History: The First Wolfman During the Second Battle of Ryersson, on Bergman's Planet in 2986, one of the combatants was MechWarrior Valdis Ullman, of House Kurita's Vegan Legion. Ullman's 55-ton Wolverine got into a running fight with a Davion Marauder and came out second best. The Wolverine's left arm was completely shot away, and the right arm was left hanging by charred bundles of wiring and myomer. The front center and left torsos both lost all of their armor, and there was considerable damage to the internal structure. The head, too, was badly damaged. The head-mounted medium laser was destroyed, the head itself split apart by highspeed autocannon fire, and MechWarrior Ullman only barely escaped with his life by ejecting at the last possible moment. Ullman was not yet ready to give up. His Wolverine was his single measure of personal station and worth. The 'Mech had been passed on to the young MechWarrior by his father, who had received it from his father before him. With the 'Mech destroyed, Ullman would become one more face among the faceless thousands of the Dispossessed, with little, if any, chance of ever piloting a 'Mech again. Ullman's personal Tech, however, was Sharis Brand, a Tech of unusual talent. Her examination of the Wolverine's carcass convinced her that, of itself, it was useful only for salvage. The battle had ended with the Kurita forces in possession of the field. Within hours, salvage crews would be combing the area, and Ullman's Wolverine would be torn apart for its engine and fusion plant. By chance, a Davion Rifleman had been destroyed only a hundred meters distant from Ullman's machine. The Rifleman had suffered massive damage to its torso and leg assemblies. Its engine had been knocked out, and its right leg had been completely shot away. Examining the wreckage, Sharis Brand formed a remarkable plan. Together, the two of them waved down a Kurita BattleMaster patrolling the area, and, with the promise of four bottles of scotch, enlisted its two pilots' aid. The wreckage of the Rifleman was dragged across to the Wolverine, and Sharis began work. With the BattleMaster's help, the ruined engine core and reactor of the Rifleman were removed, and the two body halves positioned together. With help from a small army of astechs recruited from the nearest Kurita base, Sharis made the necessary connections, welded the two halves of the hybrid together, and secured the juryrigged patchwork with armor plate scavenged from the left-overs. Technically, Ullman and Brand were violating a Combine operational edict, since both the Wolverine and the Rifleman were legal battlefield salvage, and thus belonged by right to the regional Combine MilOps and not to any individuals such as they. By daylight, however, Ullman had a functional 'Mech--if an ill-favored one--and MilOps could scarcely argue with success. Davion was mounting a major offensive along that front, and the Kurita commander needed every 'Mech he could find to fill a gaping hole in his center. Technical Aspects: The hybrid of Wolverine and Rifleman quickly and inevitably became known as the "Wolfman." As could be expected of such a hastily-rigged, battlefield repair job, control and operational capabilities were slow and clumsy. It had no flexibility at all at the waist, and had to turn in a stiff -backed shuff le. The most difficult part of the operation was the reprogramming of the Rifleman's on-board Kallon MagStar computer to handle weight distribution and shift in the Wolverine leg assemblies. This particular job was never handled to Brand's complete satisfaction. The Rifleman's Garret D2j tracking system, which made use of short-term storage and file shifts in the MagStar, was never able to handle airborne targets, though slow-moving ground targets presented no problem. The engine also always had heat build-up problems after the repair job, and contributed one extra heat point during each ten seconds of operation. Sharis was forced to abandon the Rifleman's heavy lasers to save weight. Because she needed extra support inside the torso, she remounted the Rifleman's medium lasers in the arm brackets where the heavy lasers had been. The result looked strangely unbalanced, but the control circuitry worked, and Ullman had no problem controlling the aim, once he gotthe hang of maneuvering the hybrid without turning at the waist. And, of course, the Wolverine's jumpjets had to be sacrificed. By way of compensation, the hybrid 'Mech was lighter than the original Rifleman, and faster than the original Wolverine. If it lacked the heavy laser weaponry of the Rifleman, it did, at least, still mount its predecessor's famous and deadly Imperator-A autocannons. Battle History Ullman's Woltroan fought on Bergman's Planet during the Kurita rearguard actions at Kestlo and Oswald, and acquitted itself well. Itsspeed surprised those who encountered it and thought it was a strangelyformed or battle-damaged Rifleman. Ullman received full credit for bringing down a Davion Panther at Oswald, and received credit for an assist on a Davion Hatchetman. Ullman was killed two years later, at Gridley--ironically not in 'Mech combat but during a fight over a woman in a bar. His Wolfman was reassigned to a Vegan Legion training cadre and was last reported serving with a planetary militia on Labrea. Variants The Rifleman-Wolverine hybrid has been attempted on at least four other occasions. Of these, two malfunctioned so badly as to render them inoperable within a few days of the operation. The other two are presumed to be still in service, one in Marik space, and one in the Lyran Commonwealth. Both, apparently, are more carefully crafted jobs than Sharis Brand's emergency restructuring and have full mobility at the waist joint. As more data becomes available on the usefulness (or lack thereof) of these unusual 'Mech combinations, it is possible we shall see more Woltmen on the BattleMech battlefield. Mass: 55 tons Chassis: Hybrid: Kallon Type IV-Crucis A Power Plant: Core Tek 275 Cruising Speed: 54 kph Maximum Speed: 86.4 kph Jump Capacity: None Armor: Various Weapons: 2 Magna Mark 11 Medium Lasers 2 Imperator-A Autocannons Manufacturer: None-Battlefield improvisation Communications System: Garret T-11-A Targeting and Tracking System: Garret D2j Type: WVR/RFL Wolfman Tonnage: 55 tons Internal Structure: 5.5 Tons Engine: 275 Core Tek 15.5 Tons Walking MPs: 5 Running MPs: 8 Jumping MPs: 0 Heat Sinks: 11 1 Tons Gyro: 3 Tons Cockpit: 3 Tons Armor Factor: 112 7 Tons Location : Internal Structure : Armor Value Head : 3 5 Center Torso : 18 : 19/4 Rt./Lt. Torso : 13 : 15/2 Rt./Lt. Arm : 9 : 12 Rt./Lt. Leg : 13 : 12 Weapons and Ammo: Type : Loc. : Critical : Tons AC/5 : RA : 4 : 8 Tons AC/5 : LA : 4 : 8 Tons Ammo (AC) 20 : CT : 1 : 1 Tons Medium Laser : RA : 1 : 1 Tons Medium Laser : LA : 1 : 1 Tons Back to BattleTechnology 2 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1987 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com