Scenario:
Two carriers start your turn in range of a sea zone that you decide to engage in a naval battle. The Naval battle will include a fighter which has flown maximum range and must land in that sea zone. You send Carrier A into the naval battle and leave Carrier B in place with intentions of moving it elsewhere during non-combat. You declare Carrier A to be the legal landing space for the max-movement fighter. No planes have declared Carrier B as a legal landing space in its intended non-combat movement.
Question:
If, during the battle, Carrier A is damaged or destroyed but the max-movement fighter survives, is Carrier B obligated to move to the battle sea zone on non-combat to catch the fighter? Or can the fighter be ditched/destroyed because its intended landing space was destroyed and Carrier B move elsewhere?
If the answer is that Carrier B is obligated to move to catch the fighter, my follow up question would be, can Carrier B move in the combat move phase into a sea zone where no combat is actually taking place to take itself out of range or is that illegal? (I believe Triple A will let you do this, but not sure it’s legal to move units during the combat move phase that aren’t participating in a battle)