"Sir," Brauer said, "one of our boys just saw laser fire."

"Confirmed," Miles said a moment afterward. "The drone carrier has just reported the loss of one of its drones near the treeline just after it began to transmit sensor readings. The data is being recovered now."

Mazigh took a deep breath, then looked to Brauer. "Inform Hart that we just lost a drone to enemy fire and are looking over the data now."

The First Lieutenant peered over Miles' shoulder, waiting for the sensors data to come in. It took a couple moments longer than Mazigh would've wanted, but when it did it provided enough information to go on. The first bit of information was recorded visually: a small, squat, stubby-legged mech turning and taking out the drone in one clean shot of its small laser... and behind it was a [i]Harasser,[/i] a vehicle whose form Mazigh had always found distinctive thanks to the tail fin in the back. It was a nasty hovercraft to say the least. His eyes returned back to the mech and its unusually large gun...

"Definitely pirates," he muttered as he saw one of the decals on its armor: a snake wrapped around a sword. He didn't recognize the other one - it was some sort of ill-conceived pin-up girl decal - but he assumed it was either a personal one or the lance's symbol.

"Electromagnetic sensors indicated the presence of another vehicle identical to the one in the recording," Miles said.

Mazigh turned back to his own station and took a quick breath. "HQ to all units," he began in his stern and deep voice, transmitting the message to both the recon lance and the hovercraft. "Be advised. Hostiles identified near the treeline, probably from the Oberon Confederation - pirates. They've got one [i]Urbanmech[/i] with a small laser and an AC 20, and there are at least two [i]Harasser[/i] hovercraft seismic didn't pick up. They pack SRM 6's and can move faster than anything we have. Keep your distance from the treeline if you can, and blast those [i]Harassers[/i] before they get too close.

"And there are still more unidentified hostiles," Mazigh added. "I repeat: there are still more hostiles."