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Curse of Solomon - The Nature of the Beast: Nobody really knows what the Beast of Solomon is. To the spire nobles and guildmasters, it is a childish fable. The Administratum scribes and hab residents know it as a chilling ghost story, or a parable of how terrible life is in the Interior.But to those doomed to live in the Solomonite Interior Industrial Zones, it is very real, and very deadly. Those scholars and adepts of the Holy Ordos who have taken time to study the stories of the "Beast in the Dark" have come up with several possibilities. However, until dedicated teams of investigators can be despatched to Solomon to uncover the truth, these will remain only theories. The truth could be any or all of these possibilities, or perhaps something else entirely.
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Curse of Solomon - The Beast is This Place: The most popular theory amongst the Ordos Calixis, (especially with those adepts who have never had the misfortune of actually visiting Solomon) is that the Beast of Solomon does not exist in any literal sense. It is rather a figment of the imaginations of the ignorant and superstitious lower classes on Solomon invented to explain the bleak hopeless nature of the lives they lead.A mythical "Beast" lets these people blame their troubles on something they can regard as concrete and tangible. More importantly, their belief in a literal Beast gives them the misplaced hope that they can save themselves through the act of sacrificing. A small subset of researchers have suggested that although the stories of the Beast of Solomon may be myths, something more than the polluted environment and harsh conditions is responsible for hunting those who live in Solomon's Interior. They theorise that some arcane or even xenos mechanism from the ancient past may be responsible. Those theories are roundly ignored in the Ordos Calixis.However, if either case is true, then the Beast of Solomon cannot be appeased, hunted, or stopped. It would likely be a self-perpetuating fear caused by the blight and slow death of this world. Alternatively, the Beast may be some strange, unknown, external force -- all around and possessing reasons and purposes either too inhuman to comprehend or too mechanistic to placate.It takes people in the dark, and as long as people are there, they will disappear. As for those sacrificed to the Beast, some may be taken but most more likely starve to death or are eaten by rats. No matter how they end, their deaths are futile attempts to control something that does not understand the gifts or wishes of Humanity.
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Curse of Solomon - Existential Enemies: More exotic theories as to the cause of the "Curse of Solomon" include an ancient alien device buried beneath the surface of Solomon that consumes life energy or an ancient system from the Dark Age of Technology that eliminates living things according to some inexplicable programmed parameter, its victims rendered down by blade-fingered servitors or swarms of brass-cased insects.It could also be some property of the materials used to build part of the foundations of that part of Solomon's industrial complex, causing people to slip out of reality and into the Warp. It could even be the work of some ancient creature or xenos species that predates Human settlement on Solomon, acting to preserve its secret existence.
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Curse of Solomon - The Beast Is Man: When people fear the unknown, they may talk of Beasts that lurk in the dark and of fiends with sharp teeth that thirst for flesh. These tales, though, are the products of wishful ignorance -- Mankind is the worst Beast that lurks in the darkness of Solomon. Several Inquisitors whose minds tend to think in such terms privately suspect that someone is using and propagating the stories of the Beast of Solomon for their own purposes. After all, the population that lives in the depths of the Solomon industrial Interior are a hidden, blighted people who will not be missed and are perfect cattle for others who need a regular supply of Humans for some vile purpose.While the terrified dwellers gather around their chem-lamps and whisper about the Beast, others watch them unseen, waiting for one to stray into an isolated spot so that the others can do what they wish. To these quiet watchers, the whimpering offerings left in dark places are amusing and readily accepted gifts that do not dissuade them from their purpose.
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Curse of Solomon - Potentially Monstrous People: Both the Amaranthine Syndicate and the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness represent active Chaos Cults on Solomon whose activities may inspire the legends of a Beast of Solomon, just as they have inspired different tales in other parts of Solomon.A murder cult amongst the elite of Solomon could also be to blame, as could the needs of a hidden xenophile or heretek cabal that requires a continuous supply of Human subjects.
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Curse of Solomon - The Beast is Real: While not a common theory, a vocal minority of Inquistiorial scholars contends that the Beast of Solomon actually exists as some sort of creature. Why, in a galaxy full of strange and terrible things, could there not be some sort of creature living in the depths of Solomon, preying on the population there?If this is true, then the frightening legends from Solomon's Interior describing the Beast cannot be dismissed out of hand. Those who dwell in the dark places of Solomon tell of a crawling nightmare and the silent scythe of death. Gorged on rumour, fear, and superstition, the Beast has as many forms as the people who tell of it, yet all speak of the thing in the dark that comes and snatches away the living without a sound.If the Beast is real, then it is a savage and unknown alien predator as dangerous as any anything that might be confronted in the depths of the void.
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Curse of Solomon - Killing the Beast: If the Beast of Solomon is real, then killing it will not be easy. The stories describe it as a vicious and highly effective predator and an extraordinarily powerful creature, well-adapted to the cramped and dark conditions in Solomon's Interior industrial complexes.It is also likely to know its environment better than any Human could. It will retreat if attacked openly and then return to pick off an individual before disappearing again. Combined with the fact that it is a fearsome combatant, the only way to kill it is with extremely good fortune or an even better plan.
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Curse of Solomon - The Beast of Solomon: The Beast is believed to be a hideous xenos predator stalking Solomon's Interior industrial wastes. From the reports of the fearful inhabitants of the Solomonite Interior, it is a huge creature, part serpentine and part insectile in outline and wholly, utterly alien. This nightmare made flesh can wait with inhuman patience amongst the bleeding fumes of the still-stacks and chem-refineries for its prey. Blind, it is able to sense the slightest vibration in the air and track the smallest trace of scent. It can stalk its prey for solar hours before striking, its mottled carapace shifting colour to match its environment.Targeting lone victims or small isolated groups, it kills as if its deep-bred instincts know that it must remain hidden. Once ready it uncoils, its taloned limbs propelling it swiftly forward with no more sound than the wind. Victims may catch a glimpse of its many rows of needle sharp teeth and may even manage to let out a short cry before they are cruelly silenced, to be remembered only as part of another whispered tale.
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Cursed Company - Cursed Company: Cursed CompanyChaos Space MarinesFounding13th Black Crusade
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Cursed Company - Notable Campaigns: 13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - The 13th Black Crusade was a massive invasion of Imperial space by the Forces of Chaos led by the Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler against the Fortress World of Cadia and the surrounding sectors. This was the largest mobilisation of both Imperial and Chaotic forces seen since the bygone days of the Horus Heresy.
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Cursed Company - Warband Colours: The Cursed Company's colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
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Cursed Company - Warband Badge: The Curse Company's badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
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Custodian - Custodian: A Custodian is a member of the Adeptus Custodes, the valiant transhuman bodyguard and praetorians of the Emperor of Mankind, which is based in the Imperial Palace complex on Terra.The Adeptus Custodes are the Emperor's vengeance made manifest. They defend the Master of Mankind with singular determination and breathtaking skill, and whether their vigil requires them to stand immovable before the gates of the Imperial Palace or storm into battle on a distant alien world, they do their duty without a moment's hesitation.The Adeptus Custodes is comprised of three basic forms of heavy infantry -- the Custodian Guard, the Custodian Wardens and the Allarus Custodians.
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Custodian - Custodian Guard: When Shield Companies of the Adeptus Custodes strike out to do battle with the enemies of Mankind, it is the Custodian Guard that form their backbone. These warriors are rank-and-file infantry only in so much as their numbers are greater than those of the other, more specialised Adeptus Custodes warriors.Even a single one of their number is a terrifying force of destruction, their every shot perfectly placed, their every cut, thrust and stab a masterclass in bladesmanship, footwork and combat awareness that sees enemy corpses fall like dead leaves at their feet. Ferociously strong, phenomenally resilient, utterly without fear or doubt, the Custodian Guard are the equal of many foes' most elite warriors.Custodian Guard are steadfast in defence and unstoppable on the attack. Such squads do not have formal memberships, and Custodians may swap from one squad to another before each new campaign, or even each new battle. With their individualistic fighting styles, the Custodian Guard do not fight as one in the way that a conventional squad of soldiers would -- it is enough for them to know that they fight shoulder-to-shoulder with respected comrades, and that their fellows will watch their backs when the enemy press close.As with all of the Adeptus Custodes, Custodian Guard have the might of the Emperor flowing through their veins, and His aegis of protection hanging around them like a shield. Their traditional armament is the Guardian Spear, a golden halberd so heavy it would take several mortal men to lift it. This composite weapon is both a powered blade capable of hewing a Chaos Space Marine in two, and a bolter to engage threats from afar.Conversely, some Custodian Guard prefer to enter battle armed with a Sentinel Blade and Storm Shield. The Sentinel Blade is a broadsword of daunting size, so large its hilt is flanked with the double barrels of a Bolt Caster that can lay down a hail of short-range fire. It is a testament to the strength of the Custodians that they can wield these powered blades one-handed. When coupled with the armoured bulwark of the Storm Shield -- whose protective powers are augmented with a built-in energy shield generator -- this potent combination allows the Custodian Guard to cut their foes apart while weathering even the most devastating of attacks.As befits their elevated status, Custodian Guard squads can call upon ancient Venerable Land Raider main battle tanks to carry them to war. The combination of demigod-like warriors and enormous war engine is a terrifyingly potent one, and when several such squads advance at once, even super-heavy armour and towering Daemonic abominations cannot endure their wrath.
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Custodian - Custodian Wardens: Custodian Wardens can be recognised by the ceremonial robes that they wear over their armour. These are a mark of their veteran status, for every Custodian Warden has seen at least five Terran centuries in the Emperor's service.Those Wardens that do not carry the iconic Guardian Spears of their order wield heavy-bladed Castellan Axes. These weapons lend themselves to an elegant and brutal combat style that sees the wielder use their exceptional transhuman strength in conjunction with their axe's momentum, launching thunderous sweeps that switch direction with breathtaking suddenness to cleave through their victims' guard and hack off heads and limbs. The Wardens can also fire concentrated volleys of bolter fire from the hafts of their weapons, scything down those who attempt to stay out of their blades' devastating reach.The Wardens are known amongst their comrades as level-headed and endlessly patient watchmen. Upon accepting the robes that mark their station they swear binding oaths to fight as immovable sentinels, a living fortress of auramite and sinew that no foe will ever breach. Each Warden's oaths are personal, written by the Custodian themself after a full Terran year's contemplation sat in meditation upon the precipitous ledges of the Gallowtower of the Imperial Palace. To break their vows would be worse than death to these warriors, and their determination to uphold them bolsters their already formidable wills to something of truly frightening intensity.
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Custodian - Allarus Custodians: The Allarus Custodians deploy with sudden fury to tear the throat from the enemy army, specifically targeting key commanders or vital units. Where a strongpoint must be cracked wide open, a Traitor warship boarded or a foul demagogue slain even as he stands amidst his dedicated bodyguards, there are the Allarus Custodians deployed.These warriors wear suits of Allarus Pattern Terminator Armour, expertly crafted armour whose worth can be measured in the output of entire worlds. Driven by magnatomic generator-shrines, articulated with Leonus-class actuators, and fashioned from layered auramite and adamantium, Allarus Terminator Armour is a marvel of craftsmanship. It provides its wearer with an exceptional range of movement and near-unencumbered speed, augmented strength and resilience, and the survivability to stride unharmed from the blast of a Macrocannon shell. Coupled with the protective blessings of the Emperor, Allarus Terminator plate is arguably the most effective man-portable combat armour in the entire Imperium. Just as well, for the battles fought by Allarus Custodians demand nothing less.Their weapons, too, are formidable. They heft Guardian Spears twice the height of a man, or swing massive Castellan Axes that can bisect a Chaos Lord or lop the head from an Ork psyker with a single blow. To supplement these weapons, Allarus Custodians also wield Balistus Grenade Launchers upon their left forearms. These drum-fed weapons can be triggered with a thought, spitting salvoes of sanctified projectiles in saturation patterns through the enemy ranks. They are also capable of launching Concussion Grenades that explode amidst bursts of electroexorcist chaff and overwhelming light and sound.Enemies subjected to these barrages are sent reeling, their senses rebelling against the onslaught even as their weapons and equipment falter and they spasm in pain. Such armaments allow Allarus Custodians to suppress and then swiftly slaughter their target's elite bodyguards, leaving their true quarry exposed in the face of their wrath.Hand-picked by the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes from amongst the most bellicose of the Ten Thousand, Allarus Custodians relish the chance to plunge into the most lethal battles. Their killer instincts are razor-sharp, their wrath honed to a fine point. Yet these are no maniacal berserkers. Where many of the galaxy's most dangerous close-combat specialists allow their rage to drive them, Allarus Custodians leash their aggression wholly to their will. They land every blow with murderous strength, but also with surgical precision.So aggressive and heroic are these warriors that, when the situation demands, they have been known to splinter their units entirely after the initial strike and scatter through the enemy's rear lines. Fighting as lone figures, the Allarus Custodians eliminate key targets, sow anarchy and confusion through unsuspecting forces, and completely destabilise the foe's formation before fresh Adeptus Custodes forces arrive to end the conflict. It is an effective tactic that has seen more than one Heretic fortress fall from within.
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Custodian - The Gilded Fist: In recent years, one band of Allarus Custodians has become renowned for their skill as terror troops and executioners. Known as the "Gilded Fist," led by the indomitable Custodian Vanius Arcturon-Tybus, this squad has achieved remarkable feats of violence in the Emperor's name. It was the Gilded Fist who struck the head from the Ulgwyrm Cult of the Pan-Siberic Cluster, ended the insane machinations of Inquisitor D'anloxtos and led the purge of the Traitor-held space hulk Leviathan of Agonies before it could reach the edge of the Sol System.Unusually for Custodians, these warriors have fought side by side for solar decades now, asserting that they can best serve the Emperor operating as a single, tightly bound force of men and women who have come to view each other as siblings in blood, if not in truth. With such renowned members as Manastus Chaem, Parradon Helastes and Dalat Hap-Uramedes fighting shoulder-to-shoulder to bring low the Emperor's foes, few can doubt the veracity of this claim.
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Custodian - Custodian Guard: 3-10 Custodian Guard
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Custodian - Custodian Wardens: 3-10 Custodian Wardens
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Custodian - Allarus Custodians: 3-10 Allarus Custodians
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Custodian - Custodian Guard: Custodian ArmourGuardian SpearMisericordiaSentinel Blade (Replacement for Guardian Spear)Storm Shield (Replacement for Guardian Spear with Sentinel Blade)
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Custodian - Custodian Warden: Custodian ArmourCastellan AxeMisericordiaGuardian Spear (Replacement for Castellan Axe)
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Custodian - Allarus Custodian: Allarus Terminator ArmourCastellan AxeBalistus Grenade LauncherMisericordiaGuardian Spear (Replacement for Castellan Axe)
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Custodian Apothecary - Custodian Apothecary: A Custodian Apothecary is a Custodian of the Adeptus Custodes who has received advanced training in the arts of medicae so that they might heal the wounds incurred by their brethren, though they are also fully trained Custodian warriors who stand by their comrades in battle.Custodian Apothecaries also act as coroners and pathologists who conduct autopsies on any remains brought to them by their fellows during their investigations. The information they glean from these corpses can aid the investigations their fellow Custodians are undertaking to safeguard Terra and the Emperor.
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Custodian Apothecary - Notable Custodian Apothecaries: Ukende - Ukende was a Custodian Apothecary who served during the Era Indomitus and often used his medicae analytical skills to aid his brethren in their investigations.
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Custodian Armour - Custodian Armour: Custodian Armour is an advanced form of highly sophisticated, Artificer-wrought power armour utilised exclusively by the ancient Legio Custodes and the present-day Adeptus Custodes, the elite guardians of the Emperor of Mankind.Finely-wrought, Custodian Armour was customised exactly to task, and was produced without any regard to the consumption of resources or rarity of components or lore required; to arm and outfit the Custodians to the optimum, nothing was spared. This supremacy was evident from the auramite-alloy-reinforced armour the Custodian Guard wore, each a planet's ransom in worth.In the 41st Millennium, the panoply of the Adeptus Custodes represents the pinnacle of the armourer's art. Far more sophisticated than production-model Space Marine power armour, Custodian Armour is still fashioned with rare auramite alloy such as that used for the armour the Emperor Himself wore in battle, rather than the standard ceramite used in all other forms of Imperial power armour.Each suit is unique to the Custodian who wears it, as it is customised to its user, a suit of master-crafted battle-plate in the Custodes' traditional golden colour, each a work of art in its own right and highly individualised after the fact by its user. Custodian Armour is also fitted with arrays of proximity sensors and Refraction Field generators to further enhance its formidable defences.Auramite is almost inert at a quantum level, making it far less of an inhibition to the manipulation of Aetheric energy by a psyker than other protective materials. During the Siege of Terra, the Emperor wore His own auramite battle-plate while fighting His immaterial battle with the powers of Chaos within the Warp. Bare skin is better when unleashing psychic power, but had the Emperor not worn it, the immense energies He unleashed while sitting upon the Golden Throne would have burned His flesh to the bone.
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Custodian Armour - Uniforms and Heraldry: Each Custodian's armour and weapons are crafted specifically for them by hand. Thus, each suit is an individual work of exceptional craftsmanship with its own unique flourishes and decorations.Yet all Custodians maintain certain standardised elements to their wargear that help them to quickly identify one another's place both on and off the battlefield. The numbers below correspond to the image at right.The right shoulder guard of a Custodian's armour depicts the Imperial Aquila, a sigil of eternal vigilance and a sign of the Custodian's mandate to enact -- by force if necessary -- the will of the Emperor Himself.The gems set into each Custodian's armour are individually mined from deep beneath the surface of Terra and hand-cut by skilled artisans. Their colouration is flawlessly precise, an art form in its own right, not only across the Custodian's armour, but across that of his entire Shield Company. When a Custodian switches from one such organisation to another, the stones will be carefully extracted from his armour and replaced with those of an appropriate colour if needs be.The colour panels on the Custodian's left shoulder guard show clearly to which Shield Company or Shield Host they belong. The latter organisational tier takes precedence for these purposes. This colouration will often match the Custodian's tabard, along with any robes he may wear.All Adeptus Custodes armour is made from the incredibly rare substance known as auramite. Its natural colouration is a lustrous gold, a hue entirely appropriate for the Emperor's personal guardians. However, through closely-guarded alchemical processes, auramite can be tinted, or its colour changed altogether on a molecular level. It is a painstaking and costly process, but considered far more suited to the Custodians' importance in the Imperial hierarchy than simple repainting.The haft or hilt of a Custodian's weapon -- in this case a Guardian Spear -- is sometimes worked -- or, in many cases, reworked -- to match the colouration of their armour. This is not standard amongst all Shield Companies, however.
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Custodian Armour - Sources: Codex: Adeptus Custodes (8th Edition), pg. 22-23, 26Codex: Adeptus Custodes (9th Edition), pg. 16The Horus Heresy - Book Seven: Inferno (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 119, 242The End and the Death: Volume 1 (Novel) by Dan Abnett, Part 1, Ch. 1
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Custodian Tribune - Custodian Tribune: A Custodian Tribune is a senior-ranking Custodian of the Adeptus Custodes and a member of the Custodian Tribunate that stands directly below the Captain-General of the order in rank and acts as his chief advisors and councilors.During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, below the absolute authority of the Captain-General was the Custodian Tribunate; a senior cadre of perhaps ten Custodian Tribunes in number, which formed the Legio Custodes's council of war and policy. This body had the incomparable privilege of providing their services as counsel to the Emperor Himself should He so desire it, and in the matters of the security of the Imperial Palace's inner sanctums and the person of the Emperor, no higher authority existed.By the era of the 41st Millennium, sadly, there were only two such positions that were still maintained by the Adeptus Custodes, though the rest of the Custodian Tribunate of senior Shield-Captains still existed in an advisory capacity. One of these two Tribunes, known as the "Tribune of the Stratarchis," served as the commander of all the cadres of Custodians operating off of Terra and spread across the wider galaxy, taking the fight to the myriad enemies of Mankind. The other served as the Tribune of the Hetaeron Guard -- the personal Companions of the Emperor -- who oversaw the security of the Sanctum Imperialis and the Golden Throne itself.
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Custodian Tribune - Role: The Custodian Tribunate are among the keenest minds after the Captain-General in the Ten Thousand. Once a Custodian joins the Tribunate they must serve for at least ten standard years, though their membership is rotated periodically to ensure a blend of established wisdom and fresh ideas come to the fore. To join the Tribunate, a Custodian must have earned at least ten names and won three great victories.During their time of service, no member of the Tribunate takes to the battlefield unless in the most extreme circumstances -- their entire focus is supporting the Captain-General in strategic and diplomatic matters.The tribunes of the Legio Custodes are among the most powerful warriors in the Imperium, for not only are they skilled in the arts of battle beyond even the capabilities of the finest Space Marines, but they also stand high in the Emperor's council. Only the most dangerous and vital of duties can call them away from the Emperor's side to the battlefield, and when they do choose to sally forth it is at the head of a mighty Shield Host of the Legio Custodes.
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Custodian Tribune - Unit Composition: 1 Custodian Tribune
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Custodian Tribune - Wargear: Custodian ArmourGuardian SpearMisericordFrag GrenadesMelta BombsArae-ShrikeArchaeotech PistolPraesidium ShieldTeleport Transponder ArrayPyrithite Spear (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Adrasite Spear (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Sentinel Warblade (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Guardian Axe (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Meridian Swords (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Solarite Power Gauntlet (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Solarite Powertalon (As replacement for Guardian Spear)2 Solarite Powertalons (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Paragon Glaive (As replacement for Guardian Spear)Paragon Blade (As replacement for Guardian Spear)
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Custodian Tribune - Horus Heresy: Helios - Helios was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy. He commanded the Custodians fighting the War Within the Webway until he was killed in action and his responsibilities were assumed by his successor Jasaric.Jasaric - Jasaric, also known as Jasac, was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy. One of the original thirty Custodians first created, he had served the Emperor since the Unification Wars, and was present for the Battle of Maulland Sen. He was killed in action five standard years into the War Within the Webway after assuming command of the Custodians fighting within the Webway from his predecessor Helios.Ixion Hale - A consummate veteran of the Legio Custodes, Ixion Hale stood ready to face any foe who dared approach Terra and aided in its defence when the Throneworld was invaded by Warmaster Horus' Traitor hordes in the Siege of Terra.Kadai Vilaccan - Kadai Vilaccan was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy. He was killed in action five standard years into the War Within the Webway, two solar weeks after the death of Jasaric. Against the counsel of Tribune Ra Endymion and Commander Krole, he advanced far into the tunnels beyond the Impossible City after the adepts of the Mechanicum calculated that the foray would prove a crushing victory over the forces of Chaos. This calculation proved to be a grave error. After his death, Ra Endymion was the last Tribune remaining within the Webway and took command of the remaining Custodian forces.Ra Endymion - Ra Endymion was a Custodian Tribune of the Legio Custodes and a close confidant of the Emperor during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. As a Tribune, Ra Endymion commanded the force of Custodians who fought in the War Within the Webway against the servants of Chaos following the death of his predecessor Kadai Vilaccan, following the folly of the Thousand Sons Primarch Magnus the Red. The Crimson King's use of forbidden sorcery to communicate with his father, the Emperor, in order to warn Him of Horus' fall to the Ruinous Powers, shattered the wards of the Imperial extension into the Webway deep beneath the Imperial Palace, which opened the way for the Daemonic legions of the Ruinous Powers to attempt to force their way into reality through the portal beneath the Imperial Palace. Ra is one of the only living souls who learned the entirety of his master's dreams and ambitions for Humanity, a great gift provided as recompense for his ultimate fate. During the War Within the Webway, Ra Endymion saved Mankind by becoming the vessel of flesh that caged the Daemon Drach'nyen in its form as a sword. After being impaled by the Daemon Weapon at the command of the Emperor, the Master of Mankind ordered his most faithful praetorian to run forever into the Webway, as far as he could, imprisoning the Daemon for as long as he lived.
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Custodian Tribune - 41st Millennium: Heracleon, Tribune of the Hetaeron Guard - Heracleon is a Tribune within the the Adeptus Custodes who commanded the Hetaeron Guard during the 13th Black Crusade. It was during that time that the name of Shield-Captain Valerian came to him in a dream -- a matter of great import, as Custodes were rarely capable of dreaming. In fact, Heracleon was the first Custodes in a millennia to do so and he felt that this signified that Valerian was a candidate to join the depleted ranks of the Hetaeron Guard. Shockingly, however, Valerian failed in his first trial to join the Companions of the Emperor, as he was physically unable to make himself enter the Sanctum Imperialis of the Golden Throne which held the Emperor's ravaged body.Italeo - Italeo was a Tribune within the the Adeptus Custodes who commanded the Custodians who protected the walls of the Outer Palace, during 13th Black Crusade. He was later mortally wounded while fighting in the Battle of Lion's Gate when the forces of Khorne used the onset of the Noctis Aeterna after the birth of the Great Rift to launch a great assault upon the Imperial Palace, but managed to kill one of the Bloodthirsters leading the Khornate legions before he was slain. Following Italeo's death, Maldovar Colquan was chosen to replace him as Tribune.Maldovar Colquan, Tribune of the Stratarchis - Following Tribune Italeo's death at the Battle of Lion's Gate, Colquan was chosen to replace him as a Tribune in the Adeptus Custodes and served as the liaison between Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman and Captain-General Trajann Valoris. Colquan joined the Indomitus Crusade's Fleet Primus and led its Adeptus Custodes contingent for over a solar decade, including taking part in the Battle of Raukos, which signaled the end of the first phase of the crusade with the stabilisation of the Imperium Sanctus. While Colquan served alongside Guilliman, the primarch noted that the Tribune's time on Terra had dulled much of his strategic sense, and he displayed a level of disdain for unaugmented mortal Humans that deeply disturbed Guilliman. Unlike most of the other Custodians, Colquan maintained a barely concealed rage towards those he considered his inferiors and was not known for his diplomacy when dealing with other Imperial officials. He also deeply distrusted both Guilliman and the new Primaris Space Marines, seeing them as usurpations of the Emperor's perfect works. Colquan later directed Shield-Captain Achallor to Gathalamor to conduct reconnaissance in reaction to Asuryani Farseer Illiyanne Natasé's vision of a threat from Chaos growing there that could threaten the whole Imperium. Colquan strictly instructed Achallor to only report on what he found on Gathalamor, not wishing for any of the Ten Thousand to expend their lives in fighting a threat that could be faced by other Imperial forces. However the Shield Host of Achallor soon became swept up in the fighting against the forces of Chaos present there, and at the climax of the battle Colquan arrived with a force of 50 Custodians which dramatically turned the tide of the campaign. After hearing of Achallor's death and burial on Gathalmor with the trappings of an Imperial Saint provided by the Ecclesiarchy, Colquan saw the superstitious ritual as a necessary act to exert control over the Imperium's population and maintain morale in the face of the growing threats to the galaxy. Colquan came to believe that he had seen the hand of the Emperor in how the campaign on Gathalamor had played out to the Imperium's advantage. During the Plague Wars Colquan remained at Guilliman's side, and remained highly critical of the increasingly militant religious movements growing up around the primarch such as those led by the priest Mathieu. During the climax of the Plague Wars campaign against the Daemon Primarch Mortarion and the Death Guard on Iax the Tribune organised an operation to rescue Guilliman and other Imperial servants from the doomed world before the orbiting fleet unleashed an Exterminatus action.
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Custodian Tribune - Canon Conflict: In the Watchers of the Throne novel series by Chris Wraight, it is stated that there are only 2 Tribunes still within the Adeptus Custodes by the time of the 13th Black Crusade in the 41st Millennium. However Codex: Adeptus Custodes for the 8th Edition states that the Custodian Tribunate is made up of 10 officers during the Era Indomitus, according with the structure seen during the Horus Heresy.
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Cutting Beam - Cutting Beam: A Cutting Beam is a Necron weapon only utilised by the insect-like constructs known as Canoptek Acanthrites. The Cutting Beam mounted within an Acanthrite's thorax is capable of firing a short range, highly concentrated shaft of thermic energy ray that is able to slice apart the toughest of materials, dissecting steel, stone and flesh with equal ease and with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel blade.These lances of burning heat are similar to those emitted by an Imperial Meltagun, save for being far more focused and prolonged. Canoptek Acanthrites often use their Cutting Beams for the destruction of armoured vehicles and troops, as well as the systematic and rapid dismemberment of bunkers and fortifications.
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Cuyavale - Cuyavale: CuyavaleFeral WorldSeveran DominatePeriphery Sub-sectorCalixis SectorSpinward Front
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Cuyavale - History: The origins of human civilisation upon Cuyavale are unclear. Initial Imperial studies indicate that the world's two populations -- one subterranean and the other arboreal -- both originated at roughly the same time. However, the reasons for their split and continued isolation are lost to time. As there are no known surviving records that predate humanity's activity in the region prior to the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, none are certain when the region might have been first colonised. Adeptus Mechanicus agents might be able to make an estimate after obtaining biological samples, but there are currently no records of anyone conducting such a test.Humanity first began to colonise Cuyavale in the distant prehistory before the time of the Great Crusade. When remnants of the Angevin Crusade reached the distant world in the 39th Millennium, they were surprised to discover the hallmarks of human life. Further exploration soon revealed two separate populations, which continued to thrive in spite of the world’s deadly predators. After re-establishing contact, the Ecclesiarchy committed missionaries to the world, so that the surviving humans might learn the glory of the Immortal Emperor. While the Imperial Creed now flourishes upon the planet, their physical distance from the remainder of the Calixis Sector has limited the amount of interaction between Cuyavale and the agents of Terra.The arboreal populations largely dwell within Cuyavale’s enormous trees. These humans seldom descend to the world’s surface, and many spend their entire lives within the boughs of a small grove of trees. Communities are entirely dependent upon the bounty of the tree in which they dwell, and the organisms that live among the enormous plants. While many of these species are able to directly exploit the tree’s biological processes, others merely take advantage of the microclimates that the trees create. These include a broad range of arboreal animals, as well as lesser plants and fungal analogues that have evolved to dwell among the trees. The native humans who live in this environment have domesticated many of these plants for agricultural purposes.In contrast, the subterranean population lives far beneath the trees, among caves, believed to be the remnants of water flows and root networks that have long since rotted away. These natives are accustomed to lives of perpetual darkness. Their diets are largely based upon fungal growths and the few animals that dwell in the deep shelter of the trees, as they live in perpetual fear of, but relative safety from, the planet's Drakons.Since the advent of the Severan Dominate, the Secessionist stellar nation has drawn recruits from both of Cuyavale's human populations. Some of these forces have been used in defensive efforts directly upon the planet, as Ork forces have recently begun to assault the world. To date, the Orks have focused much of their efforts on attempts to tame the massive Drakons at the same time as they engage the disparate communities. So far, the xenos have had early success in controlling the Drakons, with at least one beast serving as a sort of aerial transport for the violent Orks.
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Cuyavale - Flora and Fauna: The world's surface is covered by massive, temperate rain forests. Huge trees, more than a hundred metres in diameter at their bases, extend over a kilometre into the heavens. Closely packed, these enormous plants completely block out the primary's light from ever reaching the ground. Consequently, those creatures that live among the arboreal heights know a normal day-night cycle, while those that dwell in the shadow of the trees live in perpetual darkness.While Cuyavale does enjoy some seasonal variation in climate, the massive boles of the world's trees limit these changes. The trees shelter all who dwell at ground level from any prevailing winds in the fall, and provide relief from the sun’s heat in the summer. Few of the enormous trees shed their leaves seasonally. Though there is ample detritus among the shadows of these massive living organisms, little of it comes from the trees themselves. Instead, the animals and lesser plants that live on and among the trees create their own ecosystems, which are often dependent upon the trees.After considering the trees, the most significant of Cuyavale's life forms are the Drakons. These fearsome apex predators pose a significant threat to any life that travels upon the world. This is, in part, due to the creature's unusual life cycle. Though they can grow to enormous size -- reports indicate mature specimens may have a wingspan in excess of 250 metres -- the flying reptiloids begin life at a far smaller scale. During their mating season, mature female Drakons create nests among the planet's few arid mountains. These nests are invariably on the borders of the mountainous regions, where they abut with the forests. When the eggs mature and hatch, each nest can unleash thousands of ravenous, metre-long hatchlings upon the unprepared temperate rainforests.In the weeks that follow, those destructive young often strip hundreds of square kilometres bare as they destroy all life, as well as a significant proportion of their siblings. Only a small percentage of each litter survive this period of frenzied hunting, leaving only the strongest and canniest an opportunity to reach maturity. In the years and solar decades that follow, the young Drakons continue to grow in size, often preying upon other members of their species at the same time as they devour the world's other life forms.Explorator survey reports indicate that during the early years of their development, Drakons may grow more than a metre each year, though this rate seems to be largely dependent upon the availability of prey organisms. Because of this, Drakons are fiercely territorial, interacting with other members of their species only during the breeding season. The largest specimens are believed to be many centuries in age, and are fiercely protective of their own domains, savaging anything (be it a lone explorer, an infantry formation, or a main battle tank) that wanders too close to it.
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Cyber-Mastiff - Cyber-Mastiff: The Cyber-mastiff, also spelled Cyber-Mastiff, sometimes called a Cyber-jackal, and commonly also known as a "kill-dog," a "razorfang," and a "rending rover," is an Imperial robotic or cybernetic construct for use in combat and hunting that is based on the form of large Terran hunting dogs. It generally stands hip-high or so to an adult Human and over a metre long from tip of head to hindquarters, its lean body composed of high-speed actuators and motor systems over a carbon skeleton and wrapped in angular, interlocking armour plates. Cyber-mastiffs are a fearsome extension of the Emperor's law, and a truly terrible sight to see unleashed upon their quarry. It is said that Cyber-mastiff can rip off even an Ogryn's arm in just one snap of its powerful mechanical jaws.Cyber-mastiffs are usually deployed under the control of Adeptus Arbites patrol and planetary Enforcer units for hunting down their prey and to catch criminal fugitives attempting to escape planetary or Imperial justice.On some worlds the dogs are actually cyborgs who retain some organic internals, generally muscles and nerves, and on some Frontier Worlds "Cyber-mastiffs" are in fact conventionally-bred hounds of Terran genetic descent with armour and controller grafts. Adeptus Arbites models, on the other hand, are almost completely mechanical, with only the central nervous system using vat-grown or three-dimensional printed organic layers created by Adeptus Mechanicus genetors to take the cortical imprint.The Pursuer cadres of the Sisters of Silence have also used various forms of cybernetic hunting beasts, including Cyber-mastiffs, to hunt down their Rogue Psyker prey since the time of the Great Crusade. They use a variety of different cybernetic creatures for this purpose, collectively called "Pursuer Beasts."Heavily-sprung legs give the units tremendous sprinting speed on their splayed and sharpened steel claws. Their jaws use fibre actuators to snap with blinding speed, with backup hydraulics to exert merciless, crushing force. There are often multiple adjustable teeth in their mouths for different attack patterns: a set of blades to clip off their quarry's gun-hand, or a set of armour-piercing spikes that can grip flesh. Some carry their own built-in weapon systems, including flamers or meltaguns.The design takes advantage of the dog cortex's ability to process tremendously intricate sensory input, particularly scent, and most Subrique Pattern Cyber-mastiffs utilised in the Calixis Sector have a battery of sense and tracker systems loaded into their headpieces, made possible by the unique chemical reagents mined from the ocean's toxic sludge on the world of Landunder. "Vanes out" is the order for the mastiff handlers to extrude their dogs' specialised sniffer arrays and has become a common idiom among the Arbitrators serving in Hive Subrique on Landunder for maximum alertness.
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Cyber-Mastiff - Cyber-mastiff Handler: Cyber-mastiff Handlers of the Adeptus Arbites and Enforcer squads spend many standard years with their cybernetic hounds, training them for the hunt and the kill. They spend countless hours running their charges through drills and training simulations, implanting commands and attack patterns into their cogitator-augmented brains through sheer repetition and rote.All of this training is culminated on the beasts' first actual hunt, in which the handler takes their charges into the field to be put to the test. Giving signals directly to their built-in vox receivers, the Cyber-mastiff handler is able to coordinate extremely complex engagements through a dizzying number of pre-programmed patterns. Using powerful auspex arrays and visual sensorium data from the beasts themselves, handlers can control their beasts at incredible ranges, directing their attacks from several Terran kilometres distant.
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Cyber-Mastiff - Cyber-construct Use: It is not unheard of for individuals who are not Cyber-mastiff handlers, or who are not equipped with a controlling Constructer Interface, to make use of Cyber-constructs. While a trained Adeptus Mechanicus agent, with the proper augmetics is vastly more capable of repairing, controlling, and training these creatures, they are not alone in their use.Anyone equipped with a Constructer Array can program a Cyber-construct like a Cyber-mastiff to obey the vocal (or vox) commands of another agent. This is limited, and cogitation patterns that would normally process evasion and attack movements must instead decipher Human speech and intent. To avoid confusion, many users give the beast a designation, commands that may be easily addressed, so that it does not interpret random words in other speech as an order.
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Cyber-Mastiff - Notable Cyber-mastiff Variants: Subrique "Bullpup" Cyber-mastiff- This heavy duty Cyber-mastiff is most often employed by the Adeptus Arbites of the Calixis Sector, custom designed on the world of Landunder at the commission of Lord Marshal Goreman's predecessors by the Adeptus Mechanicus within Hive Subrique. The beast is carefully crafted as a true terror weapon, a massively built and heavily-armoured steel construct of considerable bulk. Equipped with sub-sonic voxhailers that continually emit a selection of low frequency vocalisations designed to trigger fear in the local population where they are deployed, this mode finds frequent use during intense riots. Capable of shrugging off most small arms fire and of bringing down even large groups of well-armed opponents, the Bullpups tend to be used as a final weapon to launch at the Arbites' foes, preventing a civil uprising from turning into a civil war. Bullpups are equipped with shock jaws which can also double as chainblade weapons. The construct also has magnetic locking feet and jaws which enable the creature to lock on to a target and hold it in place.Subrique "Bloodhound" Cyber-mastiff - This variant of the Cyber-mastiff crafted in the bowels of Hive Subrique on Landunder makes use of the rare chemicals contained in that Hive World's oceans. Used to translate airborne particles in quantifiable data, the chemical "sniffers" make the Bloodhound optimised for scent-based tracking roles. While many Cyber-mastiffs have some tracking ability, the programming and routines implanted within the Subrique Bloodhounds are trained by some of the finest handlers available in the Calixis Sector. Once implanted in a light Cyber-mastiff chassis, the animal instinct and repetitive training is linked to some of the most sophisticated olfactory sensors available in the sector (and some claim the Imperium). This formidable equipment suite is combined with an insidiously effective training regimen, which electrically stimulates the cogitators implanted in the creature's still organic cortical centres upon completion of a successful "find." This practice causes the Bloodhound to become obsessive and tireless in its duties; the creatures have been rumoured to track targets for hundreds of Terran kilometres without sleep or rest, although this may be a tall tale used to intimidate criminals into submission.Malfi Pattern Eliminator-mastiff - Though Malfian Enforcers are known for being generally as corrupt and amoral as the rest of that planet, certain precincts have a particularly dark reputation. These Enforcers are known to eliminate anyone in the name of "justice," so long as they receive sufficient quantities of the Calixian currency known as "thrones" in return. Through their actions, the Eliminator-mastiff has come to represent the Malfian Enforcers' twisted perversion of justice. A heavily modified Cyber-mastiff, the Eliminator-mastiff has no protocols or programming for bringing down its targets alive. It simply tracks, hunts, and kills any target loaded into its sophisticated spoor-identifying protocols. Most are equipped with a pair of overcharged las-weapons in pods mounted on the shoulders, leaving the head free to mount a mouthful of reciprocating chainblades. However, some models have been modified to carry even more powerful weaponry.Hardcase - Hardcases are a type of completely robotic Cyber-mastiff used by the Palanite Enforcers of the Hive World of Necromunda, the primary Enforcers of that planetary government who serve as local law enforcement.R-VR (Rantal-class Venatus Reclamator) - The Rantal-class Venatus Reclamator, or R-VR, is a cybernetic variant of Cyber-mastiff used by the Adeptus Arbites. It is considered a technological marvel which combines the best attributes of a loyal Terran species of mastiff with the mechanical endurance of a servitor.
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Cyber-Mastiff - Sources: Dark Heresy: Book of Judgement (RPG), pp. 26, 44, 72-74Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook (RPG), pg. 143Fanatic Magazine 1, pg. 5Fanatic Magazine 5, pg. 7Inquisitor: Rulebook (RPG), pg. 91The Horus Heresy Book Seven: Inferno (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 271White Dwarf Weekly 91 (24 October 2015), "Codex Apocrypha: Extra, Cyber-Mastiff"Warhammer Community - The House of Iron – New Miniatures and LoreWarhammer Community - Underhive Informant: Terrible Toxins, Ferocious Phelynx and Spiritual Scum
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Cyber-occularis - Cyber-occularis: The Cyber-occularis is a type of servo-automata employed by the tech-priests of the ancient Mechanicum that is an extension of its master's senses on the wider battlefield, being more robustly constructed then a standard cyber-Familiar. These drones often resemble artificial raptors or strange hybrid creatures of organic corpse and machine.
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Cybernetica (Novella) - Cybernetica (Novella): Cybernetica is a limited edition release Novella in the Horus Heresy Series, released as a Black Library Exclusive in hardback format. Cybernetica will be re-released as a non-limited hardback novella in January 2017.
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Cybernetica (Novella) - Synopsis: Soon after word reached Terra of Horus' nascent rebellion, Mars fell. Rogue elements within the Mechanicum priesthood, stirred by the Warmaster's promises of independence and prosperity, turned against the Imperium and forced the Primarch Rogal Dorn to order an impenetrable blockade of the Red Planet. Now it has become clear that the corruption has spread too deep, and that more drastic measures must be taken if the Forge World Principal is to be reclaimed. Calling upon the expertise of those who witnessed the so-called "Death of Innocence" firsthand, Lord Dorn and Malcador the Sigillite consider their final solution -- the complete extermination of all life on Mars.
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Cybernetica Datasmith - Cybernetica Datasmith: A Cybernetica Datasmith is a specialist rank of Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priest who programs the Kastelan Robots of the Legio Cybernetica at the maniple level, often having to do so in the thick of battle. They have access to the dizzying array of weapons and arcana of their Forge World's arsenals, which they use in defence of themselves and their charges.
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Cybernetica Datasmith - Role: Since the aftermath of the Warmaster Horus' rebellion, the Legio Cybernetica's robots have been controlled completely by their masters -- not by the bio-plastic cerebra and nerve-like tendril webs of the ancient Mechanicum's constructs, but by sanctified doctrina wafers, fusions of bio-matter and electronics often in even shorter supply than the robots themselves. No bigger than the cards of the Emperor's Tarot, these slivers of wetware are entrusted to the Cybernetica Datasmiths that accompany the robot maniples to war. Inserted into the dataslot hidden behind each robot's chestplate, the wafer's command protocol will dictate every iota of the host's behaviour, usually optimising its ability to destroy its foes in a spectacular fashion.If the accompanying Datasmith wishes to change the behaviour of his charges -- for instance to the assault-oriented Conqueror protocol -- he must manually remove the first doctrina wafer and insert a new one in its place. Should a maniple of robots find itself in battle mode without a Datasmith, it will continue to prosecute its last doctrina protocol until it runs out of power -- something that usually takes solar weeks of unbridled slaughter to achieve. Such risks and limitations are willingly accepted by the Cult Mechanicus, for the act of hardwiring independent thought into a battle automaton is strictly forbidden.
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Cybernetica Datasmith - Unit Composition: 1 Cybernetica Datasmith
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Cybernetica Datasmith - Wargear: Gamma PistolPower FistRefraction Field
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Cybernetica Datasmith - Sources: Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus (8th Edition), pp. 42, 78Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus - Cult Mechanicus (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), "Mars," "Agripinaa," "Stygies VIII," "Metalica," "Ryza" (Gallery Images)
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Cyberstimms - Cyberstimms: Cyberstimms are neurological stimulants artificially produced by the cranial augmetic implants of the Leagues of Votann's Cthonian Beserks. Cthonian Beserks are workers of the Cthonian Mining Guilds of the Leagues who can also serve as powerful assault infantry and melee combatants in many Kin Oathbands.The courageous workers and part-time warriors of the Cthonian Mining Guilds represent some of the most heavily augmented Kin -- unreasonably brave souls who have enhanced the physical capabilities of their cloneskeins with cybernetic implants and upgrades, all the better to extract precious minerals from radiation-plagued nebulae, explosive asteroids, and fathomless ocean depths.Boosted by the cyberstimms that flood their neurological and metabolic systems from their implants, the Beserks can keep battling through life-or-death situations.
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Cybon - Cybon: Lord Militant Cybon was one of the senior Imperial military commanders that served under the Warmaster Slaydo and the Warmaster Macaroth during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.
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Cybon - History: Cybon was a competent and very able Astra Militarum commander who had a creditable history of Imperial victories over his long career. But like his contemporary, Hechtor Dravere, he was known to be predisposed to using the regular infantry as cannon fodder to achieve his tactical and strategic objectives. When the Warmaster Slaydo was mortally wounded during the fighting on Balhaut in 765.M41 and lay dying, Cybon was the strongest placed contender to serve as his successor as Warmaster, due to his seniority of command and long list of Imperial victories. Though Cybon possessed Slaydo's admiration as a leader, and expected the dying Warmaster's favour and support in the light of his victories during the Western Plains Campaign and at Ascension Valley, Slaydo despised Cybon's barbaric attitude towards the common soldiery.When Marshal Macaroth was appointed as Slaydo's successor as Warmaster, Cybon was inflamed with rage at the decision, regarding the young officer as too inexperienced and too junior to command the Crusade. But Macaroth persevered and managed to hold onto the rank, outplaying his rivals politically, and indicating to all that he possessed the ideal talent and temperament for the role. When Macaroth began his campaign into the Cabal Salient in late 765.M41, many thought that the Warmaster was acting too boldly and overstretching his forces. Yet ultimately, most of the Crusade's senior officers, including Cybon himself to an extent, came to admire and respect Macaroth's tenacious ability to see paths to victory that other men could not.In the years immediately following 773.M41, the Forces of Chaos attempted a major counteroffensive to reclaim lost territory, launching a pincer movement behind the advancing Imperial front at Macaroth's overstretched lines of supply and communication. By the 18th standard year of the Crusade the Imperial forces found themselves divided, hard-pressed and overstretched, fighting simultaneous actions right across the Khan Group and the trailward half of the Cabal Systems.Up until that moment in the Crusade's history, the fighting had never been spread out across such a grievously wide front. Cybon complained in his personal journals that "Old Slaydo" would be appalled at how Macaroth had dismissed the traditional, methodical approach he favoured. By the close of 773.M41, the Crusade's advance had been broken, and the Warmaster's forces were in disarray. The fate of the Crusade hung in the balance at that point. By the close of 775.M41, as the Crusade entered its third decade, Imperial forces found themselves fighting a war on two fronts.Macaroth charged Cybon with unifying and strengthening the flank of the Imperial advance and Imperial lines of support, a task he clearly despised. Cybon felt that he was a warrior and that his place should be at the front line of advance, not being sent to the rear to "mop up the dirt." In a communique to the Warmaster he complained incessantly of being relegated to such an unglamorous position and the grievous insult to his honour.He asked if he truly had to continue to undertake such a menial task. Macaroth answered him bluntly the following solar day by responding with a single word, "Yes." Several of Macaroth's senior commanders soon found themselves charged with the prosecution of this Second Front, including Generals Van Voytz, Kelso, Bulledin, and Luswchiem, Marshal Blackwood, and the Lord Militant Humel as well as Cybon himself.Their unpalatable task was to defend and push back the Chaos counterattack, but this meant they had to retake well-fortified enemy worlds that Macaroth had bypassed on his way to extending the Imperial salient deep into the Sabbat Worlds Sector. Cybon would be relegated to this position for the remainder of the Crusade, reluctantly following the Warmaster's orders to the bitter end despite his disdain for his mission and his commanding officer.
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Cybork - Cybork: Cyborks are Orks that have received significant cybernetic modifications to their bodies, which they refer to as "bioniks." Equivalent to a Human cyborg, a Cybork is an inseparable mass of Orkoid and advanced technology. This transformation comes by way of the Mad Dok, the crazy Ork "doctors" that supposedly "heal" other Orks.Most Cyborks are created when they are too wounded to run away at the moment that a crazy Dok appears after a battle or when an ordinary Ork comes in to the Dok's office with any ailment, from a toothache to a gunshot wound to the head.Doks, being the insane Orks that they are, add cybernetic parts for better shootin', stompin', or just plain smashin'! The final result is either a dead Ork or a potent cybernetic monster.Cyborks continue to fight at the command of their Creator...or rather, they would if the additional and greatly feared Squig Brain Transplant did not usually give them the mental capacity of a cabbage (which may actually be an improvement for some Orks).As it happens, Mad Doks just sort of hope that their Cyborks will all meander onto a battlefield, and happen to kill something that is not actually another Ork.Cyborks who have very little of their original organic bodies left are known among the Greenskins as "Tinboy Brutes." These mechanical abominations are very slow and lack mobility, but are extremely resistant to damage.
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Cybork - Cybork Madboy: Cybork Maboyz are those bionik Orks that have been driven insane by the crazed cybernetic experimentation and augmentation surgery of over-enthusiastic Painboyz and Mad Doks.Cybork Madboyz are cybernetic killing machines that are inured to pain and almost uncontrollable on the field of battle.Now more machine than Greenskin, these Orks have been extensively augmented, with bionik limbs and metal heads, making them ideal if often unpredictable and psychotic shock troops, leading the Ork charge into the enemy lines in a whirlwind of bionik destruction.
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Cybork - Notable Cyborks: Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka - Warlord Ghazghkull is an Ork Warlord of the Goffs klan and a mighty prophet of the WAAAGH!. He is the single most influential Ork in the galaxy in the late 41st Millennium, and billions of Greenskins march to war in his name. When Ghazghkull was but a lowly Goff Boy, he was hit in the head by a Bolter shell while fighting against Imperial forces -- a shot that pulverised a large section of his cranium and turned a sizable portion of his brain to absolute mush. A particularly addled Deathskulls Painboy known as Mad Dok Grotsnik performed the pivotal "surjery" that drastically altered Ghazghkull's fate, causing the Ork to hear the voices of their twin-gods, Gork and Mork, which enabled the lowly Ork's meteoric rise to power at the head of the largest WAAAGH! ever seen in recent history. Ghazghkull possesses an iron jaw, an adamantium head plate, and an attached suit of Mega Armour.Warlord Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter - Warlord Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter was originally a Warboss of the Evil Sunz klan, who was involved in three major campaigns against the military forces of the Imperium of Man and most of the other major intelligent species of the galaxy during the final century of the 41st Millennium. He is known to possess an iron jaw, an adamantium head plate, and an attached suit of Mega Armour. He is also the leader of the Orks of Lorn V, Kronus and Kaurava System in the Dawn of War PC games.Boss Zagstruk "Da Boss" - Boss Zagstruk is one of the most shockingly violent Orks in the galaxy. He is perpetually angry, and his bulge-eyed glare is enough to subdue even the most raucous Madboy. His approach is heralded by the metallic quickstep clank of his bionik legs, sending every grot within earshot skulking. Known simply as "Da Boss" by the awed Stormboyz who flock to his banner, Zagstruk’s thermonuclear temper is legend. Da Boss inspires fanatical awe in the Stormboyz who queue up to fight alongside him, and for every underling that he shoots dead there are always two new recruits ready to join the ranks. He is well known for his own personal wargear, Da Vulcha's Klawz. After confronting a Space Marine Dreadnought unsuccessfully in battle which resulted in having both of his legs ripped off, the vicious Warboss had a pair of piston-driven bionik replacements made for them which are actually two Power Klaws attached to his leg stumps. He uses these weapons to jump on top of enemies with the help of his Rokkit Pack and rip his victim apart.Arch-Maniac of Calverna - The Arch-Maniac of Calverna rose to power after conquering the Forge World of Magnos Majoris, the iron heart of the Calverna system. The wily old Deathskulls Warlord then cemented his power for good by having himself wired into the almighty central processing engine of the forge world, turning himself into the biggest Cybork ever seen. Though this rather drastic step has left the Arch-Maniac all but invincible, the vast data-streams pouring into his tiny brain have also driven him quite mad. So it is that, while the Orks of the Calvernan empire are numerous and well equipped with tanks and guns, their attacks are random and display little in the way of logic or cogent strategy.Mad Dok Grotsnik - Mad Dok Grotsnik was a typical Ork Painboy obsessed with the performance of "surjery" and rooting around in other people's heads to see what he could find -- or alter. Mad Dok Grotsnik is an absolute terror, the most bloodthirsty and deranged of an unhinged breed. Once a Painboy of some skill, Grotsnik is now all but berserk with the desire to do harm to others. He rose to prominence when he became the personal Dok of the future Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka and Ghazghkull gave him credit for opening up his mind to the messages of the Ork gods Gork and Mork that subsequently led Ghazghkull to lead the two greatest Ork WAAAGH!s in recent history during the Second and Third Wars for Armageddon. This infamous Mad Dok is known for having a retinue of Cyborks around him at all times. He is also noted as being more machine then Ork himself, due to countless experiments he has performed on himself.Da Supa-Cybork - Beneath this Ork's skin exists a marvel of bio-engineering. This perfect storm of technical and medical know-how came about from the only known instance of Orkimedes and Grotsnik working together (during one of the Mad Dok's rare periods of lucidity). In an operation that should have killed the procedure's unfortunate recipient more than a dozen times over, sheets of armour were crudely inserted beneath the Ork's skin. When he came about, the traumatised Greenskin soon discovered that his new internal armour made him much tougher and that he could carry weapons that even the largest Meganob would struggle to lift. The name of the Ork is not known, for he does not remember anything from before he was "volunteered" for the pioneering operation. Ever since his apotheosis, he has simply been known as Da Supa-Cybork.
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Cyclic Ion Blaster - Cyclic Ion Blaster: A Cyclic Ion Blaster is an experimental T'au XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Ion Weapon system developed during the T'au Empire’s Third Sphere Expansion. The Cyclic Ion Blaster was developed using Ion Weapon technology acquired as part of a fruitful alliance between the Syrr’Tok Brotherhood of the Demiurg and the Water Caste of the Dal’yth Sept.Early prototypes of the weapon combined the designs of a Burst Cannon and Ion Rifle, and were developed to combat multiple, lightly-armoured enemies at short ranges, and functioned by generating a rapid stream of ionised radiation before unleashing it through its four barrels.Though the extremely high rate of fire of this early prototype was stable, the ionisation effect on armour was variable. Later developments almost completely changed the nature of the weapon, mainly due to the discovery of a Mor’tonium power source which allowed for the efficient powering of smaller scale T'au Ion Weapons.As a result, the Cyclic Ion Blaster's role changed to one more similar to the more stable Ion Rifle design, and now features a moderately high rate of fire with immensely more damage capabilities per shot. The real similarities of later models to their older counterparts lie in their range and armour penetration.Current T'au Ion Weapon designs also allow for the weapons to be overcharged by exposing the reactive Mor’tonium power source to the environment, though this also exposes the user to the dangerous ionising radiation emitted by the Mor’tonium. Overcharging a Cyclic Ion Blaster allows it to generate an explosive blast with increased damage compared to its normal fire mode.Due to the weapon's experimental status, it is a special-issue weapon entrusted only to Battlesuit pilots of the rank of Shas’vre or higher. Its availability is usually limited to one per Hunter Cadre as a result of this restriction.
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Cyclic Ion Cannon - Cyclic Ion Cannon: A Cyclic Ion Cannon is a large and powerful, long-range, vehicle-mounted directed energy Ion Weapon used by the military forces of the Leagues of Votann. Ion Weapons typically are capable of engaging enemies at long range with high-energy streams of ionised subatomic particles, vaporising flesh and metal with equal ease. These high-energy ions containing an electric charge are accelerated by an electromagnetic field and react explosively with the target as a result of the direct transfer of energy at an atomic level.The Cyclic Ion Cannon has the longest range of any of the Ion Weapons utilised by the Leagues of Votann and often serves as a main turret weapon on the Hekaton Land Fortress.However, Kin weapons like the Cyclic Ion Cannon are superior in almost every respect to those patterns of Ion Weapons wielded by the agents and military of the T'au Empire, since the Kin employ superlative materials and methods in their construction. As a result, Leagues of Votann Ion Weapons often have longer ranges and more stopping power than any of their T'au equivalents. This is largely because the T'au originally received Ion Weapons technology through a fruitful commercial alliance between the SrrykTok Brotherhood of the Demiurg Prospect of the Leagues of Votann and the Water Caste of the Dal'yth Sept.
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Cyclic Ion Raker - Cyclic Ion Raker: A Cyclic Ion Raker is a rapid-firing heavy T'au Ion Weapon designed for atomising large groups of infantry with a stream of high-impact ionic particles.Cyclic Ion Rakers fire high-energy ion streams that vaporise flesh and metal with equal ease. These high-energy subatomic particles containing an electric charge are accelerated by an electromagnetic field and react explosively with the target as a result of the direct transfer of energy at the atomic level.Like other Ion Weapons, a Cyclic Ion Raker can be overcharged by exposing the reactive Mor'tonium power source to the environment, though this also exposes the user to the dangerous ionising radiation emitted by the Mor'tonium, and to the risk of overloading the primary power cells.Despite this, the devastating impact of the weapon's three barrels firing in swift succession to create a singularly potent blast is often worth the risk.The Cyclic Ion Raker is based on Ion Weapon technology acquired as part of a fruitful alliance between the Syrr'Tok Brotherhood of the Demiurg and the Water Caste of the Dal'yth Sept, and is a recently introduced technology designed for use as a primary weapons system on XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuits.
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Cyclone Missile Launcher - Cyclone Missile Launcher: The Cyclone Missile Launcher is a specially designed Missile Launcher system used by Space Marines in Terminator Armour to provide heavy fire support. Since Terminator Squads are an elite force, they are often called upon to undertake the toughest and most dangerous missions in the most hazardous conditions or to serve on the most dangerous battlefields. Therefore, Terminator Squads need a range of fire support weapons in order for them to successfully achieve their objectives in any tactical situation. To provide the additional firepower without affecting mobility or compromising accuracy, various weapons have been created by the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus.The Cyclone Missile Launcher is ideally suited to this purpose. Developed as a salvo-firing long-range killer, the Cyclone Missile Launcher is essentially a rack of missiles mounted upon the shoulders of a Terminator, due to the weapon system's great size and weight. In this way a Terminator is still able to carry a Storm Bolter into combat as well as the Cyclone Missile Launcher. This weapon enables the Terminator to engage both heavily armoured vehicles and lightly armoured infantry. Like a standard Missile Launcher, the Cyclone Missile Launcher has two varieties of missile, the powerful Krak Missile used for penetrating heavy armour and vehicles and the explosive anti-personnel Frag Missile designed to kill multiple, lightly-armoured foes. The advantage of the Cyclone Missile Launcher when compared to a standard Space Marine Missile Launcher is the Cyclone's much greater rate of fire. With this deadly weapon, a Terminator is capable of firing devastating salvos of up to a dozen laser-guided missiles. Also, the Cyclone Missile Launcher's bulk provides the Astartes warrior with a large magazine for the storage and hands-free firing of additional missiles. This is an operational necessity, since the bulk of the Terminator Armour would make reloading it after each volley extremely awkward, if not impossible.
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Cyclonic Melta Lance - Cyclonic Melta Lance: A Cyclonic Melta Lance is a heavy ranged weapon usable by Imperial Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnoughts. The Cyclonic Melta Lance is a rapid-cycling Melta Weapon capable of firing faster and with more powerful shots than a standard Multi-Melta, though at the reduced range common to Leviathan Pattern weaponry.Uniquely developed specifically for the Leviathan Dreadnought, in conjunction with a Leviathan-class Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon it creates a devastating pairing of powerful short-ranged and close combat weaponry perfect for siege warfare and close quarter operations.The ranged weapons of the Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnought were designed to be used at closer range than those carried by most classes of Dreadnought.
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Cyclonic Melta Lance - Sources: The Horus Heresy Book Six: Retribution by Alan Bligh, pp. 235-237Cyclonic Melta Lance - Forge World Leviathan Dreadnought with Cyclonic Melta Lance - Forge World
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Cyclonic Torpedo - Cyclonic Torpedo: The Cyclonic Torpedo is an Imperial weapon of mass destruction that is deployed from a voidcraft into low planetary orbit.There are a wide variant of weapon types covered under the designation of "Cyclonic Torpedo," including the Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo, but all possess the capability to destroy the entire biosphere of the target world, either through the initiation of a thermonuclear reaction that ignites all free oxygen in the atmosphere or the simple expedient of nuclear-fusion-assisted plasma bombardment.Whatever the exact origin of the mass death to come, the result of these weapons is always the same: the complete destruction of the planetary biosphere, its atmosphere burned away into the void and its oceans boiled to vapor, leaving behind the barren bedrock of a Dead World.The blast radius is large enough to be seen from space and the detonation usually powerful enough to crack a planet's crust and destabilise its core.The Cyclonic Torpedo is only used by the armed forces of the Imperium of Man to carry out an authorised Exterminatus action on a world that has been deemed to present an extinction-level threat to other inhabited regions of the Human-settled galaxy.The only organisations known within the Imperium to have ordered the use of Cyclonic Torpedoes to carry out an Exterminatus are the Inquisition and the Adeptus Astartes.An Inquisitor has the absolute authority to order an Exterminatus action at any time, and a number of Chapter Masters of the Adeptus Astartes have carried out such regrettable actions under their own authority.The sacrifice of an entire world and potentially billions of lives is no easy matter for even the often-callous Inquisition; an Inquisitor who orders such an extreme action will have their choices closely scrutinised by their fellow Inquisitors.If they deem the decision to have been unnecessary, the affected Inquisitor may very well find themselves declared a Heretic and hunted down.
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Cyclonic Torpedo - Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes: A Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedo, which is a more exotic form of the standard Cyclonic Torpedo, is the most common of a special class of rare Exterminatus weapons, designed for use against atmosphere-less or biologically-void worlds (certain Necron Tomb Worlds being the main example).These torpedoes possess two-stage warheads: The first stage is an unusually powerful Melta Charge that bores straight through a planet's crust and mantle to its core. The second stage is a modified Cyclonic Plasma Charge that destabilises it, in most cases physically destroying the planet from the inside out.
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Cyclopean Congregation - Cyclopean Congregation: The Cyclopean Congregation is a Chaos Cult of degenerate Navigators and decadent voidsmen led by Kokabiel Grigoris that is active in the Jericho Reach, particularly the region known as Kokabiel's Drop.Named for Kokabiel and his inner circle of renegade Navigators, all of whom are blind save for their Third Eye, the Congregation is a mystery cult that promises illumination through communion with the Warp rift known as the Hadex Anomaly.Practicing complex rites of initiation, the cult's upper echelons are open only to full-blooded Navigators. Only those with the Warp Eye, preaches Kokabiel, can appreciate the Anomaly for what it truly is.According to his own blasphemous lore, Kokabiel's Drop is more than a convoluted region of the Immaterium. It is the entrance to a stable Warp-route spiralling into the heart of the Hadex Anomaly, a place where the meanings of space and time are inverted.The fallen Navigator leads his Cyclopean Congregation on blasphemous pilgrimages along this route, each journey a profane recreation of the Imperial Navy Grand Cruiser Burden of Vigilance's first passage through the Anomaly before the mutiny led by Grigoris that placed it in his hands as the renamed Burden of Revelation. During these voyages, acolytes of the cult ritually blind themselves, sacrificing an eye for each level of initiation attained within the cult.The lowest tiers of the Congregation are a collection of outcast voidsmen. Largely ignorant of the true nature of the cult, many of these voidborn fanatics lost their Humanity to madness and mutation long before pledging fealty to Kokabiel. Wandering corridors and groping along bulkheads, the most devoted acolytes eagerly trade their sight for deeper initiation.Most revered outside Kokabiel's inner circle are the "Typhlotics," bearers of the dormant Navigator gene. Culled from renegade houses and the extended families of raided Navigator households, these priests of the Congregation command the voidsmen flock and act as intermediaries between the cult's inner and outer circles.Having sacrificed both eyes already, Typhlotics go a step further, carving jagged spirals into their foreheads. Symbolising both the coiling route of Kokabiel's Drop and the swirling energies contained in their prophet's Third Eye, these scars mark the high priests of the Congregation.The inner circle of the Cyclopean Congregation consists exclusively of Navigators personally initiated by Kokabiel at the nucleus of the Hadex Anomaly. The Congregation's oracles and hierophants, these prodigal scions of the Navis Nobilite, are the unquestioned masters of the cult.Spending most of their time in quiet contemplation, the Cyclopean Oracles speak only to disseminate prophecy and issue orders to the Typhlotic clergy.The Cyclopean Oracles possess the greatest secret of the Congregation. Using the Hadex Anomaly as a guide in place of the psychic beacon of the Astronomican, they navigate the Congregational Fleet safely and nearly instantaneously across the Jericho Reach.
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Cyclopean Congregation - A Burden Returned: In 789.M41, Lord Militant Solomon Tetrarchus charged the highly decorated Commodore Bronislave Tenermaritus with the task of charting a stable Warp route between the Cellebos Warzone and Samech, allowing Achilus Crusade forces to make a direct strike against that planet of Hereteks, crippling the manufactoria and orbital shipyards supplying the Stigmartus war effort.Taking as his guide one Kokabiel Grigoris, a relatively young but gifted Navigator following his house's long tradition of service to the Imperial Navy, the commodore set out upon his flagship, the Avenger-class Grand Cruiser Burden of Vigilance.Despite the best efforts of the Burden's commander, Navigator, and crew, the Warp beyond the Cellebos Warzone proved nearly impossible to chart. Warp eddies terminated into immaterial shoals, aetheric currents flowed back upon themselves, and the bilious emissions of the Hadex Anomaly obscured the sight of Kokabiel and his subordinate Navigators.After solar months of fruitless exploration the Burden of Vigilance fell prey to the Haruspex, a pack of xenos marauders believed to originate within the Slinnar Drift. Commodore Tenermaritus perished in the ensuing battle, atomised during a valiant boarding action against the Haruspex Lifeseeker.The commodore's sacrifice routed the xenos fleet, granting the Burden enough time to flee through a recently discovered Warp passage veering dangerously close to the Hadex Anomaly. The Burden's final message, intercepted by the astropathic listening post on Pyrathas, claimed a great discovery waited at the end of the route.In the years following the disappearance of the Burden of Vigilance, the site of its last battle gained a sinister reputation. Voidships passing through the area drifted far off-course. The sendings of all but the most powerful astropaths faded into the void. A rare few vessels vanished outright. Superstitious voidsmen dubbed this region of Warpspace "the Drop."In 793.M41 a mysterious vessel of Imperial design began preying on voidships passing through the Drop. Lucia's Gauntlet, one of the few voidships to escape such an attack, identified the vessel as the Burden of Vigilance, now re-christened the Burden of Revelation and captained by Kokabiel Grigoris.Quickly recognising the threat presented by the rogue Navigator, the Imperial Navy forces of the Achilus Crusade's Acheros Salient stepped up patrols in the Drop. Regrettably, this move served only to provide Kokabiel with more prey. Of the flotilla dispatched from Calist, a third fell to the Burden of Revelation's guns.A half dozen vanished beyond the Drop in a futile search for Kokabiel's sanctuary. Of the remaining vessels, only three are accounted for, arriving at Khazant over a solar decade later after limping through the Warp without Navigators.
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Cyclopean Congregation - The Tariff: Grigoris claims the Drop and all space beyond as his domain, requiring tribute from those passing through. Voidships unfortunate enough to run afoul of the Burden of Revelation must pay the toll or face reprisal. The exact nature of this toll depends upon Kokabiel's whims and the needs of his vessel.Fuel, provisions, and crew are the most common price for safe passage. On other occasions Kokabiel demands a teratonne of bilge water, spent macrocannon shells, or some other voidship by-product of little apparent use. Lord captains who refuse to pay the tariff face Kokabiel's vengeance. Most are fired upon outright, their voidships raided by mad acolytes of the Cyclopean Congregation.Warships capable of defending against hit-and-run attacks are stalked for days, hounded by the Burden of Revelation as it flits into and out of the Warp just long enough to unleash volleys of Lance fire. A lamentable few are given the illusion of escape.Left untouched by a seemingly resigned Kokabiel, these vessels soon find themselves off course, lost in the Drop and drifting ever closer to the core of the Hadex Anomaly. By special order of Lord Militant Tetrarchus, all commanders of the Acheros Salient Navy are prohibited from acquiescing to Kokabiel's demands.Those who fail to abide by this order face a Traitor's execution. Naval commanders are left with a difficult choice; brave Kokabiel's Drop and risk an encounter with the master of the Cyclopean Congregation, or bypass the Drop entirely and add weeks to the length of a voyage.
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Cyclopean Congregation - Promise of Illumination: Kokabiel foretells a coming age of chaos and despair, a time when the Astronomican will fail, leaving the Navis Nobilite scrabbling in the abyssal dark. The Nobilite's only salvation, Kokabiel preaches, comes in the form of the Hadex Anomaly, a new and vital light in the Warp.Those who comprehend the mysteries of the Anomaly and use its light to guide their passage through the Warp will be the masters of the coming age. Kokabiel envisions a time when the influence of the Anomaly encompasses the galaxy entire, every Segmentum awash in its bloody glow.
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Cyclopean Congregation - Congregational Fleet: A development unknown to the masters of the Achilus Crusade, Kokabiel Grigoris commands a growing fleet of voidships. Dubbed the "Congregational Fleet," this flotilla of ramshackle craft is composed of voidships lost to the Anomaly over the past millennium.Patiently gathered and retrofitted by the Cyclopean Congregation, the fleet is currently moored among the remains of a shattered moon. Repaired with archeotechnology cannibalised from derelicts considered beyond all hope of redemption, these ships are being prepared for war.
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Cyclopean Congregation - Notable Vessels: Burden of Revelation (Avenger-class Grand Cruiser) -- Kokabiel's flagshipVia Infractus
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Cyclopean Congregation - Allies and Enemies: Kokabiel Grigoris and the Cyclopean Congregation do not exist in isolation. Grigoris' machinations are entangled with the disparate factions at war in the Reach, creating a complex web of alliances and rivalries worthy of the most experienced Aeldari manipulator.
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Cyclopean Congregation - House Der'cel: Pronounced Excommunicate Traitoris for its involvement in the Sepphoris Secession, this renegade Navigator house is a recent arrival to the Reach. Intercepted by representatives of the Congregation near Argoth, the entirety of House Der'cel converted to the Cyclopean Congregation in a single night.The Der'cel highliner Via Infractus is currently moored at an unknown location within the Charon Stars. The Via Infractus is currently the home of a massive breeding program, the birthplace of a new generation of Navigators raised from inception in the Cyclopean fold.
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Cyclopean Congregation - Samech: The Cyclopean Congregation is on uneasy footing with the hereteks of Samech. Once tentative trading partners, relations soured after Kokabiel purchased cloning technology to expedite the Congregation's first breeding program. The technology proved faulty, producing inchoate masses of palpitating tissue useless to the cult's long term goals.Though Kokabiel swore revenge and bombarded multiple heretek orbital stations at the edge of the Samech system, he has yet to deal a crushing blow against the heretek Magus responsible for crafting the faulty accelerated maturation chambers.
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Cyclopean Congregation - Stigmartus: Unbeknownst to Lord Militant Solomon Tetrarchus, the Burden of Revelation preys upon Stigmartus warships as readily as Imperial vessels.Though Officer-Bishops are not outright forbidden from bargaining with Kokabiel for safe passage through the Drop, Elak Sarda takes a dim view of subordinates willing to acquiesce to the rogue Navigator's demands.The Cult-General's pride prevents him from entering diplomatic relations with the leader of a rival cult, and his military actions against Kokabiel continually meet with failure.
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Cyclopean Congregation - The Word Bearers: The Deathwatch Rapid Strike Vessel Final Mercy recently witnessed a meeting between the Burden of Revelation and the Word Bearers Battle Barge Inexorable Ruination deep in the Charon Stars. Both ships vanished into the Immaterium after discovery. Investigation of the area revealed the remains of a third ship of xenos origin.
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Cyclopeans - Cyclopeans: The Cyclopeans is a Titan Legion of the Collegia Titanica that hails from the Forge World of Vellung.
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Cyclopeans - Notable Campaigns: War of Statues (Unknown Date.M41) - The Iconoclastic Brotherhood of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion invades the world of Conqueror's Due. The planet was once host to a great Imperial triumph, and is covered with statues hundreds of Terran feet high depicting the Primarchs and the Emperor. The Word Bearers and their Chaos Cultists disfigure many of the statues and tear down many more with ropes and melta charges, toppling them even as the fires of a full-scale planetary war rage all around. The Cyclopeans, a Titan Legion from the nearby Forge World of Vellung, counter-invade from enormous bulk landers and take a grievous toll on the Word Bearers -- though the God-machines are toppled after the Chaos Space Marines perform a grand ritual in the name of Tzeentch that imbues the disfigured statues with a semblance of life.
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Cyclopeans - Notable Titans: None listed in current Imperial records.
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Cyclopeans - Notable Personnel: None listed in current Imperial records.
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Cyclopeans - Legion Colours: This Titan Legion's colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
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Cyclopeans - Legion Badge: This Titan Legion's badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
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Cyclops - Cyclops: The Cyclops, officially the Cyclops Remote Demolition Vehicle, is a small, unarmed remote-controlled tank used by the forces of the Astra Militarum that can be guided to its target and then self-destruct, destroying itself and its target. These small tanks are controlled remotely by a single, specially-trained Imperial Guardsman. The vehicle is controlled by a small handset connected to a communications backpack, while the controller keeps themselves at a safe distance.
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Cyclops - History: The Cyclops Remote Demolition vehicle was originally thought to have originated on the Forge World of Lucius sometime during the 38th Millennium, but its origins lie further back to the bygone era of the Great Crusade in the 30th Millennium. A remotely controlled demolition vehicle, the Cyclops was deployed by the elite Solar Auxilia of the Imperial Army to breach heavy key enemy-held positions in circumstances where a direct assault was judged too costly and engagements from afar was made impossible by dense terrain. The Cyclops was transported to the front line in a Dracosan Armoured Carrier or an Auxilia Arvus Lighter, and unloaded under cover a safe distance from the intended target. It was then controlled by an operator equipped with a vox control unit, and initiated into the outer tiers of the machine arcana, granting them sufficient knowledge to guide the Cyclops to its target and to detonate its internal charge when it was close enough to inflict the requisite damage. The unit could be configured with a variety of munition types for use against different types of target, one of which, the automantic imploder, was so powerful it was sometimes employed against apex xenos-forms and similar foes when all other means had failed.In the 41st Millennium, the Cyclops has been used regularly throughout the Imperium by the Imperial Guard for any demolition task deemed too risky for human soldiers to accomplish. The Imperial Guard regiments that have used the Cyclops have great affection for it as it keeps them out of harm's way. The Cyclops is primarily used to attack enemy bunkers, strongpoints, and obstructions such as razorwire and tank traps. Imperial Guardsmen have found them useful for other tasks such as clearing minefields, destroying bridges, attacking fortified enemy structures during urban combat, and even attacking enemy tanks. Cyclops are transported to the battlefield by Chimeras, but can also be carried in greater numbers by Gorgons, Crassus, and Valkyrie transports. A Cyclops can also be air-dropped behind enemy lines to attack fuel depots, ammunition stores, and command structures to sabotage enemy forces.
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Cyclops - Notable Deployments: Death Korps of Krieg 2nd Armoured Regiment during the Third War for ArmageddonMordian 21st Regiment for Vaust Hive Crowd Control OperationsDeath Korps of Krieg 1st Heavy Attack Company during the Cleansing of RadnarCatachan 146th Regiment on Yarant IICadian 98th Armoured Regiment during the Luxor Uprising
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Cyclops - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Vehicle Name:CyclopsMain Armament:Single Large Demolition ChargeForge World of Origin:LuciusSecondary Armament:N/AKnown Patterns:I - XIITraverse:N/ACrew:Driver (Remote-Controlled)Elevation:N/APowerplant:HB40 491 Multi-FuelMain Ammunition:N/AWeight:1.5 TonnesSecondary Ammunition:N/ALength:2.5 metresArmour:Width:1.8 metresHeight:1.2 metresSuperstructure:30 millimetresGround Clearance:.25 metresHull:30 millimetresMax Speed On-Road:42 kilometres per hourGun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:24 kilometres per hourVehicle Designation:0427-942-2203-CY014Transport Capacity:N/AFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:N/ATurret:N/A
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Cyclops - Sources: Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, pp. 151-154Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard (Second Edition), pp. 9, 215-218, 265, 267Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks - Part One, pg. 108The Horus Heresy - Book Four: Conquest by Alan Bligh, pg. 283Forge World - Cyclops Demolition Vehicle
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Cyclops - Also See: Imperial Guard Vehicles
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Cyclops Cluster - Cyclops Cluster: Cyclops ClusterImperialGreat CrusadeSegmentum ObscurusUltima SegmentumCoronid DeepsGothic SectorEmperorManachean CommonwealthGrail AbyssCoronid ReachThrough its great amount of mineral wealth, the world of Dominica Minor quickly rose to become the regional power to which the other planets of the sub-sector looked for guidance. Given its economic output, it should then have come as no surprise that the Cyclops Cluster would become the first Imperial sub-sector to come under attack by Traitor forces in the opening year of the galactic civil war known as the Horus Heresy.
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Cyclops Cluster - History: In stark contrast with the neighbouring worlds of the Manachean Commonwealth -- whose history stretches back into the Dark Age of Technology -- but with notable exceptions such as the worlds of Mezoa, M'Pandex and Dark Haven; the Cyclops Cluster has only recently been colonised by humanity after the Great Crusade reached this region of space in the late 800s of the 30th Millennium. This is perhaps best explained by the Cyclops Cluster's astrography, which features only a few readily inhabitable worlds for such a vast stretch of space. The Cluster, however, proved rich in mineral wealth and other much-needed ressources that made it a valuable prize for the ever-growing Imperium. Apart from the Mechanicum Forge World of Mezoa, the Cyclops Cluster suffered little from the depredations of the xenos empire known as the Mitu Conglomerate which was successfully annihilated by the Emperor's armies. In the aftermath of this campaign the Cyclops Cluster received the visit of several Expeditionary Fleets, amongst these both the 611th and 7th Expeditionary Fleets, the latter proving the more active. Under the command of Commander Suleiman Grimm of the I Legion, the Dark Angels, the 7th Expeditionary Fleet would rally such worlds as Dark Haven and Mezoa and peacefully obtain their Imperial Compliance before sailing northwards to the Grail Abyss.As the Cyclops Cluster's wealth gradually became more widely known, the new sub-sector became one of the priority targets for Imperial colonisation efforts, counting as it did two fully-fledged Forge Worlds amongst its ranks and dozens of promising star systems ready to be exploited. The colonists needed to be shipped in from various regions of the Imperium's more settled heartlands, requiring the transport of entire planetary populations, much of them translating through the dormitory world of Moab before being shipped to their final destination. Soon the Cyclops Cluster counted sixteen primary-grade industrialised worlds and no less than ninety-three distinct resource extraction zones.By the end of the Great Crusade, the Cluster had become a powerhouse of activity, its economic output only surpassed by that of the Manachean Commonwealth. Harsh production quotas had been imposed on most worlds of the Cyclops Cluster, whose populations had to toil hard to meet them. This naturally bred dissatisfaction, which was often brutally repressed by the imposition of martial or Mechanicum law. Local power was nearly nonexistant, the world of Dominicia Minor's rise to prominence in the region manifesting only in the decades immediately preceding the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.Thus, for much of its existence, the Cyclops Cluster was governed by Imperial authorities residing in the Segmentum Solar, which did not fail to breed embittered and resentful populations that came to view the Imperium as uncaring, distant and harsh masters that gorged themselves on their misery and labour. As a result petty worker revolts and strikes were commonplace decades before the Warmaster Horus' treachery, the brutal repressions by Imperial power only perpetuating the vicious circle Horus would eventually prey upon at the dawn of the Heresy.
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Cyclops Cluster - The Horus Heresy: As one of the most productive regions of the wider Coronid Deeps, it was only a question of time until the Cyclops Cluster would come under attack by traitorous forces, the Cluster harbouring not only two fully-fledged Forge Worlds but also countless mining and other resource exploitation facilities as well as a few Agri-worlds that would form an ideal power base for Horus' shadow empire.Other factors also spoke for the rapid invasion of the Cyclops Cluster by the Traitors; first because the Warp-routes to the Cluster were well-known and still free of the ever-increasing turbulence that began to plague Warp-traffic at this time and second because the Cyclops Cluster formed a perfect stepping stone to Horus' ultimate goal in this region, the conquest of the Manachean Commonwealth and the Armada Imperialis Port Majoris at Port Maw. What would become known as the "Scourging of the Cyclops Cluster" would then stand as the first chapter of the Manachean War.
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Cyclops Cluster - Enemies at the Gates: As a frontier realm of the Imperium, the worlds of the Cyclops Cluster were used to a prolonged and heightened state of alert, as xenos raids and other calamities -- were fairly common. However, as the highest alert level was ordered throughout the Gothic Sector, few were deemed trustworthy enough to be privy to the true reasons why this heightened state of alert was ordered: the Warmaster Horus' rebellion against his father the Emperor. So it was that the worlds of the Cyclops Cluster and their billions of inhabitants turned ever inward in blissful ignorance of the dire events happening on Istvaan V. While security codes and targetting matrices had been changed swiftly as a matter of precaution, these measures would ultimately prove futile.War came to the Cyclops Cluster in 006.M31. This was no massed assault by one of the Traitor Legions -- not yet -- nor even its allies amongst the Imperial Army, but a series of raids led by the forerunners of Horus' host. These attacks mainly focused on Imperial worlds isolated from immediate and major support, or left vulnerable by the growing turmoil of the galactic civil war. It is generally believed that Horus intended this both as a fully-fledged military campaign to weaken the Imperium and establish a power base from which to advance, as well as spreading fear and terror to further destabilise the wider Coronid Deeps, an action which Traitor infiltrators had already actively begun.One of the most dreaded of these forerunners would soon prove to be the Ikon, an Eclipse-class Battlecruiser of the Sons of Horus Traitor Legion. The Ikon was responsible for the enforcement of the first Dark Compliance on the world of Gethsamaine Colonus. The Ikon penetrated the Gethsamaine System shortly after a Loyalist Emperor's Children frigate, the Malin Dawn, which was being investigated by Gethsamaine's two defence monitors. Emerging from the Warp alongside the 507th Attack Squadron of the Armada Imperialis, the Ikon quickly vanquished the monitors before destroying the planets astropathic relay and orbital defences, thus leaving the planet without major defences. As a thriving Civilised World, Gethsamaine was far from helpless and its sizeable Planetary Defence Forces and orbital batteries were soon ready to repel enemies, yet the Sons of Horus never did set foot on Gethsamaine, nor did they blast the world's cities to rubble from orbit. As soon as its work of destruction was completed, the Ikon made way for the system's jump point, but before she left, her captain left a message, a dark ultimatum which would be repeated across the Cyclops Cluster and in a hundred other star systems in the years to come.With the destruction of Gethsamaine's astropathic relay, all pursuit was hopeless, the Ikon having long since departed until such time that Imperial naval command at Lascal or Dominica Minor could be informed. Soon isolated voidships and even entire convoys travelling through the northern regions of the Cluster began to declared first overdue and then were considered lost, no doubt destroyed or waylaid by Traitor marauders such as the Ikon. It was when attempting to warn the worlds of these regions that it was discovered that several frontier outposts could not be raised. The tale of Gethsamaine's fate was soon amplified and retold amongst those merchantmen, void-travellers and even Armada Imperialis-ships set to hunt down the Ikon and her companions. The seed of fear had been sown.
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Cyclops Cluster - At the Eve of War: With the news of the Gethsamaine Dark Compliance growing more widely known, the Cyclops Cluster girded itself for war. On every world, vigilance and readiness levels were increased and hundreds of auspexes and astrotelephatic auguries began to survey the sky for any trace of the Horusite vessels. Incoming reports were all channelled through to the centralised Imperialis Armada command facilities at Lascal and Dominica Minor. As communication increased, the wider picture became apparent. The Ikon had reemerged from the Warp at Taracanis in the Manachean Commonwealth and offered its bleak words to the system's Imperial Commander, but not before having blasted the Manachea's docking station from orbit, sending thirteen thousand civilians to a fiery death. In the Grail Abyss, the observers from Shoar witnessed an orbital battle lasting several solar hours between several capital-class warships before both parties simply vanished.Closer to home, in the Zavarich System a hulking Domar-class Mass Conveyor carrying enough processed nutritents to feed several million people simply disappeared without a trace en route to its assigned Warp transit point -- undoubtedly to cause civilian unrest or food riot elsewhere within the Imperium. On Moab, the ruling water-barons were confronted with a flare of insurrectionnist activities that led to a full-scale revolt, the mob chanting Horus' name. Only the instigation of planetary martial law and a bloody five-solar-week-long pacification pogrom restored order. Dark-hulled vessels were reported in the skies above Dark Haven, shortly before all contact with the planet was lost.In the growing climate of scrutiny and distrust which had by now engulfed the Cyclops Cluster and other regions of the Coronid Deeps came -- finally -- long overdue news: word of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V. Horus, the Warmaster, had destroyed three of the mighty Loyalist Space Marine Legions arrayed against him, while four more had joined him in rebellion. The reaction to this report was immediate: panic. On scores of worlds, planetary rulers now looked fearful to the skies, imagining the might of the Traitors ready to strike on their soil. Planets which had long been used to operating largely independently from each other now became isolationist and insular, in some cases even withdrawing their troops and tithes from the Armada Imperialis' general plan of defence, severely disrupting the Imperial war effort as they vainly sought to fortify their homes. On some worlds, the news of the Warmaster's crushing victory fanned the spark of ambition and revolt and factions long believed subdued reemerged to claim their world from the Imperium or their newfound allegiance to Horus.In this state of turmoil, a number of strange and unheeded reports arrived at Lascal, Dominica Minor and even Port Maw. The most dire of these reports all came from the Grail Abyss, which only served to heighten fear in the neighboring Cyclops Cluster. On Keopsis, these reports stated, both Loyalists and Traitors were locked in combat and a desperate race to reach the underground cities before its sun's angry fires scorched the world's surface clean in its endless cycle of life and death. On Hialis, a mysterious and highly virulent plague decimated its inhabitants within a few solar hours of the passing of a previously unknown comet.Above an unidentified Feral World in the vicinity of Fellwatch Keep -- one of a series of fortresses designed to watch the borders of the Coronid Prohibition Zone -- a mighty dragon-prowed Battle-Barge, perhaps once emerald and gold, now scorched cinder-black, was seen taking on supplies but vanished before any interceptor vessels could reach it. As the fear and paranoia gave birth to violence and civilian unrest, bloody pogroms and emergency laws were enacted, workers and inhabitants were conscripted into defence militias and transplanetary trade suspended. As a coherent structure within the Imperium, the Cyclops Cluster began slowly to unravel, each world looking after its own rather than finding strength in unity.
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Cyclops Cluster - The Emissary of Mars: As was to become known much later, while the Ikon and her brethren began to sow fear and terror amongst the worlds of the Grail Abyss, during the closing quarter of 006.M31, the Cyclops Cluster received a very different type of visit: an official emissary from the Red Planet.Forge Worlds stand apart from the other worlds that make up the Imperium; their allegiance goes to the Fabricator-General of Mars and not to the Emperor on Terra; theirs is a pocket empire both distinct and intricately woven into the fabric of the Imperium. As hives of technological research and industrial might, their strategic value is unsurpassed except perhaps by the most important Hive Worlds, and their contributions to the Imperium are many: mighty warships, armies of cybernetically-augmented fighters and robotic battle-automata, supplies for the Emperor's armies, the destructive glory of the Collegia Titanica and many more. On a political level, however, Forge Worlds tend to be highly isolationist, more intent on meeting their next production quota and growth projections than worrying about the Imperium's security or future. While Dominica Minor could not hope to rival the military might of Mezoa, or the industrial output of M'Pandex, it was still considered the capital world of the Cluster, a position neither Mezoa nor M'Pandex had sought to usurp. While the alarm spread through the Cyclops Cluster, both Forge Worlds had continued to labour, taking little or no interest in the surrounding turmoil. Perhaps by design, Horus' forerunners had yet to strike a world of importance for the Forge Worlds' logistical supply lines, thus leaving them blissfully unaware of the wider situation.Such it was that both Mezoa and M'Pandex received the visit of the Emissary of Mars. In both cases the ambassador presented itself under the name of Regulus -- which is widely believed to be an alias, as several entities bearing that name have been recorded in different locations at the same time. The original Regulus had been a senior Tech-priest of the Mechanicum of Mars who had given his domains over to Kelbor-Hal as to better roam the stars at the side of Horus Lupercal. This had been long before the betrayal at Istvaan V, and there could be very little doubt on whose authority this emissary now acted. Yet, Regulus was still a senior Archmagos of the Omnissiah and neither his presence, nor his words, could be discarded lightly. The Forge Worlds in the Cyclops Cluster were ignorant of the brutal Schism of Mars and that Kelbor Hal had thrown in his lot with the Warmaster, but it remains doubtful if further knowledge on that matter would have considerably influenced on the events to take place.On M'Pandex the emissary was greeted with great reverence and courtesy and almost immediately led to a private audience with M'Pandex's ruler, the High Ourteka of the Golden Forge. The emissary identified himself as Regulus and bore dual patents of authority: the first from Horus and the second from the hand of Kelbor-Hal, the Fabricator-General of Mars, voice of the Omnissiah and Supreme Pontifex of the Mechanicum. To the High Ourteka, Regulus made both an offer and a demand; the demand was for fealty, as Kelbor-Hal -- their rightful leader -- bid them to obey the orders of the Warmaster as if they were his own and to offer up their armies, their craft and the fruits of their forges to Horus while offering shelter and supply to his warships and deny all these resources to those that had remained loyal to the Throne of Terra. Those Imperial Commanders not yet subjugated were already demonstratively squabbling amongst themselves, further convincing the High Ourteka that the way of stability, progress and obedience laid with Horus. If this had not been enough already, Regulus had not come empty-handed. He bore valuable gifts to sway the High Ourteka: STC technologies discovered during the late Great Crusade and never shared with the wider Mechancium; but most importantly Regulus made a promise, the promise that Horus would protect and sustain them, that Horus would free the Mechanicum from the strict tenures of the Treaty of Olympus Mons and give them the freedom to pursue the technologies and arcana they craved but the Emperor -- in his intolerable cruelty and ignorance -- had denied them.On M'Pandex, a world which owed much to Mars, these offers were sufficient to sway the High Ourteka. On his sole authority -- without consulting M'Pandex's synod of Magi for confirmation -- the Forge World was pledged to the service of Horus. As was to be expected, some quarters resisted these new orders violently, but M'Pandex's history had been written in times of internecine conflicts such as these and any resistance was swiftly crushed by the High Ourteka's loyal Martian Skitarii and a detachment of sacred Battle Titans drawn from the Legio Mortis -- initially deployed to aid in the world's protection and now the High Ourteka's personal enforcers. This newfound allegiance was kept secret from Imperial authorities and outsiders while M'Pandex covertly girded itself for war.The reception which greeted the Emissary of Mars at Mezoa, however, could not have been more stark in contrast than to that at M'Pandex. Regulus found a star system already geared for siege and conflict; his Warp runner was stopped at the outer edge of the system and forbade entry on the threat of immediate destruction. Mezoa had ever been a militant system, born in the ferocious wars of the Great Crusade and fashioned as much as a fortress as a centre of macro-industry, its Magi fiercely independent from their kin elsewhere and just as fiercely loyal to the ideals of the Imperium whose expansion they served. Here, simple obedience to the Fabricator-General would not sway the Pentarchy of Archimandrites that ruled this world. Forced to communicate via only the most primitive two-way Vox-circuit with a hulking Mezoan battle-sphere rather than directly with the Forge World, and under the condition that any attempt at other communication or the passage of data-djinn or other influence over the circuit would result in immediate annihilation, Regulus nevertheless argued his case and extended his demand of fealty and his offers.In response, the Pentarchy made a blunt rejection of the Warmaster and a formal secession from the authority of Mars. Further, they called both Regulus and Kelbor-Hal apostates as well as blasphemers in the eyes of the holy Omnissiah and pronounced them and any that served under their command under sentence of death should they ever try to enter again the star system of Mezoa. As Regulus was forced to flee the system, a single word of judgement echoed through the still-open Vox-channel: "Heretek".
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Cyclops Cluster - The Blockade of Mezoa: Mezoa's refusal was the first major setback for Horus, as the star system itself was not only nigh-impregnable, but the Forge World also commanded a number of valuable resource extraction plants and powerful allies such as the Imperial Knights of House Hermetika. This news could not become widely known less it became a rallying call for other Loyalist systems. So it was that Mezoa's denial was not widely broadcast but the system was almost immediately cordoned off by the Traitors.M'Pandex, Mezoa's long-time rival, had covertly been building up its military strength: its production capacities had been considerably geared up to feed the ever-growing hunger of Horus' armies and Loyalist and merchant voidships passing through its space were seized and impounded. Few of these ships had real military value, but their cargo holds held valuable resources to fuel M'Pandex's build-up of its own Taghmata. In this regard, the merchant vessels carried an even more valuable asset: its own crew and passenger. These were captured and forcibly converted into adsecularis slaves, to add to the M'Pandex Taghmata or to toil in whatever mine or forge needed reinforcing. Soon these captured ships were recrewed with men and Servitors loyal to M'Pandex and operated under a false flag to infiltrate and attack Mezoa's supply-lines, an action which also required the involvement of M'Pandex warships. In addition to this already sizable fleet, more shadowed and in some case unidentified forces -- obviously loyal to Horus -- began to invade the various star systems supplying Mezoa as to cut off the reluctant Forge World from its primary resources.Wherever tactically sound and possible, the Mechancium of Mezoa resisted actively; although it steadfastly refused to marshal its full force and to leave the security of its own homeworld. The attacks on its far-flung outposts and mines were justly regarded as bait by the ruling Pentarchy of Archimandrites. Instead, Mezoa's garrison forces and outposts were ordered to resist until destruction. On far-flung mining stations and on the decks of mass transporter vessels, the forces of the two Forge Worlds -- always rivals but never before enemies -- clashed in mortal combat. Mercy was not to be found in either sides' circuit-augmented hearts and where the adsecularis cohorts of M'Pandex marched against the numerically fewer but more lethal centuries of Mezoa's Thallaxi. It is noteworthy that to outsiders this clash seemed to be a civil conflict between Mechanicum factions rather than the opening move in a wider game. On Jujya and Gunnar's Rock refinery stations burned, while on New Providance thousands of fleeing vapour-mill workers were caught between the advancing lines of Krios tanks and slaughtered needlessly in the withering crossfire of blazing energy weapons as both sides utterly ignored them. Believing this to be an internecine conflict between two rival Mechanicum factions, doubts and confusion stayed the Armada Imperialis' hand until it was too late. The conquered worlds and the valuable resources they harboured were mostly seized by M'Pandex to further aid their own expansion.By the end of 006.M31, Mezoa had been almost entirely cut off from its colonies with the notable exception of Juiya. By now the system's outer edges were teeming with warships, like sharks having smelled blood in the water. Yet the enemy stayed its hand: Mezoa was still dangerous and too powerful and fortified to be taken, even by a force as large as a fully marshalled Expeditionary Fleet, but once effectively cut off from aid and from giving aid to others, the threat had been effectively neutralised. Time now played in favour of Horus and the Traitors as the blockade would continously weaken the Forge World's defences until such time as sufficient forces could be gathered as to definitely silence Mezoa. Mezoa's blockade would soon be noticed on other worlds, especially those depending on Mezoa's production capabilities. On Port Maw, the powerful Port Majoris of the Armada Imperialis situated in the neighbouring sub-sector, matters had steadily worsened -- without the supplies imported from Mezoa, Port Maw's stock of macro-ordinance shells was becoming dangerously low. Fleet command had begun formulating a plan of attack to break the Traitor blockade and address these matters, but events took a turn for the worse. Dire news reached Port Maw through garbled astropathic messages originating from Lascal in the Grail Abyss. Previously, a number of reports of worlds "going dark" had come out of this region and the stars bordering it, but to the authorities on Port Maw and Dominica Minor the Abyss' strategic value had been too small, too unimportant to squander its finite resource in warships while the proverbial wolf was already at their own door.Now such parochial thinking had born dark consequences, and without warning, a massive fleet tore out of the Empyrean at the edge of the Lascal System, and there would be no time to rally reinforcements to meet it. Much of the strategic detail of what was to be Lascal's last broadcast had been lost to the soul-static of the Warp, but what images remained were clear enough: bleak warship after bleak warship, slab-grey and bone-white, stained and pitted with the scars of ancient battles and their recent acts of infamy. Alongside these were Warp-carried images of the death's head and the black sunburst, the scythe of the reaper. The Death Guard Legion had come for the Cyclops Cluster.
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Cyclops Cluster - The Death Guard unleashed: When the XVII "Sun Dragons" deep range Cruiser squadron of the Armada Ultima finally forced their way through the Warp-turbulence which had dogged their attempts to reach Lascal in answer to their homeport's distress call, they emerged into a scene of still-burning carnage. The extensive war fleet mustered at the Armada's high orbital anchorage over the fifth world of the system had been a sizable force; some forty ships-of-the-line and more than a hundred Escorts and some heavier units in form of the Ozymandias, the Star Tamer and the Sceptre of Iron, three -Retribution-class Battleships that had proved their worth; and yet all had been blasted to ruins, some of the larger hulks still bleeding fiery plasma from their ruptured reactor cores or frozen air escaping from their lifeless and rent hulls.What was perhaps even more shocking was that further scans identified precious little wreckage as belonging to the enemy -- an entire war-fleet annihilated with barely any losses. This made for a most terrifying picture: an attack of such overmastering power, overwhelming strength and suddenness that resistance had barely had time to organise before being entirely wiped out. Further in, the Sun Dragons discovered that a new debris belt now surrounded their homeworld of Lascal V, whose origin was soon discovered: the remains of the high fleet anchorage station. Additional scans revealed the surfaces of the core worlds dense with the radiation of weapons-fire, the garbled echoes of distress signals and the characteristic fog of war.Carefully the Sun Dragons proceeded further in-system, as the area was still potentially dangerous due to active Void Mines, unspent ordnance and tumbling pieces of wreckage that could easily damage the Cruisers. Ever mindful of an ambush, the Cruisers continued, weapons ready for an attack that never came. Their Auspexes revealed what every man and woman amongst the bridge crew had feared: Lascal had not been merely invaded or conquered, but purged of any living soul and left for dead. The system's primary world, Lascal IV, once a burgeoning Imperial colony with a population numbering in the tens of millions, was now a poisoned orb, its atmosphere thick with toxic green and black strata betraying the tell-tale signs of mass biochemical bombardment.Solar Auxilia landing parties in full environment gear launched from the Sun Dragons' Cruisers to the palace of its Imperial Governor and several known defence bunkers. All returned ashen-faced, with the same tale of utter destruction to tell. The dead in their thousands covered the land, struck down in their stride by blistering airborne poisons and murderous nerve-agents. In those few places such as the Governor's palace, which had been sealed in time, a more direct hand had been required to destroy those seeking shelter within. Ferrocrete walls had been shattered by direct cannon fire, bulkhead doors torn from their mountings by the merciless gauntlets of Power Fists, and everywhere was rank slaughter and the litter of spent bolt shell cases, unmistakably Legiones Astartes in pattern.Most, however, had not been that lucky and had perished through over-exposure to the airborne necro-toxins; and as the landing parties would soon discover, even an Astartes constitution had proved insufficient against these vile poisons, for the bodies of a number of Iron Hands Legionaries were discovered amongst the dead. As if any more evidence was needed, the landing parties discovered the impaled and bloated corpse of Lascal's governor in an auditorium of his palace; there, above the cast down Aquila, flew a ragged banner bearing the death's head and black sunburst of Mortarion's dread Legion.As the Sun Dragons left the charnel house of Lascal behind them, news of what they had found quickly spread amongst the worlds of the Cyclops Cluster. Already fraying from each other in fear, pure terror now took hold among these worlds. At planets such as Endicott, Moravasis and San Pardor, news of the "Murder of Lascal" or the "Lascal Massacres" as they became swiftly known escaped to the general population -- perhaps purposefully leaked by agents of Horus and fifth-columnists already planted there by the Traitors' spy network -- civilian insurrections and rioting degenerated in open rebellion which toppled the Imperial authorities from power and left only chaos in their wake. But barely had similar dissent been put down in the orbital habitats of Dominica Minor, when news reached the seat of the Cyclops Cluster's notional political leadership, the Guildmasters, that the reaper's scythe had visited two more star systems, the mining colonies of Grist and Rabbasan, and left none alive. Both systems lay in a near direct path to the galactic South via the Warp-routes between Lascal and Dominica Minor. The Guildmasters now had precious little doubt that they would be next.Frantically, the panicked Guildmasters tried to invoke their Terran-bestowed primacy and call for fresh forces to be mustered from their dominions and vassal worlds, but their orders were mostly met with silence or scorn. Looking elsewhere for aid, they discovered with horror that the Mezoan blockade was now reinforced with dark-hulled warships of unknown origin. Worse yet, the Forge Lords of M'Pandex had turned from the Emperor's light and reached out to seize control of several worlds through their implacable cohorts of half-dead adsecularis troops, butchering any who would stand in their way.The horror only increased when they learned that Gethsamaine's Imperial Commander had bent knee before the Traitors, and delivered up his world without a shot being fired in its defence. Other worlds such as Vargas and Bleak Harbour had quickly mirrored his movement, while the feral natives of Zavarich had massacred their Imperial overseers and abased themselves before the Sons of Horus as if they were gods descending from the heavens. It was to the Guildmasters of Dominica Minor suddenly apparent that, with a surgeon's skill, the Cyclops Cluster had been dismembered and laid bare before onrushing death, as much by human weakness as by the sword of the enemy.
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Cyclops Cluster - Planets of the Cyclops Cluster: Dominica Minor - Dominica Minor was the only inhabitable planet in a solar system compromising several gas-giants and other planets whose alchemical atmospheres could readily be exploited. Dominica Prime was essentially an immense network of gas and alchemical refineries whose output flowed to the Mechanicum worlds of Mezoa and M'Pandex. With its output numbering in the billions of litres, Dominica Prime's wealth grew considerably, becoming the uncontested regional power in the sub-sector at the beginning of the 31st Millennium. While militarily speaking it could not rival such worlds as Mezoa or the Hive Worlds of the neighboring Manachean Commonwealth, Dominica Minor could boast its own substantial defence infrastructure, orbital shipyards and military vessels, which would all be ravaged by the Traitor Death Guard Legion in what was to be known as the "Death on Dominica Minor."Bleak Harbor - Bleak Harbor is a Scavenger-type colonised world that was long ago known as "Auricalla" and whose location was included in ancient navigational datacores dating back to the Dark Age of Technology. In ancient tales and legends, Auricalla was described as a haven of civilisation and progress, an exemplar of Mankind's capabilities and genius and thus became one of many valuable civilisations for the newborn Imperium to contact. Yet when Imperial Explorators reached the planet, they would find only tumbledown ruins and semi-flooded wastelands seeded with the rusting wreckage of continent-spanning macro-machinery and the scattered bones of the dead. The ultimate fate of the lost civilisation of Auricalla remains unclear, it would seem, however, that no outside interference is to blame for Auricalla's fate: no war to topple its sky-scraping pyres, no hateful xenos breed to ravage its cities or epidemic to decimate its population. It would appear that society simply collapsed, regressed and tore itself apart as the result of some cataclysmic climate change that brought first inundations and then famine. No one knows for sure when this cataclysm happened, and it could very well be that Auricalla's demise dates back to centuries before the Imperium was even founded. By the time the Great Crusade reached this world, it had long been stripped of any valuable or technological remains. Nevertheless, the planet was colonised and used as a transit layover and port of last resort which contributed to give it its current name; salvation operations are still conducted in the vast ruins of the once magnificent cities, but Bleak Harbor makes for a dire place to live. Bleak Harbor is almost entirely covered in half-sunken ruins, swamps and rust-wastes. While nominally an independent world with its own Imperial Commander, Bleak Harbour lacks a stable population and those who live there are a desperate breed. Bleak Harbour's Imperial Commander has no notewothy resources to call upon and his world is indeed a dangerous place to live and one where the law is not enforced as it should be. Bleak Harbour's hinterlands and rust-wastes are a notorious haven for petty Hereteks, escaped prisoners and outlaws drawn there from all across the Cyclops Cluster. Bleak Harbour's situation was almost anarchic even before the Horus Heresy broke out, so it came as no great surprise that the world would bow to Horus of its own free will rather than risk further devastation.Dark Haven - Dark Haven is an odd world, an exceptional if strange orb in an otherwise lifeless region of the Cyclops Cluster. The planet has been classified a Death World by Imperial cartographers because of its inherent toxicity to unaltered human life. Covered in vast forests of a fungal nature which absorb every iota of light in whose shadow hulking ambulatory mycolidae and other less well-understood predators lurk, this "dark haven" has nevertheless been colonised by the Lucien Mechanicum which established it as a Knight World. The planet was given over to the stewardship of House Orhlacc, once but a minor Knight House of Lucius that has since grown in power. Due to its untenable strategic position, Dark Haven was evacuated during the Horus Heresy, House Orhlacc seizing voidships that made its relocation to the Agathean Domain possible. Since the end of the Heresy House, Orhlacc has maintained a token force on their new homeworld of Wychval, but it is believed that the bulk of House Orhlacc has since returned to Dark Haven.Endicott (Frontier World)Gethsamaine - In the 41st Millennium, Gethsamaine has become the capital of its own Sub-sector, but at the time of its inception in 942.M30, the world was still counted amongst those of the Cyclops Cluster. Gethsamaine Colonus was founded with expansion in mind, being located at the far edge of the Cluster and ideally suited for colonisation. In the sixty-four standard years before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, Gethsamaine prospered and had reached the state of a proto-Hive World with much of its planetary surface given over to sprawling ferrocrete cities and manufactoria, boasting its own planetary defense troops and limited Armada Imperialis docking facilities. Gethsamaine was one of the very first worlds to surrender and submit itself to Dark Compliance after Horus' rebellion began. It also remains famed to the present day for being the location of the devastating "Raid on Gethsamaine" which heralded the beginning of the Age of Darkness, a continuous state of war between Imperial Loyalists and the Traitors that still endures ten thousands years after Horus' death.Goth (Hive World)Grist - Grist was a Mining Colony located to the galactic Southeast of Gethsamaine and whose location at the intersection of two major Warp-routes -- linking Gethsamaine to Mezoa, and Dominica Minor to distant Lascal -- had brought it prosperity. Like other worlds located on the second of these Warp-routes, Grist was invaded and utterly purged of life by the Death Guard on their slow march to Dominica Minor.Gunnar's Rock - Like Jujya, Gunnar's Rock had been an outpost of the Mezoan Mechanicum dedicated to the production of promethium and other chemical substances. Initial fighting before the establishment of the blockade of Mezoa inflicted severe damage to its refineries with few traces in Imperial Archives as to whom actually emerged as victor in this struggle. Loyalist resistance is believed to have been totally eradicated by the passage of the Death Guard Legion en route to Dominica Minor.Jujya - Jujya counted as one of Mezoa's eldest and most established colonies outside of the Mezoa System, the Tech-priests having erected great Promethium and chemical refineries to produce the necessary fuel for their industries. Due to its closeness with its mother Forge, Jujya was considered very well protected until the events of the Horus Heresy would prove otherwise. Jujya remained Mezoa's sole colony to remain in contact with the parent Forge World during the entirety of the Blockade of Mezoa. It is unknown if the world suffered further invasions or attacks after a great deal of its refineries were destroyed or damaged in the initial engagements between the Taghmatas of M'Pandex and Mezoa.Mezoa- Founded first as an outpost of the Lucien Mechanicum in 540.M30 before the Great Crusade took to the stars, Mezoa was recognised as an independent Forge World as soon as 813.M30, a rapid rise to power whose origins undoubtedly lie within the extremely rich planetary crust of their volcanic homeworld. Suffering repeatedly from the baleful attentions of the Mitu Conglomerate during its centuries of isolation, Mezoa became an extraordinarily war-like society, the planet being ringed by autonomous planetary defence batteries, kill-satellites and spatial mine fields that turned it into a nearly impregnable fortress. Brought peacefully into the fold of the Imperium after its rediscovery by the 7th Expeditionary Fleet, Mezoa soon dedicated its industrial might to the production of weapons, ammunition and warship hulls, notoriously becoming tasked with the supply and expansion of the naval base of Port Maw in the neighbouring Manachean Commonwealth. If in terms of pure production capacities Mezoa was outmatched by its ancestral rival of M'Pandex, it has nevertheless always been considered as preeminent among the Forge Worlds of the Cyclops Cluster and indeed the entire Coronid Deeps. While its Taghmata was, numerically-speaking, inferior to that of M'Pandex, Mezoa's forces almost entirely consisted of the advanced Thalaxii template, far superior to the Adsecularis used en masse by M'Pandex. Mezoa's last line of defence was constituted by their world's own volcanic nature, the high temperatures and geological instability rending deployment of Titan-class weaponry suicidal. All these factors would contribute to Mezoa's continued independence from the Traitors' growing shadow empire, even during the dark years of the Horus Heresy when forces loyal to the Traitor Warmaster would seek to conquer it. Several attacks were successfully pushed back, and the Traitors were give no other choice than to cordon off Mezoa and upheld its blockade for the entire duration of the conflict.Moab - Moab is a chill and bleak but life-sustaining world which under other circumstances would likely not have been colonised by the Imperium. In Moab's case, however, two factors intervened to tip the balance in favor of human settlement: first the rarity of life-sustaining worlds within the Cyclops Cluster itself -- which made every such world, however bleak, far more valuable to the Imperium that it should readily be -- and second the planet's own location at the crossing of several stable Warp-routes, which readily made it the proverbial gate to the Cyclops Cluster. In the span of a few standard decades Moab became a populous world, first as a dormitory world for the Great Crusade's armies venturing into the northern reaches of the Ultima Segmentum, then for mining expeditions and settlers being shipped out to the Cluster's numerous mining colonies. This steady influx of people warranted the extension of Moab's administrative facilities until it not only became an independent world with a native population of several tens of millions of souls, but also the Cyclops Cluster's administrative Sub-capital. As the manpower relocated to Moab were often constituted from populations of recently Compliant or resistant worlds, conditions on Moab were particularly harsh, the population being controlled through force of arms and water rationing. Moab's sole resource of interest was its people, human "livestock" who could be used as manpower by both parties. The world suffered harshly during the Horus Heresy, its anarchic descent into chaos being commonly referred to as the "Sorrow of Moab." Despite this dark chapter in its history, Moab still counts as one of the many worlds in the Imperium's fold in the 41st Millennium.Moravasis (Frontier World)M'Pandex - M'Pandex is the Cyclops Cluster's second Forge World that -- although considerably older than its rival -- has ever stood in the shadow of Mezoa. Founded in the distant past when the Mechanicum launched vast Explorator arks out into space during the Age of Strife, M'Pandex suffered much through its isolation from the wider realms of Mankind, decaying and losing much of its technological knowledge until even its sacred God-Machines, the great Battle-Titans, fell into disuse. Discovered through luck by vessels of the 90th Expeditionary Fleet, M'Pandex joined the Imperium willingly, which heralded the Forge World's rebirth. Through major efforts of the Mechanicum of Mars, M'Pandex was restored, its production capabilities soon to rival those of far greater Forges such as Vannaheim or even mighty Lucius. Eternally indebted to Mars and its Fabricator-General in particular, the ruler of M'Pandex -- the High Ourteka M'andii of the Golden Forge -- would pledge his loyalty and that of his world to Kelbor-Hal and through him to Horus.New Providence - New Providence was an arid world on the Warp-route leading to Taracanis whose surface had been given over to vapour mills and arcologies in which thousands of workers toiled. New Providence's exports almost went entirely to the benefit of the Forge World of Mezoa, which made it a prime target for the Mechanicum Taghmata of M'Pandex. In the ensuing battle, thousands of fleeing workers were butchered by both sides as the inhuman robotic battle-automata sought to confront each other, giving no consideration or quarter to the civilians trapped between their lines. It is unclear if New Providence was conquered in the initial assault of M'Pandex or the following invasion by the Sons of Horus on their way to Taracanis.Rabbasan - Located at the northern border of the Cyclops Cluster, Rabbasan was but a simple Mining Colony when the Death Guard overran it in 006.M31, poisoned its atmosphere and killed its entire population -- barely worth a footnote in the great book of atrocities committed by the XIV Legion during the years of the Horus Heresy.San Pardor (Frontier World)Vargas (Civilised World)Zavarich - Zavarich is one of the few Agri-worlds to be located within the Cyclops Cluster and whose growing importance within the Cluster promised it a rich and bountiful future. Zavarich has always been a Feudal World, even before it was brought bloodlessly into Imperial Compliance by the 611th Expeditionary Fleet in 876.M30. Having rallied to the Imperial fold, Segmentum authorities decided to turn Zavarich into an Agri-world, its production centered on high-yield tharac-wheat with Grox and Macro-krill herds as a secondary complement. In the decades following its Imperial Compliance, Zavarich became increasingly more important for the Cluster's economy, which motivated an influx of colonists and agri-workers being directed to the planet to further increase its productivity. A census conducted just before the outbreak of the Heresy cited Zavarich's population at just under three million souls, with perhaps as much as a quarter of them being non-natives. This caused significant unrest as the colonists often took over management roles, thus supplanting the natives, but more importantly the native population stubbornly adhered to their ancient autochthonic cultic belief systems whereas the colonists were all strong adherents of the Imperial Truth. It is unclear by which means Zavarich's native population was corrupted by Horus' agents; however it quickly became apparent that this was the case when the Ikon entered Zavarich's skies. The arrival of the Sons of Horus' Strike Cruiser seemed to have been the long-awaited signal for the local population to rise up against the Imperial faction and utterly slaughter them. Rumour has it that when the Sons of Horus descended on Zavarich, the locals abased themselves before the towering Astartes as if they were gods, a veneration that goes against every tenet of the Imperial Truth.
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Cyclops Cluster - Notable Military Campaigns: Xenocides Campaigns (Unknown Date.M30) - Having suffered previous attacks on its homeworld, the Mezoa Mechanicum periodically launched xenocide campaigns against the xenos of the Mitu Conglomerate. As a side-effect of these ventures, the Mezoa System itself is heavily reinforced and fortified to ward against any reprisal attack from the Mitu.The Mitu Eradication (Unknown Date.M30) - The Mitu Eradication was an Imperial xenocide campaign directed against the xenos pocket-empire known as the Mitu Conglomerate. While the Mitu Conglomerate's core-worlds were mostly located in what had been the Manachean Commonwealth and the Cyclothrathine Holdfast, many worlds of the Cyclops Cluster also suffered from the Mitu's rule. The war against the Mitu Conglomerate was foremost a naval war, constituted by savage boarding engagements between Imperial and xenos ships. Once naval superiority was ensured, planetary assaults were then conducted to liberate the human worlds. It is a testimony to the strength of the Conglomerate that several Expeditionary Fleets drawn from the Solar Auxilia Cohorts and no less than three Space Marine Legions were necessary to bring their baleful rule to an end. The decisive battle was fought in the Manachea System, on Manachea Lux, while the Cyclops Cluster saw only minor engagements. It was after the Mitu Eradication that contact was again made with much of the Cluster.The Gethsemaine Dark Compliance (006.M31) - When a ship of the Traitor Legions, a Gladiator-class frigate of the Emperor's Children penetrated into the Gethsamaine System, Gethsamaine's military authorities quickly despatched its two defence monitors, the Gaius Herab and the Brazen Bull, to investigate the matter. The III Legion's ship was identified as the Malin Dawn, a Loyalist ship that had tried to break away during the Istvaan III Atrocity but that would be boarded and destroyed from within while in the Warp. The ship's Navigator would see it get to its destination before her strength failed her, thus leaving the Malin Dawn a ghost-ship. While investigating, the Gaius Herab and Brazen Bull were attacked and destroyed by the Ikon and her Escorts which quickly turned their weapons on Gethsamaine's orbital batteries and astropathic relay, thus severely disturbing Imperial navigation and communication channels. Gethsamaine Colonus itself was spared the depredations of the Sons of Horus, but was subjugated following Horus' victory in the region.The Blockade of Mezoa (ca. 006-011.M31) - Following its refusal to join forces with Horus, the Forge World of Mezoa was attacked by both the forces sworn to the Warmaster and the fleet of its erstwhile rival, the Forge World of M'Pandex. One by one, Mezoa's extra-planetary domains are invaded, conquered and where necessary, destroyed. By the end of 006.M31, only Mezoa and Jujya still resisted in a secure enclave that had been cordoned off from the wider sub-sector by military vessels of M'Pandex and reconverted merchant vessels. This blockade was upheld through most of the Horus Heresy and considerably bolstered after the infamous Treachery at Port Maw incident by turncoat vessels of the Armada Imperialis. Blockading the system would, however, not suffice and several attacks were launched on Mezoa to deal with the menace it still represented. The first of these more severe attacks -- led almost entirely by Dark Mechanicum elements from M'Pandex -- was to fail spectacularly as the Magi of Mezoa succeeded in turning their world's fiery heart against the invaders, collapsing the fragile crust under the enemy landing zones and hurling island-sized chunks of magma into orbit against the vessel supporting the invasion. The enemy commander, a Traitor Archimandrite, is reported having been torn to ribbons by a mysterious warmachine dubbed "the dragon" which was rumoured to have been retrieved from the black sands of Istvaan V; although the details and the reasons as to its presence on Mezoa remain a total mystery. Mezoa's continued defiance would eventually request the involvement of Legiones Astartes personnel in the form of several armoured battalions of the Death Guard Legion, the grim sons of Mortarion. These attacks would not be successfully pushed back until the avenging armies of the Imperium ventured forth during the time known as the Great Scouring.The Orhlacc Exodus (ca. 006-007.M31) - Trying to sway the reputed House Orhlacc into Dark Compliance, the Rogue Trader Charid Udine was exterminated with his retinue by the vengeful Knights of House Orhlacc. Dark Haven's few defence lasers -- hidden deep beneath the fungal canopy of their world -- exacted a heavy toll amongst the Rogue Trader's flotilla, while Charid Udine's own vessel, the ruby-hulled galleass of war, Hammer of the Deep, is captured by the loyal Knight House. The Lord Seneschal of Dark Haven reported the incident to the cluster's authorities but received only platitudes in reply. With the Forge World they owed fealty to already being blockaded, Valdemar Orhlacc ordered the planet to be secretly abandoned, a fact that was deliberately kept hidden from Loyalist and Traitors alike. House Orhlacc's exodus was only noticed several solar months later when the Khabir, a Lunar-class Cruiser on patrol from Dominica Minor, reported Dark Haven deserted. Many thought House Orhlacc had simply been destroyed or had vanished entirely, but these rumours of their demise were all to be proven wrong as the Knight House had not perished in their long voyage, but had successfully found shelter within the Agathean Domain. House Orhlacc would also once again take to the field of battle almost two standard years later during the famed Liberation of Numinal, where their decisive intervention heralded an important Imperial victory.Civilian Insurrections (006.M31) - As news of the Murder of Lascal reached the Cyclops Cluster, fifth-columnists and spies of the Warmaster Horus purposefully spread the tale amongst the civilian population, which results in civilian unrest and rioting. While on Dominica Minor these disturbances are held in check, the terrified mob seized power on such worlds as Moravasis, Endicott and San Pardor and these planets descended into anarchy.The Reaping (006.M31) - In a deliberate act of terror -- to disseminate fear within and without the Cyclops Cluster -- the Death Guard descends on such low-population worlds as Rabbasan and Grist, exterminating their people and poisoning the ground.Death on Dominica Minor (006.M31) - Having ravaged every star system in its path, the Death Guard finally reached Dominica Minor, the military and economic heart of the Cyclops Cluster. When the Death Guard's fleet emerged from the Warp they bluntly waded through the outer minefields, using captured mining barges as fire ships to detonate the mines. Hugely outgunned, Dominica Minor's defence fleet clung to its orbital fortifications and was already on the point of surrendering, unloading everything it had at the Traitors, whose Void Shields buckled and heavy armour was scorched but only rarely penetrated. On command, the Death Guard fleet, now almost in boarding range, turned and unleashed a single devastating broadside which annihilated the defenders. When it came, the ground assault displayed the typical brutality of the Death Guard and the focus of a Legiones Astartes strike. The first wave targetted communication towers, defence batteries, militia bastions and orbital relays, silencing those weapons that could pose a threat to the ongoing assault. Then came the heavy landers and the bulk of Mortarion's force. Unhurried, 30,000 Legionaries marched to war, easily crushing the militia gathered against them that outnumbered them twenty or thirty to one. Yet the defenders' numerical superiority counted for nothing as their weapons were wholly inadequate to fight members of the Astartes. As the retreat became a rout, the Death Guard made no distinction between fighters and civilians, unleashing bursts of Bolter-fire or shelling hab-blocks with aspyx-gas, or running the enemy down with their tanks. Dominica Minor had been marked for massacre. Only two places truly resisted the onslaught, first the planet's primary starport where colossal mining machines and industrial-grade heavy Servitors had been repurposed as makeshift war-machines and second, the heavily fortified entrance to the ruling Guildmasters' personal shelter were their well-equipped retainers and the few stranded Loyalist Space Marines had decided to make their stand. To break the stalemate at the starport, Mortarion unleashed the gathered might of House Makabius, the Knights eager to prove their mettle in battle. While their Knights made short work of Servitors and militia, the towering mining machines could still crush them easily but they were cumbersome and slow to handle. Using their Knights' mobility against the lumbering mining-Titans, House Makabius easily overcame this last line of resistance and soon the starport was bathed in the blood of its defenders. At the Guild Hall, news of the presence of Legionaries from the Salamanders goaded Mortarion to lead the attack personally, duelling with one of the last remaining Dreadnoughts of this broken Legion but which had no true chance to defeat a Primarch. With his huge scythe jutting from the Dreadnought's sarcophagus, the defenders of Dominica Minor were defeated. What few survivors remained were mercilessly hunted down and killed, including the valiant Salamanders. It had taken the Death Guard less than three solar hours to murder an entire world.The Sorrow of Moab (006.M31) - The Sorrow of Moab describes the descent into anarchy of the administrative sub-capital of the Cyclops Cluster, following the arrival of the Sons of Horus Cruiser identified as the Ikon. Although no shots were fired and no troops ravaged Moab, the world's Imperial Governor was quick to surrender. With no answer coming from the anonymous captain of the Ikon, the tension became unbearable and sparked into violence as an armed mob of civilians lead by Secessionist muster-barons stormed the Governor's palace and slew Malthus Grange. This act greatly pleased the Sons of Horus, who encouraged the violence. In the span of a few short solar nights and days of murder, rampage and massacres, Moab descended into anarchy, killed by its own people. Those that survived would then join Horus' camp.The Battle of Gethsemane (151.M40) - The Battle of Gethsemane marks the beginning of Lord Admiral Ravensburg's counterattack during the famed Gothic War. During this prolonged naval battle that was to take place over several solar weeks, Lord Admiral Ravensburg personally led almost the entire might of Battlefleet Gothic against a splinter-fleet of Abaddon the Despoiler's Chaos Armada. The tables were, however, turned when a second Chaos fleet entered the system and tipped the balance of force in favour of the Traitors. Using the stellar dust fields to his advantage, Lord Admiral Ravensburg succeeded in forcing the Chaos fleet to fight his own fleet head-on where the Chaos warships suffered greatly. Trying to escape, the inopportune appearance of an Eldar fleet trapped the Chaos fleet between two gun lines which resulted in a major Imperial victory.
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Cyclothrathe - Cyclothrathe: Cyclothrathe was a former manufactory world known to the Imperium only by the most ancient texts, its name purged long ago by umbra-net data-phages by order of the highest possible authority. This minor Tertius Grade Forge World was located in the Coronid Deeps within the Segmentum Obscurus where it directly borders the Ultima Segmentum to the galactic east of the Cyclops Cluster.This Forge World was one of many worlds that were a part of the sovereign domain of the ancient Mechanicum, known as the Cyclothrathine Holdfast, that had been founded within the devastated heartlands of the former Mitu Conglomerate. Although it could not rival the far more ancient neighboring Forge Worlds of M'Pandex and Mezoa in terms of industrial output, Cyclothrathe nevertheless vastly surpassed any traditional world's manufacturing capabilities.The Cyclothrathine Mechanicum has always been an insular and aloof sect of the Mechanicum, even when it was still counted amongst those loyal to the Imperium, few were those who readily trusted them. Born not of ancient history, but rather some of the darkest and most horrifying conflicts of the Great Crusade and long withdrawn into secret ways and the study of the arcane, they were recognised by their strange arachnid symbol and their robes not of traditional Martian crimson, but of deepest hearts-blood and sable, and by the fathomless storm-cloud hues which adorned their servants and engines of war.For many standard years they had garnered a reputation for ruthlessness and aggression, both in defence of their domains from any xenos that crossed the frontier, and in pressing any claims they made to resource rights and territory. Imperial Law and the intercession of Mars had been called upon on more than once occasion to keep Cyclothrathe's expansion in check. Bellicose and arrogant, the black-clad magi of Cyclothrathe kept their distance even from others of their own kind, and where they walked, they walked alone.During the Horus Heresy, the Warmaster Horus played on the jealousy and ambition of the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum to whom Mars was at best an unwanted and distant authority. The future would decide for this world an infamy seldom matched in the ranks of Forge Worlds. During these years, its name would become a byword for dark deeds and atrocity amongst the entire Imperium, as was its position within the Dark Mechanicum and the reputation of its dire warlord, Archmagos Yelav Draykavac, cemented in the blood of countless planets.In the 41st Millennium, it is many Inquisitors' beliefs that certain factions amongst their outcast kin in league with fallen Adepts of the Machine have recently re-established contact with the Traitors of Cyclothrathe, returned to threaten the northern marches of the Segmentum Solar as they did so many long millennia ago.
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