Over 200 hundred years have passed, and the Castle Brian, now renamed to Tarasque's Hearth, has been completed and fully fortified. The few hundred military personnel that had made the original voyage have fully integrated with a local, rural populace around the Castle, slowly spreading out over the years.

Borrowing a few notes from Eridani, both literally and by example, the Blackthorne's have kept close to their heritage, despite dropping their original corps name. To avoid suspicion, persecution and worse, the unit has masked many facets of this heritage, and kept its combat personnel to a minimum so as to always appear nothing more than well-off mercenaries. 

This has led to some issues, however. Refusing to hire from outside its original members for fear of discovery, the selection process of new pilot candidates has become rife with purity trials and political posturing. Candidates would have to prove their right to belong to the group in addition to their skill. This became a problem as there were always a small band of Candidates that did not completely fit-in with the collective. Those who could not be drummed outright were eventually marginalized by being thrown together into a single support and scouting lance, to be forgotten or trivialized.

One such officer, Lieutenant Anthony Flick, had been recently passed over for promotion despite his success in both reviews and missions. The major of Hearth Guard at the time,  Thomas Carson, sought to transfer the young officer from his unit in order to promote only those that fit his perception of mechwarriors, and had already promoted another to take Flick's command.  However, when the motion was met with resistance and the reasons for the numerous similar transfers had been called into question by others within the command staff, Carson had no choice but to keep the officer or face an official conduct review himself. Carson then hit on the idea of trying to either force the officer to resign or request transfer himself by placing him among the worst of the unit, known as Lance F.

Recognizing the seeming end of his career, and cursing his situation, Lieutenant Flick found himself one day walking through a field of the very crop that had become synonymous with the Dragoons, Blackthornes shrubs. The crop was well into season, and the large shrubs were heavily laden with their berries. Reaching out to pick a few, he would yank his hand back in pain, believing he'd struck on one of the thorns by accident. Instead he would spy a spider, retreating back further into the brush. Within an hour he would be taken to the local hospital, the small spider having put enough poison into him to threaten the man's life. He spent the next three days holding on to life between bouts of hallucinations and nausea, during which he would become convinced and even fascinated by the idea of such a destructive force hidden so close to the paradise of the fruit.

After a short recovery time, refusing more despite the near-lethal dosage of poison. (He would long be rumored thereafter to have become addicted to its affects, seeking any way to regain that rush) Flick would return to his new command. New orders and training were given that actively broke away from the traditional training of the Hearth Guard history and that of the Dragoon's in general. This raised much ire and several attempts were made to bring the man to heel, but he refused all offers for transfer, all bribes for better reviews and even a short track for promotion, focusing himself solely on the task at hand with those who had become known as the refuse of the Dragoons. He would rename Lance F to Psycho Spiders, encouraging their wild behavior, and much to Hearth Guard officers and Dragoon command staff's chagrin, winning popular favor and rapport with their employers regardless of their lower status.

This group appeared to have no fear of larger, more powerful foes, charging and leaping into the fray regardless of number or size, using their quick strikes and crossing tactics to confuse the enemy, keeping them from being able to focus on a single mech long enough to bring it down, leading to panic and often retreat. This specific tactic alone would cause both fear and hatred from Regulan forces during their assault on Tarasque's Hearth, as the Spiders easily stymied the heavier and more numerous forces during their push for the base, breaking formations and leading often to shots being fired into their allies in a vain attempt to bring down these nimble brawlers.