Needle-based weaponry

A Skirmisher Minor and a Skirmisher Champion wielding a needler and a Gadulo-pattern needle rifle, respectively.

Needle-based weaponry refers to weapons that incorporate explosive Subanese crystal in their properties. Although there are melee weapons that were derived from the crystal, the most common needle-based weaponry are projectile weapons that launch the Subanese crystalline shards toward foes. While the Forerunners have developed at least one class of needle-based weapon, the Covenant most likely reverse-engineered the technology, leading to its widespread use in the Covenant and its remnants, particularly among their specialized infantry and vehicles.

History

A Banished Subanese crystal mine.

The development of needle-based weaponry dates back to the period before the Covenant. Prior to the formation of the Covenant, the Sangheili mined Subanese crystals from Suban, and grew to believe that even rudimentary scientific investigation into the crystals was tantamount to heresy. When they first began to incorporate the crystals into weaponry, the Sangheili knew how to manipulate and weaponize the crystal, but they lacked deeper understanding of its properties. The pre-Covenant weapons were unique, though their designs demonstrated the Sangheili’s poor understanding of the crystals, and further study on these designs were mostly abandoned until the dissolution of the Covenant. Prior to 2552, most needle-based weapons were manufactured by the Sacred Promissory on High Charity. After the fall of High Charity during the Great Schism, the manufacturing of the needler fell to Lodam Armory, and any understanding of the crystal from the San'Shyuum was lost with High Charity's record complexes.

Although humanity has also expressed interest in the crystals' energy-storage properties, UNSC forces working with Thel 'Vadam have began experimenting similar weaponization by incorporating the crystals into human weapons like the modified M49 Vulcan on the Sword Warthog.

Operation

An exploded view of a needler, drawn by Dr. Catherine Halsey.

"Anything stuck with enough needles will blow sky high—and if a Foxtrot is unlucky enough to be carrying grenades, those are gonna cook off too."

— Anonymous UNSC E2-BAG/1/7 serviceman

Needle-based weaponry are characterized by their integration of Subanese crystals, a pink crystalline substance mined from Suban, one of the Sangheilios' two moons. Upon impaling a target, the crystalline shards become chemically reactive, and detonate after a few seconds. Subsequently, a blade that contains Subanese crystalline properties can be made to explode when it is embedded in soft flesh. Similarly, if multiple shards from a projectile weapon make contact with a living target, then a chain reaction occurs—their chemical properties "supercombine" and the shards detonate simultaneously, causing an immediate and violent explosion. While the shards are devastating against living tissue, they are relatively ineffective against energy shielding.

Covenant needle-based weapons break the crystals into needle-like shards, then launch the shards from the weapon. The needler, the most popular class of needle-based weaponry, features an additional magnetic auger within the weapon that catalyzes the shards, which then become capable of tracking heat signatures. In contrast, the Gadulo-pattern needle rifle was not designed to charge its crystalline shards with the ability to home in on a living target, so it likely lacks a magnetic auger. Instead, when fired, the crystalline shards snap off into individual charged projectiles which are launched linearly at the intended target.

List of needle-based weapons

Explosives

• Covenant proximity mine

Handheld projectile weapons

• Blood of Suban variant of the Mosa-pattern carbine
• Needler
  • Posu'gelka-pattern needler
  • Type-33 needler
    • Nahle'hax-pattern needler
  • Type-56D needler
• Gadulo-pattern needle rifle

Melee weapons

• Lance of Suban variant of the energy sword
• Energy cutlass

Mounted weapons

• Modified M49 Vulcan
• Needle cannon
  • Heavy needle cannon
• Shard cannon
• Shardstorm launcher