Anti-Proton Cannon

An Anti-Poroton or "AP Cannon" uses a ship's supercollider to produce a stream of energetic plasma containing a high quantity of anti-protons, which is then fired through a magnetic aperture at an enemy ship. AP cannons are similar in design to Charged particle cannon, with dramatically higher power requirements and a coresponding increase in damage. Perhaps most importantly, because the AP cannon does not require a bank of massive capacitors, they can be fitted to much smaller ships.

Because the AP cannon stream consists primarily of energetic plasma, it travels much slower than the speed of light (around 80 P.S.L. at maximum). The stream also lacks a great deal of cohesion, so the weapon has a very low range when compared to traditional directed-energy weapons. Perhaps the greatest advancement

History

The first AP Cannon was built and fitted aboard G.S.S. Saratoga, and was adapted from a design for a mining laser. The original design (surprisingly invented by a culture which had not yet mastered space flight) was intended to excavate large, deep shafts by using matter/anti-matter annihilation, on a perfect 1/1 scale, to clear away mining refuse. That system was never perfected, but its adaptation on the Saratoga worked well to blast the ship out of a asteroidal cave.

Upon exiting the cave, the Saratoga immediately turned the mining machine on the ship that trapped them in the cave. Following additional