Meanwhile, aboard the Rabbit, which had just completed its jump, Lieutenant General Jaeger Sobeck was equally shaken by the sight before him. As a battle-hardened general, he thought he ought to be a man who had seen it all, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that he was out of step with this increasingly twisted world because he wasn't twisted enough.
"So what the hell is that thing?"
The young general's gaze crossed the distant void and locked onto the terrifying half-mechanical, half-organic behemoth exchanging fire with the Ghost.
Even through the screen, he could feel the ominous aura that made his soul tremble. An intense, instinctive sense of danger seized him.
"That looks a whole lot more evil than the Terrans!" Captain Peggese muttered.
It certainly didn't look like anything good, but they were fighting the Terran fleet, after all. Even if you thought that, you didn't have to say it out loud! Sobeck shot the captain a sidelong glance, then said to the viscountess, "The Grand Marshal's Office said that by the time we arrived, the enemy fleet would be fighting Castle Chenxiao, and we could catch them between two forces. That's why we were forced to—no, why we resolved to push the fleet so hard! We lost a third of our ships. My Grand Duke Ator is out of commission again. We even burned out the second sublight engine! It'll take at least a month to repair her in the dock!"
Miss Selu nodded sympathetically. "A new ship that just came out of the dock and hasn't completed its tests is bound to have the occasional problem."
In short, Sobeck had lost his (theoretical) flagship before the battle had even started, though he'd never set foot aboard her. Fortunately, his loyal Rabbit remained as plain and sturdy