Here's the long awaited update! However I'm sorry that I'll have to inform their might not be an update on next Wednesday due to midterms again. (Midterms Sucks!
) Whatever, here we go!
.........
Greek Royal Palace, a few days later
“It is so wonderful for you to join us again, Major Rommel. You look awfully tired.” Queen Olga said most caringly to Rommel.
“Yes. Recently my nights were not as calm as I would have like them to be.” Rommel answered quietly with his eyes half-closed.
“What have you been doing?” asked Queen Olga curiously.
“Classified operations. I can not reveal anything about them. Not even to you, your highness.”
In the grand ball room of the royal palace, Rachmaninoff was playing the piano again. The majestic sound of the grand piano filled the whole hallroom.
“Monsieur Rachmaninoff’s piano playing is as wonderful as usual, isn’t it? Major Rommel?” Tsar Nicholas II suddenly said from behind Rommel.
“Yes, indeed, mon Empereur” answered Rommel silently, and he closed his eyes while listening peacefully to Rachmaninoff’s playing one of Chopin's waltz.
“Major Rommel, although this may not be the best time to ask you, I’d like to witness your shooting skills.” A voice suddenly said to Rommel. Rommel opened his eyes and found King George I of the Hellenes talking to him.
“My shooting … skills?” Rommel asked hesitately.
“Yes, Major Rommel. It is like this. I’m going to inspect my troops today. They are having a live shooting drill. I’d like you to accompany me and just “demonstrate” your shooting skills. I’m fairly curious with how well a legionnaire can shoot now that I had witness your sword fighting skills a few days ago.”
“George! How could you ask Major Rommel at this timing? Can’t you see that Major Rommel is awfully tired?” Queen Olga protested behind her husband.
“If your majesty asks me to, I’ll humbly do so.” Rommel got up and said in a low tone.
“Wonderful, Major Rommel. Then should we get going?”
“Yes, your majesty, but may I just inform you, I’ll only use my own gun.”
Greek Army training grounds, outskirts of Athens
“Ready … Fire!” A Greek Army officer signaled his men, and a volley of fire erupted from the men’s rifles.
“Good … good … but could be better.” King George looked through a field telescope and looked at the targets around three hundred metres from the men. Most of the shots made hits on the targets, but few of them scored critical areas such as the heart and the head.
“Major Rommel, perhaps you can do some demonstrations?” King George then turned to Rommel.
“Yes your majesty …” Rommel then readied his G98 and rapidly fired off all five shots in the gun’s magazine. The time intervals between each shot seemed almost to quick to measure.
“Let’s take a look at this … Certainly impressive, Major Rommel!” King George looked through his telescope with amazement. Of the five targets hit, the forehead of each of them had been pierced.
“I’m absolutely impressed, Major Rommel. You are not even using optical sights! Why don’t you do another round of firing? This time try the targets at eight hundred metres.”
King George then pointed to a hill in front of them. A small white target, appearing more as a small white dot, was on the top of the hill.
Rommel readied his rifle again, and took a big breath before he stopped his breathing. Rommel then fired off all five rounds again, taking almost the same time as before.
“Major Rommel why are you not using your optical sight this time? It is impossible to even make a hit at this distance!” remarked King George. “But nevertheless let’s take a look at how you did.”
King George looked through his telescope and focuses on the distant white target. The target’s head had five holes that were just freshly created.
“What how could that be possible? Major Rommel, you just made five consecutive head shots!” exclaimed King George.
“Although a telescope is useful, the sunlight glare caused by the lenses can reveal my position when I’m sniping. Therefore I focused a lot using only iron sights when training.” Rommel said silently.
“Major Rommel, you impressed me again. You are the most amaz …”
Suddenly Rommel tooked out his Luger and fired at the Tsar’s direction. The bullet went pass the Tsar’s head and hit something hidden in the shurbs tens of metres away.
“What … Major Rommel what were you doing?!” exclaimed the Tsar.
“Look behind you … mon Empereur …” said Rommel in a low voice.
From behind the shrubs, a sniper appeared with his forehead pierced.
“Who is that man? Is he aiming at the Tsar?!” roared King George. He then started to shut in Greek to his men, and the whole place erupted in chaos.
“The sunlight glare from his telescope lenses revealed his position, mon Empereur.” Rommel said quietly to Nicholas II as he slowly walked pass the Tsar. “Please excuse me now, I have more of my operations to execute.” Rommel then picked up his rifle and silently left the chaotic scene.
The next day, a market area of Athens, early morning
“Adjundant Alain … why is he assigned to me?” Rommel recalled the nights he had after arriving in Athens. For most of the time Alain did not assist with the killing, and he even seemed a bit clumsy with using a gun. Overall, Rommel thought that Alain should go back to Algiers to receive more basic training.
With some spare Greek coins Rommel bought some fresh Tiropitas that just came directly from the oven. Rommel took a large bite of the Greek pastry. The cheese-egg mixture inside filled Rommel’s mouth. Another long night had just past for Rommel, and he felt an urgent need to satsify his growing hunger.
Rommel quickly devoured one of his Tiropitas. Just as he was going for his second one, Rommel felt a small tug on his side.
“Would you please buy a flower?” (Greek)
Rommel turned and saw a little girl dressed in filthy rags pulling his clothing. The little girl was speaking in a tongue not understandable by Rommel, but Rommel seemed to understood what the little girl was trying to convey as she pointed to her basket of flowers and then to the small bag of Tiropitas Rommel was holding.
“… I’ve killed too much of your people already …” said Rommel to himself. Rommel then gave the little girl the rest of his Tiropitas and simply took a small white Caper from the little girl’s basket. The little girl seemed delighted and smiled happily to Rommel before running off joyfully.
“Am I doing a good deed?” Rommel asked himself as he turned to go away.
“KABBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!”
Suddenly an explosion erupted behind Rommel and knocked him off his balance. As Rommel got up trying to realize what had just happened, he saw from above burning white pedals of Capers falling around him.
“What just …” As Rommel try to gather himself up, a falling object from high above hit him on the face. Rommel felt some warm, sticky liquid gradually flowing down his face as he looked at the small severed hand, white as chalk it was, lying on the cobblestone road just before him. The small hand was still holding on to a basket of Capers.
Amidst the smoke and dust Rommel saw multiple bodies blasted by the explosion. Many were lifeless already, while some were still screaming in pain. The explosion seemed to cover a radius of a few tens of metres. The market that was just filled with life was now filled with the smell of death.
“I guess I should return this to her … ” muttered Rommel to himself. Rommel then picked up the severed hand and wandered through the debris filled area around him. It was not long before he found the little girl. Aside from having her hand severed, a large debris had hit her in the back. The little girl was still holding tightly to the Tiropitas, but her eyes were now fixed in a dead empty stare into the cobblestone street that was now stained with her blood.
After putting the severed hand beside the little girl’s wrist, Rommel inserted the Caper he just got from the little girl into the little girl’s hair, and then covered the little girl’s eyes with his hand. When Rommel removed his hand the little girl’s eyes were no longer fixed in a stare but firmly closed.
“May you rest in peace …” said Rommel silently as he left the scene with a heavy heart.
…
Moments after Rommel left, two figures appeared at the scene.
“The explosion seemed to be powerful enough … Maybe a little bit more Gelignite will do” One of the two figures said to himself as he examined the scene thoroughly..
“Yes, it certain is, Adjudant Alain.”
“Sergeant, how many of these are ready before the end of this week?”
“Approximately half a hundred, Adjudant Alain.”
“Good. Make sure our men have inspected every one of them so that they will explode the moment we set off the detonators. I want every single one of them to go off exactly when the time comes.”
“Yes, Adjudant Alain.” The sergeant then left the scene.
Alain looked at the scene of the explosion. Multiple corpses were being carried away, while many more bodies were being found under the debris of the destroyed building around. The ones who were alive were either unconscious or screming and wailing in pain.
“I’m very sorry …” said Alain as he turned and left the scene with a trek of tears on his cheek.
.........
Again, this update is done in a big rush. So I'll again make minor editing of my wording.
o
About Rommel being a sniper, it all started because I was playing as a sniper in the game Battlefield. (I'm a good sniper by the way. I can kill some one and a half dozen men in a 64 player game with only one death, but a lot of the time I got killed because some @#$%^&* enemy grenades
) However, I choose to write Rommel as a sniper because of this man:
Simo Häyhä, aka "White Death"
This is the real "White Death" in real life. He was a Finnish sniper who fought in the Winter Wars and is the most successful sniper in history, claiming more then 500 sniper kills in around 100 days. It was the Russians that nicknamed him "White Death".
By the way I know that some of you may want me to post some gameplay screenshots. This AAR is now more or less a narrative AAR, which is not what I originally planned to write. I think I just got too absorbed by the writing. I'll probably post the gameplay starting next chapter, but just probably.