Panopticon Station

“Once there were places on the ancient charts that said ‘Here be dragons,’ to warn travellers of treacherous, unknown waters. Well, young pupil, that empty space you seem fixated upon within the readout of your auspex display? There be dragons.”
–Senior Adept-Pilot Tabel Rha-sa
There is, floating within the maze of debris, gravitic shears,
and rogue singularities that abound within the mid-orbital
ranges around the star Sentanim, a mysterious void. This
stable grav-point does not appear on any chart or map, it
is not in any record or data-remnant, and its location is
known only to a select few of the highest-ranking adepts in
all of the Mechanicus Calixis. Rumors abound of a secret
space station located somewhere within the Lathes System,
and the perceived wisdom of the adepts speaks of a dark
and mysterious realm where the most powerful creatures of
Mechanicus myth and legend walk freely. Many may even
have heard a title, mumbled over a cup of joilique or infusions
of illegal toxicant scrapcode, over hooded, sidelong glances:
Panopticon Orbital Station.
In the 9th century of M38, a mysterious vessel, its red
and steel flanks glowing dully in the blue-white light of an
unstable sun, entered the Pondus System. The skull-prowed
craft began an extensive survey of the region, powerful auspex
beams reaching out in all directions, testing, measuring,
and cataloguing. Almost immediately, a series of intriguing
anomalies presented themselves. Strange gravity shears that
defied explanation ripped through the system. The star at its
center beat to a cadence unknown to even the most gifted
celestial adepts or decryption cogitators. Extraordinary readings
emanated from the looping, intertwined asteroid belts. It soon
became clear that the system was a rare and exciting specimen,
something that the Adeptus Mechanicus would very much like
to claim as its own, once the Pax Imperialis reached into the
Calyx Expanse. It was also clear, however, that this single ship
lacked the ability to perform an exhaustive study, and so all
work ceased, the Explorator vessel moved through the system,
and entered the Warp on the other side.
Almost a century later, several slightly smaller ships, similar
in design and color, arrived. Spreading throughout the system,
these ships moved with a quiet purpose. The entire area was
scanned and charted, and exhaustive reports were filed on every
planet, recorded anomaly, and stellar feature. Remnant colonies
of humans, cut off from the Emperor’s light for millennia, were
later found on three planets within the system. It was decided
that they would serve as an ideal work force, should the Cult
Mechanicus lay claim to the system. On Mars and Terra, quiet
efforts to do just that began, while the specialized Explorator
fleet retreated from the planets and entered the dangerous region
of intertwining asteroid belts looping through the system. The
fleet suffered a great deal of damage as it penetrated into the
chaotic region, countless adepts and crewmen losing their lives,
but they had come prepared. Deep within the unstable violence
of the colliding belts, an ancient artefact was activated, creating
a bubble of stable gravity and a quiet sanctuary from the
grinding impacts. They started construction within this secure
zone, and quickly a bastion began to take shape.
Even as the citadel was being constructed, a fleet of smaller
vessels spread throughout the system. A legion of auspex
clusters, pictographic scanners, and omnipotentia augury
arrays seeded every planet and each of the three asteroid
belts. Soon the entire system was under surveillance, every
action, every word, every transmission observed, analyzed,
and recorded. The initial deployment of the Praecursator
Grid and the obsidian stronghold were completed at nearly
the same time, making the Cult Mechanicus masters of the
system before either the Imperium or the current inhabitants
even knew of their presence.
For several centuries, Explorator fleets pushing into the
newly discovered region used the station as a clandestine
way-stop. During the Angevin Crusade it served as a secret
command-and-control node for advanced Mechanicus scouting
forces. After the system came under Mechanicus control the
Station remained a tightly held secret, only the highest-ranking
Arch-Magos aware of its existence. The Fabricator-General himself proffered it to the Lords Dragon, as they
accepted the burden of shepherding the newborn Mechanicus
Calixis for the Omnissiah, ever-watchful for the taint of tech-heresy.
For millennia now it has served several purposes: as
the clandestine headquarters of the Lords Dragon, a top-secret
weapons research and development base, and a repository for
weapons and artefacts deemed so dangerous that the leaders of
the Mechanicus Calixis must deny their very existence.
With bones of iron mined from sacred Mars itself and
sheathed in the polished obsidian stone of theEtiam Yohd Belt,
the Panopticon Orbital Station is the most heavily armored
redoubt in the Lathes System. Colossal Harbinger Sentinels
crouch upon every available surface like ancient gargoyles,
their auspex optics and audit-tracking audiometrics plumbing
surrounding space for danger. The station serves as the central
nexus of the Praecursator Grid, now expanded across the
Lathe Worlds and even into several non-Mechanicum holdings.
Vast data storage tombs and processing vertices fill enormous
chambers within the Station, ghostly wisps of heat rising into
the sepulchral air. Machine-spirits toil ceaselessly to follow
faces, words, and deeds, watching for the slightest hint of
heretical taint. So sophisticated are the linked data-stacks, in
fact, that constant vigilance must be maintained, lest elements
of the system stray too close to Abominable Intelligence.
==Eyes of the Dragon==
The Lords Dragon, easily the most feared group within the
Mechanicus Calixis, have used the Praecursator Grid to keep a
careful watch over all those within the Lathe Worlds for
centuries now, wary of the siren-song of corruption
that has felled so many adepts. It also assists
them in maintaining their many secrets
and the illusion of omniscience. Within
dark chambers lined with sacred
iron, the Lords Dragon regularly
rededicate themselves to their holy
purpose, standing vigil over several
precious artefacts from the ancient
eras of Mars’ ascendancy. Vast,
cog-shaped altars hold fields of
flickering electro-tapers illuminating
the enigmatic visage of the Cog
Mechanicus glaring down from every
wall. Most adepts of the Lords Dragon
are quiet and focused upon their own tasks
within the dimly lit halls, habits of secrecy too
strong to break even within the Panopticon, their
most sacred and secure sanctuary.
Countless myths have been spread about the region of the
Panopticon as an integral part of the floating citadel’s defenses.
Since before the Mechanicus officially came to the system,
tales were being told, of a dead region in space where ships
disappear without warning or trace. Countless vague accounts
passed from crew to crew of space craft that ventured into the
conjunction of clashing rocks and passed out the other side,
their crew vanished, their data-stacks scoured bare. The most
frightening element of these tales is that many of them are true.
Whenever a ship comes too close to the Panopticon Station, it
leaves the Lords Dragon with little choice. Each ship is either
destroyed outright or boarded. The crews of those boarded
ships can never be released, and the data-stacks of the ships are
completely scrubbed of any incriminating information. Some
of those crewmen are allowed to remain aboard the Station and
live out their lives serving the Lords Dragon. Most, however,
either meet their end as menial servitors on the Station or are
rendered non-functioning, their remains recycled.
As the Mechanicus Calixis grew and expanded the Lords
Dragon occasionally found themselves in need of assistance from
other Mechanicus agencies. The Lords Dragon are a small, elite
body, and there have been crises over time that were beyond their
ability to contain. The most valuable commodity these agents
possess has been trust, and so, over time, other factions and units
have been brought into the secret fold of the Panopticon Station.
Here the massive, armored forms of the Myrmidons now stalk
the halls, caring for the machine-spirits of enormous siege batteries
of the Ordo Reductor, waiting with barely restrained power for
the next call to battle. Beside these hulking forms stride the
legendary mech-assassins. There are even whispered tales that the
dreaded Magister Samadhi, enigmatic commander of the Acuitor Set mech-assassins, resides somewhere deep within the Station.
The original blunt shape of the Station has been expanded
over time, the Dragon Secutorii and the Ordo Reductor Siege
Masters coordinating each addition. Independent research
areas, testing facilities, and the hab units for a growing number
of adepts and menials constantly increase its impressive size.
Enormous blast doors conceal Ordinatus-scale weaponry, and
folded skeletal structures of elaborate docking arms and
transfer points are kept ready for arriving vessels.
High along the Central Bastion, the Cog
Mechanicus glares down upon the Station
and all who would dare approach it.
The interior of the Station, kept in
a constant dim red glow, has grown
more and more labyrinthine with
each new addition. Down each
crimson hallway drift clouds of
holy incense, pumped through the
station’s atmosphere recyclers at
regular intervals. What was once an
observation post and staging ground
for Lords Dragon forces watching over
the Mechanicum is now home to nearly
half a dozen different organizations, every
one an enigmatic mystery even to each other.
The heart of the station has been given over to the
Acuitor Set, who have further fortified it into the stronghold of
Tumala, guarding the ancient mechanisms that keep the asteroids
at bay. A fortress within a fortress, Tumala is almost entirely self-contained,
void-moats dividing it from the rest of the Station, and
an independently armored hull further securing the artefact and
installations within. The darkest heart of the station, Tumala is
open only to the mech-assassins and their lords, and a select few
of the highest-ranking Lords Dragon Magos.
Long ago, the original Magister Samadhi came to the station
for reasons now lost to time. Somehow an agreement was
reached with the Lords Dragon, to establish Tumala as a primary
training base for his disciples. In the later stages of the Magister’s
life he returned to Tumala to personally train his mech-assassin
followers, and to meditate in deep binary-datadreams upon the
nature of his purpose and that of his Set. Today, each master of
the Acuitor Set reviews these ancient meditations as he puts aside
his personal name and assumes the identity of Magister Samadhi,
donning a stylized iron mask that is never removed. Legends say
though that the original Samadhi never died, and, in fact, still
wanders the halls of Tumala to this very day.
==The Myrmidons==
The Myrmidons of the Ordo Reductor hold the outer districts
of the Station, where thick, armored walls encompass vault-like
weapon batteries and their control altars, along with the
massive energy capacitors needed to power them all. Their huge,
augmented forms stand eternal guard over the entrances to the
Station, no ship approaching save under their wary eyes. Most
Myrmidons communicate through binary chatter link only,
having taken a vow of audio-silence upon accepting a position
upon the Panopticon. In suits of colossal, ancient armor, these
silent warriors are easily the most intimidating denizens of this
most daunting place, each of their multiple arms capable of
rending trespassers to component flesh. Bearing weapons out
of Mechanicus myth and legend, even away from their dreadful
batteries the Myrmidons are terrible to behold.
Category:Golgenna Reach
Category:Space Stations
Category:Calixis Sector
Category:Adeptus Mechanicus