On Mon, Oct 9, 2017 at 11:19 PM, David Jaques-Watson <xxxxxx@pcug.org.au> wrote:

Dear Folks –

Catherine wrote:
> Other ships in the traffic pattern would also be unlikely to appreciate
being hit by such beams.

Firefly vs the Reavers.

I consciously model the maneuver drives IMTU on the Firefly. Pulling a "hard burn in atmo" - like Wash and Kaylee did to that Reaver ship - is deliberately switching over from turbojet mode to fusion rocket (e.g. orbital-only) mode early. Not something you would do in a settled system (due to the radiation effects), but something you can get away with on a thinly-settled frontier moon.

Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein

"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)

"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester

"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.