Ragni missed a breath at the sight of the updated hologram. "Is our position correct?" Her voice was somewhat tremulous and she had to take a moment to regain her composure.

"I can take it down," I said with a low voice.

She ignored me. Us Warships could be a little too eager during battle and had to be balanced out by the cool heads of our Captains. "Vakkaidu?"

"I, uh," the Navigator stammered, "We submerged far deeper into their sphere than anticipated, if that's what you wanted to know, Captain. We even managed to partially push through the support vessel's sphere."

"Was it that much weaker than we anticipated?"

"I..." Once again Vakkaidu couldn't find the words. "Not sure, Captain."

"I can't explain it either," Kanmurdi said. "The enemy's combined sphere is incredibly weak right now and practically all separated if I'm reading this right. We hit it much harder than the oneiromantic sessions predicted."

At the core of the Sholaidon maneuver were two ideas: the first one being that firing one's weapons inside an enemy sphere bypassed its border which was configured to bleed off most of incoming weaponry's energy, and, in the case of slow moving missiles, even expel them; the second idea was that forcing oneself into the enemy sphere severely weakened it, making one's weapons all the more effective. Of course, for that last part one needed to have a powerful, proper Sphere of Influence that only we Mezhained Ships had. With the Huyiid Integrated Group's combined sphere as powerful as it was—for the foreign vessels that they were—Sholaidon's daring little trick seemed like a good way to save munitions and energy. The plan formulated in our oneiromantic sessions had been to dive into the enemy sphere by at least two thirds of my Greater Self's length and release the missiles. Naturally there were more optimistic estimates, but every single one of those had just been blown out of the water. And whatever the enemy expected me to do had to be turned around in their heads and rebuilt from the ground up because I had done so damned well.

Glints of rapidly moving projectiles were spewed out of defense turrets at the circus of missiles, adding some fireworks. From what I understood, these were automatic and controlled by powerful crystalline ordinators. A good number of them didn't respond properly, obviously due to a devious demonic infestation that hadn't been fully resolved.

The missiles that got away detonated their secondary payloads along their lengths, spreading showers of radioactive material and Fae Matter. Lousy compared to particle beams, but very good at polluting a sphere. Some of them even dared to do their suicide runs to deliver their primary payloads in bright directed flashes pointed at the boats' hulls. With the spheres so weakened some of them had success and even managed to knock out some important structures.

The human side took their time to realize what was going on, but soon enough I sensed how all the small silly boat's weapons turned on me. "Oh? They finally got over their surprise!"

Consulting the readouts from his display, Melusum caught the launch of a series of missiles. "Aye, they're sending whatever is aimed at us this way."

Ragni's response was immediate. "Countermeasures!"

And just as quickly Melusum had figured out the next step. "Give it to 'em short range and blooming if you can, Ship."

"Right on it!"

With a right, big, shark-toothed grin I aimed the short range cannons Melusum had designated at the incoming swarm of stinging insects, their movement easily predicted. It appeared to me the enemy crew wasn't thinking too thoroughly about where to hit me as pretty much all of them were aimed at my section that was closest to them, which was my bow. Boat or proper Mezhained Ship, all craft capable of superluminal translation had most of their shielding right on the bow. Deflecting those dinky little gnats would be child's play to me. Even so, it was quite a swarm and it would be wise to thin them out.

The particle beams shot out at their usual speed, leaving flashes of light trailing through my Sphere, passing through it virtually unimpeded, crossed into the section overlapping with the enemy sphere, and then upon passing into the other scattering into a fantastic blooming glows like flowers of exotic light unfurling. This spectacular bouquet mixed with the swirling turbulence and I felt like I was reaching out even further than before. Ethereal filaments danced about and occasionally touched the simplified contract drive of the other.

"Oh!" I cried out, reaching out with many avatar hands. "I can feel the half forgotten song in there."

The first barrage of their missiles hit the particle bouquet and promptly died, adding their detonations to the mad mixing of Sphere and sphere that was increasingly more the former than the latter. I grasped my hands and the filaments became more real.

I tilted my head and sucked in air between parted rows of triangular teeth. "Kanmurdi, can you feel this?" Before I even finished my sentence I realized my error. "I mean, you can see it on your display, right?"

"I'm not sure if I understand it, your Radiance," she said. "Are you..." Puzzled eyes of precious blue regarded me. "Exerting your Influence out into their sphere?"

Before I knew it a little giggle slipped past my tongue. I tilted my neck to train my gaze towards her. "You could call it that."

Ragni, struck silent, searched for her next line of inquiry. Things happening before her very eyes had compounded into mysteries, leaving her head reeling. When her voice finally returned she managed to modulate it to an acceptable level of authority. "Lennaivu, what can you tell me? How strained is her song?"

"Not as much as one would think." Calm and collected as always, that Illustrious Brother. "There's a contraction at the border of her Sphere that overlaps with the smaller vessel's sphere where she somehow manages to extend herself into it."

"Contracting and extending at the same time?"

"Minor contractions from the border oscillate into extensions and back again to keep a Sphere stable during a Sholaidon maneuver. However, an extension of this magnitude into an opposing vessel's sphere is something I never even dreamed of seeing."

The gears in Ragni's head turned quickly. "Can we use this?"

"I can tear that stupid little boat apart easily," I said. Earlier she had ignored my offer, giving priority to the immediate situation. Maybe now she was more open to the idea.

Ragni looked at me just as Kanmurdi informed us my particle bloom stopped an alternating salvo from the enemy. She knew my eagerness and felt more confident our current situation was an advantageous one. "If your Sphere can take it," she said. "You're free to show them your might."

A few of the annoying gnats had meandered past the glowing wall of Fae Matter, had gotten easily caught in my Sphere of Influence and just as easily ejected. Likewise with the weak bombardment of particle beams and coilgun fire. "Ragni, you will praise me so much when this is over."

She chuckled softly. "Melusum? Tell her her options."

"We have too few missiles left for anything meaningful," He began. "However, that cannonade earlier was very promising to anyone with their right senses."

A lightness in my feet made me skip with joy. "Right, right! Want me to do it again?"

He smirked at my little display. "If you would be so kind, dear Ship."

"Here I go!"

As if it made a difference, the support vessel slowly turned its bow towards, betting on the heavier shielding there for protection. No use, the Fae Matter laced shots bloomed as magnificently as before, extending and empowering my presence in the faltering domain of the other.

Sharp as he was, Melusum already had the next step thought out. "Now fire these coilguns like you usually would and take care of that battery on the big boat."

"Watch how easily I do it!" A jab with Hekkamuk into the little boat's hologram and an outstretched hand in the direction of the big boat's potshots unified with my two-way salvos.

Though the sphere of the Huyiid proper had begun to heal, my alternating coilgun and particle cannon fire from my stem dug deep into it and nearly reached down to the battery firing at me. It was silly to me how little conventional weaponry there was on that big boat of theirs. They probably counted on the little boats for support fire. One more salvo would probably take care of their annoying cannon fire.

The real spectacle, though, were the two coilgun slugs that emerged from the particle clouds in streaks of colorful light, the enemy's shielding offering too little resistance. Gleefully I watched how they tore all the way through the sphere to the bow in a lightning flash. One of them impacted with a petal, digging a glowing semi-circle at the edge of its missile battery, twisting and tearing everything connected to it into a barely connected heap of scrap. The other passed between two petals and gouged out a shallow trench along the stem into a cannon and half a missile battery, portions of the surrounding superstructure tore off through a transfer of kinetic force to become nothing more than glowing debris. One whole petal and its attached weaponry made useless, a cannon and seven or eight missile launch tubes knocked out, and along with that there was no doubt a long list of poor unfortunate souls who lost their lives. All this in less than the blink of an eye. Like with any decently written contract the shielding was strongest around the boat's superstructure. Were it not for that the slugs wouldn't have bounced off in those sparking trails of colorful light.

I felt myself breathe in deeply, unaware of which avatar the sensation came from; it felt collective but it might've been none. A few bits more of the little boats sphere had become familiar—no, more real—to me. That little coilgun salvo had strengthened my presence there.

"Next salvos: another alternating at that battery and give the support vessel another taste of your cannons." Nothing about Melusum's orders was surprising. Just the obvious continuation of what we were already doing.

I gestured to project my stem-side coilguns and cannons at the Huyiid's battery. The coilgun slug compressed the projected shield to a white hot state, shattering against it into a shower of colorful sparks. Without giving the wound a rest the particle beam hit, blooming and losing energy as the local shielding gave its last but not enough. Bulkheads evaporated at the center of impact, molten chunks spat outward and out from the center the plating rippled and warped in a wave of kinetic energy and heat. Underneath the fading glow were the mangled remains of an infrastructure that only moments ago provided energy, munitions, and manpower to two weapons that each on its own could pose an existential threat to an exposed planet. Those were all gone. The heat had even made most of the other coilguns and cannons in the battery useless, for a while at least. All in all a very clean and by the books result.

With a short thrust of Hekkamuk I extended myself via two bursts of particles agitated by the power of suns. In a near instant these careened through my Sphere and the unfolding volume under my control. The turbulence grew further along their paths like spiraling vines. Then one of them found an obstruction in the form of a petal and immediately transferred all its energy into it, unfurling outward in a kaleidoscope of energies and taking the petal along with it. The other crossed paths with a wandering missile, fanned out, raining down on a shroud of the boat's contract drive and its tiny fuel pods and mundane drive to melt them. It was easy to make the mistake that the contract drive was unaffected in all this, but that would be wrong. My presence in its sphere had gone from a trembling flame to a fire that lit the dark. That little contract was so weak but maybe I could scratch out some letters and change the meaning of words.