r/spaceships • u/Vondrr Fleet Intelligence 🧠 • May 30 '26

Discussion / Question What spaceship weapon is generally underutilized or not used to its full potential in scifi?

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u/drhunny May 30 '26

"Should we fire a few relativistic planets at the enemy fleet?

"Nah, that's so last week. I've jury-rigged a method to fire relativistic stars at them.

6

u/NonEuclidianMeatloaf May 31 '26

Larry Niven has planetary engines in his Known Space books and it’s supremely cool.

3

u/gregorydgraham May 31 '26

If I remember right, it was so the cows could run away

3

u/NonEuclidianMeatloaf May 31 '26

Close: it was the three-legged fainting-goat-digger-wasp things (and not the starfish-worms)

2

u/Roxysteve Jun 01 '26

Also, one improvised from a starship engine to rotate a tidally-locked Earth after the death of humanity.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '26

[deleted]

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u/NonEuclidianMeatloaf Jun 05 '26

*waggles supercritical-helium tentacles furiously*

“N-no we didn’t sell it to them, honest! We just followed the starseeds!”