Some still slipped through, especially the earliest deserters who had broken away before the reserve ring fully formed, but not many.
Most were caught, dragged into killing range, and destroyed.
The close fighting lasted another half hour before the last meaningful resistance ended.
Then, gradually, the battle quieted.
The tactical display cleared in stages. The surviving contacts dropped, then dropped again, then finally shrank into only a few distant returns already too far gone to matter.
Around them, Redglass space was filled with the drifting dead. Great broken bodies, clouds of biological debris, wrecked aircraft, damaged frames, scattered metal, and cooling fire.
Rhoswen exhaled hard and leaned back slightly, still alert, but with the edge of battle excitement finally starting to settle.
"That," she said, "was worth the trip."
