Designation: Modified Mossberg 500 Pump-Action Shotgun
Nickname: Old Faithful (though Reece simply calls it "the shotgun")
Origin: Earth, United States, Walmart sporting goods department (Late 20th / Early 21st Century)
Current Age: Approximately 220 years
Most Colonial Marines carry cutting-edge weapons capable of tracking targets, linking into tactical networks, and adjusting ammunition on the fly.
Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Reece carries a pump shotgun that should have been recycled over two centuries ago.
Originally nothing more than a cheap civilian sporting shotgun sold in a Walmart on Earth, the weapon somehow survived wars, planetary migrations, colony evacuations, and the collapse of entire governments. At some point it found its way into Colonial Marine service, where every armorer who inspected it came to the same conclusion:
"Throw this thing away."
Reece never did.
No one knows exactly how many Marines owned it before him. The original serial number disappeared generations ago beneath welded reinforcement plates. The receiver has been repaired so many times that nobody can identify where the factory steel ends and later repairs begin.
The barrel has been sleeved.
The magazine tube has been replaced multiple times.
The stock has broken, been shortened, reinforced with steel braces, then broken again.
The trigger assembly contains parts from at least half a dozen different manufacturers spread across two centuries of Colonial history.
Some armorers jokingly claim there isn't a single original Mossberg component remaining.
Reece simply shrugs.
"If it still pumps... it's still a Mossberg."
The weapon looks more like a shipyard project than a firearm. Weld seams crisscross the receiver. Pins don't match. Several screws have clearly been handmade. The fore-end rattles slightly when carried, yet locks up with absolute certainty when cycled.
It isn't pretty.
It isn't modern.
It isn't even particularly accurate beyond close range.
But it has never failed Reece.
While smart rifles lose power, pulse rifles jam with debris, targeting computers fail, and synthetic electronics burn out under EMP exposure, the ancient pump shotgun continues doing exactly what it was designed to do over two hundred years earlier.
Cycle.
Fire.
Repeat.
Every Marine aboard the Sulaco III has heard the unmistakable metallic CHUNK-CLACK of Reece working the action.
To rookies, it's an old relic.
To veterans...
...it's usually the last sound a Xenomorph hears before losing its head.
The armory inventory still lists it as:
"Mossberg 500 — Pump Shotgun."
Reece has never bothered correcting anyone.
His response has always been the same.
"Museum pieces don't save Marines."
"This one does."