Plotbunny for sale - cheap

[KJ]

*nod* Thought it hadn't, but not sure. Boarding actions also... well, some of us are going to have personal weapons (okay, maybe a *lot* of us PCs) and that's cool. Some might even have hardtech weapons bolted to their vehicles (*cough*Heinleiners*cough*) which may or may not be legal on Earth but... well, up in the black, who cares? But at this stage in the evolution of things, nipping the whole "effective ship-ship weapons" armsrace in the bud seems advisable.
Part of that is just interest. Given the velocities involved, the manuverability of speedrives and whatnot, anything that's not an outright surprise/desperation attack is just going to be a matter of telling your AI (if, as handwavium constructs, they'll commit violence; another debate p'raps) or computer to engage, watching the stars whirl around crazily as your ship manuvers far faster than human reflexes can comprehend, then either dying or waiting for a message that the target got destroyed.
... which is boring. Now, boarding actions? Not boring. That's ignoring the societal implications of a bunch of us having weapons which (by dint of the fact that they can hole handwavium hulls) are capable of annihilating anything the mundanes can field. Which might be a fun story, but I don't think that's what *this* story is about.
And, for reference, I write all of that as a fairly hardcore sci-fi space opera fighterjock buff.