As it turned out, the Imperial military was not short of fearless warriors who would rather die than bend. When the Marquis of Buys was finally destroyed, the message she sent was not a distress signal, but a string of vulgar insults along the lines of "Long live the Empire," "Those Earthling cowards have no honor," and "May your soy milk be spilled at the feet of the Empire."
And so this "sudden encounter," which had taken place near the end of the Dawn Corridor and would surely be remembered in later history textbooks as particularly dishonorable, came to an end. The battle had lasted a total of one hour and forty-seven minutes. The Empire's Siliyas Squadron had met its end in a thoroughly humiliating fashion.
The battlecruiser Marquis of Buys, along with her two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and four destroyers, had been utterly destroyed. As for the remaining ships, once they realized they could not escape the White Devil fighters and the Beiwei cavalry closing in around them, they had no choice but to surrender.
It also turned out that not every Imperial soldier was a fearless warrior who had no fear of death. There were plenty of ordinary people who thought, "I only make a thousand gold dragons a year. Why should I risk my life?"
In the spirit of humanitarianism, Eleanor herded all the surrendered Imperial personnel aboard a badly damaged light cruiser, removed its weapons and warp drive, and left them enough food, water, and power to last a month.
"I don't have time to babysit prisoners of war right now. There are three terrestrial planets in this system. The third planet has oxygen in its atmosphere and ice caps at both poles, so you can settle there. I've left you a gravity-wave communicator,