A few other possible settings;







Pulsed Energy Projection: a high intensity laser pulse ablates the surface of the target and creates a small amount of exploding plasma. This produces a pressure wave that stuns the target and knocks them off their feet, and electromagnetic radiation that affects nerve cells causing a painful sensation. Basically, one can use a laser to make the air next to a target *explode*. And it's low-lethal, too. Speaking of low-lethal...





Stun: Ionized air conducts electricity like a wire. This setting splits the laser beam and passes it through metal eyelets energized by the weapon's power source. When the ionized beams hit a conductive surface the energy discharges through the target - in effect a wireless taser. This discharge is modulated to disrupt the synaptic refresh of most chordates, rendering the target instantly unconscious with no chance of physical harm save collapse injury.





Blast: Ionized air also can also keep a cloud of plasma - superheated gas as hot as a star - from dissipating. This setting propels a plasma bolt capable of vaporizing several inches of battleship plate down this "plasma channel" at roughly the speed of sound. This plasma must be generated in advance by permitting the weapon to "breathe". When primed and flipped from "safe" to "decidedly unsafe," local atmospheric gases are cycled into the weapon's capacitor, where the same high-energy laser used by the previous settings superheats these gases into a plasma, producing a noticeable acoustic effect that some have defined as an "Ommminous Hummmmm". While this hum is stealth-defeating, many have reported that it serves as an excellent deterrent.





So a laserman can also act as crowd control *and* anti-armor. Why haven't we built these things yet?

