"Sustainable?" Unlucky regarded Boldness with a raised eyebrow. "Will they be around in twenty years? "You asking wrong questions. [i]As they exist[/i], 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 [i]actually being[/i] 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 [i]heat death of the universe[/i], because we pretty sure that, right NOW, they already be able to stop it. "Universe eventually not big enough? They just [i]make more[/i] of it. "The reach top of metaphorical tech tree? They hack into metaphorical game code and write theyselves [i]more tech tree[/i]. "They whole species have only two factions. Only TWO. One good, one evil, and [i]that[/i] one now decisively losing. They have no civilians, no neutrals, no 'only concerned about they own lives'. They united in their purposes by their [i]nature[/i] 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 [i]size of all observable realities[/i]. 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 [i]wrong[/i]. "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 [i]billions[/i] of starships. They could field fleets orders of [i]magntitude[/i] greater than us - or anybody else, save perhaps Lazerblasters in [i]push[/i] 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 [i]won't[/i]." * * * * * * * * * * * "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 [i]Gate XXV[/i] 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...