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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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→Treachery at Port Maw
====Treachery at Port Maw====
The artificial planetoid of Port Maw was normally home to the [[Port_Maw_(planet)#War_Fleet_of_the_Port_Maw_Armada| War Fleet of Port Maw Armada]], which included 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 [[Agathean Domain]], pirate-killers from the [[Cerada Nebula]], and three huge [[Ark Mechanicus|War Arks]] from [[Forgeworld]] [[Cyclothrate]]. In addition to this, a great wave of refugee ships, mercantile ships fleeing systems under threat and ragged survivors of the battles in the [[Cyclops Cluster]], and even a handful of survivors from the void battles at [[Istvaan 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's [[Adeptus Mechanicus Fleet|Mechanicum Astra Cantrol ]] '''Control 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 prevent collisions. Though this automated control could always be overridden manually, anticipating a vulnerability, Port Maw's leaders had strengthened the encryption and defenses multiple times throughout the war. 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 [[Dark Mechanicum| sworn to Horus]], as well as several of her acolytes and officers of the Imperialis Armada, all of whom were corrupted when they had served alongside the [[Word 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 ships that had been so reliant upon. [[Vox]]-circuits 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 [[scrapcode]]. Over a hundred lesser vessels were overridden entirely, their ships venting their crew into the void, while the [[Core Cogitator| Machine Spirits]] of the 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 demands.{{Fn|1c}}
