ASO Chpt 2

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==ExpeditionChapter 2 - Aurigan Sentinels (BattleTech CYOA)==
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===On the way to Fable===
Zenith Jump Point, Glentworth System
Capellan March, Federated Suns
February 19th, 3020
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One thing that quickly became apparent to me once that journey was underway is that it would take a long time. Between a three month away trip to Fable, two months at the site and the three month return trip back to Coromodir, that is two thirds of the year gone. It isn’t the end of the world, but given that I’ll be spending the rest of the year setting up a mercenary unit, that leaves me with one year to avert or stop the coup by House Espinosa.
 
In theory, I could make it to Helm and back in time in a year, but it would give me a margin of error of two months for both getting things done and accounting for any delays or setbacks. It could be done, but running the maths in my head, I’m ready to call hitting Helm before thirty-twenty two a bust. Both Helm and the Espinosa Coup are too big and important to risk messing it up by trying to do both at once in a rush.
 
I’ll need to go for something else, something I know how to find with other me’s knowledge and is close enough for me to find in a reasonable timeframe. The Argo fits the bill. At the very minimum, it has a list of SLDF locations in this region of the Periphery. Even if I can’t get the exact location from House Arano, I have enough of a starting point that I should be able to find it. I won’t necessarily have a way to fix it, but the real treasure is hidden within its data banks even if the Argo is one major piece of LosTech. I will need a way to decode the encryption on its data. Lady Kamea Arano and the Marauders used some fancy spy kit, Advanced Electronic Decoder, to access it and I certainly don’t have that.
 
High Lord Tamita Arano should have it. Lady Arano got the Advanced Electronic Decoder as part of her inheritance from her father. Or did Lord Karosa get it from High Lord Arano and then give it to Lady Arano in the Arano Restoration? Damn it, my memory is failing me already.
 
Either way, my best bet is going for the Argo and her secrets and the best way to do that is via the support of House Arano. Not to mention that going on my own leaves me vulnerable to the predations of Jirus. My disowned half-brother has both been leading a decently sized and successful pirate organisation for the last few years and upholding my stepmother’s grudge against me. Thankfully, his reach doesn’t extend beyond the Frontier and those Baumann fellows have been giving him plenty of competition in recent years.
 
Crap, the Baumann Group. They are the guys who find the Dobrev in the Heavy Metal DLC, during 3025. That’s another thing for me to worry about. If the Dobrev is an honest-to-god WarShip like some speculated, then I definitely want it for the Aurigan Coalition and even if it is just a JumpShip, a JumpShip is a JumpShip and it should be full of LosTech goodies, including some early Clan stuff. Or in the case of the Bull Shark, outright Clan tech.
 
I really hope that this expedition isn’t a bust. Getting an SLDF cache is a big break that I need because five million C-Bills plus thirty thousands a month won’t go that far. Not for what I need them for.
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===Future Plans===
Even as I worry about the future, I also have to focus on the present. Three months is a long time and while interstellar travel can be boring, I have no shortage of things to do. I’m a technician and engineer by trade, but Mum and Dad made sure to give me some combat training thanks to my evil piratical half-brother having it out for me. Mum made a point of teaching me the basics of piloting a ‘Mech, but the majority of my combat training is for personal combat without any giant machines of war, rounded out by a training course with the local militia and doing martial arts as a hobby.
 
However, if this expedition is successful, then I’m not only going to be a MechWarrior, but I’ll be leading a mercenary unit. And it will have to be a mercenary unit. Signing up directly with the ACM means suffering the same crippling political limitations that the Coalition’s military does, something which simply will not work for me. The need to keep my private military force funded means going mercenary as I lack an alternative source of income to keep them funded. So I need to go mercenary so that my military force can pay for itself.
 
Regardless of its exact nature, if everything goes according to plan, I’ll have to run and lead my own military unit and if it is a mercenary unit, I’ll have to run my own business on top of that. Thanks to paying attention to Dad as I grew up, I have a basic idea of how to do the latter or at least I know enough to avoid crashing and burning.
 
As for learning to be a MechWarrior and how to lead a military unit, Dad hired more than a few experts for the expedition and I wasted no time seeking them out. Captain Sonya Zola is a veteran MechWarrior with a decade of experience with the AFFS and another one as a mercenary, including spending the last couple of years leading an independent lance. And there are those former MIM ARC agents that Dad somehow hired and they are a nice boatload of experience to tap into.
 
And speaking of them, I corrected past Elizabeth’s mistake by looking into their background and while there wasn’t much detail, I got the gist on how Rosabella’s Vixens came about and into Dad’s service. Apparently, they are survivors of that coup against the Magestrix a few years back, the one led by her husband. They decided to side with the coup and then when it failed, they were branded traitors with a price on their heads, but they were able to get away. Since then, they’ve been operating as an elite all-woman infantry unit for hire, getting by as mercenaries and hiring talented ladies along the way to make up their numbers. Dad was just the latest in a line of employers who hired their services.
 
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===Aspiring to return to cockpit===
“Yeah, Mother is hardarse,” agrees Vance Zola as I eat some rations with him and his sister, Vanessa, “Good teacher mind you.”
 
“Only when it is one on one, mind you,” says Vanessa, “I don’t know how good Mother would be in a classroom.”
 
“She could handle it,” replies Vance confidently, “Just because she does best with just a small group to focus on doesn’t mean she can’t deal with larger groups.”
“I just hope that we find ‘Mechs at Fable,” I add, “Your mother is doing her best, but there is only so much she can teach me without access to a ‘Mech or simulator to train in.”
“I hope we find some ‘Mechs too,” says Vanessa wistfully, “Stop being infantry and get back to what we really are, MechWarriors.”
 
“Hopefully, they won’t be Bug ‘Mechs,” says Vance, “Not that I won’t take a Bug ‘Mech over no ‘Mech, but I want something better you know?”
 
“I do,” I reply while Vanessa nods her agreement, “Personally, I will settle for just finding something. I don’t want to go all the way out there just to find nothing at all or that someone got to it before me.”
“Yeah, that would definitely suck,” agrees Vance before wincing as he takes another bite of his ration bar, “I miss being on a planet where you can get proper food.”
“Is the food always this bad aboard a DropShip?” I inquire, “This is my first time-”
“-in space.” finishes Vanessa, “So you mentioned. As for your question, I want to say that this is fairly average. There is some expensive stuff out there that is better and some ships, especially passenger liners, stock proper food, but you can also get far worse than this if the captain cheaps out.”
“We have definitely eaten crap that makes this taste luxurious,” adds Vance as he waves what’s left of his ration bar in the air, “As Vanessa says, this is fairly middle ground as far as DropShip rations go. I complain, but soldiers do that you know. The trick is figuring out if there is anything to their complaints. Is it the usual grouching about everything in life or is there a problem to address?”
“I take it this is just the former in your case?” I inquire.
“Pretty much,” confirms Vance.
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===Talk with Captain Arkos===
The leader of my ex-MIM ARC agents is one Captain Rosabella Arkos and the lady can be described as two things, a badass and a MILF. I would say that the Canopians live up to their stereotype, but the attractiveness of the other Vixens is more varied. The only consistent thing about them is their gender and their skill.
 
And that last one is why Dad hired them and I have gone to Captain Arkos for tutoring. She could have been an ugly old man and I would have sought her out for some training because that lady both knows her stuff and how to pass it on. The Vixens would barely fill out a single squad rather than a full platoon if Captain Arkos didn’t know how to bring new blood up to standard.
 
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the middle-aged lady is really easy on my bisexual eyes. Or are they lesbian eyes now? I used to swing both ways, but ever since that morning, I have found myself favoring women over men. Is that how sexuality works? I should probably look it up, but I never thought I would need to. Would anything on the matter actually be relevant to my circumstances?
 
“You look distracted, Elizabeth.” says Captain Arkos and I give the older blonde woman my full attention.
 
“Sorry, just thinking about stuff.” I reply with an apologetic look, “Everything is just happening so suddenly and I’m still coming to terms with it.”
 
“Given everything that happened to you in the last few months, I can understand,” replies the shapely woman in her tight-fitting clothes and I force myself not to stare, “However, you cannot afford that sort of distraction on the battlefield. It is a matter of life and death as losing focus could very well get your people needlessly killed.”
 
“I know, I know.” I say before sighing, “I’m just taking some time to process everything. So what did I miss?”
“I was just mentioning how it is a shame that we are limited aboard this DropShip.” says Captain Arkos, “You have enough potential that I would like to run you through some physical exercises when we have the chance. You aren’t up to my standards yet, but you have the potential to be and I would like to see how far you have to go.”
 
“I’ll see what I can do when the opportunity comes,” you reply, “I might be too busy however if this expedition is successful.”
 
“You want to become a Mechjock if you get the chance.” says Captain Arkos, but her words are softened by her humorous tone and the easy-going grin on her face, “The allure of being a MechWarrior is too strong for you to resist.”
 
“Less for its own sake and more because it opens more doors,” I protest, “People will respect a MechWarrior more than an infantrywoman.”
 
“You’ve got ambitions then?” inquires the older woman with her gorgeous-no, stop thinking with your di-genitals, stop thinking with your genitals.
 
“I have some goals and desires, yes.” I answer evasively, “I want to put the Coalition on the map. Not just a bunch of star systems that nobody apart from the Magistracy cares about, but a peer power.
 
“You have a plan to do that?” inquires Captain Arkos as she gives me an inscrutable look.
 
“No,” I lie and Captain Arkos gives me a look, having clearly seen straight through me.
 
But she doesn’t press the matter, instead changing the subject as she returns to educating me on the labors of running a mercenary unit.
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==Author's Chapter Notes==
;Word from the Author: This chapter covers the journey, but also a mixture of plot and character development. Elizabeth comes up with more concrete plans for the future while some other characters are introduced. Vance and Vanessa have a different background this time around thanks to Elizabeth’s own differing circumstances. Whilst I am using their basic characters, their details of them have changed as have their role in the story, well, partially at least. Some of their old role will remain, but the stuff related to the Hermans has been replaced with something else.As for Captain Rosabella Arkos, she will be the leader of Elizabeth’s spec ops/commando group in her future mercenary unit. Also, she is not a redo of Belinda Arkos from the old story, but her mother. Sort of. In the old story, the coup hadn’t happened yet so she was still in MiM and never appeared on-screen, but here she is a mercenary and appears in the story before her daughter does. Also Elizabeth has a bit of a crush on her.
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