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Homecoming Arc - 2.3
Chapter 8 - Aurigan Battleship (BattleTech CYOA)[]
High Level Talks[]
Cordia City, Coromodir VI
Aurigan Reach, Aurigan Coalition
18th September 3020
I end up not getting a chance to visit my family before my first proper meeting with High Lord Arano. While that is unfortunate, it also isn't something that I am surprised by. As soon as the Myrmidon entered orbit, I had to take a shuttle down to the Arano Palace for a meeting with High Lord Arano and Lord Santiago Espinosa, who is still the trusted right hand of High Lord Arano right now. And hopefully things will stay that way.
As expected of someone in my perilously uncertain position, I am awfully nervous about this vital meeting that will almost certainly be a pivotal moment of my life. I may have plenty of hardware, including that WarShip, but I lack loyal manpower to use it or protect it and it isn't unheard of for neo-feudal nobles to forcibly seize invaluable military hardware from its owners. In theory, ComStar's Mercenary Review Board should protect against that, but I have yet to officially form a mercenary unit yet and ComStar will want the Tomb-Maker taken off the board.
That said, I doubt that High Lord Arano will be so unscrupulous as it doesn't fit the sort of ruler that he has been to Coromodir and the rest of the Coalition. He won't just take my loot from me by force when I haven't given him reason to. No, I have faith that he will deal with me fairly. Lord Espinosa on the other hand, well, I wouldn't put it past him to do so for the good of the Reach, but at the same time, I think he would at least try to work with me first. For all he ended up doing, he tried to work with Lady Arano first and only turned on her when she rejected his proposals, making it clear that there would be no further consideration going forward.
And then there is my wardrobe or rather my lack of it. I might have grown up within a noble family, but as the illegitimate child, I wasn't exactly brought to social events or expected to uphold the family honor. So while my sisters all have at least one wardrobe full of expensive gowns for formal occasions, I just have a comfy and functional suit for the rare times where I need to attend a formal event. But I don't even have that right now as I go to meet my head of state as space is at a premium aboard a DropShip and I didn't think I would have any need to bring my suit with me.
What I do have with me is a whole load of SLDF Uniforms, including spare dress uniforms. So I found one of those in my size and had a general's insignia sewn onto the left shoulder as that's what I intend to call myself. A bit pretentious, but I'm going to have multiple regiments and a WarShip under my command. I think I'll have the right to call myself a general then.
Hopefully High Lord Arano and Lord Espinosa will be forgiving of me wearing an old SLDF uniform.
It isn't long before I arrive at the Arano Place in the heart of Cordia City, getting out of the shuttle just as the sun begins to set. The Aurigan Coalition might not even be close to being on the same level as one of the major powers, but that doesn't mean that its ruler is deprived of security. The Arano Palace is a repurposed Taurian fortress in the heart of Cordia City and while the ACM has its flaws, it always has a decent chunk of the Royal Guard stationed at the Arano Palace and House Arano makes sure it is a competent chunk. Once I have disembarked my shuttle once it puts down in one of the hangars, I find myself being escorted through a mixture of civil servants, nobles, businessmen and armed soldiers as I am led through layers of increasing security.
I feel increasingly out of place the further I go. Not only am I wearing what is effectively a foreign military uniform, but I have never been somewhere like this before. Like everyone else who has lived in Cordia City, I grew up in the shadow of the Arano Palace, but I never dreamt of stepping foot inside it. Even growing up at the Kalani Mansion doesn't prepare me for this because the home of a baronet isn't close to the splendor of the Arano Palace.
By the time I finally reach the room where I am to meet with High Lord Arano and Lord Espinosa, my hands can't stop fidgeting, my breathing is unsteady and I have a slight case of the shakes Only a fear of the consequences of messing this up keeps me focused as screwing up this meeting will ruin my plans and doom my home.
No, I may be out of my depth, but I can't let that stop me now. Too much is at stake for me to fail.
High Lord Arano and Lord Espinosa are waiting for me and while the other me only knows what the latter looks like, this me has seen pictures of them plenty of times. You would need to make an active effort to avoid politics to not know who these two are or what they look like. High Lord Arano is tall and regal in his expensive attire of the rich, but at the same time, he just looks kindly. Meanwhile Lord Espinosa is more stern and sure of himself, a more cold figure to High Lord Arano's welcoming one.
"Thank you for joining us, Miss Nora" says High Lord Arano welcomely from his seat and he nods towards another armchair opposite his and Lord Espinosa's, "I trust it wasn't too much of an inconvenience?"
"It wasn't," I reply nervously as I take my seat and the two guardsmen leave the room, "I hope you will forgive my attire. I didn't bring any formalwear with me because it was a LosTech expedition and I came straight here from the spaceport. I only had access to the SLDF dress uniforms for formal attire."
"Completely understandable," says High Lord Arano, "For it is worth, you do wear the uniform well."
"Indeed, the look of an officer is one that fits you well, Miss Nora," agrees Lord Espinosa, "Forgive me for being this blunt, but is the WarShip truly functional?"
"It is, but there are some caveats," I answer, "I should warn you that it isn't close to being fully functional or properly crewed. We have the K-F Drive working, but we lack crew to get its weapons and everything else working to the point that apart from the K-F Drive, the whole ship has been left in mothball. Similar issue with most of our DropShips as we, that is I and my unit, don't have nearly enough manpower to crew all of them."
"We suspected as much," replies High Lord Arano as he and Lord Espinosa exchange a look, "May I conclude from the fact you returned to Coromodir that you retain a desire to serve the Aurigan Coalition?"
"Yes," I answer, starting to calm down as I get into the flow of the conversation and things seem to be working out, "Ideally, I would stay within the Reach or at least operate out of it. The reality of things is that I'll need to go mercenary to afford to pay for everything and while my first choice of employers would be the Aurigan Coalition or people within it, I will go elsewhere if it is needed to pay the bills."
"A completely understandable stance," says High Lord Arano reasonably, "Though I shall do my best to ensure that you don't feel like you have to leave the Coalition in order to stay solvent."
"Indeed, we won't be letting you go that easily," agrees Lord Espinosa as he fixes me with a hungry look, "Though I am quite curious about why you are choosing to go mercenary rather than directly join up with the ACM."
"The reasons are legal, financial and personnel-related," I answer promptly, my nervousness returning in full force as Lord Espinosa, the man who coups House Arano in one and a half years, doesn't quite question my loyalty, but he might be implying a lack of it by wanting to indirectly serve as a mercenary rather than directly serve, "Aurigan laws means that the ACM can't act without the unanimous approval of the Founding Council. Going mercenary gives more freedom to do things like hunt pirates and it is more appealing to my civilian mindset than signing up with a proper military.
"Next is that the people currently working for me mostly did so to go mercenary and I doubt many would stick around if I signed up with the ACM. It is one thing to be glorified house regulars, it is another to actually become proper house regulars. Finally, I want to keep as much of my jackpot as I can and I believe the best way to do that is by founding my own mercenary company."
"Satisfied, Santiago?" High Lord Arano asks his right hand man.
"I am," replies Lord Espinosa as he just looks at me intensely and I resist the urge to squirm under his gaze, "Miss Nora, what are your intentions? Beyond just serving the Reach as the leader of a substantial mercenary unit?"
I open my mouth to reply before hesitating. My exoskeleton investments are hardly secret and as much as I would wish otherwise, the factory and memory core might not be that secret either. Given that everyone in the expedition knows about the former and plenty are aware of the latter, I expect word will leak sooner or later if it hasn't already, but that doesn't mean I want to talk openly about them.
"How secure is this room?" I inquire, drawing looks from both nobles, "I found something that shouldn't be casually talked about.
"This room is currently one of the most secure in the entire Coalition," replies High Lord Arano, "What is this matter of great importance and secrecy?"
"Two treasures that I consider to be greater than even the Tomb-Maker," I answer and the looks I am receiving increase in intensity, "One is a tooling factory that can produce any Star League equipment that isn't too large for it if provided with the right materials and schematics. The second is the memory core on the then latest industrial and engineering data. I've been reviewing it during my time at the outpost and on the way back. It may not be everything the Star League had, but is pretty close in terms of industrial output and vastly superior to anything that we or anyone else has. Given enough time, it can be used to reverse LosTech. It would also put a target on the back of anyone who is known to have it."
"Because they would want to claim it for themselves or failing that, deny it to their enemies," says Lord Espinosa, sounding and looking a little lost in his own thoughts, "If what you say is true, then it is truly greater than the WarShip. Tamati, we need to make use of this."
"Miss Nora, may I presume that you are willing to use these finds for the benefit of the Aurigan Coalition?" asks High Lord Arano.
"Of course," I answer without hesitation, "If I wanted to do what was best for myself, I would have gone to one of the Successor Lords like the Captain-General or the Archon, not returned here and gone to you. I just don't know what the best way to make use of them is. I have them, but I lack the knowledge or resources to properly make use of them."
"I would disagree as your record makes it clear you could be quite creative on your own, but we can certainly help with you there," says Lord Espinosa as he shoots High Lord Arano a look, "The Coalition is far from being one of the major powers, but we are far from being nothing at the same time."
"I'll look at what existing schematics are available to us and what others can be easily acquired," says High Lord Arano, "That should let us put the tooling factory to use when, well, I presume that something of that magnitude requires some setting up."
"It does," I confirm, "We took it apart to fit aboard the Myrmidon, but we did so carefully enough that we should be able to put it back together without too much difficulty or degrading its functionality. I would also like to report that while it has nothing on production, the Myrmidon does contain a database with a multitude of Star League-era 'Mech schematics for repair purposes."
"Excellent," replies High Lord Arano, "With the memory core, I say we make use of our education system. It might not be as good or extensive as what our ancestors inherited from the Concordat, but it is still relatively better than most others in the Periphery or even the Inner Sphere. That does leave it vulnerable to being stolen, but our security was never up to keeping that from happening and if we make multiple copies and spread them out across multiple worlds, then we shouldn't need to worry about losing the data."
"Speaking of it being stolen, might I suggest selling it first?" suggests Lord Espinosa, "I'm sure that Miss Nora's new battleship will draw plenty of attention to us and once we have other people approaching us, we can offer to sell them a copy of the memory core. That will get others reaching out to us to get a copy so their rivals don't get an advantage over them. Once that market is tapped out, we can just freely hand out copies of it to the Reach's educational institutions."
"Excellent idea, Santiago," says High Lord Arano before turning to me, "Any objections or suggestions, Miss Nora?"
"It is better than anything I could have come up with," I tell him, "If you think it is best for the Coalition, I'll go along with it. No, I'll throw my support behind it."
Author's Chapter Notes[]
- Word from the Author
- Elizabeth is insecure about meeting her head of state and future boss while High Lord Arano and Lord Espinosa are both trying to play nice and used to being the top dog in the room. Or at least that is what I tried to convey. They are trying to be polite and reasonable to keep Elizabeth's loyalty and reward it, but at the same time, they still subconsciously view Elizabeth as a subordinate and a social inferior.