Cyclops Cluster - At the Eve of War: With the news of the Gethsamaine Dark Compliance growing more widely known, the Cyclops Cluster girded itself for war. On every world, vigilance and readiness levels were increased and hundreds of auspexes and astrotelephatic auguries began to survey the sky for any trace of the Horusite vessels. Incoming reports were all channelled through to the centralised Imperialis Armada command facilities at Lascal and Dominica Minor. As communication increased, the wider picture became apparent. The Ikon had reemerged from the Warp at Taracanis in the Manachean Commonwealth and offered its bleak words to the system's Imperial Commander, but not before having blasted the Manachea's docking station from orbit, sending thirteen thousand civilians to a fiery death. In the Grail Abyss, the observers from Shoar witnessed an orbital battle lasting several solar hours between several capital-class warships before both parties simply vanished.Closer to home, in the Zavarich System a hulking Domar-class Mass Conveyor carrying enough processed nutritents to feed several million people simply disappeared without a trace en route to its assigned Warp transit point -- undoubtedly to cause civilian unrest or food riot elsewhere within the Imperium. On Moab, the ruling water-barons were confronted with a flare of insurrectionnist activities that led to a full-scale revolt, the mob chanting Horus' name. Only the instigation of planetary martial law and a bloody five-solar-week-long pacification pogrom restored order. Dark-hulled vessels were reported in the skies above Dark Haven, shortly before all contact with the planet was lost.In the growing climate of scrutiny and distrust which had by now engulfed the Cyclops Cluster and other regions of the Coronid Deeps came -- finally -- long overdue news: word of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V. Horus, the Warmaster, had destroyed three of the mighty Loyalist Space Marine Legions arrayed against him, while four more had joined him in rebellion. The reaction to this report was immediate: panic. On scores of worlds, planetary rulers now looked fearful to the skies, imagining the might of the Traitors ready to strike on their soil. Planets which had long been used to operating largely independently from each other now became isolationist and insular, in some cases even withdrawing their troops and tithes from the Armada Imperialis' general plan of defence, severely disrupting the Imperial war effort as they vainly sought to fortify their homes. On some worlds, the news of the Warmaster's crushing victory fanned the spark of ambition and revolt and factions long believed subdued reemerged to claim their world from the Imperium or their newfound allegiance to Horus.In this state of turmoil, a number of strange and unheeded reports arrived at Lascal, Dominica Minor and even Port Maw. The most dire of these reports all came from the Grail Abyss, which only served to heighten fear in the neighboring Cyclops Cluster. On Keopsis, these reports stated, both Loyalists and Traitors were locked in combat and a desperate race to reach the underground cities before its sun's angry fires scorched the world's surface clean in its endless cycle of life and death. On Hialis, a mysterious and highly virulent plague decimated its inhabitants within a few solar hours of the passing of a previously unknown comet.Above an unidentified Feral World in the vicinity of Fellwatch Keep -- one of a series of fortresses designed to watch the borders of the Coronid Prohibition Zone -- a mighty dragon-prowed Battle-Barge, perhaps once emerald and gold, now scorched cinder-black, was seen taking on supplies but vanished before any interceptor vessels could reach it. As the fear and paranoia gave birth to violence and civilian unrest, bloody pogroms and emergency laws were enacted, workers and inhabitants were conscripted into defence militias and transplanetary trade suspended. As a coherent structure within the Imperium, the Cyclops Cluster began slowly to unravel, each world looking after its own rather than finding strength in unity.