I think I've been reading too much Honor Harrington lately. The first thing I started thinking of when I reached the end of that section was that Priss had just engineered a perfect strategic situation she could take advantage of.
The enemy isn't thinking clearly. They're charging head-on at her ship, with minimum attention paid to things like strategy. They just want blood, and they intend to close to phaser/torpedo range to get it. That gives her all the advantages.
Take a photon torpedo. Rip out the explosive ordnance and fit it with enough electronic warfare gear to make it a hole in space. Do this with a handful of such torpedoes. Then fire them toward the enemy warships. Their miniscule warp drives will burn out long before they get close enough to be picked up by Hirogen sensors, and their EW gear will hide them from passive scans. As long as the Hirogen continue to fly in a completely predictable pattern, several waves of these torpedoes will hit them at warp, or near-warp speeds, and blow away at least a few of them before the pack realizes what's happened. For a weapon moving at that speed, considering both objects are closing at warp speeds, the payload would be largely worthless. The impact energy alone would be enough to blow away a ship. Especially if there were several following the first one. Impact from the first would make reaction all but impossible as the enemy force is tossed around inside their ship, and the follow-up shots would take out the vessel.
After the first salvo, the remaining Hirogen ships will break formation to try to avoid any further salvos. As they do, a couple of photorps which had their explosive payload replaced entirely with a small power core and some EW gear to hide their signatures follow along behind a the groups, using the EW to spy on communications and keep Priss' ship apprised of their activities. They don't collide, they just trail along behind and avoid notice. If they're noticed and destroyed, so be it. It's just a potential advantage she might create.
Priss' ship targets the weakest ships in the force. To the Hirogen, this is just Darwinism at work, and they won't care. To her, it eliminates weapon carriers, reducing the threat to her ship. Meanwhile, as the Hirogen are attempting to maneuver behind her for the instinctive kill shot, her shuttle bay personnel are arming and deploying clusters of mines equipped with as much EW stealth tech as they can operate. The mines would be tractor weapons, locking on to the Hirogen ships as they maneuver for the shot their instinctive training tells them is the most desirable, and causing them to run head-on into the prepared pattern of photon mines.
While any ships which survive that explosion will be a lot more cautious, and the fight may devolve into the usual Trek-style phaser shooting match, there will be a lot less Hirogen ships, and those left will be a lot more cautious in their approach, which also gives Priss the tactical advantage.
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
The enemy isn't thinking clearly. They're charging head-on at her ship, with minimum attention paid to things like strategy. They just want blood, and they intend to close to phaser/torpedo range to get it. That gives her all the advantages.
Take a photon torpedo. Rip out the explosive ordnance and fit it with enough electronic warfare gear to make it a hole in space. Do this with a handful of such torpedoes. Then fire them toward the enemy warships. Their miniscule warp drives will burn out long before they get close enough to be picked up by Hirogen sensors, and their EW gear will hide them from passive scans. As long as the Hirogen continue to fly in a completely predictable pattern, several waves of these torpedoes will hit them at warp, or near-warp speeds, and blow away at least a few of them before the pack realizes what's happened. For a weapon moving at that speed, considering both objects are closing at warp speeds, the payload would be largely worthless. The impact energy alone would be enough to blow away a ship. Especially if there were several following the first one. Impact from the first would make reaction all but impossible as the enemy force is tossed around inside their ship, and the follow-up shots would take out the vessel.
After the first salvo, the remaining Hirogen ships will break formation to try to avoid any further salvos. As they do, a couple of photorps which had their explosive payload replaced entirely with a small power core and some EW gear to hide their signatures follow along behind a the groups, using the EW to spy on communications and keep Priss' ship apprised of their activities. They don't collide, they just trail along behind and avoid notice. If they're noticed and destroyed, so be it. It's just a potential advantage she might create.
Priss' ship targets the weakest ships in the force. To the Hirogen, this is just Darwinism at work, and they won't care. To her, it eliminates weapon carriers, reducing the threat to her ship. Meanwhile, as the Hirogen are attempting to maneuver behind her for the instinctive kill shot, her shuttle bay personnel are arming and deploying clusters of mines equipped with as much EW stealth tech as they can operate. The mines would be tractor weapons, locking on to the Hirogen ships as they maneuver for the shot their instinctive training tells them is the most desirable, and causing them to run head-on into the prepared pattern of photon mines.
While any ships which survive that explosion will be a lot more cautious, and the fight may devolve into the usual Trek-style phaser shooting match, there will be a lot less Hirogen ships, and those left will be a lot more cautious in their approach, which also gives Priss the tactical advantage.
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.