There is a very deliberate placement of fighter ships next to the first word balloon in panel 3, although I don’t expect readers to really pick up on it. The balloon is from the Liotian commander, Hundi, and refers to the Liotians participating with their own ships in the exercise. Immediately to the right of that balloon are two Liotian fighters. The hope was that maybe in some subconscious way, the pairing would help readers know which ships are Liotian, assuming the much more obvious big matching horn shape wasn’t doing its job properly!