TBntG-2 Chpt 41

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 41 - Book II - The Ninety-five Theses==
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===Interlude: Quiet Reformations===
ComStar Headquarters, Hilton's Head, North America
Terra, Sol System
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Some revolutions are loud. Some are quiet. The reform of Comstar was quiet. Myndo Waterly had antagonized enough of the body, and Will's actions were fast enough, that most opposition was caught on the back foot.
 
The new Primus did not arrest or execute people. After all, someone with nothing to lose had no reason not to fight. Myndo Waterly accepted promotion to the very important post of Precentor Taurus. A post where she was surrounded by loyal members of Comstar, where the local government was quite aware of her actions. Being moved from Dieron was seen as a demotion by some, but the Concordat was an up and coming power, and others saw it as a reward for her loyal service.
 
To those in the know? Myndo was a figurehead, every decision vetted by her "second in command." Other possible enemies received similar transfers to prestigious but powerless positions, but Primus Chang was clearly working to reassure members of his order that losing out meant demotion, not death or imprisonment.
 
ROM was divided into three groups. Intelligence, which would cover domestic and foreign information gathering, Defense, which handled the military assets of the Order, and Covert Operations. Notably, and to avoid "cowboy" actions such as the Serious atrocity, Covert Operations was made dependent on Intelligence, and was also made subject to the First Circuit's strict oversight.
 
As for the First Circuit, it was doubled in size, with Precentors at Large representing the states that made up Comstar's service area, rather than being appointed from the primary HPG stations. Notably, while the First Circuit had to approve such individuals, they were nominated by a vote of all class B and A precentors in their region, devolving a significant amount of political power away from Terra. Given that the new Primus had made this possible, they were loyal to him, although Will had to backtrack on some of his more dramatic ideas to reform the order—he was Primus, but not dictator.
 
However, Comstar remained in somewhat ill odor with the other states of humanspace, something only partially mitigated by the establishment of the "Star League Consulting Council" in the old UN building in New York. Geneva had been nixed due to its association with the Hegemony and Alliance and nobody even bothered to bring up Unity City.
 
The way the New Primus handled this was to offer Comstar's assistance for the advancement of humanity.
 
The technical term for what he did was: large scale bribes.
 
Terra had an immense industrial plant, fueled by one of the best educated populations in humanspace, and Primus Chang made use of this, bringing the Titan shipyards to full capacity and offering civilian sales. In addition, Comstar provided peacekeeping troops and technological assistance to civilian projects across Humanspace. The "newly" discovered Ross 248 system allowed the production of more civilian JumpShips from a neutral nation, a complex formula ensuring that no state received more ships than its share.
 
Most notably, Comstar offered the ComGuards to assist in piracy suppression in the fragmented Outworlds Alliance, while also rebuilding the Quatre Bell facility to produce JumpShips, even as Comstar chartered ships pushed into the Wastes, finding colonies that still remembered the Terran Hegemony fondly.
 
Edward it must be said, was thrilled by this and by 3037 the last Taurian peacekeeping forces metaphorically knocked the dust from their sandals and returned home from what was widely known as one of the biggest fiascos of his administration. Only the fact that the titanic events that had occurred elsewhere had eclipsed the events in the Alliance, saving the Taurians from even more embarrassment. By 3039, most of Comstar's efforts were focused on dealing with piracy and working with the worlds of the Outworlds Wastes most of which were eager to get any assistance they could. Some OA worlds did the same, but others, such as Dante, were largely ignored and happily returned the favor.
 
While many pundits mocked the "Robes outreach" especially now that the Inner Sphere had the core, they soon changed their tune. Earth had many engineers who had always gone to schools with that information, rather than having to rediscover it. Comstar assistance on projects (and it was much easier to get Comstar to assist in hiring Terran engineers), meant faster development and fewer missed deadlines. The funds from this flowed back to Comstar, which used them to expand its financial interests even beyond the level which the order had formerly enjoyed, granting it additional soft power. If the House Lords were concerned, the pragmatic fact was that between engineers trying to relearn the best ways to do things at the same time they were expanding a JumpShip yard, and having a Comstar team on hand who already knew that, and was willing to work with the locals, there was no real choice. More importantly, they assumed that a Comstar heavily invested in a shipyard would be less likely to return to Waterly's hopes of a renewed Holy Shroud.
 
The one exception was Taurus, which had been in possession of a core (though nobody knew it was a Prometheus Data Core), since the early 3010s, a realization which explained their own progress. But Taurian businesses were able to meet Terran companies head on, sparking a more or less friendly rivalry, one the House Lords (and their businesses) were only too eager to play on.
 
Lastly, many more Terran citizens started to travel, and larger numbers of Inner Sphere citizens visited Terra through the latter 3030s and early 3040s before other events took precedence. This had an impact on how Terra saw the rest of Humanspace, while an interest in ancient Earth history made a comeback among many worlds.
 
In 3037, the Primus made a speech about "healing the scars of our past" and requested that the other nations join Comstar in rejuvenating selected Hegemony worlds that had been rendered partially or fully uninhabitable by the Succession Wars. The planetary surveys were conducted over the next decade, but it was not until after the Clan Invasion and the Combine Collapse that work was started, restoring New Dallas and Inglesmond to partial habitability by 3120…
Quiet Reformations, the recreation of Comstar 3035-3075, and the End of the Great Dark Age. Glasgow Press. 3142
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