Not surprising. So was Starfire, and the Novels, especially "In Death Ground" and "The Shiva Option", the two
Starfire novels telling the story of the 4th Interstellar War, explained why, and had a tactic to limit fighter losses.
Unfortunately, this tactic is VERY difficult to impliment in Aurora because it requires VERY fine timing. Getting the
fighters into attack range, at the same time the missiles from the capital ships arrive, will force the point defense
to concentrate on one, or the other.
Only defense a fighter really has, is it's speed and size. Make fighters as fast as your tech allows, and as small as
possible. Fighter/Bombers aren't really practical until you have box launchers.
Eric