ASO Chpt 18

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==Chapter 18 - First Mission - Aurigan Sentinels (BattleTech CYOA)==
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===Legacy of the Reunification War===
Nadir Jump Point, Detroit System
Aurigan Frontier, Rimward Periphery
9th March, 3021
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“Yes, that,” says Kamea, “It’s about Jenelle.”
 
“Is she okay?” I ask sharply, suddenly wondering if her condition has deteriorated.
 
Last time I checked, well, she wasn’t fine, but she was stable and on the road to recovery. A long road that would take most of a year, but nevertheless, Jenelle would be back to piloting a ‘Mech one day in the future. I’ll do my best to ensure there is a ‘Mech waiting for her given that she risked her life and sacrifice her ride to save me. And save me she did because, I have no doubts that Thire “Butcher” Forst would have killed me if it wasn’t for her intervention.
 
“Physically, she is fine,” Kamea reassures me through her next words are anything but reassuring, “It is her legal situation that I am concerned about.”
 
“How bad?” I demand and I really hope she isn’t secretly evil because I owe her and quite frankly, I like Jenelle.
 
“It isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things, but it is fairly serious,” admits Kamea, “First, what do you know of Jenelle’s background?”
 
“She is an Aurigan native and MechWarrior from Heliat,” I reply, “No red flags that I am aware of, but Jenelle is averse to speaking about her past or family and I’ve refrained from pressing her on the matter.”
 
“Jenelle belongs to one of the noble families on Heliat,” says Kamea, “On Heliat, they are one of the more influential, but thanks to Heliat being a semi-isolated backwater, by Aurigan standards they are only a minor house. Stories are conflicting on the details, but the one thing that I can determine for certain is that Jenelle got disowned and exiled by her family. Only she didn’t do so quietly as she stole her family's ancestral Blackjack.”
 
Ah, that would be the exiled background if Jenelle really is the person that I am thinking of. Hmm, does signing up with me fit as one of the latter backgrounds or is it something new due to me creating a mega-storm of butterflies?
 
“And let me guess, she signed up with us under a fake name,” you conclude, but Kamea is already shaking her head.
 
“No, Jenelle used her real name,” says Kamea, “Which leads to a problem that Jenelle is wanted for major crimes within the Reach and it is only a matter of time before her family catches up with her if she remains within the Reach.”
 
“Alright, that’s fairly bad,” I say, “Any suggestions? This is more your forte than mine.”
 
“It depends on how the Donovans decide to deal with this and what Jenelle did to get in trouble with them,” replies Kamea, sounding a little frustrated, “I don’t really see any way out of this that doesn’t involved returning the Blackjack to the Donovans, but the complications arise if they try to press things further and get Jenelle punished. I don’t know the relevant laws off the top of my head, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the death penalty is on the table with the theft of a BattleMech. Especially since the Donovans need that ‘Mech to fulfill their feudal obligations. Not that I approve of it being applied to Jenelle, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Donovans pushed for it.”
 
“Okay, what can I do to stop that?” I inquire, “Because I am not letting it happen.”
 
“You got enough sway to block things if you throw your weight around,” answers Kamea, “Shy of a Founding House, you are one of the most influential people in the Reach, up there with the Mechdur oligarchs. The Donovans on the other hand are a bunch of minor nobles from a backwater with isolationist tendencies. If we are proactive about dealing with this, a favorable outcome is practically guaranteed.”
 
“I’ll trust your judgement,” I say, “You know more about this than I do.”
 
“Actually, I believe we can use this as a learning opportunity for you,” says Kamea as she looks me right in the eyes, “You have enough influence and power that you do need to learn how to play politics sooner than later and you can’t keep putting it off forever. While the stakes have the potential to be high, your opponents are insignificant enough that this is a relatively safe opportunity for you to cut your teeth on politics.”
 
“I suppose so,” I reluctantly concede as my future liege lady isn’t wrong.
 
I have been blowing off politics under the guise of being busy and inexperienced, but I can only do that so long before it becomes actively snubbing. And as much as I hate to admit it, Kamea is right about this being relatively low stakes even if it has the potential for Jenelle’s life to be on the line.
 
I want to chalk it up to being one of the downsides of living in the thirty-first century and its neo-feudalism, but truth be told, the twenty-first century is just as bad. If I want to make noticeable change, playing politics is the price of such regardless of what century you are in.
 
“If you don’t mind going back to the previous subject, I do have a suggestion to make, Elizabeth,” says Kamea after a moment of silence as I ponder politics and I signal for her to continue, “While investing in infrastructure is good, the buildings and equipment are useless if there is no one to use them. I would recommend taking steps to ensure that is a sufficient pool of expertise to draw. It takes time to train up skilled professionals and there is little value in building a hospital if there are no doctors available to work in it.”
 
Well, she isn’t wrong. The Periphery is lacking infrastructure and education. The Taurians might have the best education system in both the Inner Sphere and the Periphery, but they are the exception to the rule. Both the Canopians and the Outworlders were forced to depend too heavily on the Star League following the Reunification War and paid the price for that when it collapsed. In both of those realms, illiteracy is more common than literacy while their remaining universities, of which there are a grand total of three between both nations, are little more than technical schools.
 
As for the other Periphery states, the Illyrian Palatinate and the Lothian League are barely self-sufficient and I doubt either has the spare resources or the will to fund widespread education. Everyone else are either glorified bandit kingdoms or scraping by out in the Deep Periphery.
 
Thankfully the Aurigan Reach cleaves closer to the Concordat on matters of education than anyone else. The Coalition was founded by former Taurian and Capellan worlds, which are both nations that valued education and maintained free education for all of their citizens. While standards have slipped over the centuries, a major achievement of High Lord Arano’s reign was reforming the social services of the Coalition to be brought back up to the Taurian standard.
 
While my connections to the Kalani family were enough that I didn’t personally benefit, I certainly knew a few people back in university who were grateful for the chances granted to them by the reforms. Chances that they wouldn’t have gotten without the hard work of High Lord Arano.
 
“Are you suggesting scholarships?” I inquire and I have to admit that isn’t a bad idea.
 
“That and perhaps donating to schools or, if you prefer to be more direct, purchase new equipment,” replies Kamea, “I would suggest coordinating with House Karosas as they already operate most of the tertiary education within the Reach. Their connections and contacts would be invaluable to making progress even if you don’t need them. Though how much that would cost you, I cannot say. As I said, this is more House Karosas’ area of expertise, not House Arano’s.”
 
Looks like this is one area where I have more practical knowledge than the Arano heiress, something which isn’t uncommon when it comes to more down to Earth subjects. Not that is a slight on her, but at times, it is clear she had a noble’s upbringing and hasn’t had the experiences of a normal person. Like how she doesn’t know what school is like first hand due to always having tutors or how she doesn’t know what is like to head out to the shop and buy things because her family’s servants have always handled that.
 
“It has only been a year and a half since I attended university myself so I have some idea of how much it costs,” I tell her as I run some quick maths in my head, “Compared to the expenses of running a military unit, funding a bunch of scholarships is cheap. Really cheap. You paid for dozens of scholarships for the price of purchasing a Bug ‘Mech.”
 
“Since it is within the realm of affordability, might I propose attaching some conditions to the scholarships?” suggests Kamea and she quickly continues at the look on my face, “I am a fan of being charitable and generous as any decent person, but if you wish to help improve the lives of others, you should be practical about it. I’m not talking about anything too onerous, but in exchange for accepting the scholarship, they should do some work in some of the hospitals or schools that you are setting up. They will receive full payment and all of the other benefits, but these scholarships are for a specific reason and not just out of the kindness of your heart.”
 
“You’ve got a point,” I reply, deciding not to bring up the real reason that I reacted the way I did, “Making use of their degrees wouldn’t be too harsh of a requirement though it would mean making the scholarships require them to graduate from certain courses.”
 
“The idea does need to be thought out in greater detail,” says Kamea, “We are just coming up with potential courses of action. The details of our plans can be worked out later before we commit to anything. I know that I need to look up how scholarships are traditionally handed out in the Reach.”
 
Once again, this is an area where my knowledge and experience is superior to the Arano heiress. While I didn’t not to take a scholarship and rely upon the generosity of my family, I could have gotten one of many different scholarships when I attended university. Despite my initial desire to make it through university on my own merits and without help from House Kalani, too many of the scholarships have strings attached to them.
 
Nobles and corporations would happily sponsor promising individuals, but never out of the kindness of their hearts. There was always a catch about what you could study, who you couldn’t work for and who you had to work for. The only scholarships that seemed to be intent on allowing knowledge to be learnt for its own sake were some of the scholarships from House Karosas. I could have gotten one of those, but in the end, I decided that proving myself wasn’t worth depriving someone who actually needed the scholarship of the chance to get it.
 
As I think about it, the idea of sponsoring scholarships appeals to me. In my experience, it only costs a few hundred C-Bills a month and to become a proper doctor takes around five years at university, though a lesser medical education can be acquired at a trade school in about three years. I assume that the similar standards apply for teachers and other skilled professions.
 
That’s a few thousand C-Bills a year for as little as three years or as many as five. So between twenty thousand and forty thousand C-Bills for each scholarship. Even going with the high numbers, that is still two dozen scholarships for every million C-Bills spent.
 
Wait, there are tuition fees as well. How could I forget about those? That’s an extra thousand C-Bills for each year of studying. Adjusting the numbers to account for that gives me a score of scholarships for every million C-Bills rather than two dozen, but that is still a good number. I think. Like Kamea says, we need to do some proper research to hammer out the details of our ideas.
 
So yeah, as I think it over, the idea of funding scholarships appeals to me. It is something that House Nora could become known for each if I am still outdone by the likes of House Karosas or House Arano. Yes, sponsoring scholarships definitely sounds very nice.
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==Author's Chapter Commentary==
; A Word from the Author: And now we reach the end of this arc. Jenelle may be in a bit of trouble, potentially to the degree that her friends are going to preemptively do something about it in the next arc. Elizabeth is also going to be sponsoring university students because as important as infrastructure is, you need people to run it. I got the various costs for attending university from BattleTech RPG rules, especially the A Time Of War rules for covering the costs of living. The gaps in that are made up by doing research on real life university costs and honestly, they align up close enough that I feel what I’ve got is reasonable.
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