Tian Cheng

天城 "Celestial Fortress"

The Fluff

Tian Cheng is one of China’s earliest colonies on the Long March to space. Founded on a garden world rich in natural resources, its strategic position, scarcely a handful of jumps from Sol proper, made it an ideal location for the CCA’s first regional defence base, and its name reflects that early strategic thinking. However, the local Posthuman structure seemed to disagree with this plan. After decades of inactivity, the seemingly benign collection of spires launched a devastating attack on the first PLAN squadron that came into orbit, destroying one ship and crippling others. Reinforcements were called for, and a short but sharp campaign resulted in the obliteration of the Posthuman site with nuclear bombs.

Other than this unfortunate altercation, Tian Cheng’s early history was peaceful. Colonists arrived by the shipload to fuel its rapidly growing economy while the PLAN fleet anchorage grew into a fully fledged fleet base, complete with massive orbital drydocks, shipyards and fortresses. This expansion stimulated further industrial development on the planet, but it didn’t come without consequences. China’s military focus in its genetic engineering plan had resulted in some tension between civilians and the military. This was exacerbated by the sheer number of them in Tian Cheng, and the decision of many to retire in the colony instead of returning home, though this tension remained primarily at the level of teahouse grumbling.

Due to its proximity with Sol, the people of Tian Cheng retained a great degree of societal links with the “homeworld”, and this was heavily supported by both the local government and the CCA. Most notable of this was what was dubbed “The Great Pilgrimage”. During their middle school years, every student would go on a month long, all expenses paid school visit to Earth during their final year vacation. At its height, this involved over fifty PLAN heavy troop transports and escorts carrying over two hundred thousand students, and served as not only a symbol of Chinese wealth, but also of its ability to casually transport what amounted to a planetary invasion force on a regular basis. This formed the highlight of the PLAN’s annual training schedule without unnecessarily provoking an international incident, and culminated in a simulated planetary assault on Tian Cheng upon the students’ return.

The Exhuman Insurgency brought an end to this tradition, with the valuable transports dearly needed to ferry intervention forces all across the Chinese arm. During this time, Tian Cheng housed the main rapid reaction force for the Inner System while its large expanses of uninhabited land and its comparatively uncluttered outer system provided the PLA and PLAN with valuable training space. While this once again led to frictions between the military and the civilians, the population firmly rallied against the rebels and separatists. In the run up to the Breakdown however, serious misgivings began to arise as to the cost of funding the counter-insurgency efforts, and this was coupled with what seemed like the coming end of the Chinese golden age.

The Breakdown brought these and other brewing issues to the surface. Protests erupted all over the planet, demanding increased social welfare and equality for all citizens and an end to the days of rampant military spending. The planetary governor refused calls from the military to suppress the dissent, instead calling for the dissolution of the People's Congress and snap elections citing a need for a fresh mandate from the people.

The Numbers

SP: 1

SP Limit: 10

Population: 570 Base bonus: 285

Trangene: 20

Morale: 6

Wealth: 750 + 285

PIP: 650 + 285

CIP: 600 + 285

Fabbers: 0

Delta Dust: 250

Theta Dust: 0

Military: 52500

Doctrines: 80

Logistics: 90

Global Tech Level: 20

Applications: 100

Stockpiles: 2500

Debt: -1