The main fleet of the Galactic Republic's 20th Army fled in disarray. They had realized they had no chance of victory, so nearly every warship captain made the same choice.
However, for the Duchy of Dawn fleet under Matt Hona's command, this was hardly good news. Of course, he would have preferred for more Republic warships to remain behind and fight to the death amid such chaos.
But unfortunately, those captains were no fools. The sensible thing to do when things went south was to turn tail and run.
Thus, the battlefield once again became a chase, with the Republic fleeing and the Duchy of Dawn in pursuit. Moreover, the Knight-class Star Destroyers, which had fought the fiercest and boasted the strongest firepower earlier, were all at the very front of the retreat.
They could hardly be blamed for it. Once the Knight-class began fleeing, nearly all of its weaknesses were exposed—their unique design meant that Knight-class Star Destroyers had absolutely no fire coverage behind them!
Put simply, the Knight-class was roughly shaped like a pyramid laid on its side. No matter how many turrets were mounted on its surface, there was no way to cover that enormous rear end.
This design was actually the result of Lila Blythex, Kuat Drive Yards' chief designer, overcorrecting based on the Hunter Class. As everyone knew, the Hunter Class did not have strong frontal firepower. With its main guns positioned toward the rear, it could not bring all its firepower to bear when facing an enemy head-on.
But the Knight-class design allowed every gun to fire when engaging enemies from the front! The price was blind spots in its firing arcs, leaving it completely unable to deal with targets behind it.
This was not merely a matter of being unable to fire back