First developed in the years preceding the First Tiberium War and then used during the conflict, the astronomical power of the Ion Cannon has since become GDI's greatest offensive asset. It fires several beams of concentrated energy that measure only centimeters across but can melt the densest metal, vaporize organic tissue and shatter Tiberium crystals. After that, they spiral in toward the target point and merge into a larger, more powerful beam at the center of the target area before the colliding ions trigger a controlled but extremely violent exothermic reaction fifty times more powerful than the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.