Artemis Technology
There was an old saying about fastening the first button correctly.
In modern society it often served as a proverb, and even taken at its most literal, the meaning was easy enough to grasp. As everyone already knew — when you got dressed, especially when putting on a dress shirt, buttoning that first one wrong made for a considerable headache. You wasted time, and you couldn't simply leave it as it was. Getting the first button wrong meant you had no choice but to walk all the way back down the path you'd taken and start the entire process over from scratch.
That was why the first button mattered so much. It was no accident that people sought out renowned instructors or enrolled in their classes before embarking on something new. Ship launch ceremonies and building groundbreaking rites, though slightly different in context, shared a similar spirit.
Which brought things back around to the question at hand.
If an expert in the field latched onto someone who spent a dozen-odd hours a day doing nothing but play games and poured care into them — how much would their skill improve?
The answer could be found through Harmony and Eugene.
───Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
"Two of them just circled left, Teacher."
"There's a booby trap over that way, so it shouldn't be much of a problem."
BOOM!
From a side corridor, an explosion erupted — a mixture of shrapnel, flame, thunderous noise, and screams — and notifications of additional experience gained popped up one after another across the UI. Even so, the two of them barely paid it any mind, remaining locked on what lay ahead. Muzzle flashes and gunfire rolled out in continuous bursts, drumming against the dead cityscape.
Time rewound several dozen minutes by in-game reckoning.
Artemis Technology had been a corporation that actually existed in the United States of the past — and, together with a renegade government organization called the Syndicate, one of the roots of all evil. More precisely, it had existed in the United States of another world, not this one.
The story ran a bit long, but to put it as simply and clearly as possible: it was a company that developed advanced technology and military robots, headquartered in the upper reaches of New York. And the New York in question was not the New York people generally pictured, but what was separately called Upstate New York — the considerably decayed northern portion of the state, in the most literal sense.
A little background was in order.
When American heavy industry collapsed and the Rust Belt took shape, Upstate New York had been unable to escape the winds of decline either — but around 2010, New York State launched its Tech Valley initiative, and the region found new vitality. Put very simply, it meant pouring semiconductor-related investment into a fallen area with cheap land, attracting high-tech firms and offering subsidies for the sake of regional revival.
That was the point at which Artemis Technology entered the picture.
The company wasn't one that developed better semiconductors the way others did; if anything, it was closer to the side that used them. The dedicated, finely tuned control units needed to manage complex killing machines could be ordered from a semiconductor firm a mere thirty minutes away — no need to fly long distances for meetings and consortiums. Cooperation and mutual consultation repeated themselves naturally, the company grew, and Artemis spread its branches in every direction — to the point that its UAV and drone technology even flowed into the U.S. military. It had even been involved, to some degree, in the development of Icarus Gear and skills. Its stature hardly needed further explanation.
Then the pandemic apocalypse hit, and of course everything was smashed to pieces.
The U.S. military saw its death toll climb until it had fewer people than pieces of equipment. Civilians became refugees, rioters, or corpses. In that kind of situation, this place was never going to stay intact… or rather, they used the chaos to pull something utterly deranged.
They joined hands with the Russo-Chinese coalition forces that had been trying to crush the United States amid the viral crisis — and with Natalia Bertinskaya, one of the central figures of the American invasion — sold the country out, completely neutralized the Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS), and helped the coalition land. Separately, Artemis and its board of directors, headquartered in Syracuse in northern New York, modified themselves, militarized into a PMC or warlord force armed with every kind of advanced equipment, and — with unmanned drones so numerous they formed a tidal wave — built a kingdom of their own, kidnapping civilians and subjecting them to every imaginable atrocity.
When I dug through my past, the two cyborgs named Valery and Volvox — people remade entirely through modification — came immediately to mind. That alone was enough to give a clear sense of what they'd been up to.
In any case, that was how Upstate New York, which had already been a lawless zone, transformed into a danger zone you simply should not set foot in.
"…That's the rough outline. Do you more or less understand?"
"I don't get it…."
"Why not?"
Ah. My old habits had slipped right out. I really shouldn't do that.
At any rate, it had been an abrupt pre-mission briefing held right in front of the entrance, but Harmony had listened with stubborn patience, which I considered fortunate enough. I only hoped it didn't look like I'd suddenly caught fire over something strange….
Of course — needless to say — I never mentioned Natalia Bertinskaya, or my own past, or Valery and Volvox, or anything of that sort. I stuck strictly to the common ground between the in-game and TreeWiki lore and the explanations that remained in my memory. Because of that, Harmony mainly absorbed information about what Artemis was and why they were enemies of Icarus operators.
"…That was a slip of the tongue just now. Anyway, let's start the mission soon. I think we've dragged this out long enough."
"Yes, yes!"
The weather was not particularly good. It was around nine in the morning, but the sky was thick with cloud and thoroughly gloomy. Unlike reality, this was the dead of midwinter — the kind of weather that looked ready to snow at any moment. A melancholy atmosphere that suited a dead city perfectly.
But if there was a silver lining, it was this: I'd half expected that gloomy weather to drag my own mood down with it, and surprisingly, it hadn't. Today's operational area was one of the Artemis research wings in Syracuse that my past self had never set foot in.
…How should I put it — same and yet different, maybe.
It clearly seemed to follow my old operational routes in a linear fashion, and yet the details diverged. As if it wanted to show me the inner workings of the past a little more clearly. Thanks to that, I found myself able to look at the situation — and at this game — with a bit more objectivity at this stage.
I racked the charging handle, and the sound shattered finely against the building. Ahead of us, a research complex of tightly sealed facilities stood waiting. Too many lights were still on for a place that had been abandoned, and from inside came faint, ominous noises. That meant personnel were stationed within.
"You said this was a recon mission…."
"Clean out all the miscellaneous things stationed inside, extract the intel — that's recon, isn't it?"
As always, the loadout I'd brought was similar to before. The firearm was an all-purpose HK337, chambered in .300 AAC Blackout. Given the nature of urban combat, engagement distances beyond four hundred meters almost never came up, so it was a piece I'd been using without issue so far. Lately I'd been thinking about trying an MK47 Mutant, but if the machine-gun tech tree unlocked, I planned to switch over to an MG338. The gun that had crossed over with my body was that one, after all.
At any rate, this body of mine could handle even a minigun's recoil — so if something like a 12.7mm automatic rifle had existed, I probably would have used that. Idle thoughts.
The entrance was sealed tight, but nearby, a collapsed stretch of high wall had a cleanly broken section — as if pointing the way up. With a grunt, Harmony climbed first, and I followed. Roughly two hundred sixty kilograms of body weight and kit, hauled up on arm strength alone.
Over the wall, and inside.
Enemies came into view at once.
"If you have something like that, people get soft, so…."
"Huh!?"
I said that, but if things truly went south, of course I'd turn it on. I already knew how catastrophically bad Artemis's compatibility with EMP was — mainly for their drones — and I knew exactly how much it would soften the difficulty.
I took position, framed the patrolling enemies in my sights, and spoke.
"The UGV up front is Warhound-class. Armed with a 5.56mm chain gun and 40mm grenades. Do you have tracer rounds?"
"Uh… I've got one loaded every five rounds in every magazine."
"Focus fire on the grenade cartridges or the feed system and they'll love you to death."
After sharing the weak points, I called for the opening shot. Harmony carefully held her breath. In the meantime I marked the driver and engineers fussing around beside the machine. Artemis PMC units moved in three-person teams that included one machine.
A brief stillness — then flame bloomed from Harmony's muzzle.
The grenade cartridges were fairly tough and the impact point narrow, so they didn't detonate on the first hit. By then I had already dropped two of the enemies. Harmony kept working the trigger, hammering the grenade feed assembly, and through the LPVO scope I could see tracer trails cutting across the damp air of the foul weather.
As I put a round through the last one's neck, enemies began pouring out of the building one by one.
And in that moment—
───KRA-BOOM!
"It blew!"
Like a celebratory salvo announcing the start of the mission, a Warhound UGV came apart in a spectacular burst of flame, spraying steel fragments in every direction and dealing damage to some of the surrounding hostiles. Operating on the principle of wiping them out before they could take cover, I put crosshairs on targets and pulled the trigger, and a lively shooting spree began.
Enemies dropped one after another — and faster than expected. Was that also thanks to Harmony's skill having risen to a certain level?
"Reloading!"
"Got it."
Good thing I'd been managing ammunition expenditure. When two people fought together, even small points like that had to be considered. Both reloading at the same time meant suppressing fire became impossible — and that handed the advantage to the enemy.
As Harmony swapped magazines, I ran through the same process, and before long the courtyard in front of the headquarters had been thoroughly swept clean.
White snow was falling from the sky.
"…It's snowing."
"Once we go inside the building, we won't see it for a while. Let's move."
"Yes, yes."
The mission was only just beginning.
And for once, it was a start that felt a little lighter than usual.