The first exchange had been measured but the next would not be.
Voss vessels held their widened arcs after Dislocation, engines burning steady as the engagement grid stretched across a wide space. From a distance, they still appeared scattered, an irregular spread of ships maintained unpredictable vectors.
Ulix had adjusted quickly, limiting the tremors they had incurred as a result of Voss's strange formation. Their central flagship rotated, shield density thickening along the flanks. Fighter swarms regrouped into a tighter defensive ring instead of pursuing.
Artillery ships began anchoring themselves behind the heavier hulls, preparing for sustained bombardment. They had realised the enemy's tactic and adjusted accordingly.
A new volley erupted from Ulix, denser lines, tightly coordinated. Long range slower and more powerful blasts followed. This time, key Voss vessels were the targets.
The shields were effective at first, only a slight shock was felt by the ships, but the volley did not stop and the ships began to tremble. Just as the shields seemed as if about to fail, the enemy's fire slacked.
Voss had now begun to feel threatened.
This coordinated attack disoriented some of Voss's cruisers.
What had begun as measured positioning now unfolded into something vast and deliberate. Ulix assault wedge held firm at the centre of the engagement grid, buster cruisers anchored like iron pillars in space. While carriers remained shielded behind artillery platforms, rotating with cold precision as firing solutions recalculating every second.
Across the widening field Voss ships drifted in apparent disorder. The advantageous remnants of the Dislocation manoeuvre still echoed through their spread formation. Cruisers hovered at irregular intervals, Frigates angled on strange vectors that were all poised for a direct attack.
Ulix did not rush, their strategist could recognise the unusual format Voss had taken. Instead of charging into the scattered field, they began to tighten their wedge, compressing shields, formation and artillery in unison to keep Voss constantly under fire.
The volley between the two sides continued and each side was careful not to allow a weakness to appear. They blocked and returned fire but everyone knew that it was not sustainable. Eventually the shield would burst, so it the time between exchanges, they were looking for weak points.
On the other side of battle at the edge, the fight was not so stable and consistent as in the centre. Long range plasma lances struck along key outer Voss buster vessels, slipped through minor gaps in the concentrated fire from Ulix. Kinetic burst followed, saturating the spaces where Voss vessels would need to manoeuvre if they attempted regrouping.
Three of the buster-class ships were forced into abrupt burns. One miscalculation, and the formation's weakness would be laid bare. After the successful disruption, Ulix took advantage of the moment and pressed on sending some squadrons through while maintaining their formation integrity.
Voss responded.
The scattered ships shifted again, but this time the motion carried cohesion. Upper plane cruisers dipped downward in shallow arcs and instead of spreading outward began seeming to compress. Numerous frigates and ships curved inward while Ulix took the initiative.
Ulix recognised this sudden shift but did not change course. The weakness was still there, visible to a smart tactician. So they took charge.
Artillery fire intensified toward the converging arcs. While other ships of Ulix were focused on attacking the opened weakness, most Ulix ships calculated future positions to take and likely positions Voss would move to.
One of Voss's destroyers entered one of the projected kill zones and they fired at it with all power. The destroyer held on well with its shield, but the continuous barrage of blasts took a toll. The impact tore through its shields and gutted its power source in white eruption. The ship remained operational but fell out of alignment, trailing fragments as it fell.
Feeling the pressure, the destroyer gave a slight opening for Voss, drawing attention as fighter squadrons from both sides surged into the narrowing space. Hundreds of small craft collided in spirals, interceptors colliding with incoming missiles and ships drawing fire away to shield it.
Ulix was emboldened and pressed the advantage but they still were not so reckless to push on without being wary.
The central flagship accelerated pushing deeper into the Voss spread before the converge could complete, drawing attention back to the centre after gaining advantage at the outer edge.
Heavy cannon discharged in synchronised sequences, targeting a cluster of Voss cruisers. Multiple rays fell on the central ships, the bombardment enough to cause repeated tremors through the ships.
For a moment, Voss formation threatened to fracture permanently. The damaged cruisers and destroyers pulled back, creating an opening. It was the weak spot Ulix had been hoping for.
Three Ulix heavy armoured ships began surging forward, engines burning at maximum thrust attempting to pierce through the wall. Their momentum carried them through suppressive fire and into the perimeter. If they could just get through, they could cause significant damage on the rear.
By all metrics, Voss was losing, and the battle hadn't even lasted an hour.
Then they answered.
Fighter squadrons disengaged from offensive and defensive spirals and collapsed inward, abandoning outer skirmishes to swarm the advancing cruisers. Missile patterns shifted from harassment to concentrated engine strikes.
One Ulix cruiser absorbed multiple impacts along its propulsion lane from the squadrons that it was enough to flicker the shield, destabilising the acceleration. But the other two pushed on.
On the Voss bridge, Velis watched the formation compress around them without moving her hands from behind her back.
"Let them come further in," she said. The operators before her turned to face her. "They are about to run out of room to turn." Receiving their orders, they turned back to their screens, punched in commands and relayed them through the comms.
The fire intensified and the scattered ships began to compress and group together hindering the Ulix cruisers from passing through. Being closer to the enemy exposed the cruisers to a greater danger as now even heavier and numerous volleys of blast came, battering the shields from all angles.
Thus they were hindered and the open space caused by Dislocation was closed with the sudden compression. This act trapped those Ulix squadrons who tried to infiltrate the weakness they found.
Ulix adapted again.
Rather than pulling back, their central ship reduced acceleration to a standstill and rotated inward, redistributing shields from forward assault to side assault with prized cannons used in horizontal naval battles.
The act itself was smart, they were able to stop themselves from entering the trap after Voss reclaimed the initiative. Now showing their side to Voss, they fired their powerful side cannons while pulling back the central ship without exposing it to too much danger.
Then without Ulix noticing until it was too late, Voss's ships complete the convergence. Before, their fleet was spread out like a blanket but now they were like a curve sphere spacing around Ulix.
The fleet surrounded the enemy and their position was terrifying as it would allow them to flank them. Cruisers anchored the outer sides while Frigates and Destroyers occupied the upper and lower poles ready to advance.
The encirclement was complete.
Then sustained bombardment began from every angle at once.
Ulix shields flared in continuous waves of laser blasts, absorbing energy from every direction. Their shields fluctuated and power redistribution put under heavy strain.
They did not take this lying down. Ulix artillery returned fire in disciplined bursts, not wasting energy on secondary targets while trying to back away out of the trap space they now found themselves in. But they could only hold for so long when one shield failed and an explosion ensued.
The pressure was real. They tried to pull the fleet back. For several minutes, the battle stabilised into brutal semi-equilibrium. Ulix was successful in forcing pressure on Voss and held remarkable resistance, but Voss's bombardment inflicted too much damage.
"They are pulling back," an operator reported.
"Let them try," Velis said lifting her hand for the first time. An interface appeared before her, one she manipulated to show a different point of view.
"Shift fire to the outer edge first. Work inward," she ordered.
Then Voss changed tempo. Instead of maintaining a steady fire, starting from the outer edge to the central ships they exchanged staggering volleys and began advancing in earnest. Ships ceased firing in unified rhythm and switched to offset timing like a ripple wave.
This strange move forced Ulix to constantly recalibrate their capabilities and recalculate to best accommodate absorption patterns.
Simultaneously, Voss fighters stopped attacking capital and the biggest ships entirely and then redirected their attacks at the medium ships. With the concentration of fire on them, their shield were nothing, and they were hit hard.
There were many explosions and ships steering off course but Voss did not stop and pushed forward even more obviously. It then became clear to Ulix forces that the enemy was closing in on them from all directions.
Being soldiers they knew it was disadvantageous for them to be put in that situation. For them to survive, they needed to back out of the range of the 'blanket.' Doing that was going to be very difficult to accomplish.