Converting my HBS mercs into table top

[truetanker]

Well, easiest way to make sure they never talk about it again is if their brain is no longer capable of transmitting to their mouths, right?

Sure like to see that happening anytime soon...

TT

[Charistoph]

Sure like to see that happening anytime soon...

TT

Like any such sale would have been done through intermediaries and no mention of the owners?

[Colt Ward]

Are you proposing Tieplo has a secret room like Cartagia . . . where he can talk to heads?

[truetanker]

Are you proposing Tieplo has a secret room like Cartagia . . . where he can talk to heads?

Well they do call it a Trophy room, I guess he'll talk out loud and get some answers from the taxidermied heads.

TT

[Colt Ward]

Anyway, I think some of the suggestions- even my own remarks- about avoiding ROM might be more use of OOC/Meta-verse knowledge rather than what some minor level grunt knows.  Hanse Davion might know, Katrina Steiner might know, Jaime Wolf probably knows, Grayson Carlyle has experienced it, and I would expect Fake Tom absolutely knows . . . but how widespread is the knowledge of ComStar's sabotage?

[Deadborder]

Anyway, I think some of the suggestions- even my own remarks- about avoiding ROM might be more use of OOC/Meta-verse knowledge rather than what some minor level grunt knows.  Hanse Davion might know, Katrina Steiner might know, Jaime Wolf probably knows, Grayson Carlyle has experienced it, and I would expect Fake Tom absolutely knows . . . but how widespread is the knowledge of ComStar's sabotage?

It's not. ComStar were very good at covering their tracks and making sure nothing they did ever could be traced back to them. Until Focht opened their archives in the 3050s, nobody even knew about Holy Shroud and few even suspected that ComStar was meddling in their affairs, let alone to what degree.

The average person (And yes, that includes Mercs) has no reason at all to distrust ComStar at htis point. Sure, they're a little eccentric, but then, who isn't? They do a very good job of presenting themselves as a neutral body that allows interstellar communication, regulates finances, provides shipping and all that sort of thing. And let's not forget, Comstar does a lot of work with aiding in reconstruction and "helping" ordinary people.

So in short, the average person is going to trust Comstar unless they're pants-crappingly paranoid.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

There's distrust among the mercs of ComStar.  IIRC it was the Pike writeup in TRO3026 that first mentioned it... ComStar had trouble getting Mercs to sign contracts with them to guard Periphery HPG stations because the mercs recognized that if they had a potential dispute with ComStar they had no appellate authority over ComStar.  Hence they needed a tank of their own (that wouldn't rouse suspicious in that pre ComGuard reveal era).

So yeah even if you don't know about Holy Shroud there's no reason to get overly chummy with ComStar because if they betray you whatcha gonna do about it?

[Deadborder]

World of difference between "They might not pay me" and "They will kill me and take my stuff"

[Tai Dai Cultist]

World of difference between "They might not pay me" and "They will kill me and take my stuff"

True, but irrelevant to what I was saying.

If your employer takes your stuff, you appeal to ComStar.

If ComStar is your employer, then they just take your stuff. 

As I said even if you don't realize they're particularly prone to trying to take your stuff, just being cognizant of the lack of recourse is enough to be wary.  I wouldn't imagine mercs would be particularly prone to even registering priceless LosTech with ComStar as it's kind of common knowledge that you really don't have control over what ComStar does with any secrets you give them.

[Colt Ward]

Yeah, honestly any protection from ComStar finding out about your gear is going to be coincidental to hiding it from Houses, Defiance, Irian, etc.

Honestly, the real source IMO would be how far & wide does Grayson's tale of ComStar trying to seize/destroy the data core go?  How believe-able is the story as it gets passed around?  Granted I laid out high profile names who are going to have access to lots of information- the Dragoons were aware of ComStar trying to get their secrets from the start IIRC- but would it be credible when its passed around as a 'No crap, I heard . . . ' bar room story?

[Starfox1701]

Its the 3rd book of the trilogy. Its pretty reputable. There's also that time they hit NAIS and tried to make look like death commandos.

[Charistoph]

On the converse side of things, if you want to have friendly relations with most of the Houses, but still wanted to cash in on some crazy tech discovery, producing it for sale to Comstar would be one of the options one would think to do.  Heavens knows they have the cash for it.

One would only realized how screwed they were when the attempts to kill them occurred or no further developments happened to spread the technology out among the other manufacturers.

[Deadborder]

Its the 3rd book of the trilogy. Its pretty reputable. There's also that time they hit NAIS and tried to make look like death commandos.

That sort of thing was SOP for ComStar anyway. They didn't go around advertising what they were doing. Added to that, they spun what happened on Sirius/Helm to the GDL as being a "Rouge" Percentor.

Even then, it wasn't until after the Clan Invasion that their reputation took the real hits, and that was because of Focht's revelations. Again, broadly speaking, there's no reason not to trust them. Comstar was very good at keeping secrets and hiding badness.

[Colt Ward]

Its the 3rd book of the trilogy. Its pretty reputable. There's also that time they hit NAIS and tried to make look like death commandos.

That is the point, WE know because it was part of the narrative and we have a OOC perspective with all the 'facts' available.  The vast majority (99.999etc%) of the population of the Inner Sphere was not present or did not take part in the events.  One of the other prime witnesses (Duke Ricol) would not be considered trustworthy by half the Inner Sphere . . .

I was tangentially involved in a scrap fifteen years ago . . . watched the news coverage, heard all the rumors (No crap, . . . ) that made their way through the ranks, and then because of certain things the Truth was put out- all had different POV and different takes.  But you can find information that absolutely proves the accepted 'Truth' false, its just all in the details which most folks are not digging up- either because of blinders or do not care, folks are not actually finding the information.

Same for mercs & average troops- they hear stories but its just rumor mills, the information is not pondered b/c it has no impact on them, "Yeah right, like I am ever going to find LosTech . . . "

[Starfox1701]

Considering it would be a few years before the Dragoons essentially replace Comstar on the Merc front you do have to watch it some.

As I recall the"official" line was that it was dracs and leaguers that the Gray Death Leigion fought. However Carlylie had connections so the info made it way to the Fox who like the Dragoons is fighting a secret war with Comstar. The higher ups knew Comstar was bad juju but I don't think it ever got out into the wild past the conspiracy but stage.

[haesslich]

Well, easiest way to make sure they never talk about it again is if their brain is no longer capable of transmitting to their mouths, right?

If they did this, that would explain why the tech hadn't proliferated faster....