Waneta

The heaviest of the three Spectral LAMs to be designed by the Word of Blake, the Waneta was produced from factories on both Terra and Gibson. With both manufacturing factories destroyed, those on Gibson by nuclear bombardment and those on Terra by combat damage and suspected sabotage, the Waneta became an extinct design to the best of anyone's knowledge when the Word of Blake fell in Extinction Era::3081.

It has been speculated that the name Waneta draws on ancient beliefs held by the native tribes that inhabited the region of Terra once known as the United States, and that the name may have been derived from a particular myth or range of mythology relating to tales of shapeshifters, but that has yet to be proven conclusively.

The Blakists attempted to make the Waneta the most capable design of the three that made up the Spectral LAM series, although with only limited success; to improve mobility, the Waneta was fitted with Improved Jump Jets, but carried only a single ton of fuel. The Waneta made use of VDNI pilots in small cockpits, and carried standard Double Heat Sinks and an array of Clantech weaponry. Unfortunately for the design, while the Improved Jump Jets gave the Waneta a valuable boost to its' speed in both hybrid and fighter modes, the weight of the Improved Jump Jets precluded other options such as larger fuel tanks, bomb bays or a larger weapons payload. While the Waneta was an improved dogfighter compared to the lighter Yurei design, it suffered from poor endurance due to the limited fuel payload and the eight rounds of ammunition carried for each LRM launcher; while a superior LAM design, the Waneta was effectively still a BattleMech playing at being an AeroSpace Fighter.

Weapons and Equipment
The Waneta carried an array of Clan weaponry, although whether this represented salvage, black market purchases, indigenous manufacturing or some other source of supply hadn't been identified by the time the design became extinct. The Waneta's long-range weaponry consisted of a single ER Large Laser and two LRM 15 systems; augmenting this weapons array was a single ER Small Laser.

Variants

 * One variant of the Waneta was identified after the Jihad by studying footage from the Principality of Regulus campaign against the Periphery world of Circinus, last stronghold of the Word of Blake leadership. The variant Waneta could be distinguished from the standard Waneta build by its' slower acceleration, a result of the Improved Jump Jets having been removed to allow bomb bays to be fitted. These variant Waneta carried special ordnance during the battle for Circinus, from which none are known to have survived.

Quirks
The Waneta has three Design Quirks:
 * Jettison-Capable Weapon (ER Large Laser)
 * Non-Standard Parts
 * Obsolete/3081