Wednesday December 10, 2008
Book 10: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse — Part IV: Fuller's Soap
Note: The quiet killing of your enemy's annie-plants is a tactic rarely employed. It requires first that you have an overwhelming advantage in terms of raw power, along with the ability to focus that power very finely. Secondly, it requires that you close to a range at which your enemy could use conventional means to blow both of you to tiny bits.

For all that, the process is quite simple. Find the steepest gravitic gradient around other than your own. This will be the field inside the enemy annie plant which is currently keeping their neutronium supply compressed. Now counter that field with a gravitic gradient of your own. The enemy's neutronium loses compression, and evaporates.

If you do it correctly the evaporating neutronium remains completely contained within the enemy annie-plant. If you do it incorrectly you might breach the enemy plant and be rewarded with an explosion, along with quickly-decaying radioactive gases. This is not a good way to shoot down enemy armor over your city, but it can be argued that there is no good way to shoot down enemy armor over your city.

Transcript

Schlock: Pop that rear hatch! We are ditching Onesy and jumping to the target!
Chisulo: Sarge, they're shooting at annie plants. They'll pop our suits if we're flying.
Schlock: I didn't say flying. I said jumping.
Chisulo: That syncrete roof should break my fall nicely.