AIM : Chapter 26
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AIM Chapter 26: To Be Deliberately Chaotic
"Die....."
Mutale stood in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by Twazwe soldiers.
"I'm not the one dying here .....I'm the one sending each and every one of you to your deaths."
His voice was aggressive and heated.
The fifteen Twazwe soldiers immediately raised their weapons, each one pointing directly at him.
One of them stepped forward slightly.
"You've come to the wrong part of the battlefield."
He pulled the trigger.
BYOOOMMM BOOOOMMMM!!!
A powerful blast charged directly toward Mutale.
But Mutale didn't move.
He simply stood there, watching the incoming attack.
The intense light from the blast reflected inside his eyes as it rapidly approached him.
---
"WATCH OUT!"
Matimba's voice immediately snapped Khumalo's attention back to the battlefield.
Khumalo quickly maneuvered his body and dodged the incoming attack.
VYOOOOO SHOOOO!!!
The attack passed dangerously close to them.
"THAT WAS CLOSE!"
Khumalo yelled.
Matimba looked behind them.
"Close enough.... there's still more coming!"
She pointed toward two missiles approaching them.
The two missiles moved in a strange spiral formation, one directly behind the other as they twisted through the air.
Khumalo looked at them.
"I'LL MOVE, YOU SHOOOT!"
He suddenly spun through the air in a spiral maneuver, narrowly avoiding the first missile.
But the missiles weren't normal.
They had sensors. ( Movement detectors)
The moment they detected Khumalo's movement, they changed direction.
They followed.
Khumalo's expression changed.
"MATIMBA!!!!"
He continued dodging, moving through another spiral-like formation while trying to keep himself within Matimba's range.
Matimba immediately understood what he was doing.
She adjusted herself to match his movement.
For a brief moment, the two moved almost perfectly together.
BAHHHH! BAHHHH! BAHHHHH!!!
Matimba fired.
BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!
The missiles exploded in midair.
A massive explosion expanded across the battlefield.
Khumalo immediately accelerated.
"HANG ONNNN!!!!"
He flew upward as quickly as possible, trying to get away from the expanding explosion.
But then—
FYOOOO!!!
A Twazwe drone suddenly appeared from the smoke.
Khumalo didn't have enough time to react.
BOOOOM!!!
The drone collided with him.
The explosion wasn't massive, but it was enough to throw both of them off balance.
Matimba lost her grip.
"MATIMBA!"
Khumalo yelled.
She fell.
Khumalo was dizzy.
A sharp ringing sound filled his ears, making it difficult to think properly.
But he forced himself to move.
He pushed himself downward.
"Faster."
"Faster."
He entered the huge cloud of dust and smoke beneath them.
For a moment, he disappeared completely.
Then—
Khumalo emerged from the smoke.
Matimba was in his arms.
Both of them coughed.
"Cough... cough... cough..."
Matimba looked at him.
"That was close..... thanks."
Khumalo was still slightly dizzy, but he managed to remain in the air.
"I can't let you die ..not after he promised us that he wasn't gonna let us die."
For a moment, neither of them said anything.
They looked at each other while the war continued around them.
Gunfire.
Battle cries.
Missiles.
Pillars of smoke rising from the battlefield.
Explosions going off in the distance.
Matimba stared at him.
"Mutale will kill you if you keep looking at me like that."
Khumalo immediately looked away.
"HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE YOUU , NEITHER DO I ... DON'T GET THE WRONG IDEAH!"
His voice became louder than necessary as he tried to hide the blush forming on his face.
Matimba narrowed her eyes.
"Hmmmm."
She gave him a suspicious look.
Khumalo avoided eye contact.
---
Meanwhile, the Zambian reinforcements finally entered the battlefield.
They moved rapidly across the field, their fluid-like copper gear shifting with every movement.
ZHAP! ZHAP! ZHAHHH! SWOOOSHHH!
The soldiers moved through the battlefield with incredible speed.
Enemy forces were taken down almost instantly as the reinforcements maneuvered around explosions and incoming attacks.
One injured soldier watched them approach while barely managing to remain standing.
"Reinforcements..."
He looked at them carefully.
"Or maybe the enemy."
One of the reinforcement soldiers approached him and reached out his hand.
"Reinforcements."
He placed a green-lit tracker onto the injured soldier.
"10 of us are here on the field."
He looked around before continuing.
"This is to insure ...that those barely able to keep going...are rescued out of here."
He looked toward the battlefield.
"That also includes anyone we find dead."
The injured soldier looked down at the tracker.
"Thank you."
His voice was low and rough.
The reinforcement soldier nodded.
"RIGHT!!!"
ZWOOOSHHHH!!!
He immediately moved back into the battlefield.
---
Back at the Zambian Defense Tent, Mr. Zimba watched the holographic screen intently.
The battlefield continued changing every few seconds.
Another transmission came through.
Transmission: "Matimba, Khumalo... in about 45 seconds..... I'll give you the coordinated maneuver...to move....and attack....."
Khumalo's exhausted voice came through.
"45 seconds can feel like forever up here."
Matimba spoke immediately after him.
"I'm with him ...I'm Soo tired."
Mr. Zimba looked at the battlefield display.
Transmission: "Everything will be fine .... follow my instructions....I think I might as well have just found the missing chess piece."
A short pause followed.
Khumalo: "Okay."
The transmission cut.
The grey-haired man standing beside Zimba looked toward him.
Grey-haired Man: "To believe you've actually agreed to use a minor portion of my plan."
Mr. Zimba remained silent.
The grey-haired man looked at him.
"Hm."
---
Meanwhile, inside the Twazwe Defense Tent, their commander strategist stood before the holographic battlefield.
His eyes remained fixed on the display.
"There trying to break the wall I see."
He studied the movement of the Zambian forces.
"Just as I expected."
The tent entrance opened.
The soldier in the blue suit entered, accompanied by his injured comrades.
The Twazwe commander general turned toward them.
"You failed to do as you were told, huh."
The man in the blue suit looked down.
"We weren't a match for them...."
The commander general frowned.
"In what way?"
He stepped closer.
"I gave you gear more than capable enough to take 50 men down."
The man in the blue suit remained quiet for a moment.
"One of them ...had enhanced abilities..."
His expression became more serious.
"He literally summoned portals big enough to consume an entire island."
A flashback entered his mind.
Makhaza.
"I'm not done yet."
The commander strategist looked at him.
"You have enhanced abilities too....why didn't you use them?"
The man in the blue suit said nothing.
The commander stared at him.
"If we failed to break through and into the border.....you and I both well know that we'll be dead."
His voice lowered.
"The federation won't be happy about this."
He turned back toward the battlefield.
"Anyway...I'm sending you back in ...as well as with 300 more reinforcements."
His eyes remained fixed on the holographic display.
"This wall can't be broken no matter what."
The man in the blue suit silently listened.
He looked at his injured comrades.
"Sir....we can't go back out there."
The commander strategist ignored him.
The man's hands slowly clenched into fists.
His teeth gritted.
I've always hated the fact that his silence has always stung me so much...
He remained silent.
The commander continued.
"We have no other choice."
He stared at the battlefield.
"We just have to keep fighting....even if it's aimlessly...we have to expand Twazwe territory no matter what."
---
Back on the battlefield, Mutale remained surrounded.
Fifteen Twazwe soldiers stood around him with their weapons pointed directly at his body.
There was silence.
For some reason, there was hesitation in the air.
Mutale's heart was beating faster with every passing second.
Yet his breathing remained calm.
His posture didn't change.
One of the soldiers looked at him.
"Why's he just standing there?"
Mutale remained silent.
Another soldier looked at him.
"He's just here to die....let's shoot him and continue progression."
Mutale continued staring.
"Die..."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Or be killed.....make a choice."
The soldiers looked at each other.
One of them frowned.
"What...?????"
Mutale repeated himself.
"Die ....or be killed..... make a choice."
The soldiers became irritated.
"Let's kill him."
They raised their weapons.
Mutale stood completely still.
"Die....."
He looked at them.
"I'm not the one dying here .....I'm the one sending each and every one of you to your deaths."
The Twazwe soldiers immediately raised their weapons.
Fifteen weapons.
Fifteen soldiers.
One target.
One of them fired.
"You've come to the wrong part of the battlefield."
BYOOOMMM BOOOOMMMM!!!
A direct blast charged straight toward Mutale.
Mutale remained still.
The intense rays reflected in his eyes.
Then—
BYOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
The blast struck.
An explosion erupted.
Smoke swallowed the area.
One of the soldiers suddenly screamed.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
He looked down.
His arm was gone.
"How in the—"
Before he could finish, Mutale moved.
His body disappeared.
He moved at an insane speed, knocking out five of the fifteen soldiers before they could even fire their weapons.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
None of them could properly comprehend what was happening.
Mutale was simply too fast.
Another soldier fired.
BYOOOOOM BOOOOOMM!!!
The blast hit Mutale directly.
The force of the attack sent him flying roughly 400 meters away from the soldiers.
The remaining Twazwe soldiers stared into the distance.
"Did that get him?"
Nobody answered immediately.
Another soldier narrowed his eyes.
"I don't know..."
They all looked toward the distant smoke.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then a figure slowly moved.
Mutale pushed himself up from the ground.
He stood.
The soldiers stared.
"How is he still alive?"
Mutale slowly raised his head.
His eyes widened.
A piercing glare locked onto them from across the battlefield.
And for the first time, the soldiers understood that whatever they had just attacked...
wasn't going to stay down.
To Be Continued...