The Central Star had two satellites, Belen One and Belen Two.
These two moons orbited the Central Star in their respective orbits, their mutual gravitational attraction forming a very unique trinary system, influencing each other. Sometimes, from the Central Star, one could see the twin moons in parallel, but most of the time, only one moon would be visible, and sometimes, not even one.
Tonight was a moonless night.
Belen One hid in the deep darkness, and Belen Two, even more shyly, hid behind Belen One.
The night thus became pitch black, with scattered starlight unable to dispel the profound darkness, only bringing speckles of light and shadow.
Under the pitch-black night, two figures swiftly moved within Alpha Academy.
Leading the way was Claire, followed by Reno. Both wore night vision goggles, allowing them to ignore the depth of the darkness and freely navigate under the night sky.
Their destination was the Mech Division of Alpha Academy.
After arriving at a spacious plaza, Claire stopped and whispered, "Wait here for a moment. There's a patrol drone ahead. We'll wait for it to pass before we move. Remember, we must cross the plaza and reach the opposite corner within ten seconds."
"Sounds like a jailbreak," Reno grumbled, looking left and right. "Are you sure about this? Claire, if the academy catches us, it won't be good."
"Don't tell me you're the type to back down at the last minute. That would disappoint me," Claire replied disdainfully.
Reno sighed, "I just didn't expect the calm and serene girl in my mind to have such a crazy side. Sneaking out in the middle of the night to open a mech... That's quite wild."
"Are you saying I'm wrong?" Claire widened her beautiful eyes.
"No, I didn't mean that," Reno explained hastily.
But Claire didn't have time to listen. She suddenly pressed Reno, and they both dove into the bushes.
A patrol drone lazily flew by, circling the clearing, then flew towards the other side.
Claire nervously watched the drone, completely unaware of Reno pinned beneath her.
Reno gazed at her in a daze, her golden hair swaying in the breeze, a few strands brushing against his nose, making him feel ticklish. A fragrance emanated from her body, carried by the wind, and Reno couldn't help but take a deep breath.
Even more so, he could feel certain softness beneath Claire as she pressed against him.
Reno started to react.
Fortunately, before his reaction peaked, Claire had a new plan.
She rolled over and pulled Reno up. "It's gone. Run!"
They sprinted towards the opposite side.
Reno hurried to his feet and followed Claire, rushing across the wide plaza and into the shadow of the opposite corner before the patrol drone arrived.
Leaning against the wall, Claire breathed heavily. "That was close. We almost got caught."
"You can thank Instructor Bag... Damn it, you didn't tell me this plaza was so big." Reno was breathless, too. If it weren't for the crazy training from Dandy Bag, Reno was sure he wouldn't have been able to cross the plaza within ten seconds. And if they were caught by the patrol drone, Reno's perfect evaluation this year would have been marred.
Claire chuckled, "Excellent soldiers observe with their own eyes rather than relying solely on others' cues."
Rolling his eyes, Reno retorted, "You've learned Bag's methods quickly. This doesn't seem like the Claire Jia Marshall I know. Is this your true nature?"
Claire smiled playfully, "You should be glad. Not everyone can see the hidden wildness behind others."
Reno had recovered from his rest.
He approached Claire and took off his goggles, looking at her. "So, what else is behind you?"
"Like this," Claire stepped back.
She came to a large door, took out a small iron wire, inserted it into the lock, and then leaned against the door to listen.
"Wow, damn," Reno exclaimed.
Claire gestured for him to be quiet, then focused on picking the lock.
After a moment, there was a click, and the lock opened.
Claire smiled at Reno and pushed the door open.
Reno shook his head, following her helplessly.
Behind the door was a much larger space, filled with various tanks, simulation pods, and heavy weapons.
"Is this an armory?" Reno was surprised.
Claire kept walking forward, "Alpha is a military academy, having its own armory isn't unusual. But all the weapons here are digital, no live ammunition, no real lethality."
"That's still impressive," Reno muttered. Even if they weren't live ammunition, just the sheer size of those things could flatten a person.
"But our target isn't them," Claire said.
"That's what I wanted to ask you. How are you going to get me to understand those mechs?" Reno asked. "I mean, to truly understand them, I have to operate them. But operating them will definitely make noise."
Claire smiled, "Follow me, and you'll see."
She came to an elevator, with an electronic lock this time.
Reno crossed his arms. "How are you going to unlock it this time?"
Claire flipped her wrist, revealing a small black box in front of Reno.
Seeing it, Reno groaned, "A password cracker... You really came prepared."
Claire placed the black box on the door, and the colored lights on the box lit up, rotating in circles. Numbers began appearing on the screen one by one.
Soon, the 256-bit password on the door was cracked. After a dazzling demonstration, the elevator door opened with a bang.
Claire led Reno inside, and the elevator began to descend.
It was only now that Claire explained, "The mech units of Alpha Academy are located on the twelfth underground floor. It's a very large space, serving as both the storage point for mechs and the training ground for students. Trust me, no matter what you do in there, the sound won't reach the surface."
"Looks like you're a regular here," Reno sighed.
Claire's face lit up mischievously, "On the contrary, I've only been here twice."
"Then how do you know it so well?" Reno was amazed.
But Claire didn't answer.
By this time, the elevator had descended to the twelfth underground floor.
The elevator door opened, and stepping out, Reno saw a valley before him.
On both sides of the valley were rows of mechs.
This was Reno's first time seeing mechs up close; he had only seen them in the news before.
Compared to the mechs on the screen, real mechs were much more imposing and grand. These red giants looked like sculptures, situated on both sides of the valley, each towering six meters high, resembling giants.
"Firestorm II Large Ground Assault Armor, equipped with a 98-caliber flame cannon, a level three laser cannon, a level two energy generator, four missile launchers, a 4.5mm twelve-barrel machine gun, and a laser sword. The armor is made of ultra-manganese alloy, with a maximum thickness of 12.6 centimeters and a minimum of 3.8 centimeters. It has two micro nuclear power engines, a quantum communicator, uses the Mastodon series by Johnson for its AI, and the DOR system for its operating system, with an AI value of 46." Claire pointed to the red mechs and introduced them.
"Wow," Reno whistled, genuinely impressed. "They're really huge."
"Not that big, they're just ground mechs. True space mechs are even bigger," Claire replied.
In space, due to the absence of gravity and atmospheric resistance, space mechs were usually designed much larger, often reaching up to a hundred meters in height.
This changed the characteristics of space warfare significantly.
Firstly, defense capabilities increased. Because of the size of space mechs, armor made of various super-alloys could be several meters thick or even tens of meters thick. Coupled with ion shields, defense magnetic fields, and other defense mechanisms, defense played a more proactive role in space warfare. In the past, human technological means had always favored offense over defense, with evasion being the only way. But now, with the development of material technology, scientists were madly stacking defense thicknesses, making hard resistance a tactic as well. Shielded mechs also became a reality.
Furthermore, the characteristics of space allowed mechs to maintain or even increase their agility while having powerful defenses. This also increased the survival rate of soldiers.
Secondly, there was a diversity of tactics. In the past, weapons and equipment followed the principles of speed, firepower, and cost-effectiveness. However, in the vast and infinite space battles without gravity and spatial constraints, the meaning of wheeled movement was canceled, and multiple gun platforms were replaced by higher precision strikes due to the vastness of space. The low cost of manufacturing was no longer valued due to the continuous development of planetary resources. How to fully utilize the maximum combat power of each soldier became the new demand of interstellar warfare.
In this situation, humanoid mechs, which were most consistent with human behavioral habits and best suited to exert individual combat power, came into being. They were like extensions of soldiers' bodies, embodying the will of each soldier, fully exerting their combat power in the freest way possible and creating various countless tactics and mech types.
Lastly, there was personalization. Based on the development of the first two points, mechs began to show a trend toward customization, theoretically allowing each soldier to have the most suitable mech for themselves, thus developing more unique tactical styles.
But this was still just a trend, and the current military was still predominantly uniform.
Moreover, this trend itself was opposed by the upper echelons of the military.
They believed that soldiers should be uniform. Personalized customization? What was that? Could soldiers like that still be called soldiers? And maximizing personal strength didn't necessarily mean maximizing overall strength. History was replete with examples of winning tactics but losing wars. Personalization in mech development would only repeat such mistakes.
Supporters argued that mechs themselves were the embodiment of powerful individual soldiers. Starting from this point, it could be seen that individual strength and overall strength were not contradictory. As long as the relationship was coordinated, the opposition was too conservative, clinging to the past...
Both sides had been arguing for a long time, and there was still no conclusion now.
In summary, the existence of space mechs had overturned the previous mode of warfare, making things that were once unimaginable now real.
In contrast, ground mechs were much smaller.
According to mech classification, anything over six meters was considered large, around four meters was medium, and about two meters was small.
The Firestorm II stood six meters tall, making it a large ground mech.
They were much smaller than space mechs and much weaker in terms of power, but still enough to shock Reno.
As he immersed himself in his admiration for these mechs, a huge figure suddenly rushed out of the distance in the valley.
It was a jet-black mech, sprinting at full throttle in the valley.
Its massive figure resembled a dark cloud speeding towards Reno, its velocity akin to lightning.
Hunter I Shadow Mech.
This was a long-range attack mech, standing at six meters and four-seven. Its main defense thickness was twenty-eight millimeters, and its primary weapon was the supercharged Gauss rifle on its right arm. Fast speed and long range were its characteristics, but its defense was relatively weak.
Reno hadn't even had time to see it clearly, and the mech had already rushed near him.
The killer in the darkness now appeared like a mountain next to Reno. His vision was immediately covered by a black cloud, and his entire field of view was obscured by the blackness.
Then the left arm of the shadow mech rose high, revealing twelve dark gunholes, rotating loudly.
The tremendous roar almost ruptured Reno's eardrums.
Reno was completely stunned by the sudden turn of events. Although the twelve-barrel machine gun was considered small in mechs, it appeared huge in his eyes, like black holes about to swallow him whole.
A somewhat hoarse and slightly angry female voice resounded in the space, "Who are you? Why are you here? What's your relationship with my sister? Speak, or I'll kill you!"
Then the left fist of the shadow mech pounded heavily beside Reno, causing a vibration on the ground that rolled out like waves.