Mitrailleuse

Mitrailleuses are an older variant of Short Range Weapons [SRW] that predate Plasma Cannons. Even today they are still used by second-grade navies that simply cannot produce its successor weapon, due to their relatively high level of complication and costs. It can still be deadly, nevertheless.   Mitrailleuses are modified Magnetic Acceleration Weaponry [MAW] that can fire special, canister shells. Within them are the so called grape-shots. Long 'sticks' made from heaviest materials possible... covered with several bands of internal magnetic engine. After the mitrailleuse fires, the shell travels until it gets close to the enemy. Then it dismantles, with 'sticks' then further accelerated towards their target.   Long enough sticks can actually pierce the Particle Shield (while being extremely vulnerable to Magnetic Shield) at the cost of losing up to 60-70% of their length, while still carrying enough velocity to cause significant damage. There are also specialized (and significantly more modern) versions of mitrailleuses that include a version that uses few 'sticks' to clear a milisecond-long pathway through the shield (with rest of them following) and one with pin-like rounds. In this last version shell carries less sticks, but each of them ends with a lot of potent explosives/acids that automatically detonate when the piercing part hits Shield, damaging it much more than it should.   All versions are, however, mostly outdated, causing negligible ammount of damage when compared to other SRWs. On the other hand, they are very easy to produce, and can theoretically be fired from standard artillery-distance (but with much smaller damage, since only short-range full auto fire can hope to cause REAL damage).