When war is a part of you.
Long A/N:
Based off war thunder because I have more respect for the realistic details and I can't think of all the tanks as having a health bar! (the only difference is that Evo does not have crew in whatever shape he is)
the main character (called Evo, male. if you want other details not explained int the story please ask) finds himself in Britain during the second world war. Having discovered a unique ability to change into any military machine (from first world war to present (2019)), he represses the ability and even refuses to join the army until the beginning of the blitz.
This starts when the blitz begins (not the phony war) for his village (please tell me if any of this is inaccurate for this period).
Explanation as to why this is a fanfiction (for me) can be found at the bottom.
Influenced by ratbat (some of his works are NSFW) so machines have various human traits. But not anthro
Contains death
Chapter 1: the bombs start falling.
Evo was once again thrown onto the dirt, his diminutive stature was simply not adequate to protect himself from the bullies, he had become quite short; in relation to others that came to his school, and certain people picked up on this to vent their anger onto the boy.
"how does the dirt taste, wimp? Or do you need to discover that again?" Said one of the boys surrounding him. He knew what he had to say next, he had to answer their question, however idiotic it might seem, otherwise they would simply repeat the torture.
"it tastes disgusting and earthy; now will you please leave me alone?" Evo hoped desperately that this was one of the lucky times that he was left alone, it wasn't.
The same bully continued his 'punishment'. "don't you dare think this is over, you think we'd let you go without a good kicking?"
Evo winced, the kicking was the worst part of the pain; each hit could leave an aching pain that continued for hours after these 'sessions '. At this point, like all the other times, he wanted to change into the steel goliaths that he knew he could transform into, it was sure to get the bullies running, but also sure to have him become even more alienated from everyone else at the school.
It was at this point that the most unlikely saviour came; an air raid horn.
Evo thought quietly as the people surrounding him ran off to the nearest shelter, something was wrong, they hadn't been told of an air raid evacuation practise. Obviously something was wrong, but Evo couldn't get up in his injured state, his worst fears were realised as he heard aircraft engines. He didn't know much about them, but by the lessons taught by the teachers at his school they were capable of blowing apart entire buildings. Evo was feeling increasingly venerable as the sound grew louder.
As he heard the first explosions Evo realised he had to change before he was killed by these terrible weapons, he quickly brought up his mental list and selected a tank quickly.
He was surrounded by glowing dots outlining the tank's shape before it solidified, and his view changed. As the explosions grew closer, the outline of a crusader tank could be seen sheltering in the corner of the school yard, turret slowly turning back and forth waiting for the first sign of destruction; which soon came as a bomb blew apart a wall close to him. His immediate surprise turned into thankful relief as the shrapnel ricocheted off his armour. The celebration was premature as he saw a suspicious line of explosions that seemed to be approaching his school.
As a bomb rained debris onto his school he hoped desperately that the bomber was out of bombs, his hopes were torn apart as an explosion consumed the school before another one found the worst possible target: the shelter: after a brief plead that the bomb had, in fact, not destroyed the shelter were once again shattered as he saw the ruins of the shelter; roof missing.
Evo rushed over, changing out of his tank form to personally try to help the people involved, his eyes were horrified to see that the bomb had done its job with deadly efficiency; every person inside was killed or wounded too much to live much longer. The saddest death was his best friend Leo, he was at the edge and still conscious when Evo appeared at the missing roof, Evo watched as Leo gazed up at him, eyes sparkling with tears even through the thick clouds left in the aftermath. Leo then stood up from his sitting position and for a moment he appeared to have survived, but as with all in that shelter I was proven wrong. His front was bleeding in several places as he attempted a step, pain evident in his eyes at the awful strain on his crippled body before they shut as he slipped into unconsciousness before he finally let out his final breath.
Shaken from the awful sight he had just witnessed; his world had no guide for him to follow after the death of his only friend. He looked up at the source of his anguish, droves of bombers continuing their assault, but it was here that a new faithful friend emerged, not a person, but rather a force. The attack was not unhindered and, as he watched, fighter planes, with the roundel proudly detailed on their wings, tore into the attacking force with their machine guns. I watched from the ground with pride and awe, until eventually realising I had found my destiny; I would join the R.A.F and fight with them to defeat the enemy that had just taken the life of my best friend.
With determination in my step I strode out of the destroyed school yard and towards the nearest recruitment station.
**after joining up to the R.A.F**
Training went by quickly, there was a lot to learn but I was not prepared to relent my desire for vengeance against the 'Nazi' forces. I gained a new friend while I was there: He (John) had gone through a similar experience and had also lost those closest to him. We helped each other for the period until the day we had awaited came; beginning active service.
There was excitement in the air as we crawled into our fully armed hurricanes, we were supposed to wait for the scramble, but we were too interested in getting our hands on the 'live' fighter that we ignored that wisdom for now. We were still running through personal checks on the aircraft before a sudden noise shook us from our curiosity, a ringing bell.
Fully aware of the meaning behind the bell it was agonizing waiting for the ground crew to start up our engines before we could fly. Eventually the engines started up and one of the ground crew fired a flare to clear us for take-off. The Hurricanes powerful engine roared as I increased the throttle, setting my plane in motion.
In a few moments the undercarriage left the ground as I gained height, the land dropping away serving to increase my excitement. As the last planes took flight our squadron reorganized itself into 'Vic' formation before following the squadron leader to our operational area.
Our force was rapidly closing on the specified area but when we arrived we were disappointed to find only 3 bombers. However we still gave them the 'proper send-off' with our weapons and were able to prevent any of them from returning, without receiving any critical damage ourselves. After a quick search of the area to confirm there weren't more we returned to the airfield.
John greeted me as I stepped off my plane's wing: "so what did you think about our first combat sortie?"
I responded rather flatly "not very interesting, plus the machines are a lot harder to command as the pilot… wait." where had that come from? He had simply dropped a huge hint to his friend about his greatest secret! What kind of person was he if he could keep a secret for many years despite bullying and then casually dropped it into conversation with his best friend!?
John looked surprised, which immediately removed Evo's chance of ignoring his blunder. "what do you mean 'machines are harder to command as the pilot'? you always fly a plane as the pilot! Otherwise it doesn't fly!"
A million opinions of what I could do circulated in my head until I reminded myself of an important point: he is my friend. With that point, almost every single argument dropped, and I knew what I had to do, no matter how terrible it had seemed before; he had to give up his secret to his best friend.
He tried to be hopeful for the outcomes as he confided: "I have… something special, although I can't show you here."
He was confused until I gestured towards the nearby people, his eyes widened at the realisation of what he meant: "you have a secret?"
I nodded grimly, "I can show you, later today while everyone rests."
The wait lasted a long time but eventually all the members of the squadron were trying to sleep off their first encounter during the night, except two: Evo was stressing about confiding the truth and John was too excited to sleep.
After ensuring that the surrounding area was clear Evo whispered into the night "John, are you there?"
An equally hushed voice responded "yeah, what did you want to tell me?"
I turned on my hurricane lamp and came to find him, after seeing him crouching expectantly I could feel my stress increase as I prepared to tell him.
"I can change into military machines." I stated as bluntly as I could. He stared at me for a long time before laughing, I was aware of how silly it must seem but for the sake of my very sanity he must know.
"I kid you not, it's a strange condition, but I have it."
John suppressed his laughter to speak "you must be joking, nothing as supernatural as that even happens in the fiction books I read at school."
I decided then that actions speak louder than words and prepared the very same form that I had used on that fateful night. Yet again the silhouette of a Crusader tank, gun barrel facing towards John, a symptom of my attention to him, not that I was trying to hurt him.
John's laughter died abruptly until my engine noise was the only sound that filled the clearing. With my enhanced vision I could see the look of shock on his face as he looked at me in the dim light. After having revealed my secret I hastened to transform back to answer his questions in person.
He looked from me to where the turret had been and back again. His speaking broke down in response to the surprising shock to his systems. "what the… that is… just…" but he shook his head before he could finish any one of his sentences. I assumed I had to fill the void.
"strange isn't it, I don't know how it began."
He finally came back to his senses. "that was… awesome" he said in a subdued voice. I smiled and then froze as an idea came to mind
"would you want to command a military machine?"
He shrugged with uncertainty, "perhaps, but probably not a tank, I'm more interested in planes, you know, being a pilot and such."
I nodded quickly, it was understandable he would request this.
"I did say any military machines, anyway, which one would you like to control?"
He shrugged again, and I realised that the planes he knew about were also the only ones he had ever flown (apart from German ones)
I sighed as I went through my mental list. "so… British fighter planes… those are old… that's what we have now… and those… are interesting, very interesting."
He perked up "what's interesting?"
"there's a section of planes that use 'jet' engines." I said unsurely
"really? What could those possibly be." He asked, fortunately he was curious enough to be patient with me and I appreciated it.
"I think it would be better to show you, I don't quite understand the idea behind them myself."
As soon as I had uttered those words I assumed the shape of what I hoped was the first jet, the later ones were far stranger for me. An English electric lightning outline of glowing points appeared before solidifying into metal.
John's astonished face could only murmur a quiet "wow" as he saw this new, very strange transformation unfold before his eyes. He was shocked out of his stupor when an eye opened on the cockpit and looked at him, John was slightly afraid and turned around to run but a mouth on the plane spoke gently. "don't worry there, friend, it's still me, just in a different form," John, against his instincts, returned to the plane and looked up at the eyes he had only just noticed (although it was on the crusader as well).
Instead of continuing to talk with his friend he carefully invited him to enter the cockpit, John began doing so and before his fears could catch up to him again he was in the seat. Evo's voice suddenly changed from his external mouth (underneath the nose intake) to the radio in the cockpit.
"put the headset on" he began as he prepared his friend for what would be a first time experience for both of them. After he had explained the basics, Evo began the take-off procedures.
"starting up engines." John heard a unique roar begin to fill the cockpit even with his headset on. It increased in intensity until Evo announced that they were ready to go. The pangs of fearful curiosity returned as the brakes released and the plane rolled slowly at first along the grass. Within moments the jet had accelerated to its take-off speed, the undercarriage finally leaving the ground as Evo had done in a much different craft an hour beforehand.
John braced against the speed that he had not anticipated beforehand; the aircraft covered ground faster than anything he could comprehend. Although he did have to admit that the experience was unique, flying this 'jet' John could feel a certain respect for the engine's sheer power, anything that could move a plane this fast deserved some kind of attention.
After many more miles of quick flight; John started to feel uneasy about their direction: they hadn't turned around and the English Channel was getting far closer. "where are we going?"
The radio turned on. "I've had a grudge against Germany for a long time as you know, I wanted to see it with my own eyes." Although Evo was clearly going into enemy territory John had to admit he felt almost invincible in such a fast aircraft, he was even certain that they could simply outperform any enemy aircraft, even though he had heard so many stories about pilots that grew too arrogant and were thus shot down. He also could agree with his, now machine, friend; he wanted to see where all the attack's orders had come from, whatever cruel place that could possibly want to see a country's demise and the death of its people.
The channel came and went; Evo carefully checked their course before scanning the ground with all the sensors that could help. "We should be close to the city of Berlin by now, If I remember my geography lessons…" Evo informed. John laughed at the change from a frightening death machine to one that doubted it was in the right place.
They still hadn't found any city when Evo declared something he had seen on his radar. "I can see a few outlines in front of us, should be aircraft, let's attack!" John was almost caught on the excitement but had to calm himself, there were enemy aircraft and allied aircraft, attacking the wrong one would be a calamity "get close and check first, we need to make sure that they're friend, not foe," He then lowered his voice with the onset of strong emotions "don't want to kill our friends"
Evo wisely held his fire until they could get close enough. Since Evo wasn't so good at identification, especially in the dark, he rolled upside-down to let John have a view of the bombers, whose gunners had begun trying to fire at the approaching aircraft's flame exhaust, having seen nothing like it before.
John strained his eyes to identify the bomber's silhouette against the night lights on the ground. Having eventually found his answer he quickly gave it to his plane friend: "they're allies." Evo gave a quick affirmation on the radio before trying to reach the bomber's radio to stop their fire. After listening on the different frequencies, he heard a crew member talking about seeing a strange fighter. After hearing this message, he quickly sent a response on the very same frequency: "stop firing, I'm on your side!"
At his words there followed a brief moment of suspicion before they realised that he wasn't attempting an attack causing them to finally cease fire. After ensuring that the guns had stopped he came closer to the squadron before levelling off and acting as their escort.
The same crew member from earlier managed a response to the fighter after seeing that it was friendly. "what kind of plane are you then? I haven't ever seen an aircraft that can fly even when it's engine is on fire!"
Evo huffed at this, while John still had no Idea how Evo had managed to talk down the bombers. Evo replied swiftly after his show of embarrassment. "it's supposed to be like that, it's called a jet engine, and this is an English Electric Lightning." The crew member responded in a clearly confused manner "what the hell is a jet engine? Who wants an engine that spews out fire?"
Evo responded casually while John continued to wonder just what was going on: "they work in a similar way to normal engines, but are slightly more complicated, also I think that the main focus is speed."
The man laughed at the absurdity of such an engine. "you're saying that engine can go faster than a high tech piston aircraft? You've got to be kidding me, I don't even think that you could overtake us, and we're bombers for crying out loud!" some faint chuckling could even be heard from others that were close by. Evo stayed quiet before switching to the cockpit radio and warning John to brace for a stunt. John did as he was told and was very aware of the engine's roar intensifying again.
The crew of the lead Lancaster were shocked to see the plane fly so fast. A cacophony of noises could be heard in the background of the radio frequency. Evo finished a short burst on full power before gently turning back towards the bomber squadron to resume escort again. A silence dominated for a long time afterwards, temporarily being broken to release the bombs and checking that they had hit the intended targets (Evo confirmed they had missed civilian targets with a quick recon detour)
The second break in the silence was a lot more active than the first; Evo found some more targets on radar and asked the crews whether they were supposed to be there (for a friendly mission) but the navigator said there weren't any other missions that were supposed to come close. Evo thanked him for the information and consolidated his weaponry: 2 cannons as he was used to, but also 'fire streak missiles' that were 'heat seeking'. Evo decided to try the latter first as he had no Idea of how it worked, he fired one and watched as the missile followed one of the enemy planes before blowing it apart, causing a noticeable confusion amongst the rest of the squadron who began to split up, Evo used as many of these missiles as he could but noted that they were distracted by the superheated air of the explosions as well as the fact that he was too close to them by now to effectively use them.
Deciding to ditch his missiles for now he concentrated on slamming his cannon rounds into the enemy fighters, before rushing past them and having to reacquire. Unfortunately, this 'hit and run' tactic gave the fighters enough time to find the bombers they had been tasked with destroying. Evo readjusted his trajectory to catch multiple enemies in his sights before letting the cannon fire.
John was slightly nervous in the cockpit, He didn't know how to pilot the aircraft or even how to help Evo on his mission. Instead he was forced to watch as Evo took down plane after plane, desperate not to let one reach the bombers, his only other action was bracing against the turns that the jet made after each run, wishing Evo would be slightly gentler but knowing that the speed was necessary for the defence of the bombers. One fighter got lucky and raked one of the Lancasters, a cry of pain from the radio telling Evo it had not gone without injury. The enemy fighter's victory was short lived as Evo dispatched the plane with another heat seeking missile.
After searching the skies with his radar for more fighters he relented, once again resuming his position. "I can't find any more fighters, but I am also sorry for letting one get through, it's disappointing to defend you better." A slight chuckle from the radio confused him, the voice seemed to sound… happy. "don't be so hard on yourself! Even if we sustained an injury it's far worse than the casualties we normally take. If it hadn't have been for you we would be pretty helpless, sure we've got turrets, but they do horribly against enemy fighters, so all I'm trying to say mysterious 'jet' pilot is 'thank you!'"
Evo felt a quick pang of gratitude, but he remembered that John still didn't know what was happening. Evo changed to the cockpit radio to give John the update he desperately needed. "Hello again John, sorry I forgot about you earlier." John was startled by the sudden sound filling but he eventually it was just Evo talking to him again. John then responded to Evo's words. "Don't worry, I understand that you needed to protect them against the fighters, just try not to do the high speed aerobatics again. Also, we need to sneak back into the airbase without anyone noticing."
Evo told John he understood before asking permission to be dismissed as escort to the bombers, when the radio operator agreed the lightning once again increased throttle to make It back to the airfield quickly before John called for Evo's attention again. "I don't think we can land this plane back at the base again, it's too noisy to come in without anyone noticing." Again, Evo agreed before planning a quiet approach, this time his choices were limited, the military wasn't necessarily focused on keeping quiet.
After finding this he went for a trainer version with very little engine power; As the plane shifted John found himself in a new cockpit, basic and with no weapons. As this realisation dawned he gauged the engine noise and found it to be very quiet, compared to the jet beforehand. "nice choice, should be able to land without much difficulty"
Evo concentrated on landing while still scanning in case someone was investigating the earlier jet take-off. To his relief he found no one near the runway as his wheels softly touched the soil, slowing to a halt before shifting quickly to reduce the chance of someone noticing. John was simply dropped from his previous position in the seat, but Evo was at least back in human form to try catching him.
John recovered slowly from his unexpected fall, "That was… a strange flight indeed," Evo nodded his head slowly, having an adventure at this speed was not something he would have expected when he woke up today. Also, the Lancaster crews were eventually going to spread the word about the strange fighter that had helped them; and then things were going to get interesting.
He halted his pondering for a brief moment to respond to his friend. "if you don't mind, would you do it again?"
John thought about it for a brief moment before answering. "hell yeah…"
END OF CHAPTER
A/N:
I know that this is very loosely based off war thunder but it was that game that inspired me to think about military machines, and that lead to this story, I had played world of tanks beforehand but it seemed fake, especially when a tank destroyer couldn't destroy a tank as well as a medium for instance (I had many stressful moments when playing with German tank destroyers, which is also the type I made) it felt like it was too focused on being a game.
War thunder felt amazing after playing world of tanks, yes you could be one-shot easily, but it made sense when it happened! And tank destroyers are again my favourites for their penetration capability.
