Mongoose MON-80

Mass: 30 tons
Chassis Configuration: Biped
Power Plant: 240 Fusion
Cruising Speed: 86.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 129.6 kph
Armor: Standard
Armament:
     3 Medium Laser
     1 Small Laser
Manufacturer: Memphis Motive Works
     Primary Factory: Memphis
Communication System:
Targeting & Tracking System:
Introduction Year: 2830
Tech Rating/Availability: Inner Sphere
Cost: 2.58 million C-bills

Overview
The MON-80 is the oldest machine in the Memphis Motive Works catalog and the quiet founding act of everything the company became. When Amaris's fall took ConMag and its Mongoose lines with it, the Inner Sphere's finest light recon 'Mech became an orphan — and in 2830, the year Starr Traders took the name TriStar Interstellar, the company's newly chartered 'Mech works chose the orphan as its first product. The engineers made one change, and it was the change that defined the next two and a half centuries: rather than tool up for the original's powerplant, they enlarged the chassis to thirty tons so it would take the 240-rated engine Memphis already built. Melissa Starr's memorandum — one heart, many bodies — had found its first BattleMech body; the Ra fire support tank had proven the heart in 2813. The Common Heart program would not have its name for another two hundred years. It had its proof of concept immediately.

Capabilities
The MON-80 keeps everything that made the Mongoose the Star League's darling and adds the March's signatures. It is fast — 129 kph flat out — and it fights entirely without ammunition, a trio of Defiance B3M lasers and a backup small laser giving it teeth that never need a supply column. Above all it talks: the Mongoose's legendary communications fit, the reason SLDF recon lances were commanded from its cockpit, made it the natural ancestor of the Guards' talk-first doctrine, and the TriStar Multilink suite carried by modern production hulls keeps the bloodline honest. A 'Mech that sees everything, tells everyone, and asks its quartermaster for nothing is not glamorous. It is, the March would gently note, the entire idea.

Deployment
The MON-80 is everywhere the March is: the eyes of the Guards' 240 lances, the standard recon mount of all three capital-world militias, the workhorse of the Security Regiments' 'Mech elements, and a steady export in the "vetted customer" trade. Two hundred and forty years of continuous production have made it the most numerous machine ever built at Memphis, and its parts commonality with everything else in the catalog means a Mongoose is never far from a spare — which, given where Mongooses go, is frequently the difference between a recon report and a memorial service.

History
The resurrection was not romantic at the time; it was inventory management. ConMag's death had stranded Mongoose hulls across the Inner Sphere with no source of support, and TriStar — already the March's salvage house — saw a product with a captive market and tooling requirements Memphis could meet. Two centuries of unglamorous service followed, the MON-80 doing recon's thankless work through the Succession Wars without ever once being anyone's poster.

Type: Mongoose
Technology Base: Inner Sphere
Tonnage: 30

MON-80 - 2.58 million C-bills - 10 Single Heat Sinks - ↓ Mongoose MON-80.mtf

Weapons and Ammo	Location	Critical	Tonnage
Medium Laser	Left Arm	1	1
Medium Laser	Right Arm	1	1
Medium Laser	Center Torso	1	1
Small Laser	Head	1	0.5

MON-90 - 5.26 million C-bills - 10 Double Heat Sinks - ↓ Mongoose MON-90.mtf

Weapons and Ammo	Location	Critical	Tonnage
Medium Laser	Head	1	1
Medium Laser	Center Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Right Arm	1	1
Medium Laser	Left Torso	1	1
Targeting Computer	LT	1	1
Beagle Active Probe	RT	2	1.5