The small convoy continued south.
The city thinned behind them until the road became rougher and old cracks broke through the asphalt.
Open ground spread along both sides, giving the new tank exactly the kind of sightline Hans wanted for a first test.
There were no apartment blocks to catch a missed round, no civilians to force the gunner into narrow angles, and no abandoned traffic dense enough to turn every shot into a secondary hazard. If Big Rhino had problems here, Hans wanted to learn them before sending the tank back into Grefort.
Young grass had started returning in uneven patches across the dark soil.
Most of the scattered trees were still gray and stripped bare, although insects had already returned around the trunks.
Birds were rarer here than near the Colony.
The land felt empty rather than dead.
To Hans's right, low mountains ran north to south and separated Grefort from the roads leading farther inland.
