Civil unrest is a growing problem as hunger, violence, disease, and the threat of the Tau undermine the confidence and sense of civic duty of the populace of Port Aruna.

To his Lordship, Petrov Karlson
High Mayor of Aruna

Per your request, I have drawn data from various sources to provide you with an assessment of the health, morale, and general living conditions of the citizens of Port Aruna.

Submitted by Turiel Brykeman
Ordinate to the High Mayor
Adeptus Administratum

News Report, Voxcast Channel #3, 3 547 740.M41

Rioting broke out at the Eastern Market food distribution center this afternoon after Administratum officials announced that they had run out of civilian rations  for the day.

“We were provided with food packets for 5,000 families, but nearly 8,000 were in line,” said Doritta Vennon, second deputy council of the city’s sub-office for refugee services. “We told people to come back tomorrow when new rations would arrive, but some families have been turned away multiple times. They are starving, and they went mad . . . savage.”

More than 200 Enforcers of the Adeptus Arbites, equipped with body armor, stun batons, and shotguns needed more than two hours to break up the angry crowd. Sixteen Enforcers were injured, and more than 200 rioters killed.

Weeks ago, a three-man team of Enforcers could safely patrol the unauthorized shanty towns that were built by refugees in alleys, abandoned buildings, and other unused city space. Today, Enforcers rarely patrol such areas, as the appearance of the Adeptus Arbites can fuel a riot.

Center for Housing, Adeptus Administratum
Memo: Insuficient Housing
Date: 3 535 740.M41

It is estimated that nearly 100,00 refugees fled the Tau advance down the Aruna River valley, having abandoned their plantations and sought refuge in the city of Aruna.

With city housing capable of serving only 55,000 citizens, this influx of refugees has made it impossible to find adequate shelter for everyone. Although refugee camps have been established in parks, industrial waste sites, and underground maintenance tunnels, tens of thousands of people are homeless—building their own ramshackle shelters where they can, using shipping crates, plastic sheeting, and any material that can be torn free from unguarded fences, buildings, and industrial equipment.

Lacking the most basic of human services, these unauthorized “shanty towns” are breeding grounds of gang activity, illicit drug abuse, and violence and civil unrest. Entire communities have sprung up, with refugees taking control of the surrounding streets and enforcing their control without regard to law and order. In some precincts, Enforcers refuse to enter these shanty towns, arguing that sending patrols into these areas is enough to spark rioting.

The influx of 100,000 refugees has overwhelmed the city’s sewerage system, and outflow pipes from the sewage treatment plans regularly pour raw sewage into the ocean.

Department of Public Health, Adeptus Administratum
Memo: Declining Public Health
Date: 3 541 740.M41

Incidents of infectious disease, malnutrition, dehydration, and exposure is rising, and the potential for one or more pandemics sweeping through the populace is rising daily.

In addition to poor shelter and limited food intake, the tripling of the city’s population has overwhelmed the already-less-than-adequate sewerage system. Waste filtration systems are overflowing, resulting in untreated sewage escaping into discharge pipes that lead to the ocean.

Ocean currents are not strong enough to move this raw sewage away from the city, with the result that this sewage is washing up on beaches and collecting under piers and at the base of concrete wharves. What’s more, the construction of temporary latrines around the city is proving a health threat, as summer storms are flooding the inadequate drainage systems of these latrines and washing biological contaminants down streets and alleys, where the waste accumulates and become breeding grounds of disease-carrying vermin.

In the last two weeks, there has been a 500-percent increase in cases of severe Osmotic Colonic Intestinitis (OCS), largely due to worsening unsanitary conditions. Coupled with malnutrition and poor housing, our algorithm suggests that medical facilities will be overwhelmed within days, and the predicted death toll from infectious disease will climb to 1,000 a day within 10 days.

Adeptus Arbitites Briefing, Evening Watch
Arbitrator Maximilian Ostros
3 547 740.M41

“Violent crime has increased 400 percent in the last month. Theft has risen by 800 percent. Some refugees have organized into gangs and are engaged in black marketing, illicit drug sales, and protection rackets.”

“We are finding corpses every day—in gutters, alleys, bomb craters, abandoned buildings. The majority are innocent civilians who’ve succumbed to malnutrition or disease, but a third show signs of a violent death.”

“A citywide curfew of 19:20 is now in effect, but with the Summer Solstice behind us, the curfew will be soon need to be revised to 19:00 as the days grow shorter. This will impact civilian work details constructing fortifications, but it is simply too dangerous to allow civilians to be on the streets after dusk.”

“Frankly, it’s not even safe for Enforcers to operate at night—at least as individuals or small groups. A gang calling themselves “The Defiant Ones” ambushed a four-man Enforcer patrol on the south docks, with two Enforcers wounded and one killed.”

“As of now, Enforcers are authorized, at their discretion, to fire upon any civilian violating curfew. Do not take chances, gentlemen. We may end up killing a few innocent civilians, but we need to protect ourselves—and make it clear to the populace that we will not tolerate violations of the law.”

 Sub-office of Food Distribution
Confidential Report: Food Shortages
3 549 740.M41

Food rationing was instigated nearly six weeks ago, and it is hardly a secret to the Administratum—or the public at large—that food supplies are dwindling.

What is not widely known is that food reserves are 20 percent below reported levels, largely due to unidentified criminal elements that have been pilfering  food warehouses.

Particularly galling about this state of affairs is the discovery that criminals have stolen entire food storage units (from supposedly guarded facilities), loaded them aboard sanctioned commercial ships, and transported them for sale to cities far from the fighting.

For example, Baron Lukas Barat of the Barat Shipping Consortium was arrested and executed two days ago after the Arbites received a tip that the shipping vessel, Lancastria, was leaving port—not with wounded soldiers as mandated by military order M-837 but with 10,000 Imperial tons of grain stolen from Food Storage Unit 9.

Strict rationing has allowed this sub-office to ensure troops and noble families with food providing 85 percent of daily nutritional needs, but citizens of lower socio-economic status or tertiary military value have seen rations cut to two a day—a level that provides only 75 percent of nutritional needs. This is resulting in increased incidences of malnutrition and declining health.

The outskirts of Aruna erupt in flames as the Tau begin their bombardment of the city. In the days before the xenos launched their ground assault of the city, such bombardments occurred practically non-stop.

Sub-office of Propaganda
Report: Declining Public Morale
549 740.M41

With the greatest respect, this sub-office must report that public confidence in Imperial authorities has declined 7.3 percent over the past week.

Although daily propaganda sheets, hourly vox reports, and undercover agents who spread pro-Imperial gossip have consistently reassured the public that the Imperial government will protect citizens from the Tau menace, the advance of the xenos to the outskirts of Aruna has offset all of these efforts.

Worsening living conditions, as well as the expected bombardment of the city by the approaching xenos, will inevitably lead to further declines in public morale. Although the lower classes of the populace are trained from birth to be subservient and stoic to physical discomfort, it is expected that the most strident of propaganda efforts cannot prevent defeatism and potential civil unrest.

Imperial authorities should prepare accordingly, with plans prepared for mass executions and the use of military assets to brutally repress civilian panic and violence.

Conclusions

After discussions with Captain Stevrous Stark, military commander in the city, it is my recommendation that the civilian population be evacuated from the city.

Already, Captain Stark has ordered his troops to pull back from the city’s suburbs and shorten his lines of defense. Not only does this mean that there is insufficient room for both military and civilian personnel in what remains under Imperial control, it also means xeno artillery will be able to bombardment all corners of the city—and conditions for the civilian population will become intolerable.

It is estimated that if transport ships, currently arriving with additional troops and supplies, were to depart with as many civilians as possible, it should be possible to evacuate approximately two-thirds of civilians within two weeks. The rest will likely die in this time period, and their evacuation is no longer a relevant matter of concern.

TheGM: Peter Carlson asked about the status of the civilian population in Port Aruna, and I was so pleased by his inquiry, I felt the answer should be recorded in the scholarly tomes dealing with the Tau invasion.

As further acknowledgement of his support for the Corvus Cluster, Peter may have noted the name of the High Mayor of Aruna (named at the beginning of this article), to whom this report was written.

—

The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.