"Aquila"

"It's an ancient rustbucket and there's always something either glitching or breaking down. Nobody knows how the computers are built, and we don't have fire control worth a damn. But it's my ship.

— Olivia Garrido, Commander of Priam Company

It's incredibly rare to see an intact Black Eagle DropShip, much less one which is functional. However, Priam Company owns and operates primarily from the "Aquila" for their activities. According to Commander Mikell Sethan, the ship was the last chance for the mercenaries to acquire a ship capable of taking their services out across the Inner Sphere. Even after the ship was acquired, it took almost a full year to be "fully" operational.

Even after the White Reach Incident, the ship itself has several weapon mounts which simply do not function and minor glitches which crop up from time to time. Olivia Garrido, on taking over the role as Commander, started looking for a replacement and discovered exactly how difficult it is to get another DropShip with a similar BattleMech and cargo capacity. Despite all this, the "Aquila" remains in service five centuries after the first of its kind had been built.

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History

The origins of this DropShip design date far back into the early years of the Star League, having been made obsolete within several decades. Despite having been succeeded by other designs such as the Union, Leopard, and Fortress, this model of DropShip remained in use through the end of the Star League and the start of the Succession Wars. After that point, most still in service were becoming increasingly hard to do maintenance and repairs on. Those which became too difficult were often replaced, with the old ships being sent to be scrapped.

By the end of the Third Succession War, there were salvage yards full of machines which were either deemed "unfit for repair" or unable to be repaired. Equipment fresh from the assembly line was pressed into service immediately, making it near-impossible for anyone to acquire them. Mercenary commands often had to browse the 'junkyards' for equipment, piecing together BattleMechs or combat vehicles from multiple wrecks. DropShips were much more difficult to acquire in this fashion, but it was not entirely unheard-of. But only the truly desperate, or those who had the time and money to spend years rebuilding a DropShip, would attempt it.

Priam Company chose a different tactic, looking for museums where DropShips were no longer on display for various reasons. This led to Commander Sethan acquiring the DropShip for considerably cheaper than a more modern vessel, while requiring a complete rebuild of the computer system. Over the next year the non-essential components would be carefully replaced with modern equivalents, and even a few of the central systems such as fire control or maneuvering thrusters. Due to various internal upgrades, it was discovered the weapon blisters mounted on the sides no longer reliably communicated to fire control; attempts to fix this have proven ineffective, leading to several problems with later contracts.

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Related Link: Black Eagle DropShip Class on the Sarna BattleTech Wiki,

Class

DropShips

Motto

First to Land (Official)
Old, Yet Strangely Reliable (Unofficial)

Owning Organization

Priam Company

Rarity

Out of Production

Beam

77 meters

Length

77 meters

Height

90 meters

Weight

4.500 tons

Complement / Crew

Standard: 52 members
Current: 31

Cargo & Passenger Capacity

450 tons

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