Port Maw



Port Maw is an ancient artificial world that has been turned in one of the great harbours of the Imperial Navy by human ingenuity. Located in ancient times at the very border of the Segmentum Obscurus and the Ultima Segmentum in what was then known as the Manachean Commonwealth, today Port Maw lies within the famed Gothic Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus and even has given its name to an entire subsector. Since its inception during the Great Crusade, Port Maw has always belonged to the Imperial Navy, or rather to the Armada Imperialis which proceeded it. With the tactical need to establish second-line defence forces to protect the heavily industrialised and populated regions of the Manachean commonwealth and the Cyclops Cluster-subsector, Port Maw was rapidly established as a great mustering and supply point for Imperial vessels heading to its northern border. Over the millennia, Port Maw has grown into one of the biggest star-ports of the Imperium, being perhaps only surpassed by the great Segmentum Naval Bases of Bakka, Hydraphur, Kar Duniash and Mars itself. It still serves as the main port of attach, segmentum fortress and headquarters of Battlefleet Gothic -- itself one of the Bastion Fleets -- while Segmentum Headquarters lie on Cypra Mundi. It is also at Port Maw that are located much of the reserve ships of Battlefleet Gothic, mothballed until events dictate their return to the frontlines.

Through its proximity with the Eye of Terror and the need to defend the Cadian Gate, Port Maw is nearly perpetually on a war-footing, dispatching relief convoys to the other Bastion Fleets stationed at Agripinaa and Belis Corona, patrolling along the edges of the Eye of Terror, answering countless planetary distress signals and generally trying to keep the forces of Chaos at bay. Through its long and glorious history, Port Maw has come under attack several times, most notoriously during the Horus Heresy-era during the infamous Treachery at Port Maw-incident and far more recently during Abaddon the Despoiler's 12th Black Crusade, more commonly known as the Gothic War.

History
Port Maw was discovered orbiting the world of Aestellica during the Great Crusade by captains of the 60th Expeditionary Fleet under the overall command of Lord Marshal Ireton MaSade, whose family would go on to rule over the Hive World of Agathon and the Agathean Domain. Port Maw has not formed naturally but is an entirely artificial planetoid of ancient provenance, built in times imemorable that Imperial historians believe to even predate the rise and fall of the Eldar-empire. Since the dire events in the Vidar System of 926.M41, several voices have been raised speculating that Port Maw may well have been an earlier spoiled or sabotaged attempt by the race known as Necrons to create a World Engine, although no physical evidence currently supports these theories. However given the presence of other artefacts of pre-Imperial technology maybe dating back to the War in Heaven across the Segmentum - most tellingly the Blackstone Fortresses and the Cadian Pylons -- unknowingly repurposed by the Imperium, this theory could still prove true.

Port Maw owns its name to a five hundred kilometres wide aperture in its planetary crust that roughly resembles a fanged maw ready to bite, an apt name given the planetoid's peculiar appearance. This means that the interior of the planetoid is entirely hollow, thus offering an unsurpassable level of protection for sensitive industries such as ship-forges or munition manufactoria. This potential was quickly realized by the Armada Imperialis officials which accompanied the 60th Expeditionary Fleet and rapidly defended their claim. Port Maw's existence as an Armada Imperialis Port Majoris began in 001.M31 when construction on the hollow inside of the planetoid was begun. At that time the Great Crusade was still heading for the galactic North, fully expecting to press on in that direction before encountering the intergalactic void that would form a natural border for the Imperium. Other Armada Imperialis facilities, most tellingly the Fleet Anchorange Point at Lascal in the Grail Abyss, designed for resupplying and logistical support also entered construction phase. As the Great Crusade reached the proverbial dead-end in the Grail Abyss, works on the Port Maw facilities nearly stopped but were soon continued as new threats behind the lines of the Great Crusade emerged. In particular Orks still periodically plagued the region although they had been driven off the Grail Abyss. The nature of the Imperium slowly changed, the Great Crusade had nearly accomplished what it had sailed out to do, conquer the galaxy, but now other needs arose. The new vast domains of the Imperium had to be policed and protected ; the Coronid Deeps had to be secured. This would then be Port Maw's new purpose. In each of the Segmenta Majoris outside the Segmentum Solar, a Port Majoris would be installed : a homebase for permanently detached Battlegroups and where Expeditionary Fleets or other expeditions could resupply and repair. In parallel whole armies of Auxilia would also be stationed at these key-systems as the armadas would serve as both rapid-reaction forces and deep-range space patrols to respond to sudden threats such as civil unrest, rebellion or outside attacks. Soon the outer planetoid and indeed the entire star-system was given over to other space-faring installations: battle stations, trans-orbital dock yards, provender belts,…

Although far from completed, Port Maw soon began operations as a logistical way-station, supply base and mustering point. Rapidly it also boasted its own Battlefleet, the Port Maw Armada under command of Grand Admiral Ospeus LaBray. The Port Maw Armada would first and foremost be defensive-orientated,designed to dominate "small wars" and keep the Emperor's Peace. On paper they easily outgunned and outmatched any given Expedition Fleet, even the vaunted 63rd Expedition Fleet led by Warmaster Horus, but were often scattered over considerable distances of space performing their duties. As such these armadas were mainly constituted of ships of the line, cruisers and assault vessels for patrol duties and escorts like frigates and destroyers for escort duties, the hunt for piratical activities or the track of lone vessels. By nature they fielded less capital-class ships as an Expeditionary Fleet would. That did not mean however that these Segmentum Armadas fielded no such vessels, to the contrary. Most of the capital ships they possessed were still first line worthy but had been relegated to second line duties because of the emergence of more performant designs or the commission of those classes which only needed reduced maintenance-time. Both factors however did not hinder the Segmentum Armadas as they were designed to operate from a base rather than endlessly roam the galaxy like any Expeditionary Fleet would. As a result the Port Maw Armada could field several of the powerful if support-intensive Goliath and Legatus-class Battleships, which depended more readily on supply lines and manufacturing capabilities than the Gloriana and Victory class that now constituted the fleets of most Space Marine Legions. Grand Admiral Ospeus LaBray's flagship for instance was the Triumph of Reason, a huge fleet control vessel that had been reforged from the hulls of two crippled Legatus-class Battleships, a ship that could rival the best-known vessels of the Great Crusade. The Triumph of Reason was a mobile command post, a ship capable of coordinating the actions of an entire Segmentum Fleet and that would prove its mettle in more than one battle. In total the Port Maw Armada fielded some hundred and seventy capital ships or line ships with nearly a thousand lesser warships and escorts at its disposition, by all accounts a sizable force.

Horus Heresy
When the Warmaster revealed his ambition on the plains of Istvaan III, Port Maw was still under construction. It was however operable in limited fashion as a supply-point for those fleets that would eventually sail forth to confront the renegade Warmaster and those Legions that had sided with him. The Port Maw Armada however would take no part in the following campaign. Under orders from Horus Lupercal - then still believed to be the loyal right Hand of the Emperor -- the Port Maw Exercitus had sent out much of its might to support distant warzones or on extensive and far-flung patrols, thus scattering much of its effectives across the Sector and beyond. Some battlegroups had been temporarily reassigned to warzones and conflicts in other Segmenta, while some ships assigned on patrols were purposefully led into ambushes or distant corners of the galaxy never to be seen again. Port Maw would however be able to resupply some of the Space Marine fleets now underway to confront Horus and both the fleets of the Iron Warriors and the Raven Guard stopped at Port Maw for a final resupply before sailing forth to what was to become the Dropsite Massacre. Both fleets received updated status reports on Port Maw's status as well as new security codes clearing their advance. Deeming their routine codes and identification protocols unsafe, the authorities had rapidly changed them and placed their own defences and troops at readiness, but all these measures were just deemed as mere precautions, nobody really expecting the Traitors to emerge victorious against the might of eight of the Emperor's Legions of Space Marines.

In the closing days of 006.M31 news of the Dropsite Massacre finally reached the Coronid Thule and caused a flare of panic amongst the ruling elites of the cluster. Having to rapidly reevaluate their situation loyal Imperial Commanders soon found out that some worlds had already "gone dark", all communication lost with them and likely taken over or ravaged by the Traitors. The first real warning of the impeding doom however came not from the Cyclops Cluster or even the Grail Abyss, but Istvaan V itself. Isolated or in very small groups, ships hailing from the Istvaan System and belonging to the Shattered Legions - the Raven Guard, the Iron Hands and the Salamanders - found their way to Port Maw or other worlds such as Lascal and Dominica Minor bearing with them the terrible news of their defeat. All these arriving vessels were battle-scarred, wounded and in some case barely space-worthy, yet only the most damaged stayed in the Manachean Commonwealth or in the Cyclops Cluster -- nearly no Legiones Astartes chose to stay behind and fight the Traitors; most chose to retreat further after having accomplished emergency repairs or in some instances changed ship. Soon however the worlds of the Cyclops Cluster and the Manachean Commonwealth were girded for war. They found enemies already amongst them, lone outriders to the Warmaster's forces such as the dreaded Ikon were sighted imposing Dark Compliances on ill-defended worlds, but most notoriously Mezoa, the mighty Forge World supplying Port Maw with much of its macro-ammunition was now being blockaded by unknown vessels and the entire fleet of its old rival from M'Pandex. Foreseeing a shortage of advanced munitions and macro-weaponry the authorities at Port Maw were beginning to formulate a response to break through the blockade that dire news reached them from the edge of the Grail Abyss. Lascal, an Armada Imperialis High Anchorage with its own sizable fleet to defend it - nearly forty ships of the line and three Retribution-class Battleships, the Sceptre of Iron, the Ozymandias and the Star Tamer - had been utterly destroyed. Their sole contribution to the war would be a garbled warning the astropaths had much trouble to decipher: the Death Guard Legion was heading for the Cyclops Cluster.

Faced with this new emerging threat, the Port Maw Armada couldn't commit it's strength to aid the beleaguered world of Mezoa, nor would it risk an open battle for the ultimately non-strategic Grail Abyss. Reaching out for what ship of its own fleet it could, the Port Maw authorities tried to assemble its might to face the enemy, recalling every ship they made contact with while despatching a squadron of deep range cruisers, the XVIIth "Sun Dragons" to investigate matters at Lascal. The Sun Dragons reported that the Lascal High Anchorage and the fleet that had been stationed there were now nothing more than a debris belt orbiting a murdered, ravaged and poisoned world. Solar Auxilia landing parties in full hazardous environment gear launched from the Sun Dragons cruisers to the palace of Lascal's Imperial Governor and several known defence bunkers all returned, ashen faced, with the same tale of utter destruction. The dead in their thousands covered the land, struck down in their stride by blistering airborne poisons and murderous nerve-agents. In those few places, such as the Imperial Governor's palace, which had been sealed in time, a more direct hand had been taken to destroy those huddled within. Ferrocrete walls had been shattered by direct cannon fire, bulkhead doors torn from their mountings by the merciless gauntlets of Power Fists, and everywhere was rank slaughter and the litter of spent bolt shell cases, unmistakably Legiones Astartes in pattern. As if any more evidence was needed of the perpetrators of this atrocity, in the auditorium of the Imperial Commander, above the cast-down Aquila and impaled in the bloated corpse of the man who had ruled there in the Emperor's stead, was a ragged banner bearing the death's head and black sunburst of Mortarion's Death Guard Legion -- a dire warning to those that would refuse to bow to the Warmaster. As the Sun Dragon squadron left the charnel house of Lascal behind them, news of what they had found quickly spread, and in the systems of the Cyclops Cluster, already fraying apart from each other in fear, pure terror now took hold. The "Murder of Lascal" as it soon was known spurred defensive measure even further. The Cyclops Cluster and Manachean Commonwealth prepared for an inevitably bloody war. It was then that the cruel whim of fate intervened.

Enemies Unlooked For
Amongst the multiple unpredictable threats that can emerge suddenly and ravage worlds and entire systems, few are so dreaded as the appearance of a Space Hulk. These conglomerates of trapped asteroids, planetary debris and wrecks of long lost starships randomly emerging from the Warp are often populated by hostile xenos lifeforms, most notoriously the savage species of the Orks. Drawn perhaps by the strong astrotelpathic signal of the Commonwealth's principal astrophatic relay -- Vlorlath Srader relay -- or perhaps simple thrown of course by an ill-fortunate warp-storm, a vast Space Hulk carrying with it its own fleet of ramshackle ships emerged in the Vlorath Srader System, on the ill defended Commonwealth's eastern flank. In according to the principle of the Coda Navis, this new threat was baptized by the name of Red Polyphemus.

Although far from unknown, the Orks posed at best a seasonal nuisance in the Coronid Deeps, their true strength broken in the days of the Great Crusade, yet the Red Polyphemus and the uncounted multitude it harboured constituted the most sizeable migration of Orks for nearly thirty years. Ten thousands of mutated Orks and gyre-worms had already laid waste to the vital astrophatic realy, meaning that the Commonwealth and Port Maw were now cut-off from communications from the Segmentum Solar. Worse yet the Orks were now scrambling over Vlorlath Srader whilst the Space Hulk itself inexorably ploughed deeper into the system. Nobody could have foreseen this turn of events but it was soon whispered that a terrible yet brief Warp-storm had been witnessed shortly beforehand which may have altered the course of the Hulk. Unable to simply ignore a threat such as an entire Space Hulk sprawling with Orks going on a rampage within the systems they were sworn to protect, the Port Maw Armada dispatched a sizable portion of its strength, both in ships as in men to the Vlorlath Srader-system. They relay was undoubtedly gone, but the planet could still be reconquered for letting the Orks gain a foothold in the Manachean Commonwealth could only bring about future calamities.

Standard procedures in dealing with a Space Hulk dictate the Hulk being boarded, preferably by Astartes-troops and dislocated by the planting of seismic charges which would then be detonated from afar, thus dislocating the hulk from the inside. This option was however not available to the Battlegroup despatched from Port Maw, firstly because its lack of Legiones Astartes assistance, and secondly because while the Solar Auxilia were fully equipped and trained for such operations, their firing discipline and superior coordination would count for nothing inside the meandering and tight corridors of a floating wreck as the Red Polyphemus. Lastly, the Solar Auxilia would be direly needed to fight against the Warmaster's forces once the threat of the Orks had been neutralized, and could therefor not be sacrificed in a desperate gambit. The Red Polyphemus would therefor need to be destroyed at gun-point, the Armada Imperialis vessels having to get in perilously close before unleashing close range bombardments to dislocate the shattered planetary rocks and derelict ancient shipwrecks that made up the Space Hulk. This was inherently dangerous as the Imperial ships exposed themselves not only to the long- and short-distance fire from the Orks manning the Space Hulk's guns, but also because they offered easy targets for Ork suicide-runs and boarding assaults led by the barbaric xenos that infested it like vermin and whose ships -- despite looking like a heap of junk -- were utterly lethal.

Without the elite Solar Auxilia Cohorts of the Port Maw Exercitus, dealing with the catastrophe at Vlorlath Srader would simply not have been possible, both in terms of counter-invasion of the system's colony worlds, and the defence of the taskforce attacking the Ork hulk. The campaign to stop the Red Polyphemus would however be far longer than anticipated, the hulk's fabric resisting the fleet's bombardment far longer that could be readily foreseen. It wasn't until the closing days of 007.M31, that finally the Space Hulk began to fragment an that victory was assured. However, this victory had entailed a butcher's bill in lives and ships, all that would subsequently lack in the Commonwealth's defence against the Traitors. Worse yet, the Battlegroup had used up nearly all of its complement of macro-ammunition which would now be nearly impossible to refurbish as the main provender of these goods, Mezoa, was still blockaded. As a result, fresh troops intended to face the Warmaster were now worn-out or missing. Many ships would need extensive repairs before returning to battle, and when news of the fate of Lascal and Dominica Minor reached Manachea and Port Maw, the defenders' morale dwindled still further.

Isolated from the Segmentum Solar through the loss of the Vlorlath Srater and in no shape to come to the aid of Mezoa, the Port Maw authorities turned to those allies it still could readily reach, those worlds like Numinal and Agathon in the Coronid Reach. Even the insular Mechanicum of Cyclothrathe declared ready to send troops and vessels in the grand muster of Imperial forces Grand Admiral LaBray had called for. All the while the Port Maw Armada had fought the Red Polyphemus, fugitive ships from the Cyclops Cluster had reached the Commonwealth, telling grim tales of their world's demise before slowly ebbing away. This could only mean that an attack on the Commonwealth was imminent. Grudgingly the Imperial commanders of Numinal and Agathon were made to agreed to dispatch many of their ships to Port Maw, fully aware that if Port Maw and the Commonwealth fell, they stood little chance in turn. Orders for general mobilisation were issued, the final stages of emergency plans enacted, defences on the eastern border heavily reinforced and known stable termini of warp-routes to the Cyclops Cluster heavily trapped with void mines. Control frequencies that had been proofed against treachery were completely replaced by new ciphers and encription djinns. With much of the Armada's strength still mobilized in the Vlorlath Srader-System, patrol ships were recalled and assembled at Port Maw, readying themselves to face what would have once been an unthinkable threat : the massed attack of the Death Guard from the dead silence that now reigned in the Cyclops Cluster.

It was unfortunately exactly as the Warmaster had planned.

Treachery
For all intent and purpose, the Aestellica System had become a fortress, a citadel of Imperial might that would hold out against the Traitor - or so the Port Maw authorities at least thought; for they had failed to anticipate that even the mightiest fortress can fall from the inside. Unbeknown to Grand Admiral Ospeus LaBray, the muster at Port Maw had been infiltrated by agents of the Warmaster. In a conspiracy of unforseen magnitude whose many layers and ramification had stayed hidden, a shadow network had established itself, worming its way into nearly every sensible position. Even the Grand Admiral’s own flagship, the imposant Triumph of Reason harboured countless traitors as did many other vessels that had heeded the admiral’s call to arms. Chief amongst these traitors was the Archmagos-Astral Leit Mercuric, cyber-ordinator of Port Maw’s Panopticon.

The Mechanicum Astra Panopticon tower was a ten-kilometres high transmission and broadcast tower, whose powerful antenna pierced the sky at the southern pole of the planetoid. The Panopticon reglemented in-system traffic as to ensure that no collisions impeded the daily work of the countless vessels, transports, supply ships and tenders that Port Maw needed to function.

Notable Vessels of the Port Maw Armada

 * Triumph of Reason (Unique Battleship) - The Triumph of Reason was a vessel with a long and twisted history. Built from the wrecked hulls of two prior Legatus-class battleships that had been mauled early on during the Great Crusade, the Triumph of Reason was easily the biggest ship in the entire Segmentum Obscurus Armada. Rebuilt after an unique pattern, the Triumph of Reason was designed from the start to become the flag-ship of the entire Segmentum Armada and much weight and space was given over to communication and auspex devices. Stationed at Port Maw for the greater part of its career, placed under the command of Grand Admiral Ospeus LaBrayfor much of its early years, the Triumph of Reason was equipped with countless cryo-chambers to harbour Ogryn Charonites, the only troop at the admiral's disposal that would prove superior to traitorous Legiones Astartes in case of boarding actions. The Triumph of Reason would participate in the early hours of the Horus Heresy at the notable Treachery at Port Maw where it would assume control and command of the entire Port Maw Armada  and its allies once the destruction of the Mechanicum Panopticon at the heart of the treachery had been confirmed. It would be from the bridge of the Triumph that Grand Admiral LaBray would coordinate the battle against the Sons of Horus fleet, even engaging the lauded Vengeful Spirit of Warmaster Horus himself. Outmanoeuvred by the Vengeful Spirit, the Thriumph of Reason came under attack by Sons of Horus boarding parties and even the Archtraitor Horus Lupercal himself after the first assault wave had been nearly thrown back by the hundreds of Charonites held in the Triumph 's borrows. Seized from within and with LaBray being killed in his failed attempt to escape ship, the Triumph of Reason would remain at Port Maw for the following  years of civil war, its communication hub needed to replace the destroyed Panopticon. The once proud Imperial vessel became a glorified if macabre throne room for Horus' chosen regent, a Sons of Horus line captain by the name of Taloc Thorne, which renamed the battleship "The Lash" and took the title of Tyrant of Port Maw.
 * Kurga ( Dictatus-class Battleship) - The Dictatus-class was an ancient class of ram-battleship that had slowly become obsolete as the Great Crusade wrought on. The Dictatus-class were almost primitively barbaric in their design as their main role was to ram enemy ships and shred their hulls like an ancient seaborn predator with their enormous jaws - a tactic that seems more suitable for the dreaded Orks than the Emperor's soldiery. Mounted on a set of hydraulic platforms these "jaws" compromised a row of nearly thirty metres long teeth-spikes, while its "mouth" supported scores of rocket-powered melta-barbed harpoons not unlike the more massive Ursus Claw that were the pride of the World Eaters flagship, the Conqueror. The Kurga was present at the Treachery of Port Maw from which it remained one of the few Imperial ships that succeeded in making good its escape despite having to crush a mutiny on its board. It remains famous to this day for having shred and ripped off the Mechanicum Panopticon tower which traitor elements had used to sabotage the Armada's communication netwok and targeting arrays. The Kurga would go on to fight with distinction in the years after the Treachery, its powerful drives and unorthodox tactics proving a valuable asset in the dark years to come.