Zendikarofthewest wrote:Jonathan_S wrote:Um, no. RFC has repeatedly said that offensive (MDM) and defensive (CM) control links are totally separate (doubly true now, when CM control links are still lightspeed and Apollo control links are normally FTL grav coms)
The pair of Invictus Honor had weren't repurposing their offensive control links in order to throw 1648 CMs apiece at the income tsunami - that was all from the dedicated CM control links on the hull and their Keyhole IIs.
So they could have still been rolling pods and firing off Apollo salvos while putting out that defense.
Could swear that isn't correct - Shadow of Saganami made it clear that in order to control your CMs you had to cut your links to offensive missiles.
(Pages 91-92, I think?)
Found the text I believe you were talking about -- a simulation of Hexapuma against a Peep force that included a hypothetical Peep MDM-equipped BC. [And one with apparently a not currently possible capability of using two different acceleration profiles on an MDM; something the 2-stage Cataphracts can do but no RMN MDM currently can -- at least according to RFC]
Shadows of Saganami wrote:"Attack broadside launch now!" d'Arezzo announced, and the repeater plot was suddenly speckled with dozens of outgoing missile icons. Helen watched them with satisfaction. In another couple of minutes—
"Missile launch!" d'Arezzo barked abruptly. "Multiple hostile launches! Captain, Bogey One's launched at us!"
Helen's eyes darted away from the missiles she'd sent roaring towards the enemy destroyer. D'Arezzo was right. The enemy flagship had launched missiles at them, and not just a few birds. There were at least thirty in that incoming salvo, and even as she watched, the "fluctuating" impeller wedge firmed back up. Its acceleration shot upward, peaking at over four hundred and eighty gravities, and it spun on its axis. Nineteen seconds after that, a second massive salvo erupted from it as the spin brought its other broadside to bear.
And the second salvo had been fired with an even higher initial acceleration. It was already overtaking the first launch, and Helen knew exactly what was about to happen.
Suckered, goddamn it! she thought. That's no heavy cruiser—it's a frigging battlecruiser pretending to be a heavy cruiser! Just like it was pretending to be damaged so I'd ignore it while I concentrated on swatting destroyers. And those are MDMs. MDMs launched with enough oomph on their first-stage drives to bring them all in as one, huge, time-on-target salvo.
"Helm, hard skew port! Electronics, I want two November-Charlie decoys—deploy them to starboard and high! Tactical, redesignate Bogey One as primary target!"
She heard her voice snapping the orders. They came sharp and clear, almost instantly, despite the consternation and self-reproach boiling through her. But even as she issued them, she knew it was too late.
At the range at which the enemy had fired, Hexapuma had a hundred and fifty seconds to respond before the incoming laser heads reached attack range and detonated. If she'd had another two minutes, maybe even one, the decoys Helen had ordered deployed—too damned late, damn it to hell!—might have had time to suck some of the fire away from their mother ship. As it was, they didn't.
Helen watched her plot and swore as the two Peep broadsides merged . . . and their combined acceleration suddenly leapt upward. That TO over there knew her job, damn it. She had more than enough range to reach her target, so she'd set her birds' first-stage drives to terminate and their second-stage drives to kick in as soon as her separate broadsides had matched base vectors. They would burn out much more rapidly, but the new settings would get them to Hexapuma even more quickly than d'Arezzo—and Helen—had estimated. They'd be coming in faster, as well. And even if she burned out the second stage completely, she'd still have the third. There'd be plenty of time left on their clocks for terminal attack maneuvers.
And the bastards knew exactly what they were doing when they timed it, too, she thought viciously. We have to cut the downlinks to our attack birds to free up the tracking and datalinks to deal with the damned battlecruiser!
The offensive missiles would continue to home on the targeted destroyer, but without guidance from Hexapuma's onboard sensors and computers, the odds of any of them attaining a hard lock went down drastically, especially at such an extended range. Which meant the destroyer was probably going to survive, as well.
Given RFC's categorical statement that those control links cannot be repurposed I see a couple possibilities for how this text could be read (other than an authorial mistake)
1) The skew turn to bring Hexapuma to bear on the battlecruiser might have caused her wedge to interpose between her and the destroyer -- that alone would have cut the downlinks (they can't transmit effectively through the ship's wedge; and a mere heavy cruiser doesn't have any type of Keyhole to allow it to control missiles while rolled)
2) The text said "to deal with the damned battlecruiser" not 'to deal with the missile salvo' -- so they might have been cutting links to the existing Mk16 DDM in order to refocus on sending double-broadsides after the BC.
The text doesn't
mention counter-fire from Hexapuma, but it would be crazy not to launch on the BC. If you weather the sucker punch you need those missiles in flight to start hitting back -- if you go full defensive especially against a heavier opponent, you're going to lose it's just a matter of time.
