Solution enough to the tech problem: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrothermal-chemical_technology]ETC guns[/url]. Faster, more reliable ignition, more stable higher-energy propellants, up to double the muzzle velocity which in turn affects stopping power. There's advantages to more conventional "low-tech" hardware: you can't suppress an energy weapon or hide the bright glowing tracers. That tends to be an important feature when discretion is the better part of valor. :)

I'll maybe tune some things up when I go to post officially. I have formatting tweaks I wanna do anyway.