A security scanner took this pict of mutant rebels advancing down the streets of Yahudu.

IMPERIAL VOXCAST (6 279 746.M41)—Thousands of mutant rebels have attacked the town of Yahudu on the world of Morkai, slaughtering local residents and forcing survivors to flee into the surrounding barren desert.

The attack began on 6 253 746.M41,, two hours before dawn, with massive explosions targeting the town’s Administrative Center, the Adeptus Arbites Precinct House, and the headquarters of the local contingent of Planetary Defense Force (PDF) troops that garrisoned the town of 7,000 residents.

“These explosions severely disrupted attempts by local authorities to respond to this horrific attack,” announced a visibly shaken Albus Sundvar, high marshal of all Arbities on the planet, during a press conference hours after the attack.

“Several senior officials, including the local PDF commander and town’s prefectus, were killed in the explosions or subsequent attacks by rebels charging through breached security walls and past incapacitated autonomous defensive weapons on the perimeter of Imperial buildings.”

Information is limited about the actual sequence of events following the pre-dawn explosions. Fleeing citizens reported the streets were filled with mutants—loudly screaming the name of their mythical leader, the Haruspex—who engaged in a senseless slaughter of Imperial citizens.

“I saw mobs of mutants dragging people out of their homes and executing them by gun or sword,” said one rescued town resident who refused to share his name. “The mutants had gone mad. They were killing anyone within reach.”

Yahudu, located 1,100 kilometers northwest of the hive city of Charcharoth, is notable for its extensive promethium drilling and refinery operations and an unusually large mutant population,

“Working with promethium is dangerous, and it is difficult to hire sufficient laborers,” Sundvar said. “But the industry was willing to pay mutants a wage usually unavailable to them, simply to ensure it has enough men to keep the refineries going.”

Another pict taken in the early minutes of the mutant attack of Yahudu.

This influx of mutants, however, had led to increased tensions in the town, he admitted. Some violence had been directed at mutant workers, and there had been rumors that some mutants were infiltrators working for the rebels.

Whether there’s any truth to such allegations, the rebel assault quickly gained the upper hand in the fight. An early distress broadcast warned of the attack and requested immediate reinforcements against what was described as “a sizable, well-equipped force estimated at 5,000 men.”

“A subsequent broadcast  indicated that the PDF was being overrun due to the rebels’ extensive use of armored vehicles and artillery—a military capability that exceeded our most pessimistic assessments of the rebel threat,” General Marwan Sayar, supreme commander of PDF forces on Morkai, later shared with news reporters.

Two Valkyrie gunships were dispatched to the town to assess the rebel threat—and possibly extract surviving senior Imperial officials, Sayar said. Meanwhile, House Fenris agreed to dispatch its 1st Battalion of Household Guard to the scene, although even with Chimera transport, the troops could not arrive for 20 hours.

The final broadcast from Yahudu came four hours after the attack began: “If you receive this transmission, it is too late for us. The rebels are using suicide bombers to break down our defenses. The streets are covered in the dead. We will join them soon. We did what we could in the service of the Emperor. Avenge us.”

When the Valkyries arrived, heavy ground fire prevented the aircraft from approaching the city. Still, at a distance, the gunship crews reported seeing buildings ablaze and large columns of black smoke rising from sites throughout the town.

The Valkyries also sent word of hundreds of refugees on foot, moving south from the town in the general direction of Charcharoth.

The Household Guard reached the first refugees after 22 hours of driving, Sayar said. “These surivors were in poor condition after spending a full day and night in the desert, with temperatures that ranged from 50º C at mid-day to -4º C at night.”

Colonel Piet Konev

The Household Guard commander, Col. Piet Konev, deployed a quarter of his battalion to search-and-rescue operations to gather up those refugees who could be saved. The rest of his troops Mattai led personally forward with the intention of bringing the rebels to battle.

That objective proved unfeasible, however, as the 1st Battalion reached a tall ridge about six kilometers south of Yahudu. There, Konev reported seeing a sizable army, twice his force, that were deployed in hasty fortifications that were beyond his ability to overcome.

The 1st Battalion remained at this position for two days, screening the rescue efforts behind them..

Once rescue operations were suspended, however and with rebel troops showing no signs of withdrawing from Yahudu, all Imperial military forces were ordered to return to the safety of Charcharoth, General Sayar said.

“Future military operations to retake Yahudu are under consideration..”

The planet’s Imperial governor, Grand Elector Fabius Nemetorius, broadcast a planet-wide message to the citizenry just yesterday. He warned the rebel attack could be the beginning of a new outbreak of military exchanges that “will test the will of all loyal servants of the Emperor.”

He urged public calm and made clear that violence against loyal mutant citizens would be punished severely.

“The carnage and savagery of the rebels must be met with decisive military force, but we cannot afford civil unrest in our cities between norm-standard and the mutant residents who live peacefully among us. We will punish the rebels. We will not punish the innocent.”

Such noble words may not be enough. Riots between norm-standard and mutant citizens already have broken out in several cities, and several terrorist bombings have let the general public in great fear.

The mood of the planet was best captured by the comments of one citizen, who said:  “The only good mutant is a dead mutant. Let’s go back to the pograms of the past and annihilate the abhuman and mutant. from our world.”

Illustrations created by AI at Night Cafe Studios.

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