It would be a cool feature if type1 (slash) beams could be made to slash through multiple fighters in one pass. I could see fire-beam be altered so that when a type 1 is used, it gives the option to hit more than one target, causing it to make a straight line carve from one ship to another. This would be difficult to do however, since fighters positions in mission are typically quite random and can't be expected to be in the same place. That could make for an extremely wide sweep. Perhaps a new beam number type would be in order... I say "would be in order", since I find it unlikely that coders would find this kind of feature worth the effort, if at all possible.