Lathe Worlds - Lathe Worlds Timeline: The Angevin Crusade (322.M39) - The birth of the Lathe Worlds began with the birth of the Calixis Sector itself, during the Angevin Crusade. A memorable amalgamation of brilliant victory and tragic setback, the crusade set out in the fourth century of the 39th Millennium to conquer the region then known as the Calyx Expanse. Praetor Golgenna Angevin was placed at the head of this grand military force consisting of millions of loyal Imperial souls, and directed his efforts to cleanse the Calyx Expanse from debased human cultures and several minor xenos cultures that opposed the Emperor's glory. Angevin's remit was to purge the Expanse of these obstacles to pave the way for Imperial colonisation. Naturally, such a prospect intrigued the Tech-priesthood of Mars, and a sizable contingent of Adeptus Mechanicus forces accompanied the crusade. Lord Militant Angevin's grand strategy included a sweep through the Calyx Expanse on two fronts, pushing the enemies of the Emperor who chose flight over destruction before him, and then trapping them all together in the Adrantis Region. Here, the full power of the crusade would come crashing down in one masterstroke. Ahead of the forces of the lord militant raced a score of starships, such as Rogue Traders vessels and the Explorator fleets of the Adeptus Mechanicus. These ships helped identify potential targets and scouted enemy strongholds for the more powerful naval units arriving in their wake. At the sharp end of Angevin's thrust into the Calyx Expanse, these Rogue Trader and Explorator fleets saw furious action on a regular basis. Acts of heroism and sacrifice were common, and on many occasions, the lord militant acknowledged that his decisive successes would have been impossible without the services and sacrifices of these irregular forces. The glory the Explorator fleets gained in these actions helped set the Adeptus Mechanicus a position of honour in the Calixis Sector for centuries to come.Conquering Adrantis (359-369.M39) - The first actions of the Angevin Crusade proceeded exactly as planned by the lord militant, and the greater part of the Calyx Expanse had been brought under the control of the Imperium in a few short solar decades. Unfortunately, after the enormous successes of these early phases, the commanders in charge of the final push into the Adrantis Region failed to make allowances for the desperation of foes pushed to the very edge of extinction. The crusade's offensive ground to a bloody halt, and Imperial forces suffered far more grievous losses in four Terran years than had been inflicted during the first two solar decades of the crusade's advance. These losses were so devastating that the lord militant was obliged to order his forces to regroup in defensive positions within the Golgenna Reach. Shaken by the defeat, Lord Militant Angevin abdicated command of the crusade to a council of his generals as he himself went into seclusion to mourn. Lacking coherent leadership, the council of generals began to quarrel over the authority that the lord militant set aside. The Adeptus Mechanicus forces accompanying the crusade considered their agreements to lie with the lord militant, and held themselves apart from these squabbles for power. The situation worsened as the enemies of Mankind began to exploit areas thought safely subdued; ravaging warbands of Orks, the Warp-worshipping Yu'vath race, and a mysterious group of shadowy, xenos pirate raiders were amongst the greatest of these opportunistic enemies that threatened the crusade's flanks. When it seemed that the crusade was on the verge of losing all the territory gained by Lord Militant Angevin, command of the main crusade was seized by Lord General Drusus. A leading personality amongst the followers of the lord militant, Drusus was a popular and gifted commander, and he organised a daring series of counterattacks that pushed the enemy forces back long enough for the crusade to gather its considerable strength. Drusus' strength of character was apparent to the Adeptus Mechanicus forces, and they swiftly agreed to lend their forces to his command. Once more, the Rogue Trader dynasties and the Explorator fleets of the Mechanicus led the way for the redeployment and reinforcement of the crusade's offensives.Dawn of the Lathe Worlds (380.M39) - The Adrantis Region was finally subdued through great acts of valour and much struggle. The victory could not have been assured without the assistance of the Adeptus Mechanicus. A major force under the leadership of Archmagos Mat Aleph Xenon turned the tide, and in gratitude, High General Drusus signed a pact with the Adeptus Mechanicus ceding control of several worlds in the sector to the Tech-priesthood of Mars. These worlds included Hadd, Het, and Hesh, a trio of worlds that were declared unsuitable for other Imperial agencies due to the unusual gravimetric effects of the system upon all three planets. The effort of transforming the Lathe Worlds into their present Forge World status was the work of many centuries. Layer by layer, building by building, the planets evolved. The bones of infrastructure were joined by a viscera of pipelines, tram-tracks, and transportation tunnels. Soaring into the atmosphere rose the towering structures of the Adeptus Mechanicus, its cogwheeled iconography glaring down from scaffold-enshrouded factories, research facilities, and transmat altars alike. As the Lathe Worlds and their system developed, so too did the Mechanicus holdings throughout the newborn Calixis Sector.Praecursator Aftermath (580.M39) - Two standard centuries after the establishment of the Lathe Worlds, the system was only partially tamed and the far-flung holdings of the Adeptus Mechanicus were still in the turbulent process of consolidation. It was then that the fledging Calixis Sector was thrown into violent disarray. A conspiracy soon emerged that reached tendrils into many different power bases, from the Governor's Council to the Astra Militarum. Even the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Inquisition were not spared. The ultimate goal of the conspiracy was never revealed (although it is rumoured that entire data-vaults in the Tricorn contain detailed theories and evidence), but what is known is that the conspiracy centred around a group of agents known only as the Praecursators. According to official reports, no upper level members of the conspiracy were captured alive. Agents of the Praecursators had infiltrated their target organisations at the highest levels, which meant that rooting out the conspiracy was extremely difficult, even after the agents were discovered. An uneasy alliance of mid-level Administratum functionaries, adepts, and specialists from the various infiltrated groups was formed and tasked with tracking down the Praecursators, isolating them from their power base, and then taking them into custody. The Adeptus Mechanicus was essential to this effort, providing transportation, cogitator support, data-sifting, and tailored meme-viruses to help root out the Praecursators. Ultimately, the Tech-priests of the Lathes concluded that a rogue Inquisitor Lord was at the heart of the conspiracy, although much suspicion was also cast upon sects of the Mechanicus as well, due to the heretical tech-rituals the Praecursators' activities displayed. The Praecursators had gone to great lengths to isolate the command structures of the sector governance from several key Mechanicus facilities. Theories amongst the Lathes suspect that the conspirators were attempting to preserve these facilities for general use by Calixian citizens. This populist element of the conspiracy was particularly abhorrent to all of the affected organisations. In the years following the unravelling of the conspiracy, the Fabricators of the Lathe Worlds bent every effort to lessen the strength of the Inquisition, within the Calixis Sector in general and over the holdings of the Mechanicus in particular. A great deal of infighting arose from the collapse of the Praecursator plot, and the Archmagos of the Lathe-Covenant demanded that the sector governor cede control of the planet Synford. Since then, Synford has become the primary producer of Baneblade super-heavy tanks for the sector. Despite the ancient nature of the plot, there is still lingering ill will among some members of the Inquisition who trace their ideological roots back to the lords and masters of that earlier time. Some Inquisitors still hold suspicions that the entire plot originated in the Lathe Worlds, in an effort to consolidate and expand their control within the Calixis Sector. Centuries after the end of the conspiracy, reports from the Inquisition claimed that the Praecursators eventually evolved into a particular cult of tech-heresy known as the Logicians.War of Brass (738-740.M40) - Over a thousand standard years after the initial founding of the Lathe Covenant, the Hive Worlds of the Gelmiro Cluster fell into apostasy. Their leader in this descent into heresy was a charismatic ruler who called himself the "Emperor of Brass." This mysterious figure led his followers into the foul worship of the Ruinous Powers. Loyal to the Emperor of Brass, frenzied fanatics from the wealthy and powerful worlds of the Gelmiro Cluster murdered every functionary of the Adeptus Administratum, ritually desecrating the bodies of the fallen. Significant portions of the affected planetary populations accompanied their new overlords into treachery beyond redemption. Dissatisfied with holding the powerful worlds of the Gelmiro Cluster in his augmented fist, the Emperor of Brass sponsored bloody uprisings on several other nearby worlds. Soon after, a full-scale rebellion threatened the wider Calixis Sector. The death toll continued to rise as he publicly tortured and executed loyal Imperial servants and citizens. The sector governor was forced to call upon all available forces to stem the bloody tide. From across the Calixis Sector and beyond, loyal units converged upon the Gelmiro Cluster. These Imperial forces first pushed through the neighbouring regions, and crushed the nascent rebellions there with heartless efficiency. Amongst these forces that rose to answer the governor's call were several Battle Titans of the Legio Venator, and an entire Explorator fleet with support from the mysterious Ordo Reductor. The campaign against the Emperor of Brass and his burgeoning rebellion, known as the War of Brass, lasted just over three Terran years, but even in that short time the fighting proved especially vicious. In the end, several companies of Space Marines were needed to reduce the final hive cities to rubble. In the final, desperate battles at the heart of the Gelmiro Cluster, several records were discovered hinting that support and reinforcement had been supplied directly from the Eye of Terror itself, linking the Emperor of Brass to far more dangerous threats. At the end of the conflict, the once-rich worlds of the Gelmiro Cluster had been reduced to smoking remnants of ruin and shame. Many planetary populations had become nothing more than scav-mutants, doomed to wander across the devastated wastes, surviving off the rotting remains of their once-great civilisations. The Imperial agencies of the Calixis Sector avoid the haunted worlds of the cluster, now classified as War Worlds to this day.The Iron Wall of Silence Descends (740.M40) - The Calixian Mechanicus forces suffered staggering losses during the War of Brass. In the end, the battlefields of the Gelmiro Cluster were strewn with countless corpses of Skitarii and the scattered remains of many more Combat Servitors. Indeed, so high was the cost that the high fabricator of the Lathes, Archmagos Kovikal Quietus, declared the imposition of "the Iron Wall of Silence," a steadfast rule of segregation from all other groups within the Calixis Sector. From that point onwards, any cooperation, beyond minimal requirements of existing pacts, were strictly forbidden in an effort to preserve the Calixian Mechanicus forces and allow for a period of rebuilding.The Meritech Wars (211-226.M41) - Roughly five Terran centuries after the final collapse of the Emperor of Brass and the scouring of the Gelmiro Cluster, a far more insidious danger arose from the Merates Clans. Rebelling against the Imperium of Man, the clans drew many Renegades and other malcontents to their cause. They declared independence from the Imperium, and began a systemic series of raids and heavier incursions into surrounding Imperial space, threatening both the Calixis and Ixaniad Sectors. At the height of the conflict, the very survival of both sectors was thrown into doubt as the seeds of rebellion and anarchy were sown far and wide by the forces of the Merates Clans. Such confusion and violent resentment was unleashed throughout the regions afflicted by the clans that civil war threatened to soak both sectors in blood. Production across the affected regions ground to a halt, as those who were not dragged into the conflict withdrew to defend their holdings and hope for intervention. Trust was an impossible hope in the wake of the clans' attacks, as entire populations that had seemed docile and loyal for generations rose up to support the rebels. When all appeared lost to those loyal few who remained within the beleaguered systems, the leadership of now-legendary Calixis Sector Governor Myram Harvala surged to the rescue. A coalition of forces brought together from across the Calixis and Ixaniad Sectors swept into the advancing rebels along multiple fronts, crushing their forces and knocking their reserves back into the Merates Cluster. Astra Militarum, Imperial Navy, Adeptus Astartes, and Inquisition forces ground the opposition to tatters as they pushed them deeper and deeper into the heart of the now-defunct rebellion. With victory all but assured, the high fabricator of the Lathes, Forge Master Kovikal Quietus, sent three full Explorator fleets directly from the Lathe System. The centuries-old Iron Wall of Silence was finally broken, without prior notification or coordination. The Explorator fleets, with support from the Legio Venator, were at the forefront of the purification of the Merates Cluster. From that point on, there was no mercy and no quarter. Entire worlds were cleansed with weapons of such enormous destructive power that many of the planets were shattered into asteroids. By the time the forces of the Imperium and the Mechanicus were finished sweeping through the Merates Cluster, not a planet remained that had not been scoured of all life. A thorough Inquisitorial investigation was conducted after Sector Governor Harvala declared the rebellion at an end. While laudable, the brutal zeal with which the forces of the Imperium, and the Adeptus Mechanicus in particular, had conducted the final phases of the counterattack, had left not a single witness or prisoner to be questioned or paraded before the victorious processions along the avenues of Scintilla. Even those prisoners who had been taken prior to the arrival of the Mechanicum's elite Crimson Guard were eventually lost to a rash of unusual malfunctions and sudden, mysterious deaths. The Inquisitors exhausted all possible avenues of inquest, and soon followed whispered rumours of the Logician Tech-heresy to the very doorstep of the Lathe System itself. However, rather than cooperate with the forces of the sector governor, Fabricator Davos Phar responded with a brittle show of icy indifference, imperiously dismissive of the envoys' requests, and accused the Inquisitors, their masters, and the very sector governor himself of blatant disrespect and towering hubris. Referring to them as "the miserable curs of a thankless master," the high fabricator ordered the frontiers of the Lathe System and all other Adeptus Mechanicus holdings in the Calixis Sector closed, and all the force at the high fabricator's disposal was bent to keep outsiders from penetrating the sovereign territory of the Omnissiah. The ancient Iron Wall of Silence was re-instituted, and stood again unbroken for over five hundred standard years with brief exceptions, until the Malygrisian Tech-heresy erupted across the Calixis Sector, forcing the Adeptus Mechanicus once again into the affairs of the sector at large.Second Siege of Vaxanide (507.M41) - Three standard centuries passed after the conclusion of the Meritech Wars and the re-establishment of the Iron Wall of Silence before the forces of the Lathes once again ventured forth, answering the call of the sector governor to stop the incursion of the Ork-infested space hulk Pinnacle of Savagery. Ninety Terran years earlier, a similar attack had cost the system greatly, and the lack of response from the Lathes lessened their standings amongst the notable rulers of the sector. In response to this fall from grace, and its attendant loss in trading status and support, the Calixian Mechanicus sent out two full Explorator fleets to assist Battlefleet Calixis in facing the Ork menace. The Pinnacle of Savagery and its supporting fleet were met at the edge of the Vaxanide System. A dramatic battle ensued as the massive space hulk pushed deeper and deeper into the system towards planets that still bore the scars from the earlier Ork assault. The loyal ships of the Battlefleet Calixis squadrons peeled away attending Ork vessels from the enormous space hulk and defeated them in detail. Meanwhile, the brutal weapons of the Ordo Reductor and the Explorator fleets pounded into the space hulk itself, ultimately shattering the vessel's spine and spilling its vile contents into the void. The danger to the system was not yet halted, however, as significant chunks of the space hulk continued to hurtle through space towards the vulnerable planet. Again the Adeptus Mechanicus moved to intervene, putting lives and ships at great risk to slow the wreckage down, and ultimately bring it to a halt. However, when the ranking admiral of the battlefleet suggested that any intact wreckage be destroyed, Archmagos Haverill Gemm, commander of the Mechanicus forces, denied the request, and the remains were claimed for the Lathe Worlds as recompense. With no further consultation of the Imperial Navy, the Explorator fleets secured several ships to each chunk of wreckage, fired their engines, and brought the largest sections back to the Lathe System for reasons unknown. The Imperial Navy, concerned that xenos hostiles might still pose a threat, lodged several complaints against this action, to no avail. The disposition of any salvage from the Pinnacle of Savagery was never released, and its present location is listed as "unknown" in all Administratum sources. Though ancient treaties grant the Mechanicus rights to new technological discoveries, claiming the hulk while it still was categorised as a threat was singularly uncommon in the sector. Many amongst the Inquisition and Imperial Navy suspect that the Calixian Mechanicus had planned all along to secure the space hulk's secrets for themselves.Malygrisian Tech-Heresy (742-770.M41) - In the middle of the seventh century of the 41st Millennium, the insular and isolationist Calixian Mechanicus was again thrust into the spotlight when one of their own turned violently, irrevocably Renegade and dragged the Lathe Worlds into a sector-wide path of carnage. Explorator Archmagos Umbra Malygris was a militant renowned for his dedication to the destructive potential of technology. Malygris devoted solar decades to studying the weapons and munitions of bygone eras, poring for years over ancient tomes and datastacks of ancient and suspect provenance. A devotee of the Divine Light of Sollex, the archmagos attracted many of the most gifted weaponsmiths and researchers under the aegis of his organisation. Leery of the growing popularity of the militant adept, High Fabricator Castellar moved to sanction Malygris and attempted to break up the cabal he had surrounded himself with, fearing a recurrence of the False Fabricator affair several decades earlier. However, Malygris refused to relinquish any of his power, and declared Castellar as nothing more than an "ineffectual bureaucrat." Thus, the stage was set for a massive conflict that would reach across the breadth of the Calixian Mechanicus. Castellar attempted to use the Skitarii Forge Guard to force compliance upon the errant archmagos. However, bizarre system failures and binary invert-afflictions -- themselves creations of the inventive and insane mind of Malygris -- rendered even the vaunted and mighty Forge Guard ineffectual. Warned of the imminent attack, Malygris fled the Lathe System with a fully provisioned Explorator fleet containing vast amounts of research, ancient weapons, and blasphemous examples of his own tech-craft. A surprising number of Tech-adepts rose up in support of Malygris, swayed by his charismatic data-cants and heretical approach to advancing technology. As a result, many of the ongoing works of the Calixian Mechanicus became abandoned, threatening a full dogmatic schism within the Lathe Worlds and the far-flung holdings of the Omnissiah's Cult. Aware of the danger posed to the entire Calixis Sector by the renegade archmagos and his deluded followers, the high fabricator formally declared Malygris and all who obeyed him as Apostate in the eyes of the Omnissiah. Next, Castellar contacted Lord Sector Marius Hax upon Scintilla, and requested assistance. This unprecedented outreach from the formerly isolationist Mechanicus quickly drew Hax's attention to Malygris' threat. Convinced of the seriousness of the situation, Hax used his influence to dispatch several major concentrations of Battlefleet Calixis to assist in the search for the missing Explorator fleet. No less than five full battle groups of ships, comprising both Loyalist Explorator vessels and detachments of the Imperial Navy, formed the pursuit of the heretical archmagos. Malygris and his followers fled to the furthest reaches of the sector, always managing to stay at least one step ahead of his pursuers. Along the way, Malygris tested his research and weapons systems in a series of attacks that laid waste to several planets in his path rimwards towards the Halo Stars. Malygris and his followers subjected Xeiros Prime, Loss, and world-designate MMX215 to terrifying experiments. Orbital apostasic arrays drove entire planets into raving insanity. Bio-forged horrors stalked formerly-bountiful wastelands, transgenic atrocities ravaged entire cities, and enormous gene-lathes processed entire populations into ulcerous, writhing seas of living tissue. The Renegade archmagos' pattern was broken when his fleet arrived at Synford II. Many of his materials exhausted, Malygris turned to raiding Mechanicus facilities to acquire the technology and resources he needed to continue his mad schemes. The raids were indiscriminate and widespread, and it was the Synford System that suffered Malygris' attentions the most -- after scouring Synford II down to bare rock for raw materials, the Renegade's fleet bombarded the planet to destruction, leaving only a shattered husk in their wake. However, the Calixian Mechanicus and battlefleet detachments had tightened the noose. Malygris was cornered at the edge of the Synford System, caught between the advancing Mechanicus Explorator fleets and the flanking Imperial Navy detachments. At the forefront of the assault was High Fabricator Castellar's flagship, Iron Promise. One of the Adeptus Mechanicus' few true battleships, Iron Promise was a heavy combat vessel bearing a proud and long lineage. Malygris' fleet opened fire, attempting to overwhelm the Iron Promise with a storm of macrocannon batteries and lance weapons. However, Castellar's vessel had been retrofitted with several unusual devices of war from the High Fabricator’s personal vaults, and it was the blessings of these modifications that granted the mighty ship a chance to survive the attack. Void shields shorted out one after the other, and the massive vessel trembled under repeated hammer blows of nova cannon fire. Reeling in flames, with several decks exposed to the void, the ship seemed nearly crippled, but Iron Promise had finally reached optimal range for its killing blow. The jutting prow split like a blossoming flower and gaped wide, exposing an enormous weapon that rapidly gathered corposant energy from the system's sun. In moments, Iron Promise struck back with one final, searing blast of unspeakable power and blinding light. The weapon's scything energy beam engulfed the enemy fleet and shattered all but the largest ships in one blow. The battle did not last much longer, as the Imperial Navy and the Mechanicus fleets ruthlessly destroyed any surviving enemy ships -- including any intact pieces of debris large enough to support survivors. With a curt message of gratitude to the Imperial Navy, Castellar and his forces turned about and headed for their home port in the Lathe System. Whilst Malygris and his followers had been decisively dealt with in the Synford System, extensive purges of sympathisers and secret partisans of the Renegade archmagos shook the Calixian Mechanicus for years afterwards. The Divine Light of Sollex sect was severely scrutinised, with many suspect tech-adepts quietly replaced and sent back to the Lathes for reindoctrination. The taint brought through Malygris' actions kindled a distrust of the more militant groups of the Calixian Mechanicus that exists to this day. Many fear that the tech-heresies of Umbra Malygris most likely live on, hidden in secret laboratories and locked away in dark stasis chambers throughout the Malfian Sub-sector.