Dart rifle

A dart rifle, constructed in the manner of a scoped sniper rifle, was donated to Ana Khouri during her latest Shadowplay assignment in Chasm City, while she was working in that particular "entertainment" business.

The rifle shot specialised "slug" projectiles with a thin, "swordfish"-like shape, which could carry certain internal contents or fillings. Khouri noticed that the projectiles delivered to her, along with the rifle, had a death's head motif, indicating possibly toxic content within the projectiles.

Description

But she had never seen anything quite like the weapon which the tooth fairy had left. It had only taken her a minute or so to figure out how the gun's precision parts fitted together. Assembled, it had the form of a sniper's rifle with a ridiculously fat perforated barrel. The clip contained a number of dartlike slugs: black swordfishes. Near the snout of each slug was a tiny biohazard symbol. It was that holographic death's head which had set her wondering. She had never used toxins against a target before.
- excerpt from chapter Two of Revelation Space

Notes

• The rifle doesn't feature much in Revelation Space, beyond the early chapters with Khouri still in Chasm City. Given its description, it appears to be a relative of other slug-guns in terms of functionality, while the thin projectiles it is capable of firing make it somewhat similar to an (otherwise internally different) needler.