Asteroid Destroyer

"How did I solve the energy transfer problem? What, with how the beam on the Bloody Knuckle fluctuates bigger and smaller but mine doesn't? That's simple. We took a different approach. We basically just mimicked the Space Catapult and used a battery system instead. In theory it would work exactly the same even if we had the Dark-Energy Reactor like you did. While the energy might flux going into the battery, power is power. Once it's in the battery it goes out as slow or as fast as I need it to." - Thundra explaining to Gearhart how AcDragonia solved the energy issue between their cannons
The Asteroid Destroyer is a Ship-Based High Energy Standoff Cannon used by the Hyperion and other large scale naval ships in the AcDragonian space navy. This weapon is the prototype built by Dragonia ultimately in their quest toward the Bloody Knuckle. The Asteroid Destroyer follows the same lineage as the Bloody Knuckle but diverges quite substantially after it's acquisition by AcDragonia. The weapon was damaged in the supernova bombing but it was salvageable. AcDragonia took it off of Dragonia's hands in exchange for some of the plasma tech they developed with Corsair.
The notable differences are substantial. For one, the weapon is about 52 meters longer at the barrel than the Bloody Knuckle and weighs over 2000000 lbs. It is a massive weapon in all respects. Logistical considerations for the weapon fell along almost the exact same lines as the Bloody Knuckle: How to mount it and how to power it. AcDragonia didn't necessarily have the resources to just create a new ship class out of nowhere, something that typically takes years to do properly before it is even laid down. There wasn't going to be a Maridia on the horizon anytime soon. There was a solution however; the Hyperion was due for a massive overhaul that needed done that was pushed off as long as it could. With Kaledon on the move, the Hyperion needed to upgrade to match the threat despite it being ridiculously powerful in it's own right. The Hyperion had the super rail gun removed completely and the entire section of the ship dedicated to the super weapon has been redesigned. The Asteroid Destroyer was remodeled as much as it could be to make it a modular weapon system. This way it could be easily removed from the Hyperion without a massive refit period. Now that the cannon was rebuilt into a modular weapon system, the next step was how to power it. The original rail gun used a direct energy infusion method to power it however the current power plant on board the Hyperion couldn't generate nearly enough power to power the weapon in the way it was intended. The solution came in that a redesign of the engineering section allowed for the installation of a specially created ultra-high capacity energy battery that can be charged either passively or directly by the dual-plasma turbine reactor on the ship. In much the same way the space catapult operates, it will draw power from the battery directly to power the weapon. Unlike the Space Catapult however, the battery can be used quite a number of times before it needs replaced. However, because it uses a battery to fire the weapon instead of direct energy infusion, it cannot be fired nearly as frequently as the Bloody Knuckle.
Even as a prototype, this weapon does have some advantages over the Bloody Knuckle. The main advantage is that since the weapon uses a battery to fire it has a steady and stable energy beam. The Bloody Knuckle, due to the Dark-Energy Reactor has substantial fluctuations. This actually allows the Asteroid Destroyer to increase or decrease the power of the beam for a number of uses. The battery system also allows the weapon to be fired without interfering with the rest of the ship.
The weapon has disadvantages though. The weapon is substantially less powerful than the Bloody Knuckle. It cannot be fired as fast, or as frequently. It has a substantially less max focus distance, meaning it can't target ships as far away. The battery also is a weak point in the ship. There is a potential for it to violently explode if it is hit with the right weapon. To help combat this, the battery was installed in a massive blow out compartment so it would blow out the side of the ship should that happen.
Despite all this, it is important to know that this is a prototype of the mainline Asteroid Destroyer cannon that is developed and used by AcDragonia. Unlike the Bloody Knuckle this weapon CAN be produced and used on ships in the navy as they are all being retrofit to as modular a design as they can be.