Changes

Letting Mezoa sit and rot in its isolation, the Warmaster began with the next stage of his plan. He dispatched the [[Death Guard]] led by [[Mortarion]] across the Cyclops cluster, where they captured the worlds of [[Lascal]] and [[Dominica Minor]] with the help of the [[Traitor Knight]]s of [[House Makabius]].{{Fn|1b}} At Lascal, the Death Guard massacred the local Loyalist defenders, including [[Iron Hands]] remnants belonging to [[Clan Felg]].{{Fn|1e}} ===OverviewThe Manachean Commonwealth===Cut off from Horus next plan would be a strike on the [[Manachean Commonwealth]], a loyalist independent dominion within the [[RuinstormCoronid Deeps]] created by to the galactic east of the Cyclops Cluster. In the early stages of the [[Word BearersHorus Heresy]], the Commmonwealth would be one of the earliest prepared regions of Imperial space for the coming of war. Following news of the [[Battle of Isstvan III|attrocity at Isstvan]] and [[The_Flight_of_the_Eisenstein_(Novel)#Part_Three:_Unbroken|word of Horus' betrayal reaching Terra itself]], [[Port Maw]] was used as a layover and resupply station for the fleets which would be deployed to the ill-fated punitive mission to [[Isstvan V]]. When word of its [[Dropsite Massacre|disastrous outcome]] reached the leaders of the Coronid deeps, they at first scoffed and suppressed such reports. Only when the first battered ships of the loyalist survivors trickled in did the weight of what was to come dawn upon them. Messages calling for reinforcement and aid to Terra were lost to warp storms and static, and so the worlds of the Commonwealth could only prepare for the coming onslaught. The Commonwealth could call upon regiments kept to the standards of the [[Solar Auxilia]] pattern, thanks to its high technological and industrial basis allowing for such troops to be supplied and maintained{{Fn|1a}}, while the massive War Fleet of [[Port Maw]]'s Armada would provide for its defense in the void.{{Fn|1c}} ====Prelude to Port Maw===={{Main|Port Maw}}Horus had not been unprepared. Traitor Agents were already embedded throughout the Coronid Deeps .{{Fn|1a}} By the time of the Istvan III atrocity, Horus had little time already used his influence as Warmaster to prepare have elements of Port Maw's Armada scattered on deep patrols in space, chasing flimsy reports of pirates or xenos activity, or reinforcing distant warzones and conflicts even where they were not called for . By 006.[[M31]], when the fires of rebellion were finally made clear, efforts by Port Maw to recall their fleet were greatly disrupted. The upsurge in [[ruinstorm| warp turbulence]] so infamously associated with the Horus Heresy would make itself felt, and the traitor attack fleets sent chasing after mist and shadows now found the threats very real and dire. Xenos raiders, piracy, attacks unknown warships and little hope all manner of outside aidcalamities assaulted their fleets. The traitors struck first [[Rogue Trader]] [[Rom Jhuttlander]], who had served as pathfinder to Horus 63^rd expeditionary force, would launch raids from the [[Coronid Prohibited Zone]], which Port Maw had been forbidden to enter by ancient decree. Soon the Warmaster's emissaries themselves demanding dark compliance. Many deep range patrols simply did not return.{{Fn|1c}} Worse still, an unexpected appearance of the [[Ork]] [[Space Hulk]] ''[[Red Polyphemus]]'' in the region forced an entire battle group from Port Maw to be diverted to deal with the threat. Such a sudden attack by Orks that had seemingly been suppressed in the region for over 30 years seemed to be more than mere coincidence. Normally the fleet would call upon [[Legionnes Astartes]] support to board and put an end to the space hulk, but deprived of this they were forced to commit to the dangerous task of bombarding and destroying the space hulk, all while Solar Auxilia forces kept counter attacks and invasions of nearby worlds by the Orks at bay. Port Maw's battlegroup finally fragmented the Space Hulk in 007.[[Gethsamaine|Gethsamaine SystemM31]], taking a heavy toll in attrition throughout that time. They By then struck , word had come that the [[Death Guard]] had arrived to mount an attack towards the Manachean Commonwealth itself, and forces from the surrounding region were called to muster at Port Maw.{{Fn|1c}} ====Treachery at Port Maw====The artificial planetoid of Port Maw was normally home to huge swarms of vessels - a score of battleships, dozens of squadrons of cruisers, countless hundreds of escort craft, and thousands of servitor-drone tenders, provision ships, troop transports and orbital lighters. These would soon be joined by reinforcing fleets from the rest of the Coronid Deeps, warships of the distant [[Cyclops ClusterAgathean Domain]], pirate-killers from the [[Cerada Nebula]], where and three huge [[Dark Ark Mechanicus|War Arks]] from [[Forgeworld]] [[Cyclothrate]] ambassadors convinced . In addition to this, a great wave of refugee ships, mercantile ships fleeing systems under threat and ragged survivors of the battles in the [[Forge WorldCyclops Cluster]] , and even a handful of survivors from the void battles at [[MIstvaan V]], though the Astartes vessels would not remain long. Many such ships were barely operational, while others had to be scuttled or set to drift lest their perilous state of disrepair pose a threat. Such numbers of vessels would be impossible for the normal human mind to bear, so coordination of the assembling armada was channeled through Port Maw'Pandexs Mechanicum Astra Cantrol Panopticon - a powerful broadcast tower ten kilometers high on Port Maw's southern pole. [[Cogitator]] s would calculate ship movement data across the fleet and automate the control helms of the vast number of ships to join Horusprevent collisions. Though this automated control could always be overridden manually, anticipating a vulnerability, Port Maw' causes leaders had strengthened the encryption and defenses multiple times throughout the war. However on Deemed impregnable, the leaders of Port Maw could not anticipate the fatal flaw in the system which would be the betrayal of [[Archmagos]]-Astral [[Leit Mercuric]], cyber-Ordinator of Port Maw, who had secretly sworn to Horus, as well as several of her acolytes and officers of the Forge World Imperialis Armada, all of whom were corrupted when they had served alongside the [[MezoaWord Bearers]] in the past.{{Fn|1c}} When the war finally arrived to Port Maw, the betrayal was put into motion. The Control Panopticon sent powerful signals and data-djinn to all the ruling ships that had been so reliant upon. [[TechVox]]-priestcircuits burnt out, auguries were filled with static, [[auspex]] scanners shut down as systems failed as ships were suddenly blinded. Moving ships diverted or suddenly accelerated, crashing into each other, their wreckage flying into the paths of others. The crews of many, unbraced and unprepared for sudden impacts, were hurled against the walls of their vessels into a bloody pulp. Ship bridges were flooded with [[scrap code]]. Over a hundred lesser vessels were overridden entirely, their ships venting their crew into the void, while the [[machine spirit]]s judged programming of larger vessels fought against the attack. At this same time, turncoat ships within the Port Maw fleet were left unaffected and began to fire upon their former allies, sowing terror and confusion, and causing many loyalist ships to surrender to traitor Mechanicum ambassadors demands.{{Fn|1c}} The Provost-Marshals of Port Maw, having thwarted a mutiny in their own ranks, gathered elite armoured [[Veletari]] troops of the [[905th Lethe Cohort]] "Ash Scorpions" to storm the Control Panopticon, which failed to respond to be communications and was now clearly the source of the malevolent signals. Fighting their way past frenzied servitors, servo skulls, giant mechanical spiders, and hulking traitor [[Tech Priest]]s as heavily armoured as [[Terminator]]s, and [[Castellax]] [[HeretekAutomaton]]s, forcing Horus only a single Veletari soldier managed to survive and make his way to blockade control dias of the planetpanopticon, destroying it even as his helmet was being crushed by steel claws, ending the malignant signals coming from the Panopticon.{{Fn|1b1c}}

Letting Mezoa sit and rot in its isolationWith the malignant signal from the Canopticon halted, the Warmaster order began with the next stage of his planto reassert itself as battle lines were now properly drawn between traitor and loyalist. He dispatched the Grand [[Death GuardAdmiral]] led by [[MortarionOspheus LaBray]] across thwarted a mutiny on Port Maws flagship - the Cyclops cluster, where they captured the worlds of ''[[LascalTriumph of Reason]] and [[Dominica Minor]] with the help of '', a large command ship designed to direct an entire Segmentum fleet as needed. He ordered the [[Traitor KnightDictatus Class Battleship]]s of [[House MakabiusKurga]]to destroy the now silent Panopticon tower.{{Fn|1b}} At LascalThe Ram-Battleship smashed into the tower with its piercing ram claws and joined by melta-tipped harpoons spearing into the tower, burning its engines and then ripping the Death Guard massacred panopticon tower into the local Loyalist defenders, including [[Iron Hands]] remnants belonging to [[Clan Felg]]void.{{Fn|1e1c}}

Horus next struck at the [[Manachean Commonwealth]]Meanwhile, far out into void, a loyalist independent dominion within the Imperium to the galactic east rest of the Cyclops Cluster. As the traitors approached, insurrection and rebellion (perhaps instigated by the [[Alpha Legion]]) began to plague Imperial authorities throughout the region. To the further detriment reinforcement ships of the Commonwealth, Imperial command at [[assembling Port Maw]] dispatched the bulk of their fleet Armada also had to deal with the Panopticon Signal and mutiny among its own vessels, while others such as a nearby squadron of cruisers from [[OrkAgathon]] force. Meanwhile, stayed out of the defenses at Port Maw were undermined by sabotage thanks fight, confused as to the treacherous [[Archmagos]] [[Leit Mercuric]], who hid his true allegiance until it was too latebattle that had no clear cause nor side to choose. With communications and defenses in complete chaosAt this time, the traitor forces swiftly captured the base from brave but outclassed [[Solar AuxiliaCyclothratine War-Ark]] troops and what active ''[[Imperial ArmadaArithmetic of Violence]] warships remained loyal. When Horus' own flagship', also having remained quietly out of the ''fight, would unleash a massive volley of void [[Vengeful Spirittorpedo]]'' arrived, the battle in space was decided in s smashed that devastated the traitors' favourAgatheans.{{Fn|1c}}{{Fn|1d}}

Near-simultaneously, the ==Attack on Manachea===The [[Sons of Horus]] began their assault on Manachea. Striking at [[Hive Ilium]] on [[Manachea Vysidae]], Horus' forces under [[Abaddon]] defeated the shocked but tenacious [[Imperial Army]] resistance. After capturing the Palace of Light, the Manachea Commonwealth folded to the traitors.{{Fn|1c}}{{Fn|1d}} It was then that Horus, the Death Guard, and the majority of the traitor forces left the region to conduct campaigns elsewhere, leaving a smaller garrison to oversee the Commonwealth's subordination. Meanwhile, the [[Iron Hands]] ship ''[[Red Talon]]'' of [[Clan Morragul]] under [[Autek Mor]] had arrived in the system, exacting vicious retribution on traitors and their collaborators wherever they could be found, [[Gethsamaine Raid|striking at]] [[Gethsamaine Colonus]] in the [[Grail Abyss]]. In a murderous fury, Mor's troops used [[nuclear weapon]]s to depopulate Gethsamaine.{{Fn|1d}}{{Fn|2b}}

**{{Endn|1a}}: pg. 18-19