Mitu Conglomerate - Organisation: Located within the former Cyclotrathine Holdfast, over centuries the Mitu Conglomerate expanded deep into the Coronid Reach and the Cyclops Cluster. Imperial scholars know this from the archives of Mezoa and even distant Damaetus III/II, the home of House Vyronii, which both had to repeatedly fend off attacks from this growing alien empire. Other human worlds like those of the Manachea System were, however, less fortunate and were overrun by the xenos.Where it encountered other populations, both human and alien, the Mitu did not push for expansion but culled the existing populations into submission, exacting a periodical tribute of flesh under the menace of more thorough purging. Those worlds that lived beneath the thumb of the Mitu Conglomerate did not suffer as harshly as under the iron-shod rule of the Orks or the sadistic depredations of the Drukhari, but they were slaves nonetheless.However the Mitu did not interfere much with their tributary planets' governance: apart from culling the nascent human psyker population and forbidding any attempt at space flight, the planets were mainly left to govern themselves. The ruthlessness the Mitu displayed in their identification of psykers indicate that at the very least they had a notion of the perils that lie within the Warp, although it is unclear if they knew anything about the existence of the Chaos Gods. Perhaps they simply sought to deny a powerful weapon to the populations they oppressed, or safeguard their own technology.On a technological level, the Mitu were a formidably advanced empire, mastering both space flight and interstellar travel. The damage sustained by the mighty Felweather Keep on Damaetus III/II constitutes a testimony of their military might, the imposing fortress proving no match for the high-power directed energy weapons used by the Mitu. It would seem that although technologically advanced, the technology of the Conglomerate was mostly organic in nature and activated by psychic impulse, thus explaining both the Mitu's reoccurring need for tithes of lives and flesh and the cull of human psykers. Such horrors could naturally not be permitted to live by the Imperium.When the forces of the Imperium first ventured forth in the Coronid Deeps they encountered scores of worlds subjugated by the Mitu. Mezoa was by then involved in its own modest xenocidal campaign, which had already lasted for many solar decades, and on Damaetus III/II House Vyronii readied itself to make a glorious final stand before being overwhelmed by a new tide of alien horrors.Determined to carry out the total annihilation of the Conglomerate, the Imperium waged a bloody and protracted war against the Mitu. Several times the use of Exterminatus-class weaponry was sanctioned, for Mankind could ill-afford to let such monstrosities live.The conflict itself was fought largely in the void as a series of brutal close-quarters boarding engagements interspersed with sudden and world-shattering assaults by both sides which would mobilise the forces of several Expeditionary Fleets and require no fewer than three Space Marines Legions and hundreds of Solar Auxilia cohorts of the Imperial Army to prosecute. The liberation of the Manachea System would prove to be the major turning point of the conflict and heralded the complete extermination of the Mitu, whose core-worlds were all subjected to Exterminatus.To commemorate this victory, the Imperial Fists Legion raised one of their fortresses, the great Bastion Kvet on the world of Manachea Lux, where the decisive battle against the Mitu was won, swearing that the worlds would never again fall under xenos dominion.In the final days of this conflict, the Mechanicum war-barque Cyclopean Mind was so badly damaged that it was left behind on the savage world of Cyclothrathe to become the birthstone of the Forge World which would gain so much infamy as a member of the Dark Mechanicum during the Horus Heresy.