I tend to agree that the Steltek gun wasn't so powerful to be more than a novelty. Four fussion cannons on the business end of my Centurion was enough to take down any pirate, hunter, retro, merchant, kilrathi, militia or confed, so I didn't have any worries except for those damned asteroids. I'd forget about those things and lose most of my ship in one skull-splitting PLANG.