Needler
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 to kill its targets. 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
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
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
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.