Pauldron Rebellion

The **Pauldron Rebellion** was a period of Imperial civil war in the Pauldron Sub-Sector of Innsmouth Sector between 560.M41 & 575.M41. The roots of the rebellion can be traced back to sub-sectoral government frustrations about the rulership of Amadeus von Strak, then-Governor of Hive World Innsmouth and therefore the *de facto* highest Imperial authority in the sector. These frustrations were further antagonised by politicking from the bordering Tau Empire, resulting in the outbreak of intra-Imperial hostilities in the closing months of 560.M41.

After an initial period of rebel success in consolidating their territorial holdings - and even launching a brief but ill-fated offensive against the rest of the sub-sector - the forces of Battlefleet Innsmouth managed to rally and defeat the secessionists in a blistering counter-offensive. The sub-sector was once more announced *Compliant Totalus* towards the end of 575.M41.

As a direct result of the rebellion, an edict was issued across the whole of the sector banning planetary and/or system governments from maintaining their own System Defence Fleets. Security of Innsmouth Sector spacelines now rests entirely in the hands of Battlefleet Innsmouth, and any unauthorised ship-building projects by planetary governments are punished harshly upon their discovery.

## Background to Events

### **The Armoured Pauldron**

Contact between Innsmouth Sector and the Tau Empire had first occured around 515.M41, almost 2 full centuries before the Tau would complete the successful crossing of the Damocles Gulf. In response to this local xenos threat of which the Imperium were largely unaware, the sectoral leaderships of the Adeptus Administratum and the Departmento Munitorum ordered a crash program of troop-raising and fortification-building across the nearest region to the Tau border, namely the Pauldron Sub-Sector. By the middle of M41, the Pauldron had become one of the most heavily militarised areas within the entire Innsmouth Sector, with the possible exception of the Innsmouth System itself.

This process of sudden and swift militarisation put enormous pressure on the planetary and system-level governments within the Pauldron. Several petitions were made to Hive World Innsmouth Governor Amadeus von Strak - the *de facto* highest Imperial authority in the sector - requesting material & financial assistance from the capital system to alleviate the resultant economic and social pressures on the border worlds. Amadeus von Strak - a man well known across the sector's political elite as a lavish and indulgent spender on the lifestyles of himself and his closest allies - refused all of these petitions, citing Imperial laws that each planet was responsible for looking to its own defences. This seen by many as astoundingly hypocritical given the Governor's personal expenditures, and the resultant souring of relations between the center and the border played a part in the development of the rebel cause.

### **Charm Offensive**

In contrast to the near-hysteria of the Imperial response along the border, the Tau Empire elected to adopt a different approach. Delegations crossed the border in secret with messages of peace and offers of trade, whilst the Tau's own build-up of forces was portrayed as merely a proportional response to the Pauldron's rapid militarisation. The local leaders of the Pauldron received these messages with varying levels of enthusiasm, but pressure from their beleagured populations and political rivals forced them all to seriously consider the xenos offers. By 552.M41, three of the Pauldron's six star systems (Andreas, Iridia, & Cassius) had established an underground trading network with the Tau Empire, using their System Defence Fleets as a means of carrying goods and materiel back and forth across the border. Officials and military officers who objected were either bribed to ignore the situation or befell mysterious accidents that silenced them permanently. With every passing year, largely unbeknownst to the rest of Innsmouth Sector, half of the Pauldron began to slip from the Imperium's grasp into deeper relations with the Tau Empire.

### **Open Revolt**

Despite their largely successful clandestine approach to relations with the Tau Empire, the three wayward systems of the Pauldron eventually fell under suspicion from the centre. Rumours and unconfirmed reports of Tau activity within the Imperial border region resulted in a decree from the sectoral authorities on Hive World Innsmouth that all military operations by System Defence Fleets would henceforth occur under the watchful eye of officers seconded directly from Battlefleet Innsmouth. The leaders of Iridia, Andreas & Cassius found themselves facing the prospect of - at best - losing their trading lifelines with the Tau Empire, whilst the possibility of their discovery as traitors hung in the air above their heads like a waiting noose. In 560.M41, taking advantage of local popular hostility towards the distant sectoral authorities, the triad of leaders announced a defensive pact they termed the "Alliance for Unity" and furthermore announced that alliance's independence from Imperial authority. A purge of pro-Imperial officials and military officers within the local Planetary Defence Forces soon followed, whilst military units attached to the central Imperial government found themselves under siege in their own bases by the local armed forces. It was the hope of the Alliance leadership that the Imperial sectoral authorities would back down in the face of getting stuck in a military quagmire so close to the Tau border.

The optimism of the rebel leadership was soon proven to be naive. Upon receiving news of the uprising, Governor von Strak immediately ordered Imperial forces within the three rebel systems to sortie forth from their bases and destroy the secessionists. The reality of the situation meant that most of those planetary units ignored the order, outnumbered as they were by the beseiging forces beyond the gates of their fortifications. The initiative thefore fell to Battlefleet Innsmouth squadrons within the rebel triad, resulting in the first intra-Imperial shots being fired at the Void Battle of Crestus Approach in the Iridia System.