Tractor Beams

Tractor beams are usually thought of as the ‘tow trucks’ of space, and this is how they are most often used. However, it is entirely possible to use them in defensive and offensive fashion.

An example of the defensive use of tractor beams might be to pull an asteroid between one’s own spacecraft and an enemy spacecraft, in order to use the asteroid as a shield. Alternatively, one might use it to attach to the same asteroid—or to an enemy spacecraft, effectively using it as a hostage against other spacecrafts’ fire.

Offensive use of a tractor beam includes latching onto an enemy vessel in order to hold it in place (relative to the attacking vessel, at least) while firing upon it.

They are fundamentally a part of what is known in galactic circles as Higgs field technology, which includes pressor beams, artificial gravity, and force fields.