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Although most technical factors limiting the military deployment of laser emitters - heat dissipation, atmospheric blooming, and beam defocusing- had been resolved centuries before humanity left the cradle of old Earth, laser weapons were still remarkably uncommon within the federation's planetary assault units. Strategic analysts decried most vehicle-grade emitters for their unremarkable performance against fortified targets and unacceptably high power draw. However, it was the expansion of pulsed laser systems into small arms that hammered the final nail in the procurement coffin: the ubiquity of the easily-rechargable lasgun and laspistol forced lasers into the niche role of survival weapons - useful for a soldier stranded in an unfamiliar environment, but wholly less glamorous when used to replace a primary kinetic mount.
Regardless, there was one area where the superiority of laser weapons remains uncontested: accuracy. You note this as you track the last surviving member of the Aeldari raiding party with your PD laser. Instead of waiting for you to finish off the downed venom with your main gun, the irregulars had - in a core-boggling display of disregard for sound tactics - decided to survey the wreck on foot. Fortunately, the Aeldari raider that escaped from the venom's canopy was just as senseless. Instead of waiting for reinforcements or mounting an effective ambush, she grabbed an energized short sword and leapt forward to engage the irregulars in melee combat. Intercepting her is a trivial problem for subintelligence governing the laser's FCS, which notes her semi-ballistic trajectory, dials in optical compensation to account for atmospheric distortion, and down-shifts the emission spectrum of the emitter's gain medium to avoid permanently blinding the nearby human irregulars. Half a second later, the pilot's carbonized organic remains drifted gently on top of the slagged remnants of her armor.
