Cyclops Cluster



The Cyclops Cluster is heavily industrialized Imperial sub-sector whose origins date back to the sixth decade of the Great Crusade. It is located at the north-eastern border of the Segmentum Obscurus with the Ultima Segmentum and is counted amongst the wider region of the Coronid Deeps of the famed Gothic Sector. Designated -- according to legend -- by the hand of the Emperor Himself for further colonisation and exploration, the Cyclops Cluster quickly rose to prominence, being only overshadowed by the might of the neighbouring Manachean Commonwealth. With those planets of the Manachean Commonwealth, the Cyclops Cluster formed the heartlands of the Coronid Deeps, far more advanced and valuable then those planets of importance within the Grail Abyss or the Coronid Reach. Through its great amount of mineral wealth, the world of Dominica Minor quickly rose to become the regional power to which other planets looked for guidance. Given its economic output it should then have come as no surprise that the Cyclops Cluster would become the first Imperial sub-sector to come under attack by Traitor forces in the opening year of the galactic civil war known as the Horus Heresy.

History
In stark contrast with the neighbouring worlds of the Manachean Commonwealth - whose history stretches back into the Dark Age of Technology - but with notable exceptions such as the worlds of Mezoa, M'Pandex and Dark Haven; the Cyclops Cluster has only been recently colonised by humanity when the Great Crusade reached this region of space in the late 800s of the 30th Millennium. This is perhaps best explained by the Cyclops Cluster’s topography, which features only few readily inhabitable worlds for such a vast stretch of space. The Cluster however proved rich in mineral wealth and other much needed ressources which made it a valuable prize for the ever-growing Imperium. Apart from the Mechanicum Forge World of Mezoa, the Cyclops Cluster suffered little from the depredations of the xenos empire known as the Mitu Conglomerate which was successfully annihilated by the Emperor’s armies. In the aftermath of this campaign the Cyclops Cluster received the visit of both the 611th an 7th Expeditionary Fleet, the latter proving the more active. Under command of Commander Suleiman Grimm of Legiones Astartes Ist Legion, the 7th Expeditionary Fleet would rally such worlds as Dark Haven and Mezoa and peacefully obtain their Compliance before sailing northwards to the Grail Abyss. As the Cyclops Cluster's wealth gradually became more widely known, the new subsector became one of the new priority targets for the Imperial colonization effort, counting as it did two fully-fledged Forge Worlds amongst its ranks and dozens of promising star systems ready to be exploited. Colonists however needed to be shipped in from various regions of the Imperium’s more settled heartlands, requiring the transport of entire planetary populations, much of them translating through the dormotory world of Moab before being shipped to their final destination. Soon the Cyclops Cluster counted sixteen primary grade industrialised worlds and no less than ninety-three distinct ressource extraction zones. By the end of the Great Crusade, the Cluster had become a powerhouse of activity, its economical output being only surpassed by that of the Manachean Commonwealth. Harsh production quotas had been imposed on most worlds of the Cyclops Cluster whose populations had to toil hard to meet them. This natuarally bred insatisfaction which was often brutally repressed by imposition of martial or Mechanicum law. Local power was nearly inexistant, Dominicia Minor's rise to this position manifesting only in the decades immediately preceeding the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. For much of its existence the Cyclops Cluster was hence governed by Imperial authorities residing in the Segmentum Solar, which did not fail to breed embittered and resentful populations that came to view the Imperium as uncaring,distant and harsh masters that gorged themselves on their misery and labour. As a result petty worker revolts and strikes were commonplace decades before the Warmaster’s treachery, the brutal repressions by Imperial power only perpetuating the vicious circle Horus would eventually prey upon at the dawn of the Heresy.

Planets of the Cyclops Cluster

 * Dominica Minor
 * Bleak Harbor - Bleak Harbor is a Scavenger-type colonized world that was long ago known as "Auricalla" and whose location was included in ancient navigational datacores dating back to the Dark Age of Technology. In ancient tales and legends, Auricalla was described as a haven of civilisation and progress, an exemplar of Mankind’s capabilities and genius and thus became one of the many valuable civilization to contact,yet when Imperial Explorators reached the planet they would only find tumbledown ruins and semi-flooded wastelands seeded with the rusting wreckage of continent-spanning macro-machinery and the scattered bones of the dead. The ultimate fate of the lost civilisation of Auricalla remains unclear, it would seem however that no outside interference is to blame for Auricalla's fate : no war to topple its sky-scraping pires, no hateful xenos breed to ravage its cities or epidemy to decimate its population. It would appear that society simply collapsed, regressed and tore itself apart as the result of some cataclysmic climate change that brought first inundations and then famine. No one knows for sure when this cataclysm happened, and it could very well be that Auricalla's demise dates back to centuries before the Imperium was even founded. By the time the Great Crusade reached this world, it has long been stripped from any valuable or technological remains. Nevertheless the planet was colonised and used as a transit layover and port of last resort which contributed to give it its current name; salvation operations are still conducted in the vast ruins of once magnificent cities, but Bleak Harbor makes for a dire place to live. Bleak Harbor is almost entirely covered in half sunken ruins, swamps and rust-wastes. While nominally an independent world with its own Imperial Commander, Bleak Harbour lacks a stable population and those who live there are a desperate breed. Bleak Harbour's Imperial Commander has no notewothy ressource to call upon and his world is indeed a dangerous place to live and where the law is not enforced as it should. Bleak Harbour’s hinterlands and rust-wastes are a notorious haven for petty hereteks, escaped prisoners and outlaws drawn there from all across the Cyclops Cluster. Bleak's Harbor situation was almost anarchic even before the Horus Heresy broke out, so that its current fate remains unknown.
 * Dark Haven
 * Endicott
 * Gethsamaine
 * Goth
 * Grist
 * Gunnar’s Rock
 * Jujya
 * Mezoa
 * Moab
 * Moravasis
 * M'Pandex
 * New Providance
 * Rabbasan
 * San Pardor
 * Vargas
 * Zavarich - Zavarich is one of the few Agri-worlds to be located within the Cyclops Cluster and whose growing importance within the Cluster promised it a rich and bountiful future. Zavarich has always been a Feudal World, even before it was brought bloodlessly into Imperial Compliance by the 611th Expeditionary Fleet in 876.M30. Having rallied the Imperial fold, Segmentum authorities decided to turn Zavarich into an Agri-World, its production centered on high-yield tharac-wheat with Grox and Macro-krill herds as secondary complement. In the decades following its compliance, Zavarich became increasingly more important for the Cluster's economy, which motivated an influx of colonists and agri-workers being directed to the planet to further increase its productivity. A census conducted just before the outbreak of the Heresy situated Zavarich's population at under three million souls which perhaps as much as a quarter of them being non-natives. This influx in population caused significant unrest as the colonist often took over developping and management roles, thus supplanting the natives, but more importantly the native population stubbornly adhered to their ancient autochhonic cultic belief systems whereas the colonists were all strong adherents of the Imperial Truth.