[Suicide Junkie]

I think you should remove the intermediate techs, if you don't want the stuff researchable.

The way I think you have it, is that the intermediates are "tech B", while the shard cannons are under "tech C"

Therefore you could steal the intermediates via intel ops, and tehn research the "tech C" stuff.

if you make the weapons tech a "tech B" type, requiring a racial tech to research, then others will never be able to research the weapons.

As it is, you could trade away your intermediate tech, and aliens could research the weapons tech ahead of you!