On the star chart, most of the Empire's fighter squadrons had already pursued the Beiwei relentlessly, following the direction in which they had scattered. The Imperial forces had evidently judged these strange "assault ships" to be the greatest threat to them. Or perhaps the recent bombing run had earned the odd little warships their undying hatred.
In any case, more than two hundred Imperial fighters had adopted an all-or-nothing attitude. They were determined to chase their targets to the bitter end.
Then, after a flurry of evasive maneuvers, the Beiwei that had been flying in formation scattered. But each one had at least ten enemy fighters on its tail.
Well, under ordinary circumstances, the fighters would eventually catch up to the assault ships and pick them off one by one.
Yet Eleanor remained calm, keeping her fleet's maneuvers steady and orderly.
"Entire fleet, port 47, dive 18, forward 5. Quickly, use this opportunity to widen the distance from the Imperial fleet. Fletcher 211, Ledi 378, Xiaoyue 455, begin deploying mines."
The three destroyers bringing up the rear opened their stern bays and dropped mines in a steady stream. Soon, a vast field of metal clumps, almost impossible to make out with the naked eye, had spread through space.
As the fleet changed course, the Aurora even fired one of its secondary broadside railguns at the badly damaged Imperial battlecruiser.
The shot had been fired almost at the edge of the gun's dead zone, well beyond its theoretical maximum range.
And yet the shell still grazed the Imperial battlecruiser's outer armor, creating a string of sparks that weren't especially powerful but looked quite spectacular.
It went without saying who had manned the gun, didn't it?
"Was that a bit too much?" Eleanor asked Ina.
"Mm. I merely wanted to test the