Lathe Worlds - Exodus of Steel: Over the next thousand Terran years the Adeptus Mechanicus consolidated its power over the Lathes and their surrounding star system. Factories, orbital assets, and research stations spread throughout the system, taking advantage of the opportunities the various anomalies and variances existing within the system offered.The density of Forge Worlds alone was enough to set the Lathes apart. Controlling a system so rich in strange phenomena and material resources, with the full power of three ancient Fabricator ships at their immediate disposal, was nearly unprecedented in Mechanicus history, and much was made of the opportunity.Entire research groups were transferred from Mars and other outlying facilities to these fresh new holdings in the fledgling sector.One of the central aspects of the system that lured Mechanicus researchers were the three major asteroid belts, all situated at curious angles to the ecliptic plane, intersecting at various turbulent points. It was clear from the structure and composition of the three belts that they did not share a common origin, and thus each offered its own potential.In addition, in those regions where two, or even all three, belts converged, an extremely rare array of conditions held sway. Researchers from Mars and beyond were eager to come to the system to pursue lines of inquiry as varied as gravimancy, cryomantic mining, and kinetic discordance.Most prominent among the system's many fascinating properties, however, were the tearing gravity storms and horrific pressure shears that had rendered the system all but useless to other servants of the Imperium.Vast cities in space were erected solely to observe these phenomena, poring over probable causes and effects, and into possible applications for any powers thus discovered.Archmagi expert in transportation, Warp technologies, communications, and weapons theory descended upon the system, swelling the ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus within the Lathes.In order to feed the countless millions now labouring throughout the system, enormous food manufactoria and agrology platforms were constructed under the auspices of the Rustica Mandate. These vast complexes were established throughout the system to provide sustenance to all those servants of the Omnissiah who still required such basic needs.The stations were carefully placed throughout the region, so as to maximise the logistical impact of each station and its production. Empty and remote regions often existed amidst the research stations, weapons platforms, and agrology domes that sprang up across the system, the very gravitic anomalies that made the system so fascinating often causing these isolations.Many of these regions provided ideal storage locations and study facilities for captured crafts, exotic xenos vessels, space hulks of various provenances, and more, that had been brought to the Lathes for innumerable other reasons.The offices of Lord Inquisitor Caidin and his predecessors have filed many complaints and demands for information and even for the outright surrender of several specimens. There are no records of any such demands being approved, due in large part to the sovereignty of the Adeptus Mechanicus, especially within their own domain.To ensure the security of the many assets that have since been brought under the protection of the Lathes, many Omni- Vigilens and Indoctrination Bases have been established throughout the system for the Crimson Guard and their Titan allies, the Legio Venator.Although the greatest presence of both the Crimson Guard and the Legio Venator is to be found in Adeptus Mechanicus holdings outside the Lathes System, both entities maintain strong forces within the system, including the Legio Venator fortress world of Lycosidae, and even the Panopticon Orbital Station. The Mechanicus know that should the Lathes fall, their own power within the Calixis Sector would soon fall with them.