I managed to capture an Astral with just a couple of D-mods (damaged flight deck and something like flux or armor issues), so I figured I could take on some harder bounties.
I would pilot the Astral myself for a while (loaded with Daggers for the Atropos missiles), and have a Heron with Claws for support (as well as a second Heron for possible backup). A tanky Venture outfitted with swarmers and flak/machine guns for PD would be my escort. That makes 80 points for the initial deployment. I also had two similarly outfitted Enforcers and a Hammerhead in case I could deploy reinforcements.
The target bounty has a full line of Herons and a couple of Eagle/Falcons. I Transverse Jump right next to him and engage. Turns out he actually has like 10 Herons, 4-5 Condors, a Drover, an Eagle, a Sunder, two Falcons and some trash. Ok, no biggie, we can do it. Just stick to the plan.
I order the Venture and Heron to escort me, and proceed to capture a Nav point. There's a Shrike already capturing it. I show it what 6 wings of Daggers can do and... check my reinforcements screen...
Where the hell did the Venture go? It's nowhere to be found. There's no enemies anywhere near that could have killed it. It's just gone...
I deploy the Enforcers, and proceed to decimate the enemy fleet. There are only 3-4 Condors and a Sunder left when the Enforcers finally go down. I only had a little bit of hull at that point, and my backup Heron was way too far by the time I could deploy it.
I really don't understand what happened. If that Venture didn't randomly disappear, I would have won.