CHAPTER 1
In a cold night on the Malinovka plains a Leopard 1 cruised on towards the nearest town of Province, he was on a quest to gather information from fellow acquaintances and friends on the movements of a gang of fugitives, he held a slow but steady pace to maintain his energy and enjoy the view the night sky full of stars and constellations provided.
"What a lovely sight" he mumbled to himself, he continued down the small dirt path. "I'd love to share this with you Saralla"
His thoughts were invaded by the image of his wife, a beautiful slim ISU-152 with curvy lines, extremely rare purple/violet colored eyes and a heart of gold. "My beautiful Saralla".
While the Leopard drove on deep in thoughts and fond memories about the female, a silent hawk watched from far above him, so far not even his enhanced senses could pick it up, an U-2 Dragonlady, operating in the stratosphere yet following every movement the medium tank did.
"This is Nighthawk, no changes on target's heading" a female voice emerged from the aircraft's nose, her eyes were located on the cockpit area and had a protective tinted visor on them. 'Roger that Nighthawk, continue with the mission" a voice on her radio replied.
The Leopard 1 came to a halt when he saw the farmlands a couple of miles away, he realized he had to check himself on the windmill checkpoint, so he proceeded to slowly drive towards it, and within a few minutes he reached the checkpoint, a single dug in T110E3 and a human companion were the ones guarding it, the heavy TD wasn't paying much attention and instead was focused on solving a crossword puzzle while his human companion watched the small battery powered TV.
"Excuse me" The Leopard 1 made his presence known, the heavy TD shifted his brown eyes from the word puzzle towards the Leopard. "What can i help you?"
"I was looking to check in so i don't get any unwanted trouble" the Leo 1 replied. "Fair enough, hey Mike! Get our guests' info"
The human, a teenager of no more than 17 years old rose up from his chair, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the nearby table and walked towards the Leopard 1. "Here sir give me your full name, model, motive of the visit and a way to contact you"
The Leopard 1 nodded and lessened his suspension a bit, lowering himself to the teenager's level. "Name's Hans Hellsing, I'm quite obviously a Leopard 1, and I've come to take a shortcut to Province while at the same time visiting an acquaintance of mine" he replied. "Oh and here's my number in case you need to contact me" he took the pen with one of his antennas and jotted the number on the paper.
The T110E3 felt uneasy, his instincts screaming at him that this Leopard 1 would bring misfortunes into the land, his land, he shifted his weigh on his suspension and mustered the mental strength to formulate a daring question. "Excuse me Mr. Hellsing, but by any chance, did you serve in the Great War?" That question caught Hans a bit off, his piercing dark green eyes shifted from the teenager to the heavy TD, meeting his eyes. "Yes. I did"
The T110E3 for a couple of seconds froze while staring at Hans's eyes, the eyes of a vicious apex predator, then shifted his gaze away, visibly shaken, though the human teenager had been oblivious to this small exchange. "I'll continue my way, thanks for the hospitality"
As soon as Hans continued his way the heavy TD sighed in relief. "At least he was civil"
"What do you mean Sawyer?" Asked Mike, the T110E3 human companion, and revealing said TD's name. "We just witnessed the arrival of a beast, let's hope for the best".
Province was a peaceful commercial town just a few miles away from the Malinovkan farmlands, booming with nocturnal life, it was the region's commercial hub, traders from all over the region came there to exchange goods and services, the town also had an adjacent airstrip that allowed for small and medium sized aircraft to land and refuel or socialize. In one of the edges of the town was located a workshop that dealt with complementary add ons for combat vehicles like guidance systems and custom optics, inside of it a female ISU-152 sat still while a female human dressed in a lab coat mounted a new experimental rangefinder.
"There we go, how does it feels now?" Asked the human.
"Well i can see farther now, thank you Dr. Zweig" replied the TD, making the human blush a bit. "It's okay Saralla you can call me by my name, we're friends after all".
Saralla nodded, letting off the formalities. "I appreciate it Natalie".
Natalie Zweig stood there looking at the mid-rear part of the TD, there were some areas wider than the last time they met. "Have you been eating a bit too much?"
Saralla was a bit confused so she answered her question. "Not really, why do you ask?"
"Well i can't help but notice certain signs" she replied and paused, making Saralla blush and then asking. "When are you telling him?"
Saralla knew she couldn't fool Natalie so she was honest with her friend. "I realized a week ago when i felt sick and weak, and continued like that for a couple of days, then Lucia told me she suspected I was carrying".
Natalie pursed her lips and considered her next question. "Are you going to tell him?".
"Eventually" she replied. "I don't want to overburden him, he's already too...volatile since the last incident"
"Did he hurt you?" Natalie asked, Saralla frowned. "No not at all, he'd rather die than to hurt me, but he did snap a couple of times at Lucia or at Griffon".
"I see, well Sara i hope he sorts out whatever trouble he has so he can raise the child..." Before she could finish she was interrupted. "Children, two of them".
"Any names?" Natalie asked to which Saralla swung her barrel side to side. "I haven't decided".
"Well Sara, anything you might need you know you can come to my workshop any time any day" Natalie said in a supportive tone.
"Why thank you" Saralla replied and then drove towards the exit. "I'll drop the payment for the optics tomorrow when my Husband comes"
With that Saralla left the workshop and departed towards the small house that she was lent by her friend Lucia, the house itself was small enough to accommodate a single vehicle comfortably, or a human couple, it had all the accommodations needed for Saralla to stay for a couple of weeks, but she wouldn't need to stay for long, she peered through the bedroom's window to see the spectacular display of midnight beauty under the night sky, she shed a single tear of longing, longing to be reunited once more with her husband, the beast known as the Hellhound.