Somewhere in the vastness of space, rested an asteroid field left forgotten by many people. Located near no known trade lanes, or any habitable planets, yet in this asteroid field was a base of operations lead by a pirate clan.

Space split apart, but nothing be seen. Against the blackness a shimmer was occured; eight shimmers in total. Several moved ahead of what appeared to be a larger shimmer, while the others stayed behind.

Back at the base no one seemed alarmed by the sudden spacial changes, no one seemed to have noticed that some of the asteroids in the field had started to move in the 'opposite' direction that the rest had been going.

On board one of these shimmering vessels, a young navy captain stared at the holographic sensor reading. "Status?" he said in a clam tone.

"Nothing, they haven't detected us. Frigate's are getting in position, corvettes are in position. Bombers are locked on the asteroids and moving them into position." Said the sensor and communication's officers in unison as they monitored there assigned channels.

Out in space it was easy to tell that nothing was out of the ordinary, except the four asteroids that had suddenly stopped moving. Some distance away a flight of pirate x-wings flew up to the asteroids, one circled around it, but soon the group flew off to scan the other asteroid.

Inside the cloaked bomber, the pilot sighed in relief. "Gotta love the jammers, thank god our cloaking drives operate well when we are not moving." the pilot said in a low tone as to not be picked up by any 'other' type of sensors. He looked to his left and at the holographic display that was on his cockpit window, while he couldn't see very far with the cloaking drive active, he was able to see far enough to know that his squadron was in position.

On the asteroid's they planted a relay dish so small that it could easily be mistaken as just a metallic object that had floated near the roids, considering how much debris was still floating throughout this asteroid field.

On one of the frigates that had flown into the field, the captain and his crew where literally biting there nails. It had never been done before, flying into an asteroid field with there cloaking drives online, normally they would be firing on any asteroid that got close, but this time they had been ordered to fly very close to the pirate base and take up positions behind the base itself.

This accomplished this in twenty minutes, five minutes more than the captain had wanted but he didn't want to take any chances. His frigate, after all, wasn't heavily armored, it was an assault varient but with a good amount of it's armor taken off.

Meanwhile, at another point in space, a good distance from the asteroid field. A carrier moved in space, it was clearly visible but apperently the pirates didn't take much interest in it. Perhaps it was because the ship was radiating a false sensor signature, that made it appear to be a destroyer.

The pirate fleet was comprised mainly of frigates and one cruiser, it's possible they felt they had no chance against it so they just left it alone. However, underneith that ship, a corvette class vessel was slowly drifting out of it's hanger bay.

On board thruster packs pushed it out very slowly, once in position something was jetisoned on the underside of the carrier, a large metal barrel of some type floated aimlessly in space, being guided by the carrier's tractor beam emitters and by one emitter that had been attached to the corvette's hull.

Two cable's ran from the corvette back to the carrier, one connecting directly into the power unit. The other connecting into the sensor systems.

It took five minute's for the barrel to become fully aligned with the corvette, at which pointed four people in EVA packs slowly pulled it toward the clamps on the corvette's MAC, or Magnetic Acceleration Cannon, when the barrel was put into it's final position, four clamps suddenly extended from the corvette and latched onto the barrel, then pulled it toward the opening. On board a small 'click' could be heard as the barrel was finally in position.

"Round Loaded, One Nuclear Shell with a tip warhead." called out a gunner on board the corvette.

"Chamber loaded. Power online. Transfering 15% power from the carrier to our accelator systems." Another gunner called out

"Target lock achieved. Enemy frigate, shields are down, nuclear shell will do just fine." The sensor officer said as she guided her hand over to another consule.

"Ok... fire on my mark..." The commander on board said as he stared at the targetting line. The frigate near the pirate base was drifting ever so slightly, when the targetting lines turned green - "FIRE!"

The internal tempreture suddenly spiked to over a hundred and ten degrees. A large metallic 'bang' resonated through both the corvette and carrier, outside a large part of the corvette's hull suddenly flew back as the shell was fired out of the cannon. The shell spiraled down the barrel and flew out into the stars.

Toward the asteroid belt it went, moving at such speeds that the AI had difficulty calculating when it would arrive. When the shell was roughly 500 KM's from the enemy frigate, the bombers in the air suddenly decloaked and flew off at maximum speed.

To late though for the frigates, the shell slammed into the frigate shearing away the hull and embedding itself into the internal structure, for a split second time slowed as fire chained up the center section of the massive ship, before suddenly a white flash occured and the ship was gone. Peice's of debris flew out into space and impacted on the other asteroids in the area.

"Target comfirmed... the shell pierced the hull.. apperently it missed it's projected point by point five inches." The gunner said and started venting the large amount of heat that had built up in the chamber. "Once heat is purged, will load a fusion shell. Target will be the enemy cruiser."

"Confirmed. Shell was pulled off course due to the gas giant. Making corrections for next shot." Yelled another gunner who was fastly making a firing correction.

The pirate fleet was in disarray, they hadn't even seen it coming. The fighters that had been in the area where either disabled by the massive EMP, or where in a complete state of shock. Behind the pirate base, which had been shielded by the EMP, the two frigates just stood there waiting for there orders to decloak and engage.

On board the enemy cruiser, a faint bluish energy barrier suddenly appeared around the ship, that blush light then faded away as the cruisers shield turned back to there orignal, active, color.

"Purging of heat complete. Fusion shell has been loaded. Zero tip warhead is armed. I would advise that we order Frigate's three and seven to move back a bit." The gunner said as he used the thruster pack to move the barrel over by one inche

By this time though the enemy cruiser was heading toward them, blasting at the asteroid's that where in it's path. "ETA before they intercept us - 8 minutes." the sensor officer on board the carrier said over the comm. system.

The corvette's gunners where already done though with the firing solution. "Cruiser in perfect alignmate, no asteroid's in it's path." the gunners said as they disengaged the locking mechanism that pervented any accidental firings.

"Captain. Carrier captain just told us that if we don't them out in at least two hit's, we'll be forced to abandoned the barrel and fleee." The communications officer said and the captain nodded. "Noted... fire!" he yelled

Again a large metallic bang could be heard, but this time it sounded slightly different. The large shell, roughly ten feet longer than the nuclear shell, spiraled out of the barrel and toward the cruiser. The cruisers turbo lasers toward onto the shell and fired, but the lasers bounced off the Zero Tip warhead and into space. The shell slammed into the shield and exploded with enough force to completely blow the shield apart. Small explosion's appeared on the cruiser as the concussion reached the hull.

The cruiser stopped briefly before continuing it's course.

"Four minutes.." called out the sensor operator.

The corvette, after venting the heat, loaded up another shell, this one however was a plasma shell. "Order all personel to clear decks five and six." The captain ordered and the bridge crew nodded.

"Three minutes..."

The gunners nodded toward the captain and gave him the go ahead. "FIRE!" he yelled.

Another bang could be heard, but this time the internal tempreture around the cannon and the berral spiked to over a hundred and fifty degrees. The shell spiraled out of the barrel, burning away some the metal in the process. It flew through space leaving a hellish red trial in it's stride, soon coming into contact with the cruiser and pierciing it's hull like a hot knife slicing through butter.

The cruiser, having been hit with such a force, moved backwards through space, it's engines crying for mercy. The shell had impacted a little more to the left of the bow, leaving a deep gash, it was evident that the plasma warhead was doing it's job due to the metal that melting on both the top and bottom portions of the cruiser.

The crepled capital ship moved hazily through space, it's internal structure slowly being eaten away by the spreading plasma, finally the spread stopped, just short of the engine room.

By this time the corvette was ready to fire it's last round. This was purely a nuclear round, no use wasting a fusion or plasma round on a cripled cruiser. But then again, they couldn't use either or anyway. The barrel was damaged due to the plasma shell, the only shell it could fire would be the nuclear shell and that was because it was small and wouldn't generate as much heat as the fusion and plasma shell's would.

"Shell loaded. Zero One warhead attached." The gunners said as they confirmed the firing solution.

The captain nodded and gave a salute, an old navy officer wishing his enemy a good life elswhere. "Fire...." he said and the ship vibrated as the shell left the cannon and flew through space, impacted against the cruiser and into the hull.

A white flash could be seen a second later the cruiser erupted into a ball of fire and debris. The crew on the corvette shielded there eye's from the explosion. When the light show was over, however, it was apperent that the shell hadn't caused the explosion... as the shell was still in space and continuing toward the gas giant.

"I guess there wasn't enough internal structure to keep the shell from exiting." Said the gunner as he sent the automatic self destruct code. The shell moved into the atmosphere of the gas giant and skipped along the surface of that sphere, then off into space where the shell later exploded due to the orders sent to it.

The corvette's assembly crew began to disassemble the barrel. "Great job people.. although it took us a few shots.."

"We know it can destroy an unshield frigate in one hit. Perhaps two if the shields are online."

"We know it can also cause wide spread damage on a cruiser, provided it's shields are fully active." Said another gunner. "The cruisers shields where only at seventy five percent."

"Our fleet has taken care of the pirate base. The pirate's pretty much gave up after that display." The communication's officer said

"At least we know it works. But apperently they need to strengthen the barrel a bit to be able to withstand the plasma shell." The captain said while rubbing his chin. "but all in all it was a good test of a new weapon."

With that done the corvette was slowly tractored into the carriers hanger bay, the numerious fighter craft that the carrier had deployed upon exit of hyperspace soon landed. The carrier's engine's ignited as the carrier moved away from the battle fields, it's engines had already been pointed toward the aseroid field when the firing had begun. The barrel was soon locked into position by four magnetic clamps, after which four other solid clamps came over the barrel.

Soon, the carrier, along with it's escorts and the rest of the fleet, entered hyperspace.