The moment seemed to stretch for days, and Lichemaster's keen mind ran down dozens of strategies - all of them indirect attacks, misdirection, or utilising the Furnace's Knight's own momentum against him. Death Despoil had, in his millenia, very rarely engaged in unarmed combat, and though through sheer osmosis of experience was not incapable, it was certainly among his weakest capabilities, so avoiding it was still a superior option...

Most pertinently, though his eyeglows remained fixed unblinkingly on the Furnace Knight, his peripheral vision was measuring up the distance to the containment cells he'd seen - via Unlucky's transmitted helmet HUD displays - and, drawing on his phenominal recall, estimating the largest cluster of cells that seemed to have the heaviest protections.

Outwardly, however, he remained motionless and silent, not making any move towards the cuffs, nor even glancing down as they slid to a stop. (He did not dismiss them as a threat out of hand, however, and one small portion of his mind prepared to pre-emptively act if they should suddenly become animated or begin to emit any kind of antimagic field.)

"I think not." the Lichemaster replied, at length. "I believe the next move, Furnace Knight, is yours."

The Furnace Knight's belt glows and gravity ceases to have a hold upon him. With a flick of his tail he ascends into the air in a movement so fluid it suggests his species originated below the waves. He raises up into the air, ascending to a position above Lord Death Despoil. There is no wasted motion here, no elaborate forms, not blinking or lowering his guard for a moment. Serpent eyes stare as he raises his sword and -

It's not an attack. It's a command.

The wolves, howling, close in on all sides.

These are berserkers, unarmoured and unprotected. Jagged glass cannons, only protected by a single enchantment: a divine chronomancy spell that defers all injuries minutes into the future. They will fight at maximum strength right up until their blessing expires and then all their accumulated injuries will hit them at once and they will drop dead instantly. The wave is uncoordinated, but there's a pack instinct at work that keeps them from getting in each others way, even through their blindfolds.

The Furnace Knight hovers above the battlefield, silent and unflinching, gaze reptilian as he observes. In this attack it's clear that he doesn't have any ideological commitment to honourable battle - quite the contrary. He observes the forms because of the rewards they grant and once his obligations are met, he discards them. His earlier headstrong rush was a rational attempt to maximize an advantage and now that it has passed his approach is far more defensive and cautious.

And that gives you an important clue: He has no idea what you're capable of. Even on the most basic level his wolves attack with teeth and talon, seeking to rend flesh you do not have. He is sending a wave of expendable troops to soften up a necromancer, seemingly unaware that their corpses might be turned against him. Despite his superiority in hand to hand conflict he seeks to accumulate data because he simply does not know that you are not an expert martial artist. This is a warrior who knows himself, but not his enemy. Despite his advantage in positioning he is still in the same boat as you.

Death Despoil assesed the situation for a fraction of a moment.

The he cast a wide-arc dispel, utilising his spell mastery to tweak the shape into a 100-foot cube, starting two feet above the ground and with the centre above himself, excluding a five-foor wide, ten-foor tall column centre on around him - with the aim of seeing if the feral creatures auras and/or the Furnace Knight's flying ability was dispellable (inf not there were other options) and without so much as a gesture or motion cast an instananeous Flight spell. As the fereal creatures entered within twenty feet of him, and then with practised ease, he opened a Gate XXV (to the Lichemaster, a paltry 30th level spell) at its maximum 90 x 90 foot size (though with his skills, he could have chosen to double it), horizontally on the floor, leaving himself floating above the centre point; and overwrote the automatic safety warnings.

Because the exit point opened directly into the sun.

Specifically, not even Tanshin system's sun, but the corona of the G-2679 system's star. Formerly the location of the Bleak Despair space station before the wormhole collapsed a couple of years prior, G-2679 was now completely uninhabited; but it was the first such star that came to mind within the roughly 600 light-year range of his spell. (Using Tanshin's star would have been risky.) The Gate itself prevented the reverse passage of the heat and gravity by default and he choose not to overwrite that feature, but that would not help any creature (and any surrounding objects lying on the floor) falling into what was (due to the minimum size compression Gate length), now a 90-foot-square, five-foot deep pit that opened into into a star.

(The Lichemaster was confident in his own reaction speed to be able to utilise an instantaenous teleport out of the way if he felt so much as a twitch from the flight spell.)

[Gate XXV range: 3 light years/level (x 2 because of his scope skills). Scary.

Note: Gates are mon-directional openings and don't "cut" anything when they open, so objects that come through from the other side are still attached to the ground (such as, sadly, the Furnace Knight's sword, which is stick in it) and will be sticking up through it unimpaired. As previously noted in the guide, you can walk through the reverse side of a Gate perfectly safely and the same principle applies to stuff that would stick through it from the other side, effectively.]

The dispel cuts down the period of invincibility held by the wolves, but doesn't undo it completely. The exact mechanism of the ability is innate to them and the enchantment was extending it. The Furnace Knight's flight is entirely unaffected.

And then the gate opens. The wolves fall.

The Furnace Knight extends his hand - but not towards them.

The roof of the facility burns clear away, exposing a clear light to the sun above. The Furnace Knight seems to hold it in his hand, and as he does there is a strange and terrible buildup. Violet energy starts to condense - slow and weak, fragments breaking out of the very daylight. Energy is extracted from light, from gravity, a desperate vacuum of power extracted. The next time the Aotrs send a probe through the readings coming from Tanshin's star are insane. The sun's surface has erupted with four small but intense solar flares that burn in an unnatural violet hue.

And the Furnace Knight hurls the energy downwards at Lord Death Despoil. Whatever this was it clearly wasn't ready - it was a fragment of energy, a mere handful. The attack comes so fast there's no time to think, only to dodge - and the purple energy falls through the gate too and impacts on star G-2679.

And that is where that exchange seems to end. It won't be for some weeks now that G-2679 starts to develop... symptoms similar to the chaotic readings starting to come from the Tanshin star. Just as well Lord Death Despoil chose an uninhabited system.

But in the immediate sense, the Furnace Knight has come out the worse of this exchange. His soldiers are lost, his frantic attack has missed, and now he is reduced to his own personal prowess. But for the knowledge of the Lichemaster's gate he considers it worthwhile.

He attacks now with a prepared caution, never making a move with momentum he can't immediately check if a Gate unexpectedly appears before him. For all its force, it is still ultimately a noncommittal offensive, relying only on techniques he has already demonstrated. If he has additional techniques up his sleeve he is keeping them hidden, a concession to the idea that a swift victory is no longer in the cards. The momentum is distinctly with the Lichemaster.

Aboard the Crippling Glare, hiding amid the gas giant's rings, the passive sensors were getting a lot of data; enough that Captain Whisperbleed was considering risked powering up to get an active scan, figuring the distance from the planet would reduce the if being detected... Nor had they had much evidence thus far the aliens has especially effective sensors.

Death Despoil next dropped a simple 6th level Control Dark spell, and altered the lighting within a two-hundred-foot radi=us pitch black. With his lifevision, the Furnace Knight and the aliens would still be visible (though nothing else) - plus he has perfect recall of where everything was - and it would be educational to see if the Furnace Knight had some means of seeing in total darkness.

He floated backwards slightly and drifted to the right.

From memory, the Lichemaster targetted the cluster of the most vulnerable-looking KPS-Division-containment-looking cells, and then went a little old school, with a simple Greater Fireball - reaching, with his skills, a radius of 40 feet - but pumping twenty times the required mana into the spell - equivalent to three times that which Gate True used. This was something of an effort, even for a caster of his power and for a lesser caster, it would be insanely risky, but there was a reason they called it "safe casting level" after all; and over charging a low-level spell didn't have quite the same risks as casting a spell with the same mana well above your safe casting level. It was also not an unfamilar action, but one he'd used many times over the centuries.

He blasted the violently-shuddering the one-foot-diameter ball straight into the cells.

[That's be "concussion damage x 20" in Rolemaster, which puts it into the easy "vehicle-hurting level..."

By-the-by, strictly speaking by RM RAW, this would be like trying to overcast a 300th level spell, but the table on the spell failure caps out at a disparity of 21+ levels above caster and DD's skill estimate is higher than that target number with just his rank and stat bonus, before accounting for level bonuses, which nearly doubles it, so even raising the extraordinary spell failure number from 200 to 400 and he'd still be passing automatically (sans fumbles), as he'd be on about +430 to +530...!

Note: I completely arsed up th Gate length last time, it would have been 5' if it had been Tanshin's star, since it's way less than 60AU away, which a very different scale to light-years... As it was light years away, the compressiong factor is 1 mile/light year, so those wolf gentlebeings will actually be falling for a long time at terminal velocity...! Oops.)

Despite everything else that's going on, the underlying military reality of this situation is surprisingly straightforwards. This is recon by fire. Making moves and seeing what shoots back and with what.

And Lord Death Despoil's last move has been to walk into an enemy trench line.

Positive sides first. This is going a long way to confirming his theories about the Furnace Knight's power and capabilities. Specifically, he is not a spellcaster per se - he is a divine agent. His power does not come from infused mana or spell abilities, it comes from serving as the direct conduit for a major divinity. This means that he has unique advantages - and different pressures - compared to a more rational, controlled approach to magic.

Specifically, the Furnace Knight is bound with oaths. He has a network of ideals he has committed to that bring him into alignment with his divinity. The closer he is engaged with the substance of these oaths the more pure and direct his connection is and the more he can tap into that unlimited font of power. It's similar in theory to the clerical divine spellcasting more common in your part of the galaxy, but blended with the continuous at-will nature of a Warlock's infernal patronage and the more advanced and complex righteous oaths a Paladin might commit to. This all implies a fundamentally different relationship to the Divine than happens elsewhere. You expect that the Furnace Knight is not a singular paragon in this respect - his techniques are too developed. This approach to magic no doubt runs through their entire society.

The Furnace Knight, despite being an expert in this form of conduit magic, does not seem to have any emotional attachment to it. He is completely capable of performing dishonourable acts and all it will cost him is the strength of his divine connection. This may or may not be worthwhile depending on the situation.

This is all extremely useful to have learned. Being able to calculate an opponent's magic system from first principles while under fire will no doubt be pivotal in coming conflicts.

(Something the Crippling Glare would note later, comparing the data logs to Death Despoil's experiences later, is that this conduit has some sort of direct connection to the star. The gravitic distortions and solar flares intensified significantly once the Furnace Knight was engaged in battle. There is also no response from the alien ships to the active scan - increasingly they seem genuinely blind.)

But what it means right now is that Lord Death Despoil just made a terrible mistake. By attacking vulnerable noncombatants, threatening to unleash the catastrophe of an uncontrolled KPI outbreak, the Furnace Knight was given an opportunity to act in perfect harmony with his patron god.

With impossible speed, the Furnace Knight intercepts the fireball in flight and eats it. Snapping serpent jaws clamp down on the deadly sphere of power and its spell matrix unravels in his jaws, infusing the Furnace Knight with a massive surge of mana. So empowered he lunges through the dark directly at Lord Death Despoil at the same time as he targets him with a massive gravity spike that draws the Lichemaster closer to his waiting blade.

As an unusual little note, while the Furnace Knight doesn't seem to have the ability to see in the dark, he seems to have a huge amount of experience fighting without relying on his senses at all. A combination of hearing, scent and predictive guidance from his patron covers the gap - not unexpected, but it's notable how familiar this is to him. Like he doesn't expect to fight in any other way.

Inwardly, the Lichemaster smiled grimly to himself.

The Furnace Knight was not the true enemy here. The Aotrs long ago had learned - especially from Temnis - when fighting heavily divine-powered beings (or just highly religious ones) that, ultimately, you did not fight the monkey, you fought the organ-grinder.

So his next spell was perhaps completely surprising; neither a defensive spell, nor an offensive one - but a honed and precise probing spell, that locked directly on to the very concept of belief itself and traced directly the path of the bond between deity and servitor. This version was the most recent permutation, a full 95th level spell, with two-and=a-half millenia of experience in divine counter-measures, presense nullfiers, conceptual-dissonance traps and resonant backlash fields (extensively tested, in fact, on the few remaining quasi-deities on Temnis).

It sole purpose was to precisely locate the realm - divine, conceptual or otherwise - from where the divine power was coming from. Any damage the Lichemaster took in the process was entirely worth it, since it meant that they would know where, functionally, the god was. And, short of it permenantly severing its connection to reality and denuding it servitors of power - functionally committing suicide - when that was known, the Aotrs could reach it.

Gods had a nasty tendancy to believe that they were utterly unkillable and they the furthest-removed from direct reality were thus beyond harm. And, as not just the Aotrs, but others had proven, that belief was entirely wrong. Even greater dieties could be killed.

The Lichemaster recalled with perfect satisifaction the first time they'd been able to use the distant ancestor of the Howling Void's thaumic lightning cannon on a greater deity. It had taken a huge amount of raw mana from Temnis - equivalent to over a year's planetary production. The weapon - at that point little more than a giant wand or magic staff - had to be mounted on a massive fixed installation. But the look of total and complete incomprehension on the god's manifested face when he had looked up to see a Gate open right into the heart of his divine realm in front of and then literally, impossibly, been shot dead was a fond memory.

The Lichemaster could not fight and kill a god all by himself... But as a power, an army and a nation, the Aotrs COULD.

They'd had to.

The final piece of the puzzle clicks into place right at the moment the Furnace Knight's sword catches the Lichemaster, fully charged with energy stolen and divine.

The Furnace Knight's god is here. In the material plane.

More specifically, the Furnace Knight's god is the sun.

More specifically still, the Furnace Knight's god is a lot of suns. A vast contiguous network of stars in what you assume to be the territorial range of the Endless Azure Skies. Each of them burning a radiant violet as much of their energy is converted directly into divine magic. Many of their starships carry reactors that act as miniature infected suns as well.

Moreover, this... situation does not seem to be the result of a single thinking, intelligent being. There is no will behind the stars, no intention, no agenda. They are more like... code. Software, genetic and legal. The best way you can think to describe what you are seeing is a virus - some strange stellar infection that latches onto the immense energy output of a star and begins hijacking it. The further the infection progresses the more energy can be harnessed. With that much power the laws of physics themselves could be altered within the area of a star system.

The exact ramifications of this aren't possible to read without observing a star in the terminal stages of infection/execution, but three things are clearly directly linked to it. The first is the operations of the Azura divine spellcasters, the second is something to do with the gravity distortion technology, and the third is those strange curse spikes omnipresent on Azura personnel. And...

That seems to be it?

That's a shockingly short list of things to use all that potential power on. With the combined output of that many stars any civilization could Ascend off this plane entirely. The Azura have been, since the beginning, to be a strange combination of extremely high tech and utterly backwards. In this context it seems like this isn't a deliberate technological progression: this is a post apocalyptic society, trapped in the ruins of their own failed singularity. Whatever this is they clearly can't control it, only adapt to it.

In theory, you could burn one of these infections clean off a star with sufficient mana going through the right spell - though what spell, exactly, would need to be researched. Some kind of healing spell? But that wouldn't help against further infection. Stars don't come with immune systems.

Further investigation, though, is a question for another time. At this precise moment the Lichemaster is being stabbed. All the power of this horrifying cosmic miracle channeled into a pointy piece of metal. Ever been stabbed by a cursed sun before? Gathering the energy to unravel the physical and spiritual damage inflicted by the blow and the endless cascade of associated curses and debuffs is a major research project in and of itself. It is the simplest move, executed to perfection.

Well, the Lichemaster thought dimly and somewhat abcently, shutting off the pain, that simplifies things.

He vaguely recalled doing some other offensive spell at point black range... Had he grabbed some of that mana right out of the snake-person and inverted the gravity field or something? Certainly they were both moving in opposite directions fasted than he was falling, so perhaps he had. (Oops, the darkness spell had gone, never mind. So had the Gate XXV.) Or maybe he shot a gravity bolt, something like that. Either way, jolly well done, him.

Yes, blowing stars up was a LOT easier than killing deities in most respects. More energy typically required, but so much more straightforward. The Lazerblasters (and almost certainly the Shardan) could actually just do it by a modification to the configuration of their standard warheads. The Aotrs would need to dig into their big box of tricks, granted, but sun-exploding was quite possible...

Actually, the Lichemaster thought distractedly, vaguley aware he was somehow on the floor and the world was spinning around a lot, the Lazerblasters... Or at least that singular one they were all most utterly afriad of (and that everything SHOULD be) could probably conceptually kill the star-virus out of hand... Mind you, at that point, the entire universe was likely already at risk of being ontologically, conceptually and meta-conceptually and probably retrocausally obliterated (if they were lucky), which was not a happy thought for anything that existed, had existed or could conceptually exist or just tangentially percieve or interact with any reality, so hopefully that level had not been realised yet. He really hoped the Good powers had ultimately SOME sort of plan that didn't involve trying force or that wouldn't just make the situation more likely, but then again, they were idiots, so who knew?

Was this precognition or just prediction? No, must be the latter, the Lichemaster concluded muzzily, after all the former couldn't work in that...

Oh, wait, was he supposed to be doing something?

Right, right, more immediate problem, fur-nest night. Really, what kind of a name was that anyway; that sounded like a celebration for small mammals about to hibernate.

He felt a sort of odd thunk on his leg. Looking down he saw an trick arrow with a clamp on his leg. Capital, that would be Bowblast, hovering inside the still-open Gate True, doing the rescueing thing.

Now if he didn't miss his guess... Ah, yes, that would be Yeller. With... Oh, his badness.

* * * * * * * *

Yeller skidded to a halt as he exited the Gate True. Bowblast had snagged The Boss. The Furnace Knight was flying back down... Looking a bit, if anything, confused; clearly whatever The Boss did to his flying didn't last long, but it had taken him by surprise momentarily.

He grinned (or at least his eyeglows brightened in the lich equivalent). He hefted what he was carrying over his shoulder, a two-metre giant wand, over a foot in diameter, surfused with half the magical energy of all the present High Command members and every offensive enchanment they could throw on at short notice, making Death Despoil's over charged Fireball look compartively weak.

He swung the weapon at an angle, not at the Furnace Knight, but unmistakably towards the computer-like device Unlucky had seen earlier, noting at least one cowering noncombatant comfortably in the blast zone.

"Hey, Sir O'Hiss!

"Scale of one to ten! How important IS that?"

With a thundrous discharge, the magical burst released, streaking at horrendous speed towards the machine, leaving a trail of blasting sparks.

The Furnace Knight intercepted, as Yeller had expected he would (and seemed, HAD to), opening his mouth to eat all the magical energy from the attack and swallowing it, just as he had with the Boss's Fireball; but the distraction afforded the Aotrs the moments to pull back into the Gate.

.

.

Or would have, if that had been the only intention.

.

.

The Furnace Knight had, by Yeller's estimation of his reaction speed, just enough time to comprehend, far too late to be able to react, that the magic was mostly overcharged illusions and pointless buffs.

Layered on top of the active missile shields of a Foul Skream-Special, hand-made, SK-X-TN Anti-Tank Snake Warhead.

"TN" for "Thuamic Negating."

A warhead that was built entirely from exotic materials that absolutely ignored any kind of paranatural effect, defensive, offensive or otherwise.

And which detonated now right in the Furnace Knight's surprised, still-open maw.

Boldness, Ikarani Adept of the Temple Assassins, has awoken. She is looking around at the Aotrs base with an expression of fairly profound nervousness. It's not the nervousness of someone coming to grips with the idea that they are surrounded by the living dead - it's the nervousness of someone who has noticed that the sandbags covering their trench are filled with highly explosive fertilizer. "Azura's cold spit," she murmured to herself. "Are you sure about all this?"

*

The good news was that the Aotrs had literally decapitated the Azura leadership. It wouldn't stick, but regrowing an entire brain was always a bit of an ask. The last was seen of him was that his headless body was still going through combat motions, devoid of intelligent guidance, resulting in the forced relocation of the entire Goltir encampment. Nobody could risk getting close enough to him to try and heal him and so his headless body just whirled around striking at shadows while his brain slowly regrew.

*

On the other side, there was a problem with Lord Death Despoil. The Furnace Knight's strike had dealt a lot of damage on a lot of levels, but there was one particular malady that seemed stubbornly stuck at a spiritual level: the same curse that seemed to mark the souls of every citizen of the Endless Azure Skies. Its most obvious and dramatic symptom is the instant destruction of any electronic device that comes within ten feet of the Lichemaster.

The nature of the Curse is not hard to decode. It is written in the same style as the Lychmaster perceived in the Azura stars, and there is no doubt a connection between the two. At this distance the effect is mild - ambient mana and the Lichemaster's own reserves are converted to fuel its power, but it does this slowly and inefficiently. If exposed to the full light of a violet sun and the effects and range would increase exponentially.

The Curse's specific wording is is as follows:
"You will only have the sight of your own eyes,
The reach of your own hands,
The influence of your own voice.
All that which is beyond your reach will be beyond your grasp,
Until you are free from grasping."

How this manifests is a prohibition on various kinds of enhancements, magical and nonmagical, with a particular focus on communication and sensory enhancements. The Curse aggressively shuts down communication magic and signal technology, jams long range sensors and scrying, and causes computer technology to shatter apart in frankly worrying localized power surges. It doesn't interfere with the Gate spell whatsoever, and it does not interfere with future prediction, but if every Azura exists under this curse then their complete failure to use even basic sensor technology stands to reason. It would likewise be impossible to fabricate electronic components under these conditions.

*

Curiously, though, Boldness is not causing the same electronic detonations that the Lychemaster is. She's very clearly cursed in the same way he is but the ambient disruptive surges aren't occurring around her. She's still *deeply* worried about getting too close to any technology, though, seemingly expecting it to explode randomly at any moment.

Curses were almost always a branch of closely related magic to necromancy. So the Aotrs had a two millenia if experience with dealign with them, both in the creation, manipulation and removal of curses.

The first thing was simply to put the Lichemaster in a Null Magic zone (easily enough set up; the KPS Division in particular had a store of readily available places and the termite-mound-like Citidel had store room on store room of specialist equipment the High Command had reserved to hand fot their own use. (Foul Skream's personal stock of weapons among them.)

Once inside one, the curse simply couldn't function. That served as a stopgap measure, while the powers' curse experts were brought in.

The science of advanced curse removal ultimately came from the science of Necromancy.

Everything, in the necromantic sense, had a soul. In a non-necromantically scienticfic sense, "soul" in conversation referred only to the very large and obvious souls of sapient beings. Beneath that, even primitive necromancy could ascertain that sentinent animals had a soul. The layers beneath that only could be found when technology was advanced enough to reinforce magic with computer analysis. And, ultimately, EVERYTHING had a soul. Demons and creatures typically held to BE a physical manifestation of a soul did, in fact, have a nonmaterial soul. Nonsapient creatures had a soul. Machines had a soul. Objects had a soul. Each component of a machine or object had a soul; as did each molecule, atom, electron and quark down to the smallest discovered partical had it own microsoul, and so did every discharge or energy, every erg of reality. Because, in the end the soul was ultimately the very essence of the impression of something on the universe; a fundemental of any that could concievable exists and interact with the universe; the sum total of everything it ever did, thought or felt. A flame existed, so it had a soul. An atom existed, so its microsoul was the record of everything it had ever been part of.

Even with Aotrs magic and technology, the microsouls were completely beyond manipulation. But the fact that something as large and compartively obvious like a curse (detectable with even pre-industrial magic) had a soul, necromantically speaking, meant that it could, in fact, be isolated, no matter how deeply and conceptually intertwined with its subject it was, because it EXISTED.

As when it could be isolated, it could be dispelled - or in some cases, destroyed by main force.

The most advanced and difficult curse removal necessitated not the complex unpicking of the spell matix (or equivalent) of the curse, but isolating the curse, and simply hitting it from a metaphysical, conceptual tangent where it was, to the applied curse-breaking effect, metaphorically floating alone in nothing. This was incredibly difficult, even for Aotrs magic.

(Though it was grimly hypothesied that The Entity They Dared Not Name These Days could do it with a force analogous the the effect of shattering the strongest ever recorded curse (or any other supernatural effect) like a fragile glass scuplture hit by a super-giant black hole moving as near the speed of light...)

But, for EXACTLY this sort of occasion, the means did exist to do it. This was not the first time, nor would it likely be the last, that such an instance had happened.

The anti-informational nature of the curses made routine methods of scanning it difficult to impossible. But even that was, in the end, not an insummountable barrier. Technology worked perfectly fine in a Null-magic field, and specialist scanners and sensors built be their own unmagic field (like the SK-X-TN) existed, to function in extremely high magic regions. It was a case of acquiring one such system (the most easily accessible in the KPS Division's supplies), bringing it to the Lichemaster (or vice-versa) and then analysising - functionally doing an end-run around the curse's anti-information protocols. (If it had been (or was) sapient, the curse might have screamed in impotent frustration.)

Then it would be a case of simply determining how hard to hit it and what metaphysical angle to hit it from.

And, of course, in the analysis, to determine other counter-measures to apply, which would further be added to the Aotrs database for any similar occurances (and even now, the databases were being examined for previous similar occurances).

* * * * * * * * *

That the curse seemed to be powered from the effect on G-2679 and thus provided a "tame" star for further analysis was an additional boon. And, in addition, a useful test subject for targeting star-breaking weapons.

Apocalyptic weapons were not assets the Aotrs preferred to use. But they had them, in small number, in reserve. (Indeed, the presence of some of these weapons was about the only deterrent against threats such as the good-aligned Lazerblasters and even that was a knife-edge facade.) The Aotrs had had, in the course of so MANY centuries of adventures and history, cause to destroy a star only occasions which numbered in the low-single digits. But, like the greater gods they'd killed, they HAD done it. And those weapons were now being prepared. Some were not of Aotrs manufacture. 641 years of FTL-capable exploration had brought with it the loot of other technologies; some of it, at great expense or great luck, won from powers more advanced than they. The Harbingers, in particular, had a racial tendancy towards the exotic technology, and until the re-emergance of the Shardan, and the subtly-escalating terror of the Lazserblasters, the Harbingers had been the most advanced society known. The Strayvians, too, in particular had gone all-in on exotic weapons of mass destruction, but the Mad-Scientist approach had meant most of them had died with their one genius creator.

Destroying a planet was, ultimately, just a case of pumping enough energy into it until it exploded. This usually required a long and sustained attack. Modern capital ship energy weapons could theotheretically do it if they could have been fired continuously for long enough, but that was a barrier sufficient that even the Cybertanks (the most likely to use such weapons if given any chance) couldn't do it in practise.

(The first Lazerblaster supercruisers spotted in the mid 2310s were labelled "planet destroyers" simply because of the spinal-mount lazer cannon WAS powerful enough to blow a planet up in only hours with a sustained blast, though it was unclear whether they have actually ever done that instead of shoot each other. Now... Lord Death Despoil did not want to contemplate.)

Destroying a sun, then, was fundementally possible the same way, just on several orders of magnitude higher energy requirements. But it was far more feasible to use a weapon to set-up a destabilising effect on the fusion reaction through various means and ways, and use its own energy to destroy itself; something you couldn't do on most planets BECAUSE they didn't have enough energy.

Thus sun-killing was comparitively, less of a stretch that might be initially thought.

The most mobile star-killer the Aotrs had was a Harbinger device - a Spacial Splinter cannon. Spacial Splinter cannons, and their related cousins, the continuum crackers, worked in th very most basic of terms, by fundementally just putting large hole in the underyling fabric of reality and making things around it Not Exist Anymore because the laws of physics were broken. Continuum crackers were rather unsafe, with a tendancy for the effect to go out of-control and were alarmingly small enough to be seen on Harbinger combat robots on occasion. The spacial splinter cannon was "safer" but perhaps mostly so only in the sense that they were capital ship weapons, and as such the relative area they Made Not Exist anymore was proportionally smaller.

The particular one in question was the largest one the Aotrs had recovered - and it was still distressingly small for its capabilities. The power required for it, however, was entirely NOT small. Unlike the Harbingers, the Aotrs had to charge a massive series of batteries and capacitors to even get enough power to fire the thing. But when it could be fired, with the right settings and discharge time, it could break enough of reality in the core of a star to cause it to come apart. A very crude and brute-force approach, but it had worked the only previous time the Aotrs had to deploy it. (To destroy, as it happened, a star being used as an invasion gateway by an extra-reality alien power.)

While in theory, the weapon could be used as a normal anti-capital ship weapon, it was far too precious to be used as such. So the device was not permenantly mounted on a ship; it and its batteries were essentially towed into position for the specialist use. Currently, towing the bulky mass that resembled a space station (the weapon itself no larger than a standard capital battery) was a relatively trivial job for one of ten remaining Doomskrieg Supercruisers. One of the five Star Swampers (the biggest vessels ever built by the Aotrs) might have been a better choice, since they had even more powerful energy cores to help the charging process; but such vessels were so demanding on resources (especially if they got damaged) that they were all waiting the conversion to mobile shipyards over the next few decades.

The Doomskrieg itself, with an escort fleet, was preparing to head for G-2679 with the spacial splinter cannon array.

The other weapons were being readied.

* * * * * * *

In the meantime, the Crippling Glare continued its watch and the 4th Fleet was assembling to join it, now with confidence that they would emerge in the system at distances and positions the Azure Skies wouldn't be able to visually spot.

* * * * * * *

While none of the High Command were particularly adept medics, sheer osmosis over centuries meant they did have good enough grasp of first and second aid - enough to ensure Boldness was walking wounded, at any rate. She was thus given the brief, but very rare honour of seeing the High Command's personal chamber complex (starting with Lord Death Despoil's chamber office, where it turned out that they had been listening and had opened the Gate True from), as she was escorted out. Unlucky, recovering, explained that this was simply because the Citidel's depths could be... Rather dangerous to living creatures, since there were denizens that brooked no life. He accompanied her (with a couple of Defilers as additional escort) to a Gate room, and thense to a waiting Fettered Star and finally, a short FTL Gate-hop to one of Kalanoth's orbiting stations where she could be finally properly treated.

The 'proper' exit process from the Curse is relatively straightforwards: Renounce all ambition and personal desire. Straightforwards enough. The sort of thing that can be broken with time and resources: The Curse only has limited ability to gather information and a sufficiently realistic illusion/alternate reality can be woven to convince it that the Lichemaster has, in fact, given up on all worldly possessions and goals. Even with the Aotrs' resources/time displacement that will take about three months to set up and run through properly to the Curse's satisfaction. It is not the sort of process that scales up easily though. Each individual needs to be treated as a singular case. The idea of decontaminating an entire starship - let alone a planet - is cost prohibitive.

But there's one interesting catch beyond all that. One part of the Curse that simply can't be fooled due to it requiring verification from multiple distant sources. Lord Death Despoil has to renounce the power the Curse itself grants. That is the pivotal hinge upon which everything else rests.

And... that's not nothing. This Curse is essential to interaction with the the Violet Star Network. Giving it up means permanently closing the door on whatever power lies hidden within that strange megaproject. And there *was* power to be had there - if the Lychemaster could blow out a computer network from across the room with minimal mana investment, what must this be capable of when fully charged and weaponized? Those Curse Spikes the Azura were building around their base - right now those seem like planetary defense batteries, manufactured on location by low level soldiers using only the Curse they bring with them and the power harvested from their corrupted sun.

*

G-2679 dies.

Less than 4% of its surface was burning purple at the time of firing. Aotrs observers noted a change to its pattern when the Doomskreig warped into the system, and another one when it charged for firing. But then it explodes, placidly and without rancor.

*

The Crippling Glare observes something new: Azura ships arriving in system from FTL.

It's startlingly direct.

How their FTL system works is so: The spheres align into a perfect line, with a particularly large sphere at the front. And then they accelerate, using inertialess drive technology powered by violet starlight, past lightspeed. They do not warp into any adjacent dimensions or transfer to hyperspace or anything so sensible. They simply accelerate across the void, smashing through anything in their way. A combination of armour and singularity shielding is applied against these impacts - the lead sphere in the formation is specially armoured so that it can absorb the damage of crossing the void in this way.

The end result is that when the Azura ships drop out of FTL they're sometimes in awful shape. It's a brutal way to fly through space: hyperdrive without a computer. But it does have the advantage of being fast - it's not the fastest you can get without Gate travel, but it's well above average - and it requires very little spool up/cooldown time. They are also likely capable of in-combat 'Microjumps' - or, rather, bull rushes. It is also theoretically possible to establish slipways - 'clean' pathways between stars, likely using deep space gate complexes. Those would allow rapid redeployment without the risk of damage.

Whenever the ships arrive they immediately turn their attention towards repairs. Many of them join formation in Tanshin III's asteroid belt where they begin harvesting and repair operations in earnest.

One last observation: in place of scanners, the Azura seem to have incredibly good divination. Right when the Fourth Fleet is due to arrive in the system the Azura warspheres will be arrayed in perfect combat formation, all facings correct, all weapons ready. This readiness is related specifically to the moment combat is due to start - fakeouts, indecisiveness, random number generators and other attempts to confuse the issue have no purchase on Azura divination. They are blind, but never surprised.

*

Boldness is almost recovered entirely before she's off the station. Inherent to her biology is a baseline regeneration that rapidly recovers even from even major injuries. Half an hour after being put close to death she's back at full shape and full of questions. How do the teleporters work? How does being undead work? Aren't you afraid those computers will explode? Where are your Knights? Is the Crimson Goddess scary? Hey, so when can I get back to killing the Furnace Knight? She absorbs knowledge from even half answers like a sponge, intellect relentlessly craving new information. It's hard to learn more from her than she is learning in exchange.

There was definitely no question of using the "proper" method. Lord Death Despoil had far more demands on his time than just the Azure Skies, and three months was too much. (The renoucing of the power would not even have been a moment's hesitation, of course. Anything that demanded a loss of information was never, ever worth any kind of power.)

Instead, the Lichemaster - still in a null-magic field and turning his attention mostly back to those matters which did not need magical attention (of which there were many - redeployed to the KPS Division station around Nestrotar, where the curse-smasher operations were being prepared.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Captain Whisperbleed shook her head, looking over the data on the Auzre Skies' FTL. "I'm not sure whether to be impressed or laugh."

Ensign Krelliac looked up from what their screen. "Ma'am?" they ventured curiously.

"They accelerate on sublight - must be magical compenstation for the time dialation - and just... ram through what they hit. I can't decide if I'm impressed that they can withstand those sort of impacts or laugh that they're so bad they actually unintentionally HIT something in SPACE."

Krelliac, shook their head, still keeping an eyeglow on the hlem, though they were completely stationary. "If they can tank FTL collisions, they must be using the smae sort of relativitic compensation as our railguns... Go faster, but not actually hit anything like infinite energy. Even so, they can't be hitting anything big or..."

"Or the same thing would happen as if we hit a full-velocity railgun at a planet." Starship weapons generally had to be eased DOWN from full power when hitting the surface; while actually blowing a planet up ws one thing, the amount of baleful energy required to deal devastation on a global level was considerably less. A railgun sluh hitting the atmosphere could deal incredible devastation... By the fact it would basically atomise with the heat. "Unless they reduce their effective mass enormously, but that doesn't gel with their make-it-so-we're-falling gravity..."

"And thus we're left with they must be hitting glancing blows on something and bouncing off with the shields... But it's still sort of impressive they are so bad at navigation they are hitting things."

Krelliac was quiet for a moment, and Whisperbleed could also see the thoughtful glow of the little wight's eyeglows.

"Maybe they have to. Maybe, since they have to use a G-Well to get most of their maneouvre, right, so maybe they have to point directly at a G-Well they can't see very well and practically run into it by default. They might even be navigating by divination alone, and you know how dubious that can be."

"Huh," Whisperbleed nodded to herself. "Yeah, you could be right. Still, it will be interesting to see how they react to a railgun slug."

"Speaking of..." She said. She was looking at the main command display. Essentially, it was a large hologram table, projecting a 3D view. To the eye of the uninitated, it looked like a giant computer game. All the ships appeared to be relatively close together, all with little lines and other data appended to them. But this was no graphics, but real-time images of the outside. All the vessels and points of interested were dynamically scaled, vastly exaggerating their proportional size to the empty void so as to be clearly seen. This was quite possible, given the huge distances in space. The normal combat seperation of an Aotrs fleet squadron was around 70 to 80 thousand kilometers. At that size, even the giant Star Swampers would be all but invisible to the naked eye or eyeglow. Magnified by three orders of magnitude or so, the spacing naturally gravitated to one that resembled models on a table or in a game. When vessels actually DID get relativisticlly close to each other, the display automatically proportionally scaled them, tinting the readouts slightly, red-shifting the desingation/name bars the closer they got.

Likewise, this game-like UI was not entirely a co-cidence, since it was realised by the time the Aotrs had FTL, that fictional gaming had already worked out the best ways to deliver the same sort of information for so many decades prior.

Now, the solar system view showed the arrival of the 4th Fleet - or at least a notable fraction of it. The the six-mile super-cruiser Doomskrieg Treek-kaa was prominently absent, for it would have dwarfed all the other vessels, even with the proportional scaling. But a very sizable task force, a hundred and fifty ships, including the Crypt Bearers Troop Transports and the other ancillery vessels. They emerged as a group 35 AU out, in the fringes of the ice-asteroid belt* around the extremities of the solar system.

There, most of the fleet would stay, with the actual combat force making Gate jumps closer in. (A wise commander understood you never used more than around a third of your forces in actual combat, since the other would be resting or repairing.)

For the moment, the fleet held position, assessing what the Azure Skies vessels were doing.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Unlucky cheerfully answered Boldness' questions (or at least the commonly known broad explanations). Boldness seemed taken aback when he explained that they had no "knights," at least not in the sense she probably meant (the pre-industrial forces, granted, had - and still did, when required - mounted soldiers in full plate, but chivalry and the like had never been even on the table back in the day for the Aotrs.)

Computers didn't explode because the Aotrs considered trading away a practical tool to be blinded to be idiotic. (Unlucky's bias' might have been showing, just a little.) As Unlucky pointed out, they lived in an extremely dangerous universe, and reliance on heavily magical effects or even exotic technologies left you tremendously vulnerable as and when someone developed the counter. There was, ultimately, a certain elegance in the comparitively mundane (since, he explained by analogy, a vibrosword turned off was still a vibrosword)... At least until the point sheer technological enhancement contained so many checks and balances. Which, the Aotrs were painfully aware, was not a place they were quite in yet. But even so, today's Fireball was not the same spell as he used when he first learned. The science of magic had refined it and optimised it, so that it used less mana and scaled better and contained not a few inherent dispel-resistances. What could be acheived by a digital spell-caster, capable of running complex calculations through a computer brain, could achieve a level of complexity that not even Lord Death Despoil could master. But such casters were extremely rare and the Aotrs had none on the strength level of the High Command to be able to leverage that ability very usefully.

"Even Shardan and Lazerblasters don't seem have many casters strong enough to do that and they SCARY enough with technology."

Unlucky went on to explain the Aotrs were not beholden to any goddesses and were, in fact entirely secular. They had fought gods, had a few demigods beholden to the power and even fewer divine casters of gods from outside it, but they did not have any of their own. And, he added, they'd managed really quite nicely without them. So, there was no Crimson Goddess, not in the manner he expected she meant, but if she would clarify...

As to when the went back to killing the Furnace Knight...

"We not get to this stage without being careful and deliberate. First encounter caught us off guard. That not happen all that often, but it make us even more careful. We will get back to killing him, but Aotrs have learned that best practise... Only ever pick fight you can win.

And, with proper preparations, we intend to win this one..."

*["Ice Asteroid Belt" being the Aotrs terminology for "Kuiper belt." 35 AU is a little bit inside the average orbit of Pluto, so well outside the orbits of the four planets which are in the habitable zone.]

AOTRS Signals Intelligence has a clear line on inter-ship Azura communication, and there is a lot of it. There are elements of at least ten distinct commanders and their personal fleets here. Even with the pre-battle tension boarding pods can be observed launching between various command ships - and soon enough the distinct commanders are down to seven. Due to the lack of primary weapons fire in these conflicts, these are likely honour duels rather than outright assaults. Rapidly emerging as supreme commander is a figure referred to as the Generous Knight.

In terms of sheer tonnage the Azura ships have around a 40% weight advantage on the 4th Fleet. In terms of sheer numbers the edge is more dramatic: three hundred ships are present, though the emphasis is heavily on destroyer or corvette sized ships. Despite the weight advantage, projections still marginally favour the Aotrs in this engagement due to the individually lower capabilities of the Azura ships.

The line of battle is thus:
Corvettes: Weapons platforms. These are fast moving, highly maneuverable, and ridiculously overgunned for their weight, essentially being free-floating gun or torpedo platforms. They have neither engine nor defensive systems, drawing power and propulsion from the Cruisers. Armament is primarily kinetic or explosive, with energy weapons a rarity.
Destroyers: Brawlers. These are extremely heavily armoured bulwarks that are placed in the vanguard. No serious armaments are detected but they're designed to take a punch and maybe launch a boarding action. Many of these also act as launch points for fighter and bomber squadrons.
Cruisers: Support. These are massive violet fusion reactors and gravity wells that serve to provide power and propulsion to nearby Azura craft. While they are at first glance the weak point in the formation, they trade all offense for additional armour. A small number of cruisers are outfitted instead with massive energy weapons instead of a support field, but these are noticeably older than the majority of the fleet.
Battleships: Defensive Fortresses and battlefield control. There are only ten ships in this weight class - one per admiral - huge and bulky things covered in massive emitter dishes, and containing violet fusion reactors. These are expected to have some role in defending vulnerable gun platforms, perhaps being a central shield emitter. It is also expected that these ships could reconfigure their defensive shielding into an extreme range gravitational pulse - an artillery weapon to soften up an enemy fleet outside of normal engagement range.
Carriers: The Azura do not seem to have a dedicated large carrier role, with launch functions operating at the Destroyer role.
Irregulars: A number of asteroids have been harvested from Tanshin III's rings and outfitted with slapdash gravitational drives. Despite their skeleton crews these rocks seem to have full maneuverability, and have interposed themselves throughout the formation as ablative armour for critical ships. Though unarmed, they do present a ramming threat.
Logistics: The Azura logistics swarm is a collection of yellow-painted vessels, in marked contrast to the various shades of blue used amongst the main fleet element. The basic configuration for these ships is 'fast and small', designed for resupplying corvettes under fire. The Azura corvettes use solid projectile weapons and so a large amount of excess ammunition needs to be kept on hand.
Troop Transports: These are very similar in size and scope to destroyers - heavily armoured, virtually unarmed - indicating that bombardment does not play a role in Azura planetary assault doctrine. The main difference between a Transport and a destroyer is that their launch bays are optimized for capacity rather than rapid re-arming.

The overall impression is that the Azura fleet is oddly undergunned for its size and weight. It is fast, evasive and tough, but its damage output is oddly low. There is a large focus on ordinance - torpedoes, boarding and launch craft - as the primary combat arm, with beam weaponry seemingly considered obsolete. The earlier observation of the Azura ships being like modules of a single large starship that fights in a disassembled state seems accurate at a fleet level.

*

Boldness processes all this new information voraciously. She's particularly excited by the theological discussion.

"Azura is the goddess of all that is," she said, "Ferno is the goddess of all that is not. Goltir is the goddess of knowing which is which. Because you exist outside the light of the Endless Azure Skies you're children of the Crimson Goddess - that's what that means. It means that you are excluded from true power but are unbound by true law."

She tells the legend of a great Shah at the height of galactic power. He desired something more grand to commemorate his reign than a tomb, ship, or conquest and so he decided to write his own name into the laws of physics themselves. His gift was Gravity - the universal connector, bound into service and enslaved to the Azura. Civilization reached even greater heights.

His successor, naturally, sought to do the same thing. She, too, broke open the heavens and rewrote the laws of reality. This time she encoded her laws: The Azure Code, that the virtuous might always triumph over the wicked. And so the Endless Azure Skies grew so great that they eclipsed the galaxy.

"We had computers then, of course. Half a galaxy bound together in a web of data. But our society had become wicked and oppressive, a thing of machines and chains and the slavery of the mind. And so the Saoshyant cracked open the vault of the heavens one final time and wrote into the laws of reality the Curse. And so we were made blind, and fell into a state of peace. Our machines went silent but our civilization prospered and was free."

"The Furnace Knight is of the old tyrants. He seeks [redemption] for the Curse - that means, he intends to overthrow the Saoshyant and return the Endless Azure Skies to the heights of power - to its era of expansionism and endless war. And so I, and my three sisters, were sent to kill him."

She leaned forwards, eyes shining brilliantly. "You cannot kill him through strength, stratagem or spellwork. The Azure Code will not permit it; as long as one star in our Sky burns so will he. He can only be undone in accordance with the Codes; his immortality is premised on law and through law it must be undone. He must be forsaken by his servants. He must turn his blade against the trusted friend who stood by him to the end. And then he must lose in honourable single combat against one of pure heart. Only then will his power be broken."

"So!" she said brightly. "Not nearly undoable. My sisters are specialized for the required roles. But if we do it alone it's a twenty year job with a ten percent success rate, so I'd really appreciate the help."

Unlucky shook his head.

"Crazy to give up on computing. No amount of power worth it in lieu; magic and technology not opposing forces. Better computers mean better magic - better targeting. Divniation only goes so far - you e amazed how many creatures be flat-out immune to divination - and magic also relatively susceptible to disruption. Especially if running into power that has more scientifically advanced magic achieved through application of technology, since part of advanced magic, like all other technology, there is interplay and increasing complexity. Comes a point where... You just can't do sums; have to have computer to do complicated work. You need to be able to understand the maths to make the most refined spells. There a functional complexity limit to what, fundementally, analogue magic can do. Just like Foul Skream, 'bout best engineer and craftslich we have - while really, really good... He still can't make weapons to atomic-level tolerances without having computers - him just doesn't have capability to see or control fine enough.

"It like souls. Most pre-industrial magic societies think souls are things only sapient/sentient - maybe sophont, if you like... People-things have. But... That not true. Everything have soul, ultimately, but non-people souls... It like they be mystical equivalent of atoms. Can't SEE non-person soul without metaphorical equivalent of electron microscope (me assume you must have something that). And if you keen enough into necromancy to actually be looking for it in first place.

"Lord Death Despoil and Foul Skream both they say ulimately, everything numbers. Even things you think don't have numbers, like feelings, all that mean is that you just don't have way to work out what numbers are.

"Theorhetical exercise. If you could compare all your feelings across all you life to each other, weigh each moment of feeling and compare, like looking between to pages of book. At some point, there would be when you felt happiest and some point you felt unhappiest. And right there? You have a SCALE. A relative scale, but a scale. And ultimately, is that not what all units are? A relative scale decided by somewhat arbitary decision for comparison?

"And if you could manage to make good enough analytical tool, maybe you can start to measure QUANTITY of feeling. How much do truly love that thing or person compared to the next, when the sum total of all you actual experiences of every moment with them ir thinking about them are weighed against each other?

"That sort of thing still very impossible for us. But, critically, that not mean that those numbers are not still THERE, just because we can't know what they are - or perhaps for most mortals don't want to know.

"So, yes, everything ultimately, come down to numbers. And computers still best things for doing maths. So eventually, you either USE computer... Or you have to BECOME computer. Otherwise... You no better than pre-magic, pre-technology tribesman against civilisation. You left behind, you go extinct.

"Lichemaster, it quite possible there something... Else, beyond paranatural and mundane that make all our magic and powered technology both as outdated as sticks and fire. There enough outside context problems around - that is remotest possibility of even ONE - that giving up on one way to ascend to that level just, like me say... Crazy."

* * * * * * * * * * *

Fleet Admiral Velinkar examined the data. The lich began to prioritise targets. Guns off the field - take out the weakest targets first. In this case, that would be the Corvettes. Aotrs starships were one of the hardier fleets around in the galaxy; so if they could attrite away their offensive capabilities, it seemd quite possible the Aotrs could simply tank the limited damage and whittle away the Azure Skies. Especially with the former's lack of energy weapons.

He was not overly concerned with the larger vessels design to ram, like the asteroids. Ramming with a capital starship by its very absolute nature, meant that you had to fly on a predictable course, because you had to hit a target. If the target wasn't so much bigger than you (like a missile or GT suicide shuttle trying to ram a big starship) that you couldn't afford to jink and vary your position as much. A fighter or missile could move around many times its own volume and still be on target to be able to hit SOME part of the target. A captial starship trying the same thing couldn't, which meant, perforce, they had to fly on a more predicatble course to make a ramming attempt and that meant you got shot more easily. (And if you missed...)

But if you did hit a starship with another starship, given the enormous velocities involved, the most likely result of two things hitting each other and significant fractions of the speed of light was the instant destruction of both. But the Azure Skies vessels seemed to be able to ram things and not die... Which, by simply laws of physics said they must have some form of inertial compensation which would have to work against the attempt to ram itself.

Smaller boarding pods, of course, stood much better chances of working - the Aotrs own Fallen Soul was, after all, designed to ram into a starship; but again, to do so the AFVs actually had to do so from comparitively slow speeds, certainly much slower than the ones they used to actually get into relativistic distances. (In the same way fighters couldn't actually strafe a capital ship unless they were fairly close in speed, lest they simply fly past faster than any mortal and immortal could react.)

The first order of buisness, then, was to ascertain what kind of range the Azure Skies had, and how quickly they could adjust it. While the had, by nature, to have speeds greater than the Aotrs to be able to fly FTL in normal space (and arrive between star systems in a non-generational time frame), how able they were to change direction at that speed - especially further out from the gravity well - was a good question.

The admiral ordered four squadrons of fighters to readiness - one Foul Wing squadron and two Crater Squdrons, with a squadron of Apparitions for top cover, all with standard load-outs. He gave order for them to micro-jump to the orbit of Tanshin I. If the the Azure Skies dodn't respond, the fighters would be able to make some close scans of the surface and the source of the distress beacons. If they did respond, what they committed and how would tell him a great deal. For one, if they persisted in fighting in a relativistically close big cluster, like a giant bait-ball of fish, the Aotrs fleet could disperse into packets and snipe from significant distances and retreat while the Azure Skies tried to chase them down. Velinkar didn't expect that, of course, but it was a possibility.

He ordered the fighters to make their Gate jump.

The initial reaction is slow. The Azura fleet is still embroiled in its own leadership struggle and are unresponsive while this occurs. After several hours command has finally centralized around the leadership of the Generous Knight and the fleet finally begins organizing itself.

Several operations begin at once. The bulk of the fleet, still in formation, moves into the Tanshin III asteroid belt. Grav-drives are produced from storage ships and placed around large asteroids to supplement the Azura irregular force, while at the same time mining operations begin to cut out durable materials to repair ships damaged from FTL collisions. Their ships are evidently designed to efficiently integrate raw minerals directly into their structure - the minerals seem to 'melt' into the joins. After the immediate damage is repaired then the operations will shift to upgrades and cleanup, smoothing away sharp edges to create more spherical shapes and somehow performing 'in flight' metallurgy, concentrating power and materials to turn sections of raw ores into complex composites. The fleet spreads out significantly as it does this, drawing in a variety of valuable asteroids.

From observing the fleet maneuvers, more caution than usual should be taken with regards to the threat of ramming from the Azura asteroids. The grav-drive seems to allow for precision maneuverability at (sublight) speed, much more than a conventional drive, particularly within the area of a gravity well. Sensors also detect high explosives in some of the asteroids, meaning that they could detonate into shrapnel storms. This still does not make them truly effective weapons in isolation, but they have a distinct harassment or area denial role as part of a combined arms assault, and they are evidently extremely cheap for the Azura to produce.

There is a flurry of signals activity following the Gate jump of the fighters. The instantaneous nature of the transit seems to have startled the Azura commander, who orders the fleet briefly back into a defensive posture while they consider the danger. Shuttles fly back and forth between capital ships. Soon after, repair and supply operations are recommenced, but the patrol patterns are changed significantly, to better account for the possibility that an enemy arrives from an unexpected angle with little warning.

Finally, after many hours of delay, a reconnaissance force is put together to contest Tanshin I. Two carrier destroyers are selected for the task, each predicted to carry two fighter wings - a proportionate response. They leave the fleet formation and dip down closer to the gas giant, circling the planet sharply in low orbit until they arrive at the planet's south pole before engaging their FTL. The maneuver is clumsy, the ships bringing themselves to a staggering halt almost in atmosphere. Once they have righted themselves into low orbit - evidently their favoured orbital position - both ships then begin deploying fighter screens.

The destroyers also launch a number of unguided torpedoes - practically balls of pure plasma explosives. The fighters seem to catch these explosives in tractor beams and drag them into rapid orbit of their ships where they can be corralled by gravity drives. Rather than having dedicated bomber craft, the Azura have free-flying explosives that are shepherded to their targets by their fighter craft. Once the fighters have launched they begin to move to engage the Aotrs ships, followed at a medium distance by their carriers.

*

With unopposed command over Tanshin I's skies, the Aotrs scouting crew is able to identify the nature of the situation. The starships were a mining and trade fleet operated by an avian species called the Alcedi, several technology levels below Aotrs standard but just on the brink of being dangerous. Fifty years ago they identified numerous bunkers on the surface of Tanshin I containing extremely valuable relics - the kind of thing that would draw the eye of even Aotrs high command. However when they attempted to breach these bunkers their ships were attacked by hidden automated planetary defense batteries and strange biological starships began arriving in system on attack vectors. The surviving Alcedi withdrew rapidly, leaving the treasure waiting below.

*

The final thing that happens during this period is a small, unarmed yellow-marked ship leaves the main fleet and approaches the Aotrs flagship, firing a massive signal banner into the void ahead of it. Translated, it reads "The Order of Goltir, in the interests of historical preservation, seeks audience with your admiral that the battle might be recorded, her likeness painted, and the historic context of this conflict properly understood for posterity."

*

Boldness nods, quietly but with determined interest. "There are people like that in the Skies," she said. "The Order of Goltir. Scientists, technologists, trying to distill the galaxy into sums and numbers. And they've been stalled out. For centuries."

She leans back, spreading her hands expansively. "The Skies are big. They've conquered a lot. And most of those conquered say the exact same thing you just told me: We can solve the riddle of the stars, overthrow the power of the knights, ascend to supernal heights, and so on. In fact, we must reach that state as quickly as possible as it is the only way to ensure against outside context threats. It's a fair assessment, built on an observable reality of mass extinction events. It's possible the Skies, too, are doomed to entropy; failing to Ascend they will fall. Perhaps the Crimson Goddess will make herself manifest, as you said, and all our magic and powered technology will be for nothing."

"The Shahs of the Endless Azure Skies, I think, would argue differently. They would say that a stable equilibrium is superior, that the material is to be exalted. They would argue that the ideal is a sustainable rule, internally consistent and eternally strong. They would gesture at the civilizations that have ascended to that supernal level - where are they now? The Harbringers are gone. Their relics abound but they themselves have vanished so totally that it is only ideology that suggests their departure was a good thing. What if the path of progress leads you to the same vanished place, retroactively eradicated from the galaxy? What if knowing what they knew leads you inevitably to the same end as them? What if raising your head to that level makes you a target for greater predators still?"

"The Endless Azure Skies, then, represents an attempt to build a sustainable society just below the level of ascension. Large enough and potent enough to engage anything short of the Harbringers themselves, while having guidelocks to prevent it from slipping over the line into supernal irrelevance by mistake. Bodhisattva who turned back from the threshold of enlightenment. Big fish in a small pond."

Unlucky regarded her a moment steadily.

"Where are they now?"

He wordless handed her a datapad, bringing up a galatic map, highlighting the planets Kethrain and Lazers.

"That where they are now.

"Right there, those two worlds, and on a ten-thousand mile long starship that finally managed to get cloaked we have no idea where is.

"The Shardan, the Lazerblasters... They both already exceeded the Harbingers in everything but size. Both post-scarity. Both have magic and technology and psionics. And both only the size they are because for different reasons, they CHOOSE not to be bigger.

"It also not seem like co-incidence that both powers are fully or partial technological.

"Shardan are scary enough, but they fundementally peaceful and good-aligned and they an elder race, maybe oldest surviving one, and they get were they are over long time.

"Lazerblasters?

"Aotrs are AFRAID of Lazerblasters. Liches are AFRAID of Lazerblasters.

"Why? Because Lazerblasters got there from essentially nothing in under two decades.

"Make no mistake, Boldness, galaxy and universe as we know it basically only continue to exist as it do because Lazerblasters so new a species that even THEY only starting to understand what they could do.

"In their case, it so subtle a danger, it took us years to figure it out and not even sure THEY did yet. Lazerblaster technology spiralled up at exponential rate during twenty or so years of their factional war. And, when Manual Fighter faction started decisively winning; when Blastaron faction no longer pushing them and vice versa? Their technology advancement plateaued.

"And, few years after that, when we finally realise this? We realise how dangerous they are. As if someone else comes along or war re-starts and pushes them again? They go right back to exponential growth.

"And me point at this stage, Blastarons ALREADY made their own entire dimension - something that has been me goal almost me entire life," Unlucky sounded more than a little bitter, "and Manual Fighters destroyed it almost as quick. Aotrs have killed gods before, with planning, preparation and lots of resources, as a power. Lazerblasers have, on at least one recorded occasion killed gods, in PERSONAL COMBAT."

"They already an out-of-context problem, and the only thing stopping them as that THEY not have realised that yet.

"We think.

"We hope.

"So this is not hypothetical problem. The glass ceiling right there, where all galaxy can see it, looming threat across us all, which appeared, with no warning, barely four decades ago."

"And does that," said Boldness slowly, "sound sustainable to you?"

She waved a hand, "I mean, I'm an assassin, not a space historian, but the Shardan seem like overwhelmingly strong evidence for the position of the Skies - in fact, I'm pretty sure the Skies had contact with them before the Sequestering. They subsequently rededicated their society towards sustainability. The only difference is that while they went tall, retreating to a single planet... the Endless Azure Skies went wide. And the - the 'Laser blasters'? Do you really think they'll still be around in another twenty years? From what I'm seeing here the goal is just to avoid getting caught in the blast radius when they inevitably collapse or ascend."

"After all, consider what that power and technological level means. What if you had the power to make every member of your civilization the equal in power to Lord - Death Despoil, am I pronouncing that right? - to Lord Death Despoil? Old systems of control break down. Loyalty based on shared interest ceases to mean anything. A disgruntled provincial administrator can alter the laws of reality. The only thing that can keep society at that point from collapsing is absolute consensus. The Shardan opted to form that consensus democratically, the Skies do so through a ceiling on individual power. Would your civilization survive if it feared nothing and wanted for nothing?"

"Sustainable?" Unlucky regarded Boldness with a raised eyebrow. "Will they be around in twenty years?

"You asking wrong questions. As they exist, will WE be around in twenty years?

"Hell, they this close," he held his fingers a millimetre apart "to achieving eusocial hive-mind that not actually being hive-mind. You wrap your head around that? Me can't, not really.

"To all every analysis we make, we draw the same conclusion. They ultimately have no limits.

"They not care about the heat death of the universe, because we pretty sure that, right NOW, they already be able to stop it.

"Universe eventually not big enough? They just make more of it.

"The reach top of metaphorical tech tree? They hack into metaphorical game code and write theyselves more tech tree.

"They whole species have only two factions. Only TWO. One good, one evil, and that one now decisively losing. They have no civilians, no neutrals, no 'only concerned about they own lives'. They united in their purposes by their nature in ways Aotrs have taken millennia to achieve.

"So no. They not going to self-destruct. Even if they did, the blast radius be exceeding size of all observable realities. There no avoiding that.

"You say you people is wanting to make eternal equilibrium. How YOU stop heat death on universe? Because equilibrium only ever a temporary state. Species with short lives see nature as balance, because they not see change over decades or hundreds of years, don't live long enough to realise there is no 'balance,' there is only catastrophy curve which life dance on. Nothing truly remain same for ever. You not advance, expand and adapt... You go extinct.

"Aotrs always adapt, improve, move onwards. If we ever want to get to point where WE can be out-of-context problem, we have to, and hope that we can kick enough other runners in shins to make sure we get there FIRST.

"We already beat death, biggest foe to living creatures, did we not? Time not an enemy to use, neither, and we even could beat gods if we tried hard enough.

"Lazerblasters - and to lesser extent, Shardan - were galactic wake-up call, and for us most of all. Reminder to us that we get cocky. We start to think, we getting edge, because we outpaced majority of known galaxy; that because Harbingers ensured nearly all species and cultures had similar lead-up time, that we had leveraged our advantages to get ahead of most of pack, and were catching up to front-runners.

"We wrong.

"Lazerblasters and Shardan we no do nothing about now, except hope.

"But they not even only knife-edge threat. What about Cybertanks? If them ever culturally shift so that they not be so paranoid and go on full-blown crusade with all strength? They could come out with billions of starships. They could field fleets orders of magntitude greater than us - or anybody else, save perhaps Lazerblasters in push state - and our magic and technological advantage then ultimately mean nothing.

"And that is why Aotrs will never give up any tool, be it magic or computers or whatever, for stasis, for a fixed stopping point. We want to WIN, and we don't win by stopping, because we know that other players in this ultimate game of reality won't."

* * * * * * * * * * *

"They want what," Fleet Admiral Velinkar repeated in disbelief.

"They want an audience, do draw a picture and to record the battle. I think. As observers, maybe?"

Velinkar blinked his eyeglows. From all observed and reported so far, she was reasonably convinced the Azure Skies were not trying some blatently apparent ploy to get people inside the ship to spy or assassinate him. He thought, given their obsession with homour, they were quite daft enough to be genuine about it, especially since they likely had no actual proper sensors or data-recording devices.

Lady Axea would take a vow of chasity before Velinkar allowed that to happen, of course.

Especially when he was trying to run a war.

He debated ignoring them entirely, but he was just slightly petty enough to have a better idea.

He grabbed him scanner and slipped into the corridor outside to a stretch of featureless wall and took a selfy of himself (in a pose that was only moderately silly, with a little illusionary enhancement for some extra glowing gravitas).

Stepping back in, he turned to his aide, shunting him the image.

"Right, have that printed out in hardcopy. Put it in a little box and Gate XXV it to their ship with a little note to say that I sned my apologies, but I'm rather busy, but here is a nice picture they can draw from. Assure them that the Aotrs will absolutel be recording the entire engagement for posterity as we always do, and that after the battle, we will be quite prepared to share with them the record of their resounding defeat with the survivors.

His aide allowed himself a small snort of amusement.

"Given the communications tech, they probably couldn't hear us we sent normal communications anyway."

"Exactly."

* * * * * * * * * * *

Over Tanshin I, thirty-six Aotrs fighters and fighter cruisers were closing in towards the enemy, as the approached into the 100 000 kilomiter maximum warhead range of the approaching enemy ships.

"Venom and Vile squadrons," Venom 1, the lead Crater transmitted to both six-strong Crater squadrons. "Pick your targets and start with the Harpies. Krallast," he addressed the Foul Wings "fire at will. Bloodghost," the Appraritions "cover us."

"Krallast 5 to Venom 1. Permission to take a shot at those tractored explosives."

"Granted Krallast 5." Venom 1 agreed - it was a worth a shot to see if they could blow them up prematurely.

The range indicator ticked down and into effective range...

"You say you beat death?" said Boldness, changing tack suddenly. "I don't think you did. I think that you're its slaves. I think that it frightens you, that extinction frightens you, that you're so desperate to avoid it that you live every moment of your lives in fear. You can observe the monsters moving in the deep and can't pull your eyes away. For every entity that dies before you, you can justify saying that you are still here, that we outlasted those people, what is right matters less than who is left. You are terrified that someone might look down at the grave of your civilization and say the same thing. It is a very... organic motivation. Very quaint!"

She leaned to the side, smiling brightly. "I'm not like that. I know what the meaning of life is: to kill the Furnace Knight. That's what's at the ticking center of my biology, and I could hang alongside the Skies if I saw that come to pass. So from my perspective, all that fear over survival just seems so... stressful. You'll have that itch inside you scratching away for as long as time remains. Even if you ascend to the greatest heights of glory and power, surpass the Lazerblasters, render the galaxy your toy, you will still not feel safe or satisfied. The Crimson Goddess will still be there always, whispering: is there a threat outside of this context still? So you will build higher and higher trying to get ahead of threats that only exist in your imagination, conjuring ever greater nightmares while existing in constant terror that your nightmares are not awful enough. As long as that survival impulse is there in your biological cores then it will be your torment because no matter what you do you can never truly prove the negative of your own death."

She closed her brilliant owl eyes for a moment and let out a calm breath. But when she opens her eyes again there is the gleam you're increasingly coming to associate with obsession.

"The Furnace Knight has a meaning too: galactic conquest. The dedication of new stars and systems to the Skies. Once the last star in the heavens falls before him then he can finally stop, and not before. In a practical sense, I think he's doomed to just as much suffering as you are because his goal is just as unobtainable. But were he to achieve it, he would be free from fear at last."

*

The Azura fighters continue ahead at full speed directly into the path of the warheads. For many long seconds they continue, seemingly unaware of the missiles hurtling towards them - and then, too late, they begin evasive action. The ability of the ships to change direction while not losing speed is unreal - an Azura fightercraft can go from full speed forwards to full speed backwards in less than a second, apparently without inflicting any sort of G-forces on the pilots inside. Their maneuvers, though, go from graceful to panicked when the guided Aotrs missiles adjust speed and angle to track them. Some of the ships start opening weapons ports, long black curse spikes emerging from those smooth spherical surfaces. When they do their speed and maneuverability drops substantially, making their attempts to jink even more doomed.

One of the missiles strikes an Azura plasma torpedo as its disoriented fighter escort abandons it. It detonates spectacularly, erupting into a massive cascade of burning plasma fire. A few moments later another missile closed into range with one of the Azura fighters. The curse spike flickered, glowed -

And, with the firing of the ELectromagnetic Flux a lot of Azura decision making finally starts to make sense.

Every radar, every scanner, every rangefinder, every sensor, either goes dark or goes wild. The sky is full of heat signatures. Space is comprised entirely of lead and uranium. Radio blasts out endless, pointless static. Magical scanners shut down. Even external visual cameras simply go black. It's the most comprehensive, overwhelming jamming attack possible. It attacks every spectrum at once, and the range is enormous. The entire planetary hemisphere is rendered into a vast data null-zone. A cloaking field as an explosion. The only things that function is outright visual data from the mark one eyeglows of Aotrs pilots, including visual telescoping effects.

And what that visual data will show, to anyone watching now or later: Every missile is snapped out of the sky by brilliant bolts of electricity fired from the Azura curse spikes. The interception rate is perfect; one notable ship shoots down five individual warheads in five seconds.

The only thing that prevents this from becoming an immediate operational catastrophe is the Azura failure to follow through. Their pilots were as unfamiliar with Aotrs technology as the reverse, and they misinterpreted the Aotrs missiles as something their weapons would be unprepared to deal with. A lack of centralized Azura command-and-control makes the realization of this fact slow to disseminate, resulting in a fragmented offensive action - some of the Azura ships advance aggressively while the others are still rallying.

The ships that do close the distance then turn this same weapon on the Aotrs fighter craft to dramatic effect. The range of the ELF weapon is short, but once it is reached the tracking and accuracy is perfect. A direct strike will burn out every computer system on board, often via dramatic explosions. Further, the power drain effect will stun or incapacitate the pilot and flatten any batteries aboard the ship. The first wave of Azura fighters leave derelict, lifeless vessels in their wake, and the second wave executes the paralyzed ships by guiding their detached torpedo munitions directly into them.

But, if any of the Aotrs pilots has the skill or inclination to engage in a dogfight, they'll find their coldbeams to be satisfyingly effective against Azura armour. Likewise, while the spheres are eye-wateringly maneuverable, they have lower top speeds than Aotrs craft, especially in combat mode.