At last, Jaeger Sobek aboard the Rabbit was able to breathe a little easier. He had finally escaped with his life from the Earth fleet's fierce bombardment and the torpedo ships' harassment.
His fleet was in a miserable state. Four cruisers and seven destroyers had been sunk, and nearly all the remaining ships were damaged. Two of the Rabbit's main guns had been knocked out, and a hole had been blown in her bow. They said that at the most dangerous moment, an explosion had nearly ignited the forward magazine.
But no matter what, they had all managed to survive. Even though the Rabbit looked as if she'd been thoroughly beaten and badly wounded, her engines were still running without a hitch, and her maneuverability remained intact.
Even the crew had a survival rate of over seventy percent. They really had been blessed with extraordinary good fortune.
By comparison, Major General Mog, who had rushed over from the neighboring sector to help, had it much worse. Two battlecruisers had been sunk, and his fleet had lost over sixty percent of its ships.
As for Major General Mog himself, he had gone missing along with the sinking of the Bird of Destiny. The outcome was obvious.
If Sobek hadn't, out of humanitarian concern, immediately ordered the surviving ships of Mog's fleet to "scatter and run; I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong," things might have turned out even worse.
That might have been the clearest order Major General Jaeger Sobek had given during the entire battle. Objectively speaking, Mog's fleet had indeed provided them with cover. So Sobek's fleet, which had already opened some distance from the battlefield, fired every sublight missile in its stern launchers at the Earth fleet.
As we all know, in the era of centerline guns, when