Lasgun
A high-energy laser weapon that cuts through nearly any armor, and turns catastrophic near a shield.
The lasgun slices through almost any conventional armor or barrier a person could put in front of it. Its real menace has little to do with raw power. Fire one at a shielded target and the beam triggers an uncontrolled subatomic explosion on the scale of a tactical nuclear strike. It kills shooter and target together. That single, well-known hazard pushed large-scale energy weapons out of common battlefield use across the Imperium. No commander wanted a lasgun-shield blast going off inside his own ranks. Ten thousand years of Imperial warfare bent around this one fact. It dragged combat back toward slow, deliberate blade work even in an age full of far more advanced technology. A lasgun sees real use only where shields are nowhere in the picture, or when someone reaches for it as a last, desperate option.
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