Project Sunlight

Project SUNLIGHT was a joint ComStar–Republic of the Sphere investigation focused around HPGs, founded by Tucker Harwell.

History

After Gray Monday, almost all HPGs, which allow faster-than-light communication, were burned out by a virus or destroyed by direct attacks; only some older generators remained operational. Most of the Inner Sphere fell into chaos and wars erupted across the Sphere. The remaining generators became priority targets for the warring factions.

ComStar's attempts to repair or rebuild the HPGs failed; with even newly-installed cores burning out mere seconds after being turned on. In 3135, some hope appeared when technician Tucker Harwell managed to reactivate Wyatt's HPG.

However, a second repair on Millungera didn't last. With so many factions desperate to reactivate their HPGs, Tucker's success made him a target for Republic forces, the Spirit Cats, Bannson's Raiders, and the reborn Com Guards, who ultimately succeeded in seizing his team. However, Harwell failed to repeat his success with the Wyatt facility. Even newly built HPGs failed to achieve operational status.

The Republic launched Project Sunlight to uncover the cause of the blackout and reactivate the HPGs. Tucker, after uncovering the origin was Clarion Note, a Blakist-turned Republic secret project, awakened Devlin Stone searching for answers, and later was convinced to became Sunlight's leader. By then, he had uncovered than the Hyperspace frequency had changed, and every system would need a new one, but wasn't able to find which one.

The researchers focused their work on Northwind, because that HPG, older than others, initially went dark but later inexplicably began transmitting again.

This made Northwind a target, and a three-sided battle erupted around the HPG complex between the Northwind Highlanders, the Draconis Combine, and the Capellan Confederation, forcing the defenders to destroy the HPG in order to drive both invaders offworld. However, they kept the underground part of the HPG intact, and it remained critical to Sunlight's research.

In the end, Project Sunlight was described as a doomed effort. However, Clan Sea Fox, using a markedly different line of research, managed to find an undisclosed solution and in 3152 they managed to restore the Alyina HPG. The Clan began building new HPGs that were immune to whatever caused the blackout, first on Twycross, slowly replacing ComStar as the controllers of interstellar communications.

Sunlight Personnel

• Tucker Harwell (lead researcher).
• Bianca Haller.

Notes

The virus that shut down the HPG appears to be Clarion Note, a Devlin Stone secret project, but he claims he didn't activate it.

Bibliography

• Empire Alone
• Grey Watch Protocol (novel)
• Shattered Fortress