Empire Border Starfield, Barony of Balin, Meteoric Iron Planetary Belt.
A Noah Packhorse-class Civilian Transport Ship, numbered BL-854, slowly approached the dim rust clouds of Mineral Planet YT-117. The ship bore the anvil emblem of the House Balin, and the engines at its rear rumbled like a weary beast of burden.
Inside the cabin, red warning lights flashed intermittently. Four Qianji Mk III Special Mechas were secured within the central brackets, remaining motionless despite the ship's swaying.
Qin Zheng leaned against the corner, his gaze fixed on the specially modified Qianji QJ3-05 at the center. The egg-shaped central cockpit was integrated with eight attack modules, armed to the teeth.
"How about it, buddy? Impressive, right? That light laser cannon in the middle, even though it's light, it's still a laser weapon! It's one of a kind on our mineral planet!"
Qin Zheng turned his head to look at the chubby man beside him, who wore a set of worn-out overalls. Due to his size, the zipper could only be left open, revealing a gray vest underneath.
At this moment, the chubby man was leaning against a Sabertooth Tiger HS2-02 mecha. The mecha was covered with external steel plates, resembling a bloated tiger, matching its owner perfectly.
Noticing Qin Zheng's gaze, the chubby man raised his eyebrows:
"Haha! Not bad, right? This is my big baby! A classic model among beast types, the second-generation Sabertooth Tiger! I've modified it, of course, it's no match for the Qianji, but among us 'cannon fodder,' it's definitely top-notch!"
Before Qin Zheng could respond, a skinny man sitting on an equipment box praised:
"Indeed, compared to our engineering mechas, yours is a fierce tiger! But to that Qianji mecha, it's still just cannon fodder..."
"Tch... I already said not to compare with Qianji! I just need to run faster than you guys when we encounter bugs."
"Damn! Chubby, are you that honest?"
The chubby man chuckled and said:
"Absolutely, let's be clear upfront! This is just an E3-level exploration mission. If we really encounter the Swarm, I'm definitely running. Don't blame me for not helping, all my weight is on protective steel plates, no attack power at all, the only advantage is being tough!"
Qin Zheng looked at this unabashedly cowardly chubby man with a face of disbelief, yet somehow felt a sense of admiration.
The skinny man thought the same, even giving a thumbs up:
"Chubby, you're a real badass, I respect that! But no worries, if we really hit danger, I won't be the first to fall. See that? There's a humanoid mecha over there."
Qin Zheng and the chubby man followed his gaze. In the far corner of the transport ship, a humanoid mecha leaned crookedly against the cabin wall, riddled with bullet holes and rust, its paint color indistinguishable.
Most unbelievably, this old mecha was missing a left arm! Several cables were exposed at the damaged shoulder.
The chubby man gasped:
"No way? A motion-capture humanoid mecha? Isn't that a museum relic? Who still pilots manually these days?"
The skinny man widened his eyes in disbelief:
"Motion-capture mecha? You must be mistaken, it's just humanoid."
"No mistake, isn't that the Bedrock Series? The Empire's longest-serving basic model, is this a Bedrock Mk III? No, it seems..."
"PS-01, Bedrock Mk I Humanoid Mecha, standard configuration."
Under the shocked gazes of the chubby and skinny men, Qin Zheng pointed to the armless mecha:
"That's my mecha, nice to meet you, I'm Qin Zheng."
Silence fell for a moment, then the chubby man regained his composure and said:
"I'm Zhu Fugui. Brother, you're a real badass. To take on missions with that mecha, are you of the Balin family?"
The skinny man swallowed, looking at Qin Zheng, unable to resist reminding him:
"Buddy, once we land, we still have to advance 175 kilometers to reach the mission site. You... you're using motion-capture... are you planning to walk there on willpower?"
Qin Zheng laughed heartily and said:
"A mere 175 kilometers, no problem, we'll be there soon."
"Impressive! Buddy, you're something else! If you don't fall behind, I'll buy you a drink when we get back!"
"Don't just not fall behind, just being on a mission with you is enough for me to brag about. Holy shit, a humanoid motion-capture mecha! They don't even show this in my son's cartoons anymore."
As everyone joked, the transport ship suddenly jolted, then began to shake violently, the surrounding steel plates emitting a screeching metallic friction sound.
The communication terminal on Qin Zheng's wrist lit up, a virtual image of a one-eyed burly man appeared:
"Cannon fodder of the YT-177-6528 Exploration Mission! The transport ship is passing through the rust clouds of the mineral planet, we will reach the landing site in 10 minutes. Get ready, enter your cockpits, prepare for landing!"
Chubby Zhu Fugui got up, adjusted his clothes, glanced at Qin Zheng again, and said:
"Time to work, let's hope we don't encounter bugs this time. And... that Qin... Qin something, don't fall behind, I'm waiting to brag when we get back."
The others joined in:
"Yeah, remember to keep up!"
"175 kilometers, buddy, you need to run for at least 3 hours."
"Iron-boned Zheng! Time to show your mettle!"
Amidst the teasing, Qin Zheng waved his hand and stepped towards the old humanoid mecha in the corner.
The Bedrock Mk I Humanoid Motion-Capture Mecha operates by capturing the pilot's movements inside the mecha and replicating them.
This is entirely different from the current mainstream platform-operated special mechas, where others simply sit in the cockpit and press the forward button, and the mecha moves on its own. But Qin Zheng needs to continuously mimic walking motions inside the mecha to control its movement.
Watching others enter their mecha cockpits, Qin Zheng took a deep breath, climbed into his PS-01, and opened the hatch under the mecha's ribs.
Inside the cockpit was a circular control platform. Qin Zheng stood on it, pressed the docking button, and nine metal arms sprang out, connecting to various points on his body, securing him in place.
A helmet descended onto his head, sharing the external view of the mecha and receiving his brain signals for better motion-capture matching.
"Buzz..."
The Bedrock Mecha's power core roared to life, the massive 6-meter-tall machine activated, its electronic eyes glowing deep blue.
Amidst the rumbling, Qin Zheng operated the mecha to stand up smoothly, walking down the constantly shaking transport ship's corridor towards the hatch.
The transport ship's hatch slowly opened, revealing rugged black stone peaks and broken rocky hills rising from the ground. The wind swept through, lifting fine black-gray mineral dust, dispersing it across the dark red sky.
Standing at the hatch, Qin Zheng piloted the mecha, and a mechanical system voice echoed in his mind:
[The Mineral Planet Exploration Mission is about to begin.]