(Myanmar, March 2134)
"Not again…" muttered Sean, slapping a mosquito on his exposed hand for the FIFTH time today.
The remaining 18 cadets are standing in front of a series of giant hills, the Kachin hills. This is where their next course is going to begin.
Bryan and Franz faced them, giving them the instructions.
"How do you all feel about the torture training?" asked Franz in a joking tone.
"Horrible," replied Louis honestly.
"Does he speak for the rest of you?" asked Bryan.
"Yes," replied the cadets in unison.
"Henceforth, we want to ensure that you all avoid such a scenario at all costs. The rest of SERE training will cover wilderness survival, evasion of capture and more," said Bryan.
"To ensure that you all are prepared for all the possible types of environments, we will be rotating among multiple camps in this one-month course, from tropical to temperate to desert to arid to mountain and cold environments," he continued.
"Now, you may be asking why don't we just do the tropical part in Indonesia?" asked Franz rhetorically. "It's because we deem the Indonesian jungles to be still too gentle! Thus, welcome to the Kachin mountains of Myanmar, one of perhaps the cruellest tropical jungles of all time!" he laughed. "And there are mountains too! Consider it killing 2 birds with one stone!"
"Freaking hell…" cursed the cadets internally.
Franz pointed to the ground below them. "About 200 years ago, during WW2, the Chinese expedition army retreated over this piece of land after being backstabbed by their British allies and getting flanked by the Japanese. During the first phase of the Burma Theatre, the Chinese forces had 100 thousand men, out of which 20 thousand are killed in action, and another 30 thousand killed by the Kachin mountains."
The cadets all instantly took a step back in fear.
Franz laughed, seeing their state.
"Your mission, is to hike and survive through the Kachin mountains, with all the means at your disposal as you all have been taught during wilderness survival during your time in the Tier 2 units and during your theory revision during the recovery vacation post POW training."
"But!" he added. "In this month you all still have to train as per normal outside of the SERE course! Tactical training, weapons handling, military theory and in space combat training still carries on as per normal!"
Sean gulped. On one hand he is exasperated at the immense training, on the other hand he is glad that the training is ending soon, this month of intense back-to-back training is known as "Hell Month" in their nomenclature, often used as the final wrap up of the Tier 1 course.
However, how the Hell Month is proceeding differs from his memory, as the POW training part of SERE training should be done last. He rocked his brain, trying to evaluate and make sense of the instructor's motives.
The cadets set off, heading over to the coordinates on their smartwatches which they have to reach by tomorrow 6am.
Louis, Ariel Karl, Clara and Sean grabbed their foldable tactical axe and wielded it like a machete, chopping away the dense vegetation in their way, trying to clear a path forward. The rest of the cadets aimed their weapons in alert in a perimeter, having severe fears of getting ambushed again.
"STOP!" exclaimed Clara suddenly at Louis. "Don't move," she said, slowly raising her hand at Louis. Louis held his breath, realising that a snake had somehow slithered up to him when he was chopping away the vegetation, and judging by the colours it's a venomous one.
The snake hissed, scanning its surroundings. Louis closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down and remain still so as to not startle the snake and get bitten.
In a flash the snake is levitated off Louis by Clara's magic, who then sliced its head off with a wind blade she generated, careful to ensure that the glands that produce snake venom are also sliced off.
She then grabbed what remained of the snake and gestured to the other cadets. "We have the first item for our breakfast," she smiled.
Yes, all they have been issued is a single bag of hardtack biscuits each that can only last for one meal, they have to live off the land in the day that they are in the Kachin mountains.
To make things worse, the instructors have deliberately chosen a route that goes through all sorts of natural obstacles, which will no doubt greatly diminish the energy of the cadets. Hence, the situation the cadets face is that they will 100% be tired and hungry and will have to camp in the tropical mountains, all the while having to avoid detection.
"One snake is not going to make the cut," replied Sean, wiping his sweat.
He looked at the map. "We need to head in deeper, otherwise the heat signature from the fire will make us stand out like a black dot on a white wall under thermal imaging."
The cadets concurred, going in deeper into the tropical mountains, finding at last a good place to stop and rest.
Though on the negative side all of the food they manage to get are snakes, wild plants and bugs.
The cadets grabbed shovels from their assault backpacks and started digging in groups, while the 2 sniper and observer pairs among them formed a perimeter, staying alert.
Sean and Louis dug a giant, rectangular shaped hole in the ground, while Karl and Erika dug a smaller, circular hole behind. The rectangular shaped hole is meant for the firewood and solid fuel cubes, while the circular hole functions as the grill.
Ariel, Eddie and Clara the dug 3 trenches from the rectangular hole, forming a pathway for the smoke from cooking to clear out. They also scattered leaves and twigs on the trenches to further trap the smoke inside, ensuring that it filters out slowly and in bits. This way they can hide the smoke from cooking so as not to expose them.
Once the cadets have finished their 3 smokeless stoves, the cadets then took out the one-man tents from their assault backpack, deploying the nano-material frame which immediately extended out to cover half a stove from a small 20cm by 20cm box. Afterwards they then pitched the tents, which is made up of a specialised material that can mask their thermal signature somewhat, similar to their camouflage uniforms. By pitching the tents over the stoves, they can limit the chances of being detected by thermal imaging. But the results are not perfect, which is why they deliberately chose this area which is extremely remote, meaning that it is less likely for drones to fly over this area.
Ariel, Clara and Louis generated fireballs into the solid fuel and firewood, lighting them.
After some time, the food is cooked, Clara took a snake on a twig and looked at it.
"You sure this thing is edible?" asked Louis worriedly. "I don't want to eat snake venom…"
"We have sliced off the head and the glands, there shouldn't be any venom left, and you can in fact ingest the venom, as long as you don't have cuts in your mouth," explained Clara.
Clara looked around.
"If you all are scared how about we let someone who can take any form of natural venom to have a look…" as she spoke, the cadets all turned to the sole Chryso among them — Vera.
She rolled her eyes. "Really?" she muttered. "Just because I as a Chryso is immune to almost all natural toxins you are using me as a guinea pig?"
The cadets nodded in unison. Relenting, Vera grabbed a stick and took a bite. She observed her skin, while natural venom will not harm her, it will still leave harmless rashes on her skin which will disappear after some time. After a while, her skin remained clear.
And with that, the cadets helped themselves. While the bugs and snakes are disgusting, they still finished it up to allow them to carry forward. The wild plants they sourced are not much more helpful either, tasting like paper.
(2 hours later)
"Boys should face danger bravely and value the well-being of the nation; how can they become weak intellectuals and waste their lives?" sang Albert in Chinese as he walked along the mountain terrain.
"Bloody hell," muttered Vera. "You had been singing that almost forever, what the hell does it mean anyways? Any Chinese speakers here?"
"Eddie, you're Singaporean, you understand?" she asked.
Eddie shook his head sadly. "That's ancient Chinese…"
"That will be the song of the educated youth army," said Sean, recognising the tune from Phineas' song list.
"One of the patriotic songs of China added in the 22nd century, composed during WW2 centuries ago, sang by the Chinese Expeditionary Army in Myanmar."
"You know your history well," commended Albert.
"100,000 youths, 100,000 troops huh…" Sean muttered, recounting the slogan of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, who had stepped on the same lands they are stepping on centuries ago, some of them buried under their feet, reminding Sean of the danger of the Kachin Mountains.
Amid Albert's singing, the cadets cleared their way through the thick jungle, trekking carefully, ensuring that they remain hidden and camouflaged.
The thick jungle is both a blessing and a curse for them. On one hand the route ensures that they will not be able to be seen physically by anyone through physical means, on the other hand it also greatly limited their vision, and literally cutting a path open in full gear in such a bad terrain is insanely arduous, more than any PT they previously had.
Just then, Ariel and Karl raised their hands, and the entire group of cadets, who are in a search formation and spaced out 5-7m apart from each other stopped, remaining alert.
"Possible landmine zone ahead," muttered Karl.
"Bad news on my end," said Albert, looking down his scope. "I see the instructors' search party coming this way from behind. ETA 30 minutes, we need to move."
Everyone gulped, knowing that they have no choice but to advance.
Karl stepped forward by a step, acting as the point man to clear the path. Just as he moved, a soft click is heard.
He looked down to his horror to see a tripwire grenade trap, his left leg already touching the wire.