Blaze of glory

The dimly light plane shakes with turbulence. The interior isn’t much better than the rusty exterior. The seats were tight together with only a small aisle in between. No one would have been surprised to see parts held together with duct tape. The twenty men mumble to each other occasionally, many of them had not met before today. They were on a fairly delicate mission to take out a war criminal and the tribe working with him, somewhere Niger. The intercom broke the near silence “We will be approaching our destination in a half hour. Please make sure you have all your luggage when you disembark.” The pilot said. Jace Axel, a dark red headed drifter looking guy snickered. Sean McKaan, one of the few with a shaved head, also had a bullet dangling from a chain, not far from Jace, rolled his eyes. The men settle in but Jace seems too hyped up, knowing they were close to wherever they are going. “Are we ready to take on this Wu Tang Clan?” Jace called out, the two men on either side of him groan and collapse in their seats. “It’s Wutonga Clan you duffus.” Sean grumbled, not caring for the jokes. Jace scoffs and says “I know that, I’m just trying to have a little fun.” “You’re in the wrong place for fun.” Sean said back, still with almost no emotion. “Excuse me for being human.” Jace said. Carlo, the youngest of the bunch had been chewing on something the whole time. He leans his head back and closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. Danial Ross, a man sporting a thin mustache, fiddles with a medallion in between his fingers. A thump is heard from the back of the plain. Everyone looks toward it. General William Savage, enters, his face showing the damage from multiple battles. “Wake up gentlemen, keep alert.” he said and they all sit up straight. Savage walked down the small hall between the two lines of men and finds an empty seat where he buckles himself in.

The men talk about what brought them there individually. Typical army guy responses from everyone. Carlo is crazy mellow and unless talking you might not even know he’s there. He could probably easily sneak up on anyone which would likely come in handy. Sean went through extensive sniper training before coming to this war. Danial was one of those schoolyard trouble makers who was put into military camp to give him an attitude adjustment. Jace showed he was a bit of a hot head when another solder accidently berated his home town baseball team, he didn’t hear the end of that for ten minutes.

The landing in Zimbabwe is far from smooth but at least the plane held together. Once at their destination, Gen. Savage lead them off the plain and they all lined up, Norman Cludd, wearing glasses and a doctor’s coat was there. He had met William and proposed a deal. William called some other generals and other officials to see this new wonder drug. Savage stood beside Norman and glared at the men. He could see most of them were still out of shape, some had minor injuries. Their papers showed nearly all of them were on the verge of failing out for stupidity, inability, insubordination. This was a pathetic bunch. “None of you have been selected for any particular achievement.” William told them outright “You've been selected for your willingness to participate. The Wutonga Clan is unmatched in strength and intelligence here in this country. But the U.S has one thing on our side superior to any country. Science. For the few of you that pass through basic training and psych evaluations, you will be changed and used as tools to serve your country. Are you all prepared for the challenge?” He asked, they didn’t seem too enthusiastic “We’re going to quickly run through a few basic drills to make sure you bums are qualified.” he bellowed. The men all look at each other and back at the general, grumbling with annoyance. “Get a move on!” Savage said “Give me a lap around the camp.”

Throughout the run and other parts of the drill, Carlo seemed to just appear behind everyone causing them to freak out. Sean watches as Jace gives him a little shit for ‘sneaking up on him’. Sean scoffs as he looks around at the other men, many of which are worn out. “What the hell am I doing here with these washouts?” he asked to himself. He walks over to Danial and two others who are in mid conversation. “I thought this was a time sensitive mission.” Bruno, with the crooked nose, said “Why put us through all this crap that we’ve already done?” he asked, they all shook their heads in agreement. It did seem like a waste of time, Sean thought, most of them shouldn’t have even passed boot camp, it seemed. Savage came out of the barracks carrying the clipboard and the conversation stopped, all the men line up looking anxious. “Jace Axle and Danial Ross.” William called out and they stepped forward. “Come with me.” William said turning away, he walks to an opening to an underground facility. Sean looks irritated as all the men remain in line with puzzled looks.

Norman takes them inside where he explains about an experiment to improve upon them. “I have spent many a years developing something that will essentially make you super solders.” He said. What they didn’t know was that was a complete lie, someone far more qualified created it. Norman stole it. “You will be doing your country a great service if you allow me to proceed with this experiment on you…gentlemen.” They could see a science lab just past what looked like a medical area, with beakers of some green and blue liquids. They were strapped into a gurney, Danial was a little nervous but also really excited because he was a huge comic fan and now he was going to be like one of the heroes he read about. Jace asked question after question as he was being strapped “What exactly are you going to do? Are there going to be shocks? Or some kind of serum injected into us? You’ve tested this before right?” the doctor simply stated “There must be a first time for everything.” Before putting him under the gas. Now that they were silent, Norman proceeded to the next step. Though he had stolen the final product, he had to prove to everyone watching, including himself, that he could recreate the process. He mixed the two liquids and went to a mini-freezer, he took out a metal container added a drop of some neon glowing purple goo from it. He reprocessed it all together and filled the needles with the combination.

From overhead, General Savage and other government officials watch from the observation deck. One of the government officials reaches forward and pats General Savage on the back. The General hides his discomfort. If they knew this man had stolen the formula, they would never go along with this. “What you're doing here is truly remarkable. We're going to win this war.” The official said. “Forget this war.” Savage said “It’s hardly important. We are going to win every war for the foreseeable future.” The other men concurred, they liked the sound of that.

Elsewhere, Azrial Wutonga, a fit, long haired, fierce looking man commends his army. They all wear fatigues or dark cloths. They fully control two small countries and are already on the verge of taking the surrounding area. And everyone living on their land was in fear. He gives his men the typical ‘we are united, we will crush our enemies’ speech. They are working on gaining more money and weaponry. Bo Kuraketsu, who had a shaved head and was much burlier than the others, cleans his guns, the large mounted machine gun sitting behind him is well maintained. Azrial is pleased to see his man so eager to eliminate their enemies. He goes over to Kawalczyk, a younger guy with a unique pattern shaved into his head and a spiked goatee. Bo had brought him into the tribe some time ago, and now he was one of the most trusted by Azrial. Kawalczyk says to him “Soon your vision will be reality, the other tribes where fools to try and oppose you.” Azrial smiles “Aren’t you glad you’re not one of them anymore?” they laugh together.