Kapitel 2: Chapter 1 - Jou ma se...
Date : 5 February 2020
Location: Mozambique, [REDACTED], [REDACTED]
Being alone at night in the middle of a rainforest is a truly unsettling experience. The cold, rain-soaked air seeps into your bones, and all your heart desires is some form of warmth. But the brain knows all too well that the only warmth to be found in this place might come from the jaws of a creature—if it wasn't poisonous enough to kill you, then it definitely had the strength to do it.
There was something wrong with anyone who would choose to live in such conditions, without plumbing, without civilization, in the heart of Mozambique no less.
"Iron Jackal, this is Bravo 1-1. We are in position. Awaiting your orders, Copy?" came the quiet, controlled voice over the radio.
These kinds of people didn't care about the rainforest's malaria-infested mosquitoes or the suffocating heat that might drive one to bathe in its contaminated waters, just to feel something other than their skin burning. No, none of that mattered.
It made sense, though. This particular rainforest had a reputation for attracting the worst of the worst humanity had to offer—terrorists, criminals, mercenaries. You name it, the rainforest absorbed them, like an alcoholic accepting a donated liver.
And the more it attracted, the harder it became for the government to clean up the mess.
Thankfully, whether out of the goodness of their hearts or for their own hidden motives, there were those who couldn't stand by and watch Mozambique rot under the control of warlords and insurgents.
"I repeat, Iron Jackal, this is Bravo 1-1. We are in position. Awaiting your orders. Copy?"
One of these groups was the 31st Rapid Response and Engineering Regiment, the elite South African Special Forces unit known as the 31st RRE.
Their mission was clear: locate and neutralize one of the most dangerous Islamic insurgent groups in Mozambique, Al-Tawid. This group had ties to Boko Haram and ISIS, but unlike those two, Al-Tawid operated more discreetly, often working like a shadowy version of the CIA—for the right price. The only condition? You had to be an Islamic insurgent.
The 31st RRE had been tasked with finding and eliminating them. The rules of engagement? Simple: shock and awe.
Leading the regiment was Major Vusi van Doodmaak, also known as Iron Jackal. He stood in a prefabricated shelter, his eyes fixed on the monitors displaying live footage from his operators in the field. Vusi's large, almost feline pupils scanned the screens, searching for any signs of Al-Tawid's hideout, but nothing stood out.
Despite his focus, something wasn't right. His instincts told him they were close, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
"Captain Thando, what was the intel on these guys again?" Vusi asked, his voice calm but edged with suspicion as he glanced at his right-hand officer, a strikingly composed woman in her mid-twenties.
Without missing a beat, Captain Thando replied, "The intel states Al-Tawid has been entrenched in the rainforest for months now and recently acquired enough weapons to supply a small government, Sir."
"'Recently'? On what date?" Vusi's brow arched, his face calm—eerily so.
"It doesn't say, Sir," Thando replied, not flinching, as she brought a classified file into Vusi's view. "The information's been redacted."
"Redacted?" Vusi's eyes narrowed, his voice barely a murmur as he stared at the file in disbelief. Special forces didn't receive redacted files—ever. The fact that he was seeing one now, especially for an operation he was leading, was beyond comprehension.
Thando, recognizing the shift in Vusi's demeanor, stepped back to her post, allowing him the space to process the situation. She knew this wasn't a test. Vusi wasn't the type to play games when things were serious.
He prided himself on being a hands-off leader until it was absolutely necessary to step in. And now, looking at his monitors, it was clear—he needed to step in. But with the new, suspicious information at hand, the question was: should he?
"Those are stupid questions," Vusi thought to himself as he took a deep breath. He glanced at Thando, who gave him a small nod, understanding him without needing words. Vusi returned his focus to the monitors, feeling the weight of the decision ahead.
"Damned if I do, damned if I don't," he murmured under his breath before addressing one of the communications specialists. "Recces, send a message to headquarters for me."
The specialist hesitated for a moment, confused, before replying, "Yes, Sir. What should I tell them?"
Vusi's eyes flashed with unflinching resolve as he growled, "Jou ma se..." The unbridled rage in Vusi's voice hung in the air, causing the specialist to freeze for a moment before looking toward Captain Thando for guidance.
But Thando didn't meet his gaze. Her hazel eyes remained locked on the monitors, deliberately ignoring the tension in the room. She knew the communications specialists was watching her, but pretended otherwise. That's when the specialist knew—this was the explosive end of their six-month deployment.
With that realization, he carried out the order.
Vusi, noticing the specialist was following through, turned his attention back to the monitors. The situation was clear—they had been compromised.
He couldn't deny it any longer. The constant presence of wildlife, the lack of man-made clearings for troop movements, and the absence of deforestation that would indicate the transportation of heavy weaponry, vehicles, or missiles—it all screamed at him that something wasn't right.
He pressed the comms button, his mind racing as he glanced at Thando one last time. She met his eyes and gave a nod, her way of letting him know she would stand by him, no matter the fallout. It was all the reassurance he needed.
"Bravo 1-1, this is Iron Jackal. Abort mission. Operation has been compromised. Abort mission. I repeat, abort mission." Vusi's words shot out like rapid-fire, each one carrying the weight of his certainty. On the ground, the operators wasted no time. A single hand signal from their leader sent the men retreating, moving cautiously but efficiently to avoid suspicion.
"Copy that, Bravo team aborting mission, now" the calm response came over the comms. Another hand signal, and the team began to melt back into the shadows, thankful they had escaped what was clearly a trap. For now, at least, they would live to fight another day.
But there was no relief for Vusi. Back at HQ, fury boiled beneath the surface. They had been compromised. Betrayed. The thought consumed him. There was no question about it now—they had been sold out.
What truly unsettled him, though, were the redacted files from HQ. Special forces never received redacted information. It was unheard of. If information had been altered or withheld, it meant sabotage—an inside job. Vusi's mind raced, trying to figure out who had orchestrated this betrayal and why.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden outburst. "What the—" a communications specialist exclaimed as the monitors went dark, their signals lost. All screens turned blue, snapping Vusi out of his internal storm.
Then the ground trembled.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
The explosions echoed from the distance, shaking the earth beneath their feet and stirring the nocturnal wildlife into a frenzy.
"Oh my God," Thando whispered, her voice hollow as she stared at the monitors. Her face was eerily calm, but her eyes betrayed a maelstrom of emotions—fear, betrayal, disbelief.
Everyone in the room shared the same gut-wrenching realization: the trap had already been sprung.
If Vusi had been furious before, now he was livid beyond words. The explosions had taken his operators—men who trusted him with their lives—and destroyed them in an instant. His rage was mirrored in the faces of his team in the command center. Vusi wanted nothing more than to find whoever was responsible, hunt them down, and make them pay—along with anyone they held dear. He'd mount their heads like trophies.
"Those bloody trai—" Vusi started to spit out, but before he could finish, everything went black.
A deafening explosion ripped through the command center. The improvised explosive devices (IED), cleverly hidden that 'never existed', wiped out the entire regiment. The 31st Rapid Response and Engineering Regiment, that were 'officially' missing in action since (MIA) 2019, was now presumed killed in action(KIA).
And Major Vusi "Iron Jackal" Doodmaak, despite all his achievements, would never officially exist. His name, like his regiment, would fade into the shadows, erased from history forever.
.....
A few moments later
There was another event that history would never record, something that defied all explanation. When Vusi died, a strange light shot out of his body. The light hovered over him for several minutes, joined by similar lights rising from the other bodies around him.
Then, a being appeared—a presence without any defined form or shape, its existence felt more than seen. It examined the lights, which were the souls of the dead, shifting its attention to each one in turn.
As the being began transforming the souls back into human forms, Vusi's soul started to change as well. But before it could complete the process, the soul vanished without a sound or explanation. In its place, a void appeared—an abyss of pure, impenetrable darkness. This darkness wasn't cold or terrifying, but timeless.
For Vusi's soul, it was as if time itself had stopped, even as it was moving at speeds beyond light, hurtling through the endless abyss.
Then, without warning, the soul came to an abrupt halt.
The sudden stop created a sound wave so powerful that it could have shattered the eardrums of any living being. As the soul hung there in the void, frozen yet conscious, the same formless being reappeared before it. This time, it spoke.
"Huh," the being said, its voice echoing through the emptiness. "You don't see that every day. Oh well, one less soul for me to manage."
The being began to fade again, muttering, "You can keep it." as it granted its permission. And with that, Vusi's soul was set into motion once more, racing through countless dimensions and timelines at impossible speeds. Finally, it came to a stop in a specific dimension, at a specific moment in timeline.
It was a timeline when a certain prince, one destined to change the history of his country forever, was about to die. The soul entered the prince's body, merging with it.
The prince already had a soul, but instead of rejecting the new arrival, the two souls fused together, forming a unique symbiotic relationship. The new soul could not exist without the prince's body, and the prince's soul became irrevocably linked to the newcomer.
What neither soul expected, however, was that this fusion would create something entirely new—a phenomenon with the power to alter the course of the dimension and its timeline forever.
....
Jou ma se : a derogatory phrase in Afrikaans that can be considered highly offensive, depending on the context and audience. It translates to something insulting about someone's mother, akin to profanity in English.
....
A/N : Quite a short chapter😅,
but I was trying to make sure people understood a bit about the main character.
As I realized that in the other one people hated the main character 🥲and I did not do my part to explain his personality that well. 😅
With this I hope you understand our current Mc, if not.
You got about over hundred chapters to understand 🫡
Enjoy😁
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein