Type-31 Needle Rifle (Earth-4343)

The Type-31 Needle Rifle is a infantry weapon previously belonging to the Covenant, fabricated on High Charity's Sacred Promissory. After the fall of High Charity, Maeleesh Bazar took over as the producers of the weapon, often selling it to Sangheili Covenant remnants and Human Insurrectionists. During the Covenant's existence, it was mainly used by Sangheili footsoldiers and Kig-Yar snipers.

Design Details
The Type-31 Needle Rifle fires unconventional, long and razor sharp projectiles made of blamite. The projectiles detonate several seconds after coming to rest in soft tissue. The rear end of the weapon appears to be on a hinge, indicating it may be able to collapse into a more compact form.

The needle rifle is a fully automatic, short- to medium-range rifle, similar in many respects to the Covenant's Type-51 Carbine. Unlike the Type-33 Needler, the needles do not "home", or track on the enemy. They fire in a straight line at high velocities, similar to the M392 DMR. Rounds travel much faster than that of the needler, leaving the needle rifle's only destructive similarity to the needler being the individual/collected needle explosion.

The reload process for the needle rifle is very similar to that of the Covenant carbine. The scope for the weapon acts as a hatch, which flips open to expose a small canister that ejects upon opening, and a new canister is inserted by the user. The only difference between the reloads for the Carbine and the needle rifle is that the canister for the Carbine is not covered by any sort of hatch, which in the case of the needle rifle is its scope. This reload process implements another difference from the needler, which actually summons new needles from the inside of the weapon through the operation of what is suspected to be an internal mechanism.

History
Needle Rifles were used and largely employed during the Unggoy Rebellion, which aided both Sangheili and Kig-Yar warriors into defeating the massive Unggoy enemies.

Needle Rifles saw use through many of the First Contact War, being wielding since one of it's fist conflicts, the Battle of Circinus IV. It proved very useful against the Human attackers.

The Needle Rifle was used by numerous Kig-Yar snipers during the Fall of Reach, as well as the Battle of Installation 05, the Fall of High Charity and the Battle of Earth.

The weapon continued to be used, albeit moderately, in the years after the First Contact War.

Trivia

 * The Needle Rifle was Bero Kusovai's weapon of choice.
 * Kat-320 was killed by a Needle Rifle, though, instead of the usual kill which comes after the explosion of the blamite's shards, she was killed straight out after a shot on her head.
 * Design source: http://www.halopedia.org/Needle_rifle#Design_details.