The live broadcast had no narration, only a steadily enlarging point of light, shrill radar warnings, and the background sounds of the theater that viewers around the world could hear.
Then the object's true outline briefly emerged from the plasma.
It had no aesthetic structure any human could understand. It resembled an enormous seed, its surface uneven from ablation, and measured at least several hundred meters long. A hard mineral shell, metallic reflections, and irregular biological tissue all coexisted on its surface. Short bursts of attitude-correction thrust kept firing beneath it, proving this was no uncontrolled meteor.
Dietrich finally leaned toward the microphone.
"Hello to viewers around the world. This is the Western Joint Defense Theater in Kashgar. What you are seeing now is not any known aircraft belonging to Great Han, Britannia, or the E.U."
"It is a miracle from beyond the atmosphere!"
Once those words went out, the entire world truly fell silent.
The system updated at the same time.
[BETA Landing Unit has entered terminal descent.] [Upper-atmosphere interception window: missed.] [Current speed is decreasing.] [Attitude-correction system activating.] [Available interception window: ninety-three seconds.]
Lin Cuo immediately switched to the Nine Treasures' dedicated channel.
"Nine Luminaries Squadron, you are cleared to sortie. You may make one interception attempt only, and you are not to disengage your output limiters without authorization."
Sun General Surya was the first to respond.
"Your Excellency the Regent, India's eleven 20% Model Shen Hu mechs have a combined output of two hundred and twenty percent. There is only one enemy target. We have the advantage."
Moon General Chandra very calmly cut off his tempting-fate declaration.
"Our machines don't all have the same power rating. You can't simply add them together."
"But our publicity department has already done the calculations."
"Our publicity department won't