At the moment of impact, the F-35B’s belly skidded across the snow, its stealth coating scraped away by coarse ice crystals to reveal the cold, gleaming titanium alloy skeleton beneath. A blizzard, thick with needle-like snow, surged into the cockpit. Frost crystallized on Leitao’s eyelashes in an instant, and through his blurred vision, the knife-edged cliffs on both sides of the snowy valley loomed closer—hiding Japanese Army anti-aircraft batteries camouflaged as mountain rock, the cold glint of their muzzles flickering in and out of view.
"Boom!" The moment the fighter slammed into a snowdrift, Leitao jammed the emergency brake. Rocket thrusters beneath the seat spat out searing flames, gouging a hundred-meter-long trench into the snow. The engine cut out abruptly, and the temperature inside the cockpit plummeted like a dive into an ice cellar. The white mist of his breath quickly solidified into jagged frost patterns on the windshield.
"Report: 23% structural damage to the fuselage, stealth coating failed, weapon systems paralyzed." The electronic voice carried a rare hint of electrical static. "Thermal source of human activity detected nearby, distance 3 kilometers."
Chapter 487