You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <alllinks galcontinue="Battle_of_Alkirk|98" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="2" ns="0" title="Nessa Larabie" />
      <page pageid="3" ns="0" title="Admiral Croft" />
      <page pageid="4" ns="0" title="Admiralty House" />
      <page pageid="7" ns="0" title="Paladin" />
      <page pageid="8" ns="0" title="AJ Olsen" />
      <page pageid="67" ns="0" title="Naval Station Vanguard" />
      <page pageid="70" ns="0" title="Michael Houghtaling" />
      <page pageid="82" ns="0" title="Emilie Duryea Cassin" />
      <page pageid="89" ns="0" title="Astute" />
      <page pageid="93" ns="0" title="Swift" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>