He nodded. "We were under attack from naturalized, manifested beyonders. Two confirmed, another two we can't prove other than circumstantial evidence before I was rendered unconscious, maybe more. That is the first time we tried to enter a portal under fire, let alone under that kind of firepower. I had suspect the energy waveform of a portal would react to energy disruptions on the magic fields around it, due to how delicate the spell usually is, but this is the closest we have to proof of that.<br/><br/>I suspect the unit number and condition will be like a bell curve, slowly trending upwards until we have most of the units here and then dropping back down, though the degree of accuracy on when each part of the curve starts will only be obvious significantly after the fact, due to how many ships we lost to the beyonders. I also suspect the timeline we came from was one where the beyonders had won, due to not having any detectable light, emissions or matter within the area.<br/><br/>But back to my point, we currently have 67 combat capable units, and another two hundred units with significant damage, most of which was picked up recently. We aren't dead in the water and waiting to get rolled over by the next wave, Xyra. We are waiting for the rest of my Death Guard to get back. We ALSO know of at least two ships that made it through undamaged, and neither of them have arrived yet. We aren't dead, we are waiting for reinforcements and THEN we will be able to deliver on that hope. Or start too."<br/><br/>He leaned back and sighed. "Overdeities know, this isn't the worst situation we have faced, other than my beyonder being poisoned."<br/><br/>Brindol only got a long range look, he didn't want to get their hopes up when it could be years before enough forces arrived he was willing to commit them to a static defense, but just that it was intact was enough. Done with that, he put the Fane as the next destination, though this one he WOULD enter with his daughter.