The silence that followed was different from the previous uncomfortable pause.
The leader's face went blank.
The woman's artificial smile finally cracked. Not disappeared, she caught herself before that, but momentarily faltered before being forcibly reconstructed.
The younger man's military posture stiffened further, which shouldn't have been possible given how rigid it already was. But somehow he managed it, tension radiating through shoulders and neck.
Arturo felt his own understanding crystallize as Selphira's implication became clear.
5000 soldiers pulled from the defensive perimeter. That many missing should create an exploitable gap. Mutants attacked opportunistically, probing constantly for weaknesses in the wall defense. They didn't think strategically but they seemed to sense vulnerability through mechanisms nobody understood.
So when so many soldiers disappeared from their posts, leaving sections of wall with maybe 10-20% of normal guard strength...
