A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex

Chapter 8 - Arctic Tactic (part 1)

-          Good, good, you are making some progress here. Your strength, stamina, agility, flexibility and reflex status have improved by forty percent. - Mirai nods her head as she is noting down some numbers on the tablet.

-          Haha, no need to praise me. I am a quick learner after all. - I laugh victoriously after the compliment, although the neutral response written on her face turns my mood off.

  It has been quite a few months of nothing but hectic physical training sessions. Using my backyard as a practice field, I practice all kinds of things. From basic callisthenics, typical exercises to improve physical fitness, to simulated combat exercises with fake targets, where I learn to make on-the-spot decisions and weapon proficiency. Once a week, we go on practical combat, where we cooperate and attack a green-level facility or two.

  The unrelenting sun of the noon, although for an autumn day, is coating everything below it with a layer of scorching sunlight, and then who suffers? Our generation. Thanks a lot for sacrificing that one-point-five reduction in global temperature for a mere ten per cent rise in economic growth.

  I grab the towel that Mirai gives me to wipe off the perspiration, and we go back to my house to avoid a heat stroke. I sit down on the floor, stretching my limbs while breathing heavily. I think that I am slowly getting used to it, although every training session still renders my body "immobile" for ten to fifteen minutes.

-        Mirai, we have been training for quite some time. When can we execute our plan to attack a yellow-level facility or higher?

-        Do not be so confident about your strength. Based on how I rank the Intruders, you are only at about fifty, which is a mere increase of ten from the time we attack that storage. If you are still leaving me handling the main fight at rating forty, I do not want to assume that you can now single-handedly deal with just one of them, not to mention that there are approximately two hundred thousand of the Intruders' forces with a rating of fifty or more. We have fifty years, do not worry that much.

  As if a flesh and blood human like me can live that long while still maintaining this level of fitness. I want to do something worth telling my kids and grandkids before I receive a Golden Age Membership from the town hall. Sorry, I am just a mere human. I consider my emotions and thus do not expect me to make such "rational" decisions like a high-tech humanoid robot that has been hurting my wallet for electricity costs. The solar battery chargers are simply not operating at full efficiency if the level of brightness is not enough, but also wear and tear easily in very strong sunlight. Who the hell created that?

-          Ah, it is eleven thirty already. I will go cook for lunch. Is there anything that you want to eat? Not like we have that much food available in the refrigerator.

-          I am fine with anything that you cook for me.

  Even after the bad-mouthing, I cannot disagree that her food makes my non-material living standard improve so much, that sometimes I miss the quick meals that I always rush to finish while glueing my eyes to the screen, trying to finish my work before the deadline.

  The lunch is simple, yet nutritionally delicate and its appearance tells any person how much effort and dedication its chef has put in. Just some typical lunch food like an omelette, some boiled vegetables and rice, and I appreciate that.

  After lunch, I take a nap, preparing for the afternoon lesson with Mirai.

-          OK, so today we will learn a bit about your favourite subject, Physics. Nothing violates the laws of Physics, and so do the Intruders. Let's make it a practical lesson today. We will examine how your high school knowledge applies here. We will be attacking this slightly higher level small-scale military camp, which is higher than green-level, but not yet yellow.

  It is not that I do not expect this will happen, but is she raising the difficulty for the first time after a few months? So happy!

  The plane is very well-maintained by me after each flight. I always remember to fix or replace faulty components and refill energy twice a week, so it is always in new condition. It is ready for the next expedition, and I will ride it as always, while Mirai collects satellite data to compile them into a report as we fly there.

-          OK, this military camp is not on an island, but just a remote land somewhere nearer to the Arctic region than our base, so it will be a bit colder. There are about five Intruders with an overall rating of fifty, leading an army of three hundred Intruders rating five to ten. We will slowly trim their number until there are only the bosses left, and then we deal with them later.

  Located in a piece of land just above Russia, latitude 80 degrees North, the military camp is covered in a thick layer of snow, characteristic of an Arctic climate. The fact that it is currently winter in the Northern Hemisphere only makes the camp as menacing as a polar bear. The aeroplane collects weather data from satellites, and blinking on the screen is a negative value in blue. How do these robots compute this value as "a bit colder"?

  We land the plane in a forest less than a kilometre away from the camp. As soon as the plane makes contact with the ground, its sheer mass buries the wheels in the snow blanket. I step out of the plane, and the first thing I feel is the Arctic winds blowing through my spine. A bone-chilling cold.

  I pack myself with a few layers of jacket and reload my guns. Mirai calls in an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to scan the military camp for Intruders. The map of the camp appears on the tablet, with red marks concentrated in the middle. That gives approximately three hundred Intruders, consistent with the data.

-          Please note this important point: due to some geographical reasons, snowstorms would appear periodically, and when I say so, it is frequent enough to mess up your previously known snowstorms. - Mirai warns me before we split up.

-          OK. So, besides that, as usual, you would provide gun and air support from afar, while I will approach them and launch a surprise attack...

  Just as I finish the sentence, a bullet from nowhere slides past my face. It hits a tree nearby. From the white, thick snow layers and the chilling winds that blow the snowflakes randomly, hindering my vision, a heavily armed Intruder, overall rating of fifty, appears.

-          Yuusha, dodge! - Mirai places a Compact Shield on the field right before the Intruder launches a missile from its hand cannon.

  I instinctively lie down on the snow layer when the missile hits the shield, sending shockwaves throughout the forest. I take out my dual submachine guns, preparing for a counterattack.

  The forest area is beneficial for small-sized and swift movements like us, compared to the heavy armoury. However, the Intruder still poses a great threat. His bullet rain leaves no blind spots.

  I have some grenades in my backpack, and whatever I have, I throw in the Intruder's direction. The flash grenade slows down his reaction, but that does not seem to work against a trained unit. Likewise, a fire grenade is quickly extinguished by the cold weather. A toxic grenade is completely useless against full-body armour.

  Suddenly, I feel the warmth in the air and run out of the area. As soon as I barely get out of the zone, a missile hits my spot, blowing the snow everywhere.

-          Yuusha! This place is a military camp. We are not the only ones with air support. Let's run first before their reinforcement comes and outnumbers us.

  Mirai throws a sticky grenade onto the Intruder's face shield before he can react, and it detonates. We take advantage of the blast covering his vision and find a better spot.

  The eerie atmosphere of the forest makes it even colder for a mere human to tolerate. We keep running in the forest, as far as possible. We finally see a cave, or a cave-like structure, and take shelter there.

  I take out a drone that continuously emits infrared radiation to heat a region. In the windy weather, this Thermal Drone is the only thing that does not get extinguished by the relentless sub-zero temperature and gushing winds.

  As we sit in the cave, we plan for a proper retaliation.

-          Can we just launch a continuous missile strike on the camp? - I initiate the discussion.

-          A military camp always has a system to lock onto and destroy our aerial weapons, so the missiles have quite limited use. The more feasible way is still to use ground combat.

-          OK, you have a good point there. So I ambush, you provide support from a remote spot, as usual?

-          Yes. When needed, I will come to you, or you will retreat. But we still need a more solid plan.

-          How about a satellite attack?

-          Also a good point, but you will roast this snow island into steam.

  Seems like the discussion is nowhere near a reasonable solution...