Hsien

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Hsien
Hsien 3151.svg
System Information
X:Y Coordinates5.683 : -54.334[e]
Spectral classG0V[1][2]
Recharge time181 hours[2]
Recharge station(s)Zenith[2]
Planet(s)5[1]

Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)


Political Affiliation

Hisien I

Template:InfoBoxPlanetStandard

Planetary Info

The world of Hsien had a thriving ecosystem when first discovered by explorers; mixing both tropical expanses and arid deserts, the ecology of the landmasses strongly resembled that of post-Jurassic Terra.[1]

The major landmasses on Hsien are the Montong and Dendeez Chains, two semi-volcanic mini-continents, and the southern super-continent of Chengu. Concentrated in the tropical forests of Chengu and Dendeez chains are a number of species of large reptilian creatures, largely herbivorous in nature and bearing a vague resemblance to the ancient dinosaurs that once roamed Terra. While this lush climate would seem to encourage life, the planetary water supplies on Hsien suffer from high concentrations of toxic microbes and heavy metals inimical to human life.[1]

The Chengu inlands contain modest reserves of useful mineral ores, with the heaviest concentrations located in the mountains found on Montong Prime and around the Zhoulin Sea, a landlocked sea on Chengu.[1]

Hsien IV

According to MechWarrior: The BattleTech Role Playing Game, the large moon of the Hsien system's fourth planet is a mining world. (It is actually implied to be the primary inhabited world in the system.)[42]

Planetary History

Colonization

Settled by colonists predominantly from Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the first human inhabitants of Hsien identified that the large reptiles on the planet were mostly herbivores and had little trouble containing them. The colonists quickly learned that water purification plants would be needed to deal with the microbes and heavy metals already in the water, but the mineral ores found on Hsien supported modest industrial growth and the beginnings of the local noble class, starting with the Montong family. The Montong family were the settlers and stewards of the Montong Chain and the founders of the Montong Mining Consortium, based out of Zhoulin.[1]

Star League Era

In January 2775 Stefan Amaris redeployed large numbers of Amaris Empire Armed Forces to a dozen worlds, including Hsien. AEAF units had used weapons of mass destruction regularly against Star League Defense Force units throughout the Hegemony Campaign, predominantly to either damage the SLDF units targeted or to strike at civilian targets to prevent the SLDF from obtaining resources and supplies. In this case, Amaris' orders were different: he intended to create scorched wastelands that Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky would have no choice but to try and clear, whilst saddling the SLDF with huge numbers of sick and starving civilians. The AEAF units deployed to Hsien and the other eleven worlds due to be abandoned by Amaris launched large-scale WMD attacks with one purpose: to ravage the worlds, preventing them from sustaining either their human populations or their various industries... to create wastelands.[12]

The AEAF tactic was both brutal and brutally effective. Kerensky deployed twelve corps of SLDF personnel into Amaris Empire space, and each discovered the same horrific situations. Forced to deploy the SLDF reserve into action, by February Kerensky had almost a hundred SLDF divisions either on the twelve ravaged worlds or en route to them, trying to provide aid to the populations and to clear up what damage they could.[12] Hsien fell within the operating area of Task Force Confederation, and the Eighteenth Army Group deployed half of LXIV Corps to try and assist the population, with the other half of LXIV Corps deploying to Brownsville, another of the twelve devastated worlds.[43] The devastation wreaked across Hsien and the other worlds bought Amaris time; for several months Kerensky was unable to resume offensive operations because of a lack of resources, and ultimately the Commanding General had no choice but to call on the Capellan Confederation, Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns to provide relief where they could.[12]

Hsien had prospered during the era of the Star League, but when the Capellan Confederation annexed Hsien after the fall of the League in 2781 they exiled many of the noble families from Hsien, including the Twohy family, who had held the planet as a dukedom and included the heavily-industrialized Dendeez Chain as a part of their personal fiefs.[1]

Succession Wars

In common with many of the former Terran Hegemony worlds, the Succession Wars saw Hsien change hands a number of times, locked in the cycle of warfare that marked the era.[1]

Fourth Succession War

Following negotiations between Colonel Pavel Ridzik, chief military advisor to Chancellor Maximillian Liao, and AFFS Lieutenant General Ardan Sortek, conducted in February 3029 Ridzik created a new nation, the Tikonov Free Republic. The Republic was created by incorporating those worlds of the Tikonov Commonality that hadn't already been conquered during the first half of the Fourth Succession War. Ridzik returned to Elgin, the new capital of the Tikonov Free Republic, on the 3rd of March 3029 and swiftly began implementing a new government consisting of family members, friends and other appointees loyal to himself, purging dissident elements on the various Republic worlds and taking the opportunity to settle old scores. Hsien was one of the systems incorporated into the Republic.[19] When Hsien was incorporated into the Federated Commonwealth following the absorption of the short-lived Tikonov Free Republic the FedCom government attempted to influence the world by investing heavily in the Montong family, the last of the ancestral noble houses, but instead ended up alienating the underclass that made up most of the population.[1]

Clan Invasion

Operation GUERRERO

This resentment saw the population opt to rejoin the Confederation after the Federated Commonwealth began to break up in 3057, after CCAF forces had already shattered the remaining FedCom forces on the planet. Capellan rule over the world didn't go uncontested, however; Baron Luis Montong V waited until the bulk of the invasion forces had departed and then turned on the Capellan government, igniting a civil war across the planet. The three-sided war incorporated Baron Montong's forces, forces from the Dendeez Province, which incorporated the Dendeez Chain, base of most of the planet's heavy industry, and the pro-Capellan citizens of Chengu.[1]

The Jihad

The Word of Blake took advantage of the civil war on Hsien, first taking control of the local HPG and then by returning a scion of the Twohy family back to Hsien. Colonel Brenn Twohy, the leader of the mercenary unit the Hsien Hotheads, brought his unit with him, and when the Jihad erupted the Blakists allowed him to assume control of Hsien.[1]

The end of the Jihad in 3079 has yet to bring peace to Hsien; already the site of a number of three-way battles between the occupying Word of Blake Militia, forces from the Capellan Confederation and Devlin Stone's Coalition, the tentative cease-fire enacted with the defeat of the Word of Blake was rumored to have been quickly broken by incidents of low-level sparring between Coalition troops and the Fourth McCarron's Armored Cavalry.[2] These would continue the conflict between coalition and Confederation forces on Hsien that began with the arrival of both groups in January 3078, one of several worlds on which the two groups clashed during Operation SCOUR.[33] Footage from the Palos Daily News journalist Kirkland Terhune via a live feed from the surface of Palos on the 4th of January showed the Fourth Tau Ceti Rangers working alongside the Fourth MAC against the Word of Blake Protectorate Militia; both the CCAF and the Blakist Protectorate Militia were seen to be engaged simultaneously by forces from the Twelfth Atrean Dragoons, one of the units assigned to the Free Worlds League front of SCOUR.[44]

Media sources on Hsien reported in early February that the coalition forces from Group II of the Free Worlds League task force had landed on Hsien first; the Seventh Donegal Guards, Eleventh Mechanized Cavalry Cluster, Twelfth Atrean Dragoons and the Devil's Brigade possessed broadly equivalent numbers to the defending 1st Hsien Protectorate Militia Division and the Hsien Hotheads, and began to steadily push the Blakist forces back until the CCAF forces landed and began attacking both the Word of Blake defenders and the allied coalition forces. The battle for control of Hsien continued as a three-way struggle until the coalition commander persuaded the CCAF commander that they should work together. The two then co-operated until the CCAF forces allegedly ignored attempts by the Blakists to surrender, only to turn on the coalition troops again when they attempted to intervene before being forced to withdraw. Hsien was finally under coalition control, but the various units - including the Clan Hell's Horses 11th MCav - had lost almost half their forces, and would pause for rest and refit for some time.[45]

Dark Ages

The liberation of Hsien saw the industriplexes of Chengu and Dendeez badly damaged, but under the Republic of the Sphere Hsien recovered; a large part of this recovery was thanks to the efforts of the rebuilt Montong Consortium. By 3130 the Montong Consortium had established corporate headquarters in both the planetary capital and in Zhi-Chang on the northern Zhoulin coast, site of the main planetary spaceport.[1]

The planet's HPG station is one of the few working inside the Republic of the Sphere in 3135.[46]

Military Deployment

3025

3050

3054

  • Second FedCom RCT[49]

3058

3067

3069

3078

3079

- At this point in time the 4th is operating at 85% of full strength, with 95% of their equipment featuring upgraded technology.
- At this point in time the 4th Tau Ceti Rangers operating at 60% of full strength, with 75% of their equipment featuring upgraded technology.

3145

- At this point in time, the unit was at 80% of full strength with a "B" equipment rating. The garrison was deployed across the Hsien and Nanking systems.

Nearby Systems

Closest 76 systems (74 within 60 light-years)
Distance in light years, closest systems first:
Chisholm 5.3 Capolla 13.1 Tall Trees 13.3 Saiph 13.7
Mandal 14.5 Zurich 16.9 Menkalinan 17.2 Nanking 17.3
New Canton 18.8 Outreach 21.5 Aldebaran 21.6 Hall 22.1
Brownsville 24.6 Wasat 25.6 Berenson 25.7 Belluevue 26.2
Terra Firma 26.7 Bex 27.8 Zion 30.5 Bhaktapur 30.6
Cynthiana 32.0 Kristiandsund 32.8 Genoa 33.8 Carver 35.4
Epsilon Eridani 35.4 Hechnar 36.1 Acamar 37.4 Arboris 37.6
Kyrkbacken 40.0 Van Diemen 40.5 Blue Sava 40.9 Myrvoll 41.5
Manennaia 41.5 New Home 41.6 Bryant 41.8 Woodstock 42.3
Gan Singh 44.0 Keid 44.3 Talitha 44.4 Procyon 44.6
Epsilon Indi 45.4 Tabit 46.7 Sirius 47.2 Asuncion 47.3
Sheratan 48.1 Azha 48.2 Bernardo 48.4 Hamilton 49.4
Snailzar 49.5 Ningpo 50.2 New Stevens 51.1 Fletcher 51.3
Irian 52.3 Pleione 52.3 Slocum 52.5 Graham 52.8
Pollux 53.8 Kawich 54.1 Caph 54.3 Augustine 54.3
Ibstock 54.5 Sol 54.6 Bharat 54.7 Ilmachna 54.9
Pliska 55.2 Nopah 55.4 Styk 56.5 Ingress 56.6
Devil's Rock 57.2 Rigil Kentarus 57.5 Xi Ursae Majoris 58.0 Acubens 58.0
Northwind 58.8 Castor 59.5 Tau Ceti 60.2 Hamal 60.2

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Dark Age: Republic Worlds (3130), p. 127, "Hsien World Profile"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Objectives: Capellan Confederation, p. 28, "Planetary Data"
  3. Handbook: House Marik, p. 16, "Free Worlds League Founding - [2271] Map"
  4. Handbook: House Liao, p. 13, "Capellan Confederation Foundation - [2366] Map"
  5. Handbook: House Liao, p. 25, "Capellan Confederation After Age of War - [2571]] Map"
  6. Historical: Reunification War, p. 159, "Inner Sphere - [2596] Map"
  7. Era Report: 2750, p. 37, "Inner Sphere - [2750] Map"
  8. Field Manual: SLDF, p. vii, "Inner Sphere - [2764] Map"
  9. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 11, "Inner Sphere - [2765]"
  10. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 104, "Rim Worlds Republic - [2767] Map"
  11. 11.0 11.1 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 138, "Operation LIBERATION Wave 1 [July 2772 - December 2774]"
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 33, "Planets on Fire"
  13. First Succession War (Source Book), pp. 24-25, "Inner Sphere - [2786] Map"
  14. Handbook: House Liao, p. 31, "Capellan Confederation after First Succession War - [2822 Map]"
  15. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 122-123, "Inner Sphere - [2822] Map"
  16. First Succession War (Source Book), pp. 112-113, "Inner Sphere - [2822] Map"
  17. Handbook: House Liao, p. 39, "Capellan Confederation after Second Succession War - [2864] Map"
  18. Handbook: House Liao, p. 40, "Capellan Confederation after Third Succession War - [3025] Map"
  19. 19.0 19.1 NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2, p. 16-17, "Tikonov Free Republic"
  20. NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2, p. 16, "Tikonov Commonality (Map)"
  21. Handbook: House Liao, p. 49, "Capellan Confederation after Fourth Succession War - [3030] Map"
  22. NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2, p. 94, "End Of The War"
  23. Historical: War of 3039, p. 133, "Inner Sphere - 3040"
  24. Era Report: 3052, p. 10, Inner Sphere - [3050] Map
  25. Era Report: 3052, p. 22, Inner Sphere - [3052] Map
  26. Era Report: 3062, p. 10, Inner Sphere - [3057] Map
  27. Handbook: House Liao, p. 60, "Capellan Confederation after Operation Guerrero - [3058] Map"
  28. Era Report: 3062, p. 29, "Inner Sphere - [3063] Map"
  29. Handbook: House Liao, p. 68, "Capellan Confederation after FedCom Civil War - [3067] Map"
  30. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 43, "Inner Sphere - [3067] Map"
  31. 31.0 31.1 Mercenaries Supplemental, p. 69, "Mercenary Deployment Table"
  32. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 64, "Inner Sphere - [3075] Map"
  33. 33.0 33.1 Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 58, "The Jihad in Review"
  34. Field Report: CCAF, p. 21, "Capellan Confederation Armed Forces Deployment Map - [August 3079]"
  35. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 63, "Inner Sphere - [3081] Map"
  36. Field Manual: 3085, p. vii , "Inner Sphere - [3085] Map"
  37. Map of the Inner Sphere 3130
  38. Era Report: 3145, p. 11, "Inner Sphere Map - [3135]"
  39. Map of the Tall Trees Union depicted along with Free Worlds League map as of [3139]
  40. Era Report: 3145, p. 39, "Inner Sphere - [3145] Map"
  41. Field Manual: 3145, p. VI, "Inner Sphere - [3145] Map"
  42. MechWarrior: The BattleTech Role Playing Game, p. 119
  43. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 40, "Task Force Commonwealth"
  44. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 75, "Invaders At Hsien"
  45. 45.0 45.1 45.2 Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 78-79, "New Year, New Wave"
  46. Era Digest: Dark Age, p. 4 "Functional Republic HPGs as of 01 January 3135"
  47. House Liao (The Capellan Confederation), p. 105, "Unit Deployment Table"
  48. 20 Year Update, p. 24, "Federated Commonwealth Deployment Table"
  49. Objective Raids, p. 18, "FedCom Deployment Table"
  50. 50.0 50.1 50.2 Chaos March, p. 41
  51. Mercenaries Supplemental II, p. 65, "Mercenary Deployment Table"
  52. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 110, "Word of Blake Mercenary Deployment"
  53. Field Report: CCAF, p. 15, "McCarron's Armored Cavalry Regimental Status"
  54. Field Report: CCAF, p. 16, "Citizen's Honored Regimental Status"
  55. Field Manual: 3145, p. 47, "Capellan Confederation Armed Forces Deployment Table - 3145"

Bibliography