Laser weapons shoot coherent beams of light to inflict damage on a target. Their ‘power’ and amount of damage inflicted is reflected in the color of light used. Each weapon class provides a comparable amount of ‘punch’ to their familiar ballistic counterparts. Pistols and submachine guns are red and green, rifles and light machine guns are blue, heavy machine guns are purple, snipers go into ultraviolet (but have special other effects, see below) and ship weapons tend to go higher in frequency. Laser weapons DO need to be reloaded. They have batteries and heat sinks which need to be swapped, and all but the most expensive versions also need lens replacements from lots of usage.
Laser weapons utilize a coherent photon beam that is synchronized in both space and time. This allows a dramatic increase in the amount of energy offered by light, making it an effective- if expensive- form of weapon. Due to the threat of reflected energy causing damage to eyes, most Fringe denizens have undergone filtered lens replacement. The cheap, effective, replacement lens can filter light over a certain intensity, so that personal laser arms don't damage the eyesight of everyone nearby when discharged. There is a common misconception that mirrored or reflective surfaces provide immunity to laser arms. While highly reflective surfaces do offer some limited protection, the ablation effects and heat deposited by intense laser energy will make such tactics largely ineffective. The best means of personal defense from laser weaponry is angled personal armor, so that the amount of surface area that the beam can affect is minimized, but armor made from heat-resistant materials like ferozium work best.
Currently probably the most advanced form of weaponry, lasers as they are in the current time-period exist only in gun form, as all attempts to make a closed-circuit style sword of sorts to contain a beam between two focal points have resulted in overheating, melting, and explosions. In gun form though, lasers are utilized quite efficiently, though are among the most expensive sorts of ranged weapon to exist that is mass produced.
Laser weapons exist in a wide variety of forms mirroring the classes of weapons seen in both plasma and ballistic forms. The difference between laser weapons, and the easiest way to predict the amount of damage they will do, is the frequency of the laser.
Laser pistols and submachine guns usually operate in the ‘red’ and ‘green’ wavelengths of visible light.
Laser rifles and light machine guns tend towards the blue regime.
Heavy infantry weapons tend to operate in the violet regime.
Sniper rifles are single-fire ultraviolet regime guns- they are invisible to the naked eye, but are high enough energy to gently ionize the atmosphere along their path. This leaves a trail of ‘fire flies’ which ironically make the laser sniper rifle a stealth weapon best used during the day.
Ship weapons often use x-rays. Infamous ‘orbital bombardment’ lasers are high enough energy to ionize the atmosphere they pass through, resulting in blazingly bright lights.
Laser weapons all have notoriously large ranges compared to their ballistic counterparts. In space, their range is anything that can be seen. In atmosphere, their range is limited by energy deposited into the air they pass through. This is most notable for laser sniper rifles, the longest range weapon, which falls off to non-dangerous levels at around 20 kilometers.
There exist weapons that do not operate in their normal regimes. For instance, stealth weapons often operate in the infrared regime to keep a small profile while also keeping the gunfire invisible and silent (these have a ballistic parallel in subsonic weapons). Weapons which have higher frequency firing have fewer shots before reload, and tend to also produce loud ‘hisses.' The infamous ‘laser revolver’ is an example of an upscaled pistol, which trades ammo capacity (each shot is a single battery cell) for higher frequency (purple). These revolvers are infamous for their short life span. Those which accommodate heat sinks are often very large and unwieldy with frequent heat-sink replacement necessary to use, while those WITHOUT heat sinks regularly melt their own barrels after any amount of continuous use.
Reload mechanisms increase the operating cost of laser weaponry by a not insignificant amount. There are two components that are in need of regular replacement: batteries and heat sinks. All weapons require regular battery replacement. The parallel for ballistics is bullets in a magazine. Heat sinks require replacement after significant usage, especially in the higher frequency weapons. Sniper rifles operating in the ultraviolet notably require a heat sink replacement after every shot- a cost of the amount of heat dissipated in that spectrum with the size of the weapons. This effectively makes all laser sniper rifles that use invisible lasers ‘bolt-action.’
Laser weapons have a great variety of cost and efficacy. The lower end of laser weapons operate off a simple set-up with a single lens and battery. These are single-fire weapons which require a cool-down period between firing, as they lack sophisticated heat sinks. They are fairly simple to operate. Firing beyond their limit results in the destruction of the lens, which can be difficult to replace in combat.
Mid-range laser weapons are more sophisticated and subsequently more expensive. They are often capable of semi-automatic fire due to the inclusion of heat sinks. Firing beyond their limit results in the destruction of the lens, which can be difficult to replace in combat. Heat sinks absorb heat, but are very slow to cool, requiring them to be reloaded if the weapon overheats in combat. Many weapons automatically stop the user from firing once the heat sink is in need of replacement to prevent the destruction of the gun.
The most expensive brand of laser weaponry are ‘automatic’ or ‘beam’ laser weapons. These weapons have both ferozium metalenses AND sophisticated heat-sink systems. Ferozium metalenses are extremely expensive to produce, but are nearly entirely immune to the heating that glass lenses suffer from. These weapons are capable of brief bursts of continuous fire before needing to eject their heat sinks. However, due to physical limitations of the ferozium metalenses, these weapons cannot operate above the violet regime- leaving laser snipers to need to replace their lenses as well as their heatsinks.
Injuries from laser weapons come from the amount of energy deposited into the area impacted. A hole is burned, often directly through the target. Any barrier placed between the laser and the target reduces efficacy. An unarmored target, or one who has had their armor already sufficiently fired upon (much like how ballistic gunfire can break ballistic plates), will find the experience of being shot with a laser no more pleasant than bullets. The laser burns a hole through the target, and heats up the body as it does. Organics experience blood boiling and organ damage along the path, which can often be immediately lethal. Androids and robots suffer a different set of issues- when a laser pierces their chassis, it can cause overloads in components it did not impact. A laser which punches through the processor may also short out the optical drive. Novae are nearly completely immune to lasers- a laser which hits them anywhere but the brand only offers damage by piercing a hole in their shell. This stings, but is only lethal if they bleed out from the resulting gap. A laser shot to the brand will still be lethal.