We began on Terra, millions of years ago. Today, mankind stretches out among the
stars of the Milky Way, touching thousands of worlds, as far from our home as Clan
space, more than 2,000 light-years distant. Yet who are we, really? What have we
become in our relentless push outward and onward? I’m Bertram Habeas, and tonight,
let’s find the answers to these and many other fascinating questions together, as we
tour the stars!
Volume LII: A Partnership for the Ages—ComStar Today
Fact Sheet: ComStar
Founding Year: 2785
Headquarters (City, World): Sydney, Australia, Terra
Official Symbol: A white inner circle, slightly offset toward the bottom of a gray
outer circle. Extending from the center of the white circle and pointing downward is a
single gray tail.
Location (Terra relative): Facilities on roughly 98% of all inhabited systems within
the Inner Sphere.
Total (Inhabited) Systems: N/A
Estimated Personnel (3130): 14,687,000
Government: Corporate (with monastic stylings)
Ruler: Primus Lisa Koenigs-Cober
Dominant Language(s): English (official), others per station.
Dominant Religion(s): Agnosticism (official), others per station.
Unit of Currency: C-bill (1 C-bill = 1 second of text-only HPG transmission time)
The fires of the Jihad consumed countless lives, shattered mighty armies, and brought
nations to their knees. They also turned every aspect of life in the Inner Sphere upside
down. As the opening volleys of the Jihad demolished capitals and key command and
control centers, the Word of Blake, using its intimate knowledge of the hyperpulse
generator network, also sent an invasive virus through the system that affected HPG
communications throughout the Inner Sphere by flooding all channels with repeating
or scrambled messages.
Overloaded, the network collapsed in several sectors, destabilizing governments and
devastating local economies, while paralyzing military command structures. Chaos
reigned for several years as the various nations and Houses scrambled, mostly on their
own, to recover and regain control throughout the crisis, while the Blakists continued
to assault world after world, shattering entire military commands and major industrial
centers. Targeted above all other objectives were the factories, facilities, and military
bases of ComStar, the Word’s nemesis since the 3052 Schism. Com Guard troops,
decimated by waves of defections and infiltrated by Word of Blake ROM agents, were
repeatedly lured into traps, isolated, and destroyed with ruthless efficiency, forcing
many commands to ally with local House units in order to stand a chance. By the time
Devlin Stone emerged on the scene, over two thirds of the vaunted Com Guard had
already been annihilated, with the battered remains clinging to an ad hoc coalition
assembled under the command of then-Precentor Martial Victor Steiner-Davion.
The Com Guards, indeed, made their last stands during the final days of the Jihad,
often becoming part of the vanguard during assault operations against the last
strongholds of their renegade kin. The history of the Jihad is replete with many
instances of Com Guard troops fighting to the last man, demonstrating every ounce as
much fanaticism as the enemy they once called brother. Thanks to many of their
heroics, in fact, the coalition forces managed to bring a final end to the Jihad and
exterminate the Word of Blake threat once and for all. At the same time the rest of
ComStar struggled to reclaim the damaged HPG network, even in the decaying Free
Worlds League, where once the Blakists held sway.
In the end, ComStar remained, but a changed ComStar. Its mask of carefully
cultivated neutrality and spiritual enlightenment had been burned away by what
amounted to a civil war. Its army had been virtually destroyed, its survivors
transferred under the banner of Devlin Stone and his nascent Republic of the Sphere.
Faith in ComStar as the guardian of communication and technology had been all but
destroyed, yet there was no one else with the means to rebuild what had nearly been
shattered during the Jihad.
For decades, the men and women of ComStar rebuilt. More secular than ever, they
nonetheless retained ties to their mystical past, wearing the robes of monks and using
the titles first enacted by Conrad Toyama as a symbol of the old ComStar. Yet the
Order no longer had the fanatic mysticism of its past. No longer did technicians pray
to make their machines work. No longer did every profound utterance become the
quote of a sainted Jerome Blake. Most importantly, no longer would the Com Guards
field an army of BattleMechs piloted by fanatical devotees.
In place of secret fanaticism, the Order has combined spiritual roots with an open,
easy manner; a marriage of a monolithic corporation and a monastic brotherhood. No
longer were their compounds sacrosanct from infidels, but were instead open
community centers, creating a synergy of good will to heal the horrible wounds of
doubt and war.
In the end, ComStar became, as now, a partner to the Inner Sphere, its compounds
including a standing garrison of troops from its host nations, or mercenaries approved
to operate within said nations. These token military forces today are as much a
legitimate protection force as they are a sign of the Order’s new covenant with
mankind. In entrusting the protection of its valuable facilities, ComStar thus ensures
its partners—its customers—of its intention, its new spiritual dedication, to never
again rise up as a military power, to never again be able to bring war to the Inner
Sphere on such a scale as the Jihad.
Slowly, over the decades since humanity’s darkest hours, the men and women of
ComStar have found the redemption and the salvation the Order has long sought.
Once more, they are the keepers of interstellar communications, the lines that connect
all of mankind in a universe of balance and harmony, safeguarding a part of our lives
so basic—and yet so vital—that we all tend to take it for granted.
stars of the Milky Way, touching thousands of worlds, as far from our home as Clan
space, more than 2,000 light-years distant. Yet who are we, really? What have we
become in our relentless push outward and onward? I’m Bertram Habeas, and tonight,
let’s find the answers to these and many other fascinating questions together, as we
tour the stars!
Volume LII: A Partnership for the Ages—ComStar Today
Fact Sheet: ComStar
Founding Year: 2785
Headquarters (City, World): Sydney, Australia, Terra
Official Symbol: A white inner circle, slightly offset toward the bottom of a gray
outer circle. Extending from the center of the white circle and pointing downward is a
single gray tail.
Location (Terra relative): Facilities on roughly 98% of all inhabited systems within
the Inner Sphere.
Total (Inhabited) Systems: N/A
Estimated Personnel (3130): 14,687,000
Government: Corporate (with monastic stylings)
Ruler: Primus Lisa Koenigs-Cober
Dominant Language(s): English (official), others per station.
Dominant Religion(s): Agnosticism (official), others per station.
Unit of Currency: C-bill (1 C-bill = 1 second of text-only HPG transmission time)
- From the outside, ComStar’s massive Class-A hyperpulse generator complex
just outside Sydney, Australia, on Terra, is an impressive structure. Part
fortress and part office complex, it is dominated by several small satellite
receiver dishes clustered around a single, massive dish that occasionally “fires”
a burst of blinding, blue-white energy into the sky. A powerful thrum
accompanies each of these bursts, as much felt as heard by any living creature
within a kilometer of the compound. Each thrum, one every hour on the hour,
represents a massive batch of data, hurled into space and beyond with unerring
efficiency made possible by centuries of proven technology and the studious
maintenance of men and women who make it their lives’ work to see to its
continued operation.
Inside the massive ferrocrete walls that surround the ComStar compound,
security troops wear the ComStar logo, while supplemental vehicle and
BattleMech defenders remain in hangars marked with the insignia of The
Republic of the Sphere, sheltered from the hot noonday sun. These guardians
scan every guest who comes to the compound, with Star League–era sensors
capable of detecting any weapon, chemical, or explosive known to man,
looking for threats to the sanctity of the complex that serves as both
headquarters and home to close to a thousand robed representatives of the
Inner Sphere’s communications network.
The fires of the Jihad consumed countless lives, shattered mighty armies, and brought
nations to their knees. They also turned every aspect of life in the Inner Sphere upside
down. As the opening volleys of the Jihad demolished capitals and key command and
control centers, the Word of Blake, using its intimate knowledge of the hyperpulse
generator network, also sent an invasive virus through the system that affected HPG
communications throughout the Inner Sphere by flooding all channels with repeating
or scrambled messages.
Overloaded, the network collapsed in several sectors, destabilizing governments and
devastating local economies, while paralyzing military command structures. Chaos
reigned for several years as the various nations and Houses scrambled, mostly on their
own, to recover and regain control throughout the crisis, while the Blakists continued
to assault world after world, shattering entire military commands and major industrial
centers. Targeted above all other objectives were the factories, facilities, and military
bases of ComStar, the Word’s nemesis since the 3052 Schism. Com Guard troops,
decimated by waves of defections and infiltrated by Word of Blake ROM agents, were
repeatedly lured into traps, isolated, and destroyed with ruthless efficiency, forcing
many commands to ally with local House units in order to stand a chance. By the time
Devlin Stone emerged on the scene, over two thirds of the vaunted Com Guard had
already been annihilated, with the battered remains clinging to an ad hoc coalition
assembled under the command of then-Precentor Martial Victor Steiner-Davion.
- Devlin Stone’s arrival likely saved ComStar’s military from immediate collapse
as much as it saved the rest of the Inner Sphere from totally succumbing to the
Word of Blake’s Jihad. Although Victor Steiner-Davion had done a tremendous
job with what he had, and even managed quite a few victories, his support
apparatus had been so compromised that several coalition commanders were
routinely subverting the Com Guards’ command in order to fill holes in their
own forces.
Stone and Steiner-Davion likely saw salvation in each other when the rebel
leader finally made contact with the war-weary Precentor Martial. Stone saw in
Victor a man who could provide vital contacts with the rest of the Inner Sphere
commands struggling to beat back the zealots. Victor saw a man his Com
Guards could further rally behind, and whose goals did not include self-
aggrandizement. . . . Together, they could wield the Com Guards as a core unit
in a coalition vaguely reminiscent of the short-lived new Star League Defense
Force, a force that would unite nearly every Clan, the Inner Sphere, and the
Periphery’s power before the war’s end.
—Vladimir Toolippi, Enlightening the Dark Age: A ComStar History, New
Avalon Press, 3125
The Com Guards, indeed, made their last stands during the final days of the Jihad,
often becoming part of the vanguard during assault operations against the last
strongholds of their renegade kin. The history of the Jihad is replete with many
instances of Com Guard troops fighting to the last man, demonstrating every ounce as
much fanaticism as the enemy they once called brother. Thanks to many of their
heroics, in fact, the coalition forces managed to bring a final end to the Jihad and
exterminate the Word of Blake threat once and for all. At the same time the rest of
ComStar struggled to reclaim the damaged HPG network, even in the decaying Free
Worlds League, where once the Blakists held sway.
In the end, ComStar remained, but a changed ComStar. Its mask of carefully
cultivated neutrality and spiritual enlightenment had been burned away by what
amounted to a civil war. Its army had been virtually destroyed, its survivors
transferred under the banner of Devlin Stone and his nascent Republic of the Sphere.
Faith in ComStar as the guardian of communication and technology had been all but
destroyed, yet there was no one else with the means to rebuild what had nearly been
shattered during the Jihad.
For decades, the men and women of ComStar rebuilt. More secular than ever, they
nonetheless retained ties to their mystical past, wearing the robes of monks and using
the titles first enacted by Conrad Toyama as a symbol of the old ComStar. Yet the
Order no longer had the fanatic mysticism of its past. No longer did technicians pray
to make their machines work. No longer did every profound utterance become the
quote of a sainted Jerome Blake. Most importantly, no longer would the Com Guards
field an army of BattleMechs piloted by fanatical devotees.
In place of secret fanaticism, the Order has combined spiritual roots with an open,
easy manner; a marriage of a monolithic corporation and a monastic brotherhood. No
longer were their compounds sacrosanct from infidels, but were instead open
community centers, creating a synergy of good will to heal the horrible wounds of
doubt and war.
In the end, ComStar became, as now, a partner to the Inner Sphere, its compounds
including a standing garrison of troops from its host nations, or mercenaries approved
to operate within said nations. These token military forces today are as much a
legitimate protection force as they are a sign of the Order’s new covenant with
mankind. In entrusting the protection of its valuable facilities, ComStar thus ensures
its partners—its customers—of its intention, its new spiritual dedication, to never
again rise up as a military power, to never again be able to bring war to the Inner
Sphere on such a scale as the Jihad.
Slowly, over the decades since humanity’s darkest hours, the men and women of
ComStar have found the redemption and the salvation the Order has long sought.
Once more, they are the keepers of interstellar communications, the lines that connect
all of mankind in a universe of balance and harmony, safeguarding a part of our lives
so basic—and yet so vital—that we all tend to take it for granted.
Touring the Stars with Bertram Habeas
