@OutsideLime:
I think the “cargo” thing should not really be regarded as an “option” for the player. Â It is actually more of an automatic reaction of the Fighters (they become cargo) if you move your Carrier without launching them first. Â Cargo is a temporary “state” that the Fighters enter if you do so, and the state only exists as a preventative measure against players boosting the range of their Fighters. Â There is no benefit in moving your Fighters as cargo, but if you are Noncaombat-Moving your Carrier and you want its load of Fighters to remain on it, then there is no harm in moving them as cargo. Â It is the exact same thing as launching them and flying to the destination seazone, then landing on the Carrier again.
So, in effect, the cargo state exists (in regards to your own Fighters on your own Carriers) for the purposes of a) not being used or b) being used only when using it has absolutely zero effect, compared to not using it.
~Josh
I prefer to think of fighters in cargo to be something the controlling player has to explicitly state. In all other cases, the fighters are assumed to be airborne.
Whether the move is Combat Move or Non-Combat Move, if those fighters are moved with the AC when it moves, they have moved also and it counts toward their total of four spaces and is part of their flight path. Anything else gets into the whole spaghetti bowl of pieces being moved 45 times as your ferret on crack of an opponent attempts to find coherent thought in the vast emptiness that passes as vacuum between his ears.