Lucent

Magitek-based laser technology based on the Mana Dimension elemental Lumina (Light), and commonly used by the Tasnica Republic, though it sometimes found elsewhere. Lucent comes in two flavors: Lucent Beam and Lucent Pulse. Both are typically mounted as vehicle, mecha, or even capital ship weapons; fitting the system with enough power output to a personal weapon has proven extremely difficult.

Beams

On capital ships, lucent beams are mounted as a "bank" or "array", but on mecha and vehicles its more of a "dome." Capital ships tend to have multiple emitters tied together, but most smaller-scale systems can only use one. The Lucent Beam's focusing system can be fired in any direction along the focusing lens, giving it a large arc of fire. 180 degrees on all three axes is standard; larger arcs required specialized mounts. The Kuat Consortium, under the direction of Stephen Glass, once built a 360 degree "laser orb" capable of firing in any direction, but that was a showpiece; in reality, the firing vehicle itself tends to obstruct at least some of the possible paths of the laser. This feature makes it a very popular weapon on capital ships, as a relatively small number of systems can cover all of the ship's "blind spots"; almost all Republic Aerospace Fleets ships have full coverage of fire. The beam can be sustained for several seconds, which allows it to make sweeping or cutting attacks; for this reason, lucent beams are the preferred anti-infantry weapon on Tasnican vehicles. (Kuat's advertising describes it as "a lawn mower for infantry.")

Pulse

More of a cannon, Lucent Pulse focuses the energy of a beam into a single bolt of energy. In appearance this is less like a laser beam and more like a projectile. By delivering more energy over a short period of time, Pulses hit much harder than beams. However, it gives up a great deal of flexibility and since its built more like a "gun" rather than a focusing "dome", the firing arc is fixed forward.

These were marketed under the "Radiant blaster" name for a time by the Kuat Consortium. Vehicle and mecha mounted pulses tend to be slow-firing, but capital ships have enough power and heat sinks to achieve an impressive rate of fire, at least for short bursts.

Production

This is fairly common technology in the Tasnica Republic, and many AAA corporations produce them. Kuat is considered the market leader, but competition is stiff. Lucent family lasers are rarely produced outside of Tasnica, but are sold to many countries and the Grand Army.

Comparison

The leader in energy weapons is still Gate, not Mana, and their lasers have a number of advantages: Wondershot weapons for their portability, Luminaire-based weapons such as LPCs for raw hitting power and range. The Tasnicans, though, are a lot less picky about who they sell weapons to. Of course, there's also a wide range of magitek weapons that use various elemental energies, but one wonders how much those can be accurately described as "lasers" if light-based energy is not the core component.