Chương 35: SNOWSTORM VILLA
(Alps, Austria, March 2134)
Sean breathed out, seeing his breath forming a mist. He is dressed in the arid camouflage uniform, then wearing a white outer coat to blend in with the environment of the snow-covered mountains. Instead of wearing a high-cut ballistic helmet as he had been wearing for the majority of the course when not in space or an Exo-suit, he is now wearing a knit cap with a pair of goggles, and a face mask to shield his face from the cold wind.
He yawned, grabbing his equipment and stepping out of the shelter he had pitched with Louis, Albert, and Eddie. It is constructed by tying thick loose branches around trees, forming a trapezium of sorts. They then dug away the snow and soil underneath, forming a crater, which they will sleep in.
Afterward, they then covered it up using cloths coloured in arid camouflage, pairing them with white and tan cloths. This allows the shelter to be camouflaged into the environment, as well as to mask it somewhat from heat imagery to reduce the chances of detection.
The cadets had set up a camp on the foot of the Alps upon starting this course yesterday when landing in Austria, with 125 cadets left.
Half of "Hell Month" has ended by now, one week in Myanmar, and one week in Saudi Arabia. The third week in Austria had just begun, in the cold of the Alps.
The good news for them is that they do not have to evade capture, allowing them to trek more comfortably.
That comfort is relative though, as they still have to reach certain points under time constraints, where they will be then drilled in other courses and ranked. This is not an easy feat, just one day 5 cadets are eliminated.
"Morning," Sean greeted his fellow tent-mates, taking a cup of instant noodles cooked by Albert and wolfing it down, hot soup is 100% better in such an environment than eating MREs.
Once the cadets had their breakfast, they dismantled the camp and packed their gear, and headed upwards with skis, allowing them to move quickly in the snow and glacier-filled environment.
Ariel pointed northwards.
"So close to home yet so far!" she mused.
"You are from Bavaria?" asked Karl.
Ariel laughed. 'That's classified, Karl! We can't find out things about each other aside from names!"
She pointed to the German flag on her uniform and his uniform, stuck on by Velcro. "Nationality is already a giveaway; Germany is in the north from here after all."
"Which reminds me," said Karl, turning to Sean. "How come you don't have a country patch? What are you, stateless?"
Sean sighed, knowing that Karl is picking on him again. But before he said a word, Clara jumped to his defence.
"Can't he be a citizen of the world? The higher-ups of UNSSD are all stateless as required by Article 7 of the Earth Defence Law, does that makes them less of a person?" she retorted.
Karl gave a surprised look, seeing that Clara is no longer antagonistic to Sean, dropping the issue.
The cadets climbed upwards, battling the harsh cold and the snow. Sean wiped the snow off his goggles as a wind blew them onto his face.
After a long, arduous climb, the cadets made it to the midpoint of the mountain, all of them making it within the stipulated time, surprising the instructors.
"Take off your gear!" ordered Nanami. "And gather here!"
The cadets complied, falling in. Sean looked at the objects in front of them: weighted vests filled with sand to simulate the weight of their gear, as well as rubber training props to stand in for their guns.
Nanami then pointed to a frozen pond, a portion of the ice had been broken, revealing the icy water underneath.
"Operating in cold environments means that there is a high chance we will step on ice and it break under our weight. Falling into icy water in such an environment is no joke. No one can get out of such a situation undamaged."
"Thus, you all need to learn how to save yourselves, and help each other out should such a situation happen."
Herbert then gave the order for push-ups, and the cadets got down, doing push-ups, their limbs barely shielded from the cold with gloves and boots. For once they are thankful of PT, as it helps them to heat up their bodies to shield themselves in this cold.
"Numbers 4, 9, 31, 42, step out!" yelled Herbert. Erika, Sean, Ariel and Albert stopped their push-ups, wearing the weighted vests and rubber guns. They then put on skis and fastened the ski poles to their arms with Velcro.
They headed over to the ice, standing in front of the pit.
"Who will do the honours?" asked Erika.
The 4 cadets looked at each other, not wanting to be the first to "enjoy" it.
"HURRY UP!" roared the instructor acting as the safety officer.
"OK! I will take the lead!" volunteered Sean. The instructor hooked a rope onto Sean that is tied to a light armoured snowcat, utility vehicles with caterpillar tracks designed for snow operations, preventing him from sinking as a safety precaution.
"What size clothes you wearing, 9?" asked the instructor coldly.
"185/XL," replied Sean.
Sean then jumped into the water; the cold instantly caused his body to freeze. First, it was feelings of pain from the sting of the cold water, then his body went numb from the cold, which is an extremely dangerous thing as it will hinder his efforts to self-rescue.
Forcing his brain into action, Sean grabbed the ski poles and stabbed them into the ice in front of him, using them to hoist his body up, while Ariel, Erika and Albert also grabbed onto him, helping him back onto the surface. They then helped him to remove his weight vest, rubber gun, ski and ski poles.
Sean's lips are purple, shivering from the cold. His wet clothes plus the freezing weather made it extremely cold. He hugged his body tightly, and generated flames around him to try to heat himself up. Sean's teeth are gritting rapidly as he shakily took over a new, dry set uniform from the instructor, dashing into the snowcat to change.
After he is done, he returned back to the cadets, re-wearing his equipment, ready.
Ariel then jumped in next.
(3 hours later)
All the cadets had their turn now, lips purple and shivering from the cold. Clara had generated flames around her, so did the rest of the cadets, trying to stay warm.
"Next task!" yelled Herbert, pointing to the 400m outdoor range to their right. "Standing and prone position shooting!" he yelled.
"For f***'s sake…" cursed Eddie internally, knowing that being cold and shivering will no doubt screw up their accuracy.
The cadets each took a standard issue HK-416 with iron sights and a 30-round magazine loaded with 10 rounds from a table.
The first group of cadets then stepped forward, skiing over, using the ski rods to form a makeshift bipod of sorts, balancing their guns on it to steady their aim.
"5 shots each for standing position shooting!" yelled Herbert.
The cadets loaded their guns. To make things harder for them, Herbert pulled up some fans at the sides of the cadets, blowing snow onto their face to increase the difficulty.
"Fire!" instructed Herbert.
The targets appeared, and the cadets opened fire. Using iron sights to aim with shivering hands, and snow blowing into their face greatly impaired their accuracy. Sean steadied his breathing, managing to somewhat regain a level of control, closing his right eye and squinted his left eye through the goggles and sights to see and aim at the target.
The cadets ceased firing after they have fired 5 round each. The instructors acting as range safety officers recorded the cadets' scores, then withdrawing the targets.
"Prone position, standby!" yelled Herbert.
The cadets lied flat on the ground, awkwardly adjusting their bodies thanks to the skis that are fastened to their boots, getting into prone shooting position.
The new targets appeared, and the cadets opened fire upon getting the orders.
"NEXT!" yelled Herbert once the first row is done.
After all the cadets have taken their shots, they are then ushered to guided anti-tank missile launchers, instructed to fire on the moving mock tanks below them in groups of 5.
Sean hoisted up the thick launch tube, while Albert and Vera provided him the relevant range and distance to aim at using the range finder function of their monoculars.
Upon selecting the right firing mode and elevation, Sean aimed the missile while Ariel loaded it, then immediately moving out of the way to avoid being hit by the back blast.
Once the mock tank Sean had aimed at is locked on, Sean pulled the trigger. The missile traced the mock tanks, diving into and detonating at the top of its turret, destroying it.
"Hit," reported Louis.
Once the cadets finished, they are ordered to retake their gear and trek further up the mountain.
"IF YOU DON'T REACH BY THE STIUPLATED TIME, YOU ARE ELIMINATED!" yelled Herbert,
The cadets climbed up, using their skis to help them move faster. The route given to them on their smart watches, while short, goes through an extremely rugged and difficult terrain, greatly draining their energy.
(2 hours later)
"Maximum effective range for 5.56x45mm is… damn it…" cursed Louis, wiping off a bullet casing that landed on his desk the 6th time today.
The cadets' new camp is situated on a ridge, seating behind desks in a basic shelter that offered no shielding from the elements, apart from a roof made of cloth.
The instructors have affectionately dubbed the camp, "Snowstorm Villa", which Sean oddly found fitting to the detective story genre of the same name, as they are effectively isolated from the rest of the world in this area of the Alps, together with the "murderers" (instructors), while they are the "victims".
They are doing a written test, testing on basic military fundamentals and statistics, which the cadets need to complete within 1 hour.
Sounds easy for these "elites" that have spent most of their life up to now being soldiers?
The catch is that the instructors have put the exam venue right next to an outdoor range, where they did shooting drills at.
Hence, things like noise of bullets being fired, smell of gunpowder, the occasional spent bullet casing being ejected onto their desks, as well as the weather of the Alps are greatly distracting the cadets and preventing them from answering the questions properly.
Flipping to a question on crude range-finding for mortars, Sean did calculations both mentally and written on one side of the paper, trying to not let his train of thoughts be cut by the distractions.
"From the question, enemy machine gun nest is next to a utility pole. The distance between viewing the pole with a right eye and with a left eye respectively is 2.5 times of the distance between 2 utility poles in an urban setting, which is roughly 50m," calculated Sean.
"Hence, target is 125m away from the utility pole, using similar triangles and multiplying by 10, the mortar is 1250m away from the target," he finished his calculation, finding the corresponding elevation for the mortar to hit a target 1250m away on the paper, and shaded the oval next to it.
The good news is that the questions are all multiple choice, hence it is relatively easier to answer them.
"You have 15 minutes left!" yelled Maia at the cadets using a loudspeaker.
"AHHH!" screamed the 123 cadets, furiously writing their answers and flipping the paper, dashing to finish the test.
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