[Music] on April 17th 2839 Conrad Toyama Primus of Comstar suffered a fatal stroke he passed away that same day his body was cremated and his ashes were intuned Within the Ruins of unity City on terror toyama's death severed one of the very last links to the old star league by War's end there would be none alive who still remembered life during Humanity's Golden Age shortly before his passing Raymond karpov prenter Alpha centu and member of the first circuit had been named toyan successor the pr
oximity of this announcement to the primus's death have naturally led many to speculate the two were connected similar rumors had perpetuated following Conrad's takeover after Blake's demise there's no way to know for certain if Raymond had a hand in his mentor's death but there was a possible motive Comstar records show that the first circuit was increasingly concerned that the successor states were losing confidence in their neutrality following the shadow war with the free Wells League though
Captain General Charles mad had withdrawn the accusations that he had been double crossed the suggestion that they could not be trusted lingered and it clung to Toyama most karpov perhaps felt that removing the Primus was the only way to ensure that the organization did not continue to slide [Music] backwards for Raymond karpov Comstar truly was a sacred order any history of the era frequently describes him as a fanatic a True Believer in the word of Blake Toyama may have instituted the changes
in doctrine that his master requested in order to reform it into a pseudo religion but it was the new Primus that really cemented it as a Theocratic institution his first move was to name Conrad a saint placing him up on a pedestal alongside the Blessed founder but he went much further henceforth all members of the Comstar order were to wear robes adorned with symbols relating to mathematics theoretical physics or mechanical principles they were to perform chants and incantations before operati
ng the sacred hyper bolse generators or any Machinery considered suitably holy karpov's changes would ironically bring about the cognitive atrophy that Blake had envisioned within the very Society who was supposed to safeguard that knowledge of course of course those on Tera hoarded that information and Technical understanding for themselves but the adepts and even presenters of foreign Realms comprehended the technology around them less and less with each passing year this proved an effective S
afeguard against any of the successor states trying to subvert their operations these radical changes did not go unchallenged two members of the first circuit walked out in protest but this only allowed karpov to replace them with loyal Stooges it was organizational edict 3056 which caused the biggest stir within Comstar ROM was to be expanded from an internal security agency to a militant branch of the order tasked with hunting down and killing any individual whose work might halt the technolog
ical decline of the successor States prenter ROM Michelle Dupri was outraged by the change in our organization's mandate she would not back down and ended up resigning within 24 hours of the edict coming into effect her replacement Janice La law saw to it that Dupri would suffer a fatal traffic accident 5 days [Music] later with his opposition removed and the loyal laid law at his side Primus Raymond karpov ordered the commencement of operation holy shroud a list of targeted institutions and ind
ividuals were dis dispatched to ROM teams across the inner Sphere for them to eliminate universities were frequent targets of sabotage or even bombings more specific examples include FTL communication research in the Federated Suns and lien Commonwealth efforts to recover ferof fibrous technology both of which were completely destroyed by ROM the commstar war had necessitated the free Wells League launching their own hbg projects any and all information pertaining to this was eradicated by karpo
v's Fanatics the first succession War had resulted in The Disappearance of many of the star League's most Advanced Technologies from the inner sphere these were subsequently dubbed lost Tech and functional examples in the modern era are exceedingly rare if not altogether extinct the second succession War had already seen even moderately sophisticated computer equipment drop out of use lad laws efforts saw this trend continue the raids were undertaken with the utmost caution to ensure that they c
ould not be traced back to Comstar with war raging on every front it wasn't difficult to pin the blame on the neighboring successor States or internal extremist groups another of the casualties was the compact Kerney fushida Drive the advanced jump cores around which warships were built by this point there were at most two dozen such vessels still in service but the destruction of the few shipyards sufficiently sophisticated enough to maintain them and the wholesale murder of those Engineers who
possessed the knowledge to construct them guaranteed that warships would soon vanish into the history books ROM's actions were not limited to military technology either commercial industrial and medical sectors had already been badly affected by the wars as academics were conscripted for military projects holy shroud had no qualms about continuing their decline hitting them just as hard countless thousands if not Millions have died in the century since that might have been saved had the present
er and our Primus not been so thorough in their reversal of human advancement one of ROM's most secretive objectives was to hunt for and recover any lost sldf caches these pre-war installations contain not just military material but a wealth of knowledge that might be used to Halt the technological nose dive whenever an installation was uncovered Comstar would relocate the weapons within to their vast warehouses on terror and either hoard or destroy the computer archives as appropriate people to
day in 3025 often speculate on what effect uncovering a functional memory core would have on the war torn successor States operation holy shroud would run until 2845 during that time Comstar successfully assassinated more than 300 of the best scientific Minds in the inner sphere professors teachers and researchers that would be sorely missed in the coming [Music] years comstar's systematic dismantling of advanced technology was going on behind the scenes while the successor states were still juk
ing it out along every front the free Wells League had been on the back foot for the past 2 years and would struggle to turn their fortunes around thankfully they did not exist in isolation and aggression on the part of more distant Realms into the exposed flanks of their more immediate neighbors would stem the flow of forces pouring into madic territory first to come under assault from an unexpected aggressor had been the Lyon Commonwealth in a repeat of events following the Second Battle of he
speris the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns had raided schina systems around Terror new Earth and Men Kent were hit back in December 2838 then summer Thorin and Miser in March some minor payback would come in the spring when the lcaf landed on caster and alard both of which were currently being ransacked by the awfs and dcms respectively the two systems would submit to lien rule soon after three other nearby systems were also seized by house Steiner further along the border another turncoat me
rcenary group took the planet Rexburg over to the Commonwealth the lcaf focus in that region was on Tamarind they began their assault in April but came up against stiff opposition within the capital padon city the so-called Venice of Tamarind the layout of the canals served is a series of bottlenecks the Defenders took full advantage of schiner abandoned their efforts on May 11th and instead began preparing for new offensives [Music] elsewhere Lea was also facing aggression from their Far Side t
hat would prevent them from making as much progress into the crumbling free Wells league as they might have liked leading these raids were the recently expanded fourth ctis fusers after the marriage of Damien hassk and Margaret Ross the previous June the veterans of her bloody Suns had been folded into the unit bringing it back up to full strength most of the five targets davan was going after were already considered too far gone to be worth putting up a fight over and so they cut their losses r
ather than divert troops away from their primary objective capellan actions that year were focused around the duy of vuran successful attacks against carlstein and catler kept nearby forces pinned down while they made another attempt to crack andoran this was the fourth successive attack in 18 months and the defenses were severely compromised despite this they wouldn't give an inch and managed to hold their ground until reinforcements arrived in August turning the tables in their favor Lea withd
rew 2 months later despite dealing with the Comstar problem Charles mck still found no peace at home as Minister of Finance Hector Lombard persisted in his efforts to withhold funding for the fwm he demanded that resolution 288 be repealed and the freebs league returned to a more democratic system of government the captain General finally cracked in August 2839 he dispatched his personal guard to arrest Lombard and his allies in flagrant violation of the Articles of unification that had formed t
he league back in 2271 unfortunately for mik Lombard's faction were able to escape the Trap and fled to heos minor where they set up a parliament in Exile Charles's heavy-handed approach had destroyed the last of his support within government he was now completely alone facing an imminent defeat despite the odds against him mik was not prepared to go quietly into the night early in 2840 he launched counterattacks against Graham and Oliver with supporting raids into the Federation of Sky a stroke
of Good Fortune won him an easy Victory on Graham 4 when in late February the lon Commander Colonel Hendrick Grim snapped under the pressure of having to defend this critical staging post with so little forces available to him grim and his unit went awall and began making for the periphery picking up the survivors of another Lyon regiment along the way together they raided storehouses on both sides of the border both the free worlds and Lyons would place a bounty on them for their actions the f
wm attack on Oliver was also a success for mic taking the planet back in mid-march maintaining the momentum the free Wells League military struck at zosma denola and new Earth these attacks kept the lcaf from advancing in that region though they were still able to seize Concord and Promised Land further along the border the last of the capellan advances also came in 2840 though these won them precious little in the way of territory The Defenders on UD delos held their ground when the seaf arrive
d in March there were another raid on andoran in the summer did succeed in damaging their Mech production plants their final effort came at a sunion in August A system that madic had been stubbornly clinging to despite its position far beyond the borders of its realm while they may have been able to take back control of the planet the Capell and Armed Forces had overextended themselves in doing so trying to take advantage of the situation while they were still overwhelmed Charles used the only f
resh levies he had been able to secure funding for to launch raids on bson and fact in late October unfortunately the green troops would not survive their first engagement a punishing loss for a military that was struggling to stay afloat despite the lackluster result Lea was spent trying to maintain order on the dozens of WS they had claimed these past few years consumed all their energy with no ability to push any further in either direction lorelli Lea was forced to accept that recovering Che
ston was no longer a possibility the chesteron decree granted house Hargraves a seat on the perorate as duke in Exile but they would likely never recover their ancestral [Music] home yuguchi karita had spent his first years as coordinator revitalizing the dcms and expanding their mercenary roster with leviathan's wake as a career Soldier he did not wish to give up on a chance to lead troops into battle and so in 2840 reformed the fourth sword of light out of the battered remnants of the eth goin
g forwards these would serve as his family's personal guard though yuguchi actions so far had appeased the mustard soldiery he did make one critical mistake never a strong supporter of the ISF who he either didn't trust or considered dishonorable early in his Reign he placed the entire internal security Force Under under the command of the military this caused quite an upset within both factions the dcms felt they were being spied on whereas the ISF felt they were being unfairly slighted after l
oyally serving the coordinator for many generations it was a fracture that others would seek to exploit kurri's revitalized dcms began moving across the lyen border in April a pair of thrusts pushed into both the Federation of die and Tamar packed along the periphery border the largest dcms task force tried to mislead steina as to which planet they were heading towards by jumping from verthandi to Chateau and then back to New calonia in May first down were a battalion of the sword of light who s
martly made the capture of the planet's major Supply and Distribution Hub their first objective once the Spaceport was secured the rest of the regiments entered atmosphere leading the the combine assault was the coordinator's son Tao hugi kurita at the head of his father's regiment opposing him was Colonel Tyber hinders of the royal guard though their units would not be involved in the initial clashes a diversionary raid was staged on harvest an agricultural Lynch pin of the region the rasle hag
regulars met with such success that they ended up calling in reinforcements to help them secure the system less than 20% % of the York regulars were able to escape harvest the survivors later disbanded back at the new Caledonian Capital the Royal Guards were fighting tooth and nail to hold back the dcms but once the sword of light overcame the York regulars the odds of holding the city look slim tiber's brother Michael hinders broke off one of the battalions to prevent the citans from being abl
e to bring their full might to Bear but by late August they were in Retreat yet again this time heading to the sldf Fortress known as red Castle it would take another 17 months to drive them out the lambret Salient was one kurita was eager to remove with the Swift nullification of the Garrison's air power the aforementioned world became the first to fall after just 3 weeks Thoren was the complete inverse terrible storms downed more Aerospace Fighters than either side's Pilots the the reduced vis
ibility they brought with them aided the heavier Lyon Mech and hindered the lighter combine ones when they did stumble into each other the lcaf invariably came out on top the kitan commander cut their losses just as ainer counterpart on lamr was doing the same deeper inside the Federation at Rancher a raid on the calonia system resulted in the destruction of the last Mako class Corvette it's unclear how many warships were still in existence at this point but the only vessel in the Lyon Navy we k
now of was the LCS Invincible by the end of the decade it too would be put out to pasture when it was relocated to the capital tharad and decommissioned the renewed conflict along their spinwood border heavily disrupted Steiner's plan's 2841 offensive against the free Wells League action around Tamarind had already dropped off with the fwm recla climing four of their lost systems at the expense of only kavana the lens also took Dan back in February but after this their focus was to shift towards
the mar Commonwealth to lead their attack in the region they had managed to secure a contract with a 12th star guard who had served with the capellans throughout the succession Wars up to that point their summer assaults began with Savannah remulac and Nathan but long before they were secured in Autumn the kitan threat had emerged along Steiner's flank preventing any further advances on the dracona combine home front yuguchi Kit's sister Rena was named the coordinator of the people's reconstruc
tion effort in 2841 a post previously held by their father women in the draconus combine were frequent victims of discrimination in professional circles especially within the military and government while service was not discouraged among the lower classes Noble women had a very rigidly defined role at their husband's or Father's Side it was very much a man's world but the pr as a distinctly non-military organization was not seen as being Beyond her station as a woman the position came with vast
resources that Rena immediately put to work creating a second bureaucracy loyal exclusively to her within a year of this she was making connections within the disenfranchised ISF ultimately leading to a relationship with director Malcolm katori she op the pr to his organization improving its efficiency while giving her allies a new Avenue of gathering intelligence they in turn provided her with information she used to increase her private wealth substantially her aggrandisement was not perceive
d as a direct challenge to her older brother since it seemed to focus solely around material gain by all accounts the two siblings shared a strong familial Bond and so no effort was taken to curb her activities yuguchi kurita had also ordered a pair of assaults against the Federated suns in 2841 one each against the Robinson and Woodbine operational areas the Davian realm had been largely quiet for the past few years busy incorporating so many conquered capellan systems into their Realm the mili
tary had not been idle however long suspecting that another citan attack would come the assault came later than it otherwise might have done as on July 11th the former coordinator Jiro kurita in his secluded cell hanged himself a week of mourning delayed operations but they began immediately after early success was made by those units participating in the Robinson thrust capturing breed clander and Royal but the raid against the capital was an abject failure running into far stiffer resistance t
han anticipated the dcms withdrew after just 6 days towards the outworlds Kia became the first but ultimately only planet to change hands attacks on anguila bremond and Sturgis went nowhere while the Garrison at their primary objective tank crdy 4 proved as intractable as those on Robinson after 11 s days stuck in urban combat the kitan survivors withdrew on their way out of the system they Unleashed a bioweapon that would render this vital agricultural system virtually [Music] inhospitable the
Davian counter attack came sooner than the draconus combine could have imagined in late October they made their first moves in what would become their primary War aim for the next few years is reestablishing a Teran Corridor an invasion of four kitan planets followed naturally the dcms redeployed to deal with this new threat but this opened them up to other intrusions along a much neglected front Chancellor lelli Lea ordered her troops to advance into Kuran space taking for herself Anor Keen New
Florence ronal and tybolt all of which the dragon had pred away from them early in the 29th Century this threw Davian plans into disarray as those were systems that they too coveted assembling a large task force they decided to strike Instead at one of the confederation's cornerstones the planet Northwind four Mech regiments arrived in November escorted by a pair of Warships three lighter capellan vessels opposed them but the loss of CCS Mao caused the other two indispensable warships to withdr
aw the way had been cleared though the northw Highlanders fielded an unmatched six regiments only two were ever home at one time the rest were sorely needed elsewhere most of the fighting would take place within the kangor mountains while the blue star Irregulars moved to take control of karti City The Canyons allowed the Highlanders to mitigate their number's disadvantage but as the awfs closed relentlessly they realized that neither did the Canyons allow for a way out both regiments were destr
oyed utterly fighting to The Bitter End capellan propaganda cast the Davian Invaders as barbarians and soon the rest of the mercenary Brigade were calling for Retribution lorelli denied them however unable to spare such a powerful Frontline unit for a non-essential objective though she promised them that one day the Northwind Highlanders would return home davan completed their conquest of mallerie's world in Ozawa then secured Mara and New Roads in the New Year further spinward they had equal su
ccess the awfs worked alongside the new war Griffins mercenary Carter to take briceland Medan Niles and wittington but these were the only planets to change hands on this front in [Music] 2842 in the free Wells League Charles madik could feel the Noose tightening around his neck in the past few months Lea had taken proon and schiner a further five systems a despairing Captain General was heading for what he believed would be the final battle of his time in office Charles had become Persona nrata
within his own Parliament on Atrius and so took what ragtag forces he could muster to the hyper industrial world of Iran for a hopeless defense he was reinforced by harlon Allison at the head of his premier fusiliers of oriente Brigade but the odds of turning back the approaching lyen Onslaught seemed slim harlon too was resigned to his fate he had lost both his sons during the comell war and only daughter to a tragic accident he seemed content to go out fighting alongside his Lord and Master J
udgment Day arriv D on January 5th despite being outnumbered 3 to1 marrick and Allison held their ground around the irian Technology's headquarters and Factory battl mechs fresh off the assembly lines were pressed into service only to be destroyed hours later it was a brutal affair with all the worst Hallmarks of urban Warfare Kirin River the planetary Capital was surrounded by a massive 20 M wall with another around Oldtown down at its Center schina breached the outer defenses early meaning the
two sides were penned in between the fortifications on February 9th the captain General was ambushed and his Orion Mech destroyed he ejected moments before detonation and was recovered by reserves before he could be captured this was small Comfort to him as the lens had established a beach head within Oldtown the day before the battle commenced an important development had occurred back on Atrius the jke of oriente had sent his brother Kendall to meet with one of the few madic loyalists remaini
ng Marin ladis also lending his support to what would become known as the lisw amendment was Duke Jonathan Humphries by this point Hector Lombard's Coalition had collapsed into bickering among themselves meaning there was no United opposition to the bill that would restore military funding and raise fresh levies to relieve the f M on Iran facing the very real prospect that the free Wells League was about to be overrun many MPS turned back to M voting on The crucial legislation concluded with a t
ally of 2134 to 185 against help was on the way it arrived just as the lens were about to land the killing blow on March 19th five regiments appeared in system aboard hastily char Ed Merchant freighter and headed for the captain General their initial ferocity helped them win the Battle of Kieran River but schina still controlled the rest of the planet the lons were suffering from heavy attrition but the fwm reinforcements were poorly organized and inexperienced however when word reached them tha
t other Liberation efforts had reclaimed boner and Tania Borealis and were now heading that way the archon realized that Iran was a lost cause and ordered the survivors to pull back this was the Turning Point Charles mad and the free Wells League had survived their Darkest Hour they would soon remind their aggressors that the eagle United was a force to be reckoned [Music] with well this ended up being quite a long one then we're getting back towards the length of the first succession War series
I did try to keep them a little bit shorter this time round but there was a lot to go through I know operation holy shroud goes on for another few years after the end of this one but uh since it's kind of detached from everything else that is going on I thought it was possible to cover it all at the beginning of this one it's interesting that so much of the imagery we associate with Comstar the robes and the religious trappings don't actually exist for the first 50 years of its existence they c
ame about very suddenly with the rise of Raymond karpov because I focus so much on them in this episode and really they're only just continuing that operation holy shroud in the backgrounds for the next few years I don't think they'll get mentioned again for a little while maybe come back a bit later on in the uh 28 50s but just know that they're always conducting some minor operation or other to try and undermine the successor states keep them at each other's throat along the conflict and drive
down their uh technological capabilities I mentioned that this was quite a long chapter but it's actually the next one which is going to be the longest of this series unless I redivide up how I cover it it'll continue forwards from this Turning Point at Iran right the way through to the end of 2849 so the rest of this decade things are getting a lot more political now which I really like and that's going to continue on in the next chapter in in just about every nation the free Wells League the
lon Commonwealth the Federated Suns and especially the draconus combine uh there's a lot going on behind the scenes the fighting is not going to stop either of course and especially the free worlds League's effort to try and reclaim some of its lost territory they're going to be pushing back hard if you've enjoyed today's video and you want to help support the channel you can leave me a like or leave me a comment below both of those help with the algorithm I read every comment and try to resp re
spond to as many as I can sharing the video around helps more than just about anything else it's a big boost in YouTube's eyes and it's always helpful for me to gain more audience I also have a patreon Linked In the description below if you want to see episodes before they release Here on YouTube you can see where things go next uh ahead of time thank you very much for watching and I hope to see you again next time
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