Olivai Madera huddled against her mother's skirts in the ship's cargo bay at the Smithson spaceport along with nearly fifty other families. Deep booms and the sound of rending metal pierced the walls. Olivai looked up at her mother, who was crouched over her protectively, and her father, his arm around his wife's shoulder looking around for signs of danger. "Momma,"Olivai started. "Are we gonna die?" Breda Madera smiled down at Olivai, the young girl didn't see the tension and fear that tightened her mother's eyes. Mommas were never scared, why should today be any different?

"Of course not sweetie," Breda said. "The High Lady Arano has sent her very best mechwarriors to help us."

"The Golden Hand hasn't lost a battle yet," Her father said. A kindly man, with flecks of grey in his dark hair. His smile settled any worry that had risen in Olivai. "They're not about to start now."

A crackling voice rasped at them over the PA, "All hands brace! This lift-off is going to be bumpy!" As soon as the words were gone the ship roared to life. Vibrations permeated every surface and a dull, constant roar filled the bay. A window across the bay flashed with red and gold as the landscape shifted and pulled away. Olivai her feet and dashed across the space to the window, ignoring twin cries of "Olivai!" from her parents, and looking down at the receding world.

Four Battlemechs, giant, walking machines of war, stood between a larger force and their ship. They hunkered down under withering fire and gave back in kind. As the ship pulled up into the sky, Olivai caught the symbol on the shoulder of one of the defending 'mechs, an outstretched golden palm in the centre of an angular shield.

In the capital of Coromodir IV, eleven years after the close of the Restoration War and the crowning of Lady Arano, Olivai stood before the arrivals and departures board at Coromodir's capital spaceport. A single large duffle bag sitting on her rather expensive work boots held everything she had left in the world. She was looking for something, someone, specific. She was looking for the man who would help her fulfil her destiny.

Frowning, Olivai hitched her duffle over her shoulder and left the board. A rough looking man wearing a high visibility coat stomped through the terminal. "Perfect," Olivai said brightly, matching pace with the man and tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. 'Excuse me-"

"What?!" The man snapped, jerking his arm away from Olivai. "Gods girl, I got work to do, go pester someone else." He shouldered past her and disappeared in the shifting crowds before Olivai could get so much as a word out

"Oh!" Olivai blinked, a little taken aback. "Sorry to bother you!" She called after the man, who was already well and truly gone. A handful of passersby looked at her before carrying on with their day.

"Are you well, Miss?" A warm voice asked. Olivai started and turned. A handsome young man, maybe two or three years older than herself, smiled at her.

"Oh yes, I'm quite alright," Olivai said, brushing off the events of the working man. "I was simply looking for the dropship that belongs to the Golden Hand mercenaries. I need to get to them before they leave."

"You're a Mechwarrior?" The man said, taking a half step back. Olivai missed the incredulity in his voice, he really was quite pretty. The bluest eyes Olivai had ever seen.

"Not yet." She said firmly. "But I will be, the best ever, just you wait."

The young man smiled a brilliant white, dazzling smile. "I'm sure you will." He turned and gestured to the other side of the terminal. "I can take you to them if you'd like." Olivai nodded, "Thank you!"

The young man held out his hand, "let me take your bag for you." Another dashing smile. Olivai blushed. "Why thank you." she handed over her bag and the handsome young gentleman lead her further into the capital's terminal.

"I've been following The Golden Hand since the Restoration," Olivai said excitedly as they walked. "One of their lances saved me and my family on Smithson and I've been a fan ever since."

"That must have been scary." The young man said, not looking at her.

"Mhmm," Olivai nodded emphatically. "I don't remember much but I made sure to listen to every broadcast with Commander Uriel and find out everything I could about him and his mercenaries." It didn't seem proper to mention that she'd been horribly jealous of the High Lady Arano when news of their romance leaked. Or how happy she'd been when later news of The High Lady's marriage to another lord had been made public.

The young man stopped them, throwing out an arm to stop Olivai when she almost walked right by. "Alright, there they are, Pad Six. The Dropship of the Golden Hand."

Olivai gasped. It was glorious.

A handful of workers in small industrialmechs worked to load and unload a variety of crates and boxes, all under the watchful eye of a single battlemech, a Centurion, the head crest made it obvious. "It looks like The Golden Hand is always read-" Olivai looked over at her companion with a ready smile only to find him gone. Gone, her duffle along with him.

"Wha-? Hey!" The back of a young man running full tilt caught her eye through the crowds and Olivai took off at a dead sprint after him. Olivai wove in and out of the mass of people between them, keeping the young man - who was not handsome at all!- in sight. "Get back here!" She was gaining, always was quick on her feet. "I'm going to get you!" In the stories, the dashing mercenary always had something quippy to say when they took down the bad guy. She'd have to work on it. She was close now, less than a meter. The young man looked over his shoulder with fear in his eyes. Olivai lunged forward and took the thief by the middle. They both sprawled to the ground and Olivai's duffle when sliding across the floor. Olivai dove for the bag but the thief pushed her off course. The bag's zipper popped opened and it's content's spray across the terminal. The scuffle had opened a pocket of empty space around the pair, curious onlookers whispered to each other.

Olivai's eyes scanned the floor. Where is it? She thought. I can't leave without- There! On the ground, a pistol, her father's sidearm when he fought in the restoration, Olivai went for the gun just as the thief scrambled for the bag and darted away. Olivai watched him leave, breathing heavy and cradling the sidearm in her hands.

"Departure warning, for the Golden Hand. All hands aboard the leopard."

"No!" Olivai cursed and dashed back the way she came, holding the gun to her chest.

When Olivai made it back to Pad six, the industrialmechs were all loaded up on the dropship and the Centurion was gone as well, only a handful of people were still on the pad. Two groups, really, now that she got closer, a trio of well dressed, if plain, people that looked the mercenary part perfectly, and a man and a woman in peerless fashionable clothing. She in red trousers with a short coat, and he in green. The woman had long, dark hair down past her shoulders and carried herself like she had an army behind her. There was an obvious division between the two groups. They did not like each other.

Olivai ran for the small group, waving her hands. "Wait!" She called out. "I need to come aboard!" One of the trio, a tall, solidly built woman with messy red hair turned towards her, and suddenly Olivai was face down on the ground, with spots in her eyes, a ringing in her head, and her right arm ratcheted up behind her so far she feared it would pop free.

The two mercenaries had barely reacted, trusting this… this… ogre of a woman to take care of the threat. The man in green had forced himself between the woman in red and Olivai, despite being obviously terrified. The woman just rolled her eyes and shouldered past him. "I appreciate your concern, Husband, but one lone girl is hardly a threat."

"She's armed," Olivai's tormenter said conversationally. Digging out the pistol from under her and tossing it to the mercenary in the centre of the trio. A very ordinary looking man. Not short, not tall. Not especially handsome or ugly. Plain clothing and the bearing of an office worker in his forties.

"That's mine!" Olivai said hotly, struggling against hands as giving as an iron bar while the man now holding her pistol looked at it.

"It's one of yours," He said, handing over the weapon to the dark-haired woman. "You piss off one of your veterans Kamea?"

Olivai gasped. Kamea Arano, High Lady of House Arano and the Aurigan Reach, the Sword of Restoration kneeled to look Olivai in the eyes. "Not to my knowledge," she said in a smooth tenor. Her gaze was firm, her brown eyes held the strength of a landslide. "Where did you get this, Child?" She held the pistol easily in her hands, hands familiar with weapons.

"My father gave it to me," Olivai said stubbornly, trying to act as though she wasn't rather short of breath from the giant standing on her back. "I didn't want to attack you. I just want to be part of the Golden Hand."

A smile flickered across High-Lady Arano's lips. "Let her up, Behemoth," she said easily.

"Stop ordering my crew around, Kamea." The centre man said hotly.

"That's High-Lady Arano, to you!" The man in green snapped. Neither the Lady or the mercenary seemed to notice. Behemoth looked at both of them and stood, lifting Olivai up to stand as if she were a small child.

"If you wish me to stop giving orders in my own sovereign state," Lady Arano started cooly. "You will have a very long wait ahead of you, Saytr." Olivai stared at the man in the middle. Saytr, that was the callsign of the Golden Hand's commander and the best, most amazing Mechwarrior in the galaxy-

Olivai blushed. All the thoughts and images she'd ever had about the man tumbled through her head all at once.

"You want to be part of my crew?" Saytr said. Looking her up and down.

"Yes," Olivai said, slightly breathless. "I've been studying all your battles and I can tell you everything you want to know about any mech in your company. I've run every simulation in the galaxy and I'll be the best, most dedicated MechWarrior-"

"No." the sharp response stopped Olivai so quick she feared she'd give herself whiplash.

Fear and anxiety crushed her heart. Olivai fought to keep her face steady. It was difficult. "You… you don't want to think about it for a minute?"

Saytr shrugged, "Not really. I've got enough mechwarriors."

"Ok…" Olivai said, numb. "I'll just… I don't know what…" every eye was on her. "I don't have anywhere else to go." Her fingers tightened around the pistol until her knuckles were white.

"What about your family?" Behemoth said gruffly.

Olivai just shook her head.

The burly Mechwarrior scratched the back of her head. "Oh, sorry."

The Lady Arano put an arm around Olivai. "I'm sure I can find you someplace to work. Don't worry, child."

The world blurred behind fat, watery tears. "Th-thank you, m-m-my lady" The man in green, Lady Arano's Concordant Husband scoffed. Muttering something about "peasant girls"

The third mercenary, a slight woman of dark complexion who'd been quiet the whole time, muttered something about being polite.

"No stabbing, Glitch," Saytr said absently. The commander of the Golden Hand put and hand on Olivai's shoulder, looking her deep in the eyes they were dark, almost black. The broadcasts had never mentioned that. "I'm sorry, but there's simply no place for you on the Argo," he said, like a bullet to the chest. "But Kamea is a good person, and kind. You'll be safe with her." Saytr opened his mouth to continue, but the words were lost in an enormous explosion and repeating gunfire.

Olivai's world spun. A sharp ringing filled her head as she pushed herself up from her new position on the ground. Wobbling on her knees, she watched, wondering idly why people were running in every direction. There was no sound, what were they afraid of? Behemoth barreled into her, carrying them both to the ground behind a large crate. "Get down, Kid!" she bellowed in Olivai's ear.

"What's happening?" Olivai mumbled thickly.

Behemoth seized both of her shoulders and shook her. "We are under attack!"

Olivai shook her head and looked around. The pad was a battlefield. A dozen armed and black armoured men advanced onto the pad, assault rifles raised and firing, keeping the mercenaries pinned down behind a smattering of boxes left on the pad. As another group advanced on Lady Arano and her husband. Both were safe for the moment, covered behind a large crate of their own, but they were separated from the mercs. And quickly being closed in on. The Lady Arano looked like a queen on the battlefield. Confidently firing out from cover with a weighty handcannon. Her husband was less composed, taking blind shots made even less accurate from the shaking that was visible from Olivai's position.

"What do we do?" Olivai asked.

Behemoth thrust Olivai's father's pistol into her hands. "First step to being a Mechwarrior, fight."

Olivai looked at the pistol in her hands. "I- I don't have any ammunition," she said, feeling very small indeed. Behemoth sighed, then looked down their line at Glitch, who was gleefully firing back at the advancing enemy alongside Saytr.

"Glitch! .75 Restoration standard!" The slight woman didn't even look away from the fight as she fished a magazine out of a pocket and flung it through the air towards Behemoth. The red-haired Mechwarrior caught the ammo and handed it over.

"Now. Fight."

Olivai swallowed, took the magazine and shakily slotted it into her pistol. She nodded.

Behemoth drew her own sidearm. "This your first firefight?" Olivai nodded. "Now, first thing to know is-"

Olivai peeked over the edge of their crate and fired at the oncoming soldiers. BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM. CLICK CLICK CLICK.

Behemoth sighed, "... don't fire blindly and waste the only ammunition you have." She finished, though it clearly wasn't going to be her original sentiment. "Second thing you need to know is that you have to play to your strengths." Behemoth peeked out herself and grinned. "Take me, for instance. I'm not much of a gunslinger-" A black armoured soldier rounded the corner, his assault rifle levelled at them. Olivai jumped and nearly screamed. She was going to die without ever even getting in a mech, she was going to-

Behemoth smacked the rifle away and, in quick succession, drove three anvil-like blows into the soldier's throat, side, and groin. The black armoured man grunted once and fell.

Behemoth slid the man's rifle over to Olivai. "I'm more of a brawler," she said with a breathless grin, snugging up the pair of what appeared to be high-tech knuckle dusters. "Now when I say, I want you to fire at the bad guys to cover me while I move."

"You're leaving me?" Olivai said, trying to keep the fear from her voice. Behemoth nodded.

"I saw you go after that little thief when you first got here." Behemoth grinned. "You've got the stuff. Trust me." Olivai nodded. She didn't trust her voice not to crack. The rifle in her hands was heavy, much heavier than her father's weapon. It was… meaner. Behemoth set herself like a runner beginning a race. "Now!"

Olivai stood up and brought the muzzle of the weapon towards the enemies, they hadn't come closer, after seeing what had happened to their comrade. Olivai pulled the trigger and tried to keep the weapon from bouncing out of her hands. Their attacker's armour was thick, but the surprise made them stop firing and raise their hands as if she were throwing rocks. Their eyes found her from behind their all-encompassing helmets and Olivai gulped. "Oh shit."

Olivai ducked just in time to avoid a barrage of gunfire that shredded the space her head had occupied a moment earlier. By the time she caught her bearings, Behemoth had already left her, she slammed her back against the crates that her fellows hid behind and was talking animatedly to them. The Gunfire stopped. Across the gap, Saytr spoke quietly to Glitch, who nodded and slunk around the crate and out of sight.

"Lady Arano!" a rough voice, slightly muffled, called out into the landing pad. "My employer wants you to know something."

"What would that be?" Lady Arano said, only a touch breathless

"This is not a coup." The voice replied. "That this is not an attack on the Arano house or the Reach. This is for you alone. You are not safe, you will never be again."

"Is that all?" Lady Arano's smooth tenor held no trace of fear. It was hard, the voice of a leader.

"It is. Now please make this easy and let us kill you."

"I think not," Arano said. However, as she did so she swept out from behind cover.

"No!" Olivai whispered she looked around wildly for something, anything to help.

"I am the High Seat of House Arano, I will not be bullied in my own capital, mercenary." She stared down the squad of heavily armed mercenaries as if her red silk coat and trousers were battlemech armour. "Better men, better women, have tried and failed. Take your shot." Lady Arano spread her arms and glared at the black armoured man.

The mercenary smirked. "It's a wonder you lived this long. Lady Arano." He made the title seem like an insult. "Goodbye." He raised his rifle-

And was squished flat by 50 tonnes of Centurion mech.

"Yeah!" Glitch's sharp voice blasted out into the landing pad through speakers. "This is for ruining my spa day!"

The Centurion stomped around the pad, catching the rest of their attackers under its feet or making them flee in terror.

Olivai peeked out from behind the crate. "Is it safe?"

Behemoth jogged over to her with a smile. "As it ever is." She offered a hand and Olivai took it, getting hauled up to her feet by the bigger woman. "You did good, considering."

Olivai smiled and scuffed her feet. "Thanks, Behemoth." In the background, Glitch made her Centurion dance robotically over the smeared remains of their attackers. "Is she always like that?" Olivai asked, nodding to Glitch. "I've heard the Hand's sharpshooter was a little strange but…"

"Oh yeah, Glitch is nuts." Behemoth said, nodding. "Don't ever cross her."

"What the hell were you thinking, Kamea?!" Saytr shouted, storming over to the lord and lady. "Has living in that palace rotted your brain?"

"Watch your tone, commoner." Lady Arano's Husband stepped up between his wife and Saytr.

"Not a commoner, Jackass." Saytr didn't spare the Taurian lord a second, pushing past him to glare at the High Lady. "What if he hadn't talked? He could have just shot you and walked away! You're supposed to be a bloody queen! How are you going to lead your people when you're full of holes from every upstart hit squad that comes your way?"

Lady Arano arched a single eyebrow at Saytr. "I trusted my valued mercenaries to protect me, as you have done many times before." Saytr almost said something but clicked his teeth shut sharply.

"It was an honour to serve, My Lady." Saytr said through clenched teeth. "I wish you, and your...fine husband all the best, and many healthy children."

He bowed, stiffly. And strode away into the leopard. "Someone get Glitch to stop committing crimes against Humanity!" He roared into the bay. The centurion stopped dancing and walked back into the leopard's mech bay.

Lady Arano watched Saytr go. Her Husband said something that Olivai didn't hear, then they both turned to leave.

A shallow BOOM drew Olivai's eyes to the palace that overlooked the city. It shattered, broken and enveloped in a rising ball of fire. A voice, thick with electronic distortion, shouted through the city from unseen speakers.

"You are not safe, KAMEA. Wherever you go I will find you."

The landing pad was silent, distant screams, whether from pain or terror wasn't clear, but they rang clear in the air. Olivai watched Lady Arano's face flash through a quick series of emotion. Shock, fear, pain, anger. Then it all faded into a mask of determination and strength. She calmly began marching towards the pad's exit, to her palace.

Saytr stormed out of the leopard and over to Kamea. "You're hiring me." He said, seizing her by the arm and dragging her towards the dropship.

"I am not leaving!" The lady shouted, pushing herself free and standing firm. "My people need me! I cannot abandon them now!" Saytr glared at The High Lady, as if trying to decide if he could pick her up and haul her away himself.

'Remember what that mercenary said." The husband's voice broke through both the Lady's and Saytr's attention. "This isn't an attack on the Coalition, it's an attack on you, Kamea. I can govern here, and you can publically pass orders to be from a safe location." The lady looked thoughtful. "There's nowhere safer than the Golden Hand's ship." The Taurian man didn't look like he like it, however much he knew it to be true. "You will be safe there."

The high Lady Kamea Arano looked up at her Husband, warmly. "Be safe, Karadin."

"Safer than you, surely," Karadin said, just as warmly. He traced his thumb down the side of his wife's face. "Hurry back, my mother has been asking about grandchildren again."

"Yes," Lady Arano said, only slightly stiffly. "Of course. I will be back as soon as I can, my love." She reached up and kissed Karadin.

Behind them both. Saytr gagged, holding his stomach comically.

"Alright," Saytr said, straightening. "Let's get off this rock asap, Kamea."

"Haul ass, you two." Saytr waved at Olivai and Behemoth as he walked into the Leopard's cargo bay.

Olivai watched mutedly as everyone walked onto the dropship ramp. Behemoth turned and waved her. "Come on, kiddo." She said. "You had a hell of an audition. Welcome to the Golden Hand."