Why no fragmentation in the Star League Communications Network?

[Arkansas Warrior]

We all know the story.  Between the conclusion of LIBERATION and the enactment of EXODUS, the Great Houses recruited a number of former SLDF commands to their ranks.  So...why was there no similar recruitment of HPG staff, and moreso, why were they apparently so unanimously behind Blake?  When he enacted SILVER SHIELD, the whole net went down.  No one said "You know what, no.  I'm not crippling this planet's communications just because Blake asked nicely."  The Precentors on the various capitals held off the House Lords with excuses for days.  So...why?  Why didn't some SLCOMNET personnel side with the realm they were stationed in and fragment the network?  The unanimity with which they backed Blake, and later the quasi-religious reformation of ComStar, just seems really strange to me.  I mean, by 3025 all that stuff is entrenched and ROM is the most powerful intel network anywhere.  Betray ComStar and you'll disappear (at best).  But in the early years, before ROM even existed?  It seems like you'd see some people somewhere deserting ComStar and taking the knowledge of HPG operation with them.

[Maelwys]

Like many things in the history of BT, it didn't happen because it needed to happen for the storyline. Looking at it too closely could cause...issues.

But if you want to try to look for a IC reason, maybe since they were stationed in the houses far from other members of the Star League, that they were particularly loyal to the Star League, and thus transferred that loyalty to Blake when he was appointed head of Communications and tasked with rebuilding Terra. That, combined with quietly switching out people he wasn't entirely sure of before hand could explain it.

[Frabby]

The HPG network isn't the internet - it is not completely decentralized. What with that ComStar clock thing. I think every HPG station would have some sort of remote killswitch, with the red button at the HQ on Terra.
Also, while you don't technically need a HPG to receive HPG messages, you do need the network's active cooperation to relay messages beyond your own HPG's reach. All that overhead that synchronizes the network means you can't really go solo against what Terra decided.

[Death by Lasers]

  The way I see it it had more to do with the communications network being extremely complex/expensive and that no one had the ability to truly defend their network.  I also assume no one state had the means to reproduce the HPGs on their own.  It's an either everyone has it or no has it scenario and from the states perspective it was more important to have an interstellar communications network to manage their empires with than to have an edge over their enemies. 

 

[Archangel]

Who says there weren't attempts by the Great Houses to recruit from among the HPG personnel?  There were attempts by the Chancellor Ilsa Liao to bribe HPG personnel to regain technology lost in the 1SW as well as an attempt to seize control of an isolated HPG as part of a greater plan to seize control of ALL HPGs within the Confederation.  After all these threats were the reason ROM was created in the first place (ComStar, p 16-17).

As far as loyalty to Jerome Blake is concerned, there was dissatisfaction in the ranks but Blake played an important role during the Amaris Civil War and was praised for that by Kerensky himself and he was the last officially appointed Star League Minister by the Council Lords.  How do you know that no HPG technicians opposed Operation SILVER SHIELD?  Part of the remaining SLDF contingent opposed his actions with force so it stands to reason that there were some HPG techs who weren't happy.  However with the House Lords turning on each other and plunging the Inner Sphere into chaos Blake's plan seemed the best chance of saving as much of the Star League and Terran Hegemony as possible.

The move towards quasi-religious reformation happened after Blake's death.  If he had been alive he likely would have opposed it.  When Toyama began his 'reforms' there was plenty of opposition and even some defections to House Davion but the threat of an interdiction persuaded them to return the defectors.  News of this spread to the other Houses and persuaded them not to accept any refugees (at least publicly).  With nowhere to turn to, anybody who opposed Toyama's changes either kept his/her head down or was picked up by ROM never to be heard from again.  Fear of being picked up limited most attempts at organized opposition.  After all the person you talk to could actually oppose Toyama or he could be a snitch or even a ROM agent and if Toyama isn't afraid of eliminating a member of the First Circuit he certainly wasn't afraid of eliminating lowly techs.

[Arkansas Warrior]

Who says there weren't attempts by the Great Houses to recruit from among the HPG personnel?  There were attempts by the Chancellor Ilsa Liao to bribe HPG personnel to regain technology lost in the 1SW as well as an attempt to seize control of an isolated HPG as part of a greater plan to seize control of ALL HPGs within the Confederation.  After all these threats were the reason ROM was created in the first place (ComStar, p 16-17).

That was post-war, as you note, though.  As far as I can tell, even as the Houses were absorbing 20% of the SLDF, not one of them took over a single HPG.

As far as loyalty to Jerome Blake is concerned, there was dissatisfaction in the ranks but Blake played an important role during the Amaris Civil War and was praised for that by Kerensky himself and he was the last officially appointed Star League Minister by the Council Lords.  How do you know that no HPG technicians opposed Operation SILVER SHIELD?  Part of the remaining SLDF contingent opposed his actions with force so it stands to reason that there were some HPG techs who weren't happy.  However with the House Lords turning on each other and plunging the Inner Sphere into chaos Blake's plan seemed the best chance of saving as much of the Star League and Terran Hegemony as possible.

Because there's not even one mention in any BT fiction I've ever read of any HPG staff opposing Blake or seeking to defect in that early, pre-SW period.  If there is, please point it out.  First Succession War says:

In the early morning hours of 25 June 2788, the Terran HPGs
fell silent, followed immediately by the transmitters throughout
ComStar’s entire interstellar communications network.

No exceptions are ever mentioned, and the phrasing sounds like it was unanimous.  You'd think there'd be some note if even a few of stations had remained online.

[Arkansas Warrior]

The HPG network isn't the internet - it is not completely decentralized. What with that ComStar clock thing. I think every HPG station would have some sort of remote killswitch, with the red button at the HQ on Terra.
Also, while you don't technically need a HPG to receive HPG messages, you do need the network's active cooperation to relay messages beyond your own HPG's reach. All that overhead that synchronizes the network means you can't really go solo against what Terra decided.

You're right that the HPG net isn't like the internet, but it is, explicitly, completely decentralized.  HPGs aren't really connected to one another in any sense, they just send out periodic bursts that others can receive.  Even during the Blackout, the few working HPGs are extremely valuable, because each can operate on its own.  In fact that's why Caleb was gathering forces on Palmyra-it had a functioning HPG.  I really doubt there's any sort of remote killswitch, but I guess there could be some sort of hidden virus piggybacked on the regular signal that shuts an HPG down when it reads the messages.

[Archangel]

That was post-war, as you note, though.  As far as I can tell, even as the Houses were absorbing 20% of the SLDF, not one of them took over a single HPG.

I never said that it was post-war.  The ComStar sourcebook (p16) puts the attempt to bribe ComStar personnel in 2811 which while towards the end of the 1SW there were still a number of offensives before the war came to a close.  And as I stated before Ilsa Liao did try to seize control of Nanking's HPG as a prelude seizing control over all HPGs within the Confederation.  With the war still in full swing and the dangers associated with losing interstellar communications (whether due to an interdiction or the inability to operate the HPGs) while the war was ongoing, the Great Houses' choice not to try and seize the HPGs within their respective realms was only logical.  They likely figured that once things settled down (aka they dealt with their enemies) they could revisit the issue just like with the issue regarding control of Terra.  Besides coordinating a timed strike against all HPGs within one's realm without word leaking, the HPG staff being able to disable the HPG isn't easy or an HPG staff getting an alert out would be extremely difficult at the best of times with enemies baying at one's walls near impossible.

Because there's not even one mention in any BT fiction I've ever read of any HPG staff opposing Blake or seeking to defect in that early, pre-SW period.  If there is, please point it out.  First Succession War says:

No exceptions are ever mentioned, and the phrasing sounds like it was unanimous.  You'd think there'd be some note if even a few of stations had remained online.

So despite opposition within the First Circuit with some pushing for an even more militant approach and other preferring diplomacy in an attempt of restoring the Star League, you reason that nobody among all the HPG staff on the x number of worlds that had active HPGs opposed his actions simply because it isn't mentioned?   ^-^  All it means is that there wasn't sufficient opposition among any HPGs' staff to overcome those that supported the move.

As far as I am aware no sourcebook tells exactly who knew what about their part in Operation SILVER SHIELD and when they were told.  If only those who needed to know knew about the interdiction beforehand then the vast majority of staff would have been caught by surprise with key parts being move off-site before they realized it.  In which case, even if the vast majority of any HPGs' staff opposed the interdiction what exactly could they do without the parts that are required for it to work but had been secreted away?  There is also the possibility that they could have been persuaded not to take any action until the 72 hours of the interdiction ended.

The problem is that there is too little detailed information available and you are trying to fill in the blanks.  Simply because something hasn't been mentioned yet doesn't meant it didn't happen/doesn't exist or won't be mentioned sometime in the future.  Just look at the Clans or the Manei Domini.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

You're right that the HPG net isn't like the internet, but it is, explicitly, completely decentralized.  HPGs aren't really connected to one another in any sense, they just send out periodic bursts that others can receive.  Even during the Blackout, the few working HPGs are extremely valuable, because each can operate on its own.  In fact that's why Caleb was gathering forces on Palmyra-it had a functioning HPG.  I really doubt there's any sort of remote killswitch, but I guess there could be some sort of hidden virus piggybacked on the regular signal that shuts an HPG down when it reads the messages.

Everything I read about HPGs make it sound like their organization is exactly like a space version of AUTODIN.  Then again, maybe I was biased :D  But still, the resemblance is uncanny.  Class A HPGs may as well be called ASCs, and so on.  I prefer to think that the resemblance to AUTODIN was not accidental.

If the HPG net is indeed a space AUTODIN, it's fairly easy to "cut off" HPG stations that didn't join the ComStar fold.  Just remove the routing indicators for their stations in a JAFPUB update :D  All you need is a transmission to the "loyal" HPGs; no fancy remote kill switch is needed.  If a HPG compound's personnel wanted to defect to the local house rather than don the ComStar robes, simply alerting the rest of the network to ignore that HPG from now on effectively cuts it off.  Yeah the HPG technically works, but it'll be like having only one walkie talkie.  What's the point if noone is transmitting to you or listening to your broadcasts? :)

I always got the impression that Blake did a remarkable job of recruiting former SL Comm troops into his new ComStar.  Maybe he simply achieved 100% success across the HPG net.  Maybe he didn't get them all immediately and instead took a little while to convince every last compound.  All you need initially is a critical mass to cut off any stations hesitant to join Blake's vision.  Get 60-70% of the stations initially, and the remainder can't communicate very well.  You bring the holdouts into the fold piecemeal, and the more you get the faster you get more.  Snowball effect.

[Arkansas Warrior]

No, it's pretty well established that you don't need much more than a properly-tuned radio to receive HPG signals.  ComStar SOP is to target the signals to arrive inside the receiving station, but that isn't a necessity.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

No, it's pretty well established that you don't need much more than a properly-tuned radio to receive HPG signals.  ComStar SOP is to target the signals to arrive inside the receiving station, but that isn't a necessity.

That's not relevant to what I was saying.

Since most people on this forum probably don't know their JAFPUBs from their ACPs, perhaps I should elaborate what I was alluding to.

Hypothetically, let's say the HPG compound on Planet X wasn't keen on Blake or ComStar and would rather just hire in to the local House Lord's service.  That decision made by those personnel obviously doesn't affect the HPG's technical operation.  But if you are Blake/ComStar and you'd rather have a HPG monopoly and that HPG station not be outside your control, you in effect "blackball" it.  You don't send any HPG traffic into that system, and you just throw away (or archive) any traffic they send out.  Won't be long before the House Lord finds whatever he's paying those HPG operators/techs isn't worth it when the HPG is essentially useless.  Noone ever hears that HPG's messages nor can it receive anything so long as the rest of the ComStar controlled network refuses to broadcast to it.

If a large enough portion of the network refuses to go along with the ComStar vision and those stations are in sufficient number to form their own viable network, then that kind of blackballing won't work.  But I don't think there's ever any indication large numbers of HPGs didn't go along.  So long as Blake got that critical mass initially, he can blackball whatever HPGs he didn't get until they change their tune and join up.

[RunandFindOut]

Except that they don't need to transmit to Blakist held HPGs, an HPG is needed to transmit but not receive.  All the HPG does is create a spatial dislocation, the information is transmitted by radio.  ComStar makes it a practice to transmit directly from one HPG facility to another, but you can just as easily target a spot over the target planet and let the radio waves go the last few hundred or thousand kilometers the old fashioned way where anyone can receive them. 

You're only right about the blackballing aspects, and those are absolutely an element of fiat.  They were simply part of the setting assumptions at the beginning, so they didn't have to make sense.  It was just the way things were, never mind that it never would have happened in the first place, it was necessary for plot reasons and the analog to 15th century Europe that is the Inner Sphere.

[Archangel]

As far as I am aware Blake changing the name of the former Star League's Department of Communications' change to ComStar was effectively no different to when Steve Jobs changed Apple Computer to Apple.  With the House Lords tearing the Star League apart its former name was no longer suitable.  Just as when Apple rebranded itself none of the remaining Dept. of Communications' personnel needed to be rehired when they changed their name to ComStar.

[Frabby]

A thought about the loyalty to Jerome Blake:
Keep in mind who was running the remnant of the Star League. Kerensky had just led the Star League through a gruesome but victorious war against Amaris. That experience tends to knit people together. And now he's calling for his Exodus, kind of throwing away the victory because the Great Houses (who didn't help much to begin with) squandered it all with their squabbling.
Who do you follow?
Under these circumstances you don't join any of the Great Houses, as they are the bad guys.
Instead, if you're a hardcore Kerensky fan then you join the Exodus. Otherwise, you stay behind with the remnant of the remnant. That would be Team Blake, both for military personnel and civilians. Voila, here's your core for building ComStar.

[JadedFalcon]

The 1st SW book has a timeline that shows us by the summer of '88 when Silver Shield went down, the DCMS had started large-scale invasions of the Draconis March and the LC, the FWL and LC were trading shots, Hesperus had seen combat with both the Combine and the FedSuns, and the worlds of Helm and Duantia had both been nuked. In the first six months of that year alone.

Now in this environment, which of these heads of state are willing to cut off interstellar communications in their realm while their enemies are attacking?

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Discussions about how little or how much potential use an unaffiliated HPG station may be aside:

There's an excellent point to be made in a more top down view than a bottom up view.  Blake's overall tactic is well known.  He made it clear to the House Lords that he'll run an impartial/neutral HPG network.  And we also know that the House Lords went along with it.

With that context in mind, there's no incentive for a HPG compound to "go rogue" and join a House when the House isn't in the market for recruiting them.  By this point in the timeline there's precious little in the way of potential interstellar affiliations available for a hypothetical HPG compound other than the Houses or ComStar.  Perhaps a competing HPG network to challenge ComStar's monopoly, but Blake could have squashed such upstarts by blackballing or even more sinister alternatives.

[Arkansas Warrior]

The 1st SW book has a timeline that shows us by the summer of '88 when Silver Shield went down, the DCMS had started large-scale invasions of the Draconis March and the LC, the FWL and LC were trading shots, Hesperus had seen combat with both the Combine and the FedSuns, and the worlds of Helm and Duantia had both been nuked. In the first six months of that year alone.

Now in this environment, which of these heads of state are willing to cut off interstellar communications in their realm while their enemies are attacking?

That's true.  No one wanted to be first to pull out of the communications Protocol of 2787.  I can see that as a reasoning then, but I'm still surprised nothing had shaken up the network prior to that.  I mean, we're talking about the same Successor States that recruited away ~20% of the SLDF, some of them even before Kerensky's EXODUS.  None of these guys made any effort to bring interstellar communications in their realm under their own control prior to the outbreak of the Succession War?  All of the SLCOMNET personnel were more loyal to the ideal of the Star League than the SLDF?

[snewsom2997]

I would say several things.

1) Treaty, about the last thing the house lords agreed on was to let SLCOM stay under the control of Toyama, along with the enlightened self interest that interstellar war or commerce couldn't be waged without the HPG Net.

2) Threat of interdiction, Black Box technology wouldn't be recovered till the 3rd SW. Comstar could always shut down the system, for 1 or more houses, even if the houses tried to take the HPG the acoyltes would just scorched earth the thing, without the means to produce HPG's, the houses were dependent on Comstar, and would continue to be dependent until the recovery of the Helm Memory Core, though I would hazard the the Dragoons had the technological know how, but that knowledge would have been a tip off.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

That's true.  No one wanted to be first to pull out of the communications Protocol of 2787.  I can see that as a reasoning then, but I'm still surprised nothing had shaken up the network prior to that.  I mean, we're talking about the same Successor States that recruited away ~20% of the SLDF, some of them even before Kerensky's EXODUS.  None of these guys made any effort to bring interstellar communications in their realm under their own control prior to the outbreak of the Succession War?  All of the SLCOMNET personnel were more loyal to the ideal of the Star League than the SLDF?

I think it's a non sequitur to compare the HPG personnel's loyalty to the Star League to the SLDF's loyalty to the Star Leauge.

Even if Houses wanted to recruit HPGs to their own cause, they subsequently agreed to let ComStar have them all.  Maybe they DID grab some HPGs.  Does it matter if ComStar got them all immediately or most at once then the rest subsequently?  They all end up in ComStar's hands.  It doesn't matter if some HPGs went through someone else's hands before becoming ComStar's, does it?

[Arkansas Warrior]

Perhaps a non sequitur, but there'd been instances earlier in the thread that suggested the SLCOMNET's apparent incorruptibility showed their loyalty to Kerensky(???) or the ideal of the Star League, etc.  I was in part responding to those.  Seems an odd opinion to me, since the SLDF itself didn't show anywhere near such (apparent) unanimity.

[Archangel]

None of these guys made any effort to bring interstellar communications in their realm under their own control prior to the outbreak of the Succession War?

And you know this how exactly? (Reminder: Just because it isn't mentioned doesn't mean it didn't happen.)

Up until the House Lords started publicly tearing the Star League apart many likely held out hope that the Star League would get itself reorganized after Amaris' defeat.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I mean, it's a fictional universe.  If nothing's been written about it, the default assumption should probably be that it didn't happen.  Otherwise we're basically talking about Russell's teapot.  It could be that Max Liao had five additional battalions of Death Commandos that he disbanded and sent to the copper mines on Brazen Heart because he felt they were more loyal to Pavel Ridzik than him, but since it's never mentioned anywhere in canon, I think we shouldn't assume it to be the case.

[massey]

The simplest answer is that at the time, none of the Great Houses knew that ComStar was going to become ComStar.

Jerome Blake is like "hey guys, I'm going to maintain complete neutrality here.  I'll continue to handle interstellar communications just like I always did before.  You okay with that?"  And the Houses are like "sure, gives us more time to nuke each other."  Remember, none of the House Lords thought there was going to be a Second Succession War.  They thought that The Succession War would end, and they'd be declared First Lord of the new Star League.  You're gonna need good communications in your new realm.  Might as well leave Blake in charge until you get around to setting up your new palace on Terra.

At the time, Blake might have been regarded as just some pencil pushing bureaucrat.  Somebody who would be easy to take power from. 

Nobody knew that ComStar was going to turn into a crazy religious cult.  By the time anybody had an idea that was happening, it was too late.  ComStar would have slowly turned into its modern day form under the cover of darkness.  In the 1st SW, Blake could just tell his people "hey guys, we have to keep the communications going or the entire Inner Sphere will fall apart."  And given the brutality of that war, his people would have believed him.  Later, Toyama would have slowly had his fanatics start taking over.  And you don't tell anybody your evil plan until it's too late to stop it.

[RunandFindOut]

The problem is that it's completely nonsensical from an in-universe perspective.  It's a situation that was written to be the way it is then explained later, and none of the explanations work.  Because fundamentally no state is going to allow a third party to control vital internal communication channels that they can't put the screws on and control.  Especially during wartime.  Simply put Comstar exists because it was written to exist then explained far far later, if you were building the setting from the ground up now and tried to insert ComStar as an element with this explanation you'd get things thrown at you and told to be quiet.  Because from a world-building perspective ComStar would never have been allowed to get off the ground by the Houses.

[CrazyGrasshopper]

There are several things to consider here:

1. SLCOM was a Star League organization that controlled the all communications, and everyone was fine with that for quite a period of time. We should not write off some inertia of minds.

2. HPG network was damaged during the Amaris Civil War, at least on Hegemony worlds. ComStar not only controlled, but also restored damaged stations. If ComStar did not exist, Houses would have to do it themselves.

3. The comparison with the SLDF situation is not entirely correct. The leader of SLDF left the Inner Sphere, abandoning forces that refused to accompany him. SLCOMNET did not have such a thing: William Blake did not go anywhere. Moreover, there was a smooth transition from SLCOM to ComStar. For people inside SLCOMNET not much changed (before Toyama and Karpov). Probably, ComStar was the most stable entity in the entire Inner Sphere during the period. Their declared neutrality could have helped. Moreover, ComStar had a reliable source of income. Remnants of the SLDF were a military. How would they earn money, aside from turning mercenaries?

4. How many key personnel does each station have? They could have limited numbers of technicians that were directly related to hyperpulse communications. Thus, ComStar could have fewer people to be really concerned about. Moreover, communication interdiction is not a very surprising idea. Star League could have considered it itself. It probably did not want to abuse such power for political reasons, and Amaris could not interdict anything, since he did not control the entire network.

5. Blake did have a high moral ground. Operation SILVER SHIELD was relatively bloodless. It could be easier to convince ComStar personnel to use interdiction. It's not like it was directly killing people, and considering what the Houses were doing at the time, many probably felt that a short interdiction serves them right.

6. Houses could have used an "I'll think about it tomorrow" approach. Blake was appointed the head of the SLCOMNET during uncertain times, when the war looming. And SILVER SHIELD happened when everyone was already fighting each other. Probably, Houses did want to deal with ComStar at first, but for tactical benefits of not being interdicted immediately the solution was delayed each time until the end of the war. Also, ComStar did keep the word of being neutral. They did manipulate the information during later, but on the most part, they were neutral. Our perspective gives us a view that very few in-universe characters would have. Ironically, Toyama's transformation of ComStar into a secritive order could have saved them.

7.

I mean, it's a fictional universe.  If nothing's been written about it, the default assumption should probably be that it didn't happen.  Otherwise we're basically talking about Russell's teapot.  It could be that Max Liao had five additional battalions of Death Commandos that he disbanded and sent to the copper mines on Brazen Heart because he felt they were more loyal to Pavel Ridzik than him, but since it's never mentioned anywhere in canon, I think we shouldn't assume it to be the case.

Umm... Russell's Teapot argument does not apply to Archangel's reasoning. The problem with Russell's Teapot is not that you assume its existence, but that you assume existence of a teapot in outer space. Would one replace a teapot with a rock of a teapot size, the assumption would reasonable (while still being an assumption). What Archangel suggested is a reasonable assumption about how things work. I do not think it should be dismissed on a technicality. It's true that some official explanation would be preferable.

[Archangel]

I mean, it's a fictional universe.  If nothing's been written about it, the default assumption should probably be that it didn't happen.

There is plenty of stuff that never get mentioned because they are relevant, not interesting, too graphic, etc.  I don't recall reading anything about teenage pregnancy, underage drinking and many other common hot topics in today's world, does that mean they don't happen in the BT universe?

You are also apparently making several assumptions including that the staff knew beforehand, had a full picture of what was happening and had time to organize a response.  Even you have to admit that only those who needed to know were told beforehand if only to prevent word from leaking to the Great Houses.  As a result by the time most HPG staff knew what was going on, the HPG would likely already have been disabled and the key missing components (including spares) moved to a secure location.  Even if they would have opposed the interdiction there would have been nothing they could have done to bring them back online with the key HPG components missing.

The actions of the Great Houses both during and after the Amaris Civil War certainly didn't engender any sympathy for them among ComStar's personnel.  The eagerness with which they were tearing apart the Star League and the Terran Hegemony and into each other certainly didn't help any either.  There are any number of white lies or half-truths that ComStar could tell its people that would buy them enough time to initiate the interdiction and get the key components to a secure location.

[Arkansas Warrior]

There is plenty of stuff that never get mentioned because they are relevant, not interesting, too graphic, etc.  I don't recall reading anything about teenage pregnancy, underage drinking and many other common hot topics in today's world, does that mean they don't happen in the BT universe?

They also rarely mention anyone going to the bathroom, I know.  But for all the discussion of the Houses recruiting the SLDF, you'd think there'd be some mention somewhere in 25+ years of fiction of the Houses recruiting SLCOMNET personnel if it was going on.  It would, after all, be just as relevant.

The actions of the Great Houses both during and after the Amaris Civil War certainly didn't engender any sympathy for them among ComStar's personnel.  The eagerness with which they were tearing apart the Star League and the Terran Hegemony and into each other certainly didn't help any either.  There are any number of white lies or half-truths that ComStar could tell its people that would buy them enough time to initiate the interdiction and get the key components to a secure location.

Is this speculation, or do you have references for ComStar members being especially indignant about the Houses actions?  Why would the SLCOMNET people be more indignant than SLDF personnel?  The Houses managed to recruit ~20% of the SLDF but, as far as we know, 0% of SLCOMNET personnel.  Every reason you posit would have been just as true, if not moreso, for SLDF soldiers, yet 1 in 5 of them defected to the Houses.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Arkansas Warrior, I don't understand your hangup on the apparent lack of HPG personnel recruitment.  There's a clear incentive to recruit SLDF personnel.  But there isn't one in snatching up HPGs and their operators.  What's your thinking on why they House Lords would even want to, in a context where they're already mutually agreeing to let a neutral party assume a caretaker role over the network?

[Arkansas Warrior]

There's not a clear incentive to control communications in your own realm?  Really though, I'm focusing on pre-2787.  After they enter into the Communications Protocol there's significant incentive not to back out.  But prior to that, they haven't agreed to let a third party take over the network.  Sure, before they disbanded High Council they appointed Blake to head SLCOMNET.  But once they've given up on political maneuvering within the Star League (as they clearly have when they're trying to dismember the SLDF an Hegemony), why would they have any more respect for Blake than they do for Kerensky?  If you're in a mad scramble with your neighbors to secure guns and land, wouldn't you want to secure your communications, rather than leaving them in the hands of a Star League appointee who might recognize a rival claimant as First Lord?

[Tai Dai Cultist]

There's not a clear incentive to control communications in your own realm?

Well, honestly?  No, there isn't.  They've never had control of the HPGs, so there's no sudden compelling need to do so to run their realms after the fall of the Star League, either.  During the early stages of the Succession Wars, everyone thought they'd win quick.  Consolidating HPGs takes a distant seat behind consolidating control of the star systems of the Inner Sphere.  Once you subjugate your rivals, there'll be plenty of time to put the HPG net in order.  Taking control of HPGs starts off as a low priority, and ceases to be one entirely after Blake's political maneuverings.

Really though, I'm focusing on pre-2787.  After they enter into the Communications Protocol there's significant incentive not to back out.  But prior to that, they haven't agreed to let a third party take over the network.  Sure, before they disbanded High Council they appointed Blake to head SLCOMNET.  But once they've given up on political maneuvering within the Star League (as they clearly have when they're trying to dismember the SLDF an Hegemony), why would they have any more respect for Blake than they do for Kerensky?  If you're in a mad scramble with your neighbors to secure guns and land, wouldn't you want to secure your communications, rather than leaving them in the hands of a Star League appointee who might recognize a rival claimant as First Lord?

Well, again what difference does it make if they did or did not briefly command some HPGs before agreeing to let ComStar have them all?  They ultimately let ComStar have them all.  If it simply makes no sense to you that they would not have grabbed some before agreeing to hand them over, then presume they did.  And then shortly after handed them over to ComStar.   Call grabbing the HPGs a detail with absolutely no lasting consequence and subsequently never deserved being detailed rather than being an example of a Russell's Teapot.