I really don't know what to think. Hammering Liberty forces down this hard only to show that Lib has no plot armor is one thing. But using cheap Deus Ex machina while doing it is not something i expected from this staff. I know the goal is to close down the gallic war as soon as possible. I know that hammering Bretonia is no good since they've been at the wrong side of the barrel for some time. But seriously... you don't need to be an Erwin Rommel or a George S. Patton to figure out you don't send your main force into the gutter without a scouting party that can alert your main force about potential hostiles. I'm really intrested in an in universe explanation a believable one how and why did this happen. Unfortunatly i could not attend this event. But in light of what happened. Maybe it was for the best as it seems that 90% of the time Liberty is only loosing a fleet due to cheap, sloppy and lazy writing.