Good charts, strong ship, and a sextant have made it possible to weather more than one storm.
- Anastasius Focht
This branch of ComStar was formed by Primus Sims in 2960 after she began to have visions of Blake and other Primuses referring to the space outside the Inner Sphere borders. She revealed to the First Circuit that one night she had fallen asleep at her desk and was awakened by the ghostly figure of Jerome Blake. The apparition stood next to a map of the Inner Sphere and pointed to the mysterious space beyond the territories of the current governments. In a chilling voice he warned her that the only true threat to ComStar lay far beyond the borders of the Inner Sphere.
In her most striking vision, Conrad Toyama appeared to here in a dream, also pointing to a map of the Inner Sphere. Suddenly the borders seems to burst into flames, and strange monsters and beings leapt out at her from the flames until the whole map of the Inner Sphere had been burned to mere ashes. The Primus believe that the visions were prophecies of the future.
It these images and visions that motivated Primus Sims to propose the formation of a new branch of ComStar, the Explorer Corps. This branch would consist of JumpShips and personnel assigned to the task of scouting and mapping the worlds beyond the Periphery. Sims did not cite her dreams in seeking approval of funding from the First Circuit, but instead harked back to the mystery of the long-departed Kerensky Exodus fleet. The Primus pointed out that the will of Jerome Blake and the foundations of ComStar would be shattered should the Exodus fleet ever return.
The ostensible goals of the new Explorer Corps were to chart and catalog far-distant Periphery worlds. Their DropShips were only lightly armed, as were the crews. If an Explorer mission happened upon a still-functional but forgotten Star League base or Exodus colony, their task was diplomacy rather than conquest. ComStar would eventually notify the rest of the Inner Sphere governments of any discoveries, but not before ComStar had examined the technological base of any new find. Prime on the list of long-term objectives of the Explorer Corps was to learn the fate of Kerensky's Exodus and to ensure that any survivors who returned to the Inner Sphere made their first contact through ComStar.