How about Imperial Regulations concerning littering/environmental impact? Since the shots can travel a very long distance, it affects the Imperium as a whole, rather than just one solar system. Similar to if a planetary government affects Imperial Trade, then the Imperial Navy asks them to stop.
Todd Kes
--- On Thu, 6/28/12, wrote:
> 2. That said, I absolutely believe that people armed with
> ideas and FF&S
> can find a way to make them work, at least in finite
> scenarios. For
> example, ships moving through space have to get someplace: a
> planet to
> land, a gas giant to refuel, etc., and they have only a
> finite number of
> G-turns with which to do so, match vectors to enter orbit,
> etc. So you
> could fire sheafs of projectiles to interdict the paths they
> need to use,
> forcing them to do something else or risk damage. Whether
> that's cost
> effective I don't know, but it's not cheap. But if people
> are able to make
> these things lethal in these scenarios, they will remain
> lethal to anyone
> else who blunders across them again. Long before we put
> FF&S out, the TML
> and Xboat lists were advocating projectiles, and where
> there's a will,
> there's a way.
>
> I find the idea very interesting to work out, "what would
> happen?" given
> some assumptions, and that was the idea behind the "Top
> Laser" thing we
> never got to do: let people simulate thousands of years of
> operational evolution and see what they get.
Todd Kes
--- On Thu, 6/28/12, wrote:
> 2. That said, I absolutely believe that people armed with
> ideas and FF&S
> can find a way to make them work, at least in finite
> scenarios. For
> example, ships moving through space have to get someplace: a
> planet to
> land, a gas giant to refuel, etc., and they have only a
> finite number of
> G-turns with which to do so, match vectors to enter orbit,
> etc. So you
> could fire sheafs of projectiles to interdict the paths they
> need to use,
> forcing them to do something else or risk damage. Whether
> that's cost
> effective I don't know, but it's not cheap. But if people
> are able to make
> these things lethal in these scenarios, they will remain
> lethal to anyone
> else who blunders across them again. Long before we put
> FF&S out, the TML
> and Xboat lists were advocating projectiles, and where
> there's a will,
> there's a way.
>
> I find the idea very interesting to work out, "what would
> happen?" given
> some assumptions, and that was the idea behind the "Top
> Laser" thing we
> never got to do: let people simulate thousands of years of
> operational evolution and see what they get.