cthia wrote:But! What makes Apollo so special that the missiles DO NOT NEED THE LINK?! So an Apollo missile can just arrange itself toward the right "quadrant of the sky" before it lights off its drive, and it won't light off before its cohort in front of it lights off? And it will head towards the enemy all without additional instructions after it leaves the ship? So, Apollo missiles no longer need an FTL link or any other type of tendon it would seem? If an Apollo missile simply needs coordinates then they never needed an FTL link -- if they can simply be given initial coordinates -- other than which target to destroy.
The Apollo system is capable of attacking what it's pointed at on it's own. The control links allow much better reaction to what the target does while the missile is in flight.
However, in this case the targets were utterly outclassed. Furthermore, it was only one salvo, there were no previous missiles to learn anything from and so one big reason for the link is gone. Going up against the SLN is like testing your self-drive car in an abandoned military base rather than in real traffic.