Plasma Repeater

The Plasma Repeater, known to the Covenant as the Longarm Plasma Rifle and classified by the UNSC as the Type-27 DER or the Type-51 DER/I, is a plasma-based directed energy weapon issued to shock troops and barrier troops prior to the Great Schism. It would go on to become one of the most widely-issued plasma weapons to be procured by the Phoenix Initiative.

Development
The plasma repeater as a distinct class of weapons is less than a century old, though some design details date back to the earliest plasma weapons used by the Covenant. Plasma weapons used by the Sangheili prior to the Writ of Union were either vehicle-mounted or shoulder-fired affairs.

After the Prophets' expertise was brought to weaponmaking, weapons that could be classified as infantry rifles were produced. These weapons were heavy, and rarely shorter than two meters in overall length. It took centuries of miniaturization for a compact plasma weapon less than a meter long to be introduced, and the modern plasma rifle would take another thousand years.

A quirk of the Sangheili psychology is that they prefer to stay light and nimble on the battlefield. They prefer to trade range and firepower to retain that mobility, relying on vehicle or squire support to destroy targets at range or behind cover. Skilled weaponsmiths spent centuries streamlining the old plasma weapons, and many of those lessons would go into the making of the plasma repeater.

The true origin of the plasma repeater lies in a battle fought in 2397, during the conclusive campaign of the Srantakai Succession Crisis. Several hundred warriors sworn to the service of Dako Vao 'Srantakai were sent into the rebellious island of Lhezem's Mission. Inserted by drop pods, their orders were to disable the coastal defense batteries and prepare the way for a proper invasion. They failed. Their position was betrayed to the usurper before they had landed, and the defenders were upon them before they could regroup. The warriors were forced away from the beaches and into the highlands, fighting for weeks before they could be relieved.

Vusan 'Hadam was one of the surviving warriors, and only barely. He was nearly shot down during the landing and lost a leg in later fighting, escaping capture on both occasions by the skin of his teeth. He was convinced that the whole debacle could have been salvaged, but the warriors were too lightly armed to make a difference. His opinion was not well-received, for it is the mark of a poor warrior to blame his weapons. The twin stigmas of failure and blame-shifting would follow Vusan forever, and it took half of the rest of his life to secure an apprenticeship with an Iruiran weaponmaker.

Specifications
Vusan 'Hadam's desire for the plasma repeater was to marry power, speed, and accuracy. The plasma rifle had insufficient power and insufficient reach. While some plasma turrets could be carried by hand and used apart from their regenerative tripods, they were too cumbersome to be used that way. Worse, plasma turrets have a wide beaten zone, wasting valuable shots. Vusan proclaimed that his weapon would be like a rapier, reaching far and striking true.

Accordingly, the plasma repeater has an inherent accuracy on par with a tuned plasma rifle, on top of the accuracy afforded to it by its longer, two-handed design. A plasma repeater, carried in one hand and stabilized by the off hand, points far more naturally than any single-handed weapon ever will. Additionally, the weapon is capable of projecting coherent plasma two to three times as far as a plasma rifle.