Pod layers.

Jonathan_S wrote:Even if you dropped them into normal space to wait you don't need to be that far. Though I'd suspect they'd want to be beyond the range of the target system's sensor arrays. (If the system saw the CLACs drop out, say, 1 light week away there's a risk that they might be able to detach some forces to try to attack the weakly defended CLACs. (After all, a BC squadron probably won't change the balance of forces against most heavy raids -- but it could be enough to tear up some detached CLACs who are IIRC normally just escorted by a few DDs)
So seems better to move a bit further out so the target system won't know where you're waiting.

Few systems will have arrays sensitive enough to see ships dropping out of hyper more than a light-day out. The SL-designed Argus surveillance array that Haven used prior to the first war depended on destroyers coming and going to pick up the data. This system would only have been designed, let alone put into use, if those arrivals could go unnoticed. And we're talking here about systems like Hancock.

So it would be possible for the CLAC to drop back out 2 or 5 light-days out, for collection of the brood. If the system is under attack, it's not going to send anyone to inspect the hyper-footprint, even if they detected it. A few hours later, the position of the CLAC is too fuzzy to inspect directly, though that may pose a risk for the LACs that are running in n-space (they probably are in stealth after leaving the immediacy of the confrontation).

But even that may not be needed. The CLAC must have come near the hyperlimit to launch the wing, so it can loiter around there, under its own stealth. It needs to be careful against someone dropping in right on top of it, but this is also a time-sensitive information. After a while, the CLAC's position becomes difficult to tell with precision, to the point where its own defences are able to deal with the attacker, or at worst hyper out on its own. Meanwhile, the system under attack is not likely to dedicate a ship outside the hyperlimit to come bring an attacker to take the CLAC while the main attack is happening.

Jonathan_S wrote:
And ships have a (particle shielding) limited top speed in normal space of 0.8c. Going just 5 LY to maybe the closest star is going to take them 6.25 years, and relativity is only going to lop 40% off that subjectively -- so they'll still experience 3.75 years.

Hence why getting out quick and dirty involves tractoring themselves to larger starships that are hypering out -- and not making a normal space run for the nearest star :rollseyes:

Safe speed is 0.8C. You can go faster, it's just unsafe. Very unsafe inside a typical inhabited system. There is a lot of physical cold debris that is very difficult to spot.

Interstellar space is pretty empty compared to space inside a star system, so the odds that you run into anything that can't be handled is small. And if you do, you will never know it.

kzt wrote:Safe speed is 0.8C. You can go faster, it's just unsafe. Very unsafe inside a typical inhabited system. There is a lot of physical cold debris that is very difficult to spot.

Interstellar space is pretty empty compared to space inside a star system, so the odds that you run into anything that can't be handled is small. And if you do, you will never know it.

Not for particles, not that much.

IPM in the inner system is about 5 particles / cm³, whereas the ISM will vary a lot depending on what you're close to, but the Milky Way average is 0.5 particles/cm³ (note the Local Bubble where the Sol System is in actually is about a tenth of that). You're right that the nature of what is in those media will change too, with the ISM made up of matter light enough or fast enough that it got ejected from star systems,

But that won't help much. Even if the chance of collision is 1:100 and the average mass of the particle may be 1/10th, the problem is that this is a long trip and with much higher speeds. The Law of Averages says you will get a collision.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:

kzt wrote:Safe speed is 0.8C. You can go faster, it's just unsafe. Very unsafe inside a typical inhabited system. There is a lot of physical cold debris that is very difficult to spot.

Interstellar space is pretty empty compared to space inside a star system, so the odds that you run into anything that can't be handled is small. And if you do, you will never know it.

Not for particles, not that much.

IPM in the inner system is about 5 particles / cm³, whereas the ISM will vary a lot depending on what you're close to, but the Milky Way average is 0.5 particles/cm³ (note the Local Bubble where the Sol System is in actually is about a tenth of that). You're right that the nature of what is in those media will change too, with the ISM made up of matter light enough or fast enough that it got ejected from star systems,

But that won't help much. Even if the chance of collision is 1:100 and the average mass of the particle may be 1/10th, the problem is that this is a long trip and with much higher speeds. The Law of Averages says you will get a collision.

The system continues to work, just not as well. Which means that it is less effective. Which means larger particles are increasing unable to be deflected. Atoms of gas are kind of low mass. And you have a bow wall to absorb the misses.