Zhao-Arkhad - Nytos Disaster: Reaching the goals of the Second Conjunction was no easy task. While the lunar colonies had yielded welcome mineral wealth, none of the moons harboured any of the specialist materials necessary to build additional long-range spacecraft.As Zhao-Arkhad had already consumed all void-worthy materials from their original Mechanicum Ark for the construction of their lunar transport fleet and a small conveyor fleet in use by the Legio Xestobiax, the magi were faced with a difficult decision.In the end, military considerations tipped the balance and it was decided that several transport barges would be wrecked and their materials used for the creation of a single explorer vessel which would transport up to 20,000 colonists to their new home. For this purpose, the hydro-torch engines of the lunar barges would be linked into great reactor blocks to allow the vessel to break free of the grip of Zhao-Arkhad's gravity.The explorer's atmospheric pressure systems and life support were equally boosted to allow the ship and its crew to survive the estimated six solar months of travel unscathed. Most of the ship was crafted from salvaged material, all of which had suffered from some level of corrosion due to the oxygen and humidity-rich surface on which the Ark had landed, or had been freshly forged from far more common ores with lesser strength.The Nytos expedition was led by the forge-domini of Zhao-Arkhad's prime forge-fane, who would personally command and maintain the ship while en route to Nytos.The launch of the Nytos explorer-vessel -- whose name went unrecorded or was perhaps purged from official records -- was declared a major success. Across the Zhao-Arkhad lunar colonies, those servile workers chosen to be part of the expedition were celebrated as "blessed in the sight of the Machine God."Many festivities were organised as the vessel departed on its voyage. For the first three solar months of its trip, everything went according to plan. But about half-way to their intended goal, the rear of the vessel was struck by a meteorite no more than two centimetres in diameter.Weakened by the corrosive effects of Zhao-Arkhad's atmosphere, the hull proved incapable of withstanding such a minor strike, and the impact initiated a chain-reaction of ruptures that led to an explosive decompression of the vessel's interior, exposing the colonists to the fatal vacuum of the void.In a matter of a few solar minutes, Zhao-Arkhad's great venture had turned to disaster. The loss of the Nytos explorer-vessel was the first great crisis encountered by the forge-fanes of Zhao-Arkhad, and many were those who secretly blamed the supreme-domini for it.Fearing the adverse effect the news of this tragic accident might have on the servile worker caste, which severely outnumbered the magi, the loss of the expeditionary vessel was deliberately kept secret for fear the heavily indoctrinated and religious workers might see the vessel's loss as an ill-omen, or even worse, the judgement of the Machine God upon their masters.Still in need of new resources for its planned expansion, Zhao-Arkhad turned its attention to mining the Ilotar asteroid field, far less rich than Nytos had been, but closer and more readily accessible.However, the cruel hand of fate was not quite done with Zhao-Arkhad, or as the ancient Terran proverb says, "disasters never come alone." Shortly after the Nytos Disaster, the Zhao System was increasingly plagued by Empyreal turbulences and Warp Storms the like of which had stranded the Mechanicum Ark on Zhao-Arkhad in the first place.Strange events grew widespread among the lunar colonies; from otherwise harmless strange glowing lights or auras that haunted the tunnels and caverns of the deep forge-fanes and the lunar mines, to infrequent occurrences of Warp entity possession or sudden insanity. Most affected were those of the worker caste who unknowingly manifested the psyker-gift.Becoming suddenly aware of the emergence of psykers in their midst, the magi of Zhao-Arkhad, and especially those of the Eminarii forge-fane began to see them as an interesting new research-subjects, but would not yet act upon it.This would soon change, for with the Warp storms came the first predation of xenos corsairs, believed to belong to the Aeldari race. The corsairs' attention was drawn to the lunar colonies and the void stations established in the asteroid belt but curiously never touched Zhao-Arkhad itself.However, the magi knew that they could not survive without their workers and the resources they generated and fiercely sought to protect these from the corsairs' baleful attention.The supreme-domini declared that all efforts should now be concentrated on the defence of the servile colonies and off-world outposts. This edict is known to have bred particular discontent amongst the forge-fanes as the central authority of the supreme domini began to assert itself and require ever greater portions of the forge-fane's wealth and resources to be directed to military needs.Soon, discontented voices began to murmur that the xenos' depredations were a visible sign that the Omnissiah had turned His gaze from the supreme-domini for his failures.It was during these years of continued militarisation of the Forge World's production that the Eminarii forge-fane grew to prominence. All over Zhao-Arkhad, some few forge-fanes had begun to apply reclamation protocols to the gear and bodies of their enemies, all with the tacit approval of the supreme-domini who believed that the end -- the survival of the Forge World -- would justify the means.As such, xenos weaponry and materials were soon given new purpose by strengthening Zhao-Arkhad's ever-growing arsenal, a practice that would justly be considered as a perversion of the sacred designs of the Omnissiah on every other Mechanicum Forge World.This was, however, not enough for the Eminarii, who chose to tread down an even darker path. Petitioned by Magos Tacitus Proctor of the Eminarii forge-fane, the supreme-domini allowed the forge-fane to requisition and experiment on the emergent psyker population of the lunar colonies. Magos Proctor's goal was to replicate the precognitive skills some of the psykers had manifested, thus greatly increasing the potency of Zhao-Arkhad's defences.Whilst replication naturally proved difficult to achieve, some measure of success was met by augmenting the cerebral cortexes of Battle-Automata with "synthetic" mapped neural networks and harvested cortical material which increased the automatas' responsiveness and seemed to grant near-precognitive levels of response time to threat stimuli.The fact that such techno-arcana had long been proscribed by the Mechanicum since the fall of Old Night seemed not to have hindered the Eminarii forge in pursuing its researches and stands as testimony to the extreme deviation in doctrine that had occurred on the isolated Forge World.Properly impressed with the abilities of these new cybernetica cortexes, the supreme domini declared that each colony would be provided with these "Eminarii" hybrid Battle-Automata as well as the base combat models assembled in the Kiarii forge-fane, while other forge-fanes contributed in other ways to the defences of Arkhad I, II and III, be it through the production of static gun emplacements, fortifications or simple ammunition.An immediate decrease in damage inflicted and servile casualties caused was recorded in the raids of the xenos corsairs, marking the Zhao-Arkhad defensive project as a great success for all of the forge-fanes involved. Yet the other forge-fanes found that disproportionate attention was laid on the efforts of the Kiarii and Eminarii forges, with some even openly talking of favouritism for them from the supreme domini.This talk only masked the growing tensions between these favoured forge-fanes and the other forges of Zhao-Arkhad. Even as Zhao-Arkhad was forced to constantly face xenos raids and other harrowing, otherworldly incursions, the Forge World began to tear itself apart in the internecine conflict that was later known as the Kiarii Wars.