Handheld energy weapons

[Drashner1]

In the real world, there are three types of energy weaponse that are feasible: Laser beams, particle beams, and plasma bolts. While all of these types have potential for military use in the future, they have serious limitations when applied to handheld designs.

In OA, those limitations have been solved, at least for laser and plasma weapons. See the articles that Dfleymmes1134 has posted as well as the article on Hellbores (which do come in a handheld version if you're willing to augment the hands in question sufficiently.

Even within the OA universe, energy weapons are more fragile and temperamental than regular projectile weapons. They require a higher tech base and cannot be made soldier proof. Worse yet, their advantages in firepower and range aren't enough to overcome their disadvantages in other areas. (This is probably why rail-guns will never become standard issue among ordinary soldiers)

What are you basing these assertions on? Please point to the specific EG articles that support your assertions here.

The truth of the matter is that energy weapons are common within the setting and can be made tremendously durable, reliable, self repairing, programmable, and various other useful things, when so desired. There are also various advanced projectile weapons, but it isn't clear that they consistently offer general advantages over energy weapons (although there are probably specific situations where one type of weapon or the other has an advantage).

A more fundamental issue is your mention of a 'soldier'. In OA human (or biont, more generally speaking) soldiers are almost completely obsolete. I say 'almost' only because with sufficient and sufficiently advanced augmentation, a biont can operate in some specialized combat operations.

However, under general circumstances, bionts are utterly obsolete in combat. In Terragen civilization there is no task of any kind at which a machine cannot vastly outperform a biont in every way - and that includes warfare. Able to move faster than a human eye can follow and human reflexes can react, equipped with virtually perfect aim, superhuman strength, advanced camouflage, and a total lack of such concepts as fear, mercy, compassion, or guilt, OA combat automation can wipe the floor with any biont soldier, usually rendering them all dead or incapacitated before their nervous systems even have time to react to the notion that a fight has started.

This of course is assuming that the fight doesn't involve dropping a guardweb on the enemy or infecting them all with Binding systems or the like. Or memetically convincing them to form an alliance instead of fighting you in the first place.

So my question to you is: What types of energy weapons are there apart from the 'big three', I.E, laser-particle-plasma beams? Do any of them have potential for real world use, or do the laws of physics rule them out of the question (as it does with ion cannons)? Will 'unpredictable' technology of the future enable the creation of weapons like disruptors or blasters? By 'unpredictable', I mean stuff that qualifys as an unknown unknown.

By definition, 'unpredictable' technologies are unpredictable, so it really doesn't logically follow that you can turn around and predict them. Such an exercise seems likely to rapidly degenerate into an exercise in handwavium - which really isn't what we are about here.

As the existing laser pages discuss, a laser can do a very credible imitation of a 'blaster' (and without the silly season bit of an energy bolt that moves so slowly that a human can dodge it). It can even, potentially, act as a 'stunner', using the laser to ionize the air in the beam and then act as a 'wireless taser' to run a disabling current into the target. We haven't really decided if we want that in the setting yet, but it has been discussed in the RL and here.

My 2c worth,

Todd