No, it is free. In fact it will reduce costs in some cases, such as not needing space for a gunner in a turret.
As the rule I referenced earlier says, you just need at least a basic fire control system in order to use the weapon remotely.
This is confirmed with the Vehicle Design spreadsheet.
EDIT: OK, I see where you are getting that.
@Geir There is a discrepancy between the design spreadsheet and the writeup for the HLC example. The example has the remote connection costing Cr500, while the spreadsheet does not charge for the remote gunnery station. The Cr 500 for the remote gunnery station only shows up in the example (twice) and nowhere else.
Yeah, the Cr500 got cut in an earlier draft. In fact the example vehicles were completely removed at one point. There were originally two example vehicles, with the steps showing up at the end of each chapter, like I did in Robots.
Then they went away. Sausage making occurred. One file became two. Infrastructure stuff was mostly... eh, saved for some future time. Things got deleted. Things got restored. Anyway:
There should be no Cr500 cost for the remote gunnery station. So both in the last paragraph of page 178 and in the design table on the same page, the cost for the dorsal autocannon should be just Cr75000.
Also, on page 179, first full paragraph and on the tables, no cost for the remote gunner. Rocket Pods should be Cr24000 with no Remote Gunner cost and it should be Cr500 cheaper for each of the weapons on in the lower table as well.
And on page 180, the blank cost for the turret should be Cr75000 and the cost for the two rocket pods should be Cr24000. And there seems to be some random punctuation and capitalization around the Weapon column on the full chart. This appendix was drafted before we finalized on a format. It should be like in the vehicle descriptions:
Mount: Arc, Weapon
So:
Turret: Dorsal, Autocannon (heavy)
Hardpoint: Port, Rocket Pod (medium)
Hardpoint: Starboard, Rocket Pod (medium)
(this is why I prefer everything in one file: Search and Replace works across the whole book, and if you're comparing drafts or printing it out, you know you have the same version, but that's just me, everyone is different).