Needler

A Needler. You have more chance in destroying a Dreadnought with a combat knife then you do learning how to operate this thing.

A Needler (No, not THAT Needler) is a silent and deadly ranged weapon that uses both laser power and needles crafted from a form of crystallised neurotoxin kills its targets through sheer affront to any science ever. Needlers have a long and bloody history, having been utilized by Mankind for millennia. These deadly weapons were favored by the assassins of the Terran Courts during the days before Unification. Needle weapons are notorious due to its two-staged firing mechanism, making only the most skilled snipers capable of even landing a hit. As of now, Long-Las Sniper Rifles and conventional Sniper Rifles has overtaken Needler weapons as preferred long-range weapons due to an ease in maintenance and ease of construction.

Operation

Needler weapons fire a laser bolt like the lasgun to propel the toxic sliver to penetrate any armor weakened by the laser. A millisecond after, it fires the needle. The laser bolt melts and cuts through armor, leaving the skin (or other vulnerable parts) exposed for the needle, which knocks out or kills the target with a virulent neurotoxin. A Needler is a silent weapon and the needle of neurotoxin is so fine that its target often does not even feel it penetrate his or her flesh.

The crystallized toxin dissolves immediately upon contact, is extremely fast-acting and takes effect almost immediately. The laser component of the Needler operates on an invisible wavelength of light and thus cannot give away the position of its user. A multitude of different toxins can be used with a Needler, though the most common are deadly neurotoxins, sedatives which only render the target unconscious and intoxicants which can stupefy the target or make him amenable to interrogation without rendering him fully unconscious. A Needler is a valuable weapon which needs specialized ammunition and maintenance which is even more so than the Sniper Rifle Lasgun and is therefore usually reserved for elite sniper units of the Imperial Guard or the shadowy Assassins of the Officio Assassinorum.

Variants

Imperium

Needle Pistol

Needle Pistol

The Needle Pistol is the most commonly employed form of Needler. Small and elegantly crafted for concealment, they are sophisticated and elegant handguns whose operation is silent, invisible and deadly. The finest examples use a combination of a flash-less laser to pierce flesh, followed by an impellor-shot of virulent poisons delivered instantaneously into the open wound. This combination can lay low the roughest foe with ruthless efficiency.

It is a common weapon amongst the Imperial Assassins of the Officio Assassinorum, particularly for the Eversor Assassins.

Belasco Galvian Needler

Belasco Galvian Needler

A known Needler variant of dubious provenance, the Belasco Galvian Needler was created by the Belasco Deathworks, the manufactora of the powerful House of Belasco on the Hive World of Malfi located in the Calixis Sector. This advanced and elegant Needle Pistol unlike other conventional Needlers is designed for close-range work.

The pistol also has the dubious distinction of being the weapon used for the infamous murder of Cardinal Tyndale and a dozen other deacons and priests of the Ecclesiarchy at the famed "sorrowful matins" massacre on Gallowglass, the deliberate infection of the lauded High Lady Alatia of House Krin with Mori immedicabalis, and numerous other high profile killings over the years.

This has lead to the House of Belasco being denounced from the Ministorum cathedral pulpit as "sinful deathmongers" on several occasions, a claim the Belasco family have not deigned to refute. For an additional 300 Thrones (the primary Imperial currency in use in the Calixis Sector and many others), a modified Galvian Needler can be bought that is fitted on a special hidden rig and worn on the user’s forearm, fired by means of a special palm trigger.

Needle Sniper Rifle

Needle Sniper Rifle

This Needler is a rifle-sized weapon that has the highest accuracy of any Needler weapon. It is also the largest and most expensive of the Needler family. The Needle Sniper Rifle offers much greater range and armor-piercing qaulities then their smaller brethren (Although it is still poor and not recommended when other Sniper weapons is more suited for armor and tank-busting capabilities such as the Transuranic Arquebus).

It is used by Space Marine Scouts and Ratling Snipers of the Imperial Guard. For some reason, they are even used by Eldar Rangers, although it is of their own design.

Mark IX Sniper Rifle

Mark IX Sniper Rifle

The big cheese of the Needler family. The Mark IX Sniper Rifle is a heavy Needler sniper rifle used by the Deathwatch chapter of the Space Marines for long-range anti-personnel and anti-materiel work.

At just over two metres in length and weighing at a ridiculous fifty kilograms (Seriously there are machine guns that weigh less then that) which begs the question on what type of material this thing is made out of, the Mark IX allows a Deathwatch sharpshooter to engage targets with incredible accuracy at very long ranges.

A highly-respected and revered weapon, it is often selected as the weapon of choice for Space Marine snipers in many Deathwatch Kill-Teams.

Chaos

Xyclos Needler

Xyclos Needler

Chaos seem to have only one type of Needler and that Needler seem to only prop up with one special character (You will find out below). This Needler is called the Xyclos Needler and you would have just as much difficulty trying to say the name as much as you getting one.

The Xyclos Needler is a special Needler which, instead of having a two stage firing mechanism, it goes straight to the needle component. The Needler fires virulent poison darts, quickly incapacitating anyone whose armor it could effectively penetrate. The gun contains three kinds of poisons which are honestly pretty lazily named: Xyclos A (Hyper-venom), Xyclos B (Hallucinogen), and Xyclos C (a Pyroclasmite).

Although looking at how the gun works, it is not known exactly where it fires the needle from as the barrel looks like it just houses the poisonous liquid instead. That or the Needler actually spits out the poison which would betray the whole point of a Needler in the first place. So it could be rested that it is more of a Fail in the art direction than anything else.

You know that special character mentioned above? While it is no one other than Fabulous Bill who commissioned the weapon specifically to test his genetic serums during combat, and had it outfitted with the ability to fire from a selection of lethal cocktails which includes other than the normal Xyclos.

Dark Eldar

Stinger Pistol

Stinger Pistol

Otherwise simply known as the Stinger. The Stinger Pistol is a special type of Dark Eldar Needler used primarily by Haemonculi. This weapon resembles a smaller, more rounded Splinter Pistol, although the similarities end there. Unlike conventional Needlers, the Stinger skip the laser bits and go straight into the syringes.

The Stinger, instead, fires small hypodermic needles at the target, the cavity of which contain an incredibly exotic bacteria. This bacteria, once introduced to the target's bloodstream, multiplies quickly, and shortly afterwards causes the victim to literally explode, sending fragments of bone and armor flying in all directions. In the event that the victim's comrades are close enough or unlucky enough to have one of these fragments lodged in their bodies, the bacteria will travel from the lodged debris into the comrade's bloodstream, multiplying and ultimately causing them to explode.

It is basically the smaller cousin of the Death Jester's Shrieker Cannon.

Weapons of the Dark Eldar
Sidearms:
	Ballistics:	Splinter Pistol - Stinger Pistol - Terrorfex
	Directed-Energy:	Drukhari Blast Pistol - Fusion Pistol
Basic Weapons:
	Ballistics:	Shardcarbine - Shredder - Splinter Rifle
	Directed-Energy:	Blaster
Special Weapons:
	Ballistics:	Tormentor Helm - Splinter Pods
	Chemical:	Destructor - Liquifier Gun
	Warpcraft:	Eyeburst - Tormentor
	Other:	Hexrifle - Ossefactor
Heavy Weapons:
	Ballistics:	Phantasm Grenade Launcher - Splinter Cannon
	Directed-Energy:	Dark Lance - Haywire Blaster - Heat Lance
Vehicle Weapons:
	Ballistics:	Horrorfex - Implosion Missile - Cluster Caltrop Pod
	Directed-Energy:	Disintegrator Cannon - Monoscythe Missile - Pulse-Disintegrator Storm Vortex Projector - Void Lance - Dark Scythe
	Chemical:	Necrotoxin Missile
	Other:	Shatterfield Missile - Spirit Vortex - Stinger Pod
Ship Weapons:
	Ballistics:	Scythe Missile Launcher - Torpedo
	Directed-Energy:	Phantom Lance - Heavy Starcannon
Non-Firearm Weapons:
	Melee Weapons	Dark Eldar Combat Weapons - Dark Eldar Power Weapons
	Grenades & Explosives	Plasma Grenade - Haywire Grenade - Void Mine