Type-31 Rifle

The Type-31 Rifle is a older Covenant weapon used as a scout sniper rifle or a designated marksman rifle, which is rapidly being phased out of main service in favour of the more adaptable, light weight carbines.

Description
The Type-31 Rifle, also known as the Needle Rifle, is a high power, long range rifle, using a solid crystalline charger round loaded beneath the adjustable scope system, with four times night/day zoom. The crystals are coaxed out of the charger using a high energy lattice and into the external magazines. From here, the crystals are super accelerated, one by one, which the trigger is depressed. The crystals are self propelled by high power ion bursts, but unlike the smaller Needler, lack the self guiding capacity. This is because the larger rounds swap thermal guiding lattices for higher payloads and more powerful propulsion. The weapon has a larger range than the carbine, and is somewhat more accurate, with a smaller magazine and less effectiveness against shielded targets due to the smaller kinetic force, but eventual explosive force of the delayed needle rouns, which are capable of super combining, allow the rifle to take down one, very well armoured target.

History
The weapon was initially discovered with the Needler and was immediately entered for use with Covenant infantry as a long range rifle for defeating enemy forces at range. The weapon was successful in this role, up until the Great War, where UNSC body armour could resist the rounds, if only for limited amounts of time prompting the speedy adoption of the Carbine. Despite this, the weapon remained popular, seeing large amounts of use in older units, special forces units and ceremonial units. Eventually, after the war, the Sangheili continued using the weapon. Though it had become unpopular in the role of a Designated Marksman Rifle, it saw much use as a Scout Rifle, being used by regular Sangheili snipers and Special Forces teams to great use against Brute forces. The weapon was also used in large amounts by the Remnant, who pulled many out of disused stockpiles, though the ammunition was often scarce and the weapons were often poorly maintained and rarely understood or cared for.