The thing isn't that you can use the "tech" from any space drive to naughty things.
The statement is that if you have a drive that has anything resembling high enough performance to be useful, it can be used directly as a weapon.
Think more along the lines of bludgeoning someone to death with a hammer, and less along the lines of using metallurgy to forge a sword.
The only thing I can think of comparable using "Elmo" is stufing it down someone's throat so they choke.
Edit: if you want them to fight, but they are not after the same real estate, why not make it over a particularily rich asteroid belt?
Go farther and make it over some spacial anomoly like a natural wormhole that offers tremendous near/mid-term advantages either for research or tactical reasons.
Say, a one-way wormhole that goes from somewhere in the back and beyond directly into/near some fortified/sacred/taboo position.
The statement is that if you have a drive that has anything resembling high enough performance to be useful, it can be used directly as a weapon.
Think more along the lines of bludgeoning someone to death with a hammer, and less along the lines of using metallurgy to forge a sword.
The only thing I can think of comparable using "Elmo" is stufing it down someone's throat so they choke.
Edit: if you want them to fight, but they are not after the same real estate, why not make it over a particularily rich asteroid belt?
Go farther and make it over some spacial anomoly like a natural wormhole that offers tremendous near/mid-term advantages either for research or tactical reasons.
Say, a one-way wormhole that goes from somewhere in the back and beyond directly into/near some fortified/sacred/taboo position.