As fighters have limited liffe support and therefore space flight duration, the loss of a home carrier or tender would mean that the unit would be kind of up sh*t creeak without a paddle, if in deep space or in an unhospitable star system.
They would either perish in the cold of space, as their life support systems ran out of steam, be picked up by another vessel capable of landing fighters, abandon the fighters and be rescued by a friendly starship or attempt to put down on a planet capable of sustaining the crews and await rescue.
The range of fighters is not great, maybe only a few light years, so travelling to a close star system isn't always an option.
OK, in our LAN campaigns, we manage fighter squadrons as independant units that are attached to a carrier, base or ground station.
For Star Fleet, all fighters carried by space vessels are operated by the Naval aspects of the fleet and all ground based fighters are operated by the Marines.
Perhaps fighters should be regarded as units and attached with various carriers, tenders, stations and bases during a campaign. As with real life 21st century air squadrons, they could be moved around from carrier to base to station, etc. to make up losses, reinforce or replace units.
The thing is how to identify units ina campaign....