ADO Chpt 13

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==First MissionChapter 13 - Aurigan Dreams (BattleTech CYOA)==
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===Checking on the Boss===
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“Are you in there, Liz?” calls Lady Arano from outside my office.
“Yes,” I call back and the heir presumptive of the Aurigan Coalition strides in with my niece not far behind her.
“I think we’re supposed to ask permission to enter,” says Vanessa dryly as she follows Lady Arano into my office, “not walk in like we own the place.”
“You are,” I say and Lady Arano has the grace to look sheepish at the reminder, “any particular reason for this visit?”
“We just had our first battle.” says Lady Arano, “We wanted to see how you are dealing with it given how worried you were about it.”
“Not as bad as I thought, but our lance was never in much danger,” I answer, “And having faced people shooting at me and trying to kill me, it feels…lesser now. Like it isn’t as bad as I feared it would be. Part of that is because I was in an Assault ‘Mech while the enemy had second-rate ‘Mechs and vehicles, but I got through it unscathed and that is reassuring to my brain. Did either of you kill anyone?”
“I contribute to a few, but alas, no, I didn’t strike any final blows like you did.” replies Lady Arano while Vanessa just shakes her head.
“Well, I did and I’m more upset by how not upset I am over taking a life,” I say, “More than one life actually since Galleons Light Tank has a crew of two. I made sure to look that up once I had my shower.”
“How are you taking it?” asks Vanessa, sounding worried.
“I feel more upset up here than down here.” I tell her, tapping my head and heart respectively, “I know that I should be upset, but I’m not overly bothered and given that they were pirates who deserved it. I can’t feel much sympathy for them.”
“People die in battles.” says Lady Arano, “I’m afraid that is a fact of life and one that I don’t know how to help you with. Sorry.”
“We can spend some time together?” suggests Vanessa, “Watch a holovid, relax, that sort of thing.”
“I suppose it can’t hurt.” I agree, “It will need to wait until I am less busy. With the successful operation, I have plenty of things that need doing even with Vance handling the outright military side of things.”
“Do we know what sort of salvage we’ll be getting?” asks Lady Arano eagerly.
“Just the Phoenix Hawk, the Blackjack, the Maxim Hover Transport and the two Scorpions that weren’t completely wrecked,” I answer, “Plus some of the spare parts and supplies that got captured, but Lord Espinosa and I are waiting for the final tally before we sort that out.”
“That Blackjack was cored,” notes Lady Arano dubiously.
“It was.” I confirm, “There are reasons that we are getting it, but I’m busy enough that I’m going to tell you to speak with your uncle if you want to know them.”
“I think I will,” says Lady Arano.
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=== Preparation for Battle ===
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Between the lifeless nature of Axylus and the lack of spare space aboard our DropShips, there is little space to stash the mercenaries of Coranni’s Crew. Their LeopardClass DropShip is an unacceptable choice because there is nothing keeping them from just flying away so Lord Espinosa settles for confining them aboard the freighter Leopard he brought with him to carry Doctor Murad and her team of engineers. To ensure that they don’t try any funny business, a few members of Wolf Company are assigned to guard them.
All of that makes it pretty easy to arrange a talk with their leader. I let the current guards know that I want to speak with Coranni and next time that some of them return to the Joyeuse, they make sure to bring the mercenary captain with them.
“Captain Coranni Tonradsdaughter,” I say, “Interesting surname, but I’m more interested in how you ended up working for Blackmane and his pirates.”
The woman looks to be about my age, twenty one according to the MRB records of her and her Crew and has spent the last four years as a MechWarrior, since she formed her mercenary unit back when she was merely seventeen. Which feels a bit young to me, but then again, we are out in the Periphery and Coranni comes from an independent world rather than one belonging to one of the major powers or even a minor power like the Coalition.
Úr Cruinne has never belonged to an interstellar power, having been settled by a private colonial venture and never been conquered by one of the bigger powers.
With brown skin, bright blue eyes, dark brown hair that is bordering on black and an athletic figure, I feel like I recognize Coranni from somewhere though I can’t possibly think of where. I know that I don’t recognize her as a BattleTech character and since she has never been to Coromodir, I couldn't have met her before.
Maybe I saw her when I was doing my research on mercenaries in the Aurigan Reach?
“It wasn’t by choice.” protests Coranni as the young woman gets agitated, “We were running low on funds and struggling to find legitimate jobs with enough pay. So when Bao found this local job, we decided to check it out, but since we were desperate, we decided to ignore some of the red flags that we would have normally investigated. Turns out that we should have checked them out because Bao’s contact turned out to be a freaking pirate.”
“I want to comment on that, but given this is my first job in my mercenary career. I’m not in much of a place to do so.” I say.
“Whoa, whoa, this is your first job?” demands Coranni, “How in the Spirits did you get some ‘Mechs? And heavy ones too!”
“Inherited the Rimward Sentinels from, well, not the father who raised me, but the one who got my mother pregnant with me.” I answer with a shrug, “Came with a lot of C-Bills so I filled out the ranks and got this job. Going pretty well for me so far, but again, this is my first job.”
“You some kind of noble then?” asks Coranni as she gives me a once over, “You look pretty enough for it.”
“My biological father was a noble and his family are nobles, but I’m illegitimate and not even from the same nation.” I tell her as I decide to get this conversation back on track, “But enough about me, this is about you and speaking of you, how did a girl from Ur Crewnee doing as a mercenary captain? My information says that place is one of the more technological regressed places in this part of the Periphery.”
“Úr Cruinne,” corrects Coranni, “And it was because of pirates. They came raiding, I snuck aboard their ship to take them out except they ended up taking me to, ah, here in Alloway funnily enough. None of this is going to be on my MRB records or anything because it all took place before I formed my Crew. Actually, this is what caused me to form my Crew in the first place. You following me?”
“I’m following you.” I confirm.
“Anyway, I stole one of their ‘Mechs, our crippled Crusader, and met up with the Shira brothers.” continues Coranni, “The three of us took out the remaining pirate MechWarriors and then with some help from the Outworlder travelers, we took over their DropShip. That’s where we got the Tennisons and our Leopard from. We got on by though my Crusader got wrecked last year and I had to replace it with the Shadow Hawk I am using. Or was using.”
“We can discuss the future of you and your ‘Mechs in a bit.” I say.
“Sure, sure, so where was I?” replies Coranni, “Ah right, so we became mercenaries together and formed my Crew. We met up with Angela not too long after. She handles our money and she does that because her father is something called a CEO and not because she is Lyran. So Angela misjumped down here and was in need of a job so after we helped each other out, she signed up with us. We did decently for the first three years, but the last one has been a real rough one.”
“You have given me the boardstrokes of your situation,” I say as the other woman finishes her tale, “Okay, you’re in a situation because on the one hand, you've been caught working with pirates. On the other hand, we have proof that you weren’t doing so willingly so it could do either way and we could make it stick. Financial issues aside, you and your crew seem like a decent lot and I have use for skilled personnel who come with their own hardware so I’m thinking of hiring you.”
“What, like a job?” asks Coranni, sounding confused.
“Like I hire you to become part of the Rimward Sentinels, which is my mercenary unit.” I tell her, “Your entire unit has been taken prisoner by my own and you are on the verge of bankruptcy while I am able to afford you. It means giving up your independence and being associated with the Aurigan Coalition, but it would give you some financial security and it is your best chance of getting out of this with your ‘Mechs.”
At that last part, Coranni visibly winces and I feel a pang of sympathy for her. Between my, ah, outside perspective and not being raised with any expectation of being a ‘Mechwarrior, I don’t have the same reverence for BattleMechs or feel the same horror at the idea of losing mine. Maybe if I had only inherited a single ‘Mech or even just a handful, but I got a full forty ‘Mechs from the old man, including a company of Atlases. I know that ‘Mechs are precious, rare and usually irreplaceable in practice, but I don’t have the same fear of being Dispossessed.
“I’ll need to speak with Angela.” says Coranni in a rushed voice, “She is our finance expert and helps me run my Crew so I need her input before making a big decision like this.”
“I’ll have someone bring her over.” I tell my fellow mercenary, pulling out my noteputer to do just that.
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===Codebreaking===
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In my higher education, I was trained as a general-purpose engineer and a technician specifically for BattleMechs. And while those skills can be applicable to other machines, that isn’t really the case when it comes to the machines that fly through both the void and the sky. You can go from a ‘Mech to a tank or exoskeleton without too much difficulty, but you can’t really do the same with an ASF or a DropShip. I could give it my best shot and do a decent job if I do say so myself, but it isn’t my area of expertise and I know it.
Which isn’t to say that I can’t help Doctor Murad and Lord Espinosa’s engineers with the recovery of the Argo. No, it just means that I am limited in what assistance I can provide. For a particularly relevant example, the computers still work the same whether they are on the ground, in the sky or in space.
If there is anything to that otherworldly knowledge, then the Argo has secrets to it. Fortunately for me, High Lord Arano already believed that the Argo contained long-lost secrets of the Star League so I barely even had to persuade him of my plan. Heck, he even brought up using the electronic codebreaker before I could really begin to hint at needing something like that.
That is why I have the particular piece of borderline LosTech in my pocket as I make my way through the mess-filled corridors of the Argo. High Lord Arano has placed a great deal of trust in me by gifting it to me even if the only reason I have it is because Lord Karosas was unable to join us.
Convincing Lord Arano that in the event that the Argo did prove to be unsalvageable, we should have a plan to retrieve its secrets. While the engineers work on fixing up the Argo, I am to investigate its computer systems and uncover any secrets of the Star League that it may hold.
I made sure to bring a copy of some of my notes aboard the Joyeuse before we left for Axylus. While the information on what opposition to expect turned out to be unhelpful, almost certainly because I am here a decade earlier than in my information, the notes on what to find the Argo’s secret map.
A secret data archive in the secondary drive of the nav computer to be decrypted by the electronic codebreaker. Simple enough and it should be a sufficient amount of information to lead me to the prize.
“The nav computer should be functional,” says Doctor Murad as she leads me towards a computer terminal, “Despite the current state of the Argo, all of the core systems are intact. The ship is remarkably robust, but that is what you expect from Star League engineering.”
“It was a long distance exploration ship,” I reply, “It was probably built to last and be repairable away from dedicated facilities due to how it was meant to operate far away from civilized space.”
“That is quite likely,” agrees Doctor Murad, “I’ll leave you to find what it is you are looking for. There shouldn’t be any interruptions to this terminal given it is hooked up to a generator that we’ve isolated, but with the mess that the ship is in, you might lose power or suffer disruptions as we get it working. I doubt you will lose any of the surviving data aboard the ship systems because if it is still around now, it is unlikely to be going anywhere any time soon.”
“Nice to know,” I say, “Though if you do have any planned interruptions, please let me know.”
“Of course, Colonel Nora,” replies Doctor Murad, “I shall get back to my work now.”
After taking a moment to watch the other woman leave, I turn to the terminal in question. The system is an unfamiliar one, but while a casual user might have trouble, it is not so unfamiliar that a trained expert like myself is unable to navigate it. The terminal is already set up to access the nav systems and from there, I ignore the primary data drive in favor of the secondary one.
Once I’m in the secondary storage drive, I go looking for an encrypted data archive. It shouldn’t be too hard to find and-aha! I’ve found it or at least I’ve found an encrypted data archive in the secondary storage drive of the Argo’s nav computer and what are the odds of there being more than one of those?
I pull out one of the few memory cores that I brought with me to make a backup of the encrypted data archive. Before we left Coromodir, I spent some of my wealth to get these unused memory cores so if something happens to the secondary storage drive on the Argo, we don’t lose access to its Star League secrets. After all, it would be a shame to lose such a treasure trove of secrets because we had to lock an insane computer virus away.
It doesn’t take long for the basic copy to finish and by then, I am already ready to put the electronic codebreaker to work. I would have no clue on how to break this encryption on my own, but fortunately, the electronic codebreaker that Lord Arano provided just requires me to understand how to use it. Thankfully, the electronic codebreaker is more of a plug and play thing than something that requires me to do any real work.
As I expected, it is both working and going very slowly. Which is good because it is working, but at the same time, the current rate of progress means that decryption will take a good few hours. It is annoying, but it was what I expected and I came accordingly prepared for it so I pull out my noteputer and begin to get some work done.
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==Author's Chapter Notes==
;Word from the Author: A couple of things going on in this chapter. One is Elizabeth trying to absorb a down on their lucky mercenary unit into her own while the other is Elizabeth uncovering the secret data archive of the Argo. The latter is surprisingly easy to find if you know what you are looking for and Elizabeth will be making secret backup copies, both so she has personal access to the data and so they have something should anything happen to the main copy.
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