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Description
A view of Liangfong, the winter capital of the so-called People's Liberated Territories, colloquially known to the nations of the southern hemisphere as the Great Red Empire. Although the Kommersant and Texacor have long since established footholds and concessions in the independent corporate cities, Red tributary states, and Djong-Kok pirate freeholds of the northern hemisphere, Liangfong is the only port in the entire Red Empire proper that grants permanent fleet anchorages to the military states of the south. For centuries since the successful year round navigation of the equatorial passes by the Orbitaaler-Berger frontier republics, the trade fleets of the Kommersant, surface cruisers of the mercantile Orbitaaler-Berger republics, and the blockade runners of the Texacor have made deep inroads into the Djong-Kok trade routes of the northern hemisphere, but it was not until the unplanned Texacoran intervention in the Taikong Uprising that a southern nation was permitted to establish a permanent diplomatic legation at Liangfong, then the winter capital of the People's Liberated Territories. Though the ancestral memories of the wars between the Old Red Fleet and the Texacoran regulars had not yet entirely faded, there was reason more than usual for a delegation of old enemies to be allowed entry to the port capital.

As the Great Red Empire was then embroiled by a succession crisis among the claimants to the high imperial office of the People's Liberator, each of the feuding factions sought to decisively end the conflict by inducing the recently arrived Texacoran legation guard to enter the dispute on their side. With the heavy naval artillery of the Reconstituted People's Liberation Fleet sent away on a yearlong campaign to assist in the quelling of the northern frontier revolts, the shore bombardment batteries of the Texacoran legation's proto-treadnoughts were the only guns in the port capital capable of penetrating the fortress walls of the imperial armory and Red Guard barracks overlooking the harbor. The staunchly apolitical Red Guard garrison was the last major uncommitted political element in the capital, and any faction who could force their hand or otherwise neutralize them would possess a clear path to the throne of the People's Liberator.

In the months of negotiations and backroom dealings that followed in the attempts to sway their favor, the Texacoran legation secured rights to a permanent fleet anchorage in the capital, along with numerous port concessions in the outlying imperial territories and the Red tributary states. As the negotiations and court intrigues dragged on, dispatches from the Texacoran legation began to reach the southern hemisphere and despite the best efforts to suppress the news, the latest developments in the distant north were soon known to all the great nations of the south. Just when a settlement in the Red capital seemed at hand, a battle fleet flying the blue and white banners of the Kommersant steamed into the western approaches to the capital. The longtime rivals of the Texacor had come to claim their slice of the pie, eager to thwart Texacoran ambitions which had turned north beyond the equator ever since their defeat in the latest war in heartlands of the southern hemisphere. The balance of power had been completely upended overnight and the situation threatened to deteriorate into the resumption of open warfare between the interventionist fleets, but at the last moment, a formal agreement was hammered out by the diplomatic staffs of the Kommersant executive admiral and the Texacor brigadier. The erstwhile enemies entered into a temporary alliance of convenience and finally intervened decisively and bloodlessly on the side of the loyalist claimants to the imperial throne.

Both parties were granted their promised concessions from the victorious faction of the Great Red Empire and all seemed well and settled when the vanguard shock divisions of the Reconstituted People's Liberation Fleet descended on the capital after their year of hard campaigning in the northern frontier. The newly enthroned People's Liberator, now secure in his base of power and buoyed by the return of the grand fleet, sought to nullify the concessions and expel the expeditionary forces of the Texacor and Kommersant from the heart of the People's Liberated Territories. However, the Red Fleet that returned to the old capital was a mere shadow of the imperial force that had gone out a year before to crush the northern insurrectionists. Its elite shock divisions had been depleted and demoralized by the extended pacification campaign in the northern latitudes and its upper ranks gutted by the zealous purging of elements suspected of sympathy with the defeated factions of the recent succession crisis. Thus, although vastly outnumbering the handful of Texacor proto-treadnoughts and Kommersant gun-clippers that sallied out of Liangfong harbor to oppose them, the Red Fleet was only able to score an indecisive stalemate in the fleet combat that followed. Although the People's Liberator and his Red Guard had escaped and joined the retreating ranks of the Red Fleet in the chaos of battle, the bulk of the imperial court remained trapped in the capital, becoming invaluable hostages for the besieged Texacor and Kommersant squadrons. For the safe return of his ministers and retainers, the People's Liberator was forced to reaffirm most of the previously granted concessions, promising permanent fleet anchorages and diplomatic legations at Liangfong, along with trading rights at five of the largest Red ports. It was a close won affair for the victorious Texacor and Kommersant expeditionary forces, who were shortly thereafter reinforced by the first wave of auxiliary squadrons to clear the equatorial passes after the worst of the seasonal storm systems had passed, and the surviving commanders of the Red Fleet were more than willing to grant them a reprieve as another flare up of rebellion called their attentions away to the northern frontier.

Upon securing the release of his court, however, the People's Liberator predictably undermined the significance of the largest concessions by permanently relocating the imperial court to the northern summer capital, reducing Liangfong to a secondary provincial port almost overnight. In volume of trade, the former capital is greatly overshadowed by the great commercial ports of the Red Empire's eastern coastal reaches and the independent Djong-Kok corporate remnants nearer to the equatorial frontiers. Today, Liangfong, or Two Wind Bay to its visitors from the southern hemisphere, is still nominally the winter capital of the People's Liberated Territories, but in reality, with the exception of a succession of foreign ministers to the southern legations, the imperial court has not returned to the ancient port city in over a century. But for all its dwindling commercial significance and fading imperial glories, Liangfong still retains great strategic significance due to the permanent fleet anchorages and diplomatic legations of the Texacor and Kommersant that the port city hosts. As in days of old, Liangfong remains the site of much diplomatic intrigue and military posturing, as much between the Texacor and Kommersant as between both powers and the Red Empire. Some of its local inhabitants still pride themselves as the inheritors of the old imperial tradition, though these days the city has fallen back on the traditional bulwarks of krill-harvesting, aquafarming, and the coastal trade to sustain itself. Although few locals would be willing to admit it, the city's economy has become increasingly reliant on the bulk sale of fuel, materials, and provisions to the visiting squadrons of Kommersant gun-clippers and Texacoran treadnoughts. At any given moment, upwards of ten foreign warships might be anchored in Two Wind Bay, with hundreds of officers, crew, and garrison forces on shore leave in the city, which caters to their more disreputable needs in the seedy dockside blue-light districts.

In the depicted scene, the First Armored Brigade of the Texacoran Third Amphibious Division, also known as Mouton's Armored Brigade, is visible at anchor towards the left. From left to right are the picket treadnought Ranger Apache, the heavy capital treadnought and flagship Great Southern Way, the picket treadnought General Arsenault, the line treadnought Greyjacket, and the line treadnought Ivory Shoals. The Third Amphibious Division is one of two Texacoran divisions permanetly stationed north of the equator and often provides expeditionary forces for Texacoran punitive campaigns and military interventions in the Djong-Kok pirate kingdoms and in the outlying Red tributary states. During peacetime, the armored brigades of the two Amphibious Divisions are regularly rotated through Two Wind Bay for refitting and repair, ensuring a continuous presence in the port city to show the flag to Kommersant and Red alike. The treadnoughts of Mouton's Armored Brigade display peacetime colors of overlaid yellow trim that would be stripped off in the event of action to reveal the camouflage underneath. Only the flagship is permitted to fly the national ensign when in port, in observance of the diplomatic protocols concurrent with the visit of any foreign fleet to a nominal capital of the People's Liberated Territories.

Visible at the right foreground are the Kommersant gun-clippers of the 59th Mobile Squadron, a convoy escort detachment of the 16th Expeditionary Combat Fleet. Visible from left to right are the flagship frigate Free Market IV, medium frigate Grand Korolev, escort frigate Prosperity II, heavy frigate Gagarin's Folly, medium frigate Wealth of Nations, and the heavy frigate Free Trade. Unlike the more self-sufficient treadnoughts of the Texacor armored brigades, the gun-clippers of the Kommersant, which still officially styles itself as the Provisional Interstellar Commerce Authority, can only effect minor repairs and refit work with the limited shore facilities, shipyards, and drydocks available at Two Wind Bay, requiring a return to the great port cities of the Kommersant's southern domains for complete overhauling. Nevertheless, the Kommersant is obligated to maintain a permanent fleet presence at Two Wind Bay to guard its diplomatic legation and keep parity with Texacor at this strategically vital refueling waypoint in the heart of the Great Red Empire.

Visible in the far background is the surface cruiser Oranje-Senekal of the Transorbitaal Republiek, a mercantile republic of the Vieurkleur Konfederasie. Although Two Wind Bay lacks the immense commercial opportunities it once enjoyed as one of the Red Empire's dual capitals, the city still represents a reliably profitable terminus for the nanodust trading routes of the mercantile Orbitaaler-Berger clans as a result of the permanent presence of the Texacoran and Kommersant fleets and their insatiable hunger for high grade fuel. When the ever tense relations between the Texacor and Kommersant deteriorate over the occasional diplomatic fracas over a Djong-Kok pirate kingdom or Red tributary state, there is always a killing to be made in the nanodust market at Two Wind Bay, as Texacoran quartermaster officers and Kommersant commissariat agents rush to buy up all the fuel in port to fill their fleet's fuel bunkers and deny the valuable resource to their counterparts on the other side. While they are in port, Orbitaaler-Berger kapteins and kommandants have also discovered that there is a tidy profit to be made in the sale of their solar electricity and reactor power to the energy-hungry city, whose needs have long since far outstripped the ancient colonial-era wind turbines that give the bay its name. Along with the colossal remains of the derelict pumping station, the twin titans are the primary reminders of the city's origin as a remnant of the planet's ancient terraforming infrastructure.

The city is overlooked by the walled fortresses of the former imperial armory and Red Guard barracks complex. Although a ceremonial regiment of the Red Guard remains to garrison the port city and provide honor guards for visiting diplomats and imperial officials, most of the old military complex has been turned over to the ministers and officers of the imperial foreign ministry for use as living and working quarters. The great waterfront berth that once accommodated the Great Liberator's palatial barge during his winter visits to the southern capital has since been repurposed by the port's inhabitants as the so-called Tidal Market District, which is vacated daily ahead of high tide to allow the onrushing waters to flush out to sea all the discarded detritus and accumulated debris left after a day's buying and selling.

Description
A view of Liangfong, the winter capital of the so-called People's Liberated Territories, colloquially known to the nations of the southern hemisphere as the Great Red Empire. Although the Kommersant and Texacor have long since established footholds and concessions in the independent corporate cities, Red tributary states, and Djong-Kok pirate freeholds of the northern hemisphere, Liangfong is the only port in the entire Red Empire proper that grants permanent fleet anchorages to the military states of the south. For centuries since the successful year round navigation of the equatorial passes by the Orbitaaler-Berger frontier republics, the trade fleets of the Kommersant, surface cruisers of the mercantile Orbitaaler-Berger republics, and the blockade runners of the Texacor have made deep inroads into the Djong-Kok trade routes of the northern hemisphere, but it was not until the unplanned Texacoran intervention in the Taikong Uprising that a southern nation was permitted to establish a permanent diplomatic legation at Liangfong, then the winter capital of the People's Liberated Territories. Though the ancestral memories of the wars between the Old Red Fleet and the Texacoran regulars had not yet entirely faded, there was reason more than usual for a delegation of old enemies to be allowed entry to the port capital.

As the Great Red Empire was then embroiled by a succession crisis among the claimants to the high imperial office of the People's Liberator, each of the feuding factions sought to decisively end the conflict by inducing the recently arrived Texacoran legation guard to enter the dispute on their side. With the heavy naval artillery of the Reconstituted People's Liberation Fleet sent away on a yearlong campaign to assist in the quelling of the northern frontier revolts, the shore bombardment batteries of the Texacoran legation's proto-treadnoughts were the only guns in the port capital capable of penetrating the fortress walls of the imperial armory and Red Guard barracks overlooking the harbor. The staunchly apolitical Red Guard garrison was the last major uncommitted political element in the capital, and any faction who could force their hand or otherwise neutralize them would possess a clear path to the throne of the People's Liberator.

In the months of negotiations and backroom dealings that followed in the attempts to sway their favor, the Texacoran legation secured rights to a permanent fleet anchorage in the capital, along with numerous port concessions in the outlying imperial territories and the Red tributary states. As the negotiations and court intrigues dragged on, dispatches from the Texacoran legation began to reach the southern hemisphere and despite the best efforts to suppress the news, the latest developments in the distant north were soon known to all the great nations of the south. Just when a settlement in the Red capital seemed at hand, a battle fleet flying the blue and white banners of the Kommersant steamed into the western approaches to the capital. The longtime rivals of the Texacor had come to claim their slice of the pie, eager to thwart Texacoran ambitions which had turned north beyond the equator ever since their defeat in the latest war in heartlands of the southern hemisphere. The balance of power had been completely upended overnight and the situation threatened to deteriorate into the resumption of open warfare between the interventionist fleets, but at the last moment, a formal agreement was hammered out by the diplomatic staffs of the Kommersant executive admiral and the Texacor brigadier. The erstwhile enemies entered into a temporary alliance of convenience and finally intervened decisively and bloodlessly on the side of the loyalist claimants to the imperial throne.

Both parties were granted their promised concessions from the victorious faction of the Great Red Empire and all seemed well and settled when the vanguard shock divisions of the Reconstituted People's Liberation Fleet descended on the capital after their year of hard campaigning in the northern frontier. The newly enthroned People's Liberator, now secure in his base of power and buoyed by the return of the grand fleet, sought to nullify the concessions and expel the expeditionary forces of the Texacor and Kommersant from the heart of the People's Liberated Territories. However, the Red Fleet that returned to the old capital was a mere shadow of the imperial force that had gone out a year before to crush the northern insurrectionists. Its elite shock divisions had been depleted and demoralized by the extended pacification campaign in the northern latitudes and its upper ranks gutted by the zealous purging of elements suspected of sympathy with the defeated factions of the recent succession crisis. Thus, although vastly outnumbering the handful of Texacor proto-treadnoughts and Kommersant gun-clippers that sallied out of Liangfong harbor to oppose them, the Red Fleet was only able to score an indecisive stalemate in the fleet combat that followed. Although the People's Liberator and his Red Guard had escaped and joined the retreating ranks of the Red Fleet in the chaos of battle, the bulk of the imperial court remained trapped in the capital, becoming invaluable hostages for the besieged Texacor and Kommersant squadrons. For the safe return of his ministers and retainers, the People's Liberator was forced to reaffirm most of the previously granted concessions, promising permanent fleet anchorages and diplomatic legations at Liangfong, along with trading rights at five of the largest Red ports. It was a close won affair for the victorious Texacor and Kommersant expeditionary forces, who were shortly thereafter reinforced by the first wave of auxiliary squadrons to clear the equatorial passes after the worst of the seasonal storm systems had passed, and the surviving commanders of the Red Fleet were more than willing to grant them a reprieve as another flare up of rebellion called their attentions away to the northern frontier.

Upon securing the release of his court, however, the People's Liberator predictably undermined the significance of the largest concessions by permanently relocating the imperial court to the northern summer capital, reducing Liangfong to a secondary provincial port almost overnight. In volume of trade, the former capital is greatly overshadowed by the great commercial ports of the Red Empire's eastern coastal reaches and the independent Djong-Kok corporate remnants nearer to the equatorial frontiers. Today, Liangfong, or Two Wind Bay to its visitors from the southern hemisphere, is still nominally the winter capital of the People's Liberated Territories, but in reality, with the exception of a succession of foreign ministers to the southern legations, the imperial court has not returned to the ancient port city in over a century. But for all its dwindling commercial significance and fading imperial glories, Liangfong still retains great strategic significance due to the permanent fleet anchorages and diplomatic legations of the Texacor and Kommersant that the port city hosts. As in days of old, Liangfong remains the site of much diplomatic intrigue and military posturing, as much between the Texacor and Kommersant as between both powers and the Red Empire. Some of its local inhabitants still pride themselves as the inheritors of the old imperial tradition, though these days the city has fallen back on the traditional bulwarks of krill-harvesting, aquafarming, and the coastal trade to sustain itself. Although few locals would be willing to admit it, the city's economy has become increasingly reliant on the bulk sale of fuel, materials, and provisions to the visiting squadrons of Kommersant gun-clippers and Texacoran treadnoughts. At any given moment, upwards of ten foreign warships might be anchored in Two Wind Bay, with hundreds of officers, crew, and garrison forces on shore leave in the city, which caters to their more disreputable needs in the seedy dockside blue-light districts.

In the depicted scene, the First Armored Brigade of the Texacoran Third Amphibious Division, also known as Mouton's Armored Brigade, is visible at anchor towards the left. From left to right are the picket treadnought Ranger Apache, the heavy capital treadnought and flagship Great Southern Way, the picket treadnought General Arsenault, the line treadnought Greyjacket, and the line treadnought Ivory Shoals. The Third Amphibious Division is one of two Texacoran divisions permanetly stationed north of the equator and often provides expeditionary forces for Texacoran punitive campaigns and military interventions in the Djong-Kok pirate kingdoms and in the outlying Red tributary states. During peacetime, the armored brigades of the two Amphibious Divisions are regularly rotated through Two Wind Bay for refitting and repair, ensuring a continuous presence in the port city to show the flag to Kommersant and Red alike. The treadnoughts of Mouton's Armored Brigade display peacetime colors of overlaid yellow trim that would be stripped off in the event of action to reveal the camouflage underneath. Only the flagship is permitted to fly the national ensign when in port, in observance of the diplomatic protocols concurrent with the visit of any foreign fleet to a nominal capital of the People's Liberated Territories.

Visible at the right foreground are the Kommersant gun-clippers of the 59th Mobile Squadron, a convoy escort detachment of the 16th Expeditionary Combat Fleet. Visible from left to right are the flagship frigate Free Market IV, medium frigate Grand Korolev, escort frigate Prosperity II, heavy frigate Gagarin's Folly, medium frigate Wealth of Nations, and the heavy frigate Free Trade. Unlike the more self-sufficient treadnoughts of the Texacor armored brigades, the gun-clippers of the Kommersant, which still officially styles itself as the Provisional Interstellar Commerce Authority, can only effect minor repairs and refit work with the limited shore facilities, shipyards, and drydocks available at Two Wind Bay, requiring a return to the great port cities of the Kommersant's southern domains for complete overhauling. Nevertheless, the Kommersant is obligated to maintain a permanent fleet presence at Two Wind Bay to guard its diplomatic legation and keep parity with Texacor at this strategically vital refueling waypoint in the heart of the Great Red Empire.

Visible in the far background is the surface cruiser Oranje-Senekal of the Transorbitaal Republiek, a mercantile republic of the Vieurkleur Konfederasie. Although Two Wind Bay lacks the immense commercial opportunities it once enjoyed as one of the Red Empire's dual capitals, the city still represents a reliably profitable terminus for the nanodust trading routes of the mercantile Orbitaaler-Berger clans as a result of the permanent presence of the Texacoran and Kommersant fleets and their insatiable hunger for high grade fuel. When the ever tense relations between the Texacor and Kommersant deteriorate over the occasional diplomatic fracas over a Djong-Kok pirate kingdom or Red tributary state, there is always a killing to be made in the nanodust market at Two Wind Bay, as Texacoran quartermaster officers and Kommersant commissariat agents rush to buy up all the fuel in port to fill their fleet's fuel bunkers and deny the valuable resource to their counterparts on the other side. While they are in port, Orbitaaler-Berger kapteins and kommandants have also discovered that there is a tidy profit to be made in the sale of their solar electricity and reactor power to the energy-hungry city, whose needs have long since far outstripped the ancient colonial-era wind turbines that give the bay its name. Along with the colossal remains of the derelict pumping station, the twin titans are the primary reminders of the city's origin as a remnant of the planet's ancient terraforming infrastructure.

The city is overlooked by the walled fortresses of the former imperial armory and Red Guard barracks complex. Although a ceremonial regiment of the Red Guard remains to garrison the port city and provide honor guards for visiting diplomats and imperial officials, most of the old military complex has been turned over to the ministers and officers of the imperial foreign ministry for use as living and working quarters. The great waterfront berth that once accommodated the Great Liberator's palatial barge during his winter visits to the southern capital has since been repurposed by the port's inhabitants as the so-called Tidal Market District, which is vacated daily ahead of high tide to allow the onrushing waters to flush out to sea all the discarded detritus and accumulated debris left after a day's buying and selling.