Zhuhai

The Zhuhai system centers on an enormous, yet paradoxically cold and dark orange sub-giant, eight times the radius of Sol, yet only one third as luminous due to its low mass. It became a modest source of mineral resource and industrial goods under the Rim Worlds Republic, even managing to house BattleMech factories at its peak, but it suffered greatly from the Amaris Civil War and fell into obscurity until it was rediscovered and conquered by Clan Ashen Corsac.

## Affiliation Timeline

* **2307** - Independent - First recorded habitation
* **2339** - Rim Worlds Republic - Peaceful Integration
* **2779** - Independent
* **3066** - Clan Ashen Corsac - Conquest

## Demographic Characteristics

### Development Index

C-C-A-C-D

Zhuhai II is a slightly smaller world than Terra with a relatively low mass and noticeably lower gravity. life on Zhuhai II is characterized by the enormous fireball in the sky that is its orange sub-giant and its relatively short orbital period, with a day only taking 18 standard Terran hours, and a year roughly 155 standard Terran days. It is relatively rich in mineral.

The world has more landmass than water, which is distributed into many smaller huge lakes and seas, rather than massive oceans. Equatorial temperature is fraught with blasted hot desert, while most of the planet's landmass features either hot steppes or mediterranean climates. With its very low axial tilt, Zhuhai III experiences very little seasonal shifts. Much of the landmasses are dotted by large and tall mountain chains.

#### Infrastructure

As Zhuhai was originally settled for minerals, most of its settlements are located near the planet's many chains of mountains. There are two kinds of settlements, large cities in the valleys at the foot of the mountains, which host most of the planet's industry, and smaller cities built on the sides of the higher levels of the mountains. Both of them have fairly utilitarian and sturdy infrastructure, with the large surface cities being largely plain and mass-produced in appearance, and the mountainside cities being more exuberant and complex in architectural style. The second were created later in the planet's history and have been largely influenced by an attempt to attract tourism to the world, which once was successful due to the breathtaking views, recreative aviation and snow-clad ski slopes.

Power generation relies on a mix of locally-sourced fission power plants and renewables, primarily solar panels in the valleys and deserts, and high altitude wind turbines, while vehicles mostly use methane-based autogas or fuel cells. Air transport by fixed wings and rotor-craft is common, mostly with imported vehicles from Grenze, while rail transit is dominant for bulk transport between cities Large, extensive networks of sky-lines and conveyors are also a frequent sight in mountainside industrial zones.

#### Demographics

Zhuhai is largely settled by colonists of originally Chinese and Russian origins, though they have no cultural ties with the Capellan Confederation due to having been settled prior to its formation. They are not as conformist and conflict-adverse as the people from their neighbour Beitun, from whom they split off, but the trait is still present in a lesser degree. The harsh nature of their world has caused the people to grow more hardy and adventurous in general. Some of Beitun's agrarian leaning are still present on Zhuhai II, as many cities in the mediterranean band grow large orchards of olives, citrus or grapes. The mountains are also noteworthy for their many monasteries dedicated to a variety of eastern faiths

### Planetary History

#### Early History

Zhuhai II was originally settled by colonists from nearby Beitun who realized their own world was woefully lacking in mineral resources, especially heavy metals, which scans reported Zhuhai II to be rich in. The two worlds would become tied together not only culturally, but also economically as each had what the other lacked, with Beitun's fertile soil making up for Zhuhai's scorching deserts and hostile steppes.

This inter-dependence was quickly lessened when both worlds were peacefully integrated into the Rim Worlds Republic, greatly increasing their respective avenues for trade. With the Republic in general having many minerals-poor worlds, ores from Zhuhai were in high demand, which spurred a fairly rapid expansion. Before long, Zhuhai had overtaken Beitun in terms of population and industrialization, and it featured at least two dozens mining complexes of some relevance, largely sponsored or owned by the nearby metallurgical giant Schwarzstein Metall.

#### Reunification Wars

When tension and instability started to rise within the Republic, the people of Zhuhai II were conflicted. On one hand, Gregory Amaris' actions in the past decades had eroded much of the goodwill they had for the ruling House, but on the other hand, its economy was highly reliant on trade with other worlds of the republic, and independence was a trickier proposition than it sounded. Ultimately, it was only by a slim margin that the world decided to cast its lot with the rebel Provisional Government. For the first several years, it would remain at a tenuous peace, and all seemed relatively fine.

Then came the SLDF and its Operation MAILED FIST. Elements of the SLDF 4th Corp eventually came to subjugate Zhuhai, which was defended by the 10th Amaris Dragoons, supplemented by some number of militia units. In the open steppes and large cities in the valleys, the SLDF had the advantage with its heavy firepower, numbers and battlemechs, but in the rougher terrain and the mountainside, they encountered considerably more difficulties. Using bases dug into the rock of the upper mountains themselves, remnants of the 10th Dragoons and their militia allies were able to considerably harry the SLDF with VTOLs, fighters, and artillery. This state of affairs continued until they were able to bring the SLDF (who had been in unconditional destruction mode before) to the negotiation table to accept a ceasefire. This made Zhuhai's 10th Dragoons one of the few Rim World units not explicitly destroyed by the SLDF during the Reunification Wars.

#### Amaris Coup

By the tumultuous years of the Amaris Coup, Zhuhai had grown into reasonable well industrialized and developed world providing good amounts of components and complex machinery through the Core-ward sector of the Republic. This included a significant defense industry, including a BattleMech factory from MachtWerk producing Riflemen and Musketeers (By 2769 it was even setting up Dragoon production lines) as well as some VTOL and Aerospace Fighter components for Vanguard Aerospace.

The people of Zhuhai had grown to truly hate House Cameron and the SLDF since the Reunification Wars far more than they disliked House Amaris, viewing them as a distant imperialist tyrant that exploited the Periphery and used its enormous military to crush any dissent, or indeed any hope of freedom. When Kerensky invaded in late 2768, the defending 10th Amaris Dragoon sought revenge and were bolstered by the 4th Lancers, with both units being fanatical and fairly well equipped.

The highly mobile forces attempted to use the SLDF's proclaimed moral high ground against them by baiting them out of the cities and into the steppes where the faster Dragoons and Lancers could hound down the more numerous and heavier but slower SLDF forces bit by bit. This strategy saw initial success, but the SLDF was able to leverage its numbers to occupy the capital and its sprawling defense industry while the defenders were busy elsewhere. Enraged, the Dragoons and Lancers doubled-back and began a siege to eject the SLDF forces, but all assaults were bloodily repulsed as the invaders could much more easily leverage their weight advantage in urban close quarters. Unwilling to allow Kerensky his prize, the Dragoons detonated nuclear warheads at key points in the capital, wiping out much of the occupation force and destroying its key war factories before being destroyed themselves in retaliation.

With its capital and industrial heartland annihilated and a large area around it irradiated, Zhuhai suffered greatly from the civil war and the subsequent internal strife as various political factions all claimed rulership after the government was decimated in the strike. Before even the start of the Succession Wars, it was already but a shadow of its former self.

#### Succession Wars

The sheer devastation wrought upon Zhuhai II - largely self-inflicted - ensured that the planet was ignored during the Succession Wars, as it was seen as more trouble than what it was worth to conquer. It would take several decades for the internal warfare to end and for a stable government to emerge and start the long and painstaking process of rebuilding. A new capital was eventually built in the city of Yuncheng, located high on the mountainside, and Zhuhai entered an uneasy state of co-existence with the nearby Lyran Commonwealth. The world continued to export its plentiful ores and metals, also serving as a quaint touristic resorts for nobles of nearby Lyran worlds, while importing food and the technology needed to continue rebuilding.

#### Restoration Wars

Zhuhai II would remain independent in this precarious state until 3066, but the expected threat of a Lyran invasion never materialized. Instead, the world was conquered by Clan Ashen Corsac during their Operation PROVING GROUND, which mostly saw short but brutal air combat between Zhuhai's Skyguard militia and the 1st Corsac Reiters' own Aerospace pilots. The Corsacs were fairly impressed by the skills and courage of the Skyguard and took many Bondsmen, going out of their way to take down their foes in ways that allowed ejection. Meanwhile, the people who were still largely weary of war avoided insurgencies, being largely afraid that their world might be savaged once again.

To their surprise, the Corsacs were far more benevolent than anticipated and allowed the people reasonable levels of freedom despite the great culture shock of re-organizing their society. Moreover, the Corsacs brought considerably more and newer technologies than trade with the Commonwealth had and accelerated the process of rebuilding, increasing quality of life across the entire world.

The most famous agreement that was struck between the Corsacs and the local representatives however was the Jinse Shangu reclamation project. By making use of a genetically modified breed of fungi based on a specie discovered over a thousand years ago in Chernobyl of old Terra which is noteworthy for effectively feeding on radiation, Corsac Scientists believed it would be theoretically possible to decontaminate Zhuhai's former capital entirely, allowing it to be resettled and its factories repaired. Whether or not this reconstruction project was economically more viable than simply building new factories was questionable, but the abandoned old capital represented a wound in the population's collective memory, and the project would allow the people to finally move on.

### Major Assets

#### Military Deployments

2573

* 10th Amaris Dragoons

2750

* 10th Amaris Dragoons
* 4th Amaris Lancers

2830

* Zhuhai Sky Guards

3068

* 6th Aegis Garrison Cluster
* 1st Skyguard Garrison Cluster

#### Major Locations

* **Yuncheng** - The current capital of Zhuhai is a sprawling arcology built as a ring around the upper levels of a relatively small mountain chain, located in the southern hemisphere's mediterranean band. Yuncheng is the administrative and touristic center of the world, though it is only lightly industrialized. It is notable for its large skyways and widespread use of transparent silica mimicking glass without the fragility, with swimming pools and citrus orchards a thousand meters high and bay windows that project into the far horizon. It does also feature a relatively large starport on the flattened mountaintop with many landing pads for dropships and small crafts.
* **Jinse Shangu** - The former capital of Zhuhai was located in a relatively pleasant valley between two hills in the northern hemisphere. It was a large industrial center with massive manufactoria and defence complexes and a distinctly utilitarian Chinese architecture that was destroyed by nuclear strikes during the Amaris Coup. From 3066 to 3081, most of the ghost city was artificially covered in radiation-eating fungi as a decontamination experiment, which allowed MachtWerk's ancient BattleMech plant to be tentatively restored and brought back online