Campaign:BTC/Khouth (world)

For generic information see Khouth

Starport

The starport is housed in an orbital platform. It is huge.

Port Admin and Immigration are all in struts 17 and 18. Startown is in strut 16. Struts 19 to 32 are mostly cargo storage and workshops. Struts 1 to 14 are residential except strut 8 which is the main retail zone Strut 15 is commercial stuff. There is a Hyperloop that operates between struts – Up the North Side and back down the South Side. Strut 1 is lowest in the gravity well – strut 32 is the furthest up. The orbital is called “Anuesangdkhoell” by the Vargr and “Kaargigumdemsham” by the Humans.

Startown is 2300 years old and was built by a despot named “Ashiilakig” who named it after his favourite mistress – a mistake that saw him in the divorce courts a year later

History

Khouth has always been a proud planet - the leading part (in its view) of the alliance that governed the region before the arrival of the Imperium - a major player in the Vargr Campaigns and on the right side of the Imperium's arguments with Gase A. It's influence (before the Imperium) extended to coreward by almost an entire subsector - but it never really bothered with Million Subsector as it was under-populated and resource poor. And the Souggvuez were just peasants in mud huts.

Its arrogance came back to bite it in 1117-1118 when it was occupied by the Dzarrgh Federate and again in 1127 when 61st Fleet occupied some of its orbitals and burned it's main jump-drive fabrication plants.

The Vargr of the Dzarrgh Federate stripped the public buildings of anything intrinsically valuable in 1117, 1118 and again in 1119 - and then levied a tax on assets and portable goods in 1123 which caused uproar.

In 1132 the Federate's Governor appointed a new Assistant Deputy: Thauthrirrd. He turned out to be highly charismatic and horribly effective. He was assassinated in 1133.

In early 1138 the Vargr leadership on Khouth (i.e. Governor Sukkhouk) was un-successfully challenged and this initiated a purge both of the Vargr officials that had supported the pretender and of the Guards that allowed the challenger to escape! This in turn undermined the legitimacy of that leadership during a time of crisis and the Federate found itself weakened at the time of greatest threat.

World Military

Although Khouth has over 1000 battalions of troops, it was significantly hampered by the fact that the main line of defence for the planet's extensive orbital habitats was its Navy. When the 30th Fleet Imperialised the colonial squadrons and ordered them to the Core Sector, the locals understood that the 31st Fleet would remain as a defence for the region. They were dismayed to discover that this too had been included in the Imperial decree from Lucan. The Vargr of the Dzarrgh Federate descended in droves in 1117 and threatened to use particle accelerators to irradiate the orbitals if they didn't surrender.

The much-vaunted Imperial Army regular units on-world were helpless and either surrendered or fled. The Colonial units mostly just went home.

After 1126 a group known as Ida came to the fore as the central organising committee of the opposition to Vargr rule. It was driven underground later that year in a botched attempt to arrest its leadership. The Domain of Deneb was rumoured to support this group with finances and (later) arms in return for information and the execution of specific acts of sabotage.

After 1136 the Dzarrgh Federate started recruiting troops from Khouth as assault troops and for some garrison duties on the old rival world of Serk. These troops were somewhat unreliable, and much hated wherever they went.

In 1137 the relations between the Dzarrgh Federate and the Irrgh Manifest had broken down to the point where the two groups were actively shooting at each other.

Refugee Flows

The Dzarrgh Federate saw the occupation as the chance to redress the imbalance of power between the Vargr Extents and the Imperium. They took over the shipping for the purposes of future advances (and commercial gain) and replaced the upper echelons of the government. They appropriated to themselves the Imperial assets, and set themselves up at the main commercial starport in a semi-fortified enclave. They then taxed the system until it squeaked. This caused a flood of refugees to the Domain of Deneb via the United Followers of Augurgh.

Additionally, there were other refugees passing from the Irrgh Manifest that were arriving one their way through to safer places. The Federate's policy was generally to strip them of whatever assets they had and pass them on to the United Followers of Augurgh to deal with. Some they forced into indentured service, sold into slavery or even just spaced.

When the Regency was formed, the rumours of Virus were irrelevant to the Humans (they already had enough troubles) and unimportant to the Federate's leaders - there were several powerful fleets between them and the potential threat. What it did do was increase the flows away from the planet. Including the earlier exodus, about 600 million people ultimately left Khouth - about 300-400 million of these successfully found somewhere to settle in the Regency and about 100-150 million ended up in the Vargr Extents. Over 100 million are estimated to have died on route.