Story [Issue 18] Birth of a Tank: Part 3 "Combat Training"

[Fjelstad1678 186]

Birth of a Tank
Part 3: “Combat Training”

 

 

The sun was almost blinding as I rolled my tank out of the garage. As my view ports adjusted to the new lighting, I began to look around. It wasn’t the shredded wasteland that I expected. Sure, there was a crater here and there, but nothing like what I had expected. It was mostly flat, with some low hills here and there. There were a few houses in a town a little ways away that looked like nobody had lived in it for decades. There were some gravel paths and overgrown bushes nearby. For my first impression of the surface, it was quite nice.

        “Ah, nice blue skies today. Wish I could smell that fresh air.” I had almost forgotten for a second that Rachel could still talk to me.
        “What is this place?” I asked.
        “This is our combat training arena. I’ll teach you some tricks that you can use on the battlefield that you can use to your advantage. First off, have you fired your gun yet?” I suddenly realized that I hadn’t yet.
        “No, I don’t think I have” I said
        “Well, what are you waiting for! Let a shell fly!” I have no idea what I did to fire, but it just seemed to happen. There was a loud and rumbling crack as my gun fired and I saw some dirt fly up in the distance from the shell’s impact.
        “Great! Now we know you don’t have a faulty gun. Now, lets start with some little tricks.” She had me go over to one of the nearest buildings.
        “You don’t want to have to expose yourself for too long to enemy fire, so you will want to pull back between shots. In order to fire your shot, you need to expose yourself. However, it is best to expose as little of yourself as possible to the enemy while doing so. The less of a target they have, the bigger their chances of missing.”
 

After teaching me how to orient my hull according to my cover, she made me fire past the building several times.
       “Alright, next. Your gun happens to be the model ‘Thunder’. This gun’s main feature is the increased shrapnel amounts. A near miss from this gun can still significantly hurt the enemy. So, say the enemy is on the other side of this building. You don’t want to chase them around because you would never catch them. What you can do is fire your gun at the ground right next to them and do damage with your shrapnel.”

        “So, what happens if I get too close to my own round?” I asked.
        “You would take damage. Your gun is a fairly long range weapon, so don’t get too close. On that topic, if the enemy gets close to you, shoot a wall or something closer to them than to you. That way, they will take damage but you hopefully won’t.”

I was growing nervous. This was all fairly complicated. What if I wasn’t good enough?

        “I know this is a lot all at once Dan, but you will get used to it. Soon it will be second nature. Now, I am going to call in an air drop.”
        “A what?” Was she planning on bombing me on the spot? She hadn’t told me anything about this yet….

        “An air drop. There are tons of stealth jets circling any battlefield at a time. They drop temporary upgrades occasionally. Look, here they come now.” Just as she said this, 4 boxes fell from the sky being lowered by parachutes. There were two green ones, a white one, and a silver one.

        “These are boxes filled with nanobots. Run through them, and the nanobots will swarm your tank and do whatever task they were programmed. The white box with the cross is a first aid, the bots will cover and meld to repair any damages taken to your tank. This is the only one where the effects last permanently. The green ones are different based on the symbol on the front. The one with the nuclear symbol will have the nanobots increase the velocity and explosive factors of your shells to increase damage. The one with the rectangles have bots that will temporarily cover any weaknesses of your tank for a short time, greatly increasing your vitality rate. The silver and final one will increase your speed for a short time, which is great for positioning. Pick some up and try them out!”
 

I slowly moved forward and crushed all of the boxes under my tank. Suddenly, a big rush of energy flowed over me. I drove forward and almost ran into the building in front of me. I was nearly twice as fast! I fired at a house in the distance to hear the explosion louder than usual.
        “Why can’t we have these all the time?” I asked.
        “These nanobots can only operate for a short period of time. That is why we drop them in combat, and not installed in the garage. Well, I suppose we should test your new skills.”
        “Uh, Rachel, what do you mean ‘test’?”
        “Well, you don’t expect me to plop you down in a combat zone without at least having some idea of what it will be like, do you? We’ve got a few weakly armored training tanks that we will sent out for you to destroy. Ready Dan?”
        “I suppose as much as I will ever be.” I quietly muttered.

I started looking around at my surroundings and tried to find places that I could use to my advantage. I was in the main street of the small town. I determined that I could get hit from both directions so it would stupid to remain there. I moved into one of the side streets and found it to be a dead end. Not great, as I could get trapped, but it was better knowing I could not be as easily flanked. It was fairly wide too, so I had some room to maneuver.
        “Here they come” said Rachel, and as quickly as she said this, a small red tank with a square shaped nozzle attached to a large box turret.
        “Those are ‘Firebirds’. They are dangerous at close range because of their ability to spew fire. However, at long range, you are completely safe. I would recommend taking him out before he gets any closer. The egg shaped hull is called ‘Hornet’, and is one of the fastest anyone has developed so far.”
I took note of what she said and rather violently blasted a hole through its frontal plate. To my surprise, it continued crawling towards me. Flames started to tickle my body, but quickly grew painful. A quick blast into a nearby building put enough shrapnel it’s hull to knock it out. The burning sensation continued for a few seconds and slowly faded. I felt worn down.

        “Yeah, I probably should have warned you about that. Most targets will usually need more than one hit to knock them out. As you probably know now, fire does light you up. Make sure they don’t get too close. Speaking of too close, here comes a ‘Freeze’, you can probably tell what they do… It is on a ‘Dictator’. Decently quick and fairly well armored. Take him out, or that ice may freeze up your internal devices.”
I started backing off this time as I planted one right beneath his turret. His gun started firing back as my second round left the breach into his side. It felt incredibly cold and I found it harder to move. I noticed the other red tank I had already destroyed had disappeared into nothing as I tried to turn my tank with my turret to meet the enemy who had started circling me. My rear view ports spotted a large tank slowly rounding the corner into the alley.

 

        “Oh Lord… We got a ‘Titan’ 6 o’clock Dan. Strong hull. take this guy out quick or you are gonna be in a world of hurt.” Just as she said it, the Freeze became a flaming wreck and I slowly and rather painfully turned to face my foe. There was a crack and I felt something smack against the side of my hull.
        “It’s a ‘smoky’. It’s like you, but lower caliber and a much higher rate of fire. I am unsure if you will make it through this…” Well that is great. My instructor isn’t even sure if I am going to live through it or not. There was another loud crack and I felt the pain growing. As I put my first round of return fire into the Titan, I noticed a white box falling from the sky. I could not believe my luck. I slowly crept forwards, weathering the incoming rounds and growing increasingly weaker while spitting out a return round when possible. I touched the white box and felt a sudden rush over my tank. Feeling 10 times better than 2 seconds ago, and feeling my rage for him enter the barrel, I felt really good watching the flames spew from the crater that was formed in the front of his hull.
        “I only requested 3, so that should be it…” Rachel said after a deep breath.

        “Great, now, I have a question.” I said.
        “... And what would that be?” she replied.
        “Is it possible for me to take a nap? I am dead tired.”
        “Oh, I think we can arrange that. For now, we should start back to the garage.”

~To be continued~
 

~Fjelstad1678~

[Valletta 834]

This story is turning into a sort of telenovella for me. I'm xpecting the action, keep up the good work! :D

[GoldRock 6,165]

Very good - this series is probably your most engaging, IMO. I like the idea, and you're clearly executing it exceptionally well. Looking forward to the next in the series!

[doduobird 315]

Nice story! I love it  :)

[VIP_FORCES967 151]

VERY NICE! Great Job

[TankCommando33 33]

This story is so cool.

[q456wert 18]

Cool