The Aotrs fighters, still at the limit of their range, accelerated from their near-stop and sharply pulled up with a significant amount of swearing. Only three Foulwings brushed close enough in the fractions-of-a-second they began to change direction to be taken out; the others, having accelerated at maximum, didn't come into the range of their own guns, let alone the Azura's. Now not even remotely close to dogfighting speed, in less than five seconds, the remaining fighters screamed out, opening the distance to nearly 300 000 kilometers, leaving Tanshin 1 far behind.

In that time, the Aotrs internal systems compenstated for the sudden overwhelming spike, cutting through the noise. There was enough of it that it couldn't be completely eliminated, but the Aotrs advanced sensors cut the bulk of it down, giving the ships back about 80% of their usual capability. The systems also directly fed into the warheads and battle-management systems of the entire fleet, ensuring that the Aotrs wouldn't be caught as flat-footed a second time.

"Shit," Venom 1 muttered to himself. "Venom, Vile, Bloodghost and Krallast, maintain speed. Vector towards the fleet, but don't re-form. Let's make them think they permanently blinded us with that little stunt and we'll see if we can surprise them back."

He looked at the enemy formation, but no obvious command units presented themselves - the Azura ships seemed to mass into something of a disorganised blob as they re-orientated. Dogfighting was a bad idea, since of the Aotrs fighters, only the Apparitions were much good at it - at least given the maneouvreability of the enemy - so they'd have to play this like they were the big boys and make fast slash attacks, pick away at the edges of the formation. But to do that...

He explained the plan.

"I don't like it much, boys and ghouls, but with their defences, we're going to have to get up close and personal. And when we do, let everything fly like they're Strayvian Incinerators. Whatever those curse-things are, they can't hit everything at once, and from closer range, they'll have less time to try."

The Azura ships had pulled around into a semblence of order to pursue. Now they would see whether the enemy would follow the bait and start a stern chase - and they'd see how fast the things could run...

[Friction roll: 1. Advantage to the Azura]

The Azura are baited into the chase. It is a disorganized and staggered effort, and their line is quickly drawn out by their uneven acceleration and the superior top speed of the Aotrs fighters. The Venoms are able to draw out the range and come about successfully. Bait is swallowed, hook line and sinker.

The first pass is successful - four Azura spheres are destroyed by the slicing high speed assault of the Aotrs fighter craft, and the rest perform high velocity brakes in order to attempt to regain some sort of formation. One sphere barrels straight onwards, zapping down a pair of missiles and taking a direct Coldbeam strike on the armour, and manages to land an ELF strike followed by a direct plasma torpedo hit on the lead Venom. But something interesting happens - the torpedo just fizzles and duds out, dealing almost no damage. Without a ready formation on hand to follow up on the offensive, the Aotrs pilot is even able to recover and start performing emergency repairs on their ship.

As data comes in over the course of the campaign, the Aotrs will be able to identify a dud rate of 12-18% on all Azura solid projectile and plasma munitions, raising to a shocking 75% dud rate on a handful of solid projectile Eater strains. It's a mercy - these are extremely effective weapons when they work, but institutional problems in Azura procurement has dulled their edge.

So for a moment there it feels like the Aotrs fighters might have the opportunity to turn the fight around - and then, before they know it, a terror is in their midst. After battle analysis confirmed that the Azura Knight only launched after the initial engagement, presumably waiting for confirmation there were no nasty surprises waiting for her out there. Once she joined the fight the balance of power swung wildly - her presence was the equivalent of the commitment of an additional entire elite fighter wing.

Her ship also demonstrated something of the true nature of the Azura military. While the common warspheres - the Levies - were dangerous and effective, they were optimized for cost and quantity. Ship for ship they would lose to an Aotrs fighter, especially after adjustments were made and lessons had time to filter through the Aotrs knowledge system, and they were far less capable of adapting tactically on the fly. The Knight's vessel was altogether of a different order.

Firstly, it broke from the sphere shape common to Azura designs. Its natural state was more like a traditional fighter craft, with a large plasma thrust engine which gave it a maximum speed comparable to an Aotrs racing skiff. Its primary weapon was a gravity emitter mounted on its nose that it was able to use for a variety of effects. Most notably, when it fired its munitions - no duds in these stocks - it was either able to use gravitic force to perform microadjustments to the projectiles in flight or even outright grab evading Aotrs ships and drag them directly into the path of its attacks, like a combat tractor beam. At one point it even fires the emitter directly to crush an Aotrs starfighter into a tin can.

It is also the first demonstration of Azura transformation technology. When the ship needs to perform a maneuver its thrusters and projectile arrays retract, the surface of the ship smooths over into a perfect sphere, the grav-rail engages, and it performs one of the trademark high energy maneuvers before unfolding again into its vicious combat form. The process takes less than a second and gives the ship spellbinding maneuverability. The only mercy here is that the ship's absurd maneuvers and devastating weaponry come at an immense power cost. Before long it had burned through its reactor fuel and was heading back to its carrier at high speed for refuel and re-armament, the surviving Levies safeguarding its retreat in an orderly fashion. It's clear that the Levies are there to fix enemies, support, defend and fly in formation with their Knights, preventing organized force being bought to bear against their masters.

This, too, can be adapted to, but not over the course of this engagement. The Aotrs fighters are thoroughly mauled and the Azura destroyers take control of Tanshin I's orbit.

*

Elsewhere in the system, as reports of the engagement are coming back to Fleet Admiral Velinkar, a huge communications spike is detected amidst the Azura fleet in orbit around the gas giant. Signal chatter is increasing massively and ships are starting to abandon mining operations and move into battle formations. It's plain that Azura fleet command was sufficiently satisfied with the engagement that they have become confident in leaving the safety of the gravity well and asteroid belt and intend to bring the battle to the Aotrs fleet in deep space. Given the disorganized nature of Azura command and control it's estimated that the Aotrs fleet will have two hours before the Azura fleet starts to move.

The surviving fighters Gate-jumped backed to the fleet. Aboard the damaged Crater, the commander of Venom 1 was grimly put in mind of some footage he'd seen once, sent out as a warning across the fleet. It was of a battle between the Blastarons and Manual Fighters, watching the latter's second-in-command taking on a then-thousand-strong wing of Blastaron fighters and the resounding massecre that followed. The literal thousand-to-one odds, crippled by the appalling inept formation trying to cover for what troops for which "green" was probably overstating it and being annhilated entirely, without ever even landing a single hit on an opponent which felt like it was half-a-step from being able to body-flicker in a spaceship. He'd wondered what the Blastaron pilots had thought as they had pointless died, almost helplessly, sacrified in a vain and futile attempt to use numbers to buy victory.

Because now he had some idea.

Forth fleet did not, unfortunately, have any legendary Aotrs pilots of such high skill as the Azura pilot, being soundly the Aotrs average (which was, of course, quite a lot better than most). They were good, but not THAT good. This was going to be a problem.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Velinkar examined the data carefully, making particular nore of the results of the fighter's engagements, which was very costly. Thy'd simply been vastly out-matched, considering the Azura hero's presence.

The only saving grace was that as capital starship level, such individuals TENDED not to be capable of single-handedly destroying capital starships.

Though there were, concerningly, some notably exceptions.

He did thus note that PD fire should be concentrated on any spherefighters of that silhouette where possible in preferenc to the oher fighters, at least until they figured out whether that was going to work.

It also seemed like the Azura were intent on coming at them with their ENTIRE fleet, which was insane if true. That would mean there would be nothing left to commit as reserves... Nor, even if they were to win for example, to protect themselves while they repaired and resupplied. They were organics, and it was POSSIBLE they didn't need to rest, but seemed unlikely. It showed a very single-mindedness, a power used to through itself at each other head-on, with little regard to the longer-term strategic thinking.

Well. The Azura had demonstrated they did not react terribly quickly to in-system FTL jumps, so perhaps it was time to take advantage of that.

The admiral gave orders to the 4th, splitting into the usual three operational elements (one for attack, one on rest/recovery/repair and one reserve/guard) and plotted several Gate jumps for all three groups for disparate ends of the solar system; the main supply/transport groups almost to the edge of the system.

A small group of seven Shadowfang and Dark Fear destroyers had a Gate point set to near where the Azura had been mining - if left undefended as potentially the case seemed, the destroyers should have little trouble in levelling it in a hit-and-run - they could even just grab a couple of nearby asteroids and use their towing arrays to lob them at the others, when if came down to it. (He had considered doing the same to the ground base, but suspected there could be some anti-ship defences there best not tested by a light force.)

The attack element would engage the oncoming Azura fleet, primarily aiming to pick away at the edges. The targets would be initially the lighter vessels, the corvettes as he had initially planned. That was what you did when the enemy went into a big bait-ball of ships - you didn't try for a decisive blow, you settled in for the long haul and picked at the edges. He wondered, given how much stock the Azura seemed to put into personal power and capability, whether being apparently ignored would annoy them or make them assume their enemies thought them too powerful to touch...

As one final order, he communicated to all the Traitors and four Liche's Wraths of the fleet who all had ECM generators. The Azura didn't seem to be going in for guided missiles, so made sense to put the ECM systems to their other use - working in concert with the communications emitters to project jamming fields or jamming beams. The former could flood a sphere 180 000 kilometres in radius, disrupting communications - not vastly unlike the Azura's own electromagnetic flux, though much narrow in scope (it had no effect on sensors or tageting). In a normal fleet, if you could flood enough through your emitters to jam out the enemy (which was in many cases dependant on whether you were parity of better with your foe's communications), the most noticable effect was to disrupt the synchronisation of a squadron's weapons fire, meaning that you couldn't co-ordinate the torpedoes to all hit the fractions of a second after the coldbeams. Whether they could jam Azura tight-beams or even if they could it would make a difference was a matter for debate.

The other option, which he was holding in reserve, was to switch methods and fire a more coherent burst as a beam at a single vessel to interfer specifically with targeting systems and scanners (and hopefully whatever the Azura was using). Usually, it only meritted about a 15% decrease in enemy accuracy, but that could make a lot of difference on a point-target.

However, the Liche's Wraths (two of which were in the lead element) had one more thing to try, though whether two hours was going to be enough time to get it to work was a good question. They could try using the wing rune-cones in concert with the ECM and comms emitters to essentially block the communications lasers by sheer dint of cancelling them out with localised elemental Shadow fields (like countered fir magic with ice or vice versa). The Traitors wouldn't be able to do so, and they almost certainly would have to reduce the area (maybe even down to having to do so as a coherent jamming beam), but if they could do it to one of the central command ships... That might rather upset the Azura more than the de facto jamming on the ships using the beams themselves.

At this point, Velinkar figured, anything was worth a shot.

[Success and margin thereof of jamming fields depends on a) assessed Azura communications TL verses Aotrs TL of 8 whether they can be jammed and b) what effects it has on the ships (may be small or nothing even if it DOES work). Success, timing and effectiveness of laser-jamming shadow systems feels like it should be part of a DM's friction roll as to whether they get it done in time and how widespread and effective the attempts can be.]

The Azura offensive begins before the formations are ready. Two of the battlespheres and their subsidiary formations break orbit early which sets off a cascading rush of improperly prepared segments of the line. It is an arrogant and high handed approach, one which has already assumed victory is inevitable and so what is at stake is claiming a share of the glory.

[Friction roll: 4. Indecisive outcome]

Despite this, twenty percent of the fleet does wind up hanging back in Tanshin III orbit. From intercepted signals chatter - accusations of cowardice and threats of retribution - this seems less like a deliberate strategic reserve and more like a lack of offensive morale. This does result in the mining operations having a guard which results in calling off the destroyer offensive before committing.

[Friction roll: 2. Advantage to the Azura]

The Aotrs skirmishers at the edge of the Azura fleet find it difficult to get much work done. When threatened the corvettes are withdrawn to the centre of the formation, with heavily armoured destroyers acting as pickets. For a period the Azura ships simply endure the barrage of Aotrs fire - when a sphere is struck it rotates its facing so it is always presenting an undamaged section of armour towards its opponent and emergency repairs can be conducted on the exterior side. When damage mounts up the crippled ship is withdrawn into the centre of the formation for more extensive repairs, sometimes involving one damaged ship 'eating' another one, absorbing its materials to regrow its own. Adding to the defense, squadrons of fighters are acting in intercept roles to assist bringing down missiles before they connect.

A slow, methodical operational tempo has advantages and disadvantages against the Azura. It is likely that fatigue favours the Aotrs in the long term but low intensity operations give the Azura reactors a chance to recharge to full power between each engagement. That results in them being able to apply effective long range fire on the Aotrs fleet each time it closes to weapons range. Combined with effective repair and defensive operations, the overall effect is that the Aotrs are getting the worse of this pattern of engagement.

The assumption being made is clearly one of invincibility. These early successes are boosting Azura confidence to the point where their formations are becoming even more staggered and dedicated to offensive pursuit.

[Friction roll: 1. Advantage to the Azura]

Jamming the Azura ships makes a disappointingly small difference. Their doctrine, training and organization all assumes conditions of total communications blackout and signals are sent as often through enormous electrical banners projected against the side of their ships like signal flags of old. The idea of blocking those visual signals through an elemental shadow field is a sound one and would likely work well but it is unclear what benefit it would gain. Even the Azura command ships seem to have only a tenuous grip over the decentralized violence of the fleet. Everything is happening on such a chaotic, individualized level that it is not clear what difference even effective jamming would make. It might have a role in a future engagement as part of a more coherent battleplan.

[Friction roll: 4. Indecisive outcome.]

Ultimately, neither fleet is able to gain an edge in this early positioning. The Azura offensive operation has spread out massively over the system, their defensive battle-ball broken as individual formations move in pursuit of Aotrs attack group ships. Unfortunately the core of the Azura battlegroup has locked a massive precognition spell onto the reserve elements of the Aotrs fleet. They are keeping their reactors fully charged, ready to perform a combat hyperspeed jump in response to any commitment against a dispersed fleet element.

At this stage of the battle, the Aotrs are getting the worse of the direct engagements. Three things are currently in the Aotrs favour. Firstly, Azura fuel and ammunition is depleting at a faster rate than Aotrs reserves; more of their ships are operating at combat speed and their technology has high resource demands. Secondly, the Azura are evidently not familiar with fighting undead, and will accumulate battle fatigue faster than their opponents. Thirdly, the Azura are clearly falling prey to victory disease, wherein they assume that their enemy are inferiors that do not need to be respected.

The Azura offensive has not yet culminated, but it will soon at which point they will be forced to retire back to the safety of Tanshin III to re-arm. The most vulnerable phase will be the withdrawal itself, but at this stage they are likely to be making that withdrawal in an organized manner and in good order.

The admiral took the unusual step or having the reserve and support elements simply jump two light-years out of the system into the interstellar void. For Aotrs Gate drives, it was a trivial distance, but it placed them well outside the gravity wells, meaning that if the Azura intended to follow (which they would have to do in a very predictable line and vey pobviously, given they remained in normal space during any FTL transit) they would not only have to split up further, but their mobility would be crippled - and the Aotrs fleet could simply jump to another position easily regardless.

Against a normal opponent, such a tactic would be largely pointless - the transit time was negiligable over those kind of distances (it took longer to set the co-ordinates) over being in the system and the enemy would immediately know where the went and could follow just as quickly.

But, of course, aside from the maneouvering issues, the Azura did not have good sensors, and seemed to have even worse FTL detection capabilities. So if the Aotrs jumped out of system, short of literaly having to wait TWO YEARS until the light from the fleet reached Tanshin, either the Azura would demonstrate some kind of long-range sensor (unlikely, short of FTL capability) or they would have to rely on divination to even work out where the Aotrs had gone. (Even IF the Gates opened linarly in the directino the ships entered Gate space, at those distance, with no references, be out by a tiny fraction and you'd be astronomic units off at best.) And divination as a primary means of detection was always risky, since it was subjected to disruption (or outright blockage) by anti-magic.

Velinkar had his aide make the request while they were fighting. Given the threat the Azura posed (and the looming presence of the various sun-destroying weapons) yanking in a load of anti-magic field generators was not grossly outside normal operational parameters for once. Anti-magic fields would at best inconveniance the technologically-based Aotrs starfleet on a ship-wide level (aside from the few thaumic lighting cannon-equipped vessels) - while it might be annoying at the personell level - but would likely have a major effect on the Azura who seemed to rely more on magic than technology; at the very least, Velinkar hoped it would mess up any long-range diviniation they tried, but it would really depend on what their initial response to the jumping out was.

(At the back of his mind Velinkar was also aware that this might be a good test, since the United Concorde of Divine Realms also used a lot of magitech and anything they learned on the Azura might be applicable back to the other power too.)

In the meantime, the Aotrs vessels were not winning, but they also were not loosing, either. While the Azura were retreating and repairing, the Aotrs vessels were themselves extremely durable with their armour and shields. So though the Azura did not appear to be taking much damage, the Aotrs were also not suffering extensive damage in return, and moreover, ships that were damaged could break off via Gate much more easily.

He kept the attack fleet in action, continuing to pick away and kite around the Azura fleet. If the Azura started to flag, good. Even if they ran otu of railguns and missiles, the coldbeam and plasma-pulse cannons were solid enough they could withstand an unusually prolonged period without maintenance and the bulk of the Aotrs themselves were of course tireless. If it seemed like the Azura were gaining the upper hand - the the attack fleet would jump out-system too.

He wondered if the Azura would try flying into an open Gate if one was deliberately around long enough. Some of their commanders might just be reckless enough to try, and if they did... There was almost certainly something they could do abuse it. A thought for later...

The Azura have many strengths, but hat they evidently have absolutely no answer for is to the strategic mobility presented by the Aotrs Gate spell. They react with confusion every time it is demonstrated and have evidently no theoretical understanding of its range or limitations. Their formation constantly moves as though they expect an entire Aotrs fleet to teleport in behind them every second and it is ultimately that nervousness that signals the end to the engagement. Finally the signal banners go up and the entire Azura force begins a fighting withdrawal - this time to Tanshin II.

While the Azura seemed generally uncertain with how to engage a fleet that was not interested in committing to open battle, their actions here proceed with vastly more confidence and efficiency. While their previous offensive was motivated by personal glory and internal politics their activities in orbit here have the smooth coherence of doctrine.

Huge quantities of material and vast flows of transportation shuttles are issued down to the surface. Work begins on multiple large orbital structures. Some warships are disassembled entirely to be converted into immobile structures or defensive satellites. These ships were packed far more densely with cargo and population than required for warships leading to the curious thought that many of them were, in fact, armed civilian ships. Only the dedicated battleship-class warspheres, the plasma vent cruisers and the fighter craft piloted by the Knights represent dedicated military vessels so far.

The Azura are working on the following projects at this point:
- A massive extension to the temple complex that was being worked on originally. As it expands its role as a magical focus becomes more clear. It has some interaction with the Azura magic system, but Aotrs thaumaturges will note that it seems to have a curious resemblance to elements of necromancy.
- A full restock and resupply of ammunition expended during the engagement. Some of the reactor cruises are taken offline to focus entirely on the generation of plasma torpedo munitions, whereas solid projectile weaponry is distributed from logistics ships.
- The construction of an orbital defense grid. This involves an elaboration of the earlier crystal satellite grid, the reconstruction and reconfiguration of some ships into a monitor role, and the distribution of swarms of fighters to ground or upper-atmosphere bases.
- The establishment of a large gravitational ring gate network aimed at Tanshin I which would allow the fleet to rapidly redeploy to that planet.

Some ships even outright leave the zone of operations at this point. Their cargo and crews reassigned, they form up into columns, activate their inertialess drives, and launch back to the distant home systems. All the while they are taking some damage from continued long range Aotrs skirmishers but with the fleet concentrated in a gravity well this engagement continues to lightly favour the Azura or be indecisive. The long range weaponry on the Azura's fleet core makes it hard for the Aotrs ships to close into weapons range without suffering dedicated volleys from the gravitational weaponry. It does slow down the Azura construction projects, though, and forces a continued state of high readiness.

All of this activity is well trained and rehearsed in a way that the Azura really haven't demonstrated so far. That is revealing: Azura doctrine assumes expansion, colonization and annexation of new territory - and in particular, the territory of military or technological inferiors. Their best systems are designed to efficiently take over a world and turn it into a fortified outpost. Acting in an orbital environment with a planet to supply directly from their disadvantages melt away. Pursuing a peer enemy in deep void was a new experience for them and while they did not entirely fumble it, it clearly showed the limitations of their technology and training.

Velinar looked out into the blackness of the void, with Tanshin only visible as a faint point of light barly brighter than any of the surrounding stars. The attack fleet had finally broken off entirely for repair and resupply from the support fleet, allowing the reverse forces to to rotate in to keep up the pressure.

Given the effectiveness of the Azura point defences, the Aotrs were only sparingly using their missiles and reliying on torpedoes and instead, of which they had a more plentiful supply and were less resource costly to produce. While this mean the fire was less accurate, a missle was also only accurate if it hit. Railgun mslug were also trivially easy to produce.

Nevertheless, the situation was not great. In many ways, Velinar was relieved the spectre of the Tenth Generation's chain of victories had been broken - the pride in the record had gotten to the point it was dangerous. It meant he was only motivated to win, not to try and win at all costs.

At the moment, he was doing neither. The Azura were responding - partly due to how they apparently fought others, partly due to fear of the Gates - not unlike how one responded to dealign with a cloaked fleet. Wary, circling the wagons and trying to prevent themselves from being ambushed.

But they had proven enough of a counter to the Aotrs that they functionally held the system. The Aotrs were, apparently, safe outside the system, but the Azura had access to the local resources and it seemed very much like they were much better at utilising local resources in their somewhat brute-force simplicity approach. Velinar had thought the Forth Fleet was at parity or even an advantage against them, but it seemed that in reality, the Aotrs did not have enough force to be able to crack the Azura's positions.

The diviniation seemed also to have problems. While it clearly was not help in chasing the Aotrs down (and Crippling Glare, still powered down, had not been detected yet), actively trying to use the Gates to attack the Azura in hit-and-fade attacks didn't work, since their diviners seemed to always detect it enough time to be ready - and they had the local numbers in their clusters.

So the Aotrs were currently just running attrition. Not of casualties or ships, but in longevitiy. The Aotrs, being almost all undead, could maintain combat effectiveness without physical fatigue (and much less, thougyh by no means none, mental fatigue), and trained patience was an inherent part of the Aotrs schooling. So they kept up the pressure, striking here and there, making hit-and-run attacks. Though not as effective as if they could achieve total surprise, Velinar was now not aiming for that. In fact, to some extent, even this could be turned to the Aotrs advantage without either side firing a single shot. Because even an aborted attack pulled the Azura out of position, made them wary and commit, if nothing else, mental energy to their own defence.

Eventually, they might start to make mistakes where the Aotrs could capitalise on them.

Reinforcements were enroute, bringing the anti-magic systems with them. When they eventually arricved and were duly fitted, Velinar intended to try a surprise attack with a handful of so-equipped ships, on the most vulnerable looking part of the Azura's stellar forces, hoping that with the anti-magic, they might foil the divinations enough to genuinely make a surprise attack.

In the meantime, recon forces had once again been deployed to Tanshin II via the Myst Gate. This time, given the danger, the Aotrs were using their best-trained recon units - including Kobold Commandos and Power Troops. It has taken a little while to get them to Myst (while Lord Death Despoil was unable to use Gate True), but once there, they had settled in for the long haul, dispersing to get down to the serious business of simply hiding and, essentially counting metaphorical trucks from a safe distance.

Meanwhile, they also needed to get some more eyes again on Tanshin I, maybe even get on the ground.

So Velinar had prepared two Murders with the fleet's own compliment of recon forces (though not all, for that would be dangerously risky). The plan was to have them jump into Tanshin I right into the atmosphere the furthest point from the Azura, timed to happen while the Aotrs made several light attacks across the system (including one to Tanshin I on the Azura, if necessary knocking out - or at least tryin to do so - any orbital eyes). The Murders would then drop down low and begin slowly and cautiously moving around the globe a little at a time, stealthy (in low-power mode) until they could likewise deploy the recon forces to go and watch - or, if the Azura had left well enough alone - to actually enter the ruins or at least a portion of them.

It was all slow going, but in the absense of a single leathal blow, it was all Velinar had to work on. But liches were patient and tireless and, in time, that would wear away all mortals.

The question was now simply whether they would have enough before the Azura fortified too heavily...

[Friction roll: 3. Indecisive]

Once the Aotrs adjust their hit and run techniques to account for Azura range and weaponry the situation finally starts to stabilize. Azura gravitational weaponry is both offense and defense, and Aotrs pilots and tacticians are able to devise a way to time their strikes to force the Azura to commit entirely to defense. These constant weapons tests are providing large amounts of useful data on Azura defensive systems and limits, giving Aotrs command a much clearer idea of how to attack and how to overwhelm the Azura shielding systems, but the skirmish has ground to a stalemate as a result.

[Friction roll: 5. Aotrs advantage]

In the first break for a while, the infiltration goes perfectly. The commandos come in entirely undetected and on location and are able to observe the Azura disembarkation process from start to finish, including identifying a comprehensive map of all ammunition dumps and command locations. Much like Gate technology, cloaking fields seem to be something outside of the range of Azura thought.

Priority is overwhelmingly going towards construction of the temples. The ships are disembarking construction machinery and hordes of servitor species who are flung into engineering tasks the moment they're off the ship. The Azura officers are visibly nervous as they oversee the construction though they do not take any of their frustrations out on their servants. Instead, the most common stress response is getting into tangled, violent wrestling duels with each other and then breaking apart with minor bruises and scratches.

[Friction roll: 1. Azura advantage]

Almost at the same time as the Murders make their jump a squadron of Azura fighters accelerates towards a partially operational Ring Gate and is hurtled at FTL speeds towards Tanshin I.

They come in hot. That's a problem - the Aotrs stealth ships were making their way in undetected, but the Azura squadron draws attention. From under swamps of brackish, filthy water emerge monstrous crablike forms, the size and structure of a main battle tank. They fire into the sky swarms of bulbous blowfish-like projectiles with a similar threat profile to missiles. Caught between the Azura fighters from above and anti-aircraft fire from below both Murders are lost with all hands. It does not escape notice, though, that these projectiles seem specifically designed to resist the Electromagnetic Flux - an ELF strike will paralyze the living projectile rather than detonate it prematurely, causing it to continue in an unguided path until it recovers. Depending on the angle and trajectory this might cause it to slam into its target and detonate nevertheless. It's not a trivial fix, but a new line of missiles could theoretically be developed along those lines which would have a much better success rate against the Azura defenses.

The Azura ships fire their munitions to clear away the defenders and then land, evidently having the same idea of breaching into one of the ruin complexes. Two full squads, lead by a pair of Azura Knights.

*

In the midst of all this, another messenger skiff has made approach to the Aotrs fleet. This one is launched from the defector Azura force, still in close orbit around Tanshin III. It is transmitting a tightbeam, claiming to speak on behalf of Biomancer Kendall, with a rather straightforwards message: We would like to hire you as mercenaries.

There is an Azura diplomat aboard and she is interested in a wide range of trade deals. Her first interest is in the price to buy your entire fleet, but failing that she's also interested in all manner of things. Teleporters, warships, companies of soldiers, whatever military force you're prepared to part with. She is well traveled enough to understand that aliens might value different things than her own society, and think in different ways than her, but she strongly hints that the most valuable thing she has to offer is political influence.

Velinkar eyeglows were narrowed into a scowl. The battle of attrition was holding, but the Azura didn't appear to be weating down. Every low-key stroke he'd sent out had been intercepted, and it seemed the only reason the recon forces on Tanshin II had gotten in was because the Myst Gate was such long-range non-starship transit that the Azura were not likely to spot it without sensors. Though how long that would hold against the diviniation...

They couldn't punch through the Azura, they couldn't slip low-key forces in - which largely rendered the recon forces on Tanshin II irrelevant strategically, since the intelligence, while useful in determining the Azura's capabilities, couldn't be exploited without getting boots on the ground. And with the disaterous loss of a chunk of the recon elements, Velinkar couldn't risk another sneak attempt.

It likewise seemed like suicide to attempt a ground assault, given what they knew so far, as the Azura would have orbital superiority.

Long-range bombardment was out, since the Azura seemed to be simply better at hauling space rocks around, and Aotrs energy weapons were simply not long enough range for artillery attacks.

Almost every stealth strategy that might work against sensors seemed likely to fail against diviniation, so until the anti-magic supplies arrived and could be fitted, making more attempts seemed futile.

The Gates gave them a distinct advantage in FTL mobility, but on the system scale, it frustrated Velinkar no end that they couldn't exploit it - the enemy divination seemed like it might even trump some of the more esoteric Gate uses.

In essence, the fleets were too equally matched (and if anything the overall combat advantage seemed to lie with the Azura) and the Azura had the high ground. They couldn't chase the Aotrs down and get rid of them... But it seemed neither could the Aotrs shift them.

Meanwhile, there was the diplomat. The Azura were clearly extremely factional, that much was certain, and apparently blissfully self-centric. Velinkar couldn't think of another power - okay, maybe the Herosines - which would try to BUY the enemy fleet in the middle of a fight.

He had, for the sake purely of bemused curiousity, asked for a qualification of precisely what and where the diplomat wanted mercenaries for. But the Aotrs had no particular desire to commit to long-term involvement in the internal affairs of a hostile power, which was mostly likely what "political influence" meant. The Aotrs was, ultimately, not going to serve as some one else's Condottieri. (It was one thing for Lord Unlucky to decide to make a alliance with an individual, but Velinkar wa neither Lord Unlucky nor apparently talkiing about something of the same scale.

Let alone that, it seemed like it would play right into the Azura's mindset that they tacitly owned everything and that everyone they met could be coerced into being their servitors. Velinkar found that attitude galling so he would be blessed before he was going to accede to that. The self-centric arrogance was almost human. But, the answers might prove illuminating.

He felt it seemed unlikely that this faction would be opposed to the Furnace Knight sufficiently as to be useful right in this system; but perhaps it might at least get more of a lay of the land of their political landscape and perhaps better ascertain powerbases that, in the long-term, the Aotrs could attempt to manipulate. But Velinkar was, at the end of the day, an admiral, not a diplomat for a reason.

Velinkar had also has his staff see what information they could eke out of the diplomats anyway. He felt it unlikely they'd be willing to trade their technology and magic for anything the Aotrs would actually be prepared to part with, but it would be interesting to see what they would - if anything. (He suspected the latter.)

But there was perhaps one last roll of the dice. Velinkar had prepared a small strike force. The fleet's top mage, Major Killstorm, was capable of casting Gate XXV, which has sufficient range to reach Tanshin I even from their position outside the system. She could hold it long enough to deposit a fair-sized task force on the ground. The task force would lead with a couple of War Droid companies (with Hunter Drones and Enragers), and a platoon of Velinkar's best and brightest combat troops under Brigadier Throatstab Vivisector, with armour support from Revenant Spears, Hammers of Hatred and Storm Cleavers. (Under normal circumstances, he'd have added missile vehicles, but it seemd unlikely they'd help much against the Azura).

This was very risky, since Velinar was risking sending his top spell caster into enemy territory (since Killstorm would have to accompany the troops to be able to open the Gate back out) as well as the cream of his elite. But given the strength of the Azura's various heroes, it felt like he had little option, since it increasingly seemed like that the Azura's weighing was more on a few elites with only moderate support. But if you had enough heroes... It did work. For that matter, that was almost what the Aotrs themselves did, using elite troops supplemented by War Droids, but on a wider and shallower scale.

The task force would be Gate in to secure one of the ruins - preferably the on furthest from the Azura and get inside as quickly as possible out of orbital bombardment range. The Azura might still decide to destroy what was on the ground rather than let the Aotrs have it, but they might bauk at the loss and greed (and perhaps over confidence) would suggest to them to take it back with ground forces. Then it would be a case of hoping they could hold the ruins long enough to get anythign useful out. A lot rode on Killstorm, who would have to bear the brunt of casting potentially multiple Gate XXV spells, since it would eb the only way to reinforce the ground forces once they were in - at least not without potentially having to commit to a potentially ruineous strike at Tanshin I's orbital defenders.

Diplomacy!

The Azura diplomat dominates the room. Her presence is the most sustained look that the Aotrs have gotten to an Azura and the physical menace one presents is overwhelming. Vibrant blue scales, striped with black set against pale gold eyes and the violent threat of a coiled spring. This is the confident aspect of an apex predator, and one surrounded by prey animals it might catch at any time. At the same time, there was a strange gentleness to it - its assistant servitors she treated with the affection of pets, and the Aotrs she could not seem to regard as anything other than cute and small, even if she tried diplomatically to keep that sentiment hidden.

There is a concentration of magic around her; her particular Path is related to sensing dishonesty and lies, and she can even taste the flavour of past lies on the aura of her opposing numbers. Her curiosity was, however, dim. She was vaguely interested in Aotrs society but not so much to press if evaded. Aotrs diplomats are able to summarize her position as 'patronizing', which seems to be the Azura's equivalent of friendly - this is an arc that swings to 'dismissive' for things she does not care about, and 'contemptuous' for hostility.

Surprisingly, she expresses a casual willingness to trade technology and magic both. She recognizes that information has value but regards it as a low and mean currency that is almost below her to deal with. She has a vast array of items of interest here, from the Grav-drive to advanced divination, but many of these she considers 'civilian' technologies - widely dispersed enough to not be considered state secrets. She can even organize a tour of a shipyard complex if desired. In her mind the most valuable coin she has is Biomancy - she represents one of the Endless Azure Skies' more successful genetors. These secrets she prices much higher - not out of reach, but representing a keen awareness of value.

What she wants, though, is military force. She admires the Aotrs Gate technology and wants to use it for targeted assassinations and commerce raiding. If the Aotrs will not be mercenaries themselves - a stance that immediately shifts her towards a dismissive posture - she will settle for buying ships or Gate drives. These she actually seems to price fairly - she seems aware of how an Aotrs ship weighs up favourably with the average Azura sphere - but does not seem to place a premium on the idea that the Azura might reverse engineer the ships for their secrets. The idea, when suggested, strikes her as almost a faux pas to bring up, as though it was suggested she might go digging around in garbage.

[Friction roll: 4; no advantage]

She is, however, suspiciously cagey about describing the exact political situation of the Azura. It feels like she would lie here if she thought she could; instead she changes topics abruptly or makes extremely vague statements. She can barely be enticed to confirm information already granted by Boldness. Aotrs negotiators are able to guess that this is not only because, as she suggests, political influence is a uniquely valuable resource to her, but because the political situation does not favour her faction. There is the shape of a weakness here, even if this particular path is a dead end.

Fleet Operations!

As time goes on the Azura fleet drips away strength. More ships are reconfigured into Monitors - huge, slow firing platforms unsuited for deep void operations, acting as low orbit or atmospheric planetary defense strongholds. Others, their cargo holds emptied of fighters and materiel, activate their FTL and leave the system entirely. In a few weeks the Azura fleet will have reduced itself to no longer hold the advantage in the deep void, though their position around Tanshin II will have become entirely entrenched. Even one of the primary battlespheres appears to be preparing for departure.

[Friction roll: 4]

The withdrawal is not happening at a destabilizing pace that would present a military opening, but whatever coalition arrived to assist the Furnace Knight here seems to be discharging their obligations and departing. It is possible reinforcements might start arriving if divination starts to predict a major battle is due but in the short term the Azura are looking to cede the broader system to the Aotrs as they entrench their base.

Tanshin I!

[Friction roll: 6. Aotrs advantage]

A break is finally had with Major Killstorm's assault team. The planetary defense crabs do not even react to their teleportation in, so dedicated are they to their anti-aircraft role. By the time they sluggishly start to reorient their weaponry on the strike team the Aotrs are able to wipe them out with minimal losses and secure the area. The Azura response force, meanwhile, suffers the fate of the original Murders - savaged by anti-aircraft fire from local defense assets on approach. The result is that their ground forces are able to do little more than shadow the assault team at a distance and withdraw if threatened.

The underground bunker is an ancient research laboratory, part of a network around the planet. It isn't Azura, exactly, but it has certain elements in common with them; a different culture or faction, thousands of years removed. It strangely more relatable than their modern incarnation. This was a time when they were smaller, weaker, more reliant on technology. The wreckage of digital computers can be seen here, too ancient for data recovery, but a sign that they once used such things.

What can be found is fifty stasis tubes. In the eerie shadowed gunk are the shapes of large squid creatures, five meters long and comprised almost entirely of brain tissue. The ancient fragments of warning labels suggest that these are extremely dangerous. Psychic, perhaps? If nothing else, directly biologically related to the battlecrabs outside. One of these labs must have breached at some point in the past and the planet's hostile native creatures are the result.

Velinkar dutifully passed the negotating offers up the chain, but he was completely certain now the Aotrs would not be dealing with the Azura through those channels. They'd reacted exactly as he'd expected, with that air of superiority that assumed everyone they encountered was an inferior. It made him think of the steriotypical vampire attitude (the sort the Aotrs had actually culturally obliterated from their own vampires over two-thousand-odd years). He doubted the Azura would truly understand how central Aotrs Gate technology and magic was to the Aotrs and to Lord Death Despoil himself. And they could pry those out of the Aotrs' collective truly-dead hands.

And aside from their own military secrets hoarded to preserve their own superiority, he suspected there was nothing else the Azura would be interested in the Aotrs would offer. (He was tempted to have his aides tell the diplomats to try talking to the Herosines, but resisted the urge.)

On the fleet front, the only good news was that the reinforcements had finally arrived, bringing his requested anti-magic gear. It would still take some time to start to fit it, but the process could now begin.

* * * * * *

Killstorm and Vivisector stood side-by-side regarding the stasis tubes.

The first job had been to fortify the bunker properly and dig in far enough to be reasonably safe from orbital attack. They'd punched through well enough to allow Killstorm to open a couple more Gates and ship in experts and even a small local planetary shield generator from one of the Crypt Bearers to solidify thei beachhead, at least from anythign short of a concerted orbital bombardment effort, and it would give them enough time for an exfil.

They had only loosely examined the ruins so far, but now a speciaist team was being sent to properly scan and catalogue the ruins. Ordinarily, getting specialist would have been more difficult, but as she was casting Gate XXV anything, she'd had the bright idea of tapping Myst Mase's specialist were perfect for the job. All they needed to do was go through the Myst Gate to Tanshin II and then Killstorm could Gate them to the fortification.

Myst Base had sent back Alpha team, under Captain Fleshslicer and they were all quite eager to tackle the next part of the Tanshin problem.

First, proper specialist scans to determine whether any of the stasis tubes had retained enough function to preserve anything alive - and if not, to ensure the contents were non Undead or construct. And of course a full analysis of their biology (and presumably offensive capability).

She watched the team with amusement, the clear delight in Third Startrooper Voidslay's voice as she reported her findings to Flashslicer, having found a computer component that was almost in perfect condition. Likely still too old to have preserved data, but Voidslay seemed hopeful they might be able to connect it up to see HOW it stored data.

Vivisector grunted, breeaking Killstorm's reverie. He'd been quietly talking on his helmet comm.

"Reinforcements arrived," he told her. "The admiral has given the go-ahead once the new supplies are unloaded to use the transport space to shuttle back anything - and possibly everything - we can salvage here."

"That's good," Killstorm's clear contralo replied dryly. "I'd have hated to come all this way to come back empty-handed."

"Figure someone will be wanting to take one of those tubes back," Vivisector observed laconically. "Even if they're all dead, someone ought to learn something. Seems like at the moment that's all we can do, at least until we can hit these guys hard enough to make them wince. At the moment, all we're doing is luring them into a false sense of complaceny."

Killstorm nodded with only a trace of humour. "Indeed. Until we can get heavy reinforcements. Though," she added wryly "from the looks of the situation up there, the complacency part seems to be working. Maybe enough of them will get bored and go home eventually."

Vivisector grunted morosely. "The reminder we're still far from the top hurts, but probably is for the best. Wouldn't want us to get into the same mindset as these people - Carrionrise says," - one of Velinkar's aides and a good friend of Vivisector - "they were trying to hire us as mercenaries, like we were some two-bit little power for hire."

Killstorm was startled enough to drop her folded arms and spun to regard her comrade with open shock. "What? WHILE we are figthing them? What, did they ask to buy our ships too? I-" She stopped again, catching the shift of the other's head. "NO! Really? I... What."

Vivisector's tone came to as close to amused as Killstorm had ever heard him. "Carrionrise said it took all he had not to lose control right there. Said the creature had an attitude it reminded him of an elf lord we encountered once, seven centuries back; wet-navy engagement, forget where, must have been tech-locked world, since we were using early gunpowder tech. Smug superior bastard, one of those, you know, 'I am righteous so the universe will conform to me'types. Not thought about that incident in... Centuries, likely, but smashing his self-satisfied smirk was a good memory for both of us."

"What happened?" Killstorm inquired, interested enough to follow the latter's derail. Vivisector was an old hand at this (which is why he was the fleet's senior ground field commander) and he'd seen a lot of action over the centuries. Killstorm was a child of the FTL-age, so it was all unliving history for her.

"Made the mistake so many wet-navy commanders made - tried to fight a fort with ships. Thought one fort verses a squadron was the same as one ship verses a squadron. Idiot. He certainly wasn't expecting us to supplement the guns with some home-made trebuchets, either, and not with proficiency. Was watching him through a telescope when we got him. He saw the shadow coming, of course, but no amount of dodging gets you out of reach of a two-hundred-and-fifty kilo rock when you're on a ship."

As Aotrs reinforcements arrive, the Azura fleet continue to hollow out. A steady trickle of ships leave the system and others are stripped apart for components to build fortified structures on the Tanshin II surface. A small, dedicated core of specialist warships remains in orbit around Tanshin II as a rapid response unit but the overall stance has shifted to static fortification.

The key to this work is the creation of vast numbers of acceleration rings. The Azura can evidently manufacture these cheaply and quickly with materials harvested on location and when a ship passes through a ring it accelerates like a railgun slug. The Azura are also observed test firing munitions through these rings, something that further pushes back the work of Aotrs skirmishers. Within the acceleration network the Azura strategic mobility increases enormously, and reports from ground infiltrators indicates that establishing acceleration highways on the ground is one of the first priorities of Azura engineers.

While Azura leadership has generally come across as inept and backbiting by Aotrs standards, their engineering corps at least is worthy of respect. The lupine servitors who direct these operations - identified by scouts as the Ceronian Legions - are a professional, dedicated warrior species with a focus on battlefield engineering. They turn the advanced Azura technology to the practical business of tearing up mud and dirt, rerouting waterways and establishing anti-air emplacements. The Azura Knights are glory hounds, turning up for the battle and retiring to luxurious encampments or leaving the system entirely afterwards, but this is the hard backbone to the army and they'll be the ones holding the line until their masters see fit to return. If there is anything in this alien culture that genuinely resembles the Aotrs values of professionalism and practicality, it is here amidst the Ceronians.

*

A plasma warhead launched through an acceleration ring smashed into the base shield a few hours after it was activated. It heralds the beginning of an interplanetary bombardment - projectiles launched from Tanshin II towards the Aotrs base on Tanshin I. The bombardment is cursory and negated by the shields, though it's reasonably accurate. Soon the planet rotates the base out of being threatened, for the night at least. It puts the base on notice - the planetary orbits are closely enough aligned that this represents a significant threat.

A third of the specimens are dead; study of their biology indicates that they are not particularly dangerous physically, nor do they have the channels traditionally associated with psionic powers. What they do have is an intensely complex reproductive system and extreme social awareness. Thousands of specialized genetic sequences are identified inside these eggs - an arsenal. Has the Aotrs encountered a biotechnological hivemind species before? This seems like an attempt to engineer one. A good one, too. This is advanced work - beyond the bleeding edge of Aotrs biology. It would require powerful tools to engineer these beings, and the assessment is that while the squid are valuable the tools - if they are still on the planet - represent the true prize of the Tanshin system.

A breakthrough is made by the archeodata team; while many of the computers are too contaminated by damp and atmosphere to be recovered, some of them had biological components that left strange, fragmentary ghosts that could be invoked by necromancers. Much of the data is corrupt but there are tantalizing pieces. The most immediately apparent is that this is a terraforming project - the idea being to create a species capable of massive planetary modification and environmental engineering. Explains why the labs were placed on such an inhospitable planet.

On that note, an armoured company of the tanklike battlecrabs is gathering beyond the perimeter of the Aotrs encampment, with clear hostile intent. They'll need to be dealt with in order to buy enough time for everything to be safely removed.

Most ground commanders had a command vehicle, and a staff.

Vivisector, at the moment, had a helmet and a bit of empty room. This was not untypical, actually; aside from the use of the occasional Distant Thunder as a riduclously oversized APC, many Aotrs commanders simply didn't need one. Vivisector had a portable holo-projector, an uplink to the Aotrs battlemanagement software and several centuries of experience.

The battlecrabs would pass under the shield. Orbital shields by their nature, did not interact terribly well with the ground unless in carefully prepared positions, but their main job was really just to stop any passing starship from trivially murdering ground forces with weapons as trivial as point-defence weapons, let alone anything else, since they simply didn't MISS.

Terrain, as always, thus determined the shape of a ground battle more than technology.

Vivisector deployed his forces to cover the approach to the ruins.

The Hammers of Hatred and Stormcleavers, being physically hardest to hide behind cover due to their height, formed the backstop. In the absense of dedicated missile vehicles, the platoon of three Storm Cleavers would be fulfilling that role as best they could with the dozen SU-5G Skulls they had between them.

The Hammers of Hatred positioned ready to roll-up to hull-down positions to hit any battlecrabs that came into thei interlocking lines of sight, and the armour company's company commander Revenant Spear was set near the Storm Cleavers out of the way.

The two platoons of three Revenant Spears were at the front, behind preparted hull-down locations as well, but their conventional height meant these positions could be on the leading ridgeline, where they would have a good line of fire.

The War Droids were going to be taking the brunt of the fighting, from the two companies (one more biased to infantry droids than armour droids). Two companies worth in this case meant a total of two platoons of Mk 1 Enragers, positioned in the dense wooded zone to the left flank, supported by a squad of size Hunter Drones to track the battlecrabs. It also meant a dozen Enragers Mk 2s in four platoons of three. These were positioned where the could move out and attack, using their superior ability to maneouvre in the broken terrain, again in an interlocking web.

The Mk2s would start the engagement once the battlecrabs got within sight of their coldbeam gaze beams. The Revenant Spears would then roll-up to hull-down and fire, and when they began to take damage or the crabs got too close, they would roll back down behind the ridge and re-deploy along the paths Vivisector had pre-planned to their back-up hull-down positions, near the Hammers of Hatred and the Storm Cleavers.

The battlecrabs didn't immediately seem to be coming with infantry support. Which was, if so, was a potentially a fatal mistake. Even with sensors, infantry in prepared positions were notoriously difficult to spot; which was why the platoon of Line infantry was carefully positioned on the reverse slopes past the first six Enragers. If the battlecrabs got that far, they would have the unpleasant surprise of being shot in the back by the Aotrs.

However, War Droids were less adept in this situation. Two War Droid companies between them gave Vivisctor eight sqauds of six War Droids and another two squads of six Hunter Drones; one in reserve, one positioned on the right flank to likewise watch and scan. The foot War Droids wouldn't likely be very useful in this engagement. Their short-range weapons were quite powerful, and a possible threat to poorly-armoured tanks if in the rear or behind, but how much effect they'd have on the battlecrabs was debatably even under those conditions. Nevertheless, they might make for some cannon fodder and they were fundementally a disposble assest, to Vivisector had dispersed them through the frontage. If infantry showed up, they would perform their usual job of pinning them down (either by making the enemy take fire or stop to destroy the War Droids) and then Vivisector would play it by ear if he had to.

Killstorm was, to her annoyance, NOT part of the battleplan. She was simply too important to risk, and her mana was better conserved for ensuring they could get out.

The plan was, ultimately, disable and repulse more than destroy. Vivisector only needed to buy time and he was on the defensive, which meant the enemy would have to at least SOME time trying to work out where his forces were. For all that sensors abounded, the ground battlefield was still dominated by lines-of-sight.

Now all he could do was wait until the battlecrabs got into that line of sight - and hope they would take them out.

The assault begins with an artillery barrage.

The Aotrs have not had a sustained contact with Azura ground forces, but the brief exchange they did have heavily featured the use of acidic and poison gases. The evolutionary branch of that technology traces back here. Artillery fire alternates between two modes: metal eaters, that corrode and destroy armour and melt plastic alloys into liquid sludge, and toxin clouds to shock and kill exposed organic life. Whatever conflict this technology was designed for it is ineffective against the Aotrs; the loss of armour does not render units combat incapable and the toxin does not impact them at all.

A secondary effect of the barrage is the reduction of visibility. Gas clouds are thick and lingering, and the shells tend to have cascading sequences of secondary explosions deliberately designed to overwhelm auditory input and distract secondary visual senses. Battlecrab forces are also actively concealed from secondary sensor technology - chilled against thermal scanners, inert beneath magical senses, preceded by vast randomly moving schools of winged fish charged with electrical currents that serve as point defense, anti-drone and confusion to movement sensors.

The battleplan that follows is based on infiltration tactics. Battlecrabs advance into the combat zone under heavy concealment. When a crab encounters an enemy position it opens up to deploy a clutch of light infantry creatures that resemble sting rays, while the crab provides support fire. The light infantry are barely armoured - exposure to the toxin kills them instantly should their skin be pierced - but they have rapid fire suppression weapons and direct fire anti-tank missiles, and their low, flat silhouette and skill at taking cover lets them entrench quickly. Their role is to fix and engage the force encountered by the battlecrab, enabling still-active maneuver elements to bypass the enemy strongpoint and find ways to engage from the sides or rear. This, too, is a tactic not optimized against the Aotrs - a lot of this doctrine rests on the concept of morale shock. The final piece of the puzzle are the war orca - ominous shadows that prowl on the fringes of the battlefield, descending rapidly on isolated squads or units that have strayed from their formation, ready to follow in close pursuit if the enemy breaks or attempts to withdraw.

There are no communications or attempts at jamming during this battle, not even from the Azura's omnipresent Electromagnetic Flux. There is clearly an intelligent battle plan at work here but everything beyond that is based around the individual instincts of the units in question, followed like doctrine.

[Friction roll: 2]

While the Aotrs will carry the overall battle due to being on the defensive and the enemy being optimized against the wrong targets, bad luck strikes when a number of Battlecrabs slip past the defensive network into the backfield during the confusion. During this process a number of them are able to locate and engage Killstorm and her protection detail. It is an unfortunate accident - even if she survives, she will need to burn so much mana in the engagement that she will not be able to withdraw the expeditionary force via Gate.

Killstorm was decidedly annoyed. The Battlecrabs that had got past the Enrager Mk2s (and past the right-flank-most Hammer of Hatred whose unfortunate last-minute shots missed so badly) had torn into the fortifications and necessitated the judicious use of Transmute Matter to Antimatter, sufficient to deplete her mana at least below the point she could cast Gate XXV, if not quite entirely. Thus, they were stuck here for at least another eight hours while she meditated.

Her irritation was only slightly levened by the amusement she gained from Voidslay's wide-eyeglowed shock at the complete fluke coldbeam rifle shot that had actually hit at exactly the right point to astonishingly take one down outright. Stab's incredulity and numb shock was something that, Killstorm would be able to remember more fondly once they were out of this mess.

(Captain Fleshslicer as clearly finding it more amusing than Killstorm, he hadn't stopped shaking with periodic bouts of silent laughter.)

She wasn't angry with the rcompatriots (both the Hammer of Hatred's platoon commander, the tank commander and gunner had each called her seperately to apologise for letting them through - poor Grishkar )Third Trooper Griskar Skullcrusher, who'd she known for fifty years since she'd seen the hobgoblin's potential herself) - was feeling particular wretched. But these things happened; she was just annoyed at the situation in general. She wasn't best fond on having to be the lynchpin of the entire operation, not just of her own group (which included a lot of friends, old and new), but the Aotrs presense in the system entirely.

Killstorm scowled as she located a suitable quiet spot, with a couple more troopers assigned as guards and three Hunter Drones left from one of the groups that had been savaged. At least she wouldn't have to use the Crypt; the personal shelter was designed mostly to keep you dry and out of the elements, but was not big or especially comfortable - certainly not compared to Killstorm's large fluffy over-sized double bed back in her quarters. (Despite her lichhood, Killstorm still like to buryherself in a coccoon of quilts.)

Vivisector would redeploy and get ready for the inevitable next attack, and was co-ordinating with Velinkar in case they did need an emergancy exit. But here she was, having to go out of the loop for eight hours. At least, she mused, if they lasted that long, it might give the admiral a chance ot get some of those anti-magic systems up, and they might be able to get a drop on the Azura.

* * * * * *

Among the things brought along by the reinforcements was something Velinkar had not enrtirely expected - their one and only inside source of information on the Azura, one Boldness. Apparently, she convinced the High Command sufficiently to sned her along where she would be better placed to carry out her elimination of the Furnace Knight. Velinkat had quietly a single Murder on reserve (with some additional troops) in case Boldness did need a transport or assult ship, though he'd not told her that. She was, ultimately, a bit of a valuable resource and with Killstorm down on Tanshin I, he wanted to hold Boldness in reserve in case the ground forces did run into another one of those Azura leaders.

The first thing he'd asked was for his aides to share with her the offer that the Azura diplomats had made, to get a more informed opinion. He'd outlined to them that the Aotrs were not, obviously, going to trade out their technology at any price, but to see if Boldness herself could see any exploitable weakness in the current Azura set-up that could be used to both her own and their advantage.

Aotrs scouts are treated to view of an Azura combat landing during the night. It's a moment of clarity - here, against the strange semiaquatic monsters of Tanshin I, the Azura combat doctrine finally sees its most pure expression against its fated enemy.

It is clear that the Azura and the battlecrab species - identified from ancient bunker records as the Tides - have optimized to kill each other. All their doctrine, training, planning and technology is specialized towards this enemy. So many of their technologies blend into each other to the point where it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. Theirs is a battle of venom and antivenom, mighty heroes against clouds of distracting chaff, terror and discipline. Theirs are battlefields of zero visibility and brilliant standards, of terrible blows and invincible armour, of brutal slaughter targeted at wounded who might otherwise regenerate and transcendent heroism in their defense. These are enemies locked in a death grip so tight that they have forever become a part of each other.

What is quietly notable is that this assault is not a cakewalk for the Azura. The Tides here are not an old formation, ancient relics long surpassed in their dance of poison and cure. The battlecrabs fight with modern tactics that push the Azura hard. This is not an obsolete force cut off from its point of origin, this is a well maintained garrison force that expected to fight this specific battle. Tanshin I's inhabitants no longer seem like a rogue bioweapon but the sharp end of some strange society.

But the Azura have local supremacy and sweep the Tides from the field. Immediately after they are forming up to assault the Aotrs position before Tidal reinforcements can arrive. The dropzone battle has given Aotrs command an excellent assessment of Azura numbers and armament. This is primarily an armoured spearhead centered around a number of direct-fire plasma battlespheres, the equivalent of medium hover tanks, supported by a force of mechanized infantry Ceronians. The bright red heraldry and banners identify this force as the Bleeding Sky, and their battleplan emphasizes blistering mobility, close assault, and a widespread use of plasma vent weaponry. The Knights attached to the force are unpredictable - extremely skilled personal combatants though tactically oblivious even by Azura standards. They spent the Dropzone conflict doing enormous damage but got so caught up in harrying the retreating Tides that the assault on the Aotrs position had to be delayed.

There's a little extra time to prepare as a result. The Azura force has paper superiority but no more than what is normal for attacking an entrenched position like this.

*

Boldness was entering a new phase of her biological cascade. Her brain was configuring into new and powerful configurations, enhancing her intellect from 'young genius' to 'somewhat spooky'. The transformation contained a psionic component that further sharpened her mental abilities and increased the threat she posed. She wasn't a match for a member of Aotrs high command yet but given her rate of growth she would be soon. The exact rate was hard to predict - she accelerated the harder the task put before her in an oppositional growth mechanism uncomfortably reminiscent of the Lazerblasters.

Eventually, she'd be capable of matching Lord Death Despoil or the Furnace Knight on an even playing field. Soon after that she'd surpass them both. And after that things would go really badly - insanity, agony, mass destruction, death. Cheating your way to the top had consequences. She hopes to be done with her work before then, but understands if she needs that power to accomplish her mission.

But for now she's decoding signal flags, ranks, fleet organization and noble connections. "This is useful," she said. "Thank you."

"The Biomancers are, hmm," she thought for an analogy that would make sense. "They are infrastructure. Like... corporations? Corporations for servitor species. Tools for governments, useful militarily, but not wielders of military power. Wielders of enormous civilian power. This set represents the Kaeri, a warrior species, based on owls. We're related, the Kaeri and I. Same thought. They fight with their intellects. I'm an extreme version."

She's moving her hand rapidly as she thought, kinesthetically coding her thoughts in finger-glyphs against her leg. She's already developing more efficient languages for internal use.

"The dominant warrior species is the Ceronians. Warriors of Ceron. The wolves. They are the most successful, the most loyal, the most tenacious. Drives the Kaeri nuts, being number two - drives the species nuts, not the Biomancers, they're professionally disappointed in their children."

She glances aside. "Give them your technology. It's not a big deal. They won't appreciate it, won't understand it, won't bother trying to replicate it. The Azura have spent a very long time making their technology idiot proof, there's no maintenance culture. The only place where meaningful technological growth happens is in Biomancy. If you want a long term relationship - which you might, these are important people - send Aotrs technicians with the devices otherwise they'll break them and blame you for selling them faulty crap."

She focused again. "The Furnace Knight is running a... criminal syndicate? He is out here on his own with his personal allies and resources. The Biomancers are his connection to the legitimate world but they won't die for him. Do not under any circumstances harm them, no matter how he baits you to go after them. They don't know that you don't know that they're untouchable. Speaking of untouchable, I have the following assets in play: an Oratus, who can influence the movements and loyalty of a Ceronian Legion, a Toxicrene, a perfect shapeshifter, and a Diodekoi, who is on this ship," she taps a certain Warsphere, "and is a warrior capable of burning to match the Furnace Knight in hand to hand combat, and has a heart so pure she can be his prophesied end. Problem is that she's currently deeply loyal to him and far away from him, it was the best infiltration I could manage in the circumstances."

"My operation originally planned to use the Toxicrene and Oratus to engineer a grudge between the Diodekoi and the Furnace Knight, and then just kind of hoped they killed each other on the field of battle. Long odds. But... I think there might be a way to do this that not only works, but keeps my sister assassins alive - and if I can do that, I will."

"Most important part, though, is breaking the Furnace Knight from his allies. Some are fanatical loyalists - they have to die. More are dupes, goons, or paid operatives. They need to have their morale shattered. Bribe them, terrify them, exhaust them, their courage will break before their armies crumble. Priority for now is figuring out which forces are which."

Vivisector watched the battle with keen interest. It had, admittedly caught them all a bit off-guard with the realisation that the battlecrabs were, NOT in fact Azura deployed by the orbital forces as planetary defence, but a third faction. That was the problem with the Azura's determined resistance to traditional technology, there was not the comms chatter to intercept.

He had the remaining specialists see if they could find a way to communicate with the battlecrabs against their common enemy. If that meant they had to sacrifice some of the tubes, so be it; after all, they could legitimately claim innocences - of a sort.

Sadly, the dead ones were probably dead too long to be able to be raised with Summon Dead, which had a time limitation of roughly fifty years per assessed caster level for that spell. Unless they could find one who had only relatively recently just died (a thousand years, give or take a few centuries), that option was out. (Vivisector considered and dismissed killing one of the living ones solely to perform that task. It was wasteful, especially if they COULD communicate and use the living ones as a bargining chip.

It was, of course, entirely possible they would either not be able to communicate, or their very presense of the preceeding battle had already squashed the idea, but nevertheless, enemy battlecrabs hitting the Azura in the rear was a nice thing to contemplate.

In the meantime, he deployed a tighter defence. The knights were the main problem here. The Aotrs had a veritable plethora of extremely capable individuals compared to most powers - even such long-lived folk as the Elves - due to their tendancy to pick up and retain the best and brightest. However, that didn't mean they were always there all the time, and a small force like this one had, basically, himself and Killstorm and the captain of the Line Infantry, who was not quite on their level. Against normal, mortal foes, any of the three of them could blitz through with horrendous ease, only in any serious danger from actual anti-vehicle weapons.

But the knights seemed more akin to super-powered beings - and even the Aotrs had some problems with superheroes and the like.
As their upper tiers and the distressing tendancy to spontaneously get TO those upper tiers tended to put them above the levels of even the bottom-end epic casters. Sure, the Aotrs did technically have individuals (aside from the High Command) who could qualify in their own right, but they were VERY small in number and none were present.

So the knights were the biggest problem, due to the damage they could cause. It might be possible he was over-selling them, but after the damage they'd caused thus far, Vivisector was leaning hard on caution. He gave orders to priority target the knights with anti-vehicle weapons when the opporunity arose, working on the basis that not even most superheroes would be able to tank a direct hit from a Hammer of Hatred's can-opener.

In the meantime, the War Droids - of slightly more use here - were set up as a screening force against the enemy infantry. While on the one hand, a close assault was among the easiet ways to deal with War Droids, and this seemed an enemy specialty, on the other, the point of War Droids was ultimately to pin in place the enemy for the Line troopers to attack themselves.

In this instance, Vivisector had pre-planned with the Storm Cleavers (all of which had survived the battle with the battlecrabs) to use their Frost Bombs as an artillery barrage on the War Droid positions. He hoped that the somewhat impetuous knight would charge i8nto sluaghter them (even wth Enrager Mark 1 support), but that while they and the other infantry were doing so, every Frost Bomb the trio carried would be unloaded into the vicinity, turning it into a mist, but most importantly, life-sapping frozen hell. It would no do the War Droids much good either, for that matter, but the Aotrs Lie troopers would be essentially immune to the cold th4emselves and stood a chance of making a killing counter-assault.

And if that worked, the Line troopers would pull back to their previous position, and another group of War Droids would take the place of the first. A classic, if in this case slightly unorthodox, cumbersome and wasteful, ping-pong defence. If it went to plan, Vivisector had enough War Droids to do it twice, but he very much doubted in combining and survivors, that there would be enough War Droids to do it a third time, if even the first time succeeded.

But it was the best shot he'd come up with. And the rest of the Aotrs interlocking defences would hopefully be able to deal with the enemy armour.

* * * * * *

Velinkar was slightly concerned, but not entirely surprised at Boldness' apparent burgeoning power level. Had he had the conversation with Vivisector, they would have both agreed on the superhero problem. (And these was a reason that the Aotrs specificallt considered teenage girls with magical powers to be a top-tier threat, because they seemed very much most prone to going all, well, they'd all seen the cartoons.)

All the more reason to keep her on the allied side, then. (It was, after all, just barely working with the Manual Fighters...)

(He thus refrained from pointing out how remarkably dumb owls were compared to their reputation... He had done falconry once, a few centuries back.)

Now that he was less concerned with her dashing off alone to deal with the Furnace Knight and actually had a plan, he volenteered the services of the reserved Murder detachment for her use.

A thought occurred. If these were greedy corporate types...

"How likely would we be to get a response if we tried to hire some of THEM?" he asked Boldness curiously. "Because I think Lord Death Despoil might not take it amiss if, for instance, we offered to hire some of their local forces to go and, for example, hit the United Concorde of Divine Realms forces here," he indicated Bright Accord Node Station "for us, and what might it cost us?"

Sure, the two-decade-plus streak of victories was somewhat necessary to have been broken at some point, bt that didn't mean the Aotrs as a whole couldn't be creatively petty about taking revenge for it.

He explained the UCDR's heavy reliance on magitech - as a society that likewise seemed to more rely on that than regular tech, the Azura seemed like they would be interested - or at least partly.

(Also, the already-observed very concerning presense of not only large numbers of Magical Teenage Girls, but the concern that some appeared to have survived and stuck at it long enough to be Magical Middle-Aged Veteran Ladies wuld perhaps give the Azura's thrice-cursed knights a run for their money...)

"Failing that, or in addition to it... Building on your idea of the engineered grudge, if you can locate the most readily intimidatable section - or most cost-conscious - with your assets and the addition of the anti-magic systems we're installing, it seems to me we're in a good position to pull something dirty.

"So far, your Azura divination has blunted our surprise attacks. But if our anti-magic can damp that effect enough, perhaps your Toxicrene can be used to falsify... Whatever it is that you use to report data findings to the person who decides where to go. And we can use that to lure a group out to a promising looking asteroid that they've just been told has some ideal deposits on and hit them without warning. And then leave a false trail behind to whichever subfaction they hate most is. To the sort of effect that they had gotten but withheld the divinatory infomation.

"I don't know how possibly that is, that's how I'd initially be looking at it, using spoofed or hacked sensors and communications with a more regular power."

He looked pensive for a moment.

"Is there any chance your Oratus can have an effect on Tanshin I? Some sort of disruption of defection or something when they start their attack on Brigadier Vivisector's tasks force? I appeciate that it might be too late, or possibly using that asset to early, but it's worth knowing if that option is on the table."

Diplomatic first contact with a Battlecrab scouting patrol is an eerie affair. The Battlecrab stands as an unspeaking, unblinking monolith, with communication primarily done by the rapidly altering colour patterns on a barnacle on its shell. The barnacle is a barely capable symbiotic being but a few basic facts can be gained from the discussion:
- The Tides are thinking creatures with language and society and even their war beasts are capable of a baseline of political thought.
- Your immunity to poison is terribly upsetting to them for what seems like aesthetic reasons. All around you can see miniature octopi writing detailed observation glyphs directly onto the shells of the battlecrabs. It comes up multiple times in conversation and the crabs clack their claws angrily each time it does.
- This place is a - the word translates into 'museum', 'prison' and 'archaeological site'. Despite their knowledge of the Azura they regard both factions on the planet to be criminal tomb raiders and have reported the matter to their superiors. It would be possible to arrange a meeting with those superiors but the connotation seems to be 'turning yourselves in to the police' - though that might be a lack of the imagination of front line shock troops and not actual diplomatic policy.

[Friction roll: 3]

The first phase of the engagement goes masterfully to plan. The Knights charge the war droids directly into the teeth of an artillery barrage. With the Knights frozen almost into immobility the Hammer of Hatred lands a shot on centre mass, critically wounding one of the Azura champions.

But that is where the Warriors of Ceron prove their worth. As one they break from cover, launching themselves in a mad rush propelled by their grav-belts. Their shock assault tears down the remainder of the war droids and their grenade launchers lay down thick carpets of eclipse smoke - specially formulated full-spectrum stealth clouds. The casualties they take in this maneuver are horrendous but the operation succeeds at withdrawing the Azura Knight from the combat zone. Only after their lord is safe do the Ceronians begin a fighting withdrawal. Despite the losses, it's an expert operation - these troops are drilled for this specifically.

Vivisector has an important decision to make in that moment. Azura regeneration and biomedical technology is known at this point and best estimates suggest that they'll have the Knight back on her feet - er, so to speak - if not fully recovered in time for a second offensive shortly before Killstorm's gate is ready. He can either pursue the Ceronians and try to inflict a coup de grace on the wounded Azura or accept the withdrawal and entrench in place.

*

"I think..." said Boldness about the idea of hiring the Kaeri Biomancers. "That the principle is sound. But the scale is... insufficient. These people wouldn't get out of bed for a single space station but if you were willing to provide them with comprehensive intelligence on a multi-system stellar empire? They would definitely be interested in launching a war of conquest against one of your regional rivals. That is, after all, what they are here to do."

She goes quiet for a while as she contemplates the integration of anti-magic into her schemes, fingers flicking at rapid speed. "The Azura are resistant to courtly intrigue at the operational level because their baseline level of such behaviour is so high," she said. "You'd likely get a non-lethal honour duel out of that at operation at best. It's not that it can't be done but a single blow is rarely enough - we're talking about a sustained infiltration and operations involving dozens of commando strikes, matched with major military assaults. High degree of risk, significant losses even if it works. Possible, if you're prepared to commit the assets."

She shook her head at the final question. "The Oratus is a bioweapon - essentially, she contains a unique virus that can make her the centre of a hivemind of up to a thousand infected which will fall under her absolute control. She can make a legion go rogue, essentially, but you can't cover up a rogue legion."

Vivisector paused long enough in his planning to tell his scouts speaking to the battlecrabs that the conflict between them was increasinly seeming a tragic first-contact misunderstanding. It happened, sadly not that infrequently and often with far less willingness to negotiate between the sides.

It was, he had them explain, a situation exacerabted by the presense of the Azura, who the Aotrs had initially had been manipulated into believeing were part of the Azura (not strictly true, but also mot 100% inaccurate). The Azura were clearing using both of them against each other to weaken them both, so they could steal what the Aotrs now realised was not an abandoned ruin, but a place of inportance to a living culture. In fact, if they could deal with the Azura, it stood to reason that their two cultures might have some common ground beyond the mutual enemy, since the Aotrs were also big into post-funeray rituals, just from a slightly different angle. And by dint of what they did the Aotrs were quite keen on archeology and has a lot of museums, so they fully appreciated the situation.

(A surprising number of musuems, it must be observed, patroned by Kemala Axea's wide-ranging Renaissence-Berserker pursuits...)

He was working on the basis that even if they had to sacrifice some or all of the stuff they'd found in the ruins (returning it to its rightful place), if they could finagle access to the ruins anyway to look with nondestructive ethods, it would be almost as useful. And an apparently planet-bound group of aliens was much easier to accomodate and deal with than a very large hostile empire...

He added that the Azura were clearly on their way to steal what was in the prison/museum/site and any help they could provide would be beneficial - given that the Azura clearly wanted to play the against each other, Vivisctor thought that perhaps the Aotrs and the Tides ought to do the opposite and collaborate to push the Azura off and then (politely) settle their issues in a civilised manner.

(It was worth a shot, he felt.)

In the meantime, Vivisector elected not to pursue the wounded knight. If the Ceronians continued to be professional, they'd have soildly covered the retreat, and Vivisector did not have the numbers for an assault in any case. The defence had bought what it needed - time - for Killstorm to regain enough mana to get them out of there.

He solidified the defences, moving the line a bit further back, littering the former nfantry positions with as many boody-traps and explosives - and re-animated (non-Battlecrab) corpses from the previous battles - as possible. The last battle had, at least, given them plenty of those. While animated dead were fundamentally hopeless on the modern battlefield, there was a small chance that en masse they would at least cause the Ceronians some dela in taking the positions.

The bulk of the remainig defence would solidly be from the surviving Enragers support by what War Droids were left. His own proper infantry were withdrawing back to the site itself.

* * * * * *

Velinkar sighed. "Worth a thought, but no, it seems. I could give them all the information we have on the UCDR, but it doesn't amount to much and they're probably too far away as a power for the biomancers to get at.

"I mean, we COULD point them at the Shardan" (there was no question of pointing them at the Manual Fighters - who Would Find Out and that wasn't worth thinking about - the Shardan would find out too, but the Aotrs were already enemies, so it mattered a bit less) "but aside from getting the biomancers killed a lot, I don't think that would be helpful." (And they didn't know where the Blasted Legion were hiding, the Yrgynela were elusive... And the Cybertanks and everone else way too close for comfort, since Velinkar, if he could not get any local strikes, rather wanted the Azura to be Far Away from the Aotrs, preferrably for a few centuries...)

"What about the Strayvians? We have quite a bit of information on those," (but didn't basically everyone?) "and we're fairly certain we have some idea of where the Dominion space is now concertrated. Would that be enough...?" It seemed, of course, reasonably likely that the Azura would have had run-ins with the Strayvians before, during the Empire period at least, given how stupidly large the Empire had gotten.

Actually, the thought of the Azura knights coming up against the Empire-Era Strayvian super-villains/mad science was (if somewhat dated), a rather hilarious one and the Azura might even somehow appeciate the fist-waving and "I'll get you next times" that would likely result...

After a few hours delay a small formation approaches the Aotrs scouts. Transported on a grandiose palanquin, garlanded in corals, silk robes and jewels, is a squidlike alien similar in basic structure to the subjects in the test tubes. Despite its initially impressive appearance it's hard to look past the faintly frazzled air of the creature and the nervousness of its constant twitching gestures. A herald introduces it as the Regional Subdirector of Long Term Memory, speaking on behalf of the Tides.

"Your position has been communicated to me," it states. "But negotiations cannot continue while your war crimes are ongoing. You must remove all construct and unliving forces from the Archive immediately as a precondition for further discussion. The use of such creatures forces the genesis of anti-materiel weaponry which risks civilization itself. It cannot be permitted; we demand this show of basic respect to the laws of war."

There doesn't seem to be any flexibility on this point with this creature, and its demand could not come at a worse moment. To decamp the Aotrs from their defensive position in the teeth of an immanent Azura assault risks the complete destruction of Vivisector's entire force. It's not a sure thing, perhaps they get lucky and escape - but is such a sacrifice worth laying the groundwork for future negotiations?

*

"Oh, the Strayvians!" said Boldness. She rapidly went over the historical data. "Oh, I was wondering what had happened to them. Humans?" She frowned with something that looked almost like fear. "That makes sense. But yes, that would actually be a easy sell; the chance to destroy an old pirate kingdom once and for all."

A certain amount of arrogance is to be expected of the Azura nobility. Not so much from Boldness. When she refers to the old Strayvian empire, that vast and sprawling polity, like they were mere bandits - or the Furnace Knight as a crime lord - the implication is grim. The sheer, overwhelming size of the Endless Azure Skies seems to live up to its name. Perhaps the best framework to understand how it is accustomed to interacting with its neighbours is that of the dynasties of China.

"But yes, this would work," she said. "Only question is if it happens on a timetable that is useful to you, and the best way to guarantee that is to provide detailed, useful sensor information. Planets, fortifications, fleet numbers and dispositions, and so on. The Azura are poor scouts and worse explorers so the best thing you can offer them is detailed maps."