Dire Wolf (BattleTech)

The Dire Wolf, the Ultimate Assault OmniMech, and a MechWarrior's worst nightmare.

The Dire Wolf (Inner Sphere designation: Daishi) is an Assault OmniMech that can best be described as the newer, better, Clan version of the iconic Atlas, but is a lot scarier and has way more firepower than its old Inner Sphere Counterpart. The mech itself left such an impact that it spawned a number of knockoff designs as a result. (Even GW got in on the action.)

Overview

The Dire Wolf was first designed by the Clan Wolf scientist caste, but word soon reached Clan Smoke Jaguar that Clan Wolf was developing the "Ultimate Assault OmniMech" and decided that they wanted the Mech for themselves. So before production could even begin on the mech, Clan Smoke Jaguar challenged Clan Wolf in a Trial of Possession over the plans and production rights of the mech, which Clan Smoke Jaguar managed to win in the end, and were the first and only ones able to produce the Dire Wolf for themselves. That was until Clan Wolf came back for round two and managed to win the rights to also produce the mech as well. As such, any Dire Wolves outside of Clans Wolf and Smoke Jaguar were acquired either through gifts, trade, or as battlefield salvage.

During the initial Clan Invasion of 3049, the Dire Wolf became the most feared 'Mech throughout the Inner Sphere and rightly so. The Dire Wolf weighs in at 100 tons with the same speed and durability as an Atlas, but with so much potential firepower that even the mighty Atlas pales in comparison to the destructive capability of this OmniMech. In fact, this mech was so terrifying that it was given the name Daishi by the criminal underbelly of the Draconis Combine, which is pseudo-Japanese for "Great Death" (if it were real Nihongo it'd be Taishi, so not far off really), which would prove to be quite a fitting name for the mech on multiple occasions. Something else worth noting about the Dire Wolf is that it was the preferred mech for a number of notable figures in the BattleTech universe including, but not limited to, Victor Steiner-Davion, Hohiro Kurita, and Natasha Kerensky, to name but a few.

Armament

The fact that it's an OmniMech with 50.5 tons of free space for weapons and equipment means that the Dire Wolf can have virtually any configuration of weapons that can possibly be imagined. For the sake of simplicity, here are a few configurations that can be found in:

• Prime: The standard configuration of the Dire Wolf, the Prime variant has an Ultra AC/5, two ER Large Lasers, and two Medium Pulse Lasers in each arm and an LRM-10 in the left torso.
• Alt. Config. A: Configured to engage enemies at a variety of ranges, the A variant has a Gauss Rifle in the left arm, three Large Pulse Lasers in the right arm, two Streak SRM-6s in the left torso, and for additional missile defense, it carries an Anti-Missile System in the right torso.
• Alt. Config. B: Configuration B is designed for long range engagements, which it does by having two Ultra AC/2s in each side torso, an ER Small Laser in the center torso, two ER PPCs and two Medium Pulse Lasers in the left arm, and an LB10-X AutoCannon in the right arm.