The Rennian Rebellion

The Rennian Rebellion was a conflict between Occupying New Roman Republic forces, and rebels led by Sergio Ren, fought over control of the Irin Plateau.

Despite insider information provided to Ren & his forces by Roman Senator Dracula P. Davis, the rebellion was unsuccessful.

Background

When he got on the wrong flight in 218, and accidentally ended up in the Campestrem Regionem, a 19-year-old Sergio Ren had no idea that he would one day be the most powerful man to ever grace the area. He had intended to fly into Nova Italia, to try and find work, which was in shortage in his native Omhoincan, but boarded at gate G12 rather than G21, and ended up in the Campestrem Regionem. It turned out to be the best decision of his life. He began working as a hairdresser in the Regionem, to try and save enough money to move to Nova Italia. But the plateau grew on him, and he eventually decided to stay. He found the authorities quite friendly towards him, as he was a foreign national, working towards NRR citizenship, but noticed that his experience wasn’t universal. The discrimination, violence, and oppression he saw the military carrying out against the Irin horrified him. At first, he began writing to both the Senate and his regional Governor, but the government-sanctioned oppression was not curbed at all. After that, he moved up a step, gathering petitions with thousands of signatures, including very famous Irinians. Once again, though, the requests to end the oppression were not heard. However, many of the high-profile people who signed the petitions suffered from a sudden onset of “accidents” involving the local government. Even Ren himself was nearly run over by a Military Jeep in secluded parts of town on three different occasions. Finally, he realized that his petitions would be fruitless, and began organizing an underground resistance to the NRR “occupation” as he labelled it. Perhaps this way, he would force the hand of the NRR in the direction he wanted it to go. NRR soldiers walking alone found themselves attacked by people they never even saw, and high-profile government officials often were called home to find that their valuables were gone, and their houses burned. But even though people wanted to follow Ren’s lead, and even though people were following, Ren realised that he couldn’t start a revolution quite yet, as no purchase of weapons would go unnoticed by the NRR. Instead, he began to make it a troublesome region, so that if he couldn’t openly rebel, they would make the Campestrem Regionem a headache for the Roman Oppressors. He began attacking larger groups of Military Personnel, everywhere they went, starting around mid-221. Several times Military Transport Jets and Fighters were sabotaged, and truckloads of soldiers were attacked in places that they were forced to move slowly. A further total of 14 Fuel Trucks were also destroyed with homemade Molotov Cocktails during this period, as well.

Rebellion

The NRR began to have casualty after casualty after casualty, and they declared eventually declared war. But they still didn’t know who they were fighting. In the official declaration of war, the Consuls announced a “suitable response to the aggression shown by internationally backed Insurgents and Seperatists.” Ren’s “Small War” was working exactly as it was supposed to, but it wasn’t getting any larger. Despite the fact that the NRR was actively at war with his resistance, he had no supplies to fight in pitched warfare. For now, he just had to stick to Guerilla Warfare. But his luck changed in 222; An anonymous contact gave him money, weapons and intel. Initially suspicious of the possibility of a trap, Ren refused. However, as their situation grew more perilous, Ren and the rebellion leaders decided that it was worth the risk. And it was. The contact provided them with enough funding for several years, weapons for an army thrice their size, and supplies galore. Much of the weapons and supplies had been siphoned off from the NRR Army’s own storage, and had been unnoticed or ignored by inventory auditors. They set up camps all across the Campestrem Regionem, and prepared for far more open warfare. Since the Weapons were actually brought into the country for a legal reason, the Roman military had no preparations for the scale of war that Ren could now wage. During The Parade Day Celebrations on the 24th of 222, Ren launched a surprise attack on 4 different outposts across the region, successfully killing just above 200 NRR Soldiers, and capturing a lot of high-quality weaponry and supplies. After another surprise attack on a fifth NRR military outpost, many of the Campestrem Regionem’s oppressed inhabitants finally got the courage to join him. The NRR Senate received intel from their sources that, overnight, the rebellion had doubled in size, to nearly 2,000 rebels. Before this, the NRR had assumed that the resistance, while very troublesome, had been a localized effort, and not widespread across their Colony. This step in the rebellion’s size and boldness opened their eyes to the situation. The NRR Senate announced that, in response to the Parade Day Attacks, they were dispatching three Legions of the Roman-Ottenburgian Army into the Campestrem Regionem. With their anonymous supplier of weapons also supplying them with intel on the NRR Army’s movements, the Rennian Rebellion attacked weak spots, and predicted how the Army would move, so he could avoid them whenever they felt like it. But, despite this, the Army of New Rome was still bigger, better equipped, and better trained. Ren led a night attack on a small outpost in the very west of the Campestrem Regionem a few days after the new troops arrived, which was violently and brutally repelled by an overwhelming number of Roman Troops (the best estimates say that the Rebels were likely outnumbered 4.3:1). Those who survived retreated, disheartened. While Ren managed to successfully carry out a few more raids on Roman Territory, the scale of the Parade Day Attacks couldn’t be achieved again. By the Rebels. Three days before Parade Day, 223, the Rebel camp, deep in the trees, was struck by a surface-surface missile around 4:00 AM, which instantly killed 14 rebels. The rebels woke in a panic, as sentries began calling in to report that the Roman Army was approaching from three directions. Ren’s most recent headcount had the Rebel Forces sitting on 1,578 men and women. In contrast, each of the Roman Legions was 4,000 strong. With all three legions approaching their camp, they were hopelessly outnumbered. As more advance missiles struck the camp, Ren gave the order to scatter, and await further instructions. Ren left with just a few of his close friends and commanders, who took a convoy of three jeeps through the forest. They passed two Roman Checkpoints, both of whom let them through, assuming that the Roman Vehicles were carrying wounded. The group sneaked all the way to the Campestrem’s Border with the Latian Republic, one of the NRR’s Enemies, where they were admitted quietly, and given political asylum. According to Roman Records, 987 Rebels were captured that day, the 21st of 223, and international reporters counted 176 bodies in and around the camp. The NRR executed 650 of the Captured Rebels in the coming years, all on counts of high treason to the Senate of the New Roman Republic. Including those incarcerated and not, 752 Rebels remained breathing, when there had been 2,245 fighting just a year before. The First Rennian Rebellion had failed. However, Ren did not give up hope, and nearly immediately founded the Irinian Freedom Council, (IFC), who would go on to lead the charge to start another rebellion in the CR.