A V-shaped vehicle, like a phantom of darkness, tore relentlessly along the B5 Mineral Planet's intercontinental highway.
"Not bad, three hundred and fifty!" Bai Hao allowed a faint smile of satisfaction to touch his lips as his eyes scanned the speedometer. This black specter was the fruit of his own labor—personally modified and refined through numerous iterations. Only on this desolate, uninhabited stretch of interstate did he dare depress the accelerator to its absolute limit.
A whimsical thought crossed his mind: "What if I installed a booster on the rear spoiler? Could it actually take flight?" As a mechanic nurturing grand ambitions, he found himself indulging in this fantasy. Installing a booster on his Black Phantom was technically feasible, yet the propellant itself remained a luxury far beyond the means of a destitute young man like himself.
Yes, he was undeniably, unequivocally poor.
B5 Mineral Planet was an insignificant deep crystal mining outpost on the fringe of the star domain. After nearly a millennium of imperial extraction, its resources were utterly depleted. The planet now languished like a moribund elder, clinging tenuously to its final breaths. Those with the capability to leave had long since departed. The remaining populace consisted largely of individuals devoid of both marketable skills and financial resources—country folk, in the eyes of the Central Star Sector, dwelling in a remote and impoverished backwater.
Having achieved satisfactory test results, Bai Hao refrained from further pushing the limits. Instead, he gradually eased off the throttle, guided the Black Phantom onto the right-hand emergency shoulder, and brought it to a stop. Removing his heavy helmet, he stepped out of the vehicle.
Bai Hao possessed a head of neat, black short hair and a pair of strikingly bright, captivating eyes, which somewhat compensated for his otherwise unremarkable features. Leaning casually against the car's bodywork, he retrieved a pack of cheap cigarettes from his pocket, deftly selected one, and lit it. He took a deep, almost greedy drag.
Only after consuming nearly half the cigarette in a single inhalation did he tilt his head back, gazing upward in a semblance of contentment. The sky of B5 was a monotonous, ashen-white, shrouded in a thick, haze-like veil that felt oppressive and gloomy. It was said that decades ago, glimpses of bright sunlight were still possible here, but now, such an occurrence was merely a wistful fantasy.
Bai Hao had long grown accustomed to this near-constant, pallid sky. A faint, blurry patch of light indicated the sun's position, though its actual form remained indistinguishable to the naked eye. In his childhood, he had imagined it as square, flat… later, textbooks provided the definitive answer: the sun is round.
Exhaling a long, greyish-white plume of smoke, he felt a slight easing of the vague tightness in his chest. His gaze lingered comfortably on the bleak firmament.
"Hmm?!"
Suddenly, a tiny speck of light appeared in the ashen expanse, trailing a tadpole-like luminous tail behind it.
"A meteor?" Bai Hao wondered, squinting with curiosity as he observed the speck, his mind idly speculating.
The speck gradually grew, soon appearing as large as half a fist.
"A meteorite?!" He quickly dismissed his initial guess; the object more closely resembled an extraterrestrial meteorite, though its apparent size seemed small. It traversed the sky with incredible speed, its outline becoming progressively clearer.
"Damn it!" A glance at the meteorite's trajectory caused Bai Hao's expression to abruptly shift. The impact point seemed perilously close—perhaps even right where he stood.
"No!" A flash of terror shot through him. Simultaneously, a blast of hurricane-like heat washed over him from above, followed by a deafening, earth-shattering roar. The ground beneath his feet trembled slightly.
Stunned for several seconds, Bai Hao finally regained his composure. His eyes widened in disbelief at the freshly formed colossal crater, several hundred meters beyond the highway. Tossing aside the cheap cigarette still in his mouth, he vaulted over the guardrail and hurried with intense curiosity towards the impact site. However, upon reaching the crater's rim, he was struck dumbfounded. This was no meteorite; lying at the bottom of the pit was a distinctly humanoid machine.
"A mecha!" Astonishment washed over Bai Hao's face. Although the machine was severely damaged and deformed, his trained eye—that of an assistant technician aspiring to become the Empire's premier female mecha pilot—instantly recognized it as a genuine mecha, and moreover, a model completely unfamiliar to him.
After a pause of several seconds, a critical realization dawned on him: the pilot inside the cockpit. Given the violence of the impact, the pilot's chances of survival seemed slim. Nonetheless, he immediately leaped into the crater and quickly located the cockpit section.
His expression turned grave as he surveyed the badly mangled hatch. He attempted to find the manual release mechanism, only to discover it was utterly destroyed and useless. He rapped sharply on the deformed hatch twice and shouted, "Are you alive in there?"
The cockpit hatch was constructed not from ordinary materials, but from high-density composite metals. Bai Hao held no illusions about prying it open with his bare hands. A thought occurred to him, and he promptly retrieved his personal communicator.
Click, clack...
Just as he was about to dial the government emergency services, a series of mechanical sounds emanated from behind him. Turning, he saw the mecha's shattered arm slowly rise and come to a halt above his head.
"Using the robotic arm to open the hatch?" Bai Hao instantly grasped the intention. He quickly stepped aside, clear of the area beneath the mechanical hand.
Bang!
The arm slammed down onto the hatch, its damaged fingers swiftly locking onto the hatch's edges.
Then, the arm began to lift, slowly.
Click, clack...
When force was applied to the hatch, the lifting movement seemed to stall momentarily; evidently, even with mechanical assistance, prying it open was no easy task. Yet, from the straining sounds, Bai Hao knew the arm was exerting immense effort.
"It's moving!" After a few tense moments, he let out a slight sigh of relief. The arm began to move, almost imperceptibly, at a pace of mere centimeters. One corner of the hatch was gradually pried open, the gap slowly widening.
Zzzzt!
Abruptly, the arm's movement faltered. A crackle of electrical discharge came from within, and then the entire arm went limp, falling back down—clearly a mechanical failure.
Bai Hao frowned slightly, quickly stepping forward to inspect the partially opened hatch. Seeing that the gap was now just sufficient for a person of average build to pass through, he breathed another sigh of relief. Leaning towards the cockpit, he called in softly, "Are you okay? Can you get out?"
No verbal reply came from within, only a faint, pained moan.
"Are you injured?" Bai Hao asked, concern tingeing his voice. The sound suggested the pilot was a woman, and likely hurt.
Several seconds passed with no further response.
Bai Hao bent down, peering into the cockpit. In the dim, flickering red light within, he could make out a figure curled on the floor beside the pilot's seat, breathing heavily and seemingly unable to move.
Without a second thought, Bai Hao squeezed into the cramped cockpit.
Visibility inside was poor.
Groping his way to the pilot's side, he grasped her under the arms and carefully maneuvered her towards the exit. He climbed out first, then slowly, carefully, pulled her out of the wreckage.
With the pilot safely extracted, Bai Hao finally took a deep breath and looked down at the woman he held semi-conscious in his arms. She was clad in a form-fitting silver-white bodysuit that accentuated a slender, well-proportioned figure. Her face was delicately beautiful, framed by long blue hair that reached her waist. Her lips were slightly parted as she gasped for air.
A faint, delicate fragrance wafted from her. Bai Hao's own breathing grew unconsciously heavier, and his arms tightened their hold slightly around her. The woman responded with a soft moan, a faint blush coloring her cheeks as her eyes, previously closed, fluttered open.
Hearing the moan and feeling the softness in his arms, Bai Hao suddenly became acutely aware that his hands might be positioned inappropriately. He swiftly withdrew them. Meeting the girl's beautiful eyes, he felt an unexpected wave of nervousness.
A brief, silent exchange passed between them—a clash of fire and ice.
Just as Bai Hao was about to turn his head to hide his embarrassment, the girl in his arms unexpectedly wrapped an arm around his neck. The next moment, his lips were met by a pair of soft, urgent ones. Before he could even register the sensation, his mouth was breached. A warm, wet intruder darted into his oral cavity, searching frantically, seemingly lost. Bai Hao, however, was the one thrown into greater disarray, his own tongue unsure how to respond.
After a few seconds, as he began to find a tentative rhythm to guide her frantic exploration, she suddenly pushed him away forcefully, seizing the opportunity to extricate herself from his embrace.
Bai Hao stood momentarily stunned, his mind short-circuiting.
Before he could process what had happened, the fair-skinned, long-legged girl spoke with noticeable urgency, "You need to leave. This was a top-secret military test. Military personnel will arrive soon. If they find you here, you might not be able to leave."
"The military?" Bai Hao was still partially dazed.
The girl nodded, explaining, "For security reasons, they might detain you indefinitely. Please, go quickly."
Bai Hao's face paled slightly. Connecting her words with the unfamiliar mecha at his feet, he understood her meaning immediately. What puzzled him was her motive for helping him. However, grasping the potential consequences, he quickly rose to his feet. "What about you?" he asked, concern evident.
"I'll be fine. You, go. Now." Her tone was decisive.
Bai Hao nodded. Turning immediately, he prepared to leave. Involvement in military secrets was the last thing he wanted; the prospect of indefinite confinement was terrifying. But after taking a dozen steps, he turned back, his expression serious. "My name is Bai Hao. And you?" He felt he needed to know, because of the kiss.
The blue-haired woman frowned slightly, her thin lips parting to utter a single word: "An Jie."