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58

Interrogation of the captured Adepts and consultation of the Logs, demonstrated that the orders for the Interdiction issued on the 27th​ of March had the seal of the First Circuit. These orders indicated that subsequent instructions for ROM agents would follow and that the ComGuards should help ROM as much as possible. About 40 minutes later, a message sent by the Precentor Martial instead gave orders for the ComGuards to take control of the facilities, place all ROM agents in custody and resume communications. So, the supreme commander of the ComGuards was in the opposing side of the First Circuit, good to known that ComStar was suffering a kind of Civil War. No instructions for ROM could be found – there were two options, or they were not sent, which was considered doubtful, or they were destroyed immediately and the records erased.

As far as the TDF / TMI was able to find out, no communications from Earth HPG reached the Concordat after the one of the Precentor Martial.

In the Taurus HPG compound, after the technicians made sure it that the 'core' HPG was operational, a replacement of the ComStar control boards and software with Concordat equivalent was tested. To the surprise of some and to everyone liking, the HPG accepted the new hardware and software and was able to send a message to Bolthole and receive one, confirming the suspicions that the HPG 'core' was the same, or at least compatible, and that ComStar had 'just' exchanged the software and control boards. This was great news, because in most captured HPGs the core system was intact, leaving 'only' to produce the respective control boards. It would take months if not years for every HPG in the Concordat and the Reach to be operational but it would still be a lot faster (and cheaper) than to build complete HPGs from scratch.

However, the lack of communications was causing delays and increased costs because of the need to use an unusual number of JumpShips to transmit messages. Fortunately, since it wasn't the first time Comstar used an Interdiction, most if not all nations activated the contingency plans that existed in case they would be targeted by it, most plans resolving around a kinf of Pony Express service.

What no one had planned or anticipated was a total Interdiction. In contrast, the interrogations showed that Comstar didn't have, or only had very basic plans to counter one or more nations taking over the HPGs. Perhaps because, until recently, they were the only ones capable of producing and understanding then enough to operate them. But, in the Concordat – and the Reach by association – and in the Federated Commonwealth, this was no longer true.

With the 'war' against Comstar 'declared' and the fact that the production of native HPGs had become a top priority, the controller board designs needed to convert the ex-Comstar HPGs to our standard HPGs and put them in operation under new management as soon as possible, effectively ending the Interdiction, were transmitted to all companies in the Concordat with the technical capability to produce them. O-P Computer Electronics and Pinard-Dicolais Electronics with the help of other companies and generous emergency government funds were planning to start limited production of the first series in early 3042. 

During April, 3041, a series of high tech companies were attacked or sabotaged by unknown forces, that everybody suspected were ROM teams, and at the same time some important or well placed people were killed around the Concordat. Well, not all the Concordat, more specifically, in worlds that had Comstar HPGs…

One of these attacks was against the V4RU department of VMI, targeting the advanced ex-Argo machinery. While in the end, thanks to the surprise and advanced technology, specially in the stealth department, they succeeding in destroying or damaging much of the present equipment, the attackers were all eliminated, thanks to the numerous defenses, that included security 'Mechs, Jacks, military grade defensive turrets and the company security team, even if our forces suffered more casualties than had been expected.

And the mystery of the attackers deepened, when their equipment was inspected as it was an unknown type of PA(L) armor, with more than decent protection and exceptional stealth capabilities. When the results of said inspection was send to me in Coromodir, I identified it as a Tornado PA(L), used by ROM elite strike / infiltration / assassination teams. I immediately sent orders, with the dammit delay that we had in this troubled time, to send these to the R&D teams for further and deeper analyzes and to try to replicate these advanced suits. I only had to hope that VMI research teams would be up to the task.

While they caused a lot of damage, by the end of July, these 'terrorists' groups inside the Concordat were all terminated or gone in hiding.

The ComStar compounds inside the Concordat and Reach that were in the hands of the ComGuards but not operational, were soon also captured by TDF forces. In a few, the ComGuards presented little resistance, but in most of them they fought to the bitter end, against forces much superior in numbers. One particular system got more attention. From the beginning me and Kamea found it strange the disproportionate number of personnel in the Aea ComStar compound.. While its HPG had been sabotaged like so many others, the computers and data files were captured intact. And we hit jackpot in that system. This was the HQ of the Rimward Operations Area of the Explorer Corps, with plenty of data on systems that nobody other than ComStar knew about. Unfortunately, the locations of the DRUM network Skyward HPG relays in the area were not in the files we got our hands on.