War of Rage Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

“Oh. My. Fucking. God!”

Kawa crossed his arms in annoyance. James was grinning widely, enjoying the admiration and attention he was receiving.

“You’re my heroes!” One of the Earthling warriors exclaimed in excitement. He rapidly shook Kawa’s hands first and then James’s. “Name’s Alejandro Villa! You can call me Alex! And, this is Matthew Johnson!”

“Yo.” Matt waved his hand with an unimpressive look on his face, but Kawa and James did not even bother asking him about the look that he gave them.

“And… Lunan samurais?” James glanced at them, noticing that there was only one female Lunan samurai.

“I’m Shiro Endo. This is Jessica Young.” Shiro bowed his head politely.

“Hi!” Jessica said cheerfully. “Why do you think we haven’t been called yet?”

“Maybe we are in trouble?” James asked.

“No, we are the only ones who got in the fight. They didn’t.” Kawa scratched the back of his head in wonder.

“So… what brings you to be a samurai, cutie?” James smiled sweetly at Jessica, who giggled in return.

“Oh, stop it, you!” The female samurai laughed again.

Kawa shot James a near-deadly glare. We don’t have time to flirt now! We have a war to fight!

James just shrugged his shoulders carelessly and was about to say another word to the beautiful woman when Captain Williams called them over at the other side of the ceremony field.

“First of all, I would like to thank you so much for waiting this long and being patient, samurais,” said Captain Williams with his hands locked behind his back. “Kawa and James, we saw your recent spar… and I must say it was quite impressive. That was the reason why we took so long to change our strategy.”

“Strategy? What kind of strategy?” Shiro asked bluntly only to receive an elbow in the waist from Jessica, who shushed at him.

“I would like to tell you a little about a special force called Dark Fury.” Captain Williams was walking forth and back, as any captain would do in front of his soldiers. Or rather, samurais.

“Dark Fury?” Matt placed his palm on one of his hips. “You’re not going to place us in the front?”

“That’s exactly correct.”

“But we are just recruits. We recently joined the Sora troop,” said Jessica. “What made you make such an important decision?”

“For months, we had looked through every single of our samurais’ background information. We made sure not to overlook every single qualification you have.. three times. Mr. Matthew Johnson is a highly-skilled combatant. And, Shiro Endo exceeded our expectations of being a sniper as a new samurai. Now, Alejandro Villa and Jessica Young are much more important -- a medic and a hacker that we greatly need. And…”

A small smile broke out on his face as Captain Williams turned to Kawa and James. “That was when you came into this picture. We saw you sparring with each other. We had been searching for two leaders - each one for Earth and Moon. You completely understand what you are going to face in this war. Already, you have been admired by thousands here.”

“W-wait a second.” James shook his head as if he was trying to wake up from this wonderful dream. As much as the dream might be wonderful, he did not want to be disappointed when he found out that it was not real. “Leaders? You chose us?”

“Congratulations, James Miles and Kawa Takayama,” Captain Williams gave them a short salute. “You are the leaders of Dark Fury. Please board the Limitless as soon as possible. Then, we’ll call you to the bridge for your first mission.”

~EARTHxMARS~

“Wow!” James exclaimed, trying to absorb everything that was shiny into his head. “This is only for us?”

After boarding the Limitless spaceship, each group of six samurais got assigned to a room where they would be sleeping. As for the members of Dark Fury, the room they were provided was even better than whatever they dreamed of.

“This is mine!” Jessica yelled. She already ran to the first bedroom she could find. She fell in love with it the moment her blue eyes landed on it.

Kawa could not help but wonder why only they were being treated special… Were they that important to the superiors? Fancy kitchen, glamour of living room, spotless bathrooms, and even high-classy decorated bedrooms. None of the other samurais had such things like them.

“Don’t think too hard, Kawa!” James picked up his duffel bag and was on the way to his new bedroom. “It will only hurt you further.”

“Shut up.” Kawa rolled his dark eyes and was heading for the last remaining bedroom. He did not even bother analyzing his own bedroom, but he could at least acknowledge its cleanliness, large space, and amazing design. His bed was covered with dark blue silk sheets. There was a large wooden dresser next to the large closet which could be considered as another bedroom. There were only two posters of famous male and female Earthling samurais, one on the wall across from each other.

Kawa recognized the Earthlings samurais as the ones in the news a few years ago. They died together trying to find one of Martian spies, which unfortunately resulted in the mission failure, but the citizens of Earth still admired and honored them anyway.

However, it triggered another chain of accusations. Mars accused Earth of defamation while claiming that there was no such thing as a Martian spy. Earth, on the other hand, pointed her finger at how many spies Mars sent there and was able to prove that it was true by showing their Martian prisoners.

That was when the mess started. There was a sudden terrorist attack on the Earthling prison which only consisted of Martian prisoners, killing them all. The accusations grew from there as the war did. This all happened while the other districts were watching the whole ridiculous drama between Mars and Earth.

“Hn,” Kawa simply said as he placed his duffel bag on his bed. Just as he began unpacking, he heard the rather loud announcement.

“DARK FURY, PLEASE REPORT TO THE BRIDGE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I REPEAT…”

Kawa did not even need to hear it twice. He abandoned whatever he was doing and then immediately went to meet the other Dark Fury members, only to find Shiro tapping his impatient foot on the hard floor.

The Earthling samurai made a few brief glances at Shiro. He had never met another Asian other than his own family before. He was wondering if he was Chinese? Or Korean?

“What the hell are you staring at me for?” Shiro snapped out of annoyance.

“Sorry,” Kawa quickly said. “It’s just… I’ve never seen another Asian in my life before. Besides my family, I mean.”

Shiro did not say anything else. He stopped tapping his foot a little while ago, but he had this obvious look on his face that told Kawa that if they were going to wait any second longer, then James and others would be in serious trouble.

“Um,” Kawa was about to say something but stopped when Shiro gave him a hateful glare. “What do you have against me?”

“You?” Shiro scoffed at him. “Why does every Earthling think it’s all about themselves? Why, of course! You dragged us into your war so that you would not lose to Mars!”

“Dragged? There was a treaty agreement between Earth and Moon!” Kawa snapped but then tried to calm himself down. “Look, we are on the same team now. Can’t just put this behind us and focus on the mission they plan to give us?”

“Treaty agreement my ass! There was no such thing as one! You stole our people!” Shiro put his hand on the handle of his katana, about to draw it only to get interrupted.

“Hey, hey!” James yelled in concern after he entered the living room with Matt, Alex, and Jessica. “What the hell is going on? Another fight between Earthling and Lunan?”

“Ask him if you want to. I know no more than you do.” Kawa shrugged his shoulders. “Now that we are all here, I’m going to the bridge if you are interested in joining the walk with me. They aren’t going to wait any longer for us.”

“Kawa.” James quickly caught up with his new friend. “What the hell just happened? We were just getting along fine!”

Kawa sighed lightly, placing his palm on his face. “No matter how much we get along, there’s still… a tension between Earth and Moon.”

“Right…” James said softly. “But, all we can do right now is to move forward, right? I know it had been a few years since we became allies, but at the same time, some of us despised each other, you know.”

“Look, you don’t have to hide anything. I know your district sent some of their best warriors to us, but… that isn’t stealing at all.”

“I know,” James smiled at him, patting on Kawa’s stumped back. “As long as we work together without any distraction, we will be fine! I’m pretty sure Shiro knows the consequences of the mission if we are not able to work together.”

“Hey, what are you guys whispering about? You’re acting like you are best friends or something like that!” Matt yelled from behind but never got any response from the new best friends.

~EARTHxMARS~

“Welcome to Limitless. We are pleased to have you boarding one of our strongest spaceships.” A grey-bearded man stood up from the large round table, taking off his black cap. “My name is Admiral Marco De Luca. Please call me Admiral Luca.”

“Hello! Name’s Captain Eric Lawrence! I’m the co-captain of Limitless. It’s my pleasure to meet you! I heard so much about you from Captain Williams!”

After introducing each of the new Dark Fury members and a few more lieutenants and commanders, they got down to business already.

“First of all, I would like to say this directly to you. Be prepared for the surprise of your life.” Admiral Luca was pressing the buttons that were being displayed on the table. A hologram of some kind of large spaceship appeared above the table for everyone to see.

“What is this?” Jessica asked.

Kawa widened his eyes in shock. He would always recognize this kind of spaceship anywhere. “Is this an Europan spaceship?”

“What?” James asked, turning to Kawa.

“Yes, that’s right,” Admiral Luca nodded his head yes. “You’re smart, Mr. Takayama. I like you already.”

“No, that’s not it. I… I had seen this before,” Kawa said softly. “My father and I were trying to escape, and… this spaceship… it was that thing which killed my father.”

“I’m so sorry to hear about that.” Admiral Luca shook his head sadly. “That was 10 years ago, correctly? Everyone was trying to run away from Terra City, but about fifty percent of them died at the hands of Martians… as well as Europans.”

“But didn’t Europans say that they were only helping Martians with resources and weapons… not like… you know, attacking us?” Alex asked.

“And, that’s why we can’t trust Mars and Europa anymore.” Captain Williams joined the conversation. “They are trying to get rid of Lord Terra of Earth and Lady Sabrina of Moon. There’s no way that we can ever allow them to get what they want.”

“It doesn’t make any sense.” Shiro shook his head furiously. “What does Moon have anything to do with the war? Why do Mars and Europa want to eliminate us?”

“Moon and Europa have history together a few decades ago, but of course you weren’t born back then,” said Admiral Luca. “But now, back to the mission. Now that you know this spaceship is out there in the Asteroid Belt, guarding Jupiter’s territory line. We don't know the exact reason why they are helping Mars, but we know for sure that they had been killing not only our samurais but also citizens who just wanted to visit Mars for their vacations."

"And, that's when you come into the picture." Captain Williams joined his hands together at the round table. "Your mission is to break into that --" He pointed at the hologram of the Europan spaceship. "--and get to the the server room. Now, Jessica, do you see the reason why we chose you?"

"Yes. I used to work for one of Earth's most dangerous hacker organizations." Jessica toppled her toes a little bit while looking down at the floor, as if she was ashamed of her past. "Out of thousands of hackers you could have chosen, you got me out of the prison and enrolled me into the program?"

"It was Lady Sabrina who chose you." Admiral Luca gave her a shrug as well as a small smile. "You can't be as bad as we thought you were, yes?"

"Whoa, Jess!" James exclaimed. "We have a girl hacker from Moon? Wait a minute. If she was from Earth, then why did Lady...?"

"We do not dare to question Lady Sabrina, Miles." Captain Williams gave him a scornful look. "You know better than that. Please respect our Lady.”

“I apologize, sir.” James looked away from the Captain out of embarrassment. He did not mean to overact this way, but it was not his fault! He was as surprised at Lady Sabrina’s odd actions as others, including the lieutenants and commanders. At least they knew not to say anything. As long as they trusted their Lady, they were bound to get an explanation eventually. Only if they did not die.

“So, here, we have a hacker who must be protected at any cost,” Admiral Luca said. “First, we will send out as many as we can in order to distract the enemies. When the right time comes, I will give you a signal.”

The new Dark Fury members waited patiently as the Lunan Admiral was typing on the keyboard display which was shown on the clear see-through table. They watched the samurais from both sides charging at and fighting each other, trying to slice down others.

The hologram of the Limitless was just standing by, at least until it began shooting some kind of smoke bombs.

“That’s the signal.” Admiral Luca nodded his head at the dark smoke that covered the whole space area between two large spaceships. “You will be able to sneak into the enemy’s spaceship much easier that way. After getting in Jove, Europa’s own spaceship, that’s when you will be split up into three groups of two people. For the first group, Alex, the medic, will be with Jessica for the whole time. You will go straight to the server room where you can receive information about the enemy.

“The second group consists of Shiro and Matt who will ensure that no enemy comes to harm Alex and Jessica. You will be guarding the server room. You have my permission to kill anybody who saw you. And…”

Admiral Luca turned to the last two remaining Dark Fury samurais. “Kawa and James, you will be separated from your comrades. You will need to go to the engine room and start destroying everything. Go wild if you want to. Without the engine, their spaceship won’t be able to fly anymore -- yet even better, they won’t be able to attack as well. Their defense will be down. And that will be our first victory ever.”

“And then, we will go straight to Mars.” Captain Williams added. “If we take out the Mars Lord, then we will turn against Europa. That’s if we find evidence that they have been assisting Mars in the war. But for now, we focus on this mission. Any questions?”

~EARTHxMARS~

“What the hell is your problem?”

“Hey, hey…” Kawa was trying to calm down Matt who was shaking his fork in the air angrily at Shiro. “We are the team now. There’s no need to fight right now. We need to prepare for the upcoming mission. It will be anytime now!”

“Let me go! I’m kicking his ass!”

“Airheads.” Shiro scoffed at them. “I bet that you are not man enough to,” He did the quote mark-in-the-air gesture, “Kick my ass.”

“Once a thief, always a thief!” Alex slammed his palms on the dining table, catching other samurais’ curious attentions. “You took away our land and resources!”

Shiro got up from the table faster than you could say Limitless, getting all into Alex’s face. “Thief? You stole and used our people for your war. You may hate us, but you need us. It’s a pity for an Earthling like you.”

“Your people threatened to drop a moon rock onto our home!” Matt shouted angrily.

“Stop it, guys!” Jessica slammed her tray onto the table hard, tossing her food. “We weren’t even there during the small war between Earth and Moon! It was, what, fifty years ago? We don’t have any reason to hate each other anymore!”

Shortly after the Limitless spaceship took off, it was already dinnertime. The cafeterias had been open for a while, so most samurais went there for quick meals before it was time for their training sessions.

There was still some tension between the Earthling and Lunan samurais, but it was not as bad as the Dark Fury samurais.

“Whatever. I’m out of here.” Matt jerked out of Kawa’s grip. “I’m going to the training arena if you need me.”

“I’m joining you!” Alex grabbed his own food tray and quickly caught up with Matt after throwing away food.

“Matt --” Kawa stopped when he felt James’s strong hand on his shoulder.

“Just let it go.” James shook his head in disappointment. “There’s nothing we can do at this point.”

“You’re still here?” Shiro rolled his dark eyes when Kawa sat back down at the table.

“Yeah. I’m not done with eating. Problem?” Kawa gave him a knowing smirk.

James almost sighed in relief when Shiro did not say anything. He still did not want the recent argument to emerge soon again so he changed the topic. “So, are you going to the training arena after the meal as well?”

“Nah. I think I’m going to take shower and go straight to bed instead.” Jessica said almost cheerfully. “I’ll go to the training session in the morning instead. I will need my strength.”

“I’m up for it if you are interested, James,” said Kawa after taking a bite of white rice.

“Great!” James said cheerfully. “I can’t wait for another spar with you, Kawa! Finally, I have a battle to really look forward to!”

Jessica laughed cutely, at least that was how it sounded to James. She stood up with the food tray in her hands. “I’m returning to my room. Enjoy your sword fight!”

“Will do!” James waved his hand. “So, are you going now, Kawa?”

“Yes.” Kawa took one last bite of… was it meatloaf? Whatever, as long as it was food to him, he did not care what it was.

~EARTHxMARS~

“UNKNOWN OBJECT DETECTED WITHIN THE RANGE OF 5,000 KILOMETERS. UNKNOWN OBJECT DETECTED...” Loud computer voice kept repeating the same thing over and over.

“What the fuck? Can’t someone go to the bridge and do something about that fucking computer?” Alex said sleepily, yet angrily. He tried to stuff his head into his own pillow.

Kawa stretched out his arms. He had to go to the restroom anyway, so he made his way to the living room when he found James and Matt there.

“It woke you up too?” James gave him a big grin. “Sooner or later, there will be an announcement.”

“It looks like our mission will start much sooner than we think.” Matt shrugged his shoulders. “The sooner it starts, the sooner it ends as well.”

“Think it’s that spaceship we are supposed to go to?” James asked, but he only received another lazy shrug from Matt.

Kawa was about to open his mouth when he was interrupted by a loud announcement.

“All samurais of Sora, please report to the dock as soon as possible. Your superior will inform you of your new mission. I repeat, all samurais of Sora, please report to the dock as soon as possible…”

The Dark Fury samurais quickly got dressed up in the usual Earthling and Lunan samurai outfits and met in the living room.

“All ready?” James asked as he took one more look at his new team members. After nods from the team, he slammed his fist on his other palm. “Good! We have to hurry up and go to --”

Before they knew it, they were being tossed around through the air, along with the furniture, right after loud crashes and explosions all the way from the other side of the Limitless.

“What the fuck just happened?” Shiro yelled in pain. There was a cut on his head already, and it could not stop bleeding at all.

Alex rushed to him and poured a large amount of alcohol onto Shiro’s head, getting loud screams. “You’re all good!”

“Fuck you so much, asshole!” Shiro shouted in anger.

“Guys!” James snapped before he turned to Kawa. “What do you think just happened?”

“They started attacking us,” whispered Kawa.

~TO BE CONTINUED~