Overview With the success of the Mongoose, designers in Diplan Mechyards of Ozawa decided to improve upon the 'Mech. It would contain all the advanced technology possible. The team came up with two designs. Both were accepted and built into the same 'Mech design. It was hoped that the Star League would see value in a 'Mech with two configurations. The Amaris coup in 2765 brought the design to a halt. As Republic troops stormed the plant a group of the designers fled. A week later they were found. When the designs were not found on them, they were killed. It wasn't until 3041 when the designs were found again. On the planet Ozawa, a Davion science team were looking in the ruins of a city. This city was in a radioactive 'hot spot', so it had been left untouched for centuries. The team came upon a capsule embedded in the foundation of a building. After carefully opening it they found a group of holovid memory crystals and the memory core of a small but advanced computer. The contents seemed to have survived the radiation, so they were rushed to NAIS for further investigation. Capabilities: The Weasel and its counterpart the Wild Weasel were designed to be the ultimate in speed and technology. The 250 Magna XL gives them excellent speed without the normal weight. Together with their Endo Steel frame and Ferro Fibrous armor, this leaves the 'Mech with enough weight to equip it for its primary modes. The Weasel has many rolls: quick strike and harassment, serving as an escort for its sister the Wild Weasel, and use as an anti-recon 'Mech. With its speed and pulse lasers, it can be capable of crippling almost any light scouting 'Mech or vehicle. It's small laser in the rear makes any attack from that direction a little more tricky. The Wild Weasel looks almost identical to its sister. It drops the rear small laser and uses normal lasers to save weight for its Beagle Active Probe and Guardian ECM Suite. Both are tucked inside the torsos of the 'Mech. It is not meant to fight, depending on its speed to keep it out of trouble. The probe and ECM Suite combination make it a valuable recon and jamming 'Mech. It cannot use the probe and the ECM at the same time, due to a design flaw in the circuit card which ties them to the Central Processing Unit. If a careless pilot turns one on while the other is still operating, the circuit card will shortout, rendering both pieces of equipment inoperable until the warrior gets a chance to replace the card. Both 'Mechs are equipped with a Crossbow anti-missile system to protect it against any pilot lucky enough to lock onto this fast-mover in the first place. Both of them have their AMS ammo protected by cellular ammunition storage. The Wild Weasel holds only 1 ton of ammo to save room for its probe. Variants: The Federated Commonwealth, already having two prototypes in field testing, has made only one variant to this 'Mech type. It takes the Weasel's pulse lasers and replaces them with standard medium lasers. Then it exchanges the small laser for a small pulse laser. This allows it to add half a ton more AMS ammo. The use of double heat sinks compensates for the added heat from the medium lasers. The WS-3LA does show a lot of promise. Its Achilles heel is psychological. Its capabilities can fool a pilot into using stand and fight techniques which are inappropriate for the 'Mechs size and armor. A good 'Mech if you don't let it fool you into getting cocky. Back to BattleTechnology 16 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com