Name: Harlan Township
Planet: Amargosa
Type: Rural settlement
Summary:
Harlan Township is a rural farming settlement located to the east of the city of Lansdorp beyond the Misty Mountains on the colony world of Amargosa. It is one of several such communities that dot the planet’s agriculturally rich Central Plains, supporting the Compact’s core worlds with food production. Harlan Township exemplifies the colony’s older settler culture—independent, often distrustful of Compact authority, and deeply tied to the land.
The township plays a key role in The Children of Amargosa as one of the invasion’s earliest flashpoints. Characters including JT Austin and Lizzy Parker flee to the settlement’s courthouse, which has been converted into a temporary refugee shelter. It is there that Quan, the Parkers’ Tianese farm manager, brings them for protection before he is conscripted into the militia.
The courthouse’s sub-basements offer a brief refuge for civilians, but Harlan Township itself becomes increasingly vulnerable as word spreads of alien vehicles—dubbed “battle wagons”—prowling the countryside. The township’s fate is left uncertain, but by the time JT and Lizzy return to the Parker farm, the region is under siege, with multiple farms destroyed and survivors scattered.
Appearances: The Children of Amargosa