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

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

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

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

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

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

*

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

*

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

*

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

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

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

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