[X] Dead animal butchery (improves nomad economic situation)
[X] Strict (maximum recovery of items and minimal leakage to the black market, potentially irritate soldiers)
Considering that there is more than enough salvage to make this one of the most significant hauls of reaver artifacts in recent history, Ella figures that she need not be greedy in pursuing it and can task a significant portion of the troops to assisting the nomads in their efforts to salvage what they can from the situation, but she does make sure that not only are the regular protocols are to be followed but that she will be keeping a sharp eye on the troops doing so. While it might annoy them in by giving the impression of her not trusting them, her grandmother could be particularly fierce with her family over these particular laws.
Grumbling (Cha+Comb) 40 + 32 = 72
Nomad Recovery 30
As it was, the grumbling of her troops was minimal and was probably confined to the people who would be disciplinary problems anyway. About the biggest annoyance by the soldiers was the fact that they had to surrender things they might have wanted to keep as trophies. but despite efforts to help butcher the animals and secure a supply of food to help the nomads weather whatever would come their way as they rebuilt, far too many of the animals were killed and too many that had simply run away were unrecovered. They made sleds from bits of shells to help haul some of the meat and valuable bits of the animals to help them haul everything back, but far too much had to be left behind.
The return trip was grim and dour, but Argo rode up to Ella as she was ploughing her way through the forest, several tonnes of goods hauled behind her mech, and he said, "I must thank you again for your efforts, although I fear for my people's future."
"Well, if it is any consolation, while I legally have to be the one to confiscate the reaver gear and turn it over to the authorities, I can offer you a significant cut of the reward money. I know that's not exactly the most useful to you..." Ella began.
Shaking his head, Argo said, "No, it will be useful, to a degree, but I understand what you mean. We can use those proceeds to buy animals from Indigo Hammer sources, but, well, the cost..."
Ella winced inside her mech when she thought about that. Bulk transport of live animals through the rail lines over thousands of kilometres? It was doable, sort of, but that sort of thing would be require the expenditure of sums of money that were usually associated with her yearly operational budget. The reward for reaver tech recovery would be good, but not that good.
Then again maybe she could wrangle something from her grandmother from the greater national budget during the inevitable debriefing with her. Which... considering the damage to her mech and the chain of events that lead up to that could either be fun or "fun". Also, she was rather glad of the fact that she was cultivating ties to major international companies in shipping and finance, because the relationship with Samantha and Massi could be very useful in the near future.
Debriefing
Explanation (Int + Comb) 18 + 29 = 47
Charm (Cha + Comb) 49 + 32 = 81
As it was, her meeting with the Duchess Anna was more on the "fun" side of things, and included a long chewing out in the privacy of the Duchess' office over proper protocol. While she managed to mostly talk her way out of the worst of things, the repair bill to her mech was a pretty unpleasant ding on her record. About the only saving grace was that the damage had come primarily from a telepathic attack and that she was the only one who could have made it to the civilians in the time frame she did, but even getting a "partial fault" on her record would hurt her career in the short term. Of course, she still got a commendation and a promotion to the rank of Captain, having already moved up to 1st Lieutenant through simple time spent at the prior rank.
"Also, you are now authorized to display a reaver skull as part of your personal heraldry, if you so wish," Anna told her rather off hand, which did make Ella stop to think about that a bit. As a member of the nobility she could officially register personal heraldry, but she hadn't chosen to use anything other than the generic Stone family member crest, and even then only for certain official positions. However, having permission to add a specific kill marking to her banner did bring up the desire to actually have one. She would have to think about what exactly to do about that, especially since it would send a number of messages.
"Thank you Duchess," Ella replied while deep in thought.
"Now, on to the issues with the nomads," Anna said, clearly unhappy, but in a different way.
"Let me guess, there's no budget to help them," Ella answered, deadpan.
Anna rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, there's money set aside for this sort of thing, just in case, but that would be for providing within our own walls. Even the most heartless of business fucks would balk at refusing the victims of reavers food and shelter - if only because they would probably get boycotted into oblivion by the rest of society - but the requirements to get them back on their feet with their traditional lifestyle are steep enough that there will be a serious backlash over funds being diverted from helping our own people to over accommodate strangers and outsiders."
Ella nodded at that and said, "I rather figured that was the case. There is only so much that can be done. I could probably squeeze some aid out with the Razorleaf Meadows resources, but it would not make people happy at all. There is a certain calculus about how much the goodwill of people who intend to leave as soon as possible is worth. I mean, not heartless, I saw their suffering up close and have gotten to know them, but..."
Anna leaned back in the chair behind her desk and sighed, rubbing cybernetic hands against temples fringed by grey hair and said, "Welcome to leadership kid."
To be charming (Chax2) 49 + 28 = 77
After a long moment's silence Anna said, "Still... maybe. Bah, if you want to pursue any sort of charity case I can probably find some ways to throw extra resources your way. If."
"Right. Going to set up some meetings with some people when I get back to Razorleaf, discuss our options," Ella stated.
Rewards
+5 Econ, +5 Military from successful operation and salvage
-3 Military for mech repairs
Current Influence
Culture 17
Economy 6
Science 0
Military 9
Discussion with Samantha and Massi (Cha + Mang) 9 + 29 = 38
"Well, I like you girl, and there is a certain amount of 'goodwill' charity work we can do, but there's only so low the company's prices can go," Samantha informed Ella two weeks later at a personal dinner that also doubled as a business meeting.
"Afraid of that," Ella said with a sigh. "And of course I've already basically tapped out most of my financial resources for the project I had already had in the works."
"The reactor, right? I thought you already had one of those," Samantha said.
Ella shrugged and said, "For most of the things the rich people want the primary cost is fabricator time since they like intricate, custom stuff and certain rarer elements that you can obtain just by cooking enough trees with enough brute force energy. That and letting people strap more light bulbs to things are some of the biggest draws in the settlement. Of course I end up with a minor humanitarian crisis right when I've already tapped most of my resources."
"There is a certain point where you have to tell them 'we've done all we can to help'," Samantha points out.
Nodding while cutting off a slice of cloned meat from some Terran species, Ella nodded and said, "Of course, its just that the reavers took out enough of their beasts of burden that this is basically the end of their community. They don't have the resources to maintain their lifestyle, which means that if I don't do something about their situation I'm going to end up with a sizable, semi-permanent refugee situation either on my doorstep or in my house and a potential international incident if we can't figure out what to do next. A lot of them have family, albeit now a bit distant for many of them, in Indigo Hammer and if someone decides to start making a stink about their treatment, that's a headache that my grandmother doesn't need, which means its one I don't need."
"Damn, that's... rather shitty," Samantha admitted. Musing on it for a moment she said, "Well... Massi could probably arrange an extraordinary loan for you."
Ella nodded and said, "I've talked to him and others about it. There were some contingencies over what the South Woods Company said with regards to prices, but it could be done, but it would be... unpleasant. Just something I'm going to have to figure out on my own over the next little while."
Shaking her head, Samantha decided to change the tone a bit and asked, "So I had heard that you were planning another party. Thinking of making it a regular thing?"
"Yes, and maybe," Ella admitted. "Financing it might become a problem depending on actions elsewhere, but for now its a go."
"Hmmm..." Samantha said. "So what are you thinking of?"
Her party would be a...
[] Formal ball
[] Elegant masquerade
[] Semi-casual social
[] Relaxed gathering
[] Rowdy dance
[] Debauched rave
As for helping the nomads...
[] All in on extraordinary assistance (-8 Econ [forced into debt], loss of benefits to personal actions from salvage reward, nomads self-sufficient this turn)
[] Partial extraordinary assistance (-4 Econ, partial loss of benefits to personal action from salvage reward, nomads self-sufficient in three turns)
[] Standard assistance (Potential refugee crisis, nomads self-sufficient ???)
[] Encourage assimilation (-? Culture, potentially anger nomads, potentially anger locals, potential new opportunities)
