Federation society truly wasn't as iron-blooded as the Empire's. That was inevitable.
To form a vast Federation, it needed a sufficiently tolerant culture with strong interoperability. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to maintain.
In a private conversation, the military might still have been able to act. Once one reached a certain level, morality was merely something put on for others to see.
Those in power had no private virtue; only interests were eternal.
But there were too many people in the command center. Who would dare openly order fire on their own soldiers? Especially Qu Jianlei's final remark—it was truly vicious.
He directly pointed out that all the captives were soldiers from the Triangle Military Region, then said something about how "the Triangle Military Region is relatively weak." This was precisely the sort of thing the Federation feared most. The prohibition against discrimination between star regions had even been written into law.
Of course, discrimination still objectively existed. If it did not, there would have been no need for such laws.
But no one dared spread such remarks openly and brazenly.
In the current situation, let alone the frontline command center, even military headquarters did not dare make a decision lightly!
Still, the command center reacted quickly. "Cut off all other signals. Keep only communications between headquarters and them!"
As for what the other officers and soldiers might say, they could no longer afford to consider that. The command center had the final say.
In any case, there were thousands of people in the command center. Where could they possibly manipulate things behind closed doors? As for the other commanders' and soldiers' right to know... well, they could only apologize. Military headquarters would eventually issue an authoritative statement.
While blocking the other signals, the Lieutenant General came up with