OBT Forum

The very thought of Toyama being screwed over makes me smile.

Timing is everything.

Not sure if Conrad's ComStar could pull of anything short of a mass (and certainly ineffectual long-term) Interdiction. Then again, the immediate Interdiction will have the desired effect of slowing the turning wheels down. If the technology you mentioned was just handed off, it could be years, maybe decades before a state's worlds could utilize it - after all these things have to get built, installed, etc. An interdiction could slow that process down even further - thereby giving Conrad what he needs the most: Time.

Time to say, do some of the other things you mentioned - like conquer parts of the Hegemony, etc. Toyama would need time to gear up and train a war effort, which an Interdiction might allow him to do if Terra was fully behind him. It's not a sacred cow of course and someone could go and screw his plans by just invading Terra after an Interdiction (and just deal with the fallout), or circumvent the effects of the Interdiction faster than Toyama planned for - the point being there are any number of possible wrenches that could be thrown into the mix.

IMO, I'd say a Jihad is out of the question - the House Lords are still way more sophisticated technologically, and a level of parity between ROM and the SpecOps groups of the House Lords is roughly analogous to one another, so that isn't an edge either. Plus, outside of some mercenaries and a few over the hill ex-SLDF soldiers ComStar doesn't have anything even remotely resembling a functional military. None of the support apparatuses or infrastructure (heck even real institutional memory) that the old ComGuard, and then WoB militia uses to prepare for war even exists. Doubtful also is any of the really experimental technology either, like the super-jump (which makes a Jihad with a small force even remotely possible) available for use at the moment. Same with sufficient WarShips, etc. These things can eventually be used, they'll just need to be built, which requires time and resources. Resources you can fudge - nationalization anyone?! But, time you cannot. 

That's a major mark against.

So time seems to be a deciding factor here.   

He needs time and he needs to be careful going off half cocked against the house lords is like playing tag with a full grown grizzly bear while naked and smeared in honey.

Trying to get the tech under control by sending special forces teams?
Or trying to make a win-win deal with the Inner Sphere States by offering to help them to develop and turn this tech into a viable alternative?

Interesting option there; if the tech can't be stolen/destroyed, then subvert it into another lever of control over the IS. Sort of a "embrace, extinguish" approach?

Exactly.

I think an interdiction would keep ComStar in business long term as the Succession Lords would have little option but to turn back to ComStar to get the HPGs running again, they don't have the telephone companies manpower or expertise in this area.

This is before Holy Shroud, isn't it?  In which case, there are still plenty of people who probably understand how HPGs work in the Successor States.  Heck, even in 3052, when the average education level in the IS was far below what it was in 2827 when this happens, and even then the FedCom was able to operate the HPGs following Waterly's Operation Scorpion.  At least according to the fiction.  Such a feat would be far, far easier in 2827.  And I'd say it was only the Great House's preoccupation with their own squabbles which allowed ComStar to consolidate its strength in the canon history; if they go provoking the Great Houses this early in the game, no single House even has to bother seizing Terra (though it would be a quick and easy fight); rather, they just need to seize the ComStar HPGs in their states and put some people who know how to operate them (or who can likely figure it out) and all communications will be back up.

ComStar running the HPGs was a convenience for the Great Houses, as it meant they could pay a nominal fee for message traffic and not have to worry about the logistics of operating the HPG network.  Remove that convenience, or actually do an IS-wide Interdiction, and suddenly they have every incentive to nationalize the HPGs in their territory, and in 2827 doubtless still have the educated workforce to pull such a thing off.