Blackout

On Sunday, 7 August 3132, otherwise known as Gray Monday, unknown perpetrators disabled 75-80 percent of the interstellar hyperpulse generator network in simultaneous attacks and acts of sabotage. Many HPGs were destroyed by a virus program. Those that were immune to the virus were either sabotaged or subject to outright attack by mysterious forces.

As a result, interstellar communications by and large collapsed, and was reduced to relaying messages via JumpShip in "pony express"-style. The communications blackout had widespread and wide ranging ramnifications, plunging the Inner Sphere into chaos. Civil unrest grew when it became apparent that the blackout would not be quick or easy to fix. The reformed ComStar order was nearly bankrupted over this.

It has been speculated that the appellation "Gray Monday" for a date that is actually a Sunday comes from the fact that the full impact was not felt until the following day.

Notes

• In the BattleCorps PDF edition of the novel A Bonfire of Worlds, the date of Gray Monday is given as 1 August (instead of 7 August) which, being a Monday, may originally have been the correct date. However, according to the Line Developer, the date is corrected to 7 August in a proof of the novel which is in line with virtually all Dark Age era publications (save one novel by Blaine Pardoe)and a story published in BattleTech: 25 Years of Art & Fiction.

References

• Official Line Developer ruling on the correct date, including explanation on why a Sunday would be called "Gray Monday".