Gravalax Incident
From Lexicanum
By 931.M41, Gravalax was a minor agri-world on the border with the Tau Empire. Recent expansion by the Tau had left it with only a tenuous connection to the Imperium via a series of jumps through Imperial outposts. It was in fact deep within the Tau sphere of influence. The Tau had placed a trade mission on the world and over the course of a few decades, the Human population had begun to support the ideals of the Greater Good, rather than the worship of the Emperor. A Division of Imperial Guard under the command of Lord General Zyvan was despatched to the world, including but not limited to the following units:
- Valhallan 597th Ice Warriors Regiment
- Valhallan 14th Armoured Regiment
- Valhallan 12th Field Artillery Regiment
The Imperial presence was, however, merely a show of force. Gravalax was of no strategic value and would be difficult to defend if the Tau decided to take the world. Imperial policy was therefore to prevent a conflict with the Tau at all costs.
No sooner had the guard units arrived when local agitators, both Pro and anti Imperial, began stirring up hatred. The spark that ignited these stirrings into full blown civil war came when the Tau envoy was murdered as he arrived at a reception at the Governor's mansion. The Tau were convinced through the intervention of Commissar Ciaphas Cain to restrain themselves from acts of revenge, but this did not stop the local Gravalax PDF from slipping into fraternal bloodshed. A deal was eventually brokered with the Tau to allow the Imperial Guard into the capital city to break the fighting. The Imperial attack began with the shelling of the Xenoist faction stronghold, the area known as the Heights, and the Govenors mansion were scenes of the heaviest fighting. Resistance by xenoist PDF and citizen mobs was futile as the battle hardened veterans of the Imperial Guard moved in to break up the civil war.
Ultimately the Tau withdrew from the world altogether, deeming the place too unstable to govern and therefore not worth the effort.
Governor Grice was removed from office by order of the Inquisition for gross incompetance, after his actions almost prompted a war with the Tau.
After the Tau pulled out the Division was recalled and broken up to be sent on to different missions in the segmentum.
Sources
- For The Emperor by Sandy Mitchell - date for the gravalax Incident on pg205
