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.