Aotrs Commander

The Red Furnace: First Contact

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 Red Furnace: First Contact

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."

The Red Furnace: First Contact

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.

The Red Furnace: First Contact

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...

The Red Furnace: First Contact

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 Red Furnace: First Contact

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 Red Furnace: First Contact

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...

The Red Furnace: First Contact

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"We wrong.

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

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

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

* * * * * * * * * * *

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

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

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

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

Especially when he was trying to run a war.

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

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

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

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

His aide allowed himself a small snort of amusement.

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

"Exactly."

* * * * * * * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

The Red Furnace: First Contact

Unlucky regarded her a moment steadily.

"Where are they now?"

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

"That where they are now.

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

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

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

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

"Lazerblasters?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"We think.

"We hope.

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

The Red Furnace: First Contact

Unlucky shook his head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * * * * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

He ordered the fighters to make their Gate jump.