penny wrote:munroburton wrote:It certainly was the greatest risk for the MAN during their Oyster Bay attack. Not only did they have simultaneous attacks planned in two star systems, one of them was further split into three sub-targets.
The streak drive is almost irrelevant; an Allied dispatch boat near the hyper limit alerted by FTL can be into hyperspace long before a second spider ship has received a lightspeed message from the first. The real problem for the MAN is they cannot use FTL comms while their enemies can.
One of their ships was almost discovered before the agreed time. If it had been, then their entire operation starts falling apart. The discovered task force is forced to attack early or abort. Depending on the timing, it will not be able to inform the other forces what has happened; they'd probably figure it out when their targets leaped to Zulu alert.
Interesting post. Something to chew on. Question, were those three sub targets dependent on coordination to succeed?
Your comment about the Streak Drive is interesting. Yet I cannot prevent my brain from thinking that there has to be some scenario where its tactical advantage could win a few skirmishes.
The three sub-targets were near-Manticore space, near-Sphinx space, near-Gryphon space.
The third is slightly more isolated -- with Manticore-B's distance from Manticore-A varying between 650 light-minutes at periastron to 827 light-minutes at apastron [HOS] (10.8 light-hours - 13.7) So, worst case, it's only about 50% further than the Junction and we know there's a line of Hermes Buoys allowing FTL comms between Manticore and the Junction. So I think we have to assume that there is also a line of them connecting Manticore & Sphynx to Gryphon. At that range FTL comms would have 10.5 - 13.25 minute one-way lag. (That's actually quick enough I'm not sure if a courier could shave any time off that even if it was waiting, with hyperdrive fully charged, even using FTL messaging for the portions within the hyper limit. So let's assume the Hermes relay is the minimum viable comm lag)
Then the Manticore to Sphynx maximum FTL comm lag is under 0.6 seconds (even when they're on totally opposite sides of the star); so effectively instant.
Given those comm lags if any part of the OB attack was detected more than about 15-20 minutes before impact there would have been time for all the warships, stations, and blockships, around all three targets to go to full alert - sidewalls going up, blockship wedges interposed against the apparent threat axis, sensors and sensor drones flooding the area. If that had happened the attacks would have been far less effective than the total surprise the MAlign achieved. (I suspect a lot of the dispersed yards would have still been lost, and there would have likely been damage to all three stations -- but it likely wouldn't have been the total damage they actually suffered. And so Yawata Crossing likely wouldn't have been taken out by falling station debris.
Even if either of the two Manticore-A segments of the attack had been detected at little as 5 minutes before impact at least the attacks on near-Manticore and near-Sphynx space should have been bluted; even if there was no longer time to warn Gryphon. (Or conversely if the Gryphon leg had been the one detected that close in the attack there should have been blunted but the attacks in Manticore-A would still have been a total surprise.
But that's still short enough that if the MAlign OB attack had been discovered much before.
As for a tactical use for the Streak drive. I've a hard time thinking of one for combat around a star. Most of that is within the hyper limit where the streak drive (like every hyper generator) doesn't work. And for attempting to hyper around the periphery it also seems no advantage, not unless it has additional undisclosed capabilities.
As far as we know it's only ability is to let a ship into the Iota and Kappa bands, but if you're just trying to get to the far side of a system that's useless -- the transit times even with a conventional hyper drive are so short you'd save effectively no time using the higher bands after you spent the extra time to get into and back out of them.
The one tactical use a Streak drive would have is during hyper-space combat. If you had conventional warships trying to intercept a fast convoy (mil grade propulsion freighters) it'd be nearly impossible since they'd all be able to use the Theta bands, and all have the same top speed (0.6c). But a Streak Drive, by climbing into the Iota or Kappa bands can attempt to overfly the target and drop back into the Theta bands ahead of it. (It's still tricky because of the velocity loss going between bands -- so it'll take a while after getting into the Iota band to work back up to speed and overtake the projected position of your target; and then you'll drop down and have a lower base velocity. So you've got to hope their base velocity is carrying them towards you so the fact that it's higher than yours doesn't help them. (This isn't a sure-fire win for the Streak Drive -- it'll take long enough that the target might change course while you're doing this, so they aren't where you estimated. Or they might drop to a lower band, or out of hyper entirely, to try to hide. So you likely need enough Streak warships to have some remain chasing the target while a few others try to drop across several of it's possible evasion courses. But it is a tactic that no non-Streak warship could attempt.
Of course its for a situation which almost never occurs...
