Several military personnel emerged from the smoke. They were all armed to the teeth with special ops gear. They walked and stood beside Chase whose eyes were locked onto Mwene. The hunt was over. He had won. One of the soldiers radioed in a helicopter whose engine triumphantly roared somewhere in the smoke-filled sky. A single tear rolled down Mwene’s grimy face. This was the end.

The same soldier kept on talking on the radio as Chase lit a cigarette as he quietly celebrated a job well down. The rest of the soldiers shook each other’s hands and patted each other on their backs. An ear-shattering boom shattered the soldier’s revelry quickly followed by the wails of the helicopter’s engine. The metal bird crashed behind the men before the its main blades emerged through the toxic black fumes spinning furiously reducing the men that stood in its way into a thick mist of red. Chase was cut in half right by his hip and by his neck. His head shot up straight into the air.

The helicopter grinded it way towards him along the wet ground. Its blades of death began to slow down but were still lethal. Mwene smirked as he looked death right in the eye. At least he fought to the bitter end was the only thought that ran through his mind. The blades struck the ground sending shrapnel flying in all directions which significantly slowed it down further. If he could clench his jaw, he would but all he could do was watch his fate. The helicopter finally crawled to a halt with a single jagged edge a mere hair’s width from his eye.

“Fuckin’ hell.” Said a familiar voice

“Gently put him on the platform” informed another.

Mwene was placed on a stretcher and was greeted by a worried Nike shining a flashlight in his eye for a brief moment.

“Don’t worry. We got you”

Those three last words served as an anchor for his mind that was drifting away on the sea of hopelessness. The spark to reignite his passion. He wasn’t dead, as long as he had his friends and the stars there was always a chance to fight.

Inyanga and Nike hurriedly placed Mwene in the back of a dated tank, its gun was still smoking. Nike placed a gel patch, the size of his hand, onto his bloodied leg, then started to scan him with a medical tool. Inyanga kept on cursing under his breath whilst hand Nike the tools he requested.

“His heartrate is low and his spine is broken but there’s brain activity. The gel IV is functional but he’s completely paralyzed.” Noted Nike with a hint of concern.

The tank jerked into motion. All around Mwene he could hear multiple vehicles and a helicopter or two that pursued them.

“Will he live?”

“He’ll…. Hold on….”

Nike held the scanner in his hand perplexed at what he was reading. The vision in Mwene’s blinded eye began to restore. The darkness had now been replaced with an extremely opaque vision but it was vision nonetheless.

“His heartrate is beginning to rise. Slowly but surely.”

The tank gun went off which shook the tank. Nike and Inyanga held on to whatever was bolted down until it’s rocking stopped. In the distance Mwene could make out indistinct shouting and the occasional bullet bouncing off the shell. The military were persistent.

“Always read about Arda hiding technology from us. Never thought I’d live to see the day we use it against them.” Nike muttered to himself.

“What goes around comes around I suppose. We’re ‘bout 20 k’s out.” Inyanga observed after he glanced at the central console above the driver’s seat.

Mwene sense of touch began to return to him. He once again felt the familiar cold on his face and body. Blood soaked his clothes to his skin. He had been baptized by the blood of his cousin, who had been reduced to ashes by one man. The intoxicating thoughts of revenge flooded his veins and his medallion began to smoke. Inyanga cursed as Mwene’s entire body began to spasm and contorted.

Bones broke themselves repeatedly as his body twisted around itself. Mwene felt the pain as his body broke itself again and again but it didn’t distract him from the fact that he had only one person in his mind: Chase. It didn’t matter that he saw him die. He wanted to grab his head and utterly destroy it with every fibre of his being. He closed his eyes and envisioned himself crushing it and felt the bones break as the blood seeped through his fingers. Nothing else mattered except for that.

The tank halted but Nike and Inyanga didn’t notice. They watched silently as they watched Mwene heal himself. He was perfect with no scars or no blemishes. Only his black, brown and red clothes were evidence that he had been through hell. Nike held out his scanner and after he read the findings looked directly at Inyanga and nodded. Inyanga took the cigarette from behind his ear and lit it and lost himself in his own mind. Nike read through his readings repeatedly but no words came out. He felt that no words could even articulate what he had witnessed. He told the rest of them earlier what he had seen and they were understandably skeptical. Mwene snapped his eyes gasped and broke the silence of the tank.

“Easy, easy.”

“Where…where is he?” demanded Mwene as he tried to sit up. His body was heavily fatigued in spite of the IV.

“Who?” Inyanga

“Cha…. Chase.” Mwene locked eyes with Nike who knew exactly what Mwene meant.

“He’s dead.”

“I want his head” hissed Mwene

“You fuckin’ crazy innit? We literally committed treason and ya want to kick a dead body? Grow up” Inyanga got up and sat into the driver’s seat and began to read interact with control panel all the while shaking his head while muttering to himself under his breath.

“Right now, we have bigger things to solve. Vengeance only guarantees two graves. Yours and theirs.” Nike looked straight at Mwene who began to calm down. He looked down and away and wished the earth could shallow him. He never let his anger get the best of him until now.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know but now isn’t the time. Where are we E?”

“We made it back and there’s no one for bout 5k’s.”

Mwene turned back and raised his eyebrow.

“Wait who was driving if you were back here?”

“The ship’s A.I. Like you she’s more than what meets the eye.” Inyanga smiled back at him while he pointed to a black box that was attached to the steering wheel. A small wire emerged from it and disappeared through the gaps on the floor underneath the acceleration pedal.

“She told us what to do and helped us find you. She’s also helping the girls get the ship back online.” Explained Nike.

“Ya did a mighty good job with her. Now that we have you it’s time to touch the sky and beyond don’t ya reckon”

Mwene smiled back.

“Let’s do this.”

The military swept through the park. The debris littered the park. It’s once lush, green grass were now black and burnt and only ash. Smoke on the wreckage rose into the air and danced with breeze. A single soldier walked through the crowd of hundreds of soldiers with a briefcase to a large medical tent. Inside men and women were trying to piece together what remained of the soldier’s bodies. The soldier handed the case to the only researcher who wore a hazmat suit. He placed it on a table and opened it to reveal Chase’s head in a glass jar in a blue green liquid. The cut was clean and his head was unharmed. The jar was carefully placed on a table underneath a mobile and modified U.D.S. which had seven arms of varying sizes and appendages.

“There’s still brain activity. Prep the replacement.” Instructed the lead researcher after analysing the readings on a portable table he was using as two others brought forward a large, opaque case and stood it upright. With a couple of taps on his tablet the case became transparent revealing a headless body. It was chiselled to perfection, standing at two metres tall it towered over everyone in the tent and most of the soldiers. It was the physical standard that most men strived for but few even came close to achieving let alone matching. A body that even the gods of old envied, a body fit for the a hunt across the stars.