XBR55 battle rifle

For other similar weapons, see battle rifle.

XBR55 battle rifle
Avery Johnson holding an XBR55 during the First Battle of Harvest.
Production overview
Manufacturer:	Misriah Armory
Model series:	BR55 series
Type:	Bullpup battle rifle
Specifications
Ammunition type:	M634 Experimental High-Powered Semi-Armor-Piercing (9.5×40mm)
Feed system:	60-round magazine
Operation:	Short-stroke piston, rotating bolt, locked breech
Effective range:	~900 metres (3,000 ft)
Service history
In service:	Human-Covenant War

The XBR55 Battle Rifle is a prototype variant of the BR55 battle rifle. It was in testing within the United Nations Space Command around late 2524-early 2525, and was notably used during the first engagement between humans and the Covenant immediately prior to the start of the Human-Covenant War.

Overview

Design details

The XBR55 is a long-barreled bullpup battle rifle equipped with a telescopic sight. As with many other weapons in UNSC services, the weapon is bullpup, with the magazine and breech located behind the trigger, and with a hard plastic stock. The weapon fires 9.5×40mm rounds from a 60-round magazine, and can also be used with tactical training rounds for nonlethal exercises. The weapon has a fire selector and can be fired in semi-automatic single-shot or three-round burst modes. When fired in microgravity, Avery Johnson noted that its three-round burst had much more kick than he expected. When tested on the firing range, Johnson found the weapon to be accurate up to around 900 metres (3,000 ft).

The XBR55 was later remodeled to suppress 'walking.'

Service history

XBR55s were in UNSC prototyping by the late months of 2524, with four requisitioned by Lieutenant Commander Jilan al-Cygni aboard her sloop UNSC Walk of Shame during a covert mission to Harvest to investigate mysterious attacks on shipping believed to be attributed to Insurrectionists. At this time the weapon was relatively unknown, and neither Staff Sergeants Avery Johnson or Nolan Byrne, both experienced veterans of the ORION Project and decades of counterinsurgency operations, had ever seen one before. On January 17, 2525 both sergeants were commissioned by al-Cygni to partake in an operation to figure out who was responsible for the freighter attacks. Both sergeants picked the new XBR55s from the Lieutenant Commander's armory, citing its long range and accuracy as ideal for fighting in the cargo bay of the light freighter Bulk Discount. In the resulting skirmish, both noncoms found themselves face-to-face with a group of Kig-Yar boarders, initiating the first hostile conflict between humanity and an extraterrestrial. During the battle the sergeants used their rifles to wound and kill several of the Kig-Yar, the first casualties of what would become the Human-Covenant War.

As the Harvest Colonial Militia prepared for a Covenant attack on Harvest in response to the initial first contact, all four of al-Cygni's XBR55s were handed over to the militia for use, with both sergeants keeping their rifles, and the other two issues to Critchley and Jenkins, the marksmen of First and Second Platoons, respectively. While not a true sniper rifle, the XBR55 marksman rifles were the closest thing to a sniper the small militia force had on-hand, their 900 metres (3,000 ft) range a massive improvement over the MA5 series assault rifles the rest of the militia had. During drills Johnson had the two marksmen drill with the weapon. On February 9, 2525, all four rifles were used in a training exercise at the Harvest reactor complex, with both the sergeants and marksmen loading them with tactical training rounds in a live-fire exercise pitting the entire militia force against both marines. Two days later the weapons saw live combat again in a first contact meeting between humanity and the Jiralhanae of Maccabeus' clan at the Harvest Botanical Gardens, managing to inflict little damage on the Jiralhanae warriors due to their energy shielding. After this they remained in use by the militia throughout the larger attack on the planet by the Covenant.

After the fall of Harvest in early 2525, the weapon entered widespread service in the UNSC, becoming issued en masse throughout the year, now-designated the BR55 battle rifle. The new BR55s were used by the SPARTAN-IIs later in the year in the battle of Alpha Corvi II, the boarding of Radiant Arrow in early 2526, the battle of Mesra and battle of Netherop in mid-2526, and became a staple fixture of the UNSC military as a whole. As the war continued, the BR55 replaced the older M392 DMR in UNSC Navy and Marine Corps service, with only the UNSC Army reluctant to adopt the new rifle. The BR55 has since gone on to be supplanted by the BR55HB, BR75, and BR85 battle rifle variants of rifle.

Production notes

The XBR55's inclusion in Halo: Contact Harvest may have been in response to fan complaints about the inclusion of battle rifles in the Halo Wars announcement trailer, released the previous year. At the time the trailer released, the battle rifle had been established in Halo: First Strike as being introduced in the very late years of the Human-Covenant War, leading to criticism of the Halo Wars trailer for their anachronistic inclusion. According to Graeme Devine this led to the weapon's removal from the game entirely. Joseph Staten, the author of Contact Harvest, worked closely with Ensemble Studios on Halo Wars and included many references to the game's content in the novel; as such, it is plausible that the XBR55 was included to resolve this issue. Later-released media such as Halo: Collateral Damage have further depicted battle rifle models in service as early as late 2525. In the novel itself the weapon is only referred to as the BR55 and as a prototype, with the XBR55 designation being later-given in the Halo Encyclopedia (2009 edition).

The cover art of Contact Harvest by Isaac Hannaford uses the Halo 3 model of battle rifle, the BR55HB (then-the most recent design) in its painting, rather than the standard BR55 model from Halo 2. As such the cover also displays the weapon with an ammunition counter displaying 36 rounds, rather than the 60-round magazine observed by Sergeant Johnson in the text.

List of appearances

• Halo: Contact Harvest (First appearance)