Before switching to condition red, the two fleets danced around each other.
The expeditionary fleet centered around the Ark Horizon kept trying to transition into FTL.
In order to bar their way, the Dragons of the Void kept bombarding them with miniature gravity bombs. These bombs did nothing much but radiate a strong local gravity field that quickly tapered off. However, they were cheap to make so thousands of these bombs rained over the expeditionary fleet at any moment.
At its current state, the expeditionary fleet's FTL drives couldn't handle the disturbance. The constant ejection of the bombs was like throwing stones into a formerly placid lake. The ripples that ensued when the stones touched the water prevented the ships from going into FTL.
