Great Locations To Play Pokemon Go In Edmonton and Calgary

Poke-Grafitti seen on a wall in downtown Edmonton

Pokemon Go took the North American mobile gaming world by storm in July 2016, with the app being the number one app in the Itunes store and more popular than any social media competitors.  No longer top dog, it is still a very popular mobile game.

I started playing it too and it has been a blast, but after a month of it, my enthusiasm along with that of many others has died down from a fierce bonfire to a nice toasty camp fire.  It is a pretty fun game as everyone loves wandering around and capturing pokemon in the real world environment.  There is always that thrill of capturing a rare pokemon or desired pokemon with a pokeball, but the trade-off is that there is a massive time investment required to get the full enjoyment out of the game (even if you are getting fit by walking around).  It takes a huge amount of time to complete a pokedex or to level up so you can both capture higher-level pokemon and be able to level up your pokemon for gym battles.  There is also the monetization aspect of the game which could cost you more than paying for a full Nintendo DS game and you don't get a storyline.  Purchased coins can be used to expand your inventory, store more pokemon, obtain lures to draw more pokemon in, and purchase incubators to hatch more eggs (eggs give you stardust, more pokemon, and candies to evolve and level them up). 

For most people it is next to impossible to complete a pokedex anyhow due to region specific rares. I'm at the point where I've completed about 85% of my pokedex by capturing or evolving pokemon but it isn't much fun to complete the rest as it is freaking hard to find some of these pokemon unless you live in some really big cities where it is a happy pokemon hunting ground.   I've never seen a snorlax either (it has appeared on my radar once and I couldn't find it) and the randomness in the game for encountering rares actually kind of sucks as some people are lucky (they literally stumble over snorlaxes) and others just aren't (the game also doesn't work too well in rural or small town areas).  Still, I'll keep playing for now and Niantic is improving the game by changing spawns, fixing the busted poke-radar at some point, etc.

To get to the point I'm at,  I've been fortunate to be able to hunt in both Calgary and in Edmonton without going out of my way for an out of town poke-expedition.  Here are some great hunting grounds in the two cities.  When you hunt you need to spend at least a couple of hours looping around, but some lucky people have spent 4 to 6 hours just to get a rare or two.  I'm never there when they spawn so my timing is bad.  Both Edmonton and Calgary have lots of drowsies, but I have never seen a tauros which is the North American only pokemon.

Edmonton Legislature
The area around the Provincial Legislature building, especially the south grounds is a really good hunting ground as there are numerous pokestops to replenish supplies at and there are four pokestops by the lawn bowling green that are often lured.  As of mid-August/early Sept, this place is currently crawling with clefairy and ponyta, the odd water pokemon (like squirtles, horseas, staryu) as of August/early Sept.  It was a geodude nest with some growliths (they still show every so often) in early August that switched mainly to Ponyta, and I'm sure it'll switch again in September.  There is plenty here that isn't ratatas or pidgeys.

All the lured pokestops south of the legislature.

Also this is one of the areas that spawns magikarp, dratinis, and even dragonites.  I have never been able to capture a dragonite here (missed one by 5 minutes), but I have caught aerodactyls, a lapras, and several dratini.  It is almost best to come here in the evenings as it seems like more people, more lures, and the later time of day produces more pokemon.  I think this is the best place to hunt pokemon in the city, but parking is hard (all on the road along the east side of the Legislature)  and there are no amenities in the area.  Public bathrooms are in the Annex building on the north side of the Legislature, and in the SE corner of the south grounds behind the bandstand, but they all close by 10 PM.

University of Alberta (Edmonton)
This place is packed full of pokestops, with a very busy set of four by the University Museum's house in the NW corner of the campus.  The main quad which is anchored by the Science building to the north and Student's Union Building (SUB) on the south end is a good hunting ground.  You could do a massive loop from the NW corner, head south through the main quad to end up at the south side of SUB then head back north again.  The set of four stops by the NW corner are often lured and it was busy in July, but I found it wasn't so busy in August or early Sept.  This set of four stops doesn't produce many water/grass/fire pokemon, but there are a ton of pidgeys, bugs, and a scattering of other types.  It is a good place for leveling if you don't want to move too much as you can reach all four stops from a stationary position.

The NW set of four pokestops on Campus.

The pokestops down by SUB on campus (SE corner of SUB is the purple stop).  Someone lit up like six of them all around SUB the other day and many pokemon showed up including a dratini that I just missed.

The spawns in the quad are mainly the same, with some fighting pokemon and other varieties popping up.  The pokestops near SUB are pretty interesting as they are partial water spawns as you find squirtles, horseas, psyduck, dratini, magikarp, and even gyrados has shown up.  Having lots of lures really help here to liven it up.  There does seem to be a squirtle nest here as squirtles spawn in the quad and just NE of SUB.  You can always get food, drinks, and seating inside SUB too for a break.

Update:  I played here for 2.5 hours on the morning of Sept. 7 after the students were back for university.  There were people playing and some pokestops were lured, but it was mainly busy with students getting educations.  In the 2.5 hours, the more significant pokemon I managed to bag were six squirtles, a staryu, an abra, a 1200 CP cloyster, a 800 CP omanyte, a mankey, four evee, a couple of ghastly, a lickitung, a magikarp, three meowth, and a poliwag.   A 1400 CP dewgong ran on me and I missed out on another lickitung and an omanyte from what some other players said.  So there is plenty of pokemon here as I caught over a hundred without being at active lures most of the time.  I also managed to hatch a 5 km egg for an ekans.

Princes Island Park in Calgary
This is probably the best place to hunt pokemon that I have been to.  You can actually do a loop around the lagoon here for variety and there are many amenities nearby (bars / restaurants) to help keep you going.  The couple of weekend evenings I was here in August were amazing as there were 500 to 600 people playing the game (more than I have ever seen at the legislature).  There were also 5 to 6 million mosquitoes at the time to make things more interesting.

The ring of pokestops around the Princes Island lagoon.

The pokemon the place spawns are probably at least 30% water type, with staryu, slowpoke, magikarp, polywhirls, horseas, etc.  It is also a known area for dragonite, dratini, lapras, and dragonair.  I caught a dragonair and a few dratini when I was down there.  There was a very nice variety of pokemon here and there are tons of lures going when it is busy (the whole lagoon can be lured).  Walking through the park is also nice, even if it is a big loop, but the loop works better than the layout at the legislature for moving people.

Calgary also has good pokemon spots at Central Memorial Park, and SAIT where there are many pokestops on campus.  I'm sure there will be plenty of pokemon when school is back in like at the U of A.

That's all for now, so happy pokemon hunting.  May your pokedex be complete.

Future Battlefield, Tanks Versus Aliens, Excerpt From HARM

This is an excerpt from my short story HARM, which is about the first combat use of a HARM (Humanoid Assault Reconnaissance Machine) mech against the alien Blue Newts.  The story is about the final production prototype machine being sent in to support a company of conventional battle tanks and infantry to stop an enemy advance.  I have a short story, a novella, and a novel all set in this same Exocrisis Blue universe.  For more information, please visit my Publications Page.

In this scene I wanted to show how conventional forces could fight advanced alien war machines.  The conventional forces are composed of main battle tanks, quadrapedal combat walking robots, and powered infantry.  There is no air support as the anti-aircraft lasers used by the aliens have been very effective.  In fact, the pilot of the mech which shows up too late to affect the battle was a shot down close air support pilot.  I was aiming for realism with extrapolated tech on both sides of the battle.

Photo by kanegen.  Used under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

***

Bravo Company was well dug in along the most likely line of approach to Huntsville.  Captain William Ericson had his tanks dug in on a narrow front flanking both sides of a highway overpass.  His ready to eat meal pack was only half eaten, forgotten due to the rapid planning he had been doing with his platoon leaders.  His three platoons of main battle tanks (MBT), for nine tanks in total, were hull down, only showing their turrets behind tank-sized firing pits dug for them by the combat engineers earlier in the day.  Each one utilized the natural cover of shrubbery and active camouflage netting to conceal their location from visual and thermal detection.

His M3A3 tanks were not a match for a spider-mech in a one on one fight even though they had been upgraded to the new 130 mm smoothbore guns.  Even their bulky ablative armour add-ons would only take a single hit from the alien beam cannon.  The extreme engagement range for the 130 mm gun was about 2500 metres, but he knew the chance of getting a kill on a Black Widow spider-mech were non-existent at that range.  They had to get the range down to 1500 metres to get good kills.  On the other hand, the alien beam cannon could kill a tank at 2000 metres with a far longer extreme engagement range that could even engage aircraft.

Ericson wasn’t in the best defensive position, but it would do as the flanking copses of woods and gullies would work for him.  At the same time, it wasn’t a likely ambush position, and he was banking the aliens wouldn’t think so either.  The tanks were going to be the hammer for the attack, but he would need to guarantee the spider-mechs would enter the anvil. To bait the spider-mechs in he would use one of his two platoons of robot combat walkers.  When the tanks engaged the aliens they would be the opening hammer.  The other walker platoon, concealed in the northerly copse of woods, would to hit the Newts from the side.  From the southern side, a platoon of battlesuit infantry would strike at the same time to complete the ambush.  

The plan looked great, he just hoped it would survive contact with the enemy.  Originally, X-14’s long range coilgun was supposed to begin the engagement, but things hadn’t worked out.  Still, it was good news that X-14 had knocked out two spider-mechs as there were two less to worry about.  He knew X-14 was coming in, but he also knew it wouldn’t  make it for the opening of the battle in time.  Its primary weapons would have been a great asset.  As it was, the battle ahead was going to be bloody.

Specialist Sam Winston called up to Ericson at his commander’s position from his gunner’s seat.  “Think the plan’s gonna work?”  

Ericson looked down at Sam.  “I think we got a good chance,” but Sam could tell he was putting the best spin on it.  After all the LT couldn’t be a defeatist or it would be game over already.

“We’ll get ‘em.  I’m going to put a sabot round up their butt,” Sam replied with bravado. “They must have butts, right?”

Ericson, gave a slight laugh at the half-hearted humour.  He pulled out a rumpled picture of his wife and his two daughters from his pocket.  I’ll be back to see you, he promised himself.  He had not seen them in months, but at least he knew they were safe.

***

The Blue Newts had sent a trio of moth-like reconnaissance drones ahead of their advance to observe for enemy activity.  As the drones approached they managed to see a half dozen combat walkers on the highway scrambling to cover, but that was all they saw. Shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles from the advance pickets of battlesuit infantry shot them down before further observations could be made.  The infantry then bounded in powered hops to new concealed firing locations from their old positions.

The trap was set and a little luck would not hurt, Ericson thought.  He suddenly realized his throat was quite dry and took out his canteen for a quick swig.  Yes, he thought again, a little luck wouldn’t hurt at all.  “All units.  Prepare to engage according to the plan.  Let’s get these guys.”

Now that enemy units had been spotted, the spider-mechs slowed and spread out into a skirmish line that was almost a kilometre wide with seventy metres between each mech.  Their turrets  panned from side to side.  They had seen the robot combat walkers.  The walkers were normally no match for them, but there could be other enemy units nearby.

The command data net had gone passive so units wouldn’t give themselves away via radio emissions.  A few furtive reconnaissance RPVs flying low at extreme range provided partial data feeds that his whole command observed.   His own units with good positions could visually observe the advancing alien units to supplement the feeds but kept radio silence.  Looking through his tank’s periscope Ericson could see that the spider-mechs at the ends of the advancing line were very close to some of the concealed units.  He prayed that they would remain unspotted and that his men kept their cool.  Half of his unit was made up of green recruits, as casualty rates had been horrendously high, but the newbies had been spread out with the veterans to stiffen them up. 

A great deal of his plan depended on the combat walkers, a military innovation introduced in the 2030s.  The walkers were autonomous, quadrupedal robots with a weapons mount on the back of their thick stubby bodies.  They were approximately the shape and size of a horse with a sensor array where the horse’s neck would be, and stood on narrow legs that allowed them to traverse most rough terrain.  While a tank company had only 10 tanks, including the command tank, they had a swarm of 18 combat walkers to support them.  Two special transporter vehicles would both remotely control and transport the walkers. The walkers acted in the hybrid role of a light fighting vehicle and infantry support for the tanks.  Every walker was armed with a machinegun that could be supplemented by either anti-tank missiles or a chain gun.

Sweat was beginning to form on Ericson’s brow and he was sure everyone else was just as tense.  Watching the tactical display count down the distance between the Newts and the camouflaged tanks was nerve wracking.  While he couldn’t see Lieutenant Nguyen, who commanded the robo-jockeys, he had fought with him before and knew he’d do his job.  When the Newts had advanced within 2000 metres of the tanks the six combat walkers rose up on their legs from their prone positions and each fired an improved anti-tank missile on the same central walker.  They then ducked back down, popped smoke and fell back towards the overpass directly behind them.  The missiles were self-homing and contrails of smoke showed them closing the distance as supersonic speed.  

The air was suddenly full of laser flashes.  The Newts had data-linked fire control that multiplied the lethality of their machines by synchronizing their weapons to act as a whole.  Their beam weapons now worked together in an anti-air capacity.  Four of the missiles exploded in mid-air.  The last two missiles struck the targeted spider-mech dead on.  Great balls of flame erupted on its upper, frontal armour where the shaped charges detonated, trying to burn through the molecular armour.  Both warheads left great blast marks on the surface, but black smoke only boiled out of one of them, where one warhead had penetrated.  However, the mech looked like it was still quite functional as it and a number of the other walkers returned fire through the smoke.  Their shots hit the empty ground that the walkers had vacated.  The advance of the spider-mechs picked up as they tried to close the range on the walkers.  

Each combat walker had one missile remaining. They continued to run for the cover behind the overpass, their weapon mounts traversing to the rear.  Emerging from a depression in the ground they fired again at the same spider-mech.   Lasers flashed again at the missiles. Five more exploded in mid-air, the sixth staggered the damaged spider-mech, but it still didn’t go down.  The lasers then targeted the escaping walkers which were running flat out at 30 kph.  The combat walkers didn’t have much of a chance.  Four out of the six walkers disintegrated into metal flinging fireballs while the fifth and sixth walkers managed to dodge and clear the corner.  

1800 metres…  1700 metres…  Three more of the combat walkers popped up over the top of the overpass shoulder and fired another barrage of six missiles.  The damaged spider-mech had already fallen behind and took  two more hits. This time it stopped all movement, but continued shooting.  Return fire on the walkers was fierce.  One more walker exploded with a direct hit.  The last two walkers popped more smoke and ducked back down behind cover.   1600 metres… 1500 metres…  The spider-mechs relentlessly closed in. 

Ericson saw that the range was good.  “All units, engage your targets!” His own command tank surged forward to expose the turret over the top of the overpass embankment to add additional firepower.  He had also been using the overpass embankment for cover. “Gunner.  Fire at will,” he ordered.   

All nine MBTs open fire within a second of each other.  The open woodlands was filled with the roar of 130 mm cannon fire and the pulsing cracks of the enemy beam weapons.   Each of the  enemy mechs was hit by the initial barrage, brilliant explosive flashes from the impacts lighting up each mech, but they withstood the attacks.  Laser fire began stabbing back at the dug in tanks.  Flashes of light, the explosive vapourization of ablative armour blocks indicated direct hits on several of the tanks, but the ablative armour held.   

Before the autoloaders on the tanks could complete the loading of the second rounds into the gun breaches, dozens of anti-tank missiles streaked out from both the north and south woods.  The battlesuit infantry platoon and other combat walker platoon were engaging the spider-mechs from the flanks.  A second set of 130 mm discarding sabot penetrators fired off just 7 seconds after the first set.  They were at the maximum rate of fire for the guns.

The battle became frenetic, with the air filled with laser fire, missiles, and tank shells.   A flanking spider-mech suddenly exploded from either an armour piercing round or a missile hit – no one was sure.  A tank exploded, multiple heavy lasers burning through the ablative armour and the composite armour underneath.  Infantry fired grenades from their launchers and emptied magazines of ammunition into the spider-mechs. More anti-tank missiles fired off.  The combat walkers fired off their second wave of missiles then engaged with machineguns.  Machine guns had little affect on the spider-mechs, but they could damage sensors, and distract the enemy.  Spider-mechs had their primary beam cannon, but they also had a secondary laser for use against softer, non-armoured targets.  These rapid fire guns began firing back at the combat walkers and infantry, suppressing and killing them.  

Another spider-mech exploded, then two more tanks.  Smoke filled the air from burning wreckage, burning trees and brush, and all of the explosions.  Yet another tank exploded, it’s turret hurled up into the air.  God, that was Zawadski’s tank, Ericson thought to himself.  Zawadski’s wife was now a widow, but he didn’t even have time to think her or even his own wife as events were moving too quickly.  The alien spider-mechs kept coming, attacking, and were breaking out of the ambush.  The range was now down to 900 metres.  Two more  spider-mechs were damaged and limping, but they kept coming.  

Nothing breaks these guys, he thought.  We need more firepower.  He was strangely calm – beyond fear now that combat was underway.  This was a battle the tanks wouldn’t be able to disengage from too easily due to the speed of the alien mechs.  The battlesuited infantry might be able to escape as they could use the woods for concealment, but the tanks would win or die on this battlefield. 

“Gunner.  Target mech right,” he yelled, feeding coordinates at the same time.  A spider-mech was targeting them.  

His tank rocked from the recoil of  its main cannon.  “Sabot. Away,” the gunner called out. 

At the same time, his tank was rocked by a direct hit on the turret from the alien’s main beam.  Ablative armour erupted in a incandescent blast cloud, absorbing the high-energy pulse.  It suddenly got warm inside the tank.  Looking through his viewfinder, he could see smoke billowing out of the alien mech from their hit.  It fired at them again, but missed.  “Driver, back us up.  Secondary fire position,” he ordered.  

Suddenly, a half-dozen, laser-guided artillery rounds directly struck the spider-mechs.  The forward observer had called in the fire mission and infantry with laser designators guided them in.  Huge explosions from the 155 mm artillery shells knocked the spider-mechs off balance while blowing off legs and sensors. One more spider-mech went down, but it was trying to get back up. The artillery had bought them some time, breaking the enemies momentum, but it would be temporary.  After firing one salvo, the artillery would need to scoot to a new firing location as the aliens also had counter-battery fire.  Even now, specialized support spiders further in the rear would be firing off homing missiles to try and kill off the artillery units. 

The two sides were now just over half a kilometre apart – 600 metres – too close.  The lasers stabbed out again. Tank guns fired.  More vehicles exploded.  Two more tanks and three of the damaged spiders were destroyed.   That left only three tanks and five attacking spiders.  Only two of the spiders were still undamaged.  All the main weapons were very lethal at this range.  The tanks had launched smoke grenades and were firing as they backed up into new positions.  Ericson’s tank and a couple of re-armed combat walkers were back up on the overpass shoulder trying to provide fire support.  Fire from the woods had slackened considerably after being heavily suppressed by enemy fire.  Both the combat walkers and the infantry had expended their missiles and had taken considerable losses in the fight.  

Even as Ericson watched, a beam burned through the turret armour of another tank which exploded in a brilliant fireball.  His tank fired again.  This time one of the damaged spider-mechs blew apart, collapsing down on its now limp legs.  

His tank was suddenly hit by a hammer blow that knocked the breath out of him.  A laser blast had blown a hole in the front left of the tank’s body.  The interior filled with thick acrid smoke while the power went dead. A fire suppression system went off filling the lower interior with foam.  “Sam, Evan, you guys okay?”

Sam, the gunner, called back, “I’m okay.  Think Evan’s dead though.  The blast caught him, and there’s blood everywhere. Smoke’s getting thick.”

“We gotta get out,” Ericson replied, “tank’s history.” He turned around and opened the turret hatch.  He climbed out and helped to pull his foam soaked gunner out of the burning tank.  They would have to run for cover.  The battle would be over soon as it was one tank against four mechs.

***

I hoped you enjoyed the excerpt from the short story HARM.  Please check out my other work on my Publications Page.  I also have a post about writing mecha science fiction here.

Future Warfare, Drones Versus Alien Kaiju, An Excerpt From Matters of Destiny

I'm working on my next novel to wrap up the Exocrisis Blue main story arc.  In Exocrisis, the world has been invaded by the alien Blue Newts and mankind united to fight them to a stalemate.  Exocrisis made me extrapolate near future military tech and write something that seems feasible, even if large combat robots are involved.  Drones play an important role in Exocrisis Blue too, replacing manned fighters in my future universe.  So, after an alien invasion, massive changes to the international order, here is a good chunk of an early chapter involving attack drones against an alien monster from my upcoming novel, Matters of Destiny. 

Navy drone launch, courtesy of the United States Navy (attribution here).

Captain Williams had received the level one alert issued by CINCPAC and was slightly surprised that there was a bogey in the Sky Hope Security Zone.  Checking the map display, his air carrier was the closest patrol ship, being some 150 kilometres from the bogey.  “All hands to battle stations.  All hands to battle stations.  This is not a drill.  We have an unidentified surface contact in the security zone that is moving slowly towards Sky Hope.  Upload target coordinates and launch the ready alert,” he ordered the Carrier Air Group Commander or CAG.  An alarm klaxon sounded as if to emphasize the situation even more.

The flying air carrier, Lexington, was a twenty thousand ton, bulbous flying wing that was mostly an airship.  Without the lift generated from the wings the ship would begin to gently descend to the surface as its helium cells made it just slightly negatively buoyant.  Air carriers were mostly constructed from lightweight composites and propelled by turbo fans that were electrically powered by a chemical fusion plants, like those found on heavy combat mechs.  At its maximum speed of  250 kilometres per hour, the Lexington wasn’t going to break any speed records, but it could travel completely around the world before refuelling.

The super aircraft carriers of the early 21st century were completely obsolete by the end of 2030s, and had been replaced by these new flying carriers.  These new carriers were designed from inception as drone carriers.  They were smaller, mostly crewed by robots, and stealthy between their active camouflage and radar deflecting construction.  These carriers operated without escorts, and delivered their squadrons of supersonic attack drones into battle from a stand-off distance.  Human piloted fighter aircraft had been almost completely replaced by unmanned drones due to the advent of laser weapons.  The autonomous drones were cheaper, more maneuverable, capable of pulling high-G maneuvers that would incapacitate a human pilot, factors that made them more survivable and expendable at the same time.  A drone could still be remotely operated by a human pilot, but a squadron of six drones usually had only one human squadron leader in the kill chain to both guide it and authorize weapons use.

The left side drop bay doors flipped opened in the bottom of the carrier.  There were two long bays running down each side of the carrier.  A squadron of drones hung suspended from their cradles some 10,000 metres above the ocean far below.  One squadron of drones, the ready alert, was always ready to launch on immediate notice, while the other five squadrons could be armed and readied within fifteen minutes.  On the CAG’s orders, the squadron dropped free from the ship nose down.  Their afterburners kicked in during free fall to have the fighter squadron arc back up in a parabolic curve then turn towards the unknown contact at maximum speed, breaking the sound barrier as they went.

The carrier’s bridge and combat information centre (CIC) were both in one large room located within an armoured compartment in the middle of the carrier.  Automation and integrated workstations had now put control of all of the ships systems in one place.  Touch sensitive display consoles that controlled the ship and its weaponry were grouped by related function and organized in a semi-circle in front of the captain and XO’s stations, and all personnel faced forward towards a large set of displays at the front of the bridge.  The main display showed the forward view in front of the ship with tactical and strategic displays along side showing the view in front of the shop along with tactical and strategic displays along side it.

“Ready alert is away.  The Gunslingers report they are fully operational,” the CAG reported to the captain.  “Arming and fuelling the White Knights is under way.”  In the hangar, robot arms and a small human crew were working quickly to ready the next squadron.

***

The tactical operations officer notified the captain that a long range reconnaissance drone was coming up on the contact and put a visual up on the main display.  The view of the ocean in front of the carrier vanished and was replaced by clouds racing by.  The video was being transmitted from a Albatross III reconnaissance drone, one of many wide-winged, solar powered drones that patrolled the security zone for months at a time.  The drone descended below the light cloud pocket it had encountered and the bottom of the video feed showed an altitude of 1000 metres, with an airspeed of 300 kph.

There were a series of gasps from the bridge crew as the video feed locked in on a strange beast that pulsated and glowed yellow from within.  It resembled a crested jellyfish floating above the sea, with a frilly beard around the base and masses of long tentacles below it.  A band of dark black eyes seem to circle it around the body’s midpoint.  It was hard to get a scale on it until you looked down and saw the waves breaking against the tentacles that reached into the ocean.  You could understand it was big and a couple of hundred metres high, but you weren’t sure.

“What is that thing?” Williams asked aloud. 

“Don’t know,” the XO replied.  “Sure looks like some kind of weird alien jellyfish to me.  The thing is actually floating in the air.  Probably some kind of Blue Newt critter.  Data has been forwarded to HQ. Maybe the AIs can tell us.”

“Drone will be overhead in two minutes,” the tactical officer chimed in.  “Gunslingers will intercept in four minutes.”

“That thing shouldn’t be possible,” the captain spoke again.  “The square-cube law says no living thing could support itself at that size.  Is it even organic, or is it some kind of machine?“

“Looks organic to me,” the XO replied, “run a full scan of that thing.”

The tactical officer spoke again.  “Drone indicates that the thing does not return on radar.  Ladar is painting it and it looks like it is about three hundred metres high.  The main body at the top is about 75 metres high, with a diameter of 50 metres.  Thermal indicates the thing is hot, almost 400 degrees celcius.”

“That’s crazy.  Its hotter than molten lead,” Williams spoke again.  “Recheck the instruments.”

The picture was suddenly a wall of static, then it restored just a little to see the tentacled beast flailing tentacles in a grainy image.  The visual broke up again and restored a little, then broke up again.

“Drone reports massive radio interference,” the tactical officer reported.  “The thing is doing some type of broad spectrum electromagnetic jamming, almost like an EMP.  The body is heating up. It is almost a 1000 degrees now.”

Captain Williams was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this.  “Order the drone to maintain distance.  We’ll have the Gunslingers do a close-in pass of that thing when they arrive.”  The picture from the recon drone broke up into static again and then re-established itself as the Albatross began to circle the alien beast.

***

The Albatross had only made a partial orbit in the next minute when the tactical officer yelled out.  “Heat spike!”  The picture from the nose camera of the drone showed a bright flash from on of the many eyes on the alien jellyfish and the image violently shuddered, then showed the surface of the ocean.  “Albatross is falling.  Reports heavy damage, with no response from the tail.  It is going down, sir.  Looks like it got hit with some kind of directed energy weapon.”

“I guess we know it’s hostile.”  The XO spoke up.  “Orders, captain?”

“Weapons free.  Take that thing down.  Have the Gunslingers hit it with everything they got.”

“I suggest we rearm the White Knights for anti-ship, sir, “ the CAG spoke up.  “The Gunslingers are primarily armed for air to air.”

“Make it so,” Captain Williams replied.  “Prep all of the squadrons, anti-ship.  That thing is big, but it is going down.” 

***

“Sheriff,” Fast Eddie Wilson, the Gunslingers squadron commander was ready for action.  Both he and his assistant commander were already in their flight pod in the Boom Room.  The Boom Room housed six virtual reality command pods, each of which commanded a squadron of drones.  All of the pods were currently occupied during the alert, with each squadron either in flight or arming. 

The Gunslingers pilots sat in tandem in their pod, surrounded by a 360 degree view around the lead drone, and control consoles with flight controls in front of them.  Both pilots wore  helmets with a transparent full face visor that partially obscured their faces when the heads up display (HUD) projected on it.  Eddie guided the lead drone, and issued orders, with Roscoe acting as his backup and attack coordinator for their six drones.  The AI controlled attack drones could fly and attack completely autonomously, but human pilots commanded them and could fly them as required.  A human component was still essential in the kill loop for coordinating tactics, target identification, and weapons release authorization.

Eddie was a veteran pilot, unlike his assistant, he was old enough to have flown jet interceptors before the last of them had been decommissioned just over a decade ago.  He always felt a little detached when flying drone missions as it didn’t have the same impact as being in a cockpit in the middle of the action.  He could still get into the mission, but the thrill wasn’t the same.  After watching the recon drone feed and and the shooting down of the drone, he had bad feeling about this mission building in his gut.  Maybe it was just the strangeness of the alien monster, but he was glad he wasn’t in a cockpit facing that thing right now.  Looking forward he could see the alien monster straight ahead of the lead drone and slightly lower.  They were sixty seconds out.

“All drones report ready,” Roscoe called over.  If he showed any nervousness, it was hidden in the excitement of his voice.  This would be his first combat mission.

“Let’s do this by the book,” Eddie replied to reassure Roscoe, but it was probably for both of them.  “Attack Pattern Alpha.  All weapons hot.  Select Jackhammers, mass fire.”  Eddie wished their drones had been armed with Sea-lance anti-ship missiles, but they only had a mix of air to air missiles and the general purpose Jackhammer missiles.  Still, each drone carried four Jackhammers and also had a 25mm gatling cannon that could be used for good effect.

“All drones to max combat speed, fire all missiles at 10 km, then break off.  We’ll reform at point delta and come in for gun runs if it isn’t dead yet.” 

The drones confirmed their orders visually on the helmet HUDs.  They began to assemble into a dispersed ragged line based on the lead drone, following the designated attack pattern.  The drones did not come in directly, but weaved and bobbed in their formation to dodge possible enemy fire.  Eddie was not directly piloting the lead drone, but worked with the AI, and both human and computer counted down the seconds till weapons release.

Internal weapons bays opened up on the drones and the Jackhammers dropped out in pairs from each drone.  Twenty four missiles burned in at three times the speed of sound.  Contrails converged in from the drones wide front into one point where the alien monster was.  “Missiles away,” Eddie called out.  “Drones breaking off.”

Behind the retreating drones, the monster seemed unaware of the missile wave closing in, its tentacles slowly moving in the air and in the water where they touched the ocean.  Suddenly, it seemed to realize the danger that was incoming.   The mass of tentacles began flailing in the air and the body pulsated with flashes of orange.  The temperature of the beast rose as it generated energy.  Long duration beams of energy shot from a half dozen of its eyes.  The beams swept through the air at the incoming missiles.  A half dozen missiles exploded in the air, but the other relentlessly closed in.

Jackhammers were designed to engage ground targets like tanks, spider-mechs, the big robotic HARM units, or bunkers.  They packed a hundred kilogram explosive warhead shaped to punch through armour while providing a large blast effect.  Eighteen of these warheads detonated in rapid succession against the beast’s body.  Explosions and big clouds of dark clouds of smoke obscured the beast for a half minute.  Tentacles could still be seen flailing through the air, but it did not look like the slowing death throes of an animal. 

The air began clearing and the pilots and the bridge crew of the carrier gasped.  There were a good dozen holes in the side of the creature which was a bright orange now.  Yellowish protoplasmic fluid oozed out of the holes in the creature’s thick hide.  Even as they watched, the holes could be seen to be shrinking, the creature was healing.  Static filled the picture for a moment as more electromagnetic interference burst from the creature.

“Holy Crap,” Roscoe exhaled.  The thing had taken a beating ad was still going.

“That’s not good,” Eddie added.  “We’re going to need more missiles, or bigger ones.  Let’s try for the eyes on that thing.  It’s got to have a weak spot.  Drones, Attack Pattern Delta.  The things got some kind of energy beams protecting it, but we’re going in with guns.  All units to use maximum speed and evasion.”

This time, the drones formed into a wide arc and began closing in.  They were widely dispersed and randomly dipped and weaved in high-g maneuvers that would have killed a human pilot. The alien monster saw them coming in further out this time and began to fire its beams at them in rapid succession.  At first, the drones were successful at evading with the maneuvers designed to counter anti-air lasers, but as the distance dropped, the beast’s accuracy was telling.  One drone exploded, then another, but four drones were still on approach.  

At two kilometres, they began to slightly straighten out and begin to fire at the creature’s eyes in long bursts of their cannons.  At fifty rounds in a burst, several of the eyes were struck, and they burst open in great gouts of dark fluid.  The beast seemed to react as if it were in pain.  Tentacles arced high into the air and some seemed to be covering some of its eyes.  The drones fired several more bursts to less effect and then passed over the alien monster at high speed.  More eye beams burned out and another drone exploded.  The remaining Gunslingers did an incredibly tight turn and began another attack run.

Beams and cannon tracer rounds blazed through the air.  Another drone exploded on the way in and another drone exploded on the way out.   Two more eyes on the beast were taken out.  Less than a couple of minutes had passed and only one craft from the squadron of multi-million dollar drones had survived. 

“Gunslingers are withdrawing,” Eddie, “Squadron has suffered heavy losses, 5 drones down..”  He looked in the at the receding alien monster through the rear camera on his drone.  There were still a couple of dozen of eyes left on the alien thing.  “I hope it doesn’t heal as fast from those hits on its eyes.  I recommend that we try to hit it at standoff range with anti-ship missiles and multiple squadrons to swamp its defences.”

“You did good,” Captain Williams replied back.  “That thing is tougher than anyone thought.”  The entire bridge crew had seen the action first hand.  “We’ll do better next time.  We’re already arming for anti-ship and we’ll stage the next one to hit it as hard as we can.” 

“Yes, sir!” Eddie responded.  He then exhaled hard, the intensity of the moment had been greater than he expected.

Turning to his XO, the captain then said, “Get CINCPAC on the horn.  We might need more firepower.  Request railgun cruisers and more carriers.”

***

Cool Japanese Snacks

Japan produces some of the best snacks and candy.  Here are some of the ones I've tried over the years.  Their snacks and candy are so popular they are found all over Asia and can even be found in various oriental supermarkets in Canada and the US.

Nissin Cup Noodles.  Nissin invented the instant noodle in the form of Nissin Chicken Ramen in the 1950s and then they developed the cup noodle in the 1970s.  There are many flavours of cup noodles in Japan and in Asia, and they are much better than what you find in typical North American supermarket shelves.

Canned bread.  This stuff comes in many flavours and is often branded with an anime series.  They aren't bad at all considering it is canned bread and they remind me of those Italian holiday cakes you can buy in a box at Christmas.

Japanese Kit Kats.  These come in an awesome number of flavours.  Some are really good, some are kind of so so, but their Kit Kats rock overall.  The Green Tea Kit Kats are very common and very tasty.  There are regional specialty Kit Kats with exotic flavours like ponzu, red bean, Japanese strawberry, pear, soybean, etc.

Pocky.  These are biscuit sticks covered with chocolate for the basic variety and they have many many varieties like the Kit Kat.  There are special dessert Pocki and stubby thick Midi Pocky too.

Coconut Pocky and tropical Pocky shown below.  Like many types of snacks in Japan, there are many limited edition and seasonal Pocky that are available for limited amounts of time.

Karipori Candy Sticks.  There is cola and ramune flavours on the left, and grape and melon on the right with Pikachu.

Pretz.  These are savoury biscuit sticks.  The ones below are shoyu flavour, as in soy sauce.

Jagabee Potato Sticks.  Many different flavours and eating these reminds me of eating really crispy french fries.

Look Chocolate and a couple of other ramune flavoured candies and gum.

Puccho chewy candies and whistle candy.  Everyone likes the chewy candies with the little gummy bits embedded within.  The whistle candies are fun as you can really blow through the little hole in the middle for a loud shriek and they come with a little toy.

Various kinds of rice crackers. Very delicious.

Different types of potato chips and snacks from Calbee.  I really like their curry potato chips.

Hard candies and gummy candy that is ramune flavour (a type of Japanese lemon flavour - very nice).  The Super Soda candies have a really sour coating.

Meltykiss chocolates.  These are pretty deluxe little chocolates with an intensely flavoured center of green tea and strawberry in the boxes shown below.  They come in individually wrapped cubes and are very good.

Instant miso soup.  You have a dried ingredient pouch and another pouch holding the miso soup paste.  Very popular in Japan.

This is another kind of instant miso soup that is freeze dried.  This is from an American company and the little puck rehydrates almost instantly with boiling water.  Quite good.

The rehydrated miso soup below.

This is a type of summer watermelon gummy candy that is pretty delicious, but available for the summer months mainly.

Puccho sour plum flavour chews.

Ramune soda.  These are bottled like sodas were in North America in the early 20th century.  The bottles are sealed with a marble under a cap and you have to push the marble in with a special tool that comes with the bottle.  There are two notches in the glass on the inside of the bottle to hold the marble back when you sip.

Takoyaki flavoured corn puffs.

Ramune bubble gum candy.

Summer watermelon candy

More ramune chewy candy.

Ema hard fruit candies.  These are sugarless.

These are good tasting chocolate biscuits with strawberry cream chocolate mushroom tops.

Tiny potato chips in a long tube.  These are chicken flavour.

Hi-Chew chewy candies.  This was a big bag available at Costco once upon a time.

These are more Pocky but chocolate and crushed almonds.

That's just a few of the hundreds or thousands of Japanese snacks you can get.

A Secret Hankering For Foreign Chips

Potato chips. Crunch. Crunch.  That savoury, salty, or otherwise flavoured deep fried wafer of potato.  Every country pretty much has their own local type of potato chip.  Here in Canada, there are plenty of varieties too, but I still like to try other chips from other countries.

First, lets start with Lays Canada.  They have been promoting regional flavours of chips, and asking for Canadians to vote for their favourite.  I actually liked their butter chicken and more recently, their wasabi ginger flavours.  The butter chicken was a pretty good approximation that hit the highlights of the seasoning for it (sans chicken of course), and the wasabi ginger really appealed to tastebuds familiar with wasabi and ginger.  The wasabi wasn't too strong though, which was good, and I bought a few bags to munch on before they vanished.

Butter Chicken and more

Wasabi Ginger.  It was a nice combination of Asian flavours.

Then there are chips from Japan.  They have plenty of strange flavours, but they can do a very nice potato chip when they want to.  They have every odd flavour you can think of from plain to sour plum or pepsi flavoured, but there are many tasty varieties in between.  Here are a few that I've tried.

One time I was in Tokyo at the right time and actually found these limited edition chips in a konbini.  They didn't taste like KFC, but there were some similiarities, and they were tasty.

This isn't actually Japanese, but it could have been.  Crispy battered strips of seaweed.  Quite tasty.

From left to right.  Here are prawn crackers, lobster bisque flavour, and lobster flavour.  They do like seafood flavours.  I found the lobster flavours okay, a little fishy, but okay.  The shrimp is usually pretty good from any asian country.

On of my favourites is on the left.  It is curry!  Tastes very much like a Japanese curry.  The pizza was kind of the generic tomato, cheese flavour, and the one on the right was one I have forgotten I even tried.

Last year I went to France and lo and behold, some very tasty French potato chips.  I was pretty busy eating normal French food while I was there, but I did pack some back as souvenirs.

Lays did an awesome roast chicken chip (actually had chicken in the seasoning).  From top left to bottom right.  Olive flavoured chips (quite good), cheese chips (so authentically cheesy and good), Soy chips (were okay - kind of salty if I remember right), the amazing roast chicken, ham, and chorizo were okay, but the chorizo were kind of like BBQ flavour.

I also like these Greek type snacks, and am fond of the oregano flavoured potato chips from that country.  I spent a bunch of time living there and still miss having a good gyro or roast lamb.

Pistachios, bagel crisps, jam filled croissants, and Tsakiris oregano chips!

I think I'll be having a few chips tonight after this post...