Editing Explorer Corps (ComStar)

{{otheruses|the ComStar organization|other uses|Explorer Corps}}
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==Overview==
The [[ComStar]] Explorer Service or '''Explorer Corps''' was formed by [[Primus of ComStar|Primus]] [[Adrienne Sims]] in [[2959]] to publicly chart and catalog the worlds beyond the [[Periphery]], but covertly to locate lost [[Star League]] caches and [[Aleksandr Kerensky|Kerensky]]'s lost [[Operation EXODUS|Exodus]] fleet for ComStar's benefit. In [[2982]], the ECV ''Fortitude'' and ''Discovery'' set out on a 1,600 light year trip to the [[Orion Nebula]].<ref>''The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky'', p. 31</ref>

Motivated by visions of previous Primuses referring to the space outside the borders of the [[Inner Sphere]] as the only true threat to ComStar, Sims requested funding for the branch based on the mystery of the Exodus fleet and the threat to ComStar's position and technological superiority if the fleet ever returned.

==History==
Using long range scout [[JumpShip]]s such as the ''[[Magellan (JumpShip class)|Magellan]]'' and lightly armed [[DropShip]]s to investigate old Star League naval charts, the Corps traveled in every direction to reestablish contact with lost and forgotten worlds and locate old SLDF era caches. Most of the contacts on inhabited worlds was diplomatic and cool, while some were outright hostile, with response to ComStar's mystical ways and technology as mixed as the Inner Sphere without the threat of an [[Interdiction]] to cow people into line. If locating a former abandoned SLDF cache or base of value, the Corps either stripped its resources for return to the Inner Sphere, or restored it to operation. (One such base was the [[Columbus]] facility, which the Corps discovered in [[3023]].<ref>''Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3'', p. 24</ref>) While some of the lesser or stripped finds were reported to the Inner Sphere governments, the Explorer Corps retained many for the use of ComStar operations in the Periphery, some of which were used in the [[Jolly Roger Affair]].

Prophetically, Primus Sims' fears of destruction from beyond came true not in spite of but because of the Explorer Corps, when in [[3048]] the Explorer Corps vessel ''[[Outbound Light]]'' found the [[Clan Smoke Jaguar]] world of [[Huntress]], their arrival giving ammunition to [[Crusader Clans]] to launch [[Operation REVIVAL]], the [[Clan Invasion]] of the Inner Sphere.

With the threat of the Clans, the majority of Explorer Corps resources were directed to locating the Clan Homeworlds, but ComStar's covert agents had more success finally pinpointing their location. After the [[Great Refusal]], Explorer Corps vessels have returned to the goal of pure exploration and making contact with long-lost Periphery colonies.

==Jihad==
In the [[Jihad]], the Corps was decapitated by the Blakists destruction of their headquarters of Columbus and Fort Cameron, on [[Tukayyid]].<ref>''Jihad: Final Reckoning'', p. 46</ref> It remains unknown what part the remains of the Corps played during the Jihad.

==Dark Age==
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In [[3095]] many of the Explorer Corps' duties were augmented by the actions of [[Interstellar Expeditions]],<ref>''Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3'', p. 11</ref> due to the reduced funding available for the Corps. In fact many former members of the Explorer Corps joined Interstellar Expeditions full time.<ref>''Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3'', p. 14</ref> In addition, the remaining Explorer Corps personnel served as advisers to other private exploration groups, and in some cases, a source of equipment as the Corps sold off its assets.<ref>''Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3'', p. 31</ref> Despite this, the Explorer Corps found a new purpose after the [[Jihad]]: finding [[The Hidden]] worlds and any surviving remnants of the [[Word of Blake]]. This was a duty they took seriously, and had in fact engaged in combat with other exploration groups who stood in their way.<ref>''Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3'', p. 89</ref>

==Disappearance==
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The [[Blackout]] almost bankrupted ComStar, making the Explorer Corps' operations harder. However, at least part of it survived somehow until the dawn of [[IlClan Era]]. Then, Interestellar Expeditions had aggresively acquired all the Cops' remaining assets in what was described as a ''militaristic corporate takeover'', and as ComStar itself was almost finished, it may be assumed than the Explorer Corps ceased totally to exist.<ref>''Shrapnel Issue 14'' - ''Voices of the Sphere: ComStar''</ref>

==Known missions==
Of the hundreds or maybe thousands of missions launched by the corps, only some are known, particularly three who ended with disasters:

* [[Outbound Light]] mission: The ''[[Merchant]]''-class [[JumpShip]] '''''Outbound Light''''' was a [[ComStar]] [[Explorer Corps]] vessel (alternatively described as a [[ROM]] exploration vessel)<ref>''Jade Falcon Sourcebook'', p. 19: "The Go Vote"</ref>
:Under mission command of ROM Precentor [[Arabella Bradford]]<ref name=JF-5>''Jade Falcon Sourcebook'', p. 5: "ComStar Classified Report Sanctum Level Clearance BLP-613-DTC"</ref><ref name=WoK17>''The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky'', p. 17</ref> and with the ships under the command of [[Precentor]] [[Vincent Dupont]],<ref name=WoK17/><ref name=EC-9>''Explorer Corps'', p. 9: "Overview - The Clan Wars - Outbound Light"</ref> the ''Outbound Light'' departed from [[Bone-Norman]] in June [[3046]] on a standard three-year exploratory survey carrying two [[DropShip]]s, the ''[[Union (DropShip class)|Union]]''-class ''[[Knox (Individual Union-class DropShip)|Knox]]'' and the ''[[Buccaneer (DropShip class)|Buccaneer]]''-class ''[[Golden Hind (Individual Buccaneer-class DropShip)|Golden Hind]]''. It was manned by a crew of 46 across all ships, plus a standard seven-person Explorer Corps survey team. After a relatively uneventful voyage, the ''Outbound Light'' jumped on 27 September [[3048]] into what was believed to be an unknown G7V star system. Instead, they stumbled upon the [[Clan Smoke Jaguar]] capital of [[Huntress]].<ref name=EC-9/><ref name=WC-25>''Wolf Clan Sourcebook'', p. 25: "History of the Clans - Golden Century - Crusader's Call - Invasion"</ref><ref name=WoK17/> On Smoke Jaguar [[Khan]] [[Leo Showers|Leo Showers']] orders, the Explorer Corps vessels were engaged and impounded by [[OmniFighter|OmniFighters]] from the Smoke Jaguar ''[[Comitatus]]''-class vessel ''[[High Guard]]'' before they could attempt to escape. The crews were detained and subjected to interrogation (including the use of mind-control drugs) for several days, revealing considerable information about the current state of the Inner Sphere's political scene and the apparent goals of the major powers. This ship somehow accomplished the objective of the Explorer Corps (finding Kerensky's army), but in any other aspect, the results of this expedition were catastrophic: the information extracted from the ship and his crew was of high importance for the Clans, and when presenting this information to the Grand Council, the Jaguars managed to scare the other Clans into believing that there was a (false) threat of imminent attack from the Inner Sphere, precipitating the beginning of Operation REVIVAL—the Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere.<ref name=EC-9/><ref name=WC-25/>
:The fate of the crew of the ''Outbound Light'' and its DropShips is unknown. Initial ComStar reports from the early days of the Clan invasion indicated that the crew and ships had been returned to ComStar, supplying vital intel on the Clan way of life, though with their memories and databanks of the route taken to Huntress wiped,<ref name=JF-5/> but such reports turned out to be false.<ref name=EC-9/> Only the seven member survey team was returned to ComStar; the other members of the expedition were not returned and no information about them has become available. The members of the survey team all exhibited heavy psychological scarring after their time with the Smoke Jaguars.<ref name=WoK17/>
:According to Explorer Corps doctrine at that time, the crew did not file a predetermined route along which it would travel,<ref>''ComStar'', p. 65</ref> allowing the crew the freedom to change their route should any promising leads develop. While this allowed them to stumble upon Huntress, it also made it virtually impossible for ComStar to discover the route the ''Outbound Light'' took in order to locate the Clan Homeworlds.<ref name=EC-9/>

* [[Pivot]] Prime mission: This mission represents multiple missions launched by the Explorer Corps after the [[Battle of Tukayyid (3052)|Battle of Tukayyid]]. These were combat missions, with the purpose of locating the [[Clan Homeworlds]] for a later attack. This one, occurring in 3056, was on the verge of success.
:The mission, with a single ''[[Scout (JumpShip class)|Scout]]''-class JumpShip, carried a full mercenary company, called [[Meredith's Marauders]], under the command of Captain [[Briant Foster]]. The entire mission was apparently commanded by Capiscol [[Purdon]], and the ship discovered a system named Pivot, part of the Exodus Road, which housed an HPG station. The DropShip detached from the ''Scout'' and landed on Pivot, where they defeated the HPG station garrison of Clan Smoke Jaguar ''[[solahma]]'' warriors, and seized the station.
:However, this mission was doomed from the very beginning: a Clan Smoke Jaguar JumpShip arrived in-system soon after they landed, en route to Huntress, and while two DropShips and their fighters attacked the ''Scout'' and captured it, six Smoke Jaguar warriors, piloting Inner Sphere 'Mechs, attacked the HPG station. They were outnumbered 2 to 1, and most of them were killed in the fight, but the mercenaries were crushed and defeated in turn, with Foster having been killed and Purdon captured.
:Ironically, the commanding officer of the Smoke Jaguar forces was then-[[Star Captain]] [[Trent (Clan Smoke Jaguar)|Trent]], who had agreed in secret to provide the Exodus Road to ComStar. Working with his bondswoman, the ROM agent [[Judith Faber]], they were mapping the Exodus Road and the victory on Pivot was the opportunity for both of them to return to the Inner Sphere, where Trent would defect from his Clan, hand over the navigational data to ComStar and, in doing so, provided key information for the eventual launch of [[Operation SERPENT]].

* [[Cambridge]] disaster: In 3054, an Explorer JumpShip materialized in the system known as Cambridge, in the middle of a [[Clan Jade Falcon]] fleet base. The JumpShip, DropShips and their crews, including a good portion of the mercenary unit [[O'Gordon's Rifles]], their command element and battalion leader, [[Jules O'Gordon]] were killed.<ref>''Mercenaries Supplemental Update'', p. 92</ref>

==Operations Command==
===3059===
'''Coreward Operations Area'''
* HQ: [[Columbus]], Deep Periphery
* Commander: [[Precentor]] [[Padraig O Bhaoil]]
* Deputy: ''[[Tai-sa]]'' [[Haruka Otanashi]]
* Spinward Exploration Theater: Precentor Lane West
* Anti-Spinward Exploration Theater: Precentor Morgan Coby

'''Spinward Operations Area'''
* HQ: [[Baliggora]], [[Outworlds Alliance]]
* Commander: Precentor Ingrid Snorrisdottir
* Deputy: Precentor Albert McMahon
* Coreward Exploration Theater: Precentor Carmen Nesfield
* Rimward Exploration Theater: [[Demi-Precentor]] Wu-Fei Tang

'''Rimward Operations Area'''
* HQ: [[Hellespont]], [[Taurian Concordat]]
* Commander: Precentor Saskia Dinelli
* Deputy: Demi-Precentor Alain Crosier
* Spinward Exploration Theater: Demi-Precentor Simon Bland
* Anti-Spinward Exploration Theater: Demi-Precentor Lisle von Radoslov

'''Anti-Spinward Operations Area'''
* HQ: [[Halifax]], [[Lyran Alliance]]
* Commander: Precentor Natalia Croft
* Deputy: Precentor Jinny Blanks
* Coreward Exploration Theater: Precentor Chalngura Jahau
* Rimward Exploration Theater: Demi-Precentor Karol Stanislav
<ref>''Explorer Corps'', p. 13: "Explorer Corps Operation Command Roster"</ref>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky]]''
* ''[[ComStar_(sourcebook)|ComStar]]''
* ''[[Explorer Corps (sourcebook)|Explorer Corps]]''
* ''[[Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3]]''
* ''[[Jade Falcon Sourcebook]]''
* ''[[Mercenaries Supplemental Update]]''
* ''[[Shrapnel Issue 14]]''
* ''[[Wolf Clan Sourcebook]]''

[[Category:ComStar Corporations]]