Space, is very, very big.
It's so big, that it's effectively infinite. It's so big, so very nearly infinite, that an encounter with another object, requires a bit of effort and planning.
When you're talking about space combat, it's the sort of effort and planning that requires both the attacker, and the defender, to cooperate in arranging the meeting.
That's how big space is.
Now, naturally, some people don't want to meet you, even though you quite desperately want to meet them.
Perhaps to exchange messages, or to exchange star-hot bursts of plasma and hypervelocity projectiles, they don't want to run into you, but you want to run into them.
In the case of some factions in the Battletech setting, this running into is quite literal. (I guess it has rocket nozzles and a somewhat pointy end, or rounded, but looks like a missile to some folks no matter WHAT you hang off of it...)
So, How do you arrange to meet new people (and maybe try to kill them) in space?
This may hinge on why You're there (wanting to meet new people and make them past-tense) and why They're there (Not wanting to die, so they must have other business.)
Well, how do you arrange it?
1. It helps to know why the people you're keen to meet (and kill) are in space, and where they might be intending to be IN space. I mean, you can shotgun a guess with your handy random number generator, or you can actually KNOW where someone is headed...and why they're going there.
This helps alot with arranging that all-important meeting you're keen to have with them. but it's not enough to know where someone intends to go, if you don't have a pretty strong idea of when they're going to get there.
It doesn't help to lurk in an alleyway with a sharp object hoping to make someone scream and bleed, after all, if you're there at the wrong time of day, or of the year-being there after they've already left isn't very productive for sharing your kilotonnage yeild explosive/plasma messages, after all and being there too soon, they might decide not to continue, or decide to skip the trip for an alternative.
So, first, you need to know where, when, and why.
In the Battletech universe, only Planets matter.
This, is because all issues are settled by throwing multiton large waldoes at one another on the ground. One of the main motivators for arranging a meeting in space, is because if the other fellow can't put his multitens of tons of mostly-humanoid robot on the ground, he can't win whatever argument happens to be going on.
we'll call "Planets" point B.
The way you arrive in a solar system, is most often via "Jump Points" (the closest reliable approach through hyperspace to an inhabitable planet) There are two of these: Zenith, and Nadir. We'll call those point A1 and point A2.
Space, has no friction. It also has precious little to no terrain between points A1 and A2, and point B.
You can, in fact, drive straight from the jump point, to the planet, without needing to steer for so much as a crossing guard. The shortest distance between two points, after all, is a straight line.
That means if the person you're keen to exchange high-energy gifts with appears at either A1, or A2, with the intent of delivering a force of heavy equipment operators and their ten meter (on average) robots, you can predict, depending on the time of year, about where in a cone with the base of it being the orbit of the habitable planet, and the point being the given zone of points A1 or A2, with some reliability.
Knowing which way they have to go, is only part of the problem.
You need to know when they're going to be at any given location, and at what velocity they'll be passing through it. Objects, are not Electrons, you cAN know their velocity AND their location at any given time-it's possible to do.
You don't even need radar, if you have a good telescope and know roughly where to be watching-even from the planet. People have been doing this reliably since the 13th century.
but how do you know WHEN to be there? It's quite an embarrassment to show up for the dance after the band's gotten paid and retired to their tour bus, after all... (Or the DJ's already put his gear in the back of his Prius.)
this is why you need to know why.
A guy carrying a freighter full of contraband doesn't need to worry nearly as much about the health of his passengers, as a dropship loaded with ground troops, or a passenger liner full of juicy civilians with large credit accounts and lots of goods that can be fenced in the next system.
The latter two, are going to be somewhat confined in how hard, how oftne, and how sincerely they alter their thrust profile, velocity, and heading. This is because Battletech does not include Inertial Dampening. Newton's laws still apply to people inside the spaceship, so hard accelerations (multiple gees) caused by maneuvering, or thrusting really fast?
Not so good for your passengers/ground soldiers.
really not good. sustained high-gravity on mammals does not make them into superman like DC comics tried to tell you, it makes them casualties, they arrive, other than ready for battle, They arrive ready for a nice stay in the hospital, or a longer stay in a nice graveyard.
No combat action required.
Troop transports will tend to need to stick to one gravity (Plus or minus one percent) for the health and safety (Fitness to fight) of the military personnel abaord, and can really only afford hard maneuvers for very short periods of time.
periods that aren't going to be long enough to significantly alter their fixed course-this is whether accelerating TO the target, or decelerating to match orbital vector for troop insertion.
There's also the spot in space, where the troopship needs to stop accelerating, and has not yet begun de celerating. because in Battletech, with no electrogravity magic available, nor inertial dampening, it's all based on pointing your main engines in the direction of the planet you're trying to reach, and burning fuel to slow down enough you don't overshoot (or smack into it, making a rather large crater, assuming your armor holds up through re-entry).
This is your ideal intercept zone. They HAVE TO be on a certain vector, or they won't make the planet at all. they ALSO have to start slowing down, but can't slow down faster than one gravity's worth of acceleration to bleed off that velocity, and because Soldiers don't tend to like confinement in a sardine box, they're going to want the trip as short as possible without suffering injuries.
as the predator, you are not saddled with a horde of passengers that are, effectively, very fragile cargo that moves around a lot and gets in the way of normal operations.
this means you can use some basic techniques to mitigate the negative effects of burning at higher than one gee, because you don't have loose gear, pogie bait, contraband, unsecured equipment and unprotected or unsuited individuals romaing about your ship getting hurt because they don't like strapping in, or don't strap in properly, or don't even have a proper place TO strap in.
Properly protected persons in a fixed location such as an acceleration couch can handle fairly significant G's up to 3 gravities with a lower chance of blood starvation to the brain, internal organ failure, or broken bones from ordinary trip hazards.
not "NO" possibility, but less of one...if the personnel are properly secured in protective garments, with g-force support (bladders in the 20th century, flight suits are actually more complex than 'baggy coveralls that look cool with patches') this gives your interception crew a good bit of the initiative in picking when, (within the strike zone) and where (within the strike zone) to exchange high energy plasma, coherent light, high velocity projectiles, etc. with the enemy.
Basically, he can either fail his mission, or hope you back off. He may have escorts similarly equipped to help you decide to back off.
It's reasonable, after all. Troop ships are expensive undertakings even if they're built very cheaply-the things they're carrying are VERY expensive, especially in the Battletech universe, and NOT having them popped like a soap bubble is always more desirable than having them popped like a soap bubble.
