A flash on the comms and the sensors, before the last Jumpship for this expedition arrived into the Artru system. A moment later, comms flickered to life.

"Greetings, I am Commodore Samuel Ostergaard of the Concordat Navy." The newcomer said, his image coming up to reveal a rather broadly built, red-headed viking of a man.

"Raju Montgomery, Captain of the Arano Royal Guard."

"Captain Karl Malmsteen, Raynor's Raiders." Malmsteen introduced politely.

"I hope I didn't keep you two waiting for too long?" Ostergaard asked as his Dropships began to undock and begin their approach towards the only noteworthy planet in the Artru system.

"Only a few hours. Practically on the dot as far as military time goes." Malmsteen reassured.

"That's good – it would have been awkward if the first joint venture between our three nations began with me forcing you all to wait for days on end." Ostergaard said. "Regardless – we are all on the same page I presume?"

"I should believe so. Unless something truly out of the ordinary is discovered, the existing agreement should hold – Haven-Dumassas will have first pick of up to a tenth of the depot's contents, while the Coalition will claim two-fifths and the Concordat, half. The Concordat will be second, while the Coalition will take what is left – control of the world will remain in Coalition hands." Raju reiterated. "Furthermore, Haven-Dumassas will be given the opportunity to perform full breakdowns and analyses of every unique BattleMech model to determine their construction, before reassembling them for whoever claimed them."

"Those are my orders." Malmsteen confirmed.

"And mine." Ostergaard agreed. "Good – there will be no room for… misinterpretation, on this mission. Though you've brought quite a lot of lift-ability given the small fraction of the depot you will be taking." He noted conversationally.

"Well, some of that will be for the Aurigans if need be." Malmteen said off-handedly.

"Not that we will need it with the Argo." Raju said drily.

"But the Dropships we are bringing primarily have the forces we will be deploying on this operation – we don't want someone to force us off of this prize now, do we?" Malmsteen asked. "Even if the chance is low, it's not actually zero after all."

"I see." Ostergaard just nodded.

"Turning that question around… what is that Dropship class you're using as your flagship? I'm unfamiliar with its model." Malmsteen asked.

"A Fortress – the Iberia." The Commodore said as he smiled. "One of very few still in service – a dedicated combat dropship, as opposed to something more general like a Union. It can secure its own landing zone, even in contested territory, and can provide its complement with indirect fire support."

"Impressive." Malmsteen said with a sincere nod. "Perhaps the engineers of Haven will get the opportunity to study it one day?"

"Perhaps!" Ostergaard said with a laugh, before he grew more serious. "On the mission at hand – have you detected anything of note here?"

"No – there don't seem to be any other Jumpships, as far as we can tell anyway. There is always the risk of pirate points, or just pirates on the planet's surface hiding from Captain Malmsteen's long-ranged scans, but it seems we are truly alone here. Except for the small mining crews around Artru proper." Raju amended after a moment's thought.

"To note, we do have better technology than you, but these are retrofitted ships – we don't have purpose-built scanners, so it's entirely possible that we have missed something. Stay on your guard." Malmsteen advised.

"Of course." With that, comms cut as the flotilla burned towards Artru.

Malmsteen sighed as he sat back in the command chair.

Ugh, I hope I get given permission to openly use Warp Drives soon. He groused internally. Having to wait over a month to cross less than two hundred light years…

It had not been an especially pleasant wait. His Hercules's might have been retrofitted for long-term habitation, but that hardly meant they were comfortable – but more than the spartan quarters was how achingly slow their progress was that grated on him.

Because they couldn't use Warp Drives openly, they'd been forced to use a Jumpship instead – making use of one that they had captured from a particularly well-connected pirate band early on in their campaign, one which had seen quite a lot of use to shield their movements from prying eyes.

Necessary, and ultimately worth it to maintain the most critical levels of operational security and secrecy, but grating all the same.

There were four Jumpships all told on this mission – one from him, and one from the Taurians.

The other two that had come from the Reach, had been supplied by House Arano – courtesy of the Gwendor-Dorwinion Cartel, the crew for those jumpships had been thoroughly vetted for loyalty and trustworthiness. Both by House Arano, and his own people who had been present for those assessments. They would bring up the extra supply in case somehow the Argo wasn't enough.

But while those preparations had taken some time, it had been worth it – because now a small fleet of Dropships was burning its way towards Artru, the combined force of the Aurigans, the Taurians, and the Terrans. Almost a full dozen of them, all told – at the head of the fleet was the Argo, which would be the primary vessel for storing cargo, with a pair of Leopards acting as droppers. Fifty thousand tons of cargo space would go a long way.

The rest, weren't as notable – there was the Iberia of course, but otherwise it was mostly just Unions with a few Danais's from the Coalition to act as pure cargo beasts, just in case the Argo wasn't enough.

Besides, maybe the Taurians wouldn't be able to bring all their loot home, in which case the Coalition would lend a hand there.

Oh, and of course a number of his Hercules's too.

With the sheer amount of force they were bringing, it was downright unthinkable for any pirates to try their luck – a flotilla like this was not a soft target by any means, and the Iberia alone would most likely threaten away any opportunistic pests that their scans had missed.

So it was that he settled in for the multiple days it would take to get to the planet.

Kamea sighed as she sat at her desk, going over some of the materials that Malmsteen had bade her read.

They were mostly historical texts from all across the Sphere, sourced courtesy of Comstar and Haven to boot – he had encouraged her to do her own reading on top of his own lessons, because by his own admission his own education had been rather… biased, in some regards.

It was important, but it was also difficult to focus on this sort of reading when right now Raju and Malmsteen were involved in digging up the results they had found from House Arano's great secret, the Argo.

If it hadn't been for the Haven newcomers, this could quite possibly have been the most important discovery in the history of the Coalition, the secret and the key to a brighter, better future – and this incredibly important discovery, didn't have an Arano at the helm.

Yes, her father had given the order and had organized it all and all that, but she was a trained MechWarrior as well, tutored by Raju, the Captain of her Royal Guard… and instead of being brought along, so that her family's great secret could be opened up by a member of the family, they had instead outsourced it. It rankled her deeply – it didn't feel proper. She should have been out there, leading by example not sitting here poring over books.

But all of them – Raju, Malmsteen, her father, her uncle – they had all agreed: What was most important for someone like her was knowledge, and her education had ground it needed to catch up on. Raju, Aaron, Markham and his people… skilled MechWarriors were dime a dozen, but there was only one heir to House Arano. And that heir needed to know about the lessons of history, what worked and what didn't, why they worked and why they didn't – she didn't need to go putting on a neurohelmet and galivanting off to go fight.

She had complained – this was the job of a bureaucrat, not a leader – but Malmsteen had quite firmly set her straight.

'Kamea, you are eventually going to become the head of House Arano. When that day comes, you will have dozens of people reporting directly to you, and each of those people is going to have dozens reporting to them, and so on and so forth. Go down three levels of organization and you are going to be responsible for tens of thousands of subordinates – and all of those people's efforts are going to need to be organized so that they work together smoothly. You will have aides for this, but that will remain a major part of your work – not running around shooting people and going treasure hunting. If you try to split the difference, what you will become is a sub-par leader and a sub-par MechWarrior, of no use to anyone, even yourself.'

She had wanted to bite back, but with the others agreeing with him she had held her tongue and accepted his criticism.

She knew that she would have to one day settle down and accept that others would gain glory, etch their names into the history books through feats of arms and daring, while she would perform the more mundane work of day-to-day statesmanship… but that didn't mean she had to like the fact it had come so soon.

She had to wonder how the Captain was so at-ease about it – that despite being a military commander, rather than possess a mighty BattleMech to lead from the front he seemed at-ease with just working from a desk.

Of course she had asked him, but his answer hadn't felt… satisfactory. Or rather, she could understand it intellectually, but she had no idea how anyone could simply accept it.

'If you're leading anything larger than an actual field unit, like a regiment or a brigade, and you are running around shooting people in person, either you are doing something wrong or something has gone incredibly wrong with the situation. A commander who's busy fighting in person and getting glory is most likely going to too busy and too distracted to do an effective job actually commanding a large force – even if he's winning on his front, he could very well be losing on three others because he's not paying attention to the battlefield as a whole. Not to mention the risk of getting your senior leadership shot. At the senior command level, what you do if you want to be an effective commander is sit your ass in a desk, look over maps, and read reports from your junior officers to see how the battle as a whole is going. Personal valor doesn't enter the equation.'

It felt… impersonal. Detached. But the man had crushed the Aurigans in war-games, whether with infantry or even when he had taken command of a BattleMech company and had gone against one of their better officers, Captain 'Agamemnon' despite never stepping foot on the battlefield – eleven Mechs against twelve.

Cold, brute efficiency over personal displays. His personal pride, his personal esteem, did not enter it. It baffled her, but clearly it worked.

She shook her head. I'm getting sidetracked – I need to read more.

Even if she couldn't match him in war-games, at the very least she wanted to become able to debate him on even grounds regarding means of governance and government types.

"Sir, we're being hailed."

"Which commander?"

"Neither, sir, it's from planetside."

Raju blinked even as their Dropships began to make final descent near the coordinates of Castle 'Nautilus'.

They weren't sure what exactly Castle Nautilus may have had in terms of defenses – the Argo only had navigation data after all. So the plan had been set after some quick discussion: Raju had informed him that Outpost Castles, while boasting tremendous amounts of firepower, were somewhat 'short-ranged'. They generally didn't boast Capital-scale weapons such as Naval PPC's, instead having dozens, if not hundreds of Mech-scale weapons instead. Normally it was the full Castle Brians that boasted any Capital-scale weapons, and even then they were intended more to support other existing space-defense systems or defending fleets rather than actually boast enough firepower to fend off an enemy fleet on its own.

The fact was, no matter how much money and resources poured into it, a groundside fortification would always be somewhat at the mercy of an opposing fleet of equal magnitude and investment. The more weapons emplacements a Castle Brian had that could fire up, the more exposed it would be, and the less defensible it was. There was no one weapons system that could fend off entire armadas on its own so a Castle Brian would be forced into equipping weapons of similar range to warships, and the entire notion would balloon up entire a small nightmare of logistics, secrecy and feasibility.

So, perhaps a few Naval Lasers on the largest Castles, but by and by large Castles were designed to be impregnable against ground-side assaults instead, and were equipped accordingly.

He hadn't been able to recall exactly what sort of weapons might generally be used, but he did know that the longest-ranged ground-side weapons that they might face would be Long Tom artillery pieces, to which Ostergaard had provided some exact technical information.

At which point, the plan had been simple: Set down just outside the range of the Castle's hypothetical emplaced Long Toms, and send in recon units first to determine what potential weapons the Castle might have had.

If those defenses were dormant, then they could form up and approach.

If they weren't, then the warriors of this coalition would have to fight their way through them.

They weren't sure what to expect down there, exactly, but they had a general expectation – a hail from someone on the planet itself was far outside them.

"Is it coming from the Castle?" Raju asked, frowning.

"No, sir – but not far out, a few dozen kilometers."

"Put them through on a group call." Raju replied.

The first thing the three commanders were met by as the holovid turned on was a static image of a cartoon bulldog puffing away on a cigar.

Is that one of the default avatar's? Raju wondered blankly even as before they could introduce themselves, the other line did so first.

"Who the fuck are you all?"

"We represent a combined initiative between the Aurigan Coalition, the Haven-Dumassas Governments and the Taurian Concordat." Raju said sternly. "Identify yourself."

"This is Canton Moore, the 'Bloody Hammer', of Moore's Reavers, and this here planet's our turf. Take your Dropships and fuck off."

"Artru and its surrounding systems are under the jurisdiction of the Aurigan Coalition, under House Arano." Raju retorted.

"There aren't any fucking Aurigan flags around here, dickface – Artru and everything on it are ours."

"Moore, you are currently picking a fight with a force that has a dozen dropships, including a fully equipped Fortress-class." Captain Malmsteen said calmly. "Your mouth is writing a cheque your little band of thugs can't cash."

"I've got over a dozen aerospace fighters that say otherwise." Canton challenged. "I'll give you one last chance to leave before I send you back to your respective countries in fucking soup cans."

"…" Raju blinked.

"If you're going to bluff, pirate, it would be better to say something actually believable." Ostergaard scoffed. "Do you honestly expect us to believe-"

"Ostergaard, my scanners indicate what looks like a solid twenty-odd heat signatures in low-orbit near our position." Malmsteen reported.

"…"

"Yeah. I don't need to bluff. Now land and unload everything in your dropships first before you leave – call that the tax for pissing the ruler of this planet off."

"… how about this." Malmsteen said instead. "I'm assuming you're not fucking blind, so you should be aware of the Star League facility few dozen klicks away from your position. We have the means to open that thing. We are going to land, open it up, and share a third of the proceeds with you before telling you to fuck off. We are right on the border of the Concordat – you take us out, and the Bull will bury you."

"Fuck-"

"He is telling the truth." Ostergaard grunted. "Even without the diplomatic considerations, the Concordat navy will not stand for a hostile pirate power so close to its borders. Consider yourself lucky you went underneath notice for now, and that we aren't at the head of an entire fleet."

"It would be an excellent way to begin the partnership between the Coalition and the Concordat, to destroy a self-styled pirate warlord such as yourself." Raju said plainly.

"… tch. Fine – land, open that thing up, I take what I want, and I won't sic my ASF's on you."

Once the call was cut, Raju spoke up. "I understand that he most likely has no intention of actually following through on this agreement, but saying such a bold-faced lie still rankles me."

"It does feel a bit odd. I'm used to battlefield deceptions, not social ones." Malmsteen agreed. "Still, he's pirate scum, so fuck him. We'll take the Castle, and pivot around and wipe him and whatever he's got out. Summary executions for all." He quipped.

"Mm. Did he really have so many aerospace fighters that he could overwhelm our escorts?" Ostergaard asked.

"Oh, my fighters could most likely have easily swept the skies, no matter how heavy and powerful those ASF's were – but I'm not as confident that they could have done it before our Dropships began to take fire." Malmsteen explained. "Safer this way."

"Agreed. I do not believe that the Argo would last long against even moderate levels of fire." Raju confirmed. "Or at least, the damage it would take would be… severe. Regardless, we should be prepared to swiftly move our Dropships over towards the Castle once it has been secured."

"Captain Montgomery, we're ready to move out." Aaron reported as his Blackjack straightened up as the Leopard flew away, the rest of his lancemates reporting that all systems were green.

"Haven-1, same here. All lights are green." The head of the lance from Haven-Dumassas reported over comms as they marched up, BattleMechs of models his warbook both could and couldn't recognize. "We'll follow your lead, Captain."

"Bearclaw here, we're ready to go."

"Very good. Company, on me – we're moving in on the Castle."

It had been a few hours since they had set down on the world – and, true to plan, they deployed a number of recon UAV's that Commodore Ostergaard had brought.

What they sent back was interesting – for an Outpost Castle, it was somewhat exposed despite being nestled into a small set of hills. There were a number of external buildings, most likely ancient supply depots or other support structures, but also a large number of exposed entrances to vehicle bays. More critically, the layout didn't seem to have any turrets guarding the exterior of the Castle – while the entrance appeared to have been built into the center of a ring of hills and had turret emplacements inside, the actual exterior of the castle seemed to only have a ring of inactive AA defenses.

Even when the UAV's flew low, those turrets remained silent – and with no identified artillery turrets, the light was green for a combined BattleMech company to head out even as overhead, the Argo began to try and connect with Castle Nautilus's computer.

The actual company was a multi-coalition operation – consisting of a lance from Haven, and a lance each from the Arano Royal Guard and Markham's Marauders, with each member being assigned an operating designation – Arano-1, Markham-1, Haven-1, and so on and so forth. The Taurians would keep their combined-arms company as a fast-response unit in case the forward unit needed reinforcement.

The biggest concern would be how well the Haven-ites (Haven-ers? Aaron wasn't quite certain which way that appelation would fall) would work alongside them. Raju had trained them as Haven didn't have any real veteran MechWarriors of their own, so it had been a way to give back to those who had given the Coalition so much – but that still hadn't even been a month of training exercises under him.

By contrast, Markham's Marauders and the Arano Royal Guard had been working together for over two years. They weren't quite a perfect, well-oiled machine, but they knew how each other's people worked.

And already, Aaron could see the slight hinks – there wasn't any need for actual complex maneuvers going on a flat cruise like this, but whenever they moved as a unit to swerve around a snowbank or a ridge or a cliff, the Haven MechWarriors were just one step behind them.

Well, at least we won't really need to perform any fancy unit maneuvers.

Aaron couldn't help but tense up as they hit the range of artillery as they approached the Castle, just in case the Castle chose to activate some hidden defense – but nothing. The path to the Castle was quiet but for their own comm chatter.

"We are within visual range of the Castle now – Argo, any progress in connecting with the computer in the Castle?" Captain Raju asked.

"Working on it, Captain Raju – handshake protocols are still underway." The Argo's engineer – a foreign hire named Dr. Murad – informed.

Privately, Aaron wasn't entirely sure about bringing in another outsider, especially an independent like her, but apparently her skills had been crucial to actually bringing the Argo up off the moon it had crashed on. Besides, with people like Captain Malmsteen and Lord Espinosa around, he imagined that they had been quite thorough with their security checks.

"Weird that those vehicle bays were exposed, though – Castles were usually meant to be the perfect defensive installations, weren't they? I'd have thought they'd have been hidden." One of the MechWarriors in the company – a Haven one, going by the unfamiliar voice – observed.

"It depends – there's only so much you can do to hide the entrance to a vehicle bay if you want to be able to use it at a moment's notice. Besides, even if an enemy breached it, they'd run into an active vehicle bay full of guns."

"Makes sense, I suppose."

"Oh, Captain Raju – good news, handshake has been established and we have command-line access. Door controls are being a little finicky though, but they should be open by the time you arrive."

"The forward company, or the force?" Aaron asked.

"The forward company." Dr. Murad reassured. "You won't have to wait out there in the cold too long."

"Awesome." Aaron said with some feeling – the cold wasn't exactly a problem, on the contrary, most pilots would welcome a snowy biome as it meant they wouldn't have to think about heat management as much. But out in the 'yard' of an Outpost Castle like this, surrounded by entrances that they couldn't open… he felt more than a little exposed.

It was as they were stomping up towards the main doors that Dr. Murad spoke again. "Aaand, I think I've got it. I'm gong to try something."

There was a brief pause, before ancient sirens began to blare.

"Shit." Aaron said succinctly as instantly the company began to fan out.

"Dr. Murad, what did you just do!? The lights are flickering, my screen is dead-*"

"Mr. Oliviera!? Damn it – what is going on up there!?" Captain Raju barked.

"The Argo's gone dark – we're trying to get through to them, but something's completely fried their communications." Captain Malmsteen informed. "We're- heat sig-"

"Captain Malmsteen, you're breaking up!" Raju asked even as the line from the Hercules to the rest of the unit went dark.

"Okay, whatever's hit the Argo, it's attacking our comms too! You got bigger problems than that though – the entire Castle is waking up!" Another of Malmsteen's people shouted. "We're detecting heat signatures all around you!"

"Oh, hell – Raju, we're getting vehicle signatures coming out of the rocks!"

"Fan out and engage!" Raju barked as he began to direct them.

"What the – oh holy hell." Aaron cursed as his Warbook returned unknown signatures. It couldn't identify what model these things were.

What it could identify was that there were two models in two weight classes – a sixty-tonner, and an eighty-tonner. There were no combat vehicles he knew in the latter weight class that weren't very real threats to a BattleMech – unless for whatever reason this place was stockpiled Estevez's, and in the sixty ton class… something told him that these weren't Hi-Scouts.

"How the hell-!? What, are these things being driven by ghosts!?" Bearclaw cursed as opening volleys began to be exchanged – lasers and autocannon shells and missiles streaking through the cold air as a frenetic firefight erupted. "This place is over a hundred years old, there's no way there's a garrison here!"

"No life signs – they're drones." One of the MechWarrior's from Haven cursed as they unloaded with their custom Blackjack on the nearest vehicle, tearing it apart in a fusilade of autocannon fire and medium lasers as its flank was torn open like a can of beans against a hungry miner with a can opener.

A detached part of Aaron's mind couldn't help but notice the damage those autocannons did – they may have been somewhat short-ranged for such a small autocannon class, but the amount of overall fire they had just pumped out was easily double that of his AC/2's, even with the allowance for having four times the number of guns. Some kind of… 'Class-1 Autocannon', perhaps.

The larger part of his brain was concerned with trying to avoid a volley of PPC bolts and LRM's as another set of drones emerged from more hidden entries in the cliff faces and hills. It wasn't some flood of vehicles swarming out, only a slow trickle, but when that slow trickle was composed of what appeared to be more lethal variants of Bulldogs and Schreks, even that slow trickle was a concern.

Still…

"Drones? What do you mean?" One of his lancemates asked as they fought, firing a volley from his autocannons before cursing as a large laser fired from one of the heavy drones bore into his right flank.

"I mean drones – you people have them, like UAV's and stuff!"

"Those still need human operators though!"

"Are you seriously surprised the goddamn Star League had automated drones smaller than Warships?"

"Aw hell."

"Stop talking and keep shooting!" Raju barked.

Aaron couldn't blame the trepidation he heard in his lancemate's voice – the last time fully automated weapons systems had been used against man-operated weapons, they had reaped a bloody tally on the SLDF fleet. Most MechWarrior's weren't exactly educated on history, but the big key points of the Amaris Civil War was fairly common knowledge, and members of the Arano Royal Guard were meant to be well-read besides.

At the very least, those drones didn't seem to be focusing their fire all that effectively, though some of the terrain features were also working against them there. Vehicles might have been extremely effective fire support platforms, but they had some unfortunate limitations regarding the angles to which they could aim their guns.

"Move up – Haven-3, Haven-4, jump onto those hills – break line of fire, take out those assault drones!" Raju barked as the two – the Blackjack and a Phoenix Hawk – moved to do just that.

It was a good idea – those assault vehicles were hammering them hard, but a large chunk of their firepower lay in the twin PPC's they were firing off constantly. By breaking line of sight, most of their threat would be neutralized.

There was still the LRM-20 that they had, but LRM's tended to be rather inaccurate. There was a reason why the NARC beacon was developed after all, and TAG.

Then a series of blasts rocked his BattleMech, and Aaron cursed as he wheeled around – one of the sixty tonners had gotten the drop on him from a vent he'd stupidly gotten too close to.

And the armor he had lost…

"Don't let those sixty-tonners get close!" Aaron warned as he wheeled around, painfully aware of how thin his left flank's armor had gotten from that barrage.

Armor integrity's at less than 20%, and a lot of those shots missed – I'm lucky to still have a leg after that.

"-reinfo - -ntine it – command - !" Captain Malmsteen's voice came in through their comms as they continued to fight, Haven-3 and 4 leaping up over a set of hills to begin unloading into the rear arcs of the assault drones that were pummeling them from afar, obliterating two of them before they could respond.

"Captain-" Raju began.

"Apologies – this is Lieutenant Richard of the Haven contingent speaking. A virus was unleashed when the Argo attempted to open the Castle's doors – when we attempted to assist them with our own electronic countermeasures, the virus spread to our ships as well. It is in the middle of being contained, but it has locked down our dropships along with many of their functions." The Haven officer explained rapidly. "The Taurian company has deployed to reinforce you, but on foot – the Castle's defenses have activated, so any Dropship attempting to get close will be shot down. For now, hold as best you are able."

Easier said than done. Aaron groused internally even as Raju confirmed that he had heard the explanation – the inner yard of the Castle was a killbox, with at least half a dozen turrets inside of varying models while four vents were popping out drones. One of Markham's people had almost been killed after he had moved in, only barely avoiding fire from the wall of guns that had sighted him.

It forced them to continue the battle outside instead – a far more chaotic affair, one that they were slowly losing. Raju was doing well commanding them in such a messy scenario, but even with a dozen BattleMechs present, they were being stretched thin – not being helped by the fact they were effectively surrounded. A MechWarrior could be focusing on crushing one drone, only to start getting shot from across the gully. And when those shots were coming from large lasers and PPC's, all it took was one to punch through through their rear armor to start destroying vital components.

He could see one of the Haven BattleMechs fall, their pilot yelling as they crashed into the snowy ground as their gyro was destroyed – they were doing well, but the machines were in the hands of relatively green pilots. If nothing else he didn't think their pilots were dead, but that was only because the drones were focusing on immediate threats – most likely, once they were all down then they'd be finished off at the leisure of the drones.

He cursed internally at how they had played themselves – the Iberia could have made this battle into a turkey shoot, its Long Tom turning the killzone of the inner courtyard against the SLDF defences by dropping shell after shell into the place, pulverizing the turrets.

Then, they could have moved up, and hunkered down – but because they had been concerned about hidden enemy artillery, the Iberia was sitting outside of range of its own guns.

Another blast, and this time Aaron staggered as his BattleMech's balance suddenly shifted, his right arm giving up the ghost as the ruined limb fell to the ground in pieces – they'd managed to secure a proper line, bushwacking the drones coming out of the outside vents, but that still left drones coming out of the inner yard. They weren't taking any more shots to their rear arcs, but that still meant they were being hammered from the front by LRM's, and their long-ranged firepower just wasn't enough to consistently eliminate the assault vehicles.

"We should retreat-" One of Markham's people suggested, voice tight with tension only to be undercut by a yell as they toppled, a fire support drone they couldn't eliminate in time blasting off his leg. Marking a full of third of their force incapacitated, with the rest not much better – Captain was still

"No – hold your positions. Running will mean the outside vents will be free to unload more drones, and we will be overwhelmed by volume of fire." Raju instructed as he slammed his spent AC/10 into yet another before tearing off its turret with his free hand.

"Where are the Taurians?" Aaron asked.

"Still six minutes out."

"We are so-"

Further charter was cut off as drones began to explode, the thundering roar of artillery sending clouds of snow, dirt and ruined metal into the air.

Aaron blinked.

"Hey there, sorry for the delay – fucking virus screwed up a lot of our stuff because of how connected it all is." An unfamiliar voice said. "Sgt. Hauler of the Eagle's Claw – would've helped you out sooner but we had to drive up closer until we were in range of those things."

Aaron could hear Captain Montgomery sigh. "Your timely assistance is greatly appreciated." He said sincerely. "Can you bring your fire onto the turrets as well?"

"Yeah – we'll blast apart everything in that inner courtyard and let you all move on in. Just hold your positions for a bit, keeping on top of those vents." The operators advised as the artillery bombardment began to get walked up – Aaron couldn't tell how many pieces there were beyond 'a sizable number', but their impact was undeniable. A single shell was all it took to tear open a drone, leaving behind nothing but a burnt chassis.

"We still have vents out here that we need to secure." Bearclaw pointed out. "We can't just turn our backs to them."

"We can just drop shots right on top of them, no worries. Or just keep bombarding the yard."

"The latter – company, pull back from the vents. Keep them within range, but provide enough pace for artillery fire to focus them."

"-tain Raju, can you hear me!?" Darius shouted as their comms opened up again.

"Yes – Malmsteen's officer has already informed me of the situation."

"Good – just hold on a little longer, we've almost got door control working!"

With artillery support, the battle went from 'frenetic' to almost 'sedate' – destroy the drones as they came out of the vents while those not within range for a kill were targeted by the artillery and obliterated. It was rare for the enemy to manage to get a shot off before they heard a message.

'IDENTIFIER CODE: ACCEPTED. AUTOMATED DEFENSES DISENGAGED. WELCOME, ARGO.'

Aaron collapsed back into his seat even as cheers came through, before Captain Raju spoke up again.

"Get ready to move into the base – there are still the pirates to consider. Captain Malmsteen-"

"The virus has been contained. We've had to lock down some data cores – both here and on the Argo – but we won't have to fight our own ships." Malmsteen explained. "However, most of the automatic functions for our vessels are offline – we'll be bringing them in dead-stick."

"Do we still have your scanners?" Commodore Ostergaard asked.

"Yes, we kept a backup. Those pirate fuckheads probably are going to be making their move soon, so let's hurry this up."

The Iberia set down just outside the ring of hills that formed the inner yard – with the turret emplacements around, there was just no space for a Fortress-class to set down. With the expectation of combat, it would be better to keep the Iberia where they could properly support it rather than hope that it could function solely on its own.

The other Dropships landed in the low valley nearby – further away from the Castle as they were swiftly evacuated of all their crew. Turning them into a non-threat would mean that the pirates would be more likely to try and capture them, not destroy them – and there wasn't enough room to keep them all secure by the Castle's guns.

The forces they did have were piling into the Castle proper now- and it was there, as they explored, as the lights flickered as they turned on for the first time in over a hundred years to illuminate the physical manifestation of the might of the Star League, that Raju had to stop and stare at the arsenal that this Outpost Castle had hid.

BattleMechs – dozens, no, hundreds of BattleMechs. Lights, Mediums, Heavies, Assaults – an entire SLDF combined-arms brigade, forgotten here, left behind during Kerensky's exodus, left untouched through the struggle of the Succession Wars. Many of these models, he had only ever read about in historical technical manuals, before they had bee consumed by the slow grinder of time.

Even inert – even packed away for long-term storage, they still appeared pristine. As if all one had to do was hop into the cockpit and turn them on.

And as he walked through, he could identify more machines, not just BattleMechs – SLDF combined-arms brigades were a comprehensive military unit, capable of fulfilling any task set to them.

Artillery? There were dozens of pieces – from Thors to Long Toms.

Heavy assault? The multiple heavy assault lances would form an armored spearhead to punch through the stoutest defenses – Atlas's, Highlanders, Orions.

Urban combat? The Von Luckners could be supported by platoons of soldiers equipped with laser rifles.

Raiding and fast response? Royal Phoenix Hawks, Wolverines, and Night Hawks.

There were even two companies of SLDF aerospace fighters to contest the skies, and a company of LAM's for recon purposes.

Still…

"It's a bit strange." Falcon – one of Markham's mercenaries – noted. "It's incredible, but… normally the Star League standardized their brigades a bit more. There's a lot more variety here than I would have expected."

"It is strange. But I'm sure that we will be able to determine the reason, if there is a specific one – after we have dealt with the pirate force coming to claim this bounty."

"Yeah. Yang and his people work real fast, so we should be able to replace all those BattleMechs we just lost with these new ones."

Raju just nodded before they went back to their duties – Falcon needed to make sure he was ready for action again, and he had to go meet with Captain Malmsteen and Commodore Ostergaard.

"Must have been awkward to tote those things around inside your Dropships." Ostergaard observed as they watched Malsteen's aerial assets get unloaded by the cameras – a company of heavy, blocky fighters and a company of ground-support gunships.

"It was. Our Hercules don't have dedicated vehicle bays normally, so we had just jury-rig some stuff." Malmsteen confirmed. "Still, when the pirate Aerospace Fighters arrive, they won't have free reign."

"You're quite confident, considering you're pitting your pilots against over three to one odds." Ostergaard observed.

"They've faced worse." Malmsteen said blandly.

"Apologies, the hallways are rather crowded at the moment." Raju said as he entered the command post they had claimed.

"No need to worry, we're just waiting on the backup scanners to come online." Malmsteen explained. "Looks like this was a treasure map with one hell of a payout, then."

"More than we could have dreamed – we were hoping for perhaps a small depot at best, a company or two of SLDF BattleMechs when we discovered this Castle. Even afterwards, we would have been content with a regiment – counting that as a major success." Raju explained. "Instead, we have found an entire SLDF brigade dropped right into our laps, with only one small battle thus far and another engagement that will be over quite soon, considering we can make use of our find."

"How are your people?" Ostergaard asked even as down below the Taurians marshalled in the yard – having been unable to assist the combined company, they would take the first fight against the pirates instead to earn their keep.

"A number of injuries, but no fatalities – BattleMechs are well-designed to keep their operators alive despite damage to the machine itself, barring getting shot in the head. Most injuries were taken when they fell instead after being crippled in one way or the other, losing gyros or legs." Malmsteen explained. "It's rather odd – given attitudes, I would have expected to be hosing out those cockpits now while the machines remained fairly combat-ready."

"Well, they did change warfare for a reason." Raju said reasonably.

"Mm, I suppose." Malmsteen said non-committally.

'Alert. Hostile forces detected on approach vector.'

"Oh, it seems that we have long-ranged scans again." Malmsteen said, tone lightening as their comms pinged. "Alright, then – let's see what these pirates are bringing on us."

All three officers blinked, before staring in stunned silence as the screen drew up a display of the hostile forces converging on them, before Ostergaard spoke. "… is that an entire regiment coming towards us?"

"Where in god's name did these pirates get over ninety BattleMechs with vehicular support?" Raju breathed, aghast. "I presumed those aerospace fighters were the bulk of their assets, not a small part of a combined-arms regiment."

"...well, then. We'd better get ready to receive them." Malmsteen said, his expression neutral.

Well, this is going to be fun.

Anyone who's played the HBS game knows this map, but for those unaware, it's sort of like a wide gully between two lines of hills broadly speaking, with one line having an opening leading up a small basin in the hill where the entrance to the castle is. The company was moving up along the gully planning to make a turn into the yard when shit went to hell and drones started popping out.