[geoschmo]

Well you could have fighter bay components, and add a carrier hull.

Fighters could be a simple unit that you construct at any planet and can be moved around in cargo bays or launced from fighter bays or from a planet. Since they don't warp and there's no system movement they wouldn't be able to move on their own and couldn't retreat from combat.

You could add weapon platform and sattelite units as well for planetary defense.

I'm thinking each fighter bay could hold a certain number, and launch them at the start of combat. Anyway, fighters in combat would move around like ships. From that point they would be treated like another ship. Unlike ships they could be targetted by PDC as well as regular weapons. Make them harder to hit by regular weapons. Normal hit chance by PDC. But when hit they are destroyed a lot easier then ships. Any hit scored takes them out. And no crippling. Just destroyed.

Since they are fast and manuverable give them more rounds of combat then other ships. But they are small so they do less damage. Not sure how you'd handle that. They have to beat the defense roll by 2 or 3 to score a hit. That would save you from having to track partial damage.