[b]Task Force Dagger![/b]

[Friction: [b]1[/b]]

Unfortunately, this is a case of good money after bad. 

The Azura chain of command is an ugly thing, full of tangled loyalties, horizontal allegiances, budding coups and dynastic power blocs. Information passes along it like fluid through a broken pipe junction; spraying in places, leaking in others. Sometimes the water does not get to where it is going at all, sometimes it gets to places it shouldn't by routes that seem impossibly quick.

The hit and fade attack is authorized because communications analysis indicates no chatter along command channels indicating preparations to resist an antimagic cloak strike. It is correctly assumed that the information is taking its time to pass up the chain of command and that a window exists before Azura leadership updates their procedures. But even as high command is deaf and dumb, the information spreads like wildfire amidst a small clan-unit hungry for advancement. On a gamble, they detach themselves from the formation and lie in wait in the signature shadow of an accelerator gate.

It pays off. When Task Force Dagger emerges for its hit and fade mission they are ambushed [i]again [/i]- this time by a concerted and extremely motivated enemy, exultant that their bet paid off. They get in close just as the ships finish emerging from their Gates and savage them, claiming first blood for the Azura in the battle and sending the wreckage of some very expensive anti-magical technologies crashing down into the planet below.

[b]Task Force Bullet![/b]

As large as the Doomskrieg is, as magnificent, as terrifying - it draws absolutely no response from the Azura whatsoever. As bait, it fails miserably, even as it aims its crosshairs right over Tanshin's sun.

But then, you're fighting an enemy that is strategically blind. Their ships don't have scanners - they can't tell the Doomskrieg from a particularly large cargo ship. They are certainly not willing to leave their gravity well to chase after it, no matter how ominously its cannons glow. Their divination informs them that there is no intention to blow up the sun and so the Doomskrieg is a curiosity at best. They do not even assign to it a ceremonial importance, and their fleets bypass it without incident. In Azura fleet doctrine, size is no indicator of importance and no special consideration is given to the ship beyond what can be observed of its capabilities.

It is still a large, powerful warship, of course, and an effective centre but the Azura make full use of their ability to pass into and out of atmosphere freely in order to evade it while harrying the more mobile fleet elements.

[b]Task Force Sword and Arrow![/b]

With the Ring-Gates still operational, the Generous Knight can patiently observe the distribution of Aotrs forces and reinforce at her leisure. It's a primordial form of generalship - the cavalry noble sitting upon a hill, deciding when to commit her reserves. 

Despite the simplicity of its fundamentals, the technique is exquisitely refined for both the strengths and weaknesses of the Azura fleet. It bypasses the shambolic Azura communications by having the general observe each battlefield directly, it checks headstrong aggression and cowardice both by placing control of the gates in the hands of a central authority, it allows her to drip feed in resources to various battlefronts whenever a line crumples or the pressure starts to turn. Overwhelmingly, it seems, that Azura doctrine is built for two things: Taking a lightly defended planet rapidly, and then holding it against a reinforcement fleet. Everyone knows what to do in this situation, deep as DNA.

[Friction: 6]

Despite the best Azura leadership that has been encountered so far, task forces Sword and Arrow perform admirably. Against fierce resistance they conduct textbook maneuvers, launch precision orbital strikes, interdict multiple attempts to land reinforcements, and trade bitterly with enemy fleet elements. Casualties are spectacular on both sides but hour after hour Aotrs ground forces look up at the sky and see no enemy reinforcements descending.

[b]Task Force Spear![/b]

The cost of the earlier rout and the Biomancer defection comes due. The Generous Knight starts to run low on reserves and neither situation is stabilized. The last commitment is that of her flagship and direct retinue, and she chooses to assault Task Force Spear. She departs her vantage point and the vestiges of her fleet commit into battle against Task Force Spear.

The Generous Knight's flagship, the [i]Misericordia[/i], was unusually large, and comically over-armoured even by Azura standards. As soon as she enters the theater and the violet runes aboard her ship ignite the reason becomes clear. Every instance of damage that occurs anywhere across her entire fleet is instead redirected to the flagship. Direct coldbeam strikes disappear into the void when they impact fighter craft and instead erupt, thousands of kilometers away, on the surface of the [i]Misericordia[/i].

The immediate result of this is the absolute [i]mauling [/i]of the Aotrs fighter envelope. Azura fighters immediately commit to suicidal, all-out offensives - the ordinance that it would have taken to destroy them insignificant against the [i]Misericordia[/i]'s wall of armour. At the same time, all Azura large ships commit immediately to extreme evasive maneuvers - any ship-killing weapons that would hit them risk blowing out unacceptably large chunks of the flagship. Every second the Misericordia's shadow lies across the battlefield is another moment for the Azura fighter craft to maul Aotrs pilots and Azura bombers to laugh off point defense weaponry as they deliver their ordinance.

[Friction roll [b]4[/b]]

This is an enormously powerful asset, committed to a force well trained in its use, but the initial shock is not enough to cause the Aotrs fleet to collapse. Velinkar has time enough to contemplate a counter-strategy.

[b]Ground Forces![/b]

[Friction roll: 6]

With victories in the skies and an advantageous position, no assault immediately comes on the Aotrs ground forces. Azura commanders are still rallying their soldiers, organizing logistics from secondary bases, designing plans of attack and sheltering from fleet bombardments. Precious time is bought at minimal cost to rig defenses and work on the temple complex.

At this time, Boldness departs from the Aotrs forces to make contact with her fellow assassins and prepare for the decapitation strike on the Furnace Knight.