Hip firing recommended? I hope that lense on top of the barrel is a camera or sensor feeding aiming data into the glasses via HUD to make aiming more practical than just feeling the aim.

The design looks oddly familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it, reminds me of some SMGs.

No, that's how you carry the weapon, hence the "carrying demonstration." The glasses are mostly there to protect the figure from being blinded by the laser beam. You can aim with it, which is what the sensor is indeed used for, but you don't have to.

Laser weapons have near-perfect accuracy. Apart from some mild vibration from the beam generation, there's no actual form of recoil. It's not like a projectile weapon, where the blowblack of the bullet exploding out the barre forces the gun barrel upward. It's literally point-and-shoot.

You have to be either unlucky, handicapped in some way (lack of depth perception, etc), or trying not to hit the target to miss it, or the target has to jump out of the way. And if they do move, you simply "walk" the beam towards them and your mistake is corrected. You'll cut through any unarmored targets along the way if you do, which is great for crowd control.

Most untrained mooks can handle a little vibration, and a trained soldier in a suit with built-in shock-reducers can easily do it, which is one of the only reasons the Marine Corps in this universe likes laser guns more than projectile weaponry. It's the easiest gun in the world to fire and hit anything with. The training only lies in safety measures and maintaining the weapon.

As for the design, I based it off a combo off the FN-P90, F.E.A.R's Andra-99 SMG, and the failed G-11 assault rifle, so that might be what you're picking up on. The idea was that older-era laser guns looked like repurposed industrial tools, so YI designed this one to look and feel like an actual weapon.

Do you have a publisher for your novel?

Not at the moment, but I'm actively looking. If all else fails, Amazon will do the job.

What about Random House publishing?

Haven't tried them yet. Might be an option, if they're willing to go the dark sci-fi route.

I'm sure they're willing to.

Hopefully. But I'd have to do it carefully. If not, I could lose control over rights to the story. That would be bad.

I want one.

There's a surplus of them around after the military eventually shelves them. It's not cheap, but you can pick one up!