57

We never knew what happened. Much of what we know was obtained from extracts from various HPGs and interrogations from various Comstar adepts.

On March 27th, 3041, a series of contradictory orders was issued from the HPG on Earth and after that all went silent for quite some time.

From the First Circuit orders were issued for a general Interdiction to be carried out by all HPGs without exception, and without explanation.

In the Concordat, emergency plans were activated and the TDF advanced to take control of the HPGs who refused to resume activity. As had been expected, several were damaged, although two weeks after the crisis started, all operational HPGs in Concordat were in "our" hands.

While said HPGs were armored and protected by elements of the ComGuards and ROM agents, the superior number the TDF could deploy had prevailed. For example, in the Concordat, only the Taurus HPG had more than one lance of 'Mechs protecting it, most of the others barely had a lance or only infantry. Against these defenses, the TDF brought their Royal level 'Mechs together with Jacks battle-armors and several support units.

HPGs were well defended locations, but no fortress, nor designed to survive fire from 'Mech units. In some, like the Taurus one, the defenders survived long enough for the Adepts inside to utterly damage beyond any hope of repair the HPG itself. In New Vandenberg, on the contrary and much to the amazement of the TDF when they arrived, the ComGuards had taken control of the compound and maintained it operational, but informed the Taurians that any tentative of taking its control would result in the defending forces destroying the unit. For a time, the TDF restrained to invade, while both sides waited for clarification orders.

By mid April, of the Comstar HPGs in the Concordat, one, the HPG of Pinard, was captured intact. 60% were captured but had been damaged beyond the possibility of repair with the spares available, 20% were operational and in ComGuards hands 15% were in ComGuards hands but not operational at the moment and the rest was completely destroyed. Taurian technicians swarmed the HPG on Pinard to analyze in microscopic details how it worked and the differences with the ones of the Concordat. A couple of things were made evident really fast: first, each station had very few spares and almost none in several key areas, being all dependent from deliveries from Earth, second even if the core of the HPGs was similar, the control boards were very different from those built following the blueprints of the Star League and third, not all the installations shared the same internal design.

In Coromodir, we were more or less taken by surprise by the shutdown of the HPG. Sure, I had the reunion with Thomas with talks and plans about that, but I really never believed that Comstar would be so bold as to implement a full wide Interdiction. Contingency plans, like in the Concordat had been made, and soon Aurigan forces moved against the HPG. At 4AM, while a company of 'Mechs was moving slowly to get all the attention of the defenders, every single Jacks available, 6 in total, after taking painful care to arrive near the walls without being detected, stormed the compound jumping over the walls and immediately engaging the defenders, while the single lance of ComStar 'Mechs, all light and regular models, were caught between the fighting inside and the 'Mechs outside that at same time accelerated to launched their attack. From another side, a company of Jump Infantry from the Revenants also jumped the walls and proceeded at maximum speed towards the inside, ignoring the defenders if possible, trying to capture the control room before any sabotage orders were sent. Unfortunately, the control room that they stormed was a decoy one, the real being deeper inside and the Adept in the post did its job and the core unit was completely useless by the time the Aurigan and the Revenants forces had taken the compound. The only option now was to send a JumpShip to Taurus to inform them of the failure and wait for a HPG unit from the Taurian factories when one would become available.

In all the Aurigan Reach, only the HPGs of Mechdur and Detroit were working at the end of April, both in the hands of the ComGuards.

JumpShips arriving from other nations told us that in the Magistracy, Federated Commonwealth and even in the Capellan Confederation, the Interdiction order had been issued as as well.

The situation was creating an immense mess as all areas, from diplomacy to business, to intelligence, was being affected by it.

In the Reach, of the 26 systems, only 14 have HPGs, right now only two of these are operational. In the Concordat 21 systems didn't have one and in the Federated Commonwealth, several systems in the Davion Outback and others in the ex-Rim Ward Republic were also without HPGs. The situation was more or less the same in all nations as the HPG network while very wide never, not even in the Star League time was deployed in all systems.