Vaxi Atrocity

The Vaxi Atrocity is an event from the Dark Heresy Second Edition splatbook Enemies Within.

Summary

The Vaxi atrocity started when a bunch of Ordo Hereticus Inquisitors decided to hold a conclave. The veteran Witch Hunter Lord Spiron Hark and his followers wanted to investigate, and if needs be, purge, the Askellian nobility to get at the hidden secrets of the sector. Seeing as the sector was notoriously corrupt and that its ruling classes were deeply involved, it seemed to be a plan all Inquisitors could agree on. However, Lord Hark was a notorious bombast and a Puritan through and through, and as such had garnered more than his fair share of rivals and enemies within the ranks of the Inquisition over the decades of his service. These opposed his plans, apparently simply to frustrate Hark’s rise in power and inluence rather than because they objected to the course of action itself. After he demanded immediate and extreme action, a fierce argument erupted in the hallowed vaults of the Oblitia Cathedra where the conclave was held on the edge of the Sector, soon followed by insults and accusations so severe they could not be withdrawn without substantial loss of face. Centuries of accumulated ill-will, anger, and virulent mistrust amongst the Inquisitors operating in Askellon seemed to quickly boil over to impossible levels. Hark inally gathered his household and his allied peers to leave the conclave for the inner Askellian worlds: he declared to the assembled Inquisitors that he would have the truth, one way or the other, and with or without the blessings of those opposed to his direction.

Inquisitor Hark’s opponents, despite appearances, were not complete idiots or heretics. Rather, it was because two decades before, they had instigated their own iniltration of the sector for their own ends, and feared that Hark’s interference would ruin their work. Exactly what that work amounted to or was aimed towards appears to be a secret these Radicals took to their graves.

Upon the disbandment of the assembly, both factions set out for the sector’s core, sweeping up what allies they could along the way and utilising their powers as Inquisitors to requisition what assets they encountered. As the rival groups penetrated deeper into the Rubicon Sub-Sector, they called upon ever-greater forces, and entire regiments of the Imperial Guard mustered at their order from a swathe of worlds along a route many parsecs in length. By the time they crashed headlong into Rubicon, all pretence at due process was shed. Entire worlds were burning before the Lords of Askellon had any notion what was occurring, because they were incompetent and traitorous fucktards who probably deserved death anyway. Sector-wide defence protocols were set in motion, but while the defenders had experience fighting uprisings, prosecuting mutant culls, and even stalling xenos invasions, none could face the might of the Inquisition and of the yet-faithful armies of the Imperium.

At length, the Sector Praefect, at that time Lord Vhinjet Romonav VII, declared war upon the invaders. His declaration was a strident statement, which began as a warning, but soon meandered into what amounted to an admission of heresy. Entire generations of savants have debated whether Romonav intended to broadcast the message he did, or if he was overcome by hubris, misunderstood, caught in the grips of insanity, or even possessed by some daemonic entity. Regardless of the truth, by the end of the message, which was transmitted using every Astropathic choir on Juno and spread across Askellian space, the Praefect had, with deliberate intent or otherwise, announced his sector’s secession from the Imperium of Man.

Confronted with treachery on such a massive scale and mindful of those shreds of the sector’s history they had access to, the opposing factions ceased their internecine battle. Immediately, they fell upon Vaxi and the millions of Askellian troops mustered there with power and potency surely not seen since the Macharian Crusade. The combined forces massacred the defenders in a crusade so bloody none were spared. Every single warrior on Vaxi was punished for the crimes of Lord Romonav VII, either slain in battle or burned in massed pyres as tall as Warlord Titans.

Consequences

The Inquisitors saw what they had wrought, and deemed it sufficient: to carry on purging the heretics and fighting between themselves would only devastate the Sector further, and it was already almost defenceless against any outside threat. The traitorous governor was obviously purged in an appropiately public and gruseome manner, and all others saw the might oof the Inquisition. Since then, all of the different Inquisitorail factions and heretic nobles act much more circumspectly, and try to avoid the repetition of such a cataclysmic event.

The Vaxi Atrocity also spurred the rise of the so-called "Romonstrance" philosophy inside the ranks of the Inquisition. It holds that all Imperial institutions, including the Inquisition itself, are corrupt and should be torn down so that the entire structure by which humanity rules itself can be rebuilt. They believe that the original settlers in the Askellion Sector were fleeing some great injustice when they came to Askellon, unwilling to accept whatever regime held dominion at that shrouded time. All that has transpired in the galaxy, from the Age of Strife to the Great Crusade, through the Horus Heresy and into the Age of Imperium, these Inquisitors believe is the inevitable result of the evil of the regime those original colonists were leeing. The Remonstrance wishes not just to tear down the Imperium, but to return it to an earlier, purer form, a template they believe is hidden in the very blood of the Lords of Askellon, passed down to them over countless generations. Seeing as the High Lords of Askellon are hinted to have sided with Horus during the Horus Heresy (and the population rose up against the Imperium under the leadership of a so-called "saint" during the Scouring) and are still traitorous, heretical and incompetent nowadays, this in unlikely to end well.

Opinion

The Vaxi atrocity is considered an event source of much skub among neckbeards, who cannot agree if it is awesome, interesting and useful as it shows why the Inquisition respects due process and stuff and never lets things get more out of hand than in the Calixis Sector, or just Wardian-level bullshit. It does show that the Inquisition sometimes gets carried away, but seeing as the reasoning of every side is logical enough (there are no moderate philosophies active inside the Askellon Sector), it cas generally be blamed on Grimdark.

Imperial Armour

This even would make a perfect Imperial Armour, showcasing the differing agents and powers of the Inquisition, and the Armies of the Imperium - although only the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy are specifically mentioned, as the whole sector fell into war the local Knight Worlds and the Ecclesiarchy are probably also involved. It isn't that unreasonable to believe that the Adeptus Astartes or the Adeptus Mechanicum got roped in too either.