Primrose Incident

The ***Primrose* Incident** was the capture and looting of the heavy packet schooner *Primrose* by Frontier Militia in the Maiala's Rest System on 176th Solstice, 0290 PCU. The event was the inciting incident of the Frontier War: in the following days, the Red Bannerets led by Kaito Hakim launched a violent coup in the Maialan capital of Second Landing, massacring the Centrum Assembly's local government staff. Violence spread from Maiala's Rest to the three other Frontier systems of Teldrin, Dalstaff, and Atamara, which confederated under the *de facto* leadership of Teldrin and proclaimed their independence from the Centrum Assembly as the Frontier Union.

## Prelude

From the 0270s PCU, the Great Famine had a particularly devastating effect on the four systems of Tantalus' south-eastern frontier. The increasing scarcity of resources, coupled with piracy, supply mismanagement, and the Centrum Assembly's apparent over-focus on the new Firewatch colony, provoked intense resentment and civil unrest in the four Frontier systems. With the Frontier's MPs frequently marginalised in the Centran Parliament, discontent found its expression in violence. Revolutionaries such as Kaito Hakim, leader of the Red Bannerets on Maiala's Rest, led rallies demanding the Frontier's independence from Centrum. Hakim cultivated contacts in the three other Frontier systems, preparing for an incident that would provoke their secession from the Centrum Assembly.

In the absence of a reliable Centran Defence Force presence on the Frontier, the systems increasingly took matters into their own hands and established their own counter-piracy militias: humanitarian aid vessels frequently fell victim to pirates, and only four days prior to the *Primrose* Incident, a vessel was lost to pirates in the Atamara Crossroads System. In this context, the heavy packet schooner *Primrose*, commanded by Captain Hamish Kettrick, arrived in the Maiala's Rest System on 176th Solstice, 0290 PCU, eight days behind schedule. The *Primrose* had followed a long, circuitous course out of fear of pirate attacks, and was the first humanitarian aid vessel to reach Maiala's Rest in 43 days.

## The incident

Burning towards Maiala's Rest, the *Primrose* was intercepted and ordered to heave to by a Militia fleet comprised of the *Florencia*-class Outrider *Ramona* and three *Bakshi*-type Longboats. Accounts of the incident differ, but historians agree that the *Ramona's* captain was incensed by the *Primrose's* delay, likely having suffered a recent bereavement owing to the humanitarian crisis on Maiala's Rest. Some accounts indicate that the *Primrose's* captain responded flippantly, or did not fully grasp the implications of the situation on Maiala's Rest. It is unknown who fired the first shot, but within 45 minutes, the *Primrose* had been boarded, captured, and her entire crew killed.

## Aftermath

The first report of the incident was made, not to the Militia liaison office in the Centran government building on Maiala's Rest, but to Kaito Hakim and the Red Bannerets. Likely prepared for an incident of this nature, Hakim led the Red Bannerets in storming Assembly buildings in Maialan capital of Second Landing, killing Centran government staff and broadcasting the coup to his contacts across the Frontier, calling for an uprising.

By the time full details of the incident reached Centrum three days later, the Assembly's control on the Frontier had completely evaporated. Kaito Hakim appeared on Teldrin, and together with Henrik Debaan, Grand Selectman of Teldrin, and Tacito Lemaire, Freewarden of Dalstaff, proclaimed the independence of the four Frontier systems from the Assembly as the Frontier Union. Before the day ended, the fourth member of the newly-convened Union Council, Arcelia Abescal, the Pirate Queen of Atamara, led a combined pirate fleet into the Axius System, beginning the Frontier War.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Primrose Incident | Official Lore Short | The Sojourn
2. ↑ *The Sojourn Visual Dictionary - Edition One*
3. ↑ *Bright Promise*
4. ↑ *Beneath The Banner*
5. ↑ Maiala's Rest | Worlds of Tantalus | The Sojourn