Re: Blood and Iron

Bruno emerged from the bath, a long and hot steam having done wonders not only for his fair and ivory complexion but also for his mental health. Sometimes, one simply needed to soak away their troubles and put things in perspective.

Because of this, the man emerged from his bath and noticed that the way he had washed his hair left it naturally slicked back, its golden sheen highlighted beneath the illumination of the light bulbs.

But something was off… His hair had gone too long without a proper cut, several millimeters beyond regulatory length for service within the German Army. As a result, he was quick to reach into the nearby drawer and pull out a pair of fine scissors, personally styling his own hair until it was prim and proper.

Afterward, he applied a product that allowed it to be styled and set before properly dressing himself. His body was littered with scars of every kind imaginable—on the front at least. Bullets, bayonets, fragmentation; there were even a few jagged and uneven slashes from more makeshift weaponry like entrenching tools. The scar tissue was perfectly layered within his fine jade complexion, like the watery pattern of carbon within Damascus steel.

It enhanced his already rugged and masculine body more than it detracted from it. Nevertheless, he was not some savage who walked the outside world without any shame. No, Bruno was quick to get himself dressed as he emerged from his bathroom and headed towards his personal office, where the papers he had been dabbling with the night before lay atop his desk.

The ink had dried throughout the cold and dehumidified night, and yet his work remained painfully unfinished. What was this work, you might ask? The introduction of the Reich's next standard-issue rifle.

If one had any inclination of basic military weaponry, the design displayed was perfectly obvious to those who gazed upon it. The weapon was a typical assault rifle design, a concept that was still completely alien to the rest of the world.

What was an assault rifle? And how did it remain distinctive from other rifles currently in service, like the select-fire Fedorov Avtomat or the semi-automatic Gewehr 43? Well, the answer lay in the cartridge with which the weapon was chambered.

For example, both the G43 and Avtomat rifles made use of a full-sized rifle cartridge. The advantages, of course, being power and range. The disadvantages were its controllability in automatic fire and, of course, factors like magazine capacity and the weight of the ammunition a soldier needed to carry.

The assault rifle, or the "sturm rifle," was a concept created by the Germans during the Second World War of Bruno's past life, first entering service in limited numbers as the MkB 42 in 1942 and later refined into the MP-43 and STG-44 variations. The rifle was distinctive from all others insofar as it made use of an 8x33 Kurz cartridge.

What was the 8x33 Kurz? It was a standard 8x57 mm Mauser bullet with a cartridge that was more or less cut in half. Why was this so effective? Because it solved the previously discussed problems commonly associated with "battle rifles" and "semi-automatic rifles."

A properly manufactured STG-44 was practically recoilless. For those who had the divine grace bestowed upon them necessary to handle one, they described sustained automatic fire as "like shooting a hose."

With a 30-round standard capacity and almost non-existent recoil, the weapon was far easier to keep on target and was lighter in weight and more compact than other types of combat rifles, making it ideal for modern warfare.

So if such a thing existed, why didn't the whole world just adopt it as the standard arm? Well, they eventually did, more or less, with the next generation of small arms, such as the AK series pattern rifles and the Armalite family of rifles, largely superseding any other design during the Cold War era.

There were drawbacks, though. Half the powder meant half the power and range, meaning assault rifles, depending on the caliber used, were generally less effective past 300 meters engagement distances. This proved to be a failing point for many units engaging in longer-range mountainous warfare, as was seen in certain parts of Afghanistan during the 21st century.

Sure, premium ammunition like MK 262 MOD 1 or M855A1 could stabilize the round at greater distances like 500m, but beyond that was really pushing the limits of the rifle, and lethality at such extended ranges was far less efficient than at closer distances.

Ultimately, in warfare, there was no real one-size-fits-all solution. There would always be some compromise to be made when choosing a standard-issue weapon, which is why armies consisted of multiple types of combatants.

The reason Bruno was designing this new Sturmgewehr was simple: the new era of warfare would be fought at much closer engagement distances, and thus, the need for a rifle capable of hitting someone straight through the eyes at 1,000 meters was no longer necessary nor practical.

With all of this in mind, Bruno designed a weapon that was both easy to manufacture and required far fewer advanced and rare earth metals than other designs. His Sturmgewehr prototype, which he began drawing as a basic proof of concept, initial blueprints, and a list of requirements, was largely modeled after a blend of the Sturmgewehr 44 and the earlier MkB-42(H).

Functionally, it was identical to the STG-44, insofar as it made use of a gas-operated long-stroke piston, a closed tilting bolt, and was selective fire. But the primary difference was in the fore-end. Bruno had opted for a combined gas block assembly of the MkB-42(H) with an integrated bayonet lug, allowing for the attachment of a K98k-style bayonet to the Type 84 birdcage-style flash hider, which would conceal muzzle flash during combat.

In addition to this, Bruno made a requirement for an AKMN-style side mount for the use of mounting optics to the platform, which could be riveted into the left side of the receiver to provide a more stable and rigid mounting platform than the attempts that had been made for the Sturmgewehr during his past life.

The ideal combat rifle for the future was a setup like this, making use of a ZF4 scope with an integrated bullet drop compensating reticle that, while not illuminated, would allow future soldiers to quickly acquire targets at different ranges to improve hit accuracy.

This optic setup, like the future Russian PK-A red dot, would be slightly offset to the side, allowing one to make use of the rifle's integrated iron sights during extreme close-quarters scenarios where the fixed 4x magnification was too much zoom.

It was the first infantry weapon Bruno intended to introduce as part of a series of modernizations for the upcoming war. And as the stroke of his pen completed the initial draft, Bruno received a phone call from a number he was not anticipating at this time.

Upon answering the phone, it became abundantly clear to the man that he was speaking to the leader of the Werwolf Brigade, who gave him a cryptic status update on the war in Austria.

"Spring seems to have come early for the city of Vienna, while I fear the Balkans will be having one of the harshest winters ever recorded… As for the rest of Cisleithania, it is somewhere in between…"

Bruno immediately responded in a way that was just as innocuous before hanging up on the man, leaving doubt in the mind of anyone who may have overheard their discussion over whether anything important had actually been said.

"Understood. While you're in the Alps, make sure to enjoy the slopes. It will soon be the perfect time to get some skiing done. I wish you luck and enjoy your trip, Colonel… I hope to hear from you soon…."

The words meant nothing to someone snooping where they did not belong—at least, not on the surface—but the intent was clear to those who knew what words to look for in particular, and what they truly meant.

Vienna had been secured, the Balkan territories and those of the Hungarian Crown were burning in civil war, while the remainder of the Habsburgs' rule over Austria and its lands was in a state of flux.

The Werwolf Brigade was on the march to bring the same order and stability they had brought to Vienna to the rest of the Habsburgs' lands, with the same price to be paid for their services—both in gold and blood.

But that was not a concern for Bruno. Instead, he got right back to designing his weapons. This was a far more important use of his time rather than worrying about what his pack of war hounds was doing now that he had let them loose in Austria.

As for when he was done, he was no longer at war. Sure, he had responsibilities to fulfill at the headquarters of central high command. But that was just another office job, free from the perils and worries of the battlefield.

He would come home later that night and enjoy the time spent with his family. And that was the greatest comfort of all for a man who had lived through a lifetime of war.