Zagazig
Some deride Zagazig as “the most boring place north of the equator,” but most locals enjoy living in a quiet community. Indeed, this medium-sized city is a popular retirement spot in the NLC, boasting an unusually mild regional microclimate. The city-state is also surrounded by many large medicinal plant fields, making it a major pharmaceutical production site.
Zagazig has two interesting features. The first is Wententhal University, a prestigious school, famous for its engineering and architectural programs. Although a cycle of studies at WU costs over 20,000 marks, there are subsidies and bursaries available to promising students. The second is the presence of the CNCS’ main landship shipyards. Virtually every CNCS landship was built here and Northern Guard Base Kuron provides security.
The city also boast civilian shipyards and the headquarters of Overland Cruise Lines. OCL owns a fleet of fifteen luxury cruise landships and offers numerous vacation package deals including trips to Massada, Sorrento, Valeria, Lyonnesse and Canterbury.
NGB Kuron is home to a variety of units belonging to the 9th Heavy Gear Brigade. The most notable is the 7th Gear regiment, the celebrated Cat’s Paws. Considered the best of the best of the Northern Guar’s Gear units, the Cats expert pilots use cutting edge machines (Cheetahs and Jaguars most especially) and have gained a reputation for precision and efficiency. The Cat’s Paws’ commanding officer, Colonel Stacey Diggs, is a brooding and stern woman, with very dissident opinions — which may be why she has not gone up in ranks in the last ten cycles. She is well liked by her troops, however, because she does not hesitate to take personal risks in combat to ensure their safety. The Paws have a legendary hatred of the Southern Republic’s Légion Noire (an entire division of special forces units) and have been known to go out of their way to face Légion units in combat, often calling for duels as well.