Smolensk
Seen from the air, the city of Smolensk looks like a gray island in a sea of gold. Smolensk is the NLC’s most important grain center. The city is surrounded by hundreds of smaller agricultural communities. The grain harvested by these villages is shipped to Smolensk using a complex network of grain pipelines. These pipelines resemble wind tunnels with additional solar powered blowers added every few hundred meters. The farmers simply dump their freshly harvested grain into their local pipeline junction and receive instant payment based on the mass of their crop. Large cereal corporations based in Smolensk pre-purchase each harvest a year in advance.
Smolensk is also the rail capital of the Confederacy: the state-owned NLC Rail corporation has its main headquarters in the city-state, and much of their maintenance and storage facilities. NLC Rail is primarily a bulk shipping firm, but a subsidiary, Northern TransRail, offers passenger service across the entire CNCS.
The representatives of the 42nd Infantry Division in Smolensk is the 26th Infantry Brigade, which is traditionally associated with Smolensk. Its sole Gear regiment — the 27th Regiment Gear Grinders — is a solid, sturdy and reliable unit. They are often in competition with their sister regiment, the 22nd Armored Regiment Hardshells. Unfortunately for the Hardshells, who have had a series of failures lately, the Gear Grinders are currently in favor. The 5th Airborne Division also has some of its forces stationed in Smolensk, making it a heavily protected city. The 16th Gear Brigade has only two Gear Regiments, the 54th Gear Regiment Scorpio Stingers and the 71st Gear Regiment Strike Sharks.
Among the multiple squadrons of the 54th Gear Regiment, the 32nd Recon Squadron (calling itself Lightning Lance) is known throughout the B (Gear) Company of the 54th as the squadron with the best overall strike times. Their surgical hit-and-run record time is 2:41 minutes (from the first strike to the end of the battle) during an unexpected attack near the end of the War of the Alliance in TN 1916 versus a light hovertank force. Reportedly, their losses were heavy, but the mission was successful.