In the year 315 of the Stellar Era, the entire Muryid System in the Azov constellation broke away from the authority of the Stellar Kish of the Hetmanate Federation and declared independence from it. Due to the extreme importance of this system, three full armies of Haiduks were dispatched to suppress the rebellion, totaling fifteen million soldiers and support personnel. As a result of long sieges and bloody battles on the surfaces of the planets in the system, the traitors were ultimately brought to heel.
Causes
According to the laws of the Hetmanate Federation, those countries or peoples who voluntarily joined the Federation back on Old Earth received large allotments in star systems, allowing them broad self-governance, their own small army, and the ability to conduct trade without the permission of the Stellar Sich. Such systems were only required to pay the Warp tax on time, send jura for training in the camps of the Serdiuks or Haiduks, and unconditionally provide the required amount of Muryid Steel to the Stellar Sich. It was steel that became the stone over which the sheikh-rulers of the Muryids stumbled. Since the price of their metal was extremely high and it was even exported to the Empire of the Sun and the Corporate Republic, at some point the Muryids decided that they would no longer send steel for the needs of the Stellar Sich and began to avoid their duties as members of the federation in every possible way. The Muryids decided to break the oath that their ancestors had sworn more than eight hundred years ago, and to trade all the steel they mined.
Beginning
Several thousand space Serdiuks with Terminators were dispatched for negotiations and investigation, headed by Vasyl Vyhovsky, a direct descendant of Ivan Vyhovsky, the founder of the Federation. During their landing approach, they were denied permission, citing a system failure. Due to his high rank, Vasyl Vyhovsky had access to all electronic keys of the spaceports, so his embassy mission was able to unlock the landing strip and set down on the planet. In the system’s capital — Baghdad — they were received extremely coldly, practically being pushed back toward the spaceport. Vasyl Vyhovsky, taking advantage of the fact that the capital did not yet have enough rebel troops to deal with the elite Serdiuk-Terminators, ordered the seizure of control over all spaceports and the main citadel of the city, from which the planet and the Muryid System were governed. Quickly dislodging the small detachments of Turks and Arabs guarding the administrative buildings, the Cossacks captured all key control points of the city’s life and barricaded themselves inside, activating siege mode on the AI turrets.
Course of Events
Before the Muryids thought to destroy the warp beacon, Vasyl Vyhovsky transmitted a message directly to the Stellar Sich, reporting the violation of the federation oath and that they were effectively under siege in the citadel along with several thousand Serdiuks. That same day, several dozen Haiduk regiments began their preparations for a warp jump to suppress the rebellion. Vasyl Vyhovsky managed to seize control of several orbital stations and spaceports, which greatly slowed the Muryids’ preparations for the invasion of the main Haiduk forces. Just a week later, about thirty regiments in three armies emerged from warp and began clearing the space around the planet of Muryid forces, who had already managed to mobilize a large number of people into their army. The Muryids played on ancient emotions regarding religion, which had already been banned in the age of space travel but still smoldered in the souls of some people. At their call, a Jihad was declared against the Haiduk forces and the entire Hetmanate Federation. The Muryids attempted several times to storm the citadel captured by Vasyl Vyhovsky and his guard, but after tens of thousands of corpses on the city streets, they could not even breach the first line of defense. But this only further inflamed religious fanaticism, and even more people joined the ranks of the Muryid army. They disarmed the small sotnias of Haiduks who were not ethnic Arabs or Turks. One of the Haiduk garrisons held a defense in a small fortress near the citadel, but was captured and tortured to death through crucifixion. Still-living Haiduks were nailed to two crossed logs and paraded through the captured city, until the frenzied mob tore them to pieces. Vasyl Vyhovsky observed this savagery from a tower on the citadel but could do nothing — venturing beyond the citadel walls meant death for them. Those sotnias of Haiduks who served on their home planet defected to the rebel ranks and formed the strike fist of the Muryid army. In total, more than eighty percent of Haiduks betrayed their oath to serve the Sich and went over to the Muryids’ side. Of those who did not betray the oath, few survived. Only a few hundred Cossacks managed to link up with the arriving armies and save themselves.
Storming of the Citadel
One of the bloodiest days was the assault on the Citadel staged by the Muryids, where Vasyl Vyhovsky was sheltering. They desperately needed to seize control of the entire system, as the Haiduks locked inside the fortress prevented them from properly using the spaceports and conducting space battles against the arriving Haiduks, who were increasingly expanding their operations and already beginning to deliver orbital strikes against concentrations of traitors. Early in the morning, the muftis of the religious sect gathered several tens of thousands of women with children and sent this procession straight to the main gates of the citadel. Vasyl Vyhovsky had already received the order with the “To the Last” Rule the day before. So he did not fall for this provocation. When the head of the column reached the very gates, young men hiding in the crowd began to clamber up them. And the Haiduks, meanwhile, activated the AI turrets, which began to shred the crowd with bursts of kinetic projectiles and laser fire. A terrible uproar erupted; the crowd surged backward, but they were pressed by fanatics who would not let anyone pass back, shooting the fleeing. In total, by estimate, thirty thousand rebels died on that day alone. Only a few dozen stormtroopers climbed the gates, and they were immediately shot with small arms.
Spread of the Rebellion
Eventually, the Muryids finally managed to crack the access codes to the spaceport and orbital stations and deploy their troops on a full front, both on the surface and in space. The Federals did not expect that more than 80% of local Haiduk troops would go over to the rebels’ side, so the first skirmishes were very cautious. Both sides probed each other, trying to strike only where there would be victory. But soon a true battlefield unfolded in space. Seven more regiments of Serdiuks joined to aid the Haiduks, significantly improving their situation. The Haiduks were able to create a security sector around the citadel and eventually pushed the Muryids completely out of Baghdad and its surroundings for several hundred kilometers around.
Immediately, the other two planets in addition to Baghdad — Istanbul and Jakarta — entered the war. This time, the oath-loyal Haiduks managed to withdraw from the rebellion-engulfed planets without hindrance, avoiding battles with the twentyfold superior forces of Muryids and Haiduk-traitors.
The Haiduks’ base became the capital of the planet Baghdad, of the same name. From here, Vasyl Vyhovsky exercised command, and here was his headquarters.
The long stage of the war for the Muryid System began. Sometimes weeks would pass with nothing happening; each side accumulated strength. Then all of space would turn into a battlefield, where it even came to boarding each other’s lunar bases and bone-against-bone melees on captured Haiduk frigates and freighters. The Haiduks landed troops on Istanbul and Jakarta and waged fierce continental battles with varying success.
End
After two years, the Muryids’ material base began to run dry. They did not have enough factories for manufacturing weapons, brewing melta, and generating plasma for space aviation and their infantry. Eventually, the Haiduks forced them to retreat from the planet Baghdad, where the “To the Last” Rule immediately came into force. The terrible slaughter of tens of millions of people, on one hand, played against the Haiduks, for now the other planets saw what awaited them. On the other hand, Vasyl Vyhovsky offered the rebellion leaders and their colonels a switch to the Federation’s side in exchange for a lighter punishment. Distrust among the rebellion leaders began to grow. They blamed one another, trying to shift responsibility from themselves to others. Some hive-cities on Jakarta even declared full independence from the Muryids and sent ambassadors to Vyhovsky with a proposal for peace in exchange for amnesty. As proof of their intentions, the instigators and otamans of the rebellion were handed over to the Haiduks. They were immediately quartered on the walls of Baghdad along with their families. The Haiduks kept their word and did not apply the “To the Last” Rule when they entered the planet without a fight. The Stellar Sich agreed to lower the “to the last” threshold from 65% to 20%. About forty million citizens of Jakarta were transferred to the status of slaves and immediately sent to the dark tunnels of mining planets, where they would rot until the end of their days, seeing neither the sun nor breathing normal natural oxygen, but only gas synthesized by enormous factories.
The fall of Jakarta was a turning point in the rebellion. Only the stronghold on Istanbul remained, which refused to surrender and decided to fight to the end. It took a year of protracted battles and constant attrition of the enemy before this planet too fell to the Haiduks.
Consequences
As a result of three long years of warfare on all three inhabited planets of the Muryid System, its population decreased by 35%. The Hetmanate Federation, in accordance with its military doctrine, applied the “To the Last” Rule. The massacre of the population was halted only by a direct order from the Stellar Kish, which feared bleeding such an industrially important system too dry. All key state posts were occupied by descendants of ancient Cossack families dating back to the time of Old Earth, as well as those Haiduks who had distinguished themselves during the hostilities. Broad autonomous rights were revoked; part of the ethnic Muryids were transferred to the status of slaves and immediately thrown into the tunnels of three barely settled cold planets. Children who were not nullified under the “To the Last” Rule were taken away and distributed among other systems for re-education.