SWS motorized pulse rifle

Type
 Operation
 Rate of fire
 Effective range
 Used by
 Service conflicts/Eras

The **SWS motorized pulse rifle** was a military-grade, triple-barreled pulse assault rifle with a rapid rate of fire and large ammunition capacity that was in service from 2401 to 2435 in the UNSC Marine Corps.

The SWS was the standard-issue service rifle of the Earth Defense Force from 2410 to 2430, and has since become common among federal security forces, corporate security officers, private contractors and civilians through both official sales and the black market.

## Design details

The SWS discharges ultra-low caliber rounds at hypersonic speeds, each carrying tremendous amounts of kinetic energy: these rounds are designed to squash (or "mushroom") on impact, transferring their energy to the target and causing immense localized trauma. This effect is immediate and pronounced in unarmored targets, with impacts liquefying soft tissues and fracturing bones; in the event that targets are not directly killed by fire, they will be rendered incapacitated by grievous wounds and pronounced hydrostatic shock. As well, such low caliber rounds render the SWS an ideal weapon for shipboard combat, as they lack the penetrative power necessary to rupture ship hulls. On the other hand this leaves the SWS variants that have been seen so far totally inadequate for the task of piercing tough body armor as the rounds simply bounce off the mining suits still worn by some infected Flood combat forms and the chitinous armor from brute forms.

Contrary to popular belief, the SWS is not actually fully-automatic, but rather burst-automatic, as each press of the trigger releases 3 consecutive shots, and keeping it held unleashes a long and steady stream of pulse bursts. Kinetic shock absorbers are speculated to have been implemented into the weapon's stock, as the wielder experiences little to no recoil even from protracted firing. The SWS features a break-action reload cycle. When it is reloaded, the entire front end hinges forward, ejecting the spent cartridge and a new one is inserted into the receptacle.

There are three major variants of the SWS motorised pulse rifle that have been seen as of yet: although all three possess identical primary modes of fire, they are differentiated by their distinctive modes of alternate fire.

The first variant of the SWS is seemingly used extensively in shipboard combat operations, often by corporate security officers and EDF Naval/Marine personnel. This variant of the standard SWS Rifle is capable of 360°, radial fire, used to effectively engage targets on all sides of the user.

A second variant of the SWS is capable of firing charged "shotgun-like" flechette blasts, firing ten rounds simultaneously from the three barrels in order to increase stopping power and close quarters hit probability.

A third variant, which served as the service weapon of Titan Station Security Enforcement Guardsmen, is capable of firing high explosive grenades, likely for use against clusters of hostiles or lightly armored vehicles.

During Isaac Clarke's encounters with the Flood in 2513, he comes across the early predecessor of the SWS pulse rifle. It is a member of the Military Engine weapons family, it functions as a faster firing alternative to the various assault rifle models. This early model only has a 25 round capacity without upgrades, which hampers its effectiveness considerably and its rounds have a dramatically lower muzzle velocity then the SWS pulse rifle variants as the tracer rounds can actually be seen traveling down range, thus complicating the process of hitting fast moving targets at long range. Utilizing an under-barrel shotgun or grenade launcher is common with this weapon and doing so mimics the secondary fire modes of other models. When not aiming it the weapon appears to have its three barrels mounted side by side in a horizontal fashion but they very rapidly reorient themselves in to the familiar SWS pattern when aiming the weapon.