Chan Wei Lik wrote:

From: Brian Randall [mailto:brian@azurite.org]

    But they also won't penetrate Light Hawk Wings.

Shoot, I was thinking of 'conventional' warfare.

    Far from conventional, this.

    The Kitty Hawk doesn't have a nuclear reactor -- check it out here:

You deliberately picked it for this reason, didn't you?

    Nope. Happy co-incidence.

A trio of large crates,

labeled from some factory in China, and another from Taiwan, and
several large steel gas canisters.

    All of them marked 'krypton', and 'property of Mishima Heavy
Industries -- To be handled by professionals _only_'.<<

Oops, looks like Ranma forgot to pick up the liquid nitrogen.

    Far easier to aquire.

See, a positronic laser isn't quite a laser, as much as a stream of
microwave, jacketed in radiation.

I don't see any positrons in that description either. So why is it called a
_positron_ laser instead of a microwave laser?

    Because:

    A: Durant's a smart-ass, and

    B: He's dumbing it down for Norris.

Since you have a fleet of nuclear subs, how about canibalsing some of them
to make even more powerful beam weapons. In fact, since they have to abandon
the fleet after reaching China, Washuu should plan how to turn all that
material into something they can use for the rest of their trip.

    Nuclear reactors are not as easily broken down into components for other things as you might think.

    And a fic about people pressing buttons to nuke the enemy from afar isn't my style -- note the last name 'Randall', not 'Clancy'. ;)

    But, thanks for taking the time to e-mail. :p