Laser turret (Tiberian Sun)

The laser turret (simply called laser in-game) is the Brotherhood of Nod's basic base defense structure in Tiberian Sun and Firestorm.

Background
The Laser is Nod’s main base defense. Like its larger cousin, the Obelisk of Light, the laser fires a focused laser beam at enemy units. Recent advancements in laser technology allow the laser to generate its own power so that it can remain operational during low power conditions.

Its laser beam was powerful enough to easily cut through the armor of GDI's Wolverines.

In-game
The laser turret is most effective against light vehicles and somewhat effective against infantry. However, it is outranged by Tick tanks and Titans and completely defenseless against them. Even though it consumes power, it can still function even when power is low.

In cutscenes, laser turrets can retract underground when not firing. However, this feature is not actually present in the game.

Trivia
The majority of the turret itself appears transparent, as its colour was likely black (colour ID 0), which is used for transparency in the temperate and snow unit pallettes (unittem.pal and unitsno.pal) in Tiberian Sun (to compare, the equivalent in Red Alert 2 is blue).