Panopticon Orbital Station - History: There is, floating within the maze of debris, gravitic shears, and rogue singularities that abound within the mid-orbital ranges around the star Sentanim, a mysterious void.This stable grav-point does not appear on any chart or map, it is not in any record or data-remnant, and its location is known only to a select few of the highest-ranking adepts in all of the Mechanicus Calixis.Rumours abound of a secret space station located somewhere within the Lathes System, and the perceived wisdom of the adepts speaks of a dark and mysterious realm where the most powerful creatures of Mechanicus myth and legend walk freely.Many may even have heard a title, mumbled over a cup of joilique or infusions of illegal toxicant scrapcode, over hooded, sidelong glances: Panopticon Orbital Station.In the 9th century of the 38th Millennium, a mysterious vessel, its red and steel flanks glowing dully in the blue-white light of an unstable sun, entered the Pondus System. The skull-prowed craft began an extensive survey of the region, powerful auspex beams reaching out in all directions, testing, measuring, and cataloguing.Almost immediately, a series of intriguing anomalies presented themselves. Strange gravity shears that defied explanation ripped through the system. The star at its centre beat to a cadence unknown to even the most gifted celestial adepts or decryption cogitators. Extraordinary readings emanated from the looping, intertwined asteroid belts.It soon became clear that the system was a rare and exciting specimen, something that the Adeptus Mechanicus would very much like to claim as its own, once the Pax Imperialis reached into the Calyx Expanse.It was also clear, however, that this single ship lacked the ability to perform an exhaustive study, and so all work ceased, the Explorator vessel moved through the system, and entered the Warp on the other side.Almost a standard century later, several slightly smaller ships, similar in design and colour, arrived. Spreading throughout the system, these ships moved with a quiet purpose. The entire area was scanned and charted, and exhaustive reports were filed on every planet, recorded anomaly, and stellar feature.Remnant colonies of Humans, cut off from the Emperor's light for millennia, were later found on three planets within the system. It was decided that they would serve as an ideal work force, should the Cult Mechanicus lay claim to the system.On Mars and Terra, quiet efforts to do just that began, while the specialised Explorator fleet retreated from the planets and entered the dangerous region of intertwining asteroid belts looping through the system. The fleet suffered a great deal of damage as it penetrated into the chaotic region, countless adepts and crewmen losing their lives, but they had come prepared.Deep within the unstable violence of the colliding belts, an ancient artefact was activated, creating a bubble of stable gravity and a quiet sanctuary from the grinding impacts. They started construction within this secure zone, and quickly a bastion began to take shape.Even as the citadel was being constructed, a fleet of smaller vessels spread throughout the system. A legion of auspex clusters, pictographic scanners, and omnipotentia augury arrays seeded every planet and each of the three asteroid belts.Soon the entire system was under surveillance, every action, every word, every transmission observed, analysed, and recorded.The initial deployment of the Praecursator Grid and the obsidian stronghold were completed at nearly the same time, making the Cult Mechanicus masters of the system before either the Imperium or the current inhabitants even knew of their presence.For several Terran centuries, Explorator fleets pushing into the newly discovered region used the void station as a clandestine way-stop. During the Angevin Crusade it served as a secret command-and-control node for advanced Mechanicus scouting forces.After the system came under Mechanicus control the station remained a tightly held secret, only the highest-ranking Archmagi aware of its existence. The fabricator-general himself proffered it to the Lords Dragon, as they accepted the burden of shepherding the newborn Mechanicus Calixis for the Omnissiah, ever-watchful for the taint of tech-heresy.With bones of iron mined from sacred Mars itself and sheathed in the polished obsidian stone of the Etiam Yohd Belt, the Panopticon Orbital Station is currently the most heavily-armoured redoubt in the Lathes System. Colossal Harbinger Sentinels crouch upon every available surface like ancient gargoyles, their auspex optics and audit-tracking audiometrics plumbing surrounding space for danger.The station serves as the central nexus of the Praecursator Grid, now expanded across the Lathe Worlds and even into several non-Mechanicus holdings. Vast data storage tombs and processing vertices fill enormous chambers within the station, ghostly wisps of heat rising into the sepulchral air.Machine-spirits toil ceaselessly to follow faces, words, and deeds, watching for the slightest hint of heretical taint.So sophisticated are the linked data-stacks, in fact, that constant vigilance must be maintained, lest elements of the system stray too close to Abominable Intelligence.