Now, How many movie sequals have you seen, where in the first one, the bad guy 'dies' and ion the next movie, you found out he acctually survived or escaped? Well, the leader or Captain of a ship always has a way to get off, and Being "Fored to retreat" doesn't sound as good as "Anhillated" does it. I have died in many ships and in battle reports I have read, they always say that my enemies destroyed me and I haven't yet had to delete my characters. Its alright, because in the game, you acctually die, and your ship blows up. You escape though, to fight again in a New ship.
Its worked like this before, so lets not post in other peoples message dumps about this again.