History Main / HyperspeedAmbush

* In the 2009 ''Film/StarTrek'' film, we get to see [[spoiler:the ''Enterprise'']] pull one of these in the film's climax, [[spoiler:using BeamSpam to counter the Romulans' MacrossMissileMassacre in a GunshipRescue moment.]]
** And inverted earlier in the movie, [[spoiler:where the fleet is ambushed by the ''Narada'' and destroyed. The ''Enterprise'' only survives because they were {{late to the party}}.]]

* One notable example is the Royal Manticoran Navy's successful assault on the Havenite forces at Trevor's Star. They first launched a conventional attack with a fleet dropping in from hyperspace, and once that battle had enough time to develop fully, another fleet jumped in directly from the Manticoran system via the wormhole that connected the two star systems to strike the Havenite forces from behind.
* The main problem is that every transit destabilizes the Wormholes for a time, based on the transferred mass. With one ship, there is a very short cycle until the next one comes through. Sending the maximum mass in one transit (for a Manticorian Terminii about thirty Superdreadnoughts) will make further use impossible for ''hours''. Which means no retreat if something goes wrong and makes tactics as used above very risky. And sending your ships in one after another would just give the other side a chance for some target practice.

* A strategy that comes up from time to time in ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', though mostly only when the characters are near a Wormhole Terminus. Since Wormhole Terminii located near populated systems tend to be extensively surveyed and plotted, any ambush through them requires overwhelming force, as one can usually find fleets of warships, arrays of massive space fortresses, and remotely-launched missile pods waiting for any unwelcome visitors in hopes of making their visit a short and [[StuffBlowingUp spectacular]] one.\\
* One notable example is the Royal Manticoran Navy's successful assault on the Havenite forces at Trevor's Star. They first launched a conventional attack with a fleet dropping in from hyperspace, and once that battle had enough time to develop fully, another fleet jumped in directly from the Manticoran system via the wormhole that connected the two star systems to strike the Havenite forces from behind.\\

One notable example is the Royal Manticoran Navy's successful assault on the Havenite forces at Trevor's Star. They first launched a conventional attack with a fleet dropping in from hyperspace, and once that battle had enough time to develop fully, another fleet jumped in directly from the Manticoran system via the wormhole that connected the two star systems to strike the Havenite forces from behind.\\
The main problem is that every transit destabilizes the Wormholes for a time, based on the transferred mass. With one ship, there is a very short cycle until the next one comes through. Sending the maximum mass in one transit (for a Manticorian Terminii about thirty Superdreadnoughts) will make further use impossible for ''hours''. Which means no retreat if something goes wrong and makes tactics as used above very risky. And sending your ships in one after another would just give the other side a chance for some target practice.

* Given that FTL in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series is dependent on jumpgates, the lying-in-wit variant is to be expected. In ''X3: Terran Conflict'', there's not much that can get through a gate blockade consisting of three Terran Osaka-class destroyers operating in tandem.

* ''StarTrek TheNextGeneration'' featured a variation in the form of the "Picard Maneuver", where a ship (typically already engaged in battle) would use its warp drive to make a very short trip to another part of the battlefield. If done properly, this allowed a starship commander to allow his ship to appear in two places simultaneously, because the sensor return from the ship's previous location had not yet gotten back to the enemy ship. This tactic was notably of limited use, only being effective against enemies who did not possess subspace sensors.

* IsaacAsimov's ''{{Foundation}}'' trilogy novel ''Second Foundation''. The Foundation space fleet is facing a numerically superior Kalganian fleet. They send a squadron into hyperspace, with orders to return in a specific place at a specific time. They then maneuver the Kalganian fleet so the returning squadron will appear and attack them from behind with complete surprise, winning the battle.

In effect, the inverse of HyperspeedEscape. Instead of using hyperspeed to escape a bad situation, you use it to ''cause'' a bad situation by jumping into the immediate vicinity of your target to take them by surprise. Alternately, you can just in wait where you know the enemy will exit hyperspace, and pounce on him before he has time to react. Immediately departing the area as soon as the attack is concluded is fairly common for the jumping-in-to-attack variant, but optional for the defensive lying-in-wait variant.

Unorthodox use of Faster Than Light travel in combat is fairly common in military science fiction literature, particularly {{justified}} in a setting where HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace and therefore most people in the universe are unwilling to push the possible uses of FTL to the limits. For example, a ship might use tactical hyperspace jumps to jump into and out of hyperspace over relatively short distances and short periods of time to make themselves harder to hit or otherwise throw off the enemy, when conventional wisdom would suggest that such a tactic is far too risky to be possible, usually due to the risk of a ship falling afoul of a TeleFrag with a planet or other celestial body. After all, [[StarWars Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops.]]

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[[AC: {{Film}}]]
* In the 2009 ''[[{{Film/StarTrek}} Star Trek]]'' film, we get to see [[spoiler: the Enterprise]] pull one of these in the film's climax, [[spoiler: using BeamSpam to counter the Romulans' MacrossMissileMassacre in a GunshipRescue moment.]]
** And inverted earlier in the movie, [[spoiler: where the fleet is ambushed by the Narada and destroyed. The Enterprise only survives because they were late to the party.]]
* In ''StarWars ReturnOfTheJedi'', the Rebel Fleet ran afoul of such an attack launched by [[spoiler: a very sizable Imperial fleet]] when they tried to attack the Death Star II.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]
* IsaacAsimov's {{Foundation}} trilogy novel ''Second Foundation''. The Foundation space fleet is facing a numerically superior Kalganian fleet. They send a squadron into hyperspace, with orders to return in a specific place at a specific time. They then maneuver the Kalganian fleet so the returning squadron will appear and attack them from behind with complete surprise, winning the battle.

* While short-range hyperjumps are possible in Elizabeth Moon's ''VattasWar'' universe, it is a technique generally limited only to some of the better equipped space navies; most civilian and commercial-grade equipment just isn't designed for that sort of thing. That said, limitations in sensors and communication (limited to light-speed within a star-system, given that the FTL communications arrays are space stations unto themselves) preclude this strategy from being used. [[spoiler: Until someone develops a FTL communications rig that can easily fit aboard a starship.]]

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** [[spoiler: It does so again to the second ''Normandy'', succeeding in abducting most of the crew after it uses a virus to [[SittingDuck disable the]] ''[[SittingDuck Normandy]]'' .]]

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* ''UnwindersTallComics'': In an in-universe novel by Gary P. Rastov, Krohn attempts to pull off a hyperspace ambush--but the solar system he's attacking has a fifty-second warning of his fleet's arrival. More than enough time for their Lightning Foundries to produce another fleet capable of reducing Krohn's to its component atoms.

* ''{{Homeworld}}'', in all its incarnations, makes this a plot point and a game mechanic at once. In the story, hyperspace cores and drives are used as a blitzkrieg weapon on more than one occasion. The tables have been turned against hyperspacing fleets just as much, provided a ship has a gravity well generator installed to interfere with the hyperspacing equipment. The same ideas stretch onto actual gameplay, although in much smaller scales than those found in the plot, for balance reasons.

Unorthodox use of Faster Than Light travel in combat is fairly common in military science fiction literature, particularly {{justified}} in a setting where HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace and therefore most people in the universe are unwilling to push the possible uses of FTL to the limits. For example, a ship might use tactical hyperspace jumps to jump into and out of hyperspace over relatively short distances and short periods of time to make themselves harder to hit or otherwise throw off the enemy, when conventional wisdom would suggest that such a tactic is far to risky to be possible, usually due to the risk of a ship falling afoul of a TeleFrag with a planet or other celestial body. After all, [[StarWars Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops.]]

* A strategy that comes up from time to time in ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', though mostly only when the characters are near a Wormhole Terminus. Since Wormhole Terminii located near populated systems tend to be extensively surveyed and plotted, any ambush through them requires overwhelming force, as one can usually find fleets of warships, arrays of massive space fortresses, and remotely-launched missile pods waiting for any unwelcome visitors in hopes of making their visit a short and [[StuffBlowingUp spectacular]] one.
** One notable example is the Royal Manticoran Navy's successful assault on the Havenite forces at Trevor's Star. They first launched a conventional attack with a fleet dropping in from hyperspace, and once that battle had enough time to develop fully, another fleet jumped in directly from the Manticoran system via the wormhole that connected the two star systems to strike the Havenite forces from behind.
*** The main problem is that every transit destabilizes the Wormholes for a time, based on the transferred mass. With one ship, there is a very short cycle until the next one comes through. Sending the maximum mass in one transit (for a Manticorian Terminii about thirty Superdreadnoughts) will make further use impossible for ''hours''. Which means no retreat if something goes wrong and makes tactics as used above very risky. And sending your ships in one after another would just give the other side a chance for some target practice.

* In David Drake's ''{{RCN}}'' series Daniel Leary, frequently uses FTL in unexpected ways to take enemies by suprise.

* A common tactic of the titular character of {{Tracker}}

* Used by [[MagnificentBastard Grand Admiral Thrawn]] in TheThrawnTrilogy (Timothy Zahn's most famous StarWarsExpandedUniverse novels). Said technique involved precise placement of interdiction ships to pull his ships out of hyperspace at a specific point. It worked well.

* Used by [[MagnificentBastard Grand Admiral Thrawn]] in Timothy Zahn's StarWarsExpandedUniverse novels. Said technique involved precise placement of interdiction ships to pull his ships out of hyperspace at a specific point. It worked well.

*** The main problem is that every transit destabilizes the Wormholes for a time, based on the transferred mass. One Shit has a very short cycle until the next comes through. Sending the maximum mass in one transit (for a Manticorian Terminii about thirty Superdreadnoughs) will make further use impossible for ''hours''. Which means no retreat if something goes wrong and makes tactics as used above very risky. And sending your ships in after another gives just target practice.

* ''Homeworld'', in all its incarnations, makes this a plot point and a game mechanic at once. In the story, hyperspace cores and drives are used as a blitzkrieg weapon on more than one occasion. The tables have been turned against hyperspacing fleets just as much, provided a ship has a gravity well generator installed to interfere with the hyperspacing equipment. The same ideas stretch onto actual gameplay, although in smaller scale than the plot, for balance reasons.

* In ''StarControl II'', the [[FunWithAcronyms VUX]] ships are MightyGlaciers. They can't move fast but have a powerful laser that can take care of most ships in a few seconds. They compensate for the speed disadvantage by slowing down enemy ships with gravity mines and warping into battle right on top of the enemy.