Manachean Commonwealth - Notable Military Campaigns: The Mitu Eradication (Unknown Date.M30) - Discovered while still under control of the xenos pocket-empire known as the Mitu Conglomerate, the worlds of the Manachea System were liberated by the Imperium through a bloody and protracted campaign. The war against the Mitu Conglomerate was foremost a naval war, constituted by savage boarding engagements between Imperial and xenos starships. 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. In the Manachea System, the Mitu's grip was broken on Manachea Lux, the second planet of the system in a gruesome struggle. Here the Mitu were broken and Manachea liberated. Taking an oath never to see the worlds of the Manachean Commonwealth fall again under xenos sway, the Imperial Fists -- who had proven themselves in the naval combats of the campaign -- began construction of a fortress watch-station that would take the name of Bastion Kvet, a towering keep that has stood watch over the Commonwealth until its destruction during the dark days of the Horus Heresy.Destruction of the Red Polyphemus (007.M31) - Drawn perhaps by the strong astrotelpathic signal of the Vlorath Srader relay, or simply thrown off-course by an unfortunate Warp Storm, a vast Space Hulk carrying with it its own fleet of ramshackle Ork starships emerged in the Vlorath Srader System. According to the principle of the Coda Navis, this new threat was baptised by the name of Red Polyphemus and almost immediately an entire Battlegroup of the Port Maw Armada was despatched to deal with this new threat. The appearance of this severe and fully unexpected menace could not have occurred at a worse time, as the Armada was trying to mobilise every possible vessel and company to face the approaching forces of the Traitor Warmaster Horus. The Red Polyphemus harboured perhaps millions of degenerate Orks and constituted the most sizable migration of Orks for nearly thirty standard years. Ten thousand mutated Orks and gyre-worms had already laid waste to the vital astropathic relay and were now scrambling over Vlorath Srader whilst the Space Hulk itself inexorably ploughed deeper into the system. The battlegroup had no other choice than to engage pursuit, the lack of Legiones Astartes personnel meaning that the Orks would likely have the advantage in case of boarding actions. Therefore the Red Polyphemus would have to be destroyed at gun-point, the Armada Imperialis vessels having to get in close and unleash close range bombardment to dislocate the shattered planetary rocks and derelict ancient shipwrecks that made up the Space Hulk. This was inherently dangerous as the Imperial warships exposed themselves not only to the long and short-distance fire of the Space Hulk itself but also offered easy targets for Ork suicide-runs and boarding assaults. At the same time the Space Hulk was destroyed, Vlorath Srader itself had to be purged of the mutated xenos that had assaulted it. In both cases it is probable that had it not been for the courage and discipline of the Port Maw Exercitus Solar Auxilia, these battles would have been lost. However both actions severely depleted the Imperial fleet's already limited numbers. Worse, the Battlegroup nearly used up all of its complement of macro-ammunition which would be nearly impossible to refurbish as the major production site on Mezoa was now blockaded by the Traitors. As a result, the fresh troops intended to face Horus were now depleted or missing. In a desperate attempt to stem these losses, the Port Maw authorities would appeal to the Numinal and Agathean Domains for help, knowing that if Port Maw were to fall, the system fleets of these worlds would not be able to hold back the coming tide of Traitors.  Treachery at Port Maw (0044.008.M31) - The catastrophic defeat of the Port Maw Armada and the system seizure that was to become known as the Treachery at Port Maw was the culmination of solar months or perhaps standard years of covert operations and hidden manipulation. In a feat few believed possible, the Sons of Horus fleet assailed the worlds of the Manachean Commonwealth and the Armada Imperialis muster of Port Maw simultaneously. Fearful of expending too much of its naval might and troop complements so soon in the civil war, the Archtraitor Horus had led countless plots to ensure that the vital supply point of Port Maw would fall from within and not from without. Most important to Horus' plans was Archmagos Astral Meit Mercuric, master of Port Maw's central communication and broadcast tower known as the Panopticon. Secretly in league with Horus, the Archmagos would scramble Port Maw's communications with a specially devised blanketing signal, thus immobilising a large part of the gathered Imperial fleet and hindering Grand Admiral LaBray in giving his orders. Unable to organise its defences, the gathered fleet would then be easy prey for Horus' own vessels. Furthermore, many of the gathered ships had secretly been corrupted: the Cyclothrathe Mechanicum war-arks were long in league with Horus and only awaited his command to strike from an unexpected quarter. Even onboard Loyalist warships, officers had been bribed or corrupted and timely planned ratings revolts would cause chaos and mayhem amongst the fleet. Some ship captains were turncoats, other would be killed when their officer-cadre would storm the bridge and seize command of the mighty vessels. The Sons of Horus would then strike wherever resistance formed, keeping the Loyalists fractious and disorganised. When this plan failed in execution, Horus used the stealth technologies of two captured Raven Guard Battle Barges to covertly approach Port Maw and LaBray's flagship, the Triumph of Reason, with the Vengeful Spirit and launch a decapitation strike against the tenacious Grand Admiral. As a last, desperate measure LaBray released several dozen Ogryn Charonite Squads into the corridors of his flagship, succeeding in stemming the tide and even throwing back the Sons of Horus' boarding assaults. Horus teleported directly into combat aboard the Triumph of Reason and rallied his Astartes before making for the bridge. The Grand Admiral tried to escape covertly, but was killed in the process, thus ending the orbital battle for Port Maw. Several Loyalist ships would still fight on and in some cases even escape pursuit, but as a coherent fighting force the Port Maw Armada was no more. Worse yet, the Traitors' ranks had now been boosted by the turncoat and captured Loyalist ships and now had a logistical base from which they could operate in almost total impunity.The Fall of Hive Illum (0044.008.M31) - The Fall of Hive Illum marks the end of the Manachean War, Horus' conquest of the powerful Manachean Commonwealth. Prosecuted at the exact same time as the dire events of the Treachery at Port Maw, the attack on Manachea Vysidae displayed all the tactical acumen the Sons of Horus had always been famed for. Command of the attack had been given over to Fist Captain Ezekyle Abaddon on board the King Eater, a mighty Battle Barge of the Sons of Horus' fleet. Bypassing almost all of Manachea's outer defences by dint of ruse, the Sons of Horus' fleet adopted an unusual precise conical formation before reaching the planet's higher orbit. Hive Illium, the seat of Imperial governance and the planetary capital of Manachea Vysidae was to be the obvious target, as since their time as the Luna Wolves, the Sons of Horus had always valued the swift victory of a decapitation strike. As the Hive's own orbital defences opened fire on the peculiar fleet formation, the Sons of Horus vessels assembled in low-orbit directly above Illum before unleashing the power of their forward batteries. The orbital bombardment flattened entire habitation blocks, killing countless thousands but failing to do any real damage to the hive. It was only when the second attack wave of the Sons of Horus was unleashed that Lord Protector Pryamus Beket realised the danger: the Sons of Horus had not conducted a random bombardment, but blasted precise landing zones into the urbal sprawl of Hive Illum for their troops to assemble. Already Condor Pattern Stormbirds and Warhawks were descending from orbit, their holds teeming with renegade Astartes, as were their smaller brethren, the newer Thunderhawks and Storm Eagles, daring the barrage of flak now rising from Hive Illum. With pinpoint accuracy the Sons of Horus struck anti-air-batteries, Auspex antennas, defence domes, and concealed power nodes. Every field of fire, every trap laid, had been circumvened, every hidden asset destroyed; defensive measures designed to hold back entire armies for weeks shattered in less than a solar hour. There could be only one explanation for this swiftness: the enemy knew where to hit hard, where to land his troops and how to circumvent Hive Illum's most potent defences. Illum had been betrayed from within. As the orbital guns where finally silenced, the Sons of Horus' heavy assault cadres and Titan-support from the Renegade faction of the Legio Tempestus could land in the previously established landing zones. Valiantly, the Solar Auxilia held their ground, selling their lives in the orbital laser batteries, in the fortified defence domes and in the streets of their city. Protected from bombardment in subterranean vaults and bunkers, the Solar Auxilia Lasrifle Tercios and militia formations surged forward, fighting the rampaging Astartes alongside their fellow soldiers. Leman Russes in their hundreds, heavy Malcadors and even heavier Baneblades and Shadowswords duelled with the Titans of Legio Tempestus; even some brave scions of the Knight House Vyronii took to the field. For eleven solar days the defenders of Hive Illum held back utter defeat, then their strength was spend. The Sons of Horus seized the initiative again, carrying out bloody massacres amongst the militia before mounting a last assault on Hive Illum's Palace of Light, Abaddon and his Justaerin Terminator bodyguard at the fore. As a cruel jest, Abaddon had let Pryamus Beket, the Lord Protector of the Manachean Commonwealth, watch as the city and seat of power he had ruled crumbled into ruins. Almost casually, Abaddon killed him while he watched, thus sealing Manachea's fate. With Hive Illum taken and their lord dead, the other hive cities quickly submitted to the Warmaster Horus' rule. Thus began the Dark Compliance of the Manachean Commonwealth.