ASO Chpt 9

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==Chapter 9 - Formation - Aurigan Sentinels (BattleTech CYOA)==
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===Discussions and Negotiations with Ladies of Noble Houses===
Cordia City, Coromodir
Aurigan Reach, Aurigan Coalition
29th August, 3020
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This time when meeting with the local royalty, I was able to wear proper formal clothing. Nothing too fancy, just a standard black and white skirt suit that Moana had purchased last night and arrived early this morning. Meanwhile Moana is wearing her ACM dress uniform, a dark grey tunic and trousers with a high-collared red and white coat accented in gold. As for the two highborn ladies that we are meeting, Lady Kamea Arano and Lady Victoria Espinosa are wearing expensive-looking gowns in the colors of their respective houses.
“Lady Kamea,” I greet her, deciding to open this meeting with politeness in lieu of not knowing the proper protocol, “Thank you for coming.”
 
“Of course, General Nora.” replies Lady Kamea and I must have made a face at that title because my future liege lady goes on to say, “General is the correct rank for you. In mercenary terms, you will be commanding two to three regiments depending on how you look at aerospace assets, which is enough to reasonably call yourself a general. And in the ACM, the senior colonel of a Founding House guard has the rank of General and your mercenaries will be equivalent to a Founding House guard so it works either way.”
 
“Lady Arano has a point, Liz,” adds Moana, “Even if you don’t have all the manpower for it yet, you have enough hardware to support multiple regiments and you do plan to do so.”
 
“Fine," I grumble, "I'll call myself a general even though I haven’t done anything to deserve the title yet."
 
“Apart from the fact you made the LosTech find of the century." points out Lady Kamea.
 
I bite back a retort that Helm will be the LosTech find of the century because there is no reasonable way to explain that knowledge. Either something must have shown on my face or my silence is telling because Lady Kamea apparently takes my lack of response as an agreement.
 
“If the matter of General Nora’s rank is settled, I would like to raise the matter of our own,” says Lady Victoria and I leap upon the chance to get the conversation back on track and away from potentially dangerous knowledge.
 
“I’m planning to put you in my command lance, which will be part of an independent command company based aboard the Myrmidon,” I answer, “If things go my way, I intend to have Moana handle the day to day running of the command company as a trained military officer while I handle running the entire unit. As for you two, figuring out what I'll do with you is part of why I asked for this meeting. Since you're too well connected and trained, it would be a waste to just treat you as mere MechWarriors, but I don’t know the appropriate way to make use of you.”
At that, the other ladies in the room exchange looks and I can’t help but wonder if I just made a faux pas. I’m trying to avoid giving offense, but all of this nobility stuff is new to me. Wait, I should probably just tell them that in case I did say something rude.
“Look,” I continue before any of the others can say anything, “I’m new to dealing with all of this nobility nonsense, which is part of what I would like your help with. I’m learning to be a MechWarrior and an officer right now, which means that I don’t have the time to learn how to be a noble. I would ask Moana for help, but being a countess is a bigger step than being a baronetess. So if I’m not overstepping, I would like to request your help in handling noble business until I’ve had a chance to learn how to do it myself.”
 
“So you want me to be your steward?” asks Lady Kamea, “Or a secretary?”
 
“Maybe?” I admit, “I don’t know what the proper term is, but I want someone to deal with my noble stuff while I am figuring out how to handle everything else. I figured that you two would be ideal for the job, but I don’t know enough to know if that is an appropriate thing for me to ask.”
 
“A formal request would certainly raise eyebrows and cause talk, but doing the job informally shouldn’t be a problem.” replies Lady Kamea after exchanging another look with Lady Victoria, “And you aren’t wrong about either of us being fit for the duty. I’m just surprised that you trust us enough to make the request given you only just met us.”
 
“I’m hitching my wagon to House Arano.” I answer with a shrug, “If I can’t trust you not to screw me over, then I’ve made a bad call and I’ll pay the price for it. As things stand, I have too much to do and too little experience to do anything myself so I have to delegate and sometimes finding someone suitable to delegate means taking some risks.”
 
“In that case, I shall endeavor to live up to your trust, General Nora,” says Lady Kamea.
 
“Thank you, Lady Kamea,” I reply, “So neither of you have a problem acting as my assistants?”
 
“I do not so long as it remains an unofficial arrangement.” answers Lady Kamea.
 
“The same applies to me,” adds Lady Victoria.
 
 “Great.” I say, “Since you three are going to be my command lance, I’m going to be relying upon you to help me out. So the first order of business is manpower and finances because the Aurigan Sentinels are sorely lacking in both of those.”
“Both of those should be solved in time,” says Lady Victoria, “You will have recruits flocking to you from all across the Aurigan Coalition and beyond. Financial matters are less of a certainty, but between the plans to sell the memory core and some of your LosTech, there will be a surge of funding for the unit’s warchest. Speaking of which, what are your plans to sell your LosTech? Both my father and Lord Arano are quite interested in what you intend to do and how it will reflect on the Aurigan Coalition.”
 
“I’m planning to sell the lion’s share to the NAIS and House Davion,” I answer, “Beyond that, the Taurians and Canopians as our Periphery neighbors and then whoever is willing to pay the best price. I’m willing to part with the VTOLs because their fragility combined with their irreplaceability means that their best value comes from selling them. While I am tempted to keep the Padillas for myself, I only have a limited amount of ammunition for them with no way to get more. Even then, I would keep them if it wasn’t for the fact that their extralight fusion engines means I can demand a lot of C-Bills for them.”
 
“I’m going back and forth on whether or not to sell some of the other tanks. I’m keeping all of the ‘Mechs and ASFs because of how rare they are these days, but tanks are more replaceable even if today’s machines aren’t as good as the ones I found. I’m definitely keeping the Manticores, but everything else is up for debate and I want to see what I want to use in my combined arms battalions. Beyond that, I’m willing to sell some of the spare LosTech components that we found. I’ll want to keep some for my own usage of course, but I would rather sell LosTech that we can’t replace to get funding to set up production for a reliable supply of military hardware.”
 
“I will make sure to relay that to my father.” says Lady Victoria, “While I can’t speak for him, I do believe that he won’t have any objections to your plans. I will warn you that he will likely want to work with you on the sales to get some political or diplomatic benefits for the coalition.”
 
“I will be happy to oblige him on that,” I tell her, hoping that I’m not committing myself to anything too onerous.
 
“As for manpower, I can look at what sort of contacts my family can draw upon.” says Lady Kamea, “While it wouldn’t be proper to draw upon active ACM members, we do know plenty of retired ACM personnel along with a few trustworthy mercenaries. Beyond that, we should get plenty of MechWarriors and ASF pilots from the nobility and the commoners will provide tankers and infantry.”
 
“Training and skills will be a concern.” notes Moana, “I know that some families like my own provide training for their non-heirs and that should be enough for the MechWarriors, but ASF training is rare. As for the rest, it depends on how trained we want them. Filling out the ranks should be an easy task if we only use basic training, but if we want properly trained tank crews and infantry, then things will be harder.”
 
“We’ll see what recruits present themselves to us and go from there,” I say, “If we’re lucky, we’ll get enough trained personnel to fill out our ranks. If we don’t, then we’ll see what we do have to work with and figure things out from there. The only other concern is that recruitment might need to wait until some of the LosTech sales are made given the precarious financial situation.”
 
“If needed, my father can give you a zero interest loan until you get your C-Bills,” offers Lady Kamea, "It wouldn't do to have your endeavor collapse or even just be delayed due to your unfortunate if temporary financial situation."
 
"I appreciate the offer even if I would not take it for obvious reasons," I reply, "Now, I think that covers what I had planned. Do you have anything you would like to raise with me?"
 
“My father has compiled a list of spare ‘Mech parts that the Aurigan Royal Guard and the House Arano Guard are missing,” says Lady Kamea, “As you discussed with him, he would like to see if you can produce those parts aboard the Myrmidon to improve the strength of the ACM.”
 
“As long as I get credit for supplying the parts,” I tell her, “I’m not bothered about not getting paid for it, but I do want to have local families knowing that they have me to thank for their ‘Mechs being restored to fighting shape.”
 
“Of course,” replies Lady Kamea without missing a beat, “Just let me or Victoria handle speaking to them. You are a little…vulgar to be dealing with them directly.”
 
“Vulgar?” I repeat, not sure how to react to that or if I am being insulted or not.
 
“If I may, General,” says Lady Victoria, “Your knowledge is the bare minimum when it comes to proper etiquette for high society. While completely understandable given your background and circumstances and something that my house and Kamea’s are willing to overlook, there are many amongst the aristocracy that won’t care for your situation. They will just take offence at unintentional insults on your part, which will be counterproductive for your desired goal of developing goodwill. Until you are able to learn the proper protocol for dealing with such individuals, it is best that any interactions are done by proxy.”
 
“Okay, that makes sense,” I say because it is the truth and it isn’t the sort of truth that I’m going to get offended by, “I’ll put handling those interactions under your duties if you don’t mind being my proxies.”
 
“There are no objections on our end,” replies Lady Kamea and Lady Victoria nods her own agreement.
“Great,” I say, “In that case, let’s talk about what ‘Mechs you’ll be riding in.”
At that, both young ladies visibly perk up and I don’t bother with trying not to grin at the sight.
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==Author's Chapter Commentary==
; A Word from the Author: It wasn’t originally planning for this conversation to take up the whole update, but here we are. I was planning something of a time-skip, but I want Elizabeth and Kamea’s first interaction to be on-screen not off-screen. None that is out of the way, I do plan to summarize the reminder of the year in the next update or two so we can begin the fourth arc of the story at the beginning of 3021 when Elizabeth embarks on her first mission.
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