How I Got My Laser Eye Injury
By Phil of Funranium Labs
https://www.funraniumlabs.com/2024/07/how-i-got-my-laser-eye-injury/
This is one of the dirty little secrets of a scifi battle with laser pistols.
Every innocent bystander between you and the horizon is at a risk of laser blindness
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php#laserblind
Well, innocent bystanders can be protected by the blink reflex, as described in a familiar (to me) conversation on your page.
The idea is that a trigger press initiates a safe flash before the main shine. Maybe it could be two or three safe flashes of increasing brightness before the main shine.
The military could VR goggle optics, to avoid any optical paths to damage eyes. Or if you're on a budget, the pirate eyepatch method works. Once.
@isaackuo @nyrath yeah I like the sci-fi sub-tradition where, because beams, projectiles & explosives are too risky in space boarding battles that the standard for personal combat, for either attackers or defenders, defaults to clubs, armored gloves, maybe nets, as part of hand-to-hand melee.
because if the wrong thing gets pierced or malfunctioned then *all* those folks will Have A Very Bad Day in Space
if one side wants the prize.booty at least. if its not a kamikaze
Side note: also, I feel like I must have missed most of the references for this sub-trad, as the only primarily melee boarding actions one I can call to mind are from _Lensman_, where the justification is that guns are useless when _free_ (inertialess), as the bullets would proceed to their targets and stop dead without penetrating, even if you built special guns with _free_-compatible firing mechanisms.
