AM58 sidearm

"Christ, this thing feels like it's about to explode."

- UNSC Army trooper noting the sidearm's unreliability during a weapons test.

The AM58 Personal Defense Energy Weapon System (PDEWS), or AM58 for short is a designed by Augmentix Heavy Industries, a CybCell Intelligence Systems subsidiary in 2558. Augmentix participated in a 2557 defense contract competition which requested the design and creation of a small directed-energy weapon for the  to compete against  designs like the  and  pistols encountered during the Human-Covenant War and in Post-War conflicts.

While enthusiastic, Augmentix ran into a number of problems during the design process. Despite receiving declassified military documents from the UNSC regarding the reverse engineering and specifications of Covenant technology and advisory councils on how to properly handle and re-engineer the technology, the development of the AM58 was plagued with severe delays and technical issues for the duration of its development cycle. UNSC servicemen who were familiar with using Covenant weaponry cited unreliability and poor handling with early models of the AM58, with their concerns turning deadly when an Army trooper was killed when the sidearm inexplicably exploded in her hand during a weapons test in November 2557.

Unfortunately, Augmentix lost the competition to the defense contractor, with the UNSC adopting their directed-energy sidearm in May 2558 after being displeased with the AM58. This loss strongly affected Augmentix, who felt bitter with aversion that yet again the weapons juggernaut controlled another slice of the UNSC's defense capabilities. A month later however, tensions between Misriah and Augmentix's parent company reached an all-time high, in which documents were released accusing Misriah Armory of tampering with the development of the AM58 and conducting corporate espionage in order to preserve their monopoly over the arms industry. Following these accusations, CybCell drastically increased the budget of Augmentix Heavy Industries, writing them a blank check and vowing to dethrone Misriah within the next decade as the UNSC's primary defense contractor.

Following this, the AM58 underwent extensive redesigns, in which the sidearm's appearance began to look strikingly similar to Misriah's, specifically the. By October 2558, the AM58 was seeing moderate use among CybCell's own security force and other private security companies, with limited use being introduced to the.