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 [i]at all costs[/i].

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 [i]Crippling Glare[/i], 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...