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"It's all been bloody marvellous..."
Victory Point
Capital of Barkhesh
City Location Template~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
· Intent: To add character to recently secured First Order holdings.
· Image Credit: [Victory Port, Concept Ships], [Sieger Tower, Starcraft Wiki], [Rodley Barracks, Pintrest], [ The Maxim Theatre. IrishCentral.com], [Entertainment District, Pintrest], [Lawyer Row, Traveller.com.au], [The Royale Cinema, RCP.net.au], [Colonel Hubert and Sons Storage, Jacob Charles Dietz's Deviantart], [The Eastern Factories, Jaokim Olofsson Deviantart], [Weld Corp Foundry, Pintrest], [Noir River Packaging, Niconoff Deviantart], [Insectaway Offices, Titus Lunter Deviantart], [Fernaditchey Opera House, Elle Decor], [Antilles House, Tracy Davis MP], [Argyle Barracks, Renew Reporter]
· Canon: N/A
SETTING INFORMATION
· City Name: Victory Point. Formerly known as Barkhesh City.
· Classification: Urban Centre.
· Location: Barkhesh, Northern Hemisphere.
· Affiliation: The First Order.
· Demographics:
Human: 67%
Twi’lek: 13%
Togruta: 12%
Other: 8%
· Wealth: High. Victory Point sits as the largest spaceports on Barkesh’s surface, meaning most, if not all shipping and cargo headed to the planet enters the city. Because of this, the city manages to fund itself using tariffs. Along with this, most of the industrial capacity for the planet is housed within the city, meaning it houses most of the executives and professional of those companies.
· Stability: Low. Although the city sits within the hold of First Order forces, the city is prone to suicide bombings and other terrorist acts perpetrated by forces resisting the First Order’s occupation. Although attacks are sporadic, their devastation in civilian death toll and property damage means the city is on edge.
· Description: Victory Point is a city located on a plain in the planets northern hemisphere. Further to its north sit the Appalasch Canyons and mountains, and to the south the Vermall Sea. The city is landlocked, but it has the Noir River running through its centre, dividing it at an eastern and western bank. Victory Point’s western bank is dominated by the government disctrict, and commercial interests. Surrounding that, sits rings of suburbs suburbs.
On the eastern bank sits the industrialised district, as well as the spaceport. This area holds a dozen factories which manufacture goods from raw materials gathered throughout the regions. Whether this be durasteel beams, food products, or furniture. Towards the river, there are some corporate offices, reserved for usage by prestigious interstellar companies needing usage of the vast spaceport.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Victory Port: The massive spaceport which boasts the largest transport capacity this side of Dosuun. Located on the eastern shores of the Noir, it is the largest spaceport on the planet. With capacity to fit two dozen, 2’000m+ cargo ships on its grandiose landing strips. Because of the need to give ships ample room to land, this means the eastern bank has nearly no buildings that sit over four storeys high. Scattered through out the landing strips are industrial warehouses for the storage of goods, customs offices, and a small barracks for troops. As well as this, is the civilian terminal, used for civilians passing through.
The Government District: Colloquially named the Avalonia District because of the sheer amount of Dosuunians who have been transferred there to assist the administration of Barkhesh. The sector of the city has always been apart of the city, but only under the First Order has it expanded so rapidly.
· Sieger Tower: The newest addition to the sector is Sieger Tower. The nerve centre of government, the tower holds the offices of the government executive. This, along with the headquarters for the department of security, agriculture and science. The tower stands as the tallest structure on Barkhesh. The building boasts its own independent power supply, laboratories, and rumoured holding cells for dissidents.
· Antilles House: An ancient structure standing since the times of Palpatine, Antilles House has been the centre of Barkhesh’s judiciary for centuries. Originally named Vader House, after Barkhesh’s capture by the New Republic, it was instead named after the famed rebellion general who assisted in its liberation. It continues to serve as a court, but now has been extended to have the Treasury Department housed in the old judges chambers.
· Argyle Barracks: Another fresh addition to Victory City has been the establishment of Argyle Barracks. As the government district holds the nerve centre for soft, civilian government, there must be some military presence to deter any attacks. A fortified structure built into an old banking building, and now sits to act as a localised FOSB station and headquarters for an urban infantry battalion.
· Lawyers Row: This alley is filled with government offices, and niche cafes used to serving bureaucrats and soldiers on break. It houses some smaller business offices, but is largely off limits in the current climate. It’s considered one of the few places standing one can get a good cup of caff in this day and age.
Rodley Barracks: A newer structure, built in the northern suburbs of the western bank, Rodley Barracks is a series of three prefabricated modules constructed to house Victory Point’s Planetary Defence Force units. Armed with the latest in rapid response tactics, the garrison is ten thousand strong, with a strong armoured compliment designed to deter any attacks on the city.
The Entertainment District: Once the beating heart of Barkhesh culture, the entertainment district has waned. Terrorist attacks on theatres and restaurants have meant that not many venture to watch the theatre, or eat at restaurants. A favourite haunt among off-duty officers, and bureaucrats alike, the entertainment district houses dozens of gourmet restaurants. In terms of buildings, the Maxim Theatre, Royale Cinema and Fernaditchey Opera House are where one would go for entertainment.
· Maxim Theatre: A structure dating back to before the Gulag Plague, the Maxim Theatre was once a hub of activity for acting troupes wishing to tell stories. It now sits as a ruined husk of what was once prime real estate, after a utility speeder, filled with baradium charges slammed into the lobby, and detonated. The terrorist attack killed three hundred, including fifty four First Order personnel. Since then, it’s been left, cordoned off but not yet rebuilt.
· The Royale Cinema: A newer building constructed under the Galactic Alliance’s administration, the Royale Cinema sits on the edge of the Noir River, a building which saw the premier of many propaganda feature films. It now sits, under constant surveillance, with a guard detail of a single platoon of Planetary Defence Force troopers.
· Fernaditchey Opera House: Constructed shortly before the Gulag Plague to celebrate the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Yavin. In more recent times, it has housed the most prestigious opera companies from the Core worlds, making it a culturally significant landmark. It’s been closed recently, with no opera companies coming through.
The Eastern Factories: Built up on the eastern bank of the Noir sits the industrial sector of the city. Although it is small compared to other planets in the sector [see Mustafar], all of Barkhesh’s heavy industry is centred within the city. There are a number of important facilities however.
· Weld Corp Foundry: Sitting on the edge of the Victory Port, sits the Weld Corp Foundry, one of the most important pieces of industry on Barkhesh. The foundry distils ore to durasteel girders, beams, tools and other important implements. It manufactures sixty-five percent of the planets durasteel tools and supplies, making it invaluable for Barkhesh’s economic future.
· Noir River Packaging Plant: Important to all facets of corporate life is branding and packaging. That is where Noir River Packaging comes in. While corporations like Colonel Hubert and Sons control the supply of goods, Noir River packages them. Although one wouldn’t think it, it sits on the banks of the Noir River as one of the most important factories. It carefully labels the products of hundreds of small businesses and organisations that want to put their brands on the map.
· Colonel Hubert and Sons Storage: The largest homegrown corporation is Colonel Hubert and Sons, a massive multi-billion-credit conglomerate that owns most of Barkhesh’s farms and purchases most of the product. Because it enjoys centralising operations, most, if not all produce is sent to Victory Point for processing. Product which either needs to be fermented, or stored away, is done so in three massive silos. That, along with a major factory precinct and freezers, keeping food ready for export. The facility sits at the edge of the spaceport, meaning it has unrivalled access to any starships docked. The company has suffered, with the First Order nationalising land, causing the companies supplies to wane.
· Insectaway Offices: One of Barkheshs’ most lucrative exports outside of food is the trade of bug repellent to the rest of the Galaxy. In more recent years, all commercial producers of the Barkhesh Insect Culture were brought out by Insectaway, a corporate enterprise run by venture capitalists from the recently liberated Core worlds and local businessmen working to monopolise the industry. The Insectaway Offices are there the bacteria is canned, and stored, before being sent out into the spaceport.
Harweld Bridge: Named after popular tycoon, Gregor Harweld, the Harweld bridge is the largest link between east and west Victory Point. Although a number of smaller bridges do operate, the Harweld sits as the largest, and receives the most traffic. It is a vital link between the two banks of Victory Point. It’s model, is that of a three storey bridge, it enables both foot traffic, public transport and personal vehicle travel. The top floor, is reserved for speeder and other vehicle traffic to the east bank. The middle storey holds train lines which go between the banks, as well as areas for pedestrian access. Some small cafes, and food venders can be found on this level. The last and bottom level is for speeder, and vehicle traffic headed to the west bank. Lanes during peak hour are constantly changed on the top and bottom levels to accommodate for crashes, and closures.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Barkhesh City’s history is largely uninteresting. Originally called Barkers End, the city was settled by a group of wealthy independent miners, who found deposits of precious bronzium and stones in 179BBY. The town expanded quickly, becoming something of a hotspot for activity. It would play host to entertainers, travelling troupes of actors and escorts, who helped spread Core cosmopolitism on a backwater dominated by rolling plains and farms. The mining came and went within a generation, but during that time, the establishment of a large spaceport. Because of this infrastructure, unlike many other mining towns, Barkers End saw a new life as a spaceport.
As the spaceport grew, and Barkhesh’s ability to produce more than enough food for itself, Barkers End became an embassy of sorts for trading companies seeking to expand their influence there. With the companies came the professional classes from the Core worlds. Lawyers, sent to annex land by contract, accountants to manage the books and all manner of professionals who worked to keep the local offices open. Because of that, there became a strict divide between the upper and lower class. The upper class would have minstrels and all manner of performers brought into the cities to entertain them. Then, in on themselves, the entertainers brought their families, so long and so forth until a real city grew out of that.
Barkers End continued to expand as a de-facto capital for the system. During the Clone Wars it was kept safe, and remained loyal to the Republic. However, the system would come under the harsh repression of the Galactic Empire after the extermination of the Jedi. The Empire unimaginatively, renamed the city Barkhesh City, to cement it as the planets capital. The Empire’s brutality was two fold however. While it did kill those who sympathised with the growing rebel movement, it simultaneously increased infrastructure for the suburbs, and build schools. This however wasn’t enough for the citizens of Barkhesh City, who threw off the shackles of imperial oppression for a chance with the New Republic.
From years of fighting, to a future now within a stable and robust democracy, Barkhesh City prospered throughout the Yuzahn Vong Crisis, and among other events. The harvesting of crops, and the large spaceport in the city meant that even though the Galaxy languished through crisis after crisis, Barkhesh City continued to grow and manage to remain safe. It wouldn’t be until the exodus caused by the Gulag Plague. As the Galaxy descended into another Dark Age, optimisim and food would not be enough to keep the cities denizens safe. For about one hundred years, it was abandoned.
Scavengers returned during the Dark Ages, and when the Plague finally cleared, Barkhesh City returned to the trading hub it once was. Although there were disappearances caused by the Netherworld Event, it didn’t effect a society which was still emerging from hundreds of years of chaos. The Galactic Alliance helped clear that chaos up, during their occupation of Barkhesh. The city saw rejuvenated growth and interest, spurred on by corporations and wealthy tycoons opting to settle on the lush green world. The cultural institutions the city had been famous for, bloomed. Restaraunts opened all over, offering samples of the latest and best cuisine the Galaxy had to offer. The engines of industry began turning, employing the poor by the hundreds of thousands, and Barkhesh City became a centre of industrial and corporate power.
The future looked bright, until the First Order-Galactic Alliance War. After a brazen attack on Kaeshana, saw a vengeful First Order army take Alliance sectors in a fell swoop. Barkhesh was taken by future Supreme Commander Asharad Graush in a battle that took place far from Barkhesh City. In the hours intervening between the infamous Sith tacticians arrival in the city, and the battles end, thousands of Alliance personnel evacuated from the city. As the Alliance and the richest bureaucrats fled, Barkhesh City’s pride fell.
What replaced it was fear. Fear was rife in the streets in the hours after the evacuation. Over an hour before the main arrival of First Order soldiers, citizens on the outer suburbs could hear the ominous thud of All Terrain Armoured Transports marching through the fields. Thick clouds of acrid smoke trailed over the sky, from the battle and TIE fighters howled overhead, hidden by the darkness.
Most civilians stayed in their homes. Those who were loyal Alliance zealots as well as those who had prospered most from the occupation, fought in vain against the tide of change. Cheaply imported weapons and surplus equipment were no match for the determination of vengeful invaders, scarred by the mess on Kaeshana. Centred in the government district, the resistance valiantly attempted to hold out, but were no match to the overwhelming firepower and numbers provided by the First Imperial Stormtrooper Corps.
As a red, bloody dawn rose, Brigadier General Braith Celander declared martial law, and a closure of all public infrastructure while the city was cleared of resistance. The spaceport was put on lockdown, stranding hundreds of thousands of traders and spacers, under threat of interception and execution. Operation Lock Jaw, as it was known, took three days, until First Order Central Command was happy the city was safe for occupation. A junta of generals and senior civilian officials immediately took the office imposing a provisional militaristic regime over the planet, and began to administer the city. There were attempts at uprisings, many in fact. But none successfully took root in the city. The north western suburbs were particularly rife with anti-First Order sentiment.
The deployment of an additional garrison in the way of Rodley Barracks saw an end to the riots which had swept the city. As things quietened down urbanely, the First Order moved to cement its control on the sector. They flew in thousands of bureaucrats and technocrats from other parts of their burgeoning fiefdom, and began to construct the infamous Sieger Tower. The working poor were mobilised back to work, where they were renegotiated better conditions, before being put in the work, under the watchful eye of the First Order.
While the working class saw little detriment to their current predicament, the middle classes, and upper class began to leave. Barkhesh City’s entertainment district became scarce, with entertainers and stars having fled once the fighting died down. The upper class businessmen were pushed out of their traditional role as administrators, and business owners. Those who didn’t leave, worked their way to the country side, plotting grand schemes of revenge. The educated middle class were largely employed as mercenaries to keep things running smoothly, although they by and large held the current martial law in disdain.
Despite these misgivings, the workings of a new system began to appear. The upper class were gone, replaced with the First Order state. But the middle class would find new favour, in working to cement the new regime. The stunted careers caused by nepotism and favouritism were gone, replaced with a cold, ruthless meritocracy. All the while the lower class received bulkier pay and workplace protection for their services. For about two months things ran smoothly, until the bombings began. While Barkesh City was spared large scale violence so far, it would catch up to them.
An all manner of mercenaries, disillusioned citizens and angry people from all walks of life, had formed an army in the wilds of the rural provinces. Calling themselves the Righteous Legion, they declared total war on the First Order, and the ‘traitors’ and collaborators who had helped their new masters establish their state. They hoped that the Galactic Alliance would be able to regroup, and retake the system. Through fighting this war, the Righteous Legion hoped to dislodge the new regime. Armed with weapons both salvaged and purchased by wealthy benefactors, the group saw localised efforts to destroy the First Order’s hold locally as futile. Instead, they decided to aim for the centre of operations. Target the strongholds and decapitate the head.
The Righteous Legion learned from other groups, and used guerrilla tactics to stingly paralyse the Order’s attempts to amend society. Using speeder bombings, and suicide bombings as their weapons, General Celander found her grip on the city became tenuous. Grandparents and relatives of the stolen children protested in the streets, and with no answers, their cries grew louder. The constant stream of guerrilla fighters into the country, killing troops and operating with near impunity was a drain on morale, and the expectations for a quick pacification were difficult to answer. It looked to be near breaking point.
However, the Righteous Legions zealotry lead to some pitfalls. Particularly during their attempts to sabotage a star cruiser, taking off from the spaceport. This lead to the deaths of several thousand crewman and civilians who had no allegiance to anyone in the conflict. Only ninety First Order personnel perished. This act of senseless violence, was followed by the bombing of the Maxim Theatre, while it was in use, turned the citizens of Barkhesh City against the resistance movement. The Righteous Legion, among other terrorist organisations was decried by civil liberties organisations, which had always been uneasy with both the First Order, and the violence perpetrated by the partisan groups.
As this became clearer, among those fighting the First Order, Barkhesh City became nicknamed by rebels as Celanders Castle, and the people living there called traitors, and hypocrites. However, the loyalty, even when opposed to the First Order, made the population of Barkhesh City now good imperial citizens in the eyes of the government. Shortly after the failed attempt by the Galactic Alliance to cut off Barkhesh from First Order space in the Anoat sector, Governor Horace Chalm was installed, and upon his induction as the planets ruler, he had a gift. Barkhesh City would no longer sit as a daft name. It would instead be renamed to signify its importance in First Order history, a treasured prize liberated from the treachery Galactic Alliance. And that name was Victory Point.
