Quote:
Originally Posted by (E)
When the situation gets bad enough a larger force will respond to piracy on worlds away from a central government's protection. The amount of protection depends on how concerned the government is with its reputation regarding piracy.
Independant colonies can choose to get a third party to protect them. But this leaves them totally reliant on the third parties honesty. Protection rackets of varying legality tend to result. Most independant colonies are forced to just risk just getting by with what they can afford. This added level of risk means larger trading endeavors tend to leave the independant colonies to the smaller traders.
Question
With ftl technology scattering fleets on every jump how do "deep water" navies operate? Large self sufficient ships? Huge FTL carriers? Something else?
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Single, massive "jump carriers" bring small fleets of support craft. A single large ship could be taken out by a single lucky shot (Although modern defenses mitigate that somewhat), but a fleet of fighters can take at least as many hits as it has elements. The fighters can screen the area and protect the jump carrier, harrassing shipping, shutting down orbital activity, possibly even landing commando missions, while the carrier remains at a safe distance.
An invasion generally starts with a single carrier jumping in after arriving from long distance. Its forces interdict trade until the local planet gives in or additional carriers arrive and eventually give the invading side overwhelming force. Defending a planet surface is fairly easy if there's only one attacking jump carrier, so defenders focus on taking out the carrier before a second can arrive, and a third, and a fourth, making the battle exponentially more difficult.
HOWEVER! Each navy has different approaches to this basic model, some of them diverging quite widely. For example, anything from a simple, very light jump carrier with a cargo of only four highly-capable battleships, all the way to a hive-ship with substantial armor and weapons and thousands of drones, has seen use in space.
Question: Is there such a thing as magic, psionics, both, or neither in this setting?