> Tank Battle, In a Different World > by Kitsune_Kenshi > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: A New Battlefield > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!! Jake was staring in both awe and shock at his surroundings, hellfire, tanks, and.... horses? Dragons? Unicorns?! Hippogriffs?!?! What the bloody hell? Am I day dreaming? Jake's mind is swirling with questions, he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming; he wasn't. Wait, why does his hands felt weird? Jake looked down, his eyes widened; his has claws instead of hands! Scaly ones like the dragons, a pair of dragon-like wings on his back, spikes on his head; wait a tank cap? He then looked down; surprised to found out that this tank isn't the one he commanded before. Jake still remembered that before this whole shit happened; Jake Chen, 24 year-old, rank captain, commander of ZTZ-96A main battle tank 237. Jake and his platoon were having a real-life combat training, it when well until this happened: An "enemy" ATGM carriage fired an actual missile at him instead of a fake missile! Feeling his tank rumbles and fire surrounding him, Jake's vision went dark and passed out. And THIS! This is what he saw when he woke up! In a unknown battlefield with mythical beings! At war! Jake checked the tank he's currently on; luckily it's a T-34/76 medium tank. He wasn't sure how did these creatures have a T-34 and the equipments, but he decided to bear with it. Suddenly, another explosions on his right, Jake looked at the direction and was shocked to see another T-34 shot and burned inside-out. The crews crawled out from the tank, covered in fire as the rolled on the ground, screaming in agony. They were burned alive. This isn't a dream! This... This is real! Jake realized it, he is in an actual combat in an actual tank, and in an actual WAR!!! Looking beyond, he spotted more than 20 tanks with a weird looking markings on their turret quickly advancing towards their direction. It looks like... Pzkpfw IIIs?! How in the bloody hell did these.... creatures get those?! The Panzer III. Ls were German medium tanks during world war II, armed with a 50mm gun and two 7.92mm machine guns. It's the main arrangements for the early German Panzer army. Light and fast, designed for the German's Blitzgreg. But how in the bloody... I said that too much eh? For whatever reason, these creatures somehow got them. In the meantime, many memories and awareness swirl in his brain. This world is known as Equestria, with many mythical creatures living outside and inside. Unicorns, Pegasus, Earth Ponies, Griffons, Dragons, Hippogriffs, Changelings, Kirin, etc. And their technology level is currently same as the ones in world war II according to Jake. They're currently fighting a fearsome creature name Grogar and his massive army. However, Grogar's army launched a surprise attack against Equestrian, it caught them off-guard. With the declaration of war against Grogar, the allies of Equestria also joined in. "Commander Qibli! Commander Qibli!" His thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone tapping his legs from the turret. The gun loader was worried, he heard a HE explosion outside the turret. For a second he thought their commander is KIA, but after sensing movement from him, he figured out the commander was just stunned. "Target! 500 yards, Panzer IIIs, load Armor Piercing! Fire when ready!" Qibli took out the radio and gave his orders, "Watch the wind, adjust one digit to the right!" Just in this moment, Jake accepted his new body and new life; now his soul was fully connected to his host, a dragon tank commander name Qibli. This is war, you stay, you fight. "Understood!" Loader, a male changeling name Thrax around his 20s, picked up a seventy six point two millimeter APHE round and stuffed it inside the cannon breach. The gunner, a young female dragon name Smolder immediately started to spin the turret. The scope locked onto the enemy panzer. Though it's a sudden encounter, but they aren't gonna go easy. BOOM! Smolder stepped on the trigger, the entire hull of the T-34 shook as its main gun was fired. APHE, a.k.a Armor Piercing High Explosive. The tank turret at this period of time were usually parallel, which means the if a regular AP round hits it, then there'll be a higher chance of ricochet off, especially of the round is spinning. APHE, however, has a cap in the front of the round, made of soft metal plates; this design prevent the round from ricocheting off the turret. 500 yards, the round arrived at the enemy tank in less than a second. The seventy six point two millimeter APHE round easily tore the Panzer III's thin sheet of armor open. Just like cutting through butter, without any resistance the APHE exploded inside the tank. The shards reached the ammo rack. It detonates. KA-POOM!!! With a massive explosion, the Panzer III was shredded to pieces from inside-out. This is Jake; or now known as Qibli's first kill upon arriving this new, yet bloody battlefield. > Chapter 2: Critical Damage > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The barrel flashed as another round shot through the air and landed on a Panzer III, destroying it almost instantly. While shooting, Qibli also ordered the driver; an earth pony name Gray Hoofs, to change location after each shot. This can decrease the chances of being targeted. Also, he decided to put one of his favorite moves into action, drift. Upon spotting another Panzer III in front of them, Gray Hoofs was about to stop when Qibli gave a strange order, "Do not stop! Full speed ahead!" Though it sounds weird, Gray Hoofs decided to follow his orders and see what happens. Meanwhile, in the Panzer III not far from Qibli's T-34, Commander Cold Claws, a Tartarus creature and the leader of his platoon, had spotted this weird T-34. Instead of falling back or stopping, this dude just kept coming, at full speed. Is the commander nuts? Cold Claws thought, "Target 12 o'clock, 200 yards, AP, finish him off." He ordered his crew. The loader quickly loaded an AP round into the gun breach. The gunner locked onto Qibli's T-34 and opened fire. For whatever reason, instead of digging into the armor plate, that AP round landed on the T-34's frontal plate in an odd angle and bounced off. It left a molten slice mark on the frontal plate. But the crews inside were suffering. Qibli's face is in agony, his ears ringing. A tank is like a bell, its inside is empty. So if one round ricocheted off, then the entire tank would ring. However, to Qibli's surprise, Gray Hoofs continued to advance, though his expression is telling him that Gray Hoofs is also suffering from that loud ricochet. When the T-34 reached about 100 yards, Qibli yelled, "NOW! DISABLE THE LEFT STICK! MOVE THE RIGHT!!!" With some fast and fierce move Gray Hoofs did what he was told. Suddenly, everyone in the tank pushed to the right due to the centrifugal force when a drift was performed. Cold Claw's eyes widened in shock as he saw the T-34 performed a perfect drift, he knew how hard it's to perform a simple drift, especially in a tank. Usually the treads would fall off due to the extreme centrifugal force, it's a NO-GO for any tanks. Somehow this T-34 managed to perform a drift without losing its tread. Cold Claws immediately put himself into action by commanding his crew to search their target. But when he opened the hatch, he saw that the T-34 is behind him, its fearsome seventy-two point six millimeter gun pointing directly at his tank. Qibli has a smug smirk on his face. Sike! You thought! His tank had moved behind this unlucky Panzer III's rear, main gun pointed directly at the engine part. "Loader! HE! Hit its ass!" The last thing Cold Claws saw was flames lunging at him like the souls he'd killed. BOOM!!! The gasoline engine was easy to catch on fire and exploded, turning the tank into a pot, cooking the crew alive. "Driver, move." Qibli simply said. The T-34's treads spins as it moved away from its finished prey. Just a few moment later, QIbli heard another explosion from behind. His crew began to panic, but QIbli took a glance from behind and said, "Nah, stop whining, that's ammo rack detonation." Qibli opened the hatch, took out his binocular and checked the battlefield. Grogar's Panzer platoons are retreating, thanks to the friendly artillery supports. "Alright, let's head back." Qibli said, staying out in an open field would be a bad idea. Gray Hoofs turned their T-34 around and began to head towards their camp, but suddenly, a familiar, satisfying noice began to crack from the bottom of the tank. Their speed decreased, later stopped. Qibli knew that noise too well, one of their treads fell off. Honestly, Qibli is expecting this to happen, that extreme drift must've damaged the left tread. "Driver, stop." Qibli ordered as Gray Hoofs instantly stopped the tank, "Tread's down, critical damage. Radio guy and loader come with me, Gray Hoofs and Smolder stay sharp for enemy movement." With his order given, Qibli climbed out of the turret along with two of his crew member, each carrying a submachine gun. Qibli saw the wound, the left tread was torn down, metal light reflected back at him, "Take the spare treads, Thrax, grab me a hammer, and Silver (The radio guy), you'll patrol around the tank. Report to me if you see anything suspicious." Silver nodded before walling off onto a nearby hill and hid himself. Thrax buried his head in the tool box while handing Qibli tools and spared treads. Qibli hammered the broken treads off and connected the spared ones. Switching treads and fixing them is a part of tankers' basic training, every tankers must learn to fix simple machines such as treads. Its part of their everyday-life. Qibli's radio flickered, a male voice spoke, "Captain Qibli, where's your tank? We're suppose to head back." Qibli got on the radio and reported their situation, "This is Captain Qibli speaking, my platoon is dead, we're the only one left breathing. Treads' down, we're almost done repairing them, we should be back around 30 minutes or so." "Alright, be quick, there may be an enemy tank battalion coming your way, over." Then the radio was silence again. After sealing and storing the last piece of read in place, their T-34 is ready to go. Qibli and Thrax was about to get into the turret when they heard gunshots coming from SIlver's hiding spot. An explosion came afterward, then, Qibli saw the turret of a Panzer IV coming in along with some infantry. He sighed before getting into the turret. Silver is gone. "Gray Hoofs, start her up!" QIbli demanded. "Where's Silver?" Smolder asked. "Dead, they got him." Qibli sighed, but returned to a straight face, "DRIVER MOVE OUT!" Now's no time to morn, they got the entire enemy tank battalion on their flanks. > Chapter 3: Shredder > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A 50 millimeter round bounced off their rear, making the entire tank rang again. But this time, the crew were ready, everycreature has their cap on, but it still hurt their ears though. Smolder was first to recover and react, she quickly turned the turret towards the enemy direction. Qibli shook his head, recovering from the ear-raping noise, "Ah shit!" he grumbled, "Thrax! Load an AP and give them cocks to suck on!" The changeling loader grabbed an sharp-edged AP round and pushed it into the breach. Smolder had not waste a second, she stepped on the trigger and watch the round go through her scope. That round went straight through the frontal plate of the Panzer III and detonated the ammo rack. With a ,mighty explosion, the turret flew up at least 10 feet before coming down, which somehow landed on another Panzer III. The unlucky Panzer III lost sight and rammed into another; the entire formation were getting chaotic. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Smolder asked. "You mean those cocksuckers friendly-firing themselves?" Qibli answered with a bit of humor in his tone, "Well, duh! This is something we don't see everyday." He then turned to Thrax, "Mind giving them their prize for 'Helping' us?" "No Prob man." Thrax replied with another round into the breach. Commander Nightblade of the 12th Blitz tank battalion is furious, for the first time in his life, he saw the most dramatic thing ever; a freaking turret of a random shit hole landed on another than, then it rammed into another one, then another one! He's done with this whole embarrassing shit. "Everycreature stop fucking ramming and start fighting!" he roared into the radio, it cracked a little, but he ignored it, "There's only one tank, ONE FUCKING TANK! TAAAAKE HIM OOOOUT!!!!!" Meanwhile, inside Qibli's tank. Smolder fired off another round, which turned another Panzer III into a massive firework. For a swift second, Qibli thought he's watching movie; everything that just happened are... just... dramatic. But his eyes widened when he saw more than twenty guns aiming directly at his tank. "OH SHIT!!! DRIVER! BREAK!!! BREAAAAKE!!!" Gray Hoofs stepped on the break and pulled the levers backs hard as he could, just a second after that, twenty rounds landed exactly 4 inches from the T-34's frontal plate. Smolder was sweating like hell, while Thrax is just frozen. Gray Hoofs looks like he's about to have a heart attack; make sense cuz he's 48 year-old and smoke all the time. Qibli won't waste any precious time, right after they had close encounter with death itself, QIbli shouted into everycreature's ears, "DRIVER MOVE OUT! THRAX LOAD AP! SMOLDER GIVE' EM HELLLL!!!" Gray Hoofs let out a cry as he pushed the levers forward while stepping on the accelerator, Smolder looks like she's about to have a mental breakdown as her leg tapped on the trigger rapidly, Thrax is stuffing and getting rounds like an autoloader. The F-34 seventy-six point two cannon was like a massive machine gun, shredding the enemies as if they're grasses. Even Commander Nighblade is having cold sweats as he watched this... demon shredding his tanks. Nightblade is shocked, never in his military career had he witness such terrifying battle... No, a simple massacre! But he knew that T-34's crew aren't gonna do that forever. He is correct. "Crap! We're out of ammo!" Thrax reported, both him and Smolder were sweating like somecreature poured water on them, the barrel of the main gun is slightly turning red due to the rapid firing, "The gun's dead, overheated!" Smolder said while panting, "I guess this is it." "Welp, at least we killed almost an entire battalion of them." said Qibli, is this how his short life gonna end? In this unfamiliar world? At least he'll be KIA. Every soldier wanted a glorious death, that's their last wish. Qibli closed his eyes, waiting fro death to come. Explosions were heard. Wait... heard? How can he hear stuff if he's dead? Qibli scrambled as he opened the hatch, shocked and surprised to see that numerous tanks; KV-1s and T-34s, rushing into the battlefield, slaughtering the remaining Panzer IIIs. Thank god! Qibli sighed in relief. He looked at his comrades, which is still keeping their eyes shut. "Ok thats enough, stop playing dead." he pushed his friends. "Are... are we dead?" Thrax asked. "You would if you just sit there." Qibli answered, Gray Hoofs started the tank again, "For god's sake that's hel--- what are you all looking at me like that?" Qibli stopped when he saw his comrades staring at him, which started to creep him out. "For CELESTIA'S sake. That's how you say it." Thrax corrected. "Oh, heh, uh... Guess I hit my head a bit too hard." Qibli sighed, for god's---- Celestia's sake why's this so hard? Qibli climbed out of his turret while waving his claws, "Hold your fire! Friendlies here!" But the second he said that, he heard a round coming, it impacted the ground next to him. Feeling airborne due to the shock wave, one sentence flashed through him before he passed out. Fuck, got friendly-fired again!