Quote:Then we're addressing different questions. To risk being repetetive, I'm taking the design trends we've seen Starfleet favoring with the creation of the Galaxy and especially Prometheus classes, then carrying them out to what I think is their logical best developement.
For a carrier I agree that a large ship would be needed - probably a Nebula-class cruiser with the upper half of saucer section stripped internally for hanger space and retaining only about half the weapons and crew - about 120 to crew 40-odd Aesir, 120 'ground crew' and a hundred or so to fight the ship. Having one of these in a fleet of 60+ ships shoudn't be much of an problem - they don't replace existing ships, they'd supplement them.
Re: Defense of fixed targets-
Yeah, -there-, I can see them having a real, valuable role. However, I wouldn't go all the way to designing and mass-producing a full class of the type - I simply don't think that it comes up often enough to be worth it. Instead, I'd execute the concept as an upgrade kit for the Danube class or its immediate successor, then just beef up the small-craft complement of my starbases and planetside facilities. You get, what, sixty, seventy percent of the combat effectiveness, a hundred-fifty percent the tactical utility (since they'd keep their previously mounted warp engines), and at least -twice- the cost-effectiveness... which might not matter to a designer, but definitely will to the Starfleet procurement office.
Which segues neatly into...
Re: Fleet Actions
...and my number one problem with the concept: These things are deathtraps! -Any- starship-grade weapon that catches one is an instant mission-kill, and, unless you're stupidly lucky, a dead crew. And however small and fast and agile they might be, relatively, they're not -that- fast or -that- agile. Their nature, IMHO, simply precludes shielding them seriously enough to make them survivable. Every time you commit them to combat, you're accepting that you're going to lose a significant percentage of your people.
If you can make them cheap enough (which I, personally, quite doubt), that might be good math for the Dominion, or certainly for a classical warrior culture like, oh, Starfire's Orions. But not the Federation - it's simply not their style.
Basically, and going by the very rough guess that one of my parasites (I like the idea of calling them Halcyons - it opens up names like 'Pillar of Autumn' and 'Truth and Reconciliation') will have a new-build cost about equal to a squadron of Aesir, you can send either set up against, say, a Saber. Anywhere outside of the best-case scenario where it doesn't see you coming, I can't see any way for you to avoid losing at least one or two ships.
Which, y'know, is a bargain compared to a light cruiser, I'll grant you.
But that single Halcyon has firepower and shielding equal to or greater than that of its opponent - along with maneuverability comperable to that of its smaller competition.
And that equation gets worse - a -lot- worse, I think - in a furball, because then, you have -no clue-, no way to -guess- who's going to decide to take a shot at you - and after the first ship they lose to the things in that war, you can bet they -will-.
Yes, the Aesir can put more firepower into a given target for the money - but torpedoes are anything but 100% accurate, and I suspect the ratio would get worse without the heavy-duty sensor and tracking gear a starship can bring to bear. In a crisis, or from an ambush situation, their fragility can be accepted - but never anywhere else.
Re: Carrier Size
While the Halcyon's usual mothership might be... considerable... it doesn't -have- to be. They're docked externally, remember, like the Captains' Yachts, and, further, were designed so that they could have all of their maintenance performed from the -inside-. You can literally base them off anything big enough to graft the docking clamps on to - including a Defiant, which says a -lot-, since my more recent sketches ended up being a lot closer to 100 meters than 75.
...
Pregnant Defiants. >_< Oh, what an image.
Re: Evasion
In a target rich environment, against conventional opposition, you're certainly correct.
Most of the fights we've seen were not target rich. And the Borg are -not-, in any sense of the word, a conventional opponent.
Sorry.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."