Type-58 Light Anti-Armour Weapon

The is a Covenant and Republic heavy weapon, designed for sustained anti-armour and anti-personnel fire.

Description
The Type-33, commonly known as the Fuel Rod Gun, is a heavy weapon, carried on the shoulder, and used by Covenant and Republic specialists as a heavy weapon, and occasionally by high ranking officers as their weapon in combat.

The Type-33 fires a unique ammunition, shared only with it, and similar weapon systems such as the Assault Cannon. This ammunition consists of a plasma munition, wherein the plasma is contained within a round, contained at an extremely high pressure. At this pressure, the plasma actually takes on a gel like consistency. These incendiary gels are carried in 38mm canisters, which carry the explosive potential of much larger rounds. These rounds are armed several milliseconds after leaving the barrel, and on impact cause significant damage, similar to that of a 70mm rocket. The canister detonates on contact with a target, the explosion instantly heating the surrounding area to several thousand degrees. The explosion splashes the area with the incendiary gel as well, burning targets and melting through armour. The last effect of the explosion is significant concussive force, killing anybody who has survived the previous, lethal, effects.

The weapon is fed with 5 round bloc clips, which fit at the rear of the weapon. When the triggered is pulled, propellant of the clip is detonated, which is a 'cool' plasma expansion, which forces the round out of the magazine at 72 metres a second. The barrel assembly is designed to recoil when fired, pushing back against a number of compensators to reduce recoil and allow it to be more manageable under repeat fire. The weapon is fitted with a short range sight, with optical and thermal vision modes. These has a 2x magnification ability, as well as a HUD linked smart sight.

The Fuel Rod Gun possess a surprisingly high rate of fire, being capable of firing off an entire magazine in just a few seconds, and the explosions are capable of crippling a large vehicle, or destroying one with several well aimed shots. It also causes significant damage against infantry formations, reinforced positions and buildings.

Recent Sangheili experimentation have stayed clear of modifying the weapon itself, but rather, the ammunition it uses. The republic has introduced new ammunition types, which are somewhat rare, but incredibly dangerous. These include cluster munitions, which once they activate in flight, they split into several bomblets that can decimate the face of a building, large groups of infantry, or if fired at the right angle and distance, they can rain down on positions, incendiary munitions that detonate after a dozen metres, which spreads a several thousand degree fire over a wide area, which can be detonated over a area to rain fire down on prepared positions, anti-armour munitions, which come in two varieties. These include semi-penetrating munitions, which have heavy metallic warheads designed to partially penetrate armour before detonating, causing significantly more damage to armour, though renders it less effective against infantry, buildings and stationary positions, and the delayed explosive variant, which features a heavy warhead and delayed charge, so it penetrates armour fully before detonating. While ineffective against heavy armour, it allows it to detonate inside light armoured vehicles, such as APCs, killing the occupants, inside buildings and behind fortifications.