I continued my warpath, just me and Goliath, tearing up those who got in our way.

I had a particularly intense confrontation in the fields of Redshire.

There were tanks attacking me from all angles, some of whom I couldn't see.

Of course, I kept a cool head, destroyed whoever I could see, searched out who I could and destroyed them.

My mission complete, I decided to head back to my secret hideout for the usual round of repairs and maintenance.

However, Redshire was the farthest I'd ever been from my hideout, so it took quite a while.

I stopped to have a rest.

Out here in the field, I could only afford to rest a couple of hours at most.

Of course, it wasn't much better at my hideout, so I couldn't be choosy.

During my nap, I dreamt of the same things I dreamt of most every night.

I dreamed that I had a better life and that the world had been spared from this breakdown of order that came out of nowhere.

As satisfying as it was to lay waste to enemy tanks with my 152mm cannon, I had some mental fatigue from having to fight for my own survival.

Still, I was willing to keep going if it meant that there was some sort of end to all this.

When I woke up from my nap, it had only been a few seconds before I got another surprise.

Then again, given the state of affairs in the world, I guess surprises were the norm.

But if they were the norm, then they wouldn't really be surprises, now, would they?

Philosophical ramblings aside, this surprise was different.

It was a woman running over to me.

She was quite beautiful; she had brown hair and brown eyes.

She also looked quite exhausted, as if she'd traveled a great distance to meet me.

When she got over to me, she asked, "Excuse me…but are you the one who saved me from those other tanks back there?"

I replied, "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not."

"But you must be! That name on your tank, 'Goliath'…there's no mistaking it!"

"OK, so I am. What do you want from me?"

"I…I wanted to thank you for saving my life!"

"Well…OK. Sounds good, I guess."

Then, without further ado, she gave me a hug. I half-heartedly reciprocated.

The hug didn't last long, however, before she pulled back. Was it because the touch of steel felt too cold to her?

In any case, she introduced herself, "My name is Mia. What's yours?"

I replied, "My name is unimportant."

"B…but don't you have a name? What about Goliath? It's written on your tank!"

"Lady, that's just the tank's name. My real name matters to no one."

"H…how can you be so cold? You saved my life, and I am grateful to you for this! I'd feel more comfortable knowing who my knight in shining armor is!"

I didn't respond to that one.

She added, "Could you take that armor off? I want to see the face of the one who saved me!"

I just said, "I remove my armor for no mortal."

She replied, "Well…can I at least come with you? We could go somewhere far away!"

I replied, "I'm sorry, but you can't. It's too dangerous!"

"But don't you want to escape all of this?"

"I really can't do this. It's for your own good."

"Please let me come along!"

"No, I can't! You must get out of here!"

"Please?"

"No! This is my final word! It's for your own good!"

"But…"

"Go! NOW!"

Without further questions, Mia simply nodded and ran away to an unknown destination.

On the outside, I didn't really care about her. She probably would've weighed me down, anyways.

Of course, as I also mentioned, she would have been killed if Goliath were blown up.

However, deep down inside, I felt pretty sorry for what I had done.

What if she was right? What if there was a faraway land that we could escape to in order to get away from this madness?

What if she really was my ticket out of this life?

Worse, what if I had sent her to her grave by sending her away?

I tried not to think about it so much, though these thoughts often intruded on my thought process.

Also, for some reason, I could feel some form of magic coursing through my veins.

I actually felt like I had something more to die for.

With each battle, I could feel my skills improving faster than usual.

I also obtained more loot from destroyed tanks for some reason.

Was this the same sort of magic that tank company commanders possessed?

Who knows?

Eventually, the fire died down, but the memories lingered.

I never did find anyone else like Mia.

I figured that everyone else was either dead or driving a tank.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.