Stupid Luck and Happenstance.
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
There have been times that I have thought that Gianna would have been outed as Jehane, so what is different this time?
It could be that Czar Gregory needs money because Peabody-Martini had posted earlier that the new Czar has no money of his own and the Provisional Government was stingy in providing funds to the Czar.
By dangling "The Last Romanov" in front of newly rich Russian families, it gives them a way of getting instant "respectability" for their new titles.
It could be that Czar Gregory needs money because Peabody-Martini had posted earlier that the new Czar has no money of his own and the Provisional Government was stingy in providing funds to the Czar.
By dangling "The Last Romanov" in front of newly rich Russian families, it gives them a way of getting instant "respectability" for their new titles.
Particular the end. Maybe, if by some stupid luck, that was what the toad needed to get back on his feet.
Pretty amazing that the General survived serving the Czar, Lenin, Stalin, and is still employed the by the new Russian Government. This is not to mention that he probably served during the wars of Russia and the USSR. I guess you can explain it by "Stupid Luck and Happenstance".
PM, what a fine tale and tangled tale you weave. Always look forward to the updates. Please keep feeding us junkies. Danke!
He was likely only a grunt, or a very low officer in the days of the Czar, and so if he kept his head low He might well have survived Lenin and Stalin. The being employed by the current government is the surprising part in all of that
He allegedly had some "palace connections" to the point where he could give the Czar's daughter a puppy. Not sure how that would fly with the commies.
Not like that would require more then knowing someone in the palace.
Part 50, Chapter 677
Chapter Six Hundred Seventy-Seven
18th August 1948
Berlin
“Your hearing is already damaged Katherine” Doctor Holz had said, “You have to take precautions.”
The indoor shooting range certainly was the very sort of thing Kat was supposed to avoid without wearing the uncomfortable earmuffs, Doctor’s orders. This wasn’t helped by recent change that all of Germany’s Police Agencies adopt the Walther P38, a more powerful pistol than she was used to. Her instructor had also taken one look at one of the three PPKs she’d used in the past and said that a State Prosecutor would be furious if they saw the interrupted threads on the barrels. Suppressors were for assassins and covert operatives, if the Defense could successfully paint her as either of those things it could jeopardize a case.
Kat fired the last few rounds in the magazine, careful to aim for center-mass. In the first practice session she’d aimed for the head only to have it pointed out that dead men can’t answer questions and that she wasn’t in the SKA any more. When the last round fired, the slide locked back. As per instructions she placed the pistol on the counter in front of her and waited for the instructor.
While the reputation violence that had preceded her had seen to it that Kat had not had to deal with any unwanted advances, the social aspect had caused problems. She had been largely frozen out by the others in her class. While that hadn’t bothered her in the least, the instructors had taken note of it. “How do you expect to pursue a career like this if you don’t work with others?” That was the question that had been asked. Kat saw it as not being her problem and she had her own way of dealing with problems. The real problem from her perspective was that in Abwehr and the SKA they had seen her very real desire to lash out and hurt the people who might do her harm and encouraged it. Now, in this changed situation she found herself presented with the need to show restraint, something new and uncomfortable.
“Not bad” The Instructor said as he measured the group on the silhouette target poster. “More practice though, the groups should be tighter” He said as he moved on.
“Thank you, Sir” Kat replied.
At that moment Kat wanted nothing more than to go and get her MP-45. A few bursts from one of those would reduce the target poster to shreds. How tight was that group, Sir, Kat imagined herself saying. She had no idea how she was going to survive two more years of this without going insane.
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“Thank you for granting this interview, General” Gianna said as she pressed the record button on the tape recorder. She was seated across the table from him. “I’m aware that you’re a very busy man.”
Gianna had pulled a few strings to get a follow up interview with Major General Dmitri Malama. She’d sold the story to Maria as a human-interest story. While one could never tell what people might find interesting, a story of romance and lost love amid war and revolution was the sort of thing that people ate up. Maria had also been understanding of the personal angle that this story had for her, which was nice of her. The General’s memories of Sunday morning were understandably a bit fuzzy.
“I’m glad you understand the value of my time” Dmitri replied. He was clearly less than thrilled by having to take a few minutes to give this interview. From what Gianna was able to glean, he was one of those quietly competent people who do their jobs with as little fanfare as possible. It was a needed trait to anyone who had survived under the Soviets for any length of time.
“You had mentioned that you knew Tatianna Nikolaevna” Gianna said, “The last time we talked, that is.”
That changed the General’s composure. “True enough” He replied, “Why would I have told you that?”
“You said I reminded you of her.”
The General laughed when he heard that, “That is why matching shots with the Bulgarian Ambassador is a bad idea.”
“I see” Gianna replied, even if she didn’t.
“But you did in fact know her?” Gianna asked as she pulled a photograph from her satchel bag and handed it to the General. Gianna had dug through the archives as the BT until she’d found it, a much younger Dmitri and Tatiana seated on a couch together.
“That photograph that caused me a bit of trouble just after the Civil War ended” Dmitri said mildly as he held up his left hand. Three fingers were misshapen, having been broken and then not set properly before they healed. “At least I wasn’t considered important enough to get a bullet for my troubles. As it was they gave me a good thrashing and a one-way trip to Siberia.”
Gianna gulped and went back to her notes. “You also mentioned trying to win a woman’s heart by giving her a puppy?”
“It was a French Bulldog” Dmitri said, “And it worked for me then, though I wouldn’t dare try anything like that now.”
Gianna remembered her Aunt Olga mentioning that her Aunt Anastasia complained about how the little dog’s snoring had kept her awake. The conversation continued for several minutes, the General telling his story up until he left to return to the Front leaving Tatiana behind forever. “I was heartbroken when I learned she’d been sent overseas into exile” Dmitri said, “But I was glad she was safe as she could possibly be, for a while anyway.” It was a small sadness to conclude on, he had to have known what had happened years later.
“What happened to you during those years?” Gianna asked.
“Regardless of the bullshit that Soviets spewed they always seemed to need trained officers who soldiers would follow” Dmitri replied, “I led politically unreliable Company and eventually a Regiment. I showed them exactly how unreliable I was when I switched sides during the retreat from Ukraine when I should have been covering the backsides of the Guard Divisions.”
“Once again, thank you, Sir” Gianna said as she stopped the recorder, aware that they had gone over the time limit. As she gathered her things the General got up to leave the room before pausing.
“You know she went to Canada?” Dmitri asked, “Had a husband and little girl?”
“I’m aware” Gianna replied, “They died, and the girl is still in hiding.”
“If you ever meet the girl, let her know that I sometimes wish that things might have been different” Dmitri said, “My wife, she gets jealous when this story gets mentioned but that’s life. Good luck with your story Fraulein Strobel.”
18th August 1948
Berlin
“Your hearing is already damaged Katherine” Doctor Holz had said, “You have to take precautions.”
The indoor shooting range certainly was the very sort of thing Kat was supposed to avoid without wearing the uncomfortable earmuffs, Doctor’s orders. This wasn’t helped by recent change that all of Germany’s Police Agencies adopt the Walther P38, a more powerful pistol than she was used to. Her instructor had also taken one look at one of the three PPKs she’d used in the past and said that a State Prosecutor would be furious if they saw the interrupted threads on the barrels. Suppressors were for assassins and covert operatives, if the Defense could successfully paint her as either of those things it could jeopardize a case.
Kat fired the last few rounds in the magazine, careful to aim for center-mass. In the first practice session she’d aimed for the head only to have it pointed out that dead men can’t answer questions and that she wasn’t in the SKA any more. When the last round fired, the slide locked back. As per instructions she placed the pistol on the counter in front of her and waited for the instructor.
While the reputation violence that had preceded her had seen to it that Kat had not had to deal with any unwanted advances, the social aspect had caused problems. She had been largely frozen out by the others in her class. While that hadn’t bothered her in the least, the instructors had taken note of it. “How do you expect to pursue a career like this if you don’t work with others?” That was the question that had been asked. Kat saw it as not being her problem and she had her own way of dealing with problems. The real problem from her perspective was that in Abwehr and the SKA they had seen her very real desire to lash out and hurt the people who might do her harm and encouraged it. Now, in this changed situation she found herself presented with the need to show restraint, something new and uncomfortable.
“Not bad” The Instructor said as he measured the group on the silhouette target poster. “More practice though, the groups should be tighter” He said as he moved on.
“Thank you, Sir” Kat replied.
At that moment Kat wanted nothing more than to go and get her MP-45. A few bursts from one of those would reduce the target poster to shreds. How tight was that group, Sir, Kat imagined herself saying. She had no idea how she was going to survive two more years of this without going insane.
----------------------------------------------------------------
“Thank you for granting this interview, General” Gianna said as she pressed the record button on the tape recorder. She was seated across the table from him. “I’m aware that you’re a very busy man.”
Gianna had pulled a few strings to get a follow up interview with Major General Dmitri Malama. She’d sold the story to Maria as a human-interest story. While one could never tell what people might find interesting, a story of romance and lost love amid war and revolution was the sort of thing that people ate up. Maria had also been understanding of the personal angle that this story had for her, which was nice of her. The General’s memories of Sunday morning were understandably a bit fuzzy.
“I’m glad you understand the value of my time” Dmitri replied. He was clearly less than thrilled by having to take a few minutes to give this interview. From what Gianna was able to glean, he was one of those quietly competent people who do their jobs with as little fanfare as possible. It was a needed trait to anyone who had survived under the Soviets for any length of time.
“You had mentioned that you knew Tatianna Nikolaevna” Gianna said, “The last time we talked, that is.”
That changed the General’s composure. “True enough” He replied, “Why would I have told you that?”
“You said I reminded you of her.”
The General laughed when he heard that, “That is why matching shots with the Bulgarian Ambassador is a bad idea.”
“I see” Gianna replied, even if she didn’t.
“But you did in fact know her?” Gianna asked as she pulled a photograph from her satchel bag and handed it to the General. Gianna had dug through the archives as the BT until she’d found it, a much younger Dmitri and Tatiana seated on a couch together.
“That photograph that caused me a bit of trouble just after the Civil War ended” Dmitri said mildly as he held up his left hand. Three fingers were misshapen, having been broken and then not set properly before they healed. “At least I wasn’t considered important enough to get a bullet for my troubles. As it was they gave me a good thrashing and a one-way trip to Siberia.”
Gianna gulped and went back to her notes. “You also mentioned trying to win a woman’s heart by giving her a puppy?”
“It was a French Bulldog” Dmitri said, “And it worked for me then, though I wouldn’t dare try anything like that now.”
Gianna remembered her Aunt Olga mentioning that her Aunt Anastasia complained about how the little dog’s snoring had kept her awake. The conversation continued for several minutes, the General telling his story up until he left to return to the Front leaving Tatiana behind forever. “I was heartbroken when I learned she’d been sent overseas into exile” Dmitri said, “But I was glad she was safe as she could possibly be, for a while anyway.” It was a small sadness to conclude on, he had to have known what had happened years later.
“What happened to you during those years?” Gianna asked.
“Regardless of the bullshit that Soviets spewed they always seemed to need trained officers who soldiers would follow” Dmitri replied, “I led politically unreliable Company and eventually a Regiment. I showed them exactly how unreliable I was when I switched sides during the retreat from Ukraine when I should have been covering the backsides of the Guard Divisions.”
“Once again, thank you, Sir” Gianna said as she stopped the recorder, aware that they had gone over the time limit. As she gathered her things the General got up to leave the room before pausing.
“You know she went to Canada?” Dmitri asked, “Had a husband and little girl?”
“I’m aware” Gianna replied, “They died, and the girl is still in hiding.”
“If you ever meet the girl, let her know that I sometimes wish that things might have been different” Dmitri said, “My wife, she gets jealous when this story gets mentioned but that’s life. Good luck with your story Fraulein Strobel.”
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Not a bad thing to say to your 'daughter that could have been'.
Great lesson let's hope she takes it to hart, it would make her live a lot better.
And that is why you get two more years of training, so you don't go bat shit when interrogating a suspect.
Suppressors are also for home defense to avoid damaging your hearing when you snuff the intruders.
Men with perforated hearts or aortas are no less dead than men with bullets through their heads. Neither can answer questions. In Kat's own words: “Ez bullzit, yeah.”
Kat needs to realize that the purpose of the BII is not to shoot Bad Guys; rather it's to gather evidence, question winesses and interrogate subjects in order to present a case that the prosecutors can take to trial. She needs to be able to shoot but that's not her primary purpose or she'd still be in the SKA.
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Knowing things, odds are that either she quits, or a terrorist incident happens in an embassy that she manages to solve, something that makes evident that the BII requires an specialized unit of their own to deal with hostage situations and terrorist attacks......
Cue Kat being asked to create the GSG 9...
Cue Kat being asked to create the GSG 9...
Well, Kat generally (but not always) killed her (or the state's, or her friends') enemies. Them being Good or Bad was generally irrelevant, as opposed to: "Is he needed alive afterwards?"
As for bodyshots as opposed to headshots, the main difference (outside difficulty) is that a men shot in the head is (outside exceptional cases) nearly certainly dead.
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And somebody shot center-mass with one or more 9x19mm rounds is also highly probably dead. Is he needed alive afterward? If so, then don't shoot him.
You shoot someone to prevent them from doing something (such as shooting at someone) or to stop them doing something (such as shooting at someone). In neither case will a minor wound do that and it's highly unlikely that you can inflict a minor wound in the heat of the moment.