Tranquility's defense layers fighters, missiles, and sacrificial guardships

The fictional Tranquility Space Fleet cannot match two enemy battleships and two carriers directly, so it layers several forms of attack. Missile ships hide near the planet's rings, fighters absorb and divide the enemy screen, and small guardships escort later salvos despite having little chance of surviving capital-ship fire. The final guardship deliberately destroys its power cells, creating a radiation cloud that conceals the missiles. The attackers' computers use accumulated missile-performance data to direct blind fire through the radiation, so concealment does not make the salvo invulnerable. The attack destroys a battleship and damages other ships. The old cruiser directing the defense is then overwhelmed.