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

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

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

*

G-2679 dies.

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

*

The [i]Crippling Glare[/i] observes something new: Azura ships arriving in system from FTL.

It's startlingly direct.

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

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

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

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

*

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