Laser Weapons

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT

MILITARY FIELD AND TECHNICAL MANUAL

YSLU-99 LASER CARBINE

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Purpose: This manual provides guidance on the operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of the YSLU-99 Laser Carbine.

SECTION 2: WEAPON OVERVIEW

2.1 Description: The YSLU-99 is a high-powered, semi-automatic laser carbine designed for long-term engagements in harsh environments.

SECTION 3: OPERATION

3.1 Firing Procedure:

Ensure lenses are clean and aligned.

Check barrel for debris.

Charge capacitor (primary battery or emergency solar collector).

Aim and fire.

SECTION 4: MAINTENANCE

4.1 Lenses:

Inspect for damage or misalignment.

Clean with approved solution.

4.2 Barrel:

Check for debris or blockages.

Clean with approved brush and solution.

4.3 Battery and Capacitor:

Monitor charge levels.

Replace battery as needed.

SECTION 5: EMERGENCY SOLAR COLLECTOR

5.1 Operation:

Unroll solar panel from buttstock.

Expose to direct sunlight.

Charge capacitor (approx. 30 minutes for full charge).

SECTION 6: TROUBLESHOOTING

6.1 Common Issues:

Lens misalignment or damage.

Barrel blockages or debris.

Battery or capacitor malfunction.

SECTION 7: REFERENCES

7.1 Manufacturer's Recommendations:

Regular maintenance for optimal performance.

Emergency solar collector for extended operations.

Classification: Restricted

The Basics

Laser Weapons were one of the first solutions to weapon needs in space. The first battle on an extraterrestrial field, the Battle of Mare Frigoris, was fought by astronauts and cosmonauts in bulky space suits bouncing around with rudimentary chemical-laser rifles the Size of bazookas. With the advent of Quantum-Matrix Battery more than a millenium before, the Laser Weapons in the Age of Convergence are often compact, efficient weapons.

The energy generated by the QMB is stored in a capacitor. When the trigger is pulled, a circuit is completed with a quantum-crystal lens which then causes a piezoelectric release of light and energy down the barrel, where it travels through several lenses and mirrors. The result is a flash-beam of energy several thousand degrees (hotter than a flamethrower).

No Frills, Just Fighting

Laser Weapons are considered 'workhorses' of PSC weapons. Farmers defending their crops, Line Infantry, some police forces, etc. all use Laser Weapons. While most gigacorporations make them, the four primary manufacturers are Yute, Seneca, Lister Unified, Vanguard Dynamics, Celestial Securities, and Gentleman's Creed Traditional. YSLU are the most common and popular, and their designs are free to use by anyone with access to a fabricator. VD and CS primarily make them as sidearms for ship crews and carbines for rifle units, with VD also making the 'Heavy Mounted Laser Cannon." Gentleman's Creed Traditional's lasers are hand made, often with genuine wooden handles and gold filligree scrollwork. GCT also makes 'dueling pistols,' which fire a single shot and a 'laser musket' which uses a fusion cell array instead of a QMB. A crank on the side rotates the fusion cells around a Quark-Cloud Agitation Device. The resulting weapon fires slowly and has to be cranked between each blast, but carries a burst of ionizing radiation with each attack.

Reliable, Durable, and Deadly Enough

Perhaps surprisingly, most laser guns are lower in complexity than old gunpowder firearms. The relative lack of moving parts is a major asset in prolonged combat tours as well as for positions which should be armed but definitevely won't see combat for years at a time, such as remote-outpost security or the crew on board capital ships. Their cauterizing action is less preferred by commandos than the bleeding wounds inflicted by Gravitic Slingers and Smart Weapons, or the violent blasts of Particle Weapons, but when the goal is to win a combat rather than kill the enemy, Laser Weapons will usually suffice.

Red, White, and Blue

There are some options on the color of the laser. This isn't a cosmetic choice. IR lasers emit a red beam and function adequately well in all situations except water or thick atmosphere. Blue-Green lasers are shorter wavelength take more energy, fire more slowly, and fire farther. NUV lasers fire a laser on the edge of human vision, near the UV spectrum. These hold a coherent beam for a longer range in space but deliver less of a punch and functions poorly in atmosphere.

Low Band Lasers: LB lasers emit a coherent beam of near-infrared frequency light. They are the most common high-energy laser, as they are more efficient to generate than other frequencies and propagate well in both air and space. LB lasers inflict tight-beam burning damage with a (2) armor divisor. They can’t penetrate more than a few inches of water, which reduces their underwater Range to 0/1.

Full-Spectrum Lasers: Full Spectrum Lasers are inefficient, but much more powerful. They double the damage output and armor divisors of an IR beam, but halve the effective range and triple the ammunition requirement. Their beams are a bright, eye-searing white.

High Band Lasers: Some high-energy lasers fire a beam in the near-ultraviolet wavelength. An ultraviolet laser has superior range (in vacuum) compared to infrared or full-spectrum lasers, but its beam is rapidly absorbed by atmosphere. The beam is invisible, but it ionizes air molecules when fired in atmosphere of greater than trace density, producing a visible blue-violet glow along its path. An ultraviolet laser has triple the usual Range, but due to its lower efficiency, its Damage is halved. Treat half-dice as a +2 modifier, e.g., 5d(2) becomes 2d+2(2). UV lasers are mainly used for space combat and on airless worlds. In atmosphere, the Range cannot exceed 500 yards divided by atmospheric pressure.

High-Energy Laser Table

Laser Crystal: An 1/8-inch-diameter solid-state laser projector with an integral one-shot power cell. It is surgically inserted just under the skin; this takes only a minute in an automed (p. 196). Firing is triggered by a specific nerve impulse – if implanted in a finger, it might be fired by clenching the fist while pointing at the target. When fired, it burns through the skin (a thin enough layer that no damage is taken). It’s possible to equip multiple fingers and fire them simultaneously; treat this as a single attack with a RoF equal to the number of laser crystals. Other versions of this weapon can be in the form of a false tooth or a tongue implant.

Heavy Laser Pistol: A bulky but rapid-firing military-style laser sidearm, often used as an alternative to a machine pistol.

Holdout Laser: A favorite of spies and assassins, this is a tiny weapon disguised as an innocuous object, such as a wrist communicator or pen. Its mechanism uses nonmetallic ceramics and exotic composites, so with the power cell removed, an ordinary scanner cannot distinguish it from a civilian electronic device.

Laser Pistol: The basic laser sidearm. On some worlds, it's as ubiquitous as six-guns in the Old West.

Assault Laser: This is an early-model chemical pumped laser. It was most often used for microgravity combat. If its chemical power pack is attacked, it has SM-4, DR 10, HP 7; if disabled, it inflicts 1d corrosion damage in a 1 yard radius. GCT manufactures these, mostly for collectors.

Laser Sniper Rifle: A bulky but accurate laser rifle, used as a battlefield sniping weapon

Anti-Material Laser Rifle: A big laser sniper rifle, capable of stopping a battlesuit or a dinosaur (hence its nickname). Also called a “heavy laser.” These are mostly military weapons, but are sometimes used as an “elephant guns” for big game.

Laser Carbine: A compact “assault” version of the laser rifle, favored by vehicle crews and special ops teams. Its low bulk makes up for its lack of range. Bayonet attachments are common.

Laser Rifle: The standard infantry combat laser, capable of full automatic fire. In some settings, it may be as ubiquitous as the flintlock rifle was in its

day.

Survival Laser: A carbine version of the heavy laser pistol. Survival lasers are designed to be broken down into four pocket-sized components, which take one minute to assemble or disassemble. Although the survival laser is not very powerful, it is a good choice as a survival weapon due to its excellent accuracy (useful when shooting small game) and the modest drain it imposes on power cells. It is also a favorite weapon of assassins.

Laser Musket: A Laser Musket uses a fusion cell array instead of a QMB. A crank on the side rotates the fusion cells around a Quark-Cloud Agitation Device. The resulting weapon fires slowly and has to be cranked between each blast, but carries a burst of ionizing radiation with each attack. It's based on a long defunct design from the early days of Saturn, and is ostentateously expensive compared to the utility.

Multi-Phasic Rifle: An MPR cycles through a triple burst with every trigger pull. The crystal lenses spin at incredible speeds, ruining one of the big selling points of Laser Weapons, their complexity, in exchange for damage output and universal utility. The energy burst travels through three chambers of gas which function as electron accellerators before traveling through the lens arrays and then bursting forth in a brilliant white light tight-energy beam. The 'burst' happens too fast to distinguish between the three. The result is increased damage output, incredible range regardless of the intervening space, and triple damage to energy shields.

BEAM WEAPONS (PISTOL) (DX-4, other Beam Weapons-4, or Guns (Pistol)-4)

Manufacturer(s)	Name	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	BC	LC	Notes
VS, CS	Heavy Laser Pistol	4d(2) burn	6	300/900	3.3/	10	56(3)	6	-2	1	$2,400	E	2
YSLU, CS, VD	Holdout Laser	2d(2) burn	3	100/300	0.35/	10	22(3)	3	-1	1	$300	B	3	Disguised as another object
YSLU, VD, CS, GCT	Laser Pistol	3d(2) burn	6	200/600	1.5/	10	33(3)	4	-2	1	$1,100	C	3
CS, YSLU	Laser Crystal	1d-1(2) burn	3	15/45	-	1	1	0	0	1	$100	-	2
GCT	Dueling Laser	2d(2) burn	8	60/120	0.8	1	3	2	-1	1	$500	A	2	+3 for Fast-Draw

BEAM WEAPONS (RIFLE) (DX-4, other Beam Weapons-4, or Guns (Rifle)-4)

Manufacturer(s)	Name	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	BC	LC	Notes
GCT	Assault Laser	4d(2) burn	12+1	700/2100	10/	1	40(5)	7	-5	1	$10,000	-	3
VD, CS, YSLU	Laser Sniper Rifle	5d(2) burn	12+2	1,100/3,300	20/	1	20(5)	10	-8	1	$20,000	F	1
VD	Anti-Material Laser Rifle	8d(2) burn	12	1,300/3,900	19/	1	35(5)	10	-5	1	$19,000	G	0
VD, CS	Laser Carbine	5d(2) burn	12	500/1,500	5.6/	10	28(3)	5	-3	1	$4,600	C	2
VD, CS, YSLU	Laser Rifle	6d(2) burn	12	700/2,100	8/	10	83(5)	7	-4	1	$400	D	3
YSLU, VD	Survival Laser	4d(2) burn	12	300/900	3.3/	1	56(3)	6	-3	1	$2,400	B	3
GCT	Laser Musket	5d(2) burn, 1d rad	12	1,000/3,000	10	1	1*(3)	11	-8	1	$110,000	-	1	Must be cranked as a reload action between each shot
VD	Multi-Phasic Rifle	8d(2) burn	9	4,000/12,000	9	1	20(5)	7	-5	1	$9,000	H	0

Gunner (Beams) (DX-4 or other Gunner-4)

Manufacturer(s)	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	BC	LC	Notes
VD, CS	Laser Cannon	8d(2)x10 burn	12	10,000/24,000	350	1	100(5)	16	-10	1	$50,000	H	2
VD, CS	Laser Minigun	8d(2)x10 burn	12	8,000/12,000	500	10	300(5)	18	-10	1	$120,000	H	1
VD, CS	Multi-Phasic Cannon	8d(2)x10 burn	9	20,000/40,000	450	5	50(5)	18	-10	1	$60,000	H	0
VD, CS	Laser Turret	6d(2)x10 burn	12	1,000/5,000	60	8	200(5)	14	-10	1	$14,000	H	2

Turrets and Direct-Link Weapons

Lasers are also a common weapon for turrets, traps and drones. These weapons use the IQ of the 'mind' attached to determine the skill, be it an Recursive Intelligence, Synthetic Intelligence, Shackled or Unshackled AI, or Cybernetic brain implant.

Fingerling Laser: A small laser roughly the Size of a human index finger and twice as big around, typically mounted on a small turret. This is the normal weapon of an FM Drone or pocket turret. It deals 1d(2) burn damage and has a range of 80/160. Sometimes installed as a cybernetic finger, in which case it uses the Beam Weapons (Pistol) skill.

Laser Matrix Proximity Mine: A dome roughly the Size of a helmet that is usually partially buried. When the on-board censors detect movement larger than a pre-programmed Size, a laser grid fires in all directions and hits anything in 3 meters, dealing 5d(2) burn damage.

Laser Grenade AKA "Dicer": A hand grenade with a short fuse that fires lasers in all directions, using an antigravity burst to hover briefly as it covers a sphere with a laser grid. Anything within 2 meters of the grenade receivesx 3d(2) burn damage.

Mods

Smart Stock: Slots an SI with basic FFD sensors and provides aim assists. SI can use the Aim action independent of the user. Cost: $250.

Emergency Recharge Cycler: A separate capacitor that draws on the battery independently of the firing capacitor. It holds a separate charge that automatically swaps with the main firing capacitor when the latter runs dry, effectively 'reloading' automatically. While the secondary capacitor fires, the main firing capacitor recharges, effectively allowing for another automatic swap when the backup runs dry. It's actively difficult to run out of ammunition with this mod. Cost: x2.

Flash Mod: A mod that allows for the user to convert the output of the laser into a cone, reducing the damage to 1 burn but anyone facing the attacker within the cone who has unprotected eyes (including flash protection) must roll a DX-3 or receive eye damage. Cost: $1,200.

Reflex Sight: A wide-angle sight meant for CQB and mid-ranges. Provides a +2 Equipment Bonus for shots at Close Range. Cost: $300.

Dipolar-Beam: Photons in the laser are quantum-split using a paraspace lenser. The negative poles of the photons lead and the positive poles follow, creating microvortices once they impact material, temporarily trapping the photons in an effect similar to hardlight (without the protection provided by organization.) This effectively means that for 1d minutes, the target will emit light as the photons reestablish their normal organization and burst harmlessly. This removes any darkness bonus for stealth, and it adds a +1 bonus to aiming at that target again as they glow and shimmer. Cost: $4,500.

Laser Weapons Critical Tables

Critical Hit Table

Roll	Result
3	Essential components (or subdermal layers) catch fire: If any damage penetrates DR, the target must roll a HT-2 or take an extra 1d burn damage.
4	Material ignites: 3 burn damage per round until its put out (three actions)
5	Blistering Overpressure: The superheated air around the impact causes a localized shockwave. The target must roll HT or be knocked prone and deafened (temporary) for 1d seconds.
6	Lens Scorch: If the target is using goggles, visors, or HUDs, the laser scorches them. The gear is destroyed or temporarily blinds the wearer for 1d+1 turns (HT to halve duration).
7	Liquefied Casing: The laser superheats an armor joint or weapon housing. The target’s weapon or item fuses or melts (HT or DX roll to avoid dropping it; gear may be destroyed).
8, 9, 10	Normal damage only
11	Tunnel Burn: The laser punches through one side and scorches out the other. If DR is penetrated, multiply the burn damage as impaling instead.
12	Heat Mirage: The local air shimmers and distorts violently, making the target’s square hard to focus on. All attacks against them are at -2 for the next round.
13, 14	Explosive Vaporization: Striking a fluid tank, battery, or biocircuit causes a pop of overpressure and steam. Anyone in 1 yard takes 1d-2 burn, and the target rolls HT or is stunned. A random item of the enemy is seriously damaged.
15	Cauterized Horror: The smell and sudden cauterization of a hit causes panic. If the attack penetrates DR, the target must roll a Fright Check or take SP damage equal to the burn damage of the attack.
16	Armor Slag: The laser slag-welds armor to the flesh beneath. If DR is penetrated, the target takes 1d-2 cut damage next time they try to remove the armor or move that limb.
17	Thermal Echo: The heat lingers unnaturally in the wound site. For the next 1d turns, the target takes 1 extra burn damage per round unless they are cooled (ice, foam, medspray, etc.).
18	The attack does triple damage.

Critical Miss Table

Roll	Result
3, 4	Lens Burnout: The weapon is nonfunctional until the lens is replaced.
5	Misalignment: Reduce the damage of the weapon by 1d until it's repaired.
6	Misalignment: Reduce the damage of the weapon by -3 (half die) until it's repaired.
7	Misalignment: Reduce the damage of the weapon by -1 until it's repaired.
8, 9	Discharge: The capacitor empties and the weapon misfires.
10, 11, 12, 13, 14	An automatic miss.
15	Heat Sink Error: The weapon's heat sink malfunctions, causing smoke to pour out of the weapon.
16	Heat Sink Error: The weapon's heat sink malfunctions, causing the casing to heat up, dealing 1 burn damage to the user's hand.
17, 18	If there's a friendly or neutral target in the direction of fire, the attack misses the intended target and hits that instead.