Mission 2: Operation Janus, Part 2
Disclaimer: Same as before. The song Lili Marlene isn't mine either. This site has the lyrics and rhythm to it ()
The Mummy crossover was my idea and the song Lili Marlene was actually one of the most popular songs of World War II among both German and Allied soldiers.
The story so far: Rusty is given a mission straight from Command to kill Claude Frollo. Vic Fontaine is slowly becoming the mansion's unofficial counselor. Diane's having a rough time at work.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Excuse me, sir." Says a voice. I turn around and see a fellow, with a neatly trimmed blonde beard with longish blonde hair in a blue uniform. Traverse Town Police, "Might I ask what you're doing here?"
"I'm new to the town." I say, "I'm here visiting Cid, I've got some business of interest to him from Britannica."
"Name?" the officer says.
"Russell Pemberton." I say smoothly, almost rehearsed, because throughout the flight I rehearsed naming myself Russell Pemberton in all conversations. Before the assassination tomorrow I will accustom myself to calling myself Russell Payne."
"Well Mr. Pemberton, I'm Constable Phoebus, Traverse Town Police Department. Are you new to this town?"
"Yes sir," I reply, "I'm on a purchasing run."
"I'd like to see some identification." The officer says. I can read his tag and it has the name Phoebus written on it. I produce my ID and he says, "Checks out fine, Mr. Pemberton, but there's been a lot of suspicious activity around here these days, so I'm going to have to ask you to return to your accommodations."
"Yes sir." I reply. Wanker! That ruins my planned CTR for the night, but that doesn't mean I don't already have good intelligence at my disposal. I also can set up an OP (Observation Point) in one of Cid's loft windows facing the Opera House and keep it under observation, the typical patterns of foot patrols, Heartless activity, security checkpoints and state of readiness of same. Are they going to have a well rehearsed dragnet to catch an assassin after the kill is discovered? Are the guards tired, bored looking and easily distracted? Are they vigilant, alert, and serious? I need to know these to plan my evasion.
From the look of things the good Constables deputies seem to be a mixture. One of them is a fat slob of a man. The other is a firm and fit looking fellow who could doubtlessly give the Guardsmen that take care of security at HQ a run for their money. With such patchy security forces I have to be ready for both eventualities, but I'm going to bet my money that the best guards will be on duty tomorrow. After all it's a gala event, attracting people from all around. But the guards will likely be overworked from pulling doubled and tripled shifts, so this can work to my advantage.
I go over the plan in my head; first I will don my disguise and go into the theater as blonde haired, bespectacled Russell Payne. The pistol I will assemble near my DLB in the theater and tuck it into my jacket. I will then go take my seat, wait five minutes before intermission then fire the round into the back of Frollo's skull and leave, ostensibly to make an emergency bathroom break. Then at the DLB I'll leave the papers of Russell Payne, the toupee and glasses, and then alter my appearance and walk out of the theater. I've made final plans, made a couple hours more of observation, noting areas of construction, roving guard routes and the like and now I do what one does between ops. I get my head down and sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~
The night of truth has arrived, and I've donned my disguise, melting into the crowd of the theater. The silenced pistol is assembled and in a specially modified pocket in my coat. I've made sure that the silenced pistol is ready to be fired from inside my coat; I've already turned off the safety catch, making sure there's a round in the chamber.
I take my seat behind Frollo, the opera isn't too bad, and the music is actually haunting. I believe the chorus is known as Dive into the Heart. I'm casually checking my watch; the five minute mark is fast approaching during this chorus. And I slowly raise the pistol in my hidden pocket, leveling the barrel onto the back of Frollo's head, the business end of the suppressor about six inches away. I slowly squeeze the trigger and feel the gun buck, hearing only a barely audible thump. I count thirty seconds and excuse myself to head to the bathroom. As soon as I've finished putting everything into the DLB I hear a shrill scream.
I melt into the crowd, and I've just made it out of the building when a plain clothes fellow, a Secret Police bloke by the looks of him says, "You there...I need to see your identification."
I produce it and he says, "This looks suspicious, come with me."
His PPK is out and I appear to comply as he herds me into an alley. As soon as he punches me in the stomach I hunch over and fire the silenced pistol into his midsection. He spits a mouthful of blood out, but he's still attempting to cry out. I kick him in the crotch and he crashes against a wall. He spins as he falls; hitting his head on the wall and I jump atop him and snap his neck. I hope to God no one heard that scuffle, but that's a slim hope. I grab the man's PPK; it's a small, easily concealable handgun with a seven round magazine. I stick it in the other pocket and run into the milling crowd. I'm not going back to the safe house, that's the easiest way to give the enemy trackers a beeline to where the man who just killed Claude Frollo is hiding.
I'm running out of options, and I need to think of more of them, fast. Obviously I can't blend in with a touch of blood on my clothing. But I know that there's one area that any would be assassin would have to be insane to hide in. But however the insane choice is fast becoming my only choice. I climb a stack of shipping crates, surreptitiously sneaking into the Second District.
As soon as I find a quiet nook I check my weapons. I have eight rounds remaining in the silenced pistol, seven in the PPK, fifteen rounds total. And who knows how many Heartless infest Second District. Certainly more than fifteen rounds will handle. I chamber a round into the PPK. It doesn't have a suppressor, but it will do as a backup. I tuck it into the waistband of my trousers, with a round chambered and the safety on. With the .380 rounds being a touch bigger they have more punch. The only problem is they have no sound suppression. If I fire it, someone will hear it. I keep the silenced pistol out, because I can kill Heartless silently if I encounter them. Only if I run out of rounds will I use the PPK.
I see a Shadow come at me and I kill it with a single shot to the head, ducking behind some cover. I am immediately glad I used a silenced weapon, as soon as I get behind concealment a Large Body lumbers by. I would need a rifle shot or a spray of automatic fire to the head to kill it. Pistols don't even make them blink, and to really hurt their bodies I'd need either a Boys Anti Tank Rifle or Bazooka. None of these weapons I have.
Those stories you might hear about SAS men taking on Large Bodies with only knives and sheer courage are a lot of pig's swallow. The best improvised weapons I've seen used against Large Bodies are Molotov cocktails or sticky bombs (take a sock, smear it with axle grease, cram it with explosives, attach a crude fuse, light and throw and it'll stick to anything it hits). There are two ways to kill a Large Body, both firepower and explosives, or accurate aimed rifle shots work well.
The Large Body passes by after a while and I breathe easy, temporarily. I still hear confusion on the other side of the gates, panicked civilians, and security forces trying to reestablish order. I have, after all, killed one of Traverse Town's most upstanding citizens, at least on the outside. Few know what a rotten bastard Frollo actually is outside his involvement in a few shady land schemes. They don't know his involvement in the Pipeline, and the reason I was contracted to blow off his head.
The noise is dying down back there and right as I'm creeping back towards the wall I see two more Soldier Heartless. I take both of them out with rounds from the silenced pistol, five rounds in that weapon now remain and shots from my other weapon are bound to draw more bad guys my way.
Wait a minute? If the security forces think I'm fool hardy enough to flee deeper into the Second District after dark, when the Heartless abound, then they'll dispatch patrols on my trail, clearing out the Heartless and providing me with a clear path back to First District where I can sneak back in undetected.
I pull the Walther from my trousers as two Shadow Heartless come my way. Firing single rounds into their heads I run deeper into Second District. Sure enough I see columns of security troops running to investigate. I stay hidden in a back alley, climbing into an air vent, and heading back towards the Item Shop.
~ ~ ~ ~
As I wait for the right moment to head for the airfield, with instructions to meet another RAF pilot in civilian attire standing next to an Air Britannica Lysander, I hear a melody wafting into the loft from a radio and smile despite myself. It's a song that I listened to at promptly 2155 (9:55 PM) every night, as the station's sign off broadcast. Radio Egyptica, a propaganda radio station controlled by Maleficent's forces to entertain Imhotep's human soldiers in the Egyptian desert. It used to be played in German, because a lot the fresh human troops Maleficent sent in to help the Heartless were from the world of Germania.
The song's name is Lili Marlene. I remember radios all over the British Army blaring in. We tuned into Radio Egyptica at 2155 just to hear this song. The curious tune transcends the hatreds of war, as human soldiers on both sides of the campaign enjoy this song. The soldiers on both fronts love this song. I remember hearing soldiers in rear echelon billets singing it loudly, or captured enemy troops singing it as we marched them to the prison camps. I guess some things are universal. Within a year, because the generals weren't to keen on British soldiers singing a German song in their own lines, we had a version in English played on BBC Radio, Egypt.
"Underneath the lantern. By the barrack gate. Darling I remember, the way you used to wait. 'Twas there that you whispered tenderly, that you loved me, you'd always be. My Lili of the Lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I sing along with the tune, harkening back to my days when the SAS first was founded in the deserts of Egypt.
One woman springs to my mind whenever I hear this song. Diane. I think of her beautiful brown eyes, how I find myself lost staring into them. I think of how that short style of hers brings them out, how it frames her lovely face. But it isn't just her physical beauty I love; it's her warm, caring personality. She's the sort of girl whom, when she finds a broken winged bird, takes it in and tries everything to save it.
"Time would come for roll call. Time for us to part. Darling, I'd caress you. And press you to my heart. And there 'neath that far off lantern light. I'd hold you tight, we'd kiss "good-night," My Lili of the lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I keep singing along.
I wonder how she's doing now. She's probably enjoying another spare moment with Chris, her pretty boy Navy pilot, if the Sea Hawk's still in Liverpool. She seems to really love him, and I'm left in the cold because of it. Bereft of my Lili Marlene, I was forced by necessity to travel far and wide. My travels have now taken me to the assassination of Claude Frollo.
"Orders came for sailing. Somewhere over there. All confined to barracks. Was more than I could bear; I knew you were waiting in the street, I heard your feet, but could not meet. My Lili of the lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I keep singing along, thinking of my beloved Diane all the while. I wonder what she'd think if she knew the real details of my mission, the death of Claude Frollo.
"Resting in a billet. Just behind the line, even tho' we're parted. Your lips are close to mine; You wait where that lantern softly gleams, your sweet face seems to haunt my dreams, My Lili of the lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I continue to sing the last notes to myself as I walk out to the airfield, meet my pilot and fly back home.
~ ~ ~ ~
TBC. \\
Disclaimer: Same as before. The song Lili Marlene isn't mine either. This site has the lyrics and rhythm to it ()
The Mummy crossover was my idea and the song Lili Marlene was actually one of the most popular songs of World War II among both German and Allied soldiers.
The story so far: Rusty is given a mission straight from Command to kill Claude Frollo. Vic Fontaine is slowly becoming the mansion's unofficial counselor. Diane's having a rough time at work.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Excuse me, sir." Says a voice. I turn around and see a fellow, with a neatly trimmed blonde beard with longish blonde hair in a blue uniform. Traverse Town Police, "Might I ask what you're doing here?"
"I'm new to the town." I say, "I'm here visiting Cid, I've got some business of interest to him from Britannica."
"Name?" the officer says.
"Russell Pemberton." I say smoothly, almost rehearsed, because throughout the flight I rehearsed naming myself Russell Pemberton in all conversations. Before the assassination tomorrow I will accustom myself to calling myself Russell Payne."
"Well Mr. Pemberton, I'm Constable Phoebus, Traverse Town Police Department. Are you new to this town?"
"Yes sir," I reply, "I'm on a purchasing run."
"I'd like to see some identification." The officer says. I can read his tag and it has the name Phoebus written on it. I produce my ID and he says, "Checks out fine, Mr. Pemberton, but there's been a lot of suspicious activity around here these days, so I'm going to have to ask you to return to your accommodations."
"Yes sir." I reply. Wanker! That ruins my planned CTR for the night, but that doesn't mean I don't already have good intelligence at my disposal. I also can set up an OP (Observation Point) in one of Cid's loft windows facing the Opera House and keep it under observation, the typical patterns of foot patrols, Heartless activity, security checkpoints and state of readiness of same. Are they going to have a well rehearsed dragnet to catch an assassin after the kill is discovered? Are the guards tired, bored looking and easily distracted? Are they vigilant, alert, and serious? I need to know these to plan my evasion.
From the look of things the good Constables deputies seem to be a mixture. One of them is a fat slob of a man. The other is a firm and fit looking fellow who could doubtlessly give the Guardsmen that take care of security at HQ a run for their money. With such patchy security forces I have to be ready for both eventualities, but I'm going to bet my money that the best guards will be on duty tomorrow. After all it's a gala event, attracting people from all around. But the guards will likely be overworked from pulling doubled and tripled shifts, so this can work to my advantage.
I go over the plan in my head; first I will don my disguise and go into the theater as blonde haired, bespectacled Russell Payne. The pistol I will assemble near my DLB in the theater and tuck it into my jacket. I will then go take my seat, wait five minutes before intermission then fire the round into the back of Frollo's skull and leave, ostensibly to make an emergency bathroom break. Then at the DLB I'll leave the papers of Russell Payne, the toupee and glasses, and then alter my appearance and walk out of the theater. I've made final plans, made a couple hours more of observation, noting areas of construction, roving guard routes and the like and now I do what one does between ops. I get my head down and sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~
The night of truth has arrived, and I've donned my disguise, melting into the crowd of the theater. The silenced pistol is assembled and in a specially modified pocket in my coat. I've made sure that the silenced pistol is ready to be fired from inside my coat; I've already turned off the safety catch, making sure there's a round in the chamber.
I take my seat behind Frollo, the opera isn't too bad, and the music is actually haunting. I believe the chorus is known as Dive into the Heart. I'm casually checking my watch; the five minute mark is fast approaching during this chorus. And I slowly raise the pistol in my hidden pocket, leveling the barrel onto the back of Frollo's head, the business end of the suppressor about six inches away. I slowly squeeze the trigger and feel the gun buck, hearing only a barely audible thump. I count thirty seconds and excuse myself to head to the bathroom. As soon as I've finished putting everything into the DLB I hear a shrill scream.
I melt into the crowd, and I've just made it out of the building when a plain clothes fellow, a Secret Police bloke by the looks of him says, "You there...I need to see your identification."
I produce it and he says, "This looks suspicious, come with me."
His PPK is out and I appear to comply as he herds me into an alley. As soon as he punches me in the stomach I hunch over and fire the silenced pistol into his midsection. He spits a mouthful of blood out, but he's still attempting to cry out. I kick him in the crotch and he crashes against a wall. He spins as he falls; hitting his head on the wall and I jump atop him and snap his neck. I hope to God no one heard that scuffle, but that's a slim hope. I grab the man's PPK; it's a small, easily concealable handgun with a seven round magazine. I stick it in the other pocket and run into the milling crowd. I'm not going back to the safe house, that's the easiest way to give the enemy trackers a beeline to where the man who just killed Claude Frollo is hiding.
I'm running out of options, and I need to think of more of them, fast. Obviously I can't blend in with a touch of blood on my clothing. But I know that there's one area that any would be assassin would have to be insane to hide in. But however the insane choice is fast becoming my only choice. I climb a stack of shipping crates, surreptitiously sneaking into the Second District.
As soon as I find a quiet nook I check my weapons. I have eight rounds remaining in the silenced pistol, seven in the PPK, fifteen rounds total. And who knows how many Heartless infest Second District. Certainly more than fifteen rounds will handle. I chamber a round into the PPK. It doesn't have a suppressor, but it will do as a backup. I tuck it into the waistband of my trousers, with a round chambered and the safety on. With the .380 rounds being a touch bigger they have more punch. The only problem is they have no sound suppression. If I fire it, someone will hear it. I keep the silenced pistol out, because I can kill Heartless silently if I encounter them. Only if I run out of rounds will I use the PPK.
I see a Shadow come at me and I kill it with a single shot to the head, ducking behind some cover. I am immediately glad I used a silenced weapon, as soon as I get behind concealment a Large Body lumbers by. I would need a rifle shot or a spray of automatic fire to the head to kill it. Pistols don't even make them blink, and to really hurt their bodies I'd need either a Boys Anti Tank Rifle or Bazooka. None of these weapons I have.
Those stories you might hear about SAS men taking on Large Bodies with only knives and sheer courage are a lot of pig's swallow. The best improvised weapons I've seen used against Large Bodies are Molotov cocktails or sticky bombs (take a sock, smear it with axle grease, cram it with explosives, attach a crude fuse, light and throw and it'll stick to anything it hits). There are two ways to kill a Large Body, both firepower and explosives, or accurate aimed rifle shots work well.
The Large Body passes by after a while and I breathe easy, temporarily. I still hear confusion on the other side of the gates, panicked civilians, and security forces trying to reestablish order. I have, after all, killed one of Traverse Town's most upstanding citizens, at least on the outside. Few know what a rotten bastard Frollo actually is outside his involvement in a few shady land schemes. They don't know his involvement in the Pipeline, and the reason I was contracted to blow off his head.
The noise is dying down back there and right as I'm creeping back towards the wall I see two more Soldier Heartless. I take both of them out with rounds from the silenced pistol, five rounds in that weapon now remain and shots from my other weapon are bound to draw more bad guys my way.
Wait a minute? If the security forces think I'm fool hardy enough to flee deeper into the Second District after dark, when the Heartless abound, then they'll dispatch patrols on my trail, clearing out the Heartless and providing me with a clear path back to First District where I can sneak back in undetected.
I pull the Walther from my trousers as two Shadow Heartless come my way. Firing single rounds into their heads I run deeper into Second District. Sure enough I see columns of security troops running to investigate. I stay hidden in a back alley, climbing into an air vent, and heading back towards the Item Shop.
~ ~ ~ ~
As I wait for the right moment to head for the airfield, with instructions to meet another RAF pilot in civilian attire standing next to an Air Britannica Lysander, I hear a melody wafting into the loft from a radio and smile despite myself. It's a song that I listened to at promptly 2155 (9:55 PM) every night, as the station's sign off broadcast. Radio Egyptica, a propaganda radio station controlled by Maleficent's forces to entertain Imhotep's human soldiers in the Egyptian desert. It used to be played in German, because a lot the fresh human troops Maleficent sent in to help the Heartless were from the world of Germania.
The song's name is Lili Marlene. I remember radios all over the British Army blaring in. We tuned into Radio Egyptica at 2155 just to hear this song. The curious tune transcends the hatreds of war, as human soldiers on both sides of the campaign enjoy this song. The soldiers on both fronts love this song. I remember hearing soldiers in rear echelon billets singing it loudly, or captured enemy troops singing it as we marched them to the prison camps. I guess some things are universal. Within a year, because the generals weren't to keen on British soldiers singing a German song in their own lines, we had a version in English played on BBC Radio, Egypt.
"Underneath the lantern. By the barrack gate. Darling I remember, the way you used to wait. 'Twas there that you whispered tenderly, that you loved me, you'd always be. My Lili of the Lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I sing along with the tune, harkening back to my days when the SAS first was founded in the deserts of Egypt.
One woman springs to my mind whenever I hear this song. Diane. I think of her beautiful brown eyes, how I find myself lost staring into them. I think of how that short style of hers brings them out, how it frames her lovely face. But it isn't just her physical beauty I love; it's her warm, caring personality. She's the sort of girl whom, when she finds a broken winged bird, takes it in and tries everything to save it.
"Time would come for roll call. Time for us to part. Darling, I'd caress you. And press you to my heart. And there 'neath that far off lantern light. I'd hold you tight, we'd kiss "good-night," My Lili of the lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I keep singing along.
I wonder how she's doing now. She's probably enjoying another spare moment with Chris, her pretty boy Navy pilot, if the Sea Hawk's still in Liverpool. She seems to really love him, and I'm left in the cold because of it. Bereft of my Lili Marlene, I was forced by necessity to travel far and wide. My travels have now taken me to the assassination of Claude Frollo.
"Orders came for sailing. Somewhere over there. All confined to barracks. Was more than I could bear; I knew you were waiting in the street, I heard your feet, but could not meet. My Lili of the lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I keep singing along, thinking of my beloved Diane all the while. I wonder what she'd think if she knew the real details of my mission, the death of Claude Frollo.
"Resting in a billet. Just behind the line, even tho' we're parted. Your lips are close to mine; You wait where that lantern softly gleams, your sweet face seems to haunt my dreams, My Lili of the lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." I continue to sing the last notes to myself as I walk out to the airfield, meet my pilot and fly back home.
~ ~ ~ ~
TBC. \\