They surged out over corpses that were still smoking. Their numbers had not visibly diminished despite nine hours of human resistance; only their coloration and moisture levels differed slightly from one wave to the next. Freshly infused specimens had gleaming surfaces and moved a little stiffly, but after crawling a few dozen meters, they quickly returned to normal.
Todo reduced the second echelon's energy discharge frequency again, then ordered the Four Holy Swords to take turns firing so that not every machine would expose an intense heat source at once. Lin Cuo had just pulled Shen Hu behind a piece of mineralized shell when Asahina's voice came through the left-hand channel.
"Lord Regent, there's something I've been wanting to ask."
"Are you sure you want to ask now?"
"Right now." Asahina sliced through a Tank-class that had climbed onto the rear of an engineering vehicle, then used his spinning blade to fling its remains aside. "Twenty-two days ahead of time, you assembled millions of people, over two thousand heavy guns, and all of India's railway capacity here. You even sent us the BETA's sizes, speeds, weaknesses, and behavioral patterns in advance. How exactly did you know they were coming?"
The channel fell quiet for a moment. Clearly, Asahina was not the only one who wanted to ask.
Shino-no-no-no-no-no? also joined in from the technical IS's backend channel, her curiosity unmistakable. "Oh, right, little Regent. Where exactly did you get that information? Don't tell your big sister you worked it all out yourself. However smart you are, you couldn't know how many kinds of legs the monsters had before you'd even seen them."
Lin Cuo knew Todo had deliberately allowed this chatter. The closer the team drew to the fissure, the quieter the pilots became. Everyone stared at the steadily enlarging