Dust cannon

A dust cannon was a prototype weapon the Daleks were developing during their Great War, sometime after 5000. It was a small, squat machine capable of pulverizing rocks and then spraying them in a fine mist from its barrel.

The Daleks planned to use the final version to grind up asteroids into grains of space dust, making navigation for non-Dalek craft hazardous if not impossible. At the speeds combat craft flew, even a single grain of dust impacting on the hull could cause serious damage; a cloud of the dust could vaporize a vessel and be virtually impossible to detect.

The cannon was never finished as the Dalek City was destroyed when the Humanised Daleks revolted. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)