The Earth fleet (along with the three hive ships mixed in among them) continued forward, but the bridge of the Silent One fell silent in an instant. They had fought for so many years that they thought they'd seen it all, but they'd rarely witnessed anything this absurd.
After a long while, Eleanor Bonaparte finally couldn't help murmuring, "Um, are they here to make us laugh?"
A suppressed ripple of laughter ran through the bridge, but quickly died away. These battle-hardened warriors felt that laughing would be rather undignified, and showing disrespect to the enemy would only make them look uncultured.
"So, are they really enemies?" Ina muttered. "They're not refugees who fled the imperial capital?"
Everyone immediately turned to look at her.
Until that moment, the entire fleet had still seen itself as a force of heroes and liberators, with the sole goal of overthrowing the Emperor and the "ruling class" that had started the war. If they really turned out to be massacring large numbers of civilians, it would deal a blow to morale.
Fortunately, before the soldiers could doubt themselves any further, the Imperial fleet began to fight back.
Perhaps the enemy had sensed the laughter from the Silent One's bridge. Or perhaps Imperial soldiers aboard the armed civilian ships wanted to prove their courage. Either way, someone finally struck back.
At least twenty ships began firing. With most of their allies already fleeing, their actions seemed almost tragic.
Though they were only light cannons, they were still military railguns. In theory, they could hit the Earth warships, or even the Silent One. The range was too great for their accuracy to be guaranteed, but at least they could demonstrate the courage and dignity expected of them.
Faced with the bravery of these "militiamen," the Earth fleet