A Needler is a silent and deadly ranged weapon that uses both directed-energy lasers and needles crafted from a form of crystallised neurotoxin to kill its targets. Needlers have a long and bloody history, having been utilised by Mankind for millennia. These deadly weapons were favoured by the assassins of the Terran Courts during the days before Unification.
Operation[]
Needler weapons fire a directed-energy laser bolt like the lasgun to propel the toxic sliver and penetrate any armour. A millisecond after, it fires the needle. The laser bolt melts and cuts through armour, 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 crystallised 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 positon 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 specialised ammunition and maintenance -- even more so than the Sniper Rifle Lasgun -- and is therefore usually reserved for elite sniper units of the Astra Militarum or the shadowy Assassins of the Officio Assassinorum.
Needler Variants[]
Needler Sniper Rifle[]
The Needler Sniper Rifle is a rifle-sized weapon that has the highest accuracy of any Needler weapon. It is used by Space Marine Scouts, Aeldari Rangers and Ratling snipers of the Astra Militarum.
Needle Pistol[]
The Needle Pistol is the most commonly employed form of Needler. Small and elegantly crafted for concealment, it is a common weapon amongst the Imperial Assassins of the Officio Assassinorum, particularly for the Eversor Assassins.
Needle pistols 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.
Needler Digital Weapons[]
Needler Digital Weapons are miniaturised Digital Weapon versions of the needler that can be implanted within a cybernetic limb or otherwise concealed. Because of their size, they are the least accurate forms of the weapon and can only be useful at very close ranges.
Belasco Galvian Needler[]
The Belasco Galvian Needler is a known Needler variant of dubious provenance, created by the Belasco Deathworks, the manufactoria of the powerful House of Belasco on the Hive World of Malfi located in the Calixis Sector. This advanced and elegant Needle Pistol 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 led 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.
Crone Pattern Needle Pistol[]
The Crone Pattern Needle Pistol is a favourite weapon employed by House Escher of Necromunda.
Assault Needler[]
The Assault Needler was a powerful Needler variant used by the infantry of the Sisters of Silence like Prosecutors. Assault Needlers were rifle-sized weapons that possessed longer ranges than a Needle Pistol but not the extreme long range of the Needle Cannon.
Needle Cannon[]
The Needle Cannon is a large and more powerful version of the Needler with greater range and stopping power used by the Sisters of Silence to eliminate high-value targets such as particularly potent Rogue Psykers.
Sources[]
- Codex: Genestealer Cults (8th Edition), pp. 102, 105
- Codex: Inquisition (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pg. 138
- Dark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 138
- Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook (RPG), pg. 110
- Rogue Trader: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 129-130
- The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal (Imperial Armour), pg. 231
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1st Edition), pg. 78
- Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Second Edition - Liber Imperium (Specialty Game), pp. 47, 54, 142