Pestering

“Snipers one to five. All day. Irregular intervals. Cloak our numbers. Report activity. We are prepared for plan S, M and L.”

It was brutal. Didier would shoot one. Retreat away from the city center and then half an hour later Lina would shoot another. As if Didier just moved his position in that half an hour, never to be found by the city men. Lina would retreat away. Forty-five minutes later Tom would shoot. Miss or hit, it didn’t matter. And so on, between all well trained snipers.

If they knew who was the most likely culprit, us, we would know they had the intel about us. But not how much we had grown. In our area we had about two hundred villagers, children included. We trained everyone above sixteen. But not everyone was ready to hold a gun, let alone ready to kill. We had expanded our **** of twelve to fourteen at first, including Ambra and Elfie. Then we added an extra two snipers. Sixteen. Then we added the adult Ravens. Twenty-one. Then we added the villagers of which we were sure, like Marie, Eva, Gina and Amelie. Twenty-five. Sure they were all very familiar with us by now, or at least with one of the men. Then we added the adult Falcons who showed skill, emotional control and attitude. Twenty-six. Yes, just one... And then we added the rest of the best recruits from the villager pool. Thirty-six. So we tripled our strength. Well, more or less. Perhaps in practical sense we only doubled it.

But they were against about a hundred men, overconfident, all armed and used to weak opponents. We weren’t weak. But as Sun-Tzu had taught us: show weakness when you are strong, show strength when you are weak. Or was it from a fantasy book I once read? Our sniper team had doubled in strength, from two and a half to five. God, Tom and Didier had been training them without mercy. Probably threatening them with a sex-strike again. Or with an extra reward... Battle command had doubled from one to two. Ella was as good as me. And improving with each book she read. As creative as me in finding original solutions to common problems. Or just recreating old battle scenarios. We wouldn’t need AT-launchers this time, but we did have RPG’s and we had attached the grenade launchers to our rifles. And all kind of toys...

Two hours in, four men shot. Still no organized command activity. If there were two men guarding their workers... slaves, the snipers would just shoot one. The other one would duck, crawl behind a woman, and wait for the second shot, that never came. If he thought it was safe he would run to the city, leaving the working women either free, or he would lock them up first, or lock himself up with them. Scared shitless.

Some women ran away. They were halted by our forward female scouts and asked to gather in one of the villages we prepared for them. To be debriefed, to be interrogated about the strength of the city. Sadly not much information came out of them. The men were just bullies, had indeed found an armory and had gradually captured men and women. The men that didn’t agree with their philosophy were shot, the men that did, were integrated. The women were set to work and abused if they were pretty enough. They were Germans alright, some were soldiers in their previous life. And had turned cruel.

Three hours in, five men shot. They were hiding now. Three hundred women... Jesus. They had pillaged about every city in the area, had even ventured out to Stuttgart, when the Russians left. They had used cars before, but were now hindered by the snow on the roads. Perhaps they were waiting on springtime to start attacking us.

Four hours in, six men shot. A scout at one of the houses at the city border. They have been spreading out in the city, trying to find out from a safe distance where the sniper was. That wicked sniper running all around the city...

Six hours in, seven men shot. Give that wicked sniper some time to rest, I thought.

“Report captured, Picture confirmed. Gina’s ex among the fuckers.”

Ah... Hit. They knew about us. But were we the culprits would be their next question. Just a lone sniper around our city? With all our capabilities? No... We were the shock and awe kind of soldiers... No, they would need to find our lone sniper.

Seven hours in, eight men shot. We hadn’t given the villagers any information about our tactical abilities, but surely some information must have leaked out. They had seen our weapons. Probably scouted the F-city after we were done with it. They could have seen our anger and sheer potential to destroy. But if it wasn’t us, who the hell was that bloody sniper?

“S2, S&D.”

Finally, some activity. Sniper two, Lina reported a search and destroy party to her location. She was long gone, but could still see who was looking for her. Probably hiding in the snow somewhere, freezing her sensitive nipples off. Pregnancy will do that to you. S1 and S3 would be on the lookout for them, shoot at first sight one or two to throw off the scent. Didier would probably do it and knowing him it wouldn’t stay at one or two, not with Lina.

Seven hours and a quarter, twelve men shot. Good old Didier. Of course he was helped by the forward scouts to figure out where he could shoot the running men. But the pattern was broken. The gig would be running out.

“S west. S&K.” I ordered.

Only sniping from the west now. Our snipers could move now to only north, west and south. Two anchor scouts at the east entries would tell us if they tried to outflank us starting from that direction. They had blown up their bridges there, but they could still have improvised temporary bridges. It would surprise me, but I didn’t like surprises of that kind.

No more interval shooting, just see and kill. Probably not the correct term the army used, but hey... we were the army now, we could code our ops however we wanted. Should the fuckers pop out from the south or north, we would restart the intervals.

Seven hours and half, fourteen men shot. Two scouts shot with a quarter of an hour interval. Just to tell them our lone sniper was there to stay. Good old Tom. Well, I think it was Tom. Lina had been moving to the west too. Lisa as well. Brigit was Didier’s new flame and stayed at the north side.

“Come on, guys, you lost about a tenth of your forces now. Either you hide, or you come out.” I said to one in particular. Perhaps to Ella. Perhaps just to myself.

Eight hours in, fifteen men shot. Another scout to the west.

“S West, S&D, retreating.”

“Finally,” Ella sighed.

“Yes, finally... after eight hours...”