There is a weapons.tbl. You can use something like Maja (look around for it) to extract it from the VP. When its extracted, put it in MyFreespaceFolder/data/tables. Then you can edit it. Attempting to edit VPs is generally considered a bad idea, as there are certain bytes that tell the parser how long each file is, so if you add or remove characters, it screws up.
EDIT: Alternately, you could just use a TBM (modular table) to change the speed. Call it something like fastcyclops-wep.tbm and put it in MyFreespaceFolder/data/tables. This is a bit easier. It should be a text file that looks like this:
#Secondary Weapons
$Name: Cyclops
$Velocity: 500
#End