Kowloon (Planet - Ngo Megaverse)

thumb|425px|Kowloon Star System Map, 3063
==Star System Information==
* Name = Kowloon
* Coord = -292.603 : 367.02
* Stars (Type) = G2(V) Yellow Sun
* Planets = World List Kowloon (Habitable) 5 "Rocky" worlds, 1 World in the Habitable Zone 2 (Boojum, Unspecified) Gas Giants with moon systems (1 Inhabited moon - Spider Moon, Pop. 10,000) 2 Asteroid Belts (Both loosely inhabited, est. 40,000 full-time "Rockjack" inhabitants) 1 Oort Cloud (Loosely inhabited, Est. 2000 full time residents.)
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Kowloon is a world whose star system is the anti-spin or "Northern" region of the Inner Sphere.
This article is based on facts & history of the Ngo Megaverse.
==Canon Note==
The planet is a Canon planet in the BattleTech Universe, while physical location is correct, the history presented here is from the fan writer Cannonshop. 
==Description==
Kowloon - Titular home world of the House of Ngo, the main innovators and saviors of the Kowloons from many harms befalls the planet during it's course of it's history. 
*Population: 2.1 Billion Dominant Language: Vietnamese
*Dominant Industries: Manufacturing/Military, Trade, Transport Repair, Mining (Boojum Belt and Oort Cloud regions)
*Self-Sufficiency Rating: Full Self-Sufficiency
*Economy Type: Free Market Capitalist
*Government: Constitutionally limited Monarchy (Parliamentary Democracy)
*Ruling Noble House: House Ngo
==Kowloon III==
*Planet Name = Kowloon
*position = 3
* distance = 
* moons = 1 
* day = 
* gravity = 1.0
* pressure = Standard (Breathable)
* temperature = 
* water = 70%
* life = 
* date = 
* ruler = House of Ngo
* capital = Dinh Diep (former)
* population = 2.1 Billion Dominant Language: Vietnamese (3063 including System wide)
* USIIR = 
* hpg = B 
==System History==
===Colonization===
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Kowloon was first colonized early in the 22nd Century during the mass exodus from Terra (Earth). The initial colony groups included a large community of "anticommunists" of Southeast Asian descent, including H'mong survivors, Montagnards, Viet and Khmer cultural groups, leavened at the time with a large group of escapees from the Arab-Controlled TA Administrative district formerly known as Israel. The former Israelis were escapees from the Germanium Fields north of the Sinai Peninsula, these forced-labour camps were ignored by TA officials so long as they continued to produce the now-critical mineral at sufficient prices to fuel Terran Alliance member funded missions off-world.
The colony group listed them as "Arabic" to avoid transit restrictions and scrutiny. The escape went as planned, and the colony ships (Six of them) "Misjumped" Deliberately-making for a destination barely surveyed by automated deep-probes.
In the first year of the Colony, the addition of the Israelis proved critical to the survival of the rest of the colonists when their transported foodstuffs went bad. As the colony was "Hiding", there was no chance to call back to Terra, or (worse) return. Israeli "Dry Farming" techniques, along with the "Kosher" foodstocks brought along (that did not go bad) became the core of the Kowloonese diet, and remains so to this day. (though the Kowloonese DO like their Hot Peppers!)
For the first 200 years, the Kowloonese lived in relative isolation, going without off-world contact for such a long period of time, languages changed and as they changed, so did the local culture. Re-Discovery by the Rim Worlds Republic and Protectorate of Donegal in the late 24th Century shattered this relative peaceful isolation period, and forced the Kowloonese to confront a universe where their old Persecutors may have faded away, but new ones were on the rise..
===Rim Worlds Republic Era===
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====Conquest by the Rims World Republic====
At the time of its discovery, the world of Kowloon was just reaching back into space after more than a century of isolation. The patterns and designs of late 21st Century weapons that the locals could build, and the local use of Thermonuclear power-plants throughout their economy, led to an...unfortunate...choice of defensive measures. Faced with Fusion-powered tanks armed with Autocannons, Lasers, and Particle Beam weapons, and Fusion-powered aerospace craft capable of trans-orbital flight, the Kowloonese rushed back into the Nuclear age, digging missile silos and stringing primitive detection networks willy-nilly across their homeworld and their moon. As a threat, it was sufficient to buy the young world nearly twenty years to prepare for the onslaught of conquest that was coming.
Twenty Years was not enough time to do more, than make it take the Rim Worlds Republic over a Decade to destroy organized resistance in a campaign that ground on endlessly until the fall of Chu'Hoa and Xiao Loc-the primary defense bases on-world at the time.
Arms dealers from the Protectorate of Donegal sold the KDF much of the weapons it used during this fifteen year war, often from stocks of obsolete or discarded systems. The result of all this determined resistance, was what one might expect from a bitter and contested conquest-the Rim Worlds, having achieved victory on the battlefield, attempted to erase the local culture...
Kowloon would be come part of the Apollo Province of the Rim Worlds Republic.<be>
====Occupation by the Republic====
One passive method the Kowloonese used to battle the occupation, was a refusal to use English-the primary langauge of the Rim Worlds Republic. The RWR (House Amaris) chose to combat this by the use of official terror tactics, and outlawing the speaking of Viet, H'mong, or Hebrew in public places. Many of the techniques that would later draw such horror when associated with Stephan Amaris, were first used on the Kowloonese-with poor results. After the first five years, Kowloon became a constant zone of simmering resentment punctuated by periods of anti-occupation violence-many of the techniques of that violence, humourously enough, being rote copies of anti-Israeli violence in the 20th Century, or the operations and methods of the Viet Minh and Viet Cong during the mid 20th century on Terra. The tighter the Rim World governors clamped down, the larger and deeper the insurgency grew.
The Rim Worlds took a new tack in 2574, and began importing settlers from other troubled worlds with offers of land, armed protection, and social status. Largely by trying to 'breed out' the natives, they reasoned, a peace could eventually be imposed that would not require multiple divisions to maintain.
This seemed to largely work out-in the short run. Violence dropped in volume and frequency year after year to a low-point in 2697 (only 44 major incidents that year). However, the Natives insisted on clinging to their language and customs-and a new Rim Worlds Governor (Brigadier David Rowe) suspended the Language Laws and began permitting native-born Kowloonese to again own businesses, land, and attend their chosen religious services. Rowe's retirement to Apollo in 2717 placed an Amaris Cousin, Jean Claude st. Germaine Amaris, as governor. The Governor's forces celebrated this by re-instituting most of the measures Rowe had suspended, and initiating a new round of purges.
This...needless to say, did not go well.
====Dinh Diep====
In 2729, resentment at new impositions by the Rim Worlds Government, and the receipt of covert aid from the Lyran Commonwealth (equipment was produced by the Free Worlds League) combined to turn a nascent powder keg explosive. It began with, according to legend, the assassination of a Rim Worlds soldier by a Nationalist hooker, this triggered a series of reprisals that culminated in the rape and murder of a fourteen year old girl named Anh Li Ngo, the daughter of a former SLDF soldier who had retired to his troubled homeworld. By mid-week, on the 3rd of July, 2729, the city of Dinh Diep was in full-blown revolt, and many of the "Sabras" brought in by the Rim Worlds over the decades were joined to the Natives in an outpouring of rage that overwhelmed two Rim Worlds Heavy divisions and was spreading like wildfire across the planet.
Attempts to arrange talks with the "Revolutionary Council" failed in August, and the Rim Worlds Republic called for Star League Assistance. The 336th Battlemech Division under General John Charles Chivington was completing exercises on the nearby world of Arluna, and was dispatched with their naval support, the SLS Belleau Wood, to quell the spreading insurrection-which by this time had sparked uprisings in the Ia Drang, Nha Tranh, New Saigon, and Tel-Aviv regions of the planet.
Chivington's initial landing was opposed-this time, unlike during the war of conquest, the Kowloonese were well-prepared to meet even a Star League Division's landing craft, and the initial landing was costly. Operations inside the city itself soon bogged down as methods considered "Terran Exclusive" were employed to hamper and in many cases outright destroy battlemechs, their tank support, and to kill infantry.
On September 1, 2729, Chivington made a judgement call, and withdrew the bulk of his ground forces from the city, then, he ordered an orbital strike at what his intelligence analysts assumed was the 'command centre' of the uprising. The shots...missed, instead striking the Municipal Power Station, a large scale fission-reactor. The detonation and fall-out terminated the city and rendered the valley where the first Colonists had built their first community a dangerously radioactive fall-out zone, and to provide the 'gift that keeps on giving' in the form of radioactive fallout carried world-wide to poison the lives of hundreds of millions on the planet.
However, it did manage to 'break' the rebellion temporarily and to erase most of the high-level conspirators. The Rim Worlds were able to 'restore order' shortly after, and the SLDF withdrew. Calls for investigation into the use of orbital firepower on an inhabited city were ignored by the Kerensky Regency and later, by Richard Cameron at the urging of his friend Stefan Amaris.
===Independence & Star League Civil War Era===
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In 2766, Stephan Amaris drew most of the Rim Worlds Military into the Terran Hegemony, stripping garrisons from many of his own worlds-including Kowloon, whereupon he assassinated Richard Cameron and declared himself First Lord. General Aleksandr Kerensky's refusal to bow to Amaris and declaration of war was the opportunity that literally GENERATIONS of Kowloonese had waited for-an opportunity to throw the Rim-Worlds yoke off, and achieve Independence (and Revenge). In 2767, a new round of uprisings began-these were considered minor after Dinh Diep, and Rim Worlds analysts presumed that on-station forces could deal with the problem. The Kowloonese during this time, were preparing... in January of 2769, forty years after their founding city had been blown apart by orbital bombardment, the Kowloonese rose as a people. The campaign was violent, aggressive, and merciless. It is estimated that of 240,000 Rim Worlds sympathizers, officials, and military personnel, less than 400 survived to be dubiously rescued when Kerensky's SLDF arrived in the system in February of 2770 to 'liberate and occupy' it.
General McEvedy of the 331st Royal Battlemech Division (North American) estimated that occupation of Kowloon would require three divisions, and that the conditions there indicated no need for an SLDF presence-the locals had literally thrown-off Rim Worlds domination and had no loyalty to Amaris. This assessment was concurred by General Aaron DeChevalier, Kerensky's chief of staff. Surveys of the population showed large numbers of armed men who wanted nothing so much as a chance to kill more "Rimjobs".
In June of 2771, General Aleksandr Kerensky authorized the formation of the 171st Volunteer Auxiliary Division, nominally an infantry division intended for occupation duty, psyche analysis of potential recruits, and the need for 'shock troops' re-tasked this primarily infantry formation. The primary result being that, at least over the duration of the war, Kowloon was a recognized independent world allied to the Star League Defense Force. During the ten years following, the 171st Volunteers served first against their former masters at the world of Eagle Claw, then the campaign against Amaris himself. The 171st was tasked outside the Lyran theater due to operational needs, and was sent to assist SLDF units in the liberation of a relatively minor world called Elbar.
Elbar may have been the event that altered forever the Kowloonese relationship with Aleksandr Kerensky. The 171st was assigned to assist in the recapture of a Brian Fortress called "Running Deer Mountain." it was at Running Deer, that they found out what Amaris and his collaborators had been doing to millions of Jews on that world. The result of this discovery was an orgy of violent reprisals against Rim Worlds POW's and their Terran-born collaborators, including the infamous first use of the "Elbar Toothpick" (the crucifiction by impalement of 47 Rim Worlds Republican officers.) To quote Colonel Tranh Truk Ngo (leader of the 171st at Elbar) "...and what about the MILLIONS of people they murdered? the ones they parted out like used cars? the WAREHOUSES full of people, chopped into discrete parts to fuel the Amaris War Effort? Sixty THOUSAND put to permanent attention would not be enough!"
The Kowloonese would not be used again until 2779 and the assault on Terra itself, where they fought without mercy or concern for their own casualties in both North America, and the Palestine/Sinai regions, as well as serving translation duty with SLDF MI in southeast asia.
in 2782, Aleksandr Kerensky ordered the disbandment and return of all member-personnel of the 171st Volunteers. Shortly after this order, the unit was stripped of arms and shipped back to their homeworld as civilians, including 27 Officers and 200 enlisted convicted of violations of the Laws of War for their conduct at Running Deer Mountain on Elbar.
Unknown to General Kerensky at the time, several thousand tonnes of captured Rim Worlds war materiel were shipped back with the 171st by order of the 90th Heavy Assault division's commander, whom had also been at Elbar and seen the atrocity sites there.
With Kerensky's decision to 'return' Kowloon to the Rim Worlds, the Kowloonese turned to the Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth. (they REALLY did not want to re-join the RWR...even with Amaris dead) under generous terms of annexation under the leadership of President Marjorie Ngo. the final signing waited seven years-until Tranh Truk Ngo, leader of the 2769 uprising and nominal head-of-state, died from complications of Cholmann's syndrome.
Kowloon's independence began in 2769, and ended with a peaceful annexation to the Lyran Commonwealth in 2788-just in time for much of their hoarded military goods to be turned back into service fighting the Succession Wars.
===The Succession Wars Era===
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The Lyran Commonwealth during the 2773-2775 Republic-Commonwealth War conquered the planet as part of the nation's world grab.
During their period of Lyran domination, the Kowloonese maintained a higher-than-average military qualification and enlistment rate, serving on most of the fronts of that many-sided war under Lyran Colors. Unlike many who join the LCAF, the 'Loonies did their five, and returned HOME...even if it meant returning as ashes in a funerary jar. In Lyran Service, Kowloonese mostly entered infantry MOS groupings, or served as ships' crew on Jump and Drop ships, or in Aviation, where the typically small Kowloonese seemed right at home. Because of the "Five and Out" attitude, few rose to significant rank in the LCAF, those who did, tended to gravitate to Senior NCO positions or specialist roles that lack a certain amount of glamour-about the most glamourous being aviation or Dropship crew.
===Federated Commonwealth Era===
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War of 3039: The War saw the highest number of pre-Clan-Invasion Kowloonese reaching officer ranks, Primarily in the Transport Command (Dropships) and Aerospace Fighter fields.
The Clan Invasion of 3049 to 3050 claimed the Duke of Kowloon (Colonel David Ngo) as well as both of the Duke's male heirs (Kommandant Patrick Ngo-lost on Tamar, and Cadet Henry Ngo, one of the few lethal casualties among the Cadet Corps at Blackjack), leaving sickly Elizabeth Ngo to survive her own mother's assassination attempt and assume the Ducal seat.
During David's Ducal Reign, he chose to spend all of his time as duke in the service of the AFFC as a line officer, leaving Kowloon to the governance of an appointed Regent chosen from the FedSuns half of the Federated Commonwealth. Regent James Condit was probably the poorest choice the Archon-Prince could have approved, and soon proved to be both tyrannical, and corrupt. This came to a head in 3055 and sparked the first violent uprising on Kowloon since the 2769 rising.
====Reign of Dutchess Elizabeth Ngo & Knowloon's Restoration====
Duchess Elizabeth, barely in her teens, returned home to take command of the Uprising after spending two years at Outreach Military Training Centre's Academy programme (having been rejected by other accredited schools due to a confirmed diagnosis of Cholmann's Syndrome, which made her technically unfit to service in ANY military due to an incurable, fatal, degenerative condition.)
Duchess Ngo brought with her several classmates forced to leave OMTC after Alpin's Coup. This cadre of Mercenaries (paid out of Elizabeth's rather ample funds as one of the Commonwealth's most wealthy citizens), along with the substantial number of native Veterans, made short work of the Regent's Militia-a force that had been pared away and stripped of capital equipment to pay for the Regent's lavish lifestyle.
After defeating the Regent's Militia and capturing him, she brought him into an office, reviewed the books with him, discussed things in a cool, and calm manner, and then shot him in the head on live television-with the shooting rebroadcast planet and system wide for the next three days.
Elizabeth The Cruel
The reign of Elizabeth Ngo is marked as something of a 'rebirth' by Kowloonese. During the FedCom split, she carefully avoided the appearance of partisanship, focusing her energies on rebuilding her homeworld's economic infrastructure and militia defenses, instituted improved education, and laid out large amounts of raw cash to rebuild her world's economy. By 3064, the standard of living on Kowloon had risen to near-core-world levels in terms of average income. At the same time, she repealed many existing restrictions imposed to satisfy Lyran officials, including repeals of certain environmental and social welfare statutes, industrial regulations, and land-use regulations...but her administration was also marked by cruel, often excessive, punishments for criminal acts. In 3063, for instance, her revitalized planetary militia captured a company of Bandits in service to Hopper Morrison. She sent one Bandit back with the heads of his colleagues neatly packed in duffle bags along with tapes of their death-by-crucifiction as a message. Bandit activity along that border decreased significantly as a result, however it was sufficiently bizarre that she WAS censured by the Estates General for the action.
== Political Affiliation ==
* 2200 - Independent
* 2400 - Rim Worlds Republic
* 2574 - Rim Worlds Republic
* 2659 - Rim Worlds Republic
* 2719 - Rim Worlds Republic
* 2769 - Independent / SLDF
* 2786 - Lyran Commonwealth
* 3025 - Lyran Commonwealth
* 3050 - Federated Commonwealth
* 3058 - Lyran Alliance
* 3063 - Lyran Alliance
== Planetary Rulers ==
===2769===
* Tranh Truk Ngo (Rebellion Leader & later President)
=== 2782 ===
* President Marjorie Ngo
=== 3049 ===
* Duke (Colonel) David Ngo 
=== 3057 ===
* Duchess Elizabeth Ngo
== Military ==
Unique to Kowloon is it's militia. Initially during the Star League Era, it was occupied by the Rim Worlds Republic. Whom occupied the planet until it's self-liberation just after Amaris Coup. They would form a volunteer division of soldiers whom fought against the Star League Defense Forces until they themselves left the Inner Sphere. 
Depending on the which Ngo-canon story is seen. The world had a nominal infantry and combat vehicle militia. This is until 3050s when the Clans Invaded, skirt around regulations Kowloon official stood up it's military in form of Combined Arms Militia for Planetary Defense, while it's more offensive force was formed center around it's "Naval" forces known as the Kowloon Coast Guard. Its office would be found Spider Moon where various forms of primitive warships / jumpships would be constructed as well significant number of DropShips and AeroSpace Fighter squadrons whom were deployed to neighboring Systems.
=== Military Deployment ===
=== 2771 ===
*171st Volunteer Division
=== 3050 ===
*Kowloon Militia (No 'Mechs)
*Kowloon Coast Guard (Aerospace Only)
==Geography==
==Planetary Locations==
*; Dinh Diep : The original capital city of Kowloon & System until 2729 when city was in rebellion against the cruelty of the RWR, where a accidental strike against the planet's capital.
*; Golden Lakes : A expansive inland Sea.
*; Ia Drang : Region best known for it's crevasses and canyons that can drop you to sea level. In this region is the Plateau. Other features includes the Ia Drang Highland.Historically, Ia Drang was region the City of Dinh Diep, first planetary capital of Kowloon that was bombarded by Rims Worlds Republic. The ruins of the city that remains includes large portion of the city that lay underground, is referred to as Dinh Diep ScarThe Administrator, Chapter 1 - Region noted being scar. It is geological / historical landmark, which portions of the city remain frozen at moment of attack.
*; Nha Tran: The fifth-youngest city, the capital at Nha Tran. To city the East, while the Three Kilometer tall sheer wall of the Ia Drang Plateau loomed just across the river to the west. To it's north side, it was possible to see the frantic, vivid red-orange-and-dark green of the rainforests. To the south, was the rain-shadow of the Plateau and the bowl rise of the Iron Hills. The warm water of the massive river are cooled in part by the Ia Drang Falls, where the rivers upland on the Plateau emptied into the main river by going over a falls that stood two thousand meters above the terrain there.
*; Hue : The second largest city, Star League era brutalist architecture high-rise residences made of cast ferrocrete and just-below-armor grade ferroglass. It served as administrator center for the Rim Worlds Republic. Notable roads is Highway Two which goes north and south, connecting to New Saigon 
*; New Saigon : A City located five hundred kilometers north of Hue, it is Kowloon's third oldest human settlement. Highway Two connects it to the south to the city of Hue. Built into the river delta on a series of hard, stone islands wrapped in sedimentary deposits soaked by the Little Yangtze River-a river that rivaled the Nile in length, and the Amazon in bulk.
==Industrial Centers==
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==Notable Locations in Kowloon Solar System==
;Boojam : a super-jovian with a system of thirteen moons and rings to rival Saturn's display. Some of the static arcs of the rings are almost visible.
;Spider Moon : An inhabited Moon of gas giant Boojum, it's third moon. It is the home to Kowloon's spacers population. The moon also is the site of little noticed Shipyards which are able to produce up to JumpShips, some cases WarShips. It also the site of the Kowloon Coast Guard's Main 
;Asteroid Belts : Home to the Bootrocks, the inhabits whom for all their lives inhabited space and small stations. Mining the rocks of the solar systems, provides metals to the industries of Kowloon.
;Hatter: A dense, mercury-like planetoid in the inner system of Kowloon System. This world's population is buried safely under surface in underground habitats. These communities are sealed up, with life support kept maintained, controlled, and clean. The world is periodically used as training grounds for hazardous environment training.TGoaW-14, Alicia Li reflects on her past training at young age on Hatter and gives a description.
==People/Culture==
*Rockjacks (Kowloonese Belters) - These are descendants of of people whom migrated from Sol Star System whom exclusively live in space. Specifically in micro-gravity. Know being highly talented able to mine in space and able to navigate better land base humans. They are also know develop phobias being on planets surface.
==Notes==
*Wiki Notes: This article is a based on previous Ngo 3.0 version of the Ngo AU.
== Map Gallery ==
== Nearby Systems ==
Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:	Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:	Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:	Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:	Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:	Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:	Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:	Closest 28 systems (25 within 60 light-years)Distance in light years, closest systems first:
Arlanda 	15.8 	Winter 	17.9 	Hood 	23.6 	Jerangle 	28.1
Inarcs 	29.6 	Trentham 	30.1 	Herbania 	30.7 	Jesenice 	32.4
Arluna 	34.9 	Baggville 	39.8 	Melville 	40.3 	Montsegur 	42.7
Wypoute 	43.0 	Pangkalan 	43.4 	Willunga 	46.5 	Abushiri 	47.6
Bucklands 	49.6 	Kwangchowwang 	51.7 	Kolovraty 	51.7 	Anembo 	52.4
Awyron 	52.4 	Annunziata 	53.1 	Neerabup 	57.3 	Chapultepec 	57.3
Engadine 	59.9 	Machapuchre 	60.4 	Mandaoaaru 	60.7 	Gabenstad 	63.1
== Bibliography ==
* A Sickness (Ngo 3.0 Story)
* Ngo Megaverse
== References ==
Kowloon