A/N: With autophagy/artyrambles back up and running with Hummel Quest, including my OC Jack, an AT-2, I decided it was high time to make an origin story for Jack. This will most likely be my final WoT story, I don't know if I'll ever start The Ruskie Trio back up again.
The characters are stereotyped quite a bit for their respective nation, much like they were in Ruskie Trio.
A small flood of light greeted the eyes of a young Valentine AT. It was a beautiful day in this place they called "Sand River".
"Oi, Jacky-boy! Wake yourself up, mate!" He glanced up and was greeted with a familiar face. It was his Irish friend Erin, a Cruiser IV.
"Bloody 'ell, Erin. What's all 'ee excitement?" Jack grumbled with a sigh.
"Jesus fookin Christ laddie, you don't hear de guns?"
Jack turned himself to where Erin gestured to see if he could hear better. He also flicked on his radio and nearly jumped from the sudden rush of panicked radio chatter from his teammates.
"I'm ready to roll out, lads! Give me your positions!" Jack radioed as he heard the chatter.
An immediate response came from an M7 Priest named Elliot. "They're about a hundred meters in front of me! I'm behind the bushline at the hill at..." Elliot gave a coordinate square that corresponded with the tactical map found in the corner of every tank's garage.
"Copy, on our way!" Jack responded. "Give me a hand, will you Erin?"
"Yeah, yeah. I really hate going less than 30 km/h though." Erin complained.
"When we get there, you go ahead and do...well, whatever light tanks do. I'll find the tank destroyers or provide backup for Elliot with my big gun."
"'Righty. Well, let's get going then, Jacky-boy!" Erin replied. Jack hit the gas and Erin did the same, crawling forward at about 23 km/h. Erin kept a lookout for enemies, his turret slowly spinning around and around and around. Meanwhile. Jack was focused on spotting Elliot. His 3.7-inch howitzer would be more than enough to support the American artillery piece. At 95mm, Jack's gun was just 10mm smaller than Elliot's gun. If the gun shield's armor wasn't only 10mm thick, Jack would also be the thickest-armored tank destroyer on the team.
Suddenly, Erin stopped and called out, "Oi! M5 Stuart, 37mm gun! Left side!" As Jack slowly maneuvered around, he heard Elliot fire his 40mm Pom-Pom. The Stuart fired, not once but five times. Jack felt a round bounce off his side that just managed to be angled enough as he turned toward it. Erin received a round to his turret, knocking out the turning mechanism.
"GAH!" He cried out in pain as the round hit. "Can't move the turret! What the bloody hell is this Stuart thing? It's like my autocannon but it only fires one shell at a time!"
"It's called an autoloader. Remember when we were just Medium Mk. I's, the T1 Cunninghams we faced sometimes had one. It was 37mm too. This Stuart's autoloader is better though." Jack explained. By now he was turned towards the Stuart and there was a roar as his massive gun let loose an HE shell. The arc allowed it to fly directly on the top of the Stuart's turret, easily penetrating it. The shell then exploded inside the turret, detonating the ammo rack and tearing the turret from its mounting. The hull rocked a bit with the force of the explosion, the turret landing a full foot away.
"Holy fookin' 'ell, mate." Erin breathed, optics wide. "Think the autoloader system might be intact? Our M3 Stuart teammate could use it when he moves up to the M5."
"You check it out, I'll keep pushing on towards Elliot and the team." Jack replied, turning and crawling forwards again. It wasn't long before he came upon Elliot, with a Luchs beginning his "circle of death" around the American Tier 3 SPG.
"Hey! You feeling Luch-y, punk?!" Jack challenged the German light tank.
"I'm nicht just feeling it, I AM Luch-y! It's in the name, dummkopf." The German replied.
"Keep talking and you'll be pressing your luck!" Jack said, and without another word he fired another round from his 95mm howitzer. It slammed into the Luchs. The force of the shell sent the Luchs skidding, and off the cliff on which Elliot sat. The German light tank fell to his death.
"Guess he wasn't so 'luch-y' after all..." Elliot muttered. "Thanks. Bastard nearly got me with his damn autocannon." Upon closer inspection, Elliot had small 37mm shell holes all over his front. "I managed to bounce a few, otherwise he would have killed me in one clip. If you hadn't shown up..."
"Don't worry about it, lad." Jack said. "How's the rest of the team holding up?"
"Not very well, if that Luchs got through. There's too much chatter to tell what's going on." Elliot replied.
"I'll head through the town and see if I can get to a support position between you and the battle. Erin shouldn't be too far behind, he's inspecting an M5 Stuart I killed that had a new autoloader mechanism." Jack explained. "Let me know if trouble arrives."
He started off, trying to establish radio contact with the rest of the team. The chatter had died down somewhat, but it remained rampant. "Can anyone hear me, lads?" Jack radioed. No initial response. He tried two more times, before he finally got a response from a Medium III.
"They've got a hold on the middle base! Capture imminent! Only a few tanks left defending! We can't do anything to them, they've got a Hetzer, Lee, and Matilda in the base and an SU-85B sniping us from just outside our view. We need your big gun, Jack!" He was full of panic. Evidently this entire team was made up of Tier 4's, while Jack's team was all Tier 3's and below. They even had a Renault Otsu on their team, though Jack was sure that he would be a burning wreck by now, unfortunately.
Jack raced, well, went as fast as his slow Valentine chassis could go, towards the middle base circle. There was a crest overlooking said base, and this is where Jack set up. There were four teammates left down there against the most dangerous Tier 4's to exist. They would have had to deal with an AMX-40 too, if it wasn't for Elliot's accuracy. Of his teammates there was the Medium III, an AMX-38, an M2 Medium, and a Panzer 38t.
"Erin, don't make a rush over here. You won't be able to do anything to these guys. Hetzer, Lee, Mattie, and an SU-85B. Stay near Elliot and keep him safe." Jack radioed.
"Copy that, Jack-a-boy!" Erin replied.
With that, Jack loaded a round into the howitzer.
