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Primus Hatter
A tale of madness from Comstar
by Lerxst |
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One of the darkest chapters in ComStar's history is the reign of Primus Dwight Kurstin, who succeeded Primus Marteen. Dwight Kurstin became unstable during the first days of his reign. This was provoked by a ROM investigation into Marteen's true cause of death. Kurstin shared a car with Marteen on Caph, touring the capital. The car swerved to miss some refugees crossing the road and slammed into a building. A few moments later, the car exploded, killing the Primus. Kurstin had pulled himself out of the wreckage before it exploded. A coroner's report said that the Primus had died as a result of a blow that broke her neck. The ROM investigation was inconclusive at best, but Primus Kurstin believed that ComStar was trying to implicate him in the death of his predecessor. This started a reign of terror that lasted, thankfully, only a year.
Due to many, many examples of Kurstin's instability, the First Circuit left Terra, and placed the homeworld of ComStar under an Interdiction. The members of the First Circuit had met in the abandoned halls of the Star League Court, where there were no ROM agents, and no listening devices. Upon learning this, Primus Kurstin moved to the Court, along with 100 ROM agents, loyal to him. The video cameras located throughout the building provide us with a look at the insanity of Primus Dwight Kurstin. All the dialogue in this text is real, transcribed from the tapes, which have never been made public.
"Hurry! Break the seal to the Throne Room!" cried Primus Kurstin to his ROM bodyguards.
They began to eat away at the door's seal with their laser torches. It would be the first time the Throne Room in the old Court of the Star League had hosted visitors since the time of the blessed Jerome Blake.
A few minutes later, one of the ROM guards pulled the door to the Throne Room open, and his master gleefully rushed in.
"Two of you, stay with me. The rest of you…go guard something! But be careful…enemies are everywhere. Yes, even now they might be here in the Court! Protect your Primus!"
The ROM agents hesitated for a moment before they left the Throne Room. They were loyal to Kurstin, but none of them had seen him quite as unbalanced as he was now. The First Circuit themselves had decided that Primus Kurstin was insane, and had left Terra. Since then, there had been a schism in ComStar.
Some ROM agents remained loyal to the Primus, while others sided with the First Circuit in exile. The various Precentors were also split along the same lines. Recently, the Primus had ordered ROM to assassinate the Precentors of the First Circuit by burning them at the stake. He had also started a purge of ComStar, similar to the one Conrad Toyama had instigated decades earlier. Hundreds of Adepts and Acolytes had been killed in the purge already.
"Just think of how this room must have looked when the Camerons sat in that throne! Glorious! Full of people, full of diplomats, full of parties. Parties! Yes, yes…a party! A party for the Primus! Quick, get some music! We must have a party!"
"Mad as a hatter", muttered Goodrich, one of the ROM guards, as he left the room in search of "music".
"Johnson! A party isn't a party without a guest of honor! Fetch us Conrad Toyama! He would love a dance. And food! We must have food and drink!" said Kurstin, addressing the remaining guard.
"Um, sir. I shouldn't leave you alone."
"You're right! You're right! Enemies…everywhere…they think I killed Marteen, they do. Had nothing do to with it, didn't I? No…no…I didn't kill the Primus. It was a car accident it was…refugees in the road, crossing like ducks!" The Primus laughed. "Ducks! Ducks in the road kill a Primus!! Not I, a duck! Beware the deadly ducks, Johnson!" The Primus laughed again.
Agent Goodrich returned, his quest unsuccessful. "Sir, there's no music here", he reported.
"No music? Tsk, tsk. How can we have a party with no music? Nevermind the party…a Throne Room is no place for dancing. A Throne Room is for politics! Yes…politics. Get me the Primus Toyama! I would like to consult with him on a few matters…ComStar politics."
Johnson spoke first. "Sir…Primus Toyama is dead. He has been since 2837."
The year was 2901
"No, no…not dead, no. Hidden. Yes, he is hidden. The First Circuit was against him, like it is with me. He went into hiding, to live! What better place to hide than a grave? No one looks for the living in the places of the dead. Bring him here. Our time is at hand!"
Johnson and Goodrich exchanged a glance. Goodrich let out a small sigh and turned to do the bidding of the Primus. He returned minutes later, carrying an urn of ivory and gold. "Sir…it's, uh, Primus Toyama to see you."
"Ahh, Primus Toyama! Conrad! Do come in. I have a lot on my mind, and I want your advice on it. Bad, bad things have been happening in ComStar recently. What's that? You know? Well, well, well…I told them you weren't dead, I did, but they don't listen to me. Johnson…Goodrich…get a chair for our guest!"
Johnson pulled out a chair that had sat along one of the room's walls for more than a century. He placed it facing the Star League Throne, and brushed some dust off the cushion before Goodrich placed the urn on the chair.
"Well…this leaves only one seat for me, doesn't it Conrad?" The Primus grinned, climbed the few steps to the Star League Throne and sat down. "I look good here? Why thank you Conrad!"
"Anyway…we have business to discuss. What should I do about the First Circuit? What should I do about Terra? The enemies close around it even now! The Circuit? They think I killed Marteen. But it wasn't me, it was a duck, wasn't it?" The Primus giggled. "Yes, a harmless duck in the road. How can they think I killed her? I almost died in the crash too. I didn't kill her! But…did I? No..I…I, I can't remember. No…yes…no, no I didn't kill the Primus."
Kurstin paused, as if waiting a response from the urn. "They left! They left Terra! They left me! They took their HPGs with them! I called them heretics! Yes, heretics! They dared to put Terra under an Interdiction! Criminals! Sinners! ROM will burn them at the stake! Death to all traitors to Blake's vision! We hunt them even now! They will burn in hell for their actions against me!"
The sudden outburst surprised the two ROM guards, and they braced themselves in case their lord became violent. But the Primus settled down after a few moments.
"I knew you would agree, Conrad. But what of Terra? How do I defend her? The accursed First Circuit has help…help. Help from Precentors who will die with the other traitors! Everyone is against me. Only ROM is loyal, and they cannot stop an attack from a 'Mech company. Mercenaries? Yes, yes, we have some on Terra. Many, many soldiers for hire! Why didn't I think of that first? You truly are a genius, Conrad."
Several months passed, with the Primus slipping deeper and deeper into insanity. He continued to "consult" with Conrad Toyama. In the fall of 2091, Kurstin began to create a plan called "Operation Winged Crusader", designed to capture the First Circuit's HPGs, returning them to the control of the Primus. Should it be successful, the Primus would once again be in control of the HPG systems in the Inner Sphere, able to send messages to his loyal ROM agents, able to purge ComStar again. A large part of the plan seemed to have come from Dwight Kurstin's "talks" with Primus Toyama.
"I have to make these mercenaries win Conrad. I must have those HPGs! I must! Then I may talk with ROM and give them orders to purge ComStar of the heretics! But how? The mercenaries that I employ aren't well equipped. And ComStar has no 'Mechwarriors of their own." The Primus again paused, waiting for a reply. "Star League equipment? But ComStar must keep their monopoly on lost technology…should something fall into the hands of a House Lord, and they recreate it…it would be disaster. Yes, disaster."
The urn made a reply that must have angered Kurstin, for he started yelling at the inanimate object that sat upon the chair.
"Yes! Yes I want to destroy them! I want them all dead! How can you say that I don't? They betrayed me! Yes…yes, you are right! Their deaths must come at any cost! No matter what…they will die!!"
With that, Primus Kurstin authorized the release of Star League-era equipment to the mercenary regiments under his employ. The mercenaries would capture the HPGs, and then Kurstin could continue his insane purges of ComStar. But the Primus did not count on the fact that information of Operation Winged Crusader would leak to the First Circuit in exile. As news of the operation spread, more and more Precentors, Demi-Precentors, Acolytes, and Adepts sided with the First Circuit, as such a blatant use of military force was not something that the blessed Blake would have approved of. A coded message was sent from the First Circuit to a sleeper ROM agent on Terra. It was on January 3, 2902, that the assassin struck.
"Go! Leave me alone! I must talk in private with Conrad", ordered the Primus.
The two ROM guards in the room gladly accepted his order. It meant a chance for them to get away from their unpredictable ruler. And it meant a chance to light a cigarette and relax a bit. As they bent their heads to light up, they did not notice the shadow that had crept into the Court of the Star League. And when they were finally aware of the intrusion, they were too late to stop the laser beams that had pierced their hearts.
The assassin moved out of the shadows, towards the security system interface panel. Within a matter of minutes, she or he had disabled the security systems that had lain dormant for a century and more. The figure also disabled the hidden video cameras located in the hallways and the Throne Room. Those same cameras had been silent witnesses to the insanity of Dwight Kurstin, and now they would be blinded, not able to capture the assassination of a Primus on video.
A few moments later, the ROM agent reamerged from the Throne Room, her, or his, job complete. All that remained of Kurstin's legacy was a corpse, an urn containing a long-dead Primus, and a copy of The Word of Blake, placed on the marble floor by the unknown assassin. The crisis was over, but ComStar would never be the same again. |
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