like to meet new aliens, and I like to have a journey one day, without relying on others and transport ships. N-not really I want to travel with you, but..."

"You'll someday go to that frontier, shark boy, but right now, you must go back to an aquatic colony and get yourself a new suit."

The spaceship went on without problems, all through the FTL flight and into normal space again.

"We've arrived at the Andaman sector," said the computer navigator. "Switching back to manual control."

Dairyu walked to the console and started pressing the appropriate button for manual input. In no time at all he was ready to go to the planet Pascoforta.

As the spaceship gained the entry permission, Dairyu landed the spaceship at a platform, which was only a platform in the middle of a vast sea. Since he didn't have buoyancy systems on his ship, he landed it instead of hovering the spacecraft like in most spaceports. The main world of Aquros was deep under the sea.

Dairyu and Capisa were then greeted by some of the shark-like aliens in environment suit. Since Capisa had none, he could only survive on land for three minutes under the stingy sun.

Dairyu could only escorted Capisa to a nearby elevator, which went down through the submerged shaft, filling it with water as it went down. When Dairyu wanted to return to his own ship, an Aquros moved in front of him and said, "Wait, Terran Warrior."

"What gives?"

"We are grateful that you can return one of our own. Is there any way I can repay you? We've got plenty of credits here."

"No need for that. No one's making the request. This is out of pure care to Capisa. Then, because it's settled I'm taking my-"

"Wait, draconian."

An Aquros came to Dairyu and said, "You're Dairyu Black Scales, right?"

"I'm surprised you know me from so many warriors."

"It's all too obvious. Black sclera, black scales, an Orient, and carrying a magical sword give you away. My name is Aldnoah Sidhe, the mayor of this colony. Would you follow me down to my office, please?"

Though Dairyu suspected something was off, especially on how the seemingly oblivious mayor would know him that much, considering that he wasn't popular enough, he still followed him, since he was still eager for another job as he wanted the credits to refurbish his aging spaceship. Other than that, Dairyu could depend on his experiences in ambushes and betrayals, knowing that this Aldnoah shark alien could be leading him into a trap.

When they finally reached the bottom of the elevator, as Dairyu stepped out from it, he felt heavy, but he could endure it. He knew in every planet the gravity was different, and he had trained his body to tolerate gravity 5 times of that of Terra, and this was barely 3 times. He followed Aldnoah, with Aqura outside of the airtight corridor saluted the mayor.

After a while, they finally went inside a room behind a giant door, which opened automatically for them. Inside, Dairyu admired the view and wondered if he could afford it. The interior of the room looked a lot like an airlock for submarines, complete with a tank and other equipment. It was also furnished with somewhat waterproof objects that were very expensive. The mayor's desk was full of papers and stuff, and there was a single safe beside it. Yet the view of the colony's underwater city was magnificent in its own right. While unlike the undersea settlements back in Terra since Aqura didn't need atmosphere air, watching Aqura swimming around in a speed of a predator was enough.

Yet the Orient knew he could be awed by such view. Aldnoah sat at the leather chair in front of him and suddenly removed his mask, which made Dairyu panicked.

"Hey, you can't breathe atmosphere air! You'll...huh?"

"Don't worry, Warrior. This colony has a better technology for us to breathe like it's in the sea. Now, let's get down to business."

Aldnoah pulled a scroll from under the table, where there was an old drawing of an underwater mine. "This," he said. "...is an old map for a mine just out of town, near the Arron Sea Colony. Recently, a group of Aquros bandits were spotted getting inside the mine. As always, our reaction was to decimate the place, since its mere sight is painful for the eyes. The problem is, the bandits employed androids for protections, and we couldn't get inside unless we can disable them."

"Androids, huh? You know it's suicide if I get inside alone, no matter how skilled I am."

"That's the reason why our quick reaction force is stationed there."

"One more thing. I'm not half Ao Guang if your knowledge for Orients is that much."

"What is that?"

"You won't understand. Simply said, I can't breathe underwater!"

"Okay, okay, I get it! The mine is not submerged. While we protect our commodities from outsiders, we still need investors from nearby colony planets, and just like you, they're not aquatic aliens."

"Right...and you said it's an eyesore."

"It is a recent eyesore after the collapse of one of its shafts flooded parts of the mine and ruined a million worth of credits for our colony," said Aldnoah with a sigh. Then he said, "I can offer you a cash of five thousand credits if you manage to clear everything."

"Are you serious?" said Dairyu with a scoff. "We're talking about a barely collapsing mine infested by bandits guarded by weaponized androids. Five thousand is like a joke to the risk!"

Aldnoah then reluctantly opened his tablet, staring at it with consent. He then said, "Well, it can't be helped. You're doing a suicidal mission, after all. How about fifty thousand?"

"It's settled, then. Can you point me to where you sell guns and heal shots? Oh, while you're at it, could you..."

"We don't sell guns," said Aldnoah short. "I enforced that rule the first time I'm in office."

"At least you have a place to sell heal shots."

"Since heal shots are military-grade field medical kit, I'm afraid we don't sell them here. This colony is merely a Trilium mining settlement with Arron. The military base for the QRF may have a sufficient supply, and they won't sell them to outsiders, even if they're a dragon warrior or other elite bounty hunters from different planets. I'm sorry, Black scales, but you can only rely on what you bring."

While he had been in such disadvantages many times before, Dairyu knew that if he wanted that fifty thousand, he needed to comply with what the Aquros wanted. In fact, his sword was enough. His only real hindrance was the android army. They were faster than some regular-sized aliens, but still pretty much a problem if they were weaponized. That aside, Aldnoah seemed to be uneasy about doing the job. Dairyu's first impression was that Aldnoah was lying and would ambush him when the time was right, yet the fact he found out was different from what he thought.

"Alright, I'll take the job. It's better be worth it, Aquros," said Dairyu after standing up. He promptly turned around to face the door, and opened it, without even looking back at Aldnoah.