Reincarnated as a Tank girl
Moscow, 31st December 1999
It was almost midnight and the new millennium was quickly approaching. While I was standing, I quietly watched the long river of red steel rumble under the torrents of snow and rain, and the crowd who cheered it, just like some little sheep without really understanding the reason for their applause. Did they not realize what they were applauding? They were literally cheering a steel beast that made the ground shake as it moved forward, a beast that twenty years earlier made people tremble with its mere presence and fifty years earlier it was a wheat reaper, wheat with two legs and two arms, which under the beast's gaze could only tremble and pray that their location would not be noticed by the steel monster.
But today those engineered monstrosities are no longer as strong, their sovereign statute was replaced by newer ones and it seems that their legend is coming to an end. It was predictable anyway, it was only a matter of time, USSR is about to end its life, the United States stopped fighting for the arms race, feeling the weakness of their sworn enemy, and Europe is no longer in the race since the end of the 2nd World War. The tragedy of Germany that created tanks too far ahead of their time. As written in the Bible, their sin was the wish to go fly fast, and, as every sin is paid for, they burned their wings.
I felt the touch of one of the last authentic medals of Erwin Rommel who was one of the greatest tacticians of his time, nicknamed "The Desert Fox". He was feared and sowed terror among the allies, but what really convinced me that he was better than the others, it was his loyalty to the chancellor of Germany, Adolf. Towards the end, when the defeat was pronounced and there was nothing left, he went so far as to ask Adolf if he could out of loyalty, put an end to this life and join him to continue serving The Great Reich in the afterlife. Rare are those who remain loyal to their sovereign leader until the very end and, in my opinion, this reason, and the fact that he was one of the greatest generals, means that he fully deserves his place on the shirt representing the war, shirt that I wore, discreetly placed under other clothes, where no one can see it. But don't get me wrong, I didn't get my war souvenir from Germany, as I would no longer be alive today.
As midnight approached, I could see on the TV people panicking over everything, and nothing, simultaneously. We secretly wondered what was going to happen, and then as the hands of the clock moved at the same pace as my heart was beating. I began to think that I would like to save Germany from its dire destiny, if only to see what the tanks would end up becoming.
Could we have seen the land battleship, instead? Or maybe a real battle where the mouse could have written its legend? I will never know because, unfortunately, it is impossible to go back in time. There were only a few seconds left before midnight and as I fell into thought, I felt the medal warm up in my chest. At first it was nothing, but it heated up quicker and quicker, and before I had time to say a single word it had turned completely red from the heat. I only had a few seconds to react and I could only think of nothing other than the stupidity of the situation in which I found myself. A medal that heats up on its own should be impossible, and yet there it was, just below my neck. These were my last thoughts before death took me, and killed me with the medal that forced its scorching penetration into my heart.
Suddenly the pain stopped, and I couldn't help, but open my eyes for a moment to see what was happening and to find myself surprised by what was around me. I clearly was in a vast crystal forest with water beside me, that was sparkling in a completely unscientific way. I couldn't understand why everything in this place seemed so inhuman, so I gathered my courage and started to get up, and to start walking forwards to see if I could find another fellow of mine. The walk was clearly not very difficult because I surely was no longer on Earth. In fact, I didn't understand how it was possible, but I was in what seemed to be a state between the ghost and the living. I could breathe, walk, smell but I could also see through myself. Another thing was that I was very clearly a man. I don't need a divine river or lake to understand this fact since I was literally naked as when I was born. I couldn't really take any further interest in my condition because I suddenly heard a female voice speaking to me.
"So I hope you love your new body." said the mysterious voice. "Sorry for not being able to offer you something better, but unfortunately for you young man, or young woman, the medal you were wearing has burned part of your soul. And I didn't have any choice. To save you I had to make you become a tank girl."
"But that doesn't exist?" I replied intrigued. "I know that the Azur Lane has ship girls, but I've never heard of the term "tank girl"?" I continued.
"I know, but I am an almighty god and I do what I please in my existence. Looking at your memory I realized that you might enjoy being a tank more than a destroyer."
Her answer left me thinking "This place is alright, but how could she look into my memory? Is this a New Year's prank? Is she real?"
"Yes, I am real." the feminine voice answered, leaving me with chills. "Anyways, your soul was too destroyed by the medal, and I couldn't do much with it."
"Well, then, you guessed it. I would actually prefer to be a tank. At least I don't have to worry about too many things, I'm sure these ship girls are too busy endlessly doing administrative paperwork anyways. Otherwise what other advantages would I have?"
"It's not really an advantage, but, as a tank girl, you will be able to change your shape more easily than a ship girl, which means that you can improve more easily and evolve, but on the other hand you can move less in the environment than the ship. You will also have the possibility to choose a starting class and improve the tank's stats a little but that's all."
She was really going in full detail about my future life. Neat. But all of this influx of information was still overwhelming.
"Your mental energy will also be greatly reduced since your energy reserve will not really be very big, compare it to a ship in any case. Eventually, you will cause some changes in the history so don't be too surprised, but you will have to take them quickly because these chances are small and very quick and easy to miss." she finished explaining.
After that I could not help but to voice my thoughts. "Me being able to change history? Fantastic."
"Don't get overly excited, future tank girl." The voice said. "Even if you are quick enough to change the timeline, the outcome might still be one you would not desire."
Her precautionary tale still couldn't calm down much of my excitement. "Alright. I think I understand what to remember overall. If you allow me to ask one last thing, in which country and era will I find myself?"
"You will find yourself in 1916 on November 20th heading towards the Battle of the Somme in the German camps. To avoid causing too much trouble, you will be aware of yourself at the start of your construction, which will obviously be a while before you will be actually able to manifest yourself, on November 20th. Moreover, you can attempt to slightly modify your construction." she told me. "Do you have any last questions?"
"The Battle of the Somme, where the first tanks appeared in the history of humanity. It seems good to me, I don't really see any reason why I should be seriously worried about this circumstance. But, besides being able to modify my construction, would I have other influences like this one? It would be useful if I knew it in advance before throwing myself into this new world."
"As far as I know, not at the moment, but timelines have always been very unstable and you could easily change something without realizing it, so you shouldn't rely too much on my word for help. Now it's before you leave, I need to tell you one last thing. Be careful. Act like you are a living and breathing being. You will feel everything the tank experiences. The damage inflicted to the tank will translate into pain. The lack of fuel translates to thirst. And, the most important one, If you are ever destroyed in combat that will mean the end of you. You will die for real this time."
"Wait what?" I asked very intrigued. But little did I know my time in this surreal dimension was nearing its end.
"Good bye." the lady said, abruptly sealing our conversation.
And this was it. Now I was closer and closer to my new life as a tank girl.