M314 machine gun

The Xie R14A, more commonly known as the Impaler, is a general purpose machine gun manufactured by Xie Arms and used by the United Nations Space Command.

Design Details
The Xie R14A is a shoulder-fired, gas-operated, belt-fed machine gun that is equipped with a bipod. When the trigger is pulled, the bolt goes forward to feed the round into the chamber. The energy of the shot sends the bolt backwards, ejecting the empty cartridge. The 133-round belts are commonly held in ammo boxes that attach to the bottom of the weapon.

Ammunition
The R14A fires 12.7x99mm depleted uranium shells at a very high rate of fire. These rounds are meant to pierce body and light vehicle armor. The R14A may also be chambered to use 7.62x51mm rounds.

Advantages
The R14A is lighter than AIE-486H, allowing it to be more easily carried around. A SPARTAN carrying an R14A will not have his/her own speed suppressed by its mass. Additionally, it stronger than the AIE-486H, allowing mobile heavy infantry support. Since it is shoulder-fired, it is also easier to aim with than the AIE-486H.

Disadvantages
Although the R14A is lighter than the AIE-486H, it is not light enough for a normal infantryman to effectively operate it alone when it is not mounted on a bipod, tripod, or monopod. Its firepower and somewhat unreasonably high rate of fire causes relatively too much inaccuracy.

Influences
The aesthetic design is almost entirely copied off of the C-14 Gauss rifle from Starcraft 2, with the only difference being that the R14A has a bipod. The mechanical design is based off that of many 20th-21st century machine guns.