“Push them into the clear channel! We’re coming back around!” The Tindrel commander screeched. The capital ship sent a visualisation of a gap between two tight clusters of space debris. The factory complex was nearby - they had cleared this channel to allow large freighters to quickly move to and fro. Based on the relative positioning of the asteroid field and the system’s general gravitational alignment, the planetoid’s second pass would come from ‘above’. 

Ordinarily, the Outreman fleet would have flushed the enemy fleet out from their hiding places with seismic charges. They could have smashed the asteroid belt into small and less dangerous pieces and lit hostile shields up. However, that sort of weaponry was incompatible with a simulation where they couldn’t actually go around wrecking the place. Especially when there was a real factory complex nearby that was already signalling for them to use caution on their property.

The Tindrel ships paid no mind to that, however. It was largely their own holding, after all.

“CHARGE!” Their captains screamed as one, forming a war cry. The full weight of their force swarmed into the depths of the slow-moving asteroid field, seeking to rapidly gain ground on the enemy and do battle. The formation they had from the beginning was totally ruined. The large Outreman vessels couldn’t navigate into the tightly-packed core, so they began skirting around the edges, firing at enemy elements which broke cover to assault the planetoid. Their smaller destroyers and frigates joined the Tindrel.