Khan did not dare to rush to her father unarmed. She quickly equipped an exosuit from the armory of the military command center in the city of Romulus, before commanding a vehicle to take her and Zheng to her father’s homecare location.

After her father had gone into a coma many years ago, he had long been in a vegetative state. Despite the advancement of modern day medical technologies, no doctors had been able to identify exactly why Khan’s father had remained in this state of being.

It was only thanks to Zheng that Khan’s father had a group of healthcare providers overseeing his situation twenty-four-seven for many years, doing their best to maintain his physical body and its functions.

Khan arrived at the unit to discover signs of the door having been forcibly opened, its lock destroyed.

She and Zheng rushed in with pistols raised and the eight spider-arms of their exo-suits unfurled.

The smell of blood entered their helmets, and Khan inwardly despaired. Before her laid the dead bodies of the nurses that attended to her father. Khan had formed cordial relationships with these nurses. Their bodies all had their skulls crushed.

If not for that, there are many ways to heal wounds. Humans had long developed nanobots, placing these in their bodies to help limit and even somewhat repair injuries. However, once the skull and brain were destroyed, no technology was capable of saving a person.

Deep in her heart, Khan already knew that they were too late. Her heart filled with sorrow as she dashed towards the chambers of her father. Upon opening the door, she was shocked to discover the back silhouette of John Chapman!

She made a snap decision and immediately unloaded her pistol. Even if that meant angering the Kasvallian Republic, seeing as Chapman supposedly delivered resources with his visit, her father was far more important.

Chapman only wore a black suit, and the bullets easily pierced through the material and struck his body. The back of his suit was filled with bullet holes in just a few seconds!

With the man dealt with, Khan examined her father, only to discover that her father’s forehead had already been forcibly caved in. Her heart pounded erratically as she blinked back tears. She always knew that this day would come, seeing as her father had never woken up in all these years. Just not quite like this.

Sudden clarity entered her mind… all the recent events and the appearance of the Kasvallian Republic. Syned! Why couldn’t the doctors awaken her father all these years? It was ridiculous given the advancement of modern day technologies. The only possibility was that Syned had interfered! Manipulated the technology to provide false information to the medical workers!

That was the conclusion that Khan suddenly found her thoughts reaching for.

“Khan Khutulun!” Zheng’s use of her full name sent fear into her heart, and she instinctively wrapped her eight spider arms around her body as she turned her head.

Her life flashed before her eyes as the lunging form of Chapman was barely obstructed by the spider-arms!

Did he have a bullet-proof vest under the suit?

She pulled the trigger on her pistol again, aiming at Chapman’s head. Zheng also began firing, after adjusting his position sideways such that he would not accidentally hit Khan from behind.

One bullet after another struck Chapman’s face, yet none pierced through! A round even entered Chapman’s lips, yet the man remained standing, before spitting out the crumpled bullet. When Khan and Zheng ceased their actions to observe Chapman more closely, they noticed that the skin was peeling off the man’s face, revealing nothing but metal underneath!

Chapman lunged at Khan again, and she finally had an inkling of the kind of being that she was facing. It must be some kind of advanced automaton. Perhaps controlled by Syned?

“Khutulun! It’s a cyborg!” Zheng was versed in human history. “This is a thing from many centuries ago! I thought they had been phased out after the digital wars!”

“Though of human mind, their bodies are highly vulnerable to digital interference!” Hardly useful information, Khan thought. The Kasvallian Republic has Syned, after all!

Khan knew her own weakness. Her body was of flesh, and thus this cyborg Chapman’s aim was definitely to attack her body. She, however, had the exosuit, and thus her metallic eight arms could contend against Chapman’s body. It was undeniable that Chapman’s full biomechanical body was much more capable of exerting force.

If Khan was alone, she would likely lose her life in this struggle. She was not alone. Zheng had activated his spider arms as well, and he grappled at Chapman opposite to Khan.

“Lasers!” With Chapman struggling but suppressed under their spider-arms, Khan activated her high intensity lasers from a few of her spider-arms and directed it into Chapman’s skull. Zheng did the same.

Chapman knew that the situation was getting out of hand, his systems warning him of intense heat boring through his skull. He abandoned attempting to hold off the spider-arms, and instead ripped his suit apart to reveal his torso. By now, the spider-arms of Khan and Zheng had tightened their grip upon his shoulders, and lasers began turning his metal skull red-hot.

He pressed a contraption on his chest. A compartment opened and a grenade rolled out!

“Grenade!” Khan yelled to inform Zheng, and the two simultaneously abandoned their hold on Chapman, leaping backwards as they wrapped their spider-arms around their front to block off any shrapnels from the grenade.

The grenade exploded with a boom! Unlike Khan and Zheng, Chapman had little concern for the grenade, and he simply dashed out of the doorway to escape as shrapnel shredded his skin to reveal his internal mechanical backside.

“Khan! I will inform the military personnel of these events and arrange everything for your father!” Zheng’s words settled Khan’s heart to do what needed to be done.

Khan rushed out to pursue the escaping Chapman. Ahead of her, the cyborg was physically transforming-- Chapman’s legs soon rearranged itself into a pair of running blades!

“System! Locate nearest store for kangaroo legs!”

The helmet of her exosuit suit displayed a path that functioned as an overlay through her visor. She sprinted and followed the path, twisting and turning through a number of sand-red blocks to enter a store displaying many different neuro devices.

‘Give me a set of kangaroo legs! Quickly! You’ll receive your solar credits later!” On arrival, Khan cut to the front of the line. Many in line frowned but none obstructed the exosuited woman.

Seeing the woman in a martian military exosuit before him, the store keeper made a quick assessment of her leg size and pulled out a pair of kangaroo legs, designed to mechanically improve one’s ability to run.

“Wait!” The storekeeper said. “You do know these only work under earth-like gravity right? It’ll only work near the Wolf’s Coil!”

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“Got it!” Khan’s neuro circlet synced with the kangaroo legs. Two of her eight spider arms had to be returned into their holding compartment in the back of the exosuit-- Khan was not born with the number of neuro channels to control more than eight motor devices.

“Vice-admiral,” Khan’s voice was quivering with anxiety and desperation. “Do you have eyes on Chapman?”

“Yes. Surveillance has him heading towards the train station heading east of the eye of Romulus.” The Wolf Coil split into many smaller strands that formed the shape of an eye, creating the city of Romulus. This allowed the whole area to carry gravity similar to Earth for humans.

“He is ahead of you by approximately one kilometer.” As always, her mentor stayed on top of everything.

“Wolf’s teats.” Khan muttered under her breath as she began leaping with her kangaroo legs. One kilometer might not be much, but it was enough for Chapman to escape. Afterall, the man’s a cyborg!

Khan bounded onto the very top of a red sandy building and sprinted towards the east, each extension of her kangaroo legs sending her roof-to-roof.

“He’s entered the train station! There is a train departing in a minute!”

Khan was already doing her best to pursue Chapman, but Zheng’s words allowed her to unlock an effort level that she never knew she had.

She dashed like a shooting star into the Wolf Coil strands combining into one single band at the eastern end.

“Out of the way!” Her overbearing tone immediately cleared a path in the crowd going up the stairway.

With a single leap, she had already ascended the steps onto the platform.

The train’s doors began closing with beeping noises and Khan stuck a hand out, blocking the closure of the train doors just in time. The doors opened again and she successfully boarded the maglev train.

“Vice-admiral?”

“He’s on the train. I’ve been tracking him. He hasn’t left,” Zheng replied. Khan sighed with relief as the train doors closed. She was worried that the man might have left after noticing the failure of the initial closing of the train doors.

She began walking through the train carriages to search for Chapman. This train is called the Wolf Pack by the martians. The maglev train continuously traveled on top of the Wolf Coil, bringing passengers to every major section of the Wolf’s Coil, the city of Romulus and the city of Remus.

Another carriage cleared, Khan felt the train rising in elevation onto the top of the Wolf’s Coil. The maglev train that is the Wolf Pack was designed with half a mind on practicality and half a mind on grandeur. The bottom half of the train remained hidden below the top of the Wolf’s Coil, while the top half allowed its passengers to see into the vast martian horizon. Far into the distance was the tallest martian mountain, Olympus Mons.

As for why only half the train remained under the surface elevation of the Wolf’s Coil-- the dust storms on Mars could topple the train. With half the train lodged into the indentation track across the top of the Wolf’s Coil, engineers effectively stabilized the train with side magnetic supports while maintaining the wondrous view of the martian surface.

Khan had no time to enjoy the view. By now, she had already passed through every single carriage, yet Chapman was nowhere to be found!

“Vice-admiral! He’s not here!”

Zheng took a few seconds to reply.

“I’ve rechecked the surveillance of the station. He is definitely on the train.”

A thump sounded in the carriage from the top.

Khan widened her eyes and forcibly opened one of the train doors with her powerful spider-arms, sending wind whistling into the carriage.

“Are you crazy, madwoman?” A lady reading with a holographic device complained as she was struck by the wind.

Khan ignored the lady and using her spider-arms, pulled herself up onto the top of the train. She kept her body as close to the body of the train as possible to limit the wind lashing against her form.

The surface of the maglev train was designed to be smooth and frictionless-- without the adhesive qualities of the spider-arms, Khan would have been blown off immediately.

She finally spotted Chapman, similarly plastered against the top of the train. Chapman also noticed her presence!

A compartment opened on the back of Chapman’s right calf, and a mini turret appeared.

Khan calculated the angle of the turret and a single spider-arm was enough to protect her, blocking a rapidfire of rounds from Chapman. A second turret appeared from the back of his other calf. Khan easily blocked the firing path with another spider-arm. The dinging noise of bullets against her spider-arms disrupted the whistling of the wind in her ears.

A crescendo of whirring noise sounded and Khan glanced to her right as she observed a fighter jet slowly raising itself above the height of the Wolf’s Coil.

“I’m here, Khan.” It was Zheng. “Brace your ears.” A gatling gun unfurled itself at the bottom of the fighter jet.

Zheng knew he had to be careful. And perfect. He needed to maintain the jet barely above the height of the maglev train. The gatling gun needed to be parallel to the top of the train, such that any fired rounds, upon missing, would not damage the train or injure the passengers within. Beyond that, he needed to maintain his speed while hitting Chapman.

All the sensors in the fighter jet indicated that he was in perfect position. His thumb pressed down on the button.

The gatling gun spun and sparks flew as Chapman’s body was peppered with rounds.

Yet the cyborg form was durable, and he remained atop the train, despite much of his skin suffering damage, further revealing his mechanical body. Many pieces of his artificial skin drifted past Khan.

Khan’s visor suddenly began flashing red.

Warning. Unknown aircraft approaching.

“Vice-admiral!”

Zheng barely received warning in time. A number of missiles had already been fired at his fighter jet!

He danced and swerved while firing the gatling gun, successfully avoiding missiles and setting off approaching missiles with bullets.

Yet, as he stabilized his craft, the two turrets on the back of Chapman’s calf fired upon him. Unluckily, these bullets struck his engine, and the jet was sent spiraling into the martian surface!

“Vice-admiral!” Yet, Khan’s concern for her superior was overcome by shock at the changing sight before her eyes.

Chapman’s body began physically transforming as new metallic plates shifted forward while others retracted. Chapman’s form soon became similar to that of a cheetah’s, and he began sprinting forward on all fours at a speed no human could reach! Not only that-- Chapman’s head turned angular, making it easier for him to stave off the wind atop the maglev train.

The whistling electrostatic noise of a plane sounded overhead as an aircraft many times the size of Zheng’s jet appeared with a hook drifting from its belly. The hull was jet-black, its form a wide-triangle.

Metal cheetah Chapman accelerated in his beastly form before leaping with an almighty lunge. The paw of Chapman transformed mid-air into a hand and grasped onto the hook.

The whistling noise of the aircraft increased in volume with acceleration, and Khan could only watch in despair as Chapman escaped. She wrapped herself in her spider-arms and tumbled off the train onto the top of the Wolf’s Coil. Chapman soon pulled himself up the rope into that aircraft, which increased in altitude before ascending directly into space.

“Vice-admiral. Are you alright?” Khan’s attention turned to Zheng, whose fate was unknown.

“Commander. Emergency landing was successful. But I require assistance on opening the damaged cockpit.”

Khan retraced her path and soon found Zheng’s jet with its belly on the red soil of Mars, just to the side of the Wolf’s Coil. She attempted to open the cockpit, only to discover that something had trapped it in place. She activated the lasers of her spider-arms and soon carved through the material, freeing Zheng. The man had been unable to unfurl his own spider-arms, his body stuck in the seat of the jet’s tiny cockpit.

Zheng somewhat stumbled on the red earth before falling into a sitting position and he drank from a water canteen.

“He escaped,” Khan informed her superior. “Some kind of military craft that could drop down and return to space in one go.”

“Our original sparse defenses were already stripped by the Earth Feds…” sighed Zheng, filled with abjection. “I’ve already made arrangements for your father. His skull and face will be at least reconstructed for his funeral. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”

“Thank you.” Khan felt numb at the day’s events. She, too, sat down on the red martian soil. “I just don’t understand. Why could we not awaken my father? I wish I could have spoken to him one last time. If Syned was in the system, why did it not kill my father directly. Why did the Kasvallians have to send Chapman instead?”

“Khutulun…” Zheng sighed again as he recalled his knowledge of the digital war. “At the advent of advanced AI, certain rules were set. Such as an AI not being allowed to take the life of a human. But rules can be circumvented.”

“It is my belief that Syned could manipulate information to prevent our doctors from knowing what needed to be done to awaken your father. Syned may not be able to harm your father, but he could inform another of what needed to be done. Thus, Chapman came eventually to finish the job…”

“Perhaps your father discovered something that he should not have known…” That was Zheng’s guess.