Conrad Toyama

Conrad Toyama (27?? – April 2837) assumed control of ComStar, following Jerome Blake's death in 2819.

Conrad Toyama

Biography

Early life to the First Circuit

Toyama originated from the Terran Hegemony world of Dieron.

Joining the Star League's Department of Communications as a technician shortly after Jerome Blake's appointment as Minister in the aftermath of the Amaris Coup, the young Toyama quickly earned the respect of the older man. Despite his relative youth, Blake would select Toyama for the important post as chief administrator of the restored Dieron Hyperpulse Generator, earning him a position on Blake's newly created political First Circuit, the decision making council for the Department made up the HPG First Circuit's chief administrators.

One of Toyama's first actions was to suggest that with the collapse of the Star League that the Department of Communications was no longer suitable for the organization, suggesting instead ComStar, a combination of the names of two biggest companies that formerly sold their services to the Department, Communications Enterprises Inc. and Starlight Broadcasting Ltd. After The Purification, Toyama would later claim his inspiration for the name was due to an high voltage electrical shock suffered while working on the Deiron HPG during which he was visited by the shade of Richard Cameron who whispered it to him. No matter its origin, Blake backed the proposal and the Star League Department of Communications was thereafter known as ComStar.

While some on the First Circuit questioned his level of fanatical devotion, Toyama remained on the body for the remainder of Blake's reign during the maelstrom of the First Succession War, viewing Blake as a kind of prophet and savior of humanity, following his every command with an almost religious fervor. As the elderly Blake began to increasingly withdraw from the day to day running of his organization, most frequently to a private retreat in the foothills of Green Mountains, Toyama was among the many devoted followers who regularly visited him.

Assumption of Power and The Purification

Toyama took over the leadership of ComStar following Blake's death in 2819, replacing the previous corporate structure with a hierarchy based upon religious trappings and mystic rituals. Along with the change came a new title for the highest authority within ComStar: Primus. Toyama's intent behind the cultish change was to encourage the belief that the future of humanity lay in technology and communication between the realms and that only ComStar could presently provide that protection. By bestowing the employees of ComStar with a mythical aura of knowledge, Toyama hoped to protect the organization's control of the technology. If only ComStar's adepts could operate ComStar's technology, then even the "greedy" states would work to protect his people. The Star League's legacy would then be safe under ComStar's aegis.

By 2820 and content with his full control of the Order, Toyama embarked on a public tour of the capitals of the Great Houses to meet with each of the leaders of the Inner Sphere. While the professed goal was to explain ComStar's new religious based organization and structure, it also allowed Toyama to explain personally how he had prevented Schwepps' renegade First Circuit from launching attacks against the Great Houses at a heavy cost, requiring a 15 percent increasing in transmission rates to rebuild the organization's damaged infrastructure.

Save for Archon Richard Steiner of Lyran Commonwealth, the other house lords grudgingly accepted the increase with minimal resistance. The Archon however refused to make public appearances with Toyama and only agreed to new terms after what he claimed amounted to diplomatic blackmail. Tensions between the Commonwealth and the Blessed Order only increased after this, with the Archon often openly questioning ComStar's neutrality and Toyama's motives, hinting that he suspected the organization was a front for an eventual take-over of the Inner Sphere.

Matters reached a head when Richard's son Marcus, convinced the Lyran Estates-General to pass his father's Reclamation Act of 2823, which required that ComStar's profits and property be taxed like any other business operating in the Lyran Commonwealth. Toyama knew he had to act swiftly to ram home that ComStar was not just a business, and lest any other leaders decided to follow suit. Calling a special session of the First Circuit, Toyama convinced the body to pass the Exclusion of Tharkad Act, ComStar's first Communications Interdiction against one of the Successor States.

Shortly before the first tax bill was due, on October 3rd 2823 a copy of the act was transmitted to Tharkad and delivered to the Archon, followed by the shutdown and disabling of the capital's Hyperpulse Generator. Before the Archon could even respond, all ComStar personnel were safely evacuated off world. In one fell swoop Toyama had shown all the House Lords that he was not afraid to use ComStar's power. The Interdiction lasted almost a full year with little communication between the Commonwealth and ComStar before Marcus eventually bowed to public pressure in the fall of 2824 and asked the Estates General to rescind the Act. Within 72 hours of the announcement, the Tharkad HPG was again active processing.

Basking in the success of his political showdown with the Commonwealth, in the fall of 2824 with several members of the First Circuit in tow, Toyama made another series diplomatic visits to the governments of the Inner Sphere. This time the goal was much simpler, a recruitment drive to counteract the massive decrease in applications triggered in response to ComStar's transformation into a quasi-religious organization. While few in the Inner Sphere proper and even Terra itself were willing to make a lifelong commitment to what many saw as a mystic cult, Toyama had much more success on the more marginal worlds of the Periphery, the year and half trip considered a great success.

Death and Legacy

The Toyama BattleMech used by the Word of Blake was named in his honor.

Bibliography

• ComStar (sourcebook)