Tyranny of Steel

Before he knew it, an entire year had passed since the day the German-Japanese war came to an end. And Berengar had said his farewells to his newest bride, Itami Riyo, as well as their infant son, Itami Ryu. After a long flight that lasted nearly an entire day, Berengar found himself in Kufstein once more, where he spent the weekend recovering from his flight.

Once Monday was around, Berengar was hard at work again, however unlike in previous years, he no longer worked a minimum of twelve hours a day, and instead settled on a standard forty-hour work week, delegating much of the work he was previously responsible for to qualified individuals.

After returning home, Berengar fulfilled his promise to Katherine and began spending more time with the girl and her siblings. Though Hans was still serving his in the Armed Forces, and while he was stationed close to home, he was dreadfully busy testing all kinds of new aircraft for the department of defense.

The introduction of Generation Three Jet Fighters was not the only military inovation that was going on at the moment. There were recent developments in small arms as well. Which on this particular day, Berengar was bearing witness to.

In the military testing grounds outside the city of Kufstein, Berengar stood in the audience, along with several of his generals and the engineers who had worked on the newest weapons projects. A group of Germany infantrymen, dressed in the latest military uniforms and body armor, were inspecting a new sniper rifle, light machine gun, general purpose machine gun, handgun, and rocket launcher.

These weapons had been partially designed by Berengar himself, with their final models completed by the engineers at the Royal Kufstein Armory. For the sniper rifle, which would be issued to German marksman, Berengar went with a semiautomatic design that was infamous in his past life. The SVD was originally a semi-automatic sniper rifle chambered in 7.62x54mmR.

However, because the German Army still had large stores of 7.92x57mm Mauser Ammunition lying around, Berengar had no intentions of adopting a new and less potent cartridge. Instead, he chose to have the SVD converted to the superior German round.

As a result, the marksman, who was testing the rifle, carefully inserted the ten round box magazine into the rifle before pulling back and releasing the charging handle. Once a round was properly chambered, he took aim with his 4x magnified optic, which was largely modelled after the PSO-1, and gently squeezed the trigger. Sending a round down range and into a steel target the size of a man's torso, which was placed roughly eight hundred meters out.

An audible ping followed the gunshot, signalling to those present that the shot had indeed found its target. After making the shot, the marksman followed up with another, and then another, until he had spent his whole ten round magazine.

Needless to say, the prototype weapon functioned flawlessly. When Berengar saw this development, he stood up and clapped for the shooter, who, after ejecting the spent magazine and racking the charging handle a few times to ensure that the weapon was clear, saluted his Kaiser. Once that soldier was done with his weapon demonstration, Berengar spoke to the lead of the project with an excited smile on his face.

"Bravo, you and your team should be commended for your efforts. This new sniper rifle is a vast improvement over the currently issued G-27. I look forward to the next performance!"

After saying this, Berengar looked onwards towards the demonstration of the new light machine gun. This weapon was essentially an elongated, and reinforced version of the recently introduced replacement to the Stg-27 and 32 rifles.

In other words, it was an RPK-74. The only real difference between this machine gun, and those from Berengar's past life, was that the weapon's furniture was loosely modelled after that of the East German Mpi-Kms-74, and was similar in design to the LMG RPK-74 as seen in a popular military simulator video game.

The soldier deployed the bipod, and entered the prone position, as he aimed down a fixed 2.8x magnified optic which had been modelled primarily after the 1p78 Kashtan from Berengar's past life. The weapon functioned flawlessly as its rounds impacted against the steel target set three hundred meters out. It was, after all, essentially an AK-74 with a reinforced receiver and a longer barrel, thus making it a reliable and capable firearm.

After watching the demonstration of both the SVD and RPK-74, Berengar was quite pleased with the prototype weapons that he had seen thus far, and gave a silent nod of approval towards the lead engineer, who kept looking back at the Kaiser to see what the man thought of the latest weapon designs.

As for the next weapon that was on display, it was essentially a PKM chambered in 7.92x57mm Mauser. The firearm was designed to replace the Mg-27 within infantry roles. While technically a general purpose machine gun, Berengar saw no reason to remove the Mg-27, which was modelled after the Mg-42 completely from service. After all, it was a superior machine gun when mounted on vehicles.

However, the Mg-42 had a fatal flaw in infantry doctrine, and that was the fact that it required two people to operate effectively. Thus, Berengar decided to replace it with the lighter weight PKM, which could be entirely operated by one user, and quite efficiently at that.

Like the RPK-74, the furniture was swapped out for a more East-German aesthetic, with a brown synthetic stock, pistol grip, and barrel change handle. The weapon was also given a slightly different muzzle device than what was seen on the standard issue PKM from Berengar's past life.

The operator aimed down the same 2.8x magnified optic which was used on the RPK-74, like the PK-A red dot, and PSO-1 magnified optic, the 1p78 would become standard issue to all german soldiers who used a machine gun as their primary weapon. After acquiring his target, the shooter squeezed the trigger, and in doing so, sent a controlled burst down range and onto the steel target.

The chug of the machine gun echoed across the test facility as the shooter effortlessly hit his targets. Causing Berengar and his generals to approve of the weapon silently with a nod of their heads. Once the weapon had fired all of its ammunition, the operator ensured that the weapon was properly cleared before placing it down for further inspection. Berengar then leaned over and whispered something to the project lead as he commented about the three weapons tested thus far.

"So far, so good. I must say, I am impressed with how these weapons have turned out. If the handgun and rocket launcher prove just as effective, you can consider yourself, and your team, worthy of earning a raise."

The engineer smiled and nodded his head, before explaining what they were about to witness with an excited look in his eyes.

"Though Handguns are rarely used in frontline service, I think you will be pleased with the improvements we have made in your initial design. Ah, here he is now, the man who will test our new service pistol, assuming it receives your stamp of approval, that is."

Berengar nodded his head in silence as he shifted his gaze to the man who was standing in front of a few small targets which were placed no more than twenty-five meters out. The pistol in his hands looked exactly like the Stechkin automatic pistol from his past life, except for two primary differences.

First off, the pistol was designed to be semi-automatic only. The reason for this was that machine pistols were generally wild and uncontrollable, and this was most definitely the case for the APS, assuming it did not have a stock. And second, the firearm was chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum. Thus making it a rather large service pistol, but capable of carrying 20 rounds of 9mm in a single magazine.

The soldier held onto the weapon and inserted a fresh magazine before racking the slide back. He then aimed down the sights towards his first target and began to effortlessly fire three shots into each target, two to the chest, and one to the head. Once he had spent the twenty rounds, he ejected the spent magazine, while leaving the slide locked to the rear.

The weapon while in semiautomatic was extremely controllable due to the size and weight of the gun, and it was also very accurate because of the length of the barrel. For a service pistol, Berengar had no complaints about the weapon and immediately approved it for service.

Finally, the last weapon to be demonstrated, was the RPG-7, which wa designed to replace the Panzerfaust 250, like the previous weapons (aside from the APS) it too had an optic that was standard issue. Which the soldier carefully made use of to acquire his target before firing the HEAT rocket-propelled grenade down range and onto an old Panther Tank.

The rocket immediately detonated against the tank's turret, and caused critical damage to the entire vehicle. Which thankfully was not being manned by a crew. Proving once more that German troops had the ability to effectively counter any armor or fortification that their infantry may encounter. And though Germany would no longer be fighting opponents with armored vehicles, the RPG-7 could prove to be highly effective against native villages.

Having witnessed all of these prototype weapons on display, Berengar immediately congratulated the project lead before posing an important question.

"Wonderful, simply wonderful. With these weapons, our armed forces will enter a new age of efficiency on the battlefield. It is almost a pity that we now have no enemy to thoroughly test them against. Still, I need to know how long will it be before they can enter mass production?"

The engineer accepted the praise he received from the kaiser before raising three fingers in response to the man's question.

"At most three months, and we will be able to effectively deploy these weapons to units in the field. Give me a year, and they will completely replace our old small arms!"

After hearing this, Berengar nodded his head in approval before departing from the facility. Now that he had witnessed the weapons test, he would return to his home and spend some proper time with his family.