A day later, quite a few people had crowded into Xiao Ran's office aboard the New Burning Legion. The commanders of Mwu, Jeffrey, Yuzes, and Revil's four fleets were all present, along with several of the legion's higher-ups, including Cruze and Char. They were all listening to Revil report on the surrender.
After listening for quite a while, Xiao Ran still found it all too abrupt. Damn it, I'd set the stage and waited for you to perform, but all you did was set off some fireworks for an opening act. And then... then there was nothing?
Xiao Ran asked again, "They really surrendered? No surprises, no tricks?"
"No." Revil slowly nodded, pipe in hand. "All surrendered warships have been inspected. Every one of their mechas has been sealed away, all warship ammunition has been secured, the leaders of each legion have been separately detained, and all pilots have been imprisoned as well. The weapons on the warships have also been physically destroyed."
"They were extremely cooperative throughout the entire process. We found no problems at all."
On the virtual screen over Xiao Ran's desk, he could see small landing pods surrounded by countless beetles and mechas. The separate detention Revil had mentioned truly meant separate detention—they had been stuffed into landing pods and tossed into space.
"I can't make sense of it." Xiao Ran shook his head. "They surrendered too suddenly."
Cruze smiled. "It isn't sudden at all. Surrender was their only choice, and it was also the inevitable one."
"Their twenty-five legions had never truly been united, nor had they ever shared exactly the same goal. Most of the legions were merely tools being used by the larger legion. But tools have brains too. They could see that the large legion was trying to weaken them. Yet with