Some people want to be the guy that killed Mon'Star.
I just take killing a cap as the ship taking debilitating damage and withdrawing. Components fail, compartments are breached, the primary core overloads and is ejected -- hence the flash. Once the retinas stop being seared, the backup core has taken over and you've withdrawn on emergency power. I once took battle damage in a fight (where I unfortunately pretty much pvpwhored Wilde.Abschnitt, my younger days) once and turned it into a funeral for my gunship's engineer, replete with a "casket" being launched into the Puerto Rican Rift.
"You killed him? Or did you just see a bang and a big flash? Where's the bodies, the components, the guns?"
I dunno where I'm going with this, really. Just a suggestion. A 'death' can simply be 'put out of action' as the blue text says. Alternately, a victory can come at a heavy price.