What the Imperial military intended to do was no secret to anyone with experience.
When raiding behind enemy lines, if the spoils were not daily necessities, they were almost certain to be discarded—they were too much of a burden.
So what they needed to do was destroy the cargo and blow up the starships, allowing them to travel light.
Ketoli fell silent at that. After quite a while, she finally said coldly, "Attacking civilians is truly shameful!"
The captain, however, took it in stride and merely replied, "This is war. Say less."
"If you say something wrong, they really will kill you. In their eyes, Alliance people aren't even human."
"Hmph," Ketoli snorted despite herself. "This is a regression of civilization."
Just then, a voice came over the loudspeaker. "You people really have no shame. The Alliance has the nerve to talk about civilization?"
"Do you know what kind of massacre you caused on the Empire's Hope Fourth Star?"
"To create chaos on the Empire's Tianfeng Star, Alliance people openly slaughtered civilians and set off explosions throughout the city!"
"Compared to us, Alliance people are far less humane. You should count yourselves lucky... at least we haven't been killing people indiscriminately!"
After those words, an unusual silence fell over the cabin.
Three or four seconds later, someone snorted and muttered softly, "You make it sound so real."
The speaker was an Everlasting Prosperity employee who had only recently been captured. He did not believe what they had said—or rather, he did not want to believe it.
Countless sympathetic gazes turned toward him, but no one spoke.
Experience had taught them that speaking in an extremely low voice inside the cabin would basically be ignored.
But if one's voice was even slightly too loud, punishment might follow—the kind paid for with