So far, the sudden disaster on Salna had claimed a total of 2,414 lives. More than 600 of the dead were civilians, mostly residents of Crystal City. Nearly 1,800 were military personnel, including armored grenadiers and security officers killed fighting the Void creatures on the ground, as well as crew members who had battled the Star-Eaters in space.
To be honest, if those deaths hadn't included Count Seliola, the casualty count would have been lower than that of an average shipwreck. As far as the Empire was concerned, it would have amounted to very little.
By comparison, the "Glorious Mission" military exercise had involved more than three thousand warships, the garrison forces of an entire star sector and border garrison, and over four million Imperial soldiers. It was an important show of military might for the Galactic Empire. How could it simply end in disgrace?
And so the Empire's propaganda department promptly made full use of its institutional advantages, sealing off all information about what had happened on Salna through every channel. It wasn't like the War God Festival, which was broadcast live to the entire universe. With the Galactic Empire's capabilities, suppressing the news was all too easy.
Yu Lian could no longer find any discussion of the incident online. He reckoned that even people in the Imperial Capital might not know what had happened—and perhaps even the people on Deerfield didn't know. A few years from now, it might become an interstellar legend with no evidence to back it up.
Then again, interstellar legends like that had never been in short supply.
"What? You say Salna IV was mined? That planet never existed. It's been an asteroid belt since the day the universe came into being. Your memories of it must be an illusion!"
After that, the Glorious