Editing Allen Rusenstein

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| name                = Allen Rusenstein
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| died                = [[3016]]<ref name=CS-50>''ComStar'', p. 50: "History - Calm Before the Storm - The Mysterious Dragoons"</ref>
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| affiliation         = [[ComStar]]
| rank                = [[Primus of ComStar]]
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'''Allen Rusenstein''' was the eleventh [[Primus of ComStar]]. His tenure was notable for the [[Jolly Roger Affair]] and his failure to successfully deal with the mysterious appearance of [[Wolf's Dragoons]].

==History==
===Early service to ComStar===
Joining ComStar, the mild-mannered Allen Rusenstein rose through the ranks of the Blessed Order on the basis of his administrative skills, reaching the rank of [[Precentor]] [[Alpha C]] and earning a seat on the Order's [[First Circuit]] during the reign of Primus [[Yin Takami]].<ref name=CS-47>''ComStar'', p. 47: "History of ComStar - Calm Before the Storm - The Tripitz Affair"</ref>

When Primus Takami and two members of the First Circuit died after his personal [[JumpShip]], the ''[[Pride of Blake]]'', suffered a total engine-core overload and meltdown at the Sol nadir jump point in [[2994]], the surviving members of the First Circuit met to name a successor. Seemingly apolitical and thus believed to be a safe choice, the survivors named Rusenstein from their number as the eleventh Primus of ComStar.<ref name=CS-47/>

===Primus of ComStar===
Despite his meek appearance, Rusenstein was arguably more political-minded than any of the other surviving members of First Circuit. Evidence of this was his appointment for replacements of two of seats of the First Circuit made vacant by the ''Pride of Blake''&#39;s explosion, where Rusenstein selected two ultraconservative members of the Order, giving a greater voice to some of the most fanatical and extremist elements of ComStar, dangerously upsetting the makeup of the First Circuit.<ref name=CS-47/>

Building off his passion for the study of history, Rusenstein focused on the actions of the earliest Primuses before [[Hollings York (ComStar)|Hollings York]] as guides for his own Primacy. Quoting from the writings of [[Jerome Blake]], [[Conrad Toyama]] and [[Raymond Karpov]] in ''[[Blessed Destiny]]'', his only published work, Rusenstein offered his interpretation of ComStar's role in manipulating the Great Houses to ensure the organization's ascendancy and the need for the Order to play a more direct role in controlling the [[Inner Sphere]], albeit from the shadows. Rusenstein also heavily patterned his early reign as Primus on [[Kari Marshall]]'s, especially with regards to her focus on the [[Periphery]].<ref name=CS-47/><ref name=CS-48>''ComStar'', p. 48: "History of ComStar - Calm Before the Storm - The Tripitz Affair"</ref>

Thus when confronted with news in [[3000]] that recruitment levels of [[Acolyte]]s had reached an all-time low, Rusenstein turned towards the realms outside of the borders of the Inner Sphere to redress this problem. Launching an extensive propaganda campaign via the [[ComStar News Bureau]], all the while Rusenstein publicly claimed that ComStar was investing billions of [[C-bill]]s to expand the [[HPG]] network in the Periphery, the truth was that he deflected all funding for such expansion and worked to maintain the status-quo. These efforts drew an ever increasing number of recruits from the Periphery desperate to escape their marginal existence, unaware that ComStar was actively hampering their governments' efforts to improve things.<ref name=CS-48/>

During this period Rusenstein's primacy also received an unexpected boost when [[Captain-General of the Free Worlds League|Captain-General]] [[Janos Marik]]'s son [[Thomas Marik]] asked to join the Blessed Order. The highest-ranking Great House scion became a member of ComStar, as well being in direct line for the succession for the Captain-Generalship. Despite such early successes, Rusenstein would encounter increasing problems maintaining control of the First Circuit, ironically in part due to the ultraconservative members who owed their positions to him now exclusively pushing their own agendas. Becoming more and more isolated, proposals by Rusenstein to address the escalating weakness of the C-bill or to fund expansion of the [[Com Guards|ComStar Guards and Militia]] were unanimously voted down by the rebellious First Circuit. Rusenstein's near total loss of control would be best shown in [[3001]] by what would eventually be known as the [[Jolly Roger Affair]].<ref name=CS-48/>

In response to an increasing slow-down of the fighting along the [[Lyran Commonwealth]]-[[Draconis Combine]] border and citing Rusenstein's ''Blessed Destiny'', with only the half-hearted endorsement of the Primus, the First Circuit set in motion a plan for [[ROM]] to supply pirate forces in the Periphery with equipment and logistical aid to stir up trouble and escalate military conflict in the general area. With the plan initially successful as several of the new ComStar funded [[Pirate]] bands struck the borders of Commonwealth and Combine in [[3002]], Rusenstein readily joined with the First Circuit in accepting credit for the proposal.<ref name=CS-49>''ComStar'', p. 49: "History of ComStar - Calm Before the Storm - The Jolly Roger Affair"</ref> This decision would backfire disastrously in [[3004]] when a number of these new Bandit Kings began to join forces, striking larger targets and escalating things far beyond the point the ComStar plan had intended. Primus Rusenstein dispatched Precentor Kintaro of the ComStar Guards to negotiate and bring the renegade forces back into line with ComStar's agenda, which only made things worse, prompting attacks which laid waste to the [[HPG]] compounds on the worlds of [[Lost]] and [[Canal]] in response to ComStar's betrayal. Allaying Lyran suspicions with a cover story claiming that the compounds had suffered only minor damage from Periphery pirates, Primus Rusenstein then ordered the [[1st Division (ComStar)|First Division of the ComStar Guards and Militia]] to exterminate the renegade pirates, the green ComStar forces suffering significant losses in the process.<ref name=CS-49/>

Despite the fact that Rusenstein had little personal responsibility for the plan and only grudgingly supported it at first, the fact he eventually accepted credit for it allowed the First Circuit to spin almost all the blame for its failure onto him, further damaging his position and authority.<ref name=CS-49/>

Rusenstein's Primacy would suffer its final mortal blow with the shock arrival of the [[Wolf's Dragoons]] in [[3005]]. With ComStar just as much in the dark as to Dragoons origins then everybody else, a furious First Circuit demanded results from the aging [[Precentor ROM]] [[Karl Sims]]. After Sims' operatives were unable to pierce the Dragoons' security, with two agents dying in the attempt, Rusenstein hastily appointed [[Vesar Kristofur]] as the new Precentor ROM with the express mission of learning the truth about the mysterious Dragoons, with the First Circuit pushing for quick results.<ref name=CS-50/>

In the middle of all this, the dramatic beating the C-bill suffered against the [[House Bill]]s over the past decade reached a crisis point, and Rusenstein's efforts to buy time to better address the problem by instituting a stopgap 20 percent rate increase were blocked by an increasingly hostile First Circuit.<ref name=CS-50/><ref name=CS-51>''ComStar'', p. 51: "History of ComStar - The Tiepolo Years"</ref>

Unfortunately, by [[3006]] Precentor ROM Kristofur had only made slight headway in his effort against the Dragoons and the First Circuit was not willing to wait any longer. In a private session that same year, the First Circuit voted by a majority to ask Rusenstein to resign for his failures in both the Dragoon problem and the Jolly Roger Affair. While the First Circuit had the ability to simply remove him as Primus, thanks to the legal powers enacted by [[Gregori Hartford]], they gave the aging Rusenstein the courtesy of allowing him to leave under his own terms. Stunned and overwhelmed in the face of this total rejection of his authority, an utterly dejected Allen Rusenstein resigned as Primus a week later, allowing the First Circuit to select [[Julian Tiepolo]] as his replacement without resistance.<ref name=CS-50/>

===Death and Legacy===
Reduced to a Precentor again, Allen Rusenstein accepted the post of administrator of the [[St. Ives]] HPG station. By most accounts, a man broken by his disastrous turn as Primus, Rusenstein died a mere ten years later in 3016.<ref name=CS-50/>

Almost uniformly considered an able politician but too weak to maintain control over the First Circuit, Rusenstein never the less greatly influenced the direction of the Blessed Order and the later [[Word of Blake]] [[ComStar Schism|faction]] with his appointments of Vesar Kristofur, Julian Tiepolo and [[Huthrin Vandel]].<ref name=CS-50/>

''Blessed Destiny'', Rusenstein's only published work, would later become a required reading for those following the Word of Blake.<ref name=CS-48/>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[ComStar (sourcebook)|ComStar]]''

[[Category:ComStar Characters|Rusenstein, Allen]]
[[Category:Primus|Rusenstein, Allen]]