ComStar Historical Archives

Trent Arian joined ComStar as a young man, shortly before the outbreak of the Fourth Succession War. After attending the Sandhurst Military College on Terra from 3027 to 3030, he entered service with the ComGuards, at this point in time still a secret from the rest of the Inner Sphere. His activities during this period are unknown. By the 3030's, when ComStar officially revealed the existence of the ComGuards, Arian was posted to a unit that saw action in the Periphery and later on Islamabad he commanded a battalion of the 83rd Division in putting down unrest sparked by religious hatred. Despite this, however, the ComGuards, and Trent Arian, remained an untested force.

The invasion of the Clans in the early 3050's provided the ComGuards with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate their ability to themselves and the Inner Sphere. Although they were kept neutral during the early stages of the war, by the first few months of 3052 they had taken what would be a central role in the defense of the Inner Sphere. Precentor Martial Focht's plan to fight a proxy battle on the world of Tukayyid would involve nearly every ComGuard unit and would be one of the largest battles ever fought. Trent Arian received a promotion to Precentor and was given command of the 85th Division (Lions of the Periphery). Deployed to the Kozice valley, the 85th and the 182nd Division faced off against Clan Diamond Shark's 19th Heavy Assault Cluster in the foothills near the city of Kozice Prime. In several days of intense fighting, the 85th was mauled and its Second and Fourth Battalions were destroyed, though the Shark force was reduced to only two survivors. The surviving units of the 85th managed to disrupt the supply lines of the Sharks' Gamma Galaxy, but were wiped out in the process, despite the arrival of the 2nd and 5th ComGuard Armies. Precentor Arian was shot out of his BattleMech twice during the six days of the battle with the Diamond Sharks and badly wounded, but he steadfastly refused to retire from the field until the last of the Shark units had withdrawn in defeat.

As devastating as the battle on Tukayyid had been, Arian had a bigger shock waiting for him when he arrived on Terra to recuperate from his injuries. Simultaneous with Precentor Martial Focht's proxy battle for Terra, Primus Myndo Waterly had attempted a takeover of the entire Inner Sphere, using ComStar's control of the HPG network to seize power over both the Successor States and the Clan occupation zones. Her plan was a failure and in the aftermath Waterly was executed by Focht, who then allied with Precentor Dieron, Sharilar Mori, to bring about a reform and secularization of the order. Many ComStar adherents found themselves unable to accept these changes and broke away under the leadership of Precentor Atreus, Demona Aziz. Arian led a unit of disillusioned MechWarriors into exile in the Free Worlds League, where they helped form the core of the new Word of Blake Militia. Arian himself was appointed Precentor Martial of the fledgling army and proceeded to forge them into a capable force. One of his first actions was to order the mass production of several new BattleMech designs to provide equipment for the large number of 'Mech-less warriors flocking to their banner. Many in the Inner Sphere attribute the success of the Word of Blake's military to Arian's direction. During the early years in the Free Worlds League, Arian led the fledgling militia on Gibson, where he had to contend with native resistance to the Blakist presence and agitators from Regulus.

His skill and determination to build a formidable military force bore fruit in 3058, when the Word of Blake accomplished a feat many would have feared to attempt: the invasion and conquest of Terra. Not since the fall of the Star League and the earliest days of ComStar had hostile military forces descended on the homeworld of mankind, but the Word's strike was amazingly successful. The plan was developed by Trent Arian and Precentor William Blane, defacto leader of the Word of Blake after the mysterious death of Demona Aziz, and involved a Word unit commanded by Suzanne Mulvanery, one of Arian's closest subordinates, and masquerading as the 21st Centauri Lancers, who had recently been hired as garrison troops for Terra. The assault, which commenced on 28 February, came off surprisingly well, and hostilities were ended by 7 March. Precentor Martial Arian landed at the Sandhurst Military Academy on 1 March and participated in the final stages of a running battle between the Blakist 4th Division and the defending ComStar forces. He announced to the surprised inhabitants of Terra that they were now under martial law and he requested that all defending ComGuard units surrender peacefully to avoid unnecessary casualties. Although the request was ignored, major resistance to the invaders had ceased within a few days. Arian was named governor of Terra a month later and proceeded to clamp down on non-approved visitors and activities, including many technology courses at Terra's universities, in keeping with traditional Blakist dogma.

Word of Blake controlled Terra, but not completely. A number of ComGuard survivors had begun guerilla actions against the occupiers and were resisting all attempts to root them out. One of their prime targets was Precentor Martial Arian, who set up his headquarters in London. Between 3058 and 3061 there were at least two assassination attempts against Arian, though neither attempt came close to succeeding. At the same time, he began to grow wary of Cameron St. Jamais, a former soldier in the ComGuards' special forces unit and the leader of the radical Toyama faction. Disdaining the political maneuverings that infected the Word of Blake's inner councils, Arian was determined to remain the quintessential soldier and tried to keep himself out of the infighting.

Trent Arian's stewardship of Terra came to an unfortunate end on 6 June 3061, when an assassin's bomb destroyed his armored vehicle. On his way to a memorial service to commemorate the anniversary of Primus Myndo Waterly's death, Arian and his aide, Suzanne Mulvanery, were killed instantly. Word of Blake investigators tracked the explosive device to one Darius Bell, a ComGuard insurgent still fighting against the Blakist occupation. Bell was executed and Arian's rival Cameron St. Jamais was appointed Precentor Martial in his place.

Personality

Trent Arian was a quiet man, seeming at times indifferent or even bored. However, he was an excellent commander, and his demeanor masked a sharp and attentive intellect. Although he spent most of his adult life as a soldier, he was aware that violence brings out the worst in humanity and often feared that honor was subsumed to the drive for victory on the battlefield. In particular, he feared that his Word of Blake soldiers would allow their hatred for their ComStar brethren to overcome the more noble aspects of their profession when they finally met in combat.

Similarly, Arian greatly desired to minimize civilian casualties during war. He saw and studied what the Clans did during their initial invasion of the Inner Sphere and though he understood that by their own laws the Clans had acted honorably, he disliked putting civilians in harm's way and tried to avoid such situations whenever possible. Many times, when uncomfortably reminded of the horrors of war, he would gently touch his right shoulder, which had been injured during the fight on Tukayyid and served as a constant reminder of the price that war extracted from its victims.

• Sources Used:
• BattleTech Field Manual: ComStar;
• ComStar Sourcebook;
• Ideal War;
• Inner Sphere;
• Invading Clans Sourcebook;
• The Fall of Terra