Exterminatus

"I didn't expect that kind of Imperial Inquisition-" *BLAM*

Exterminatus is the Imperium's biggest middle finger they can give to xenos and Chaos infestation on their own planets. It basically involves them UTTERLY DESTROYING THE PLANET via heavy orbital bombardment if they see that it would be impossible to re-take the planet by drowning their enemies in corpses, like they always do.

Before you go onto some sort of moral tirade about the morality of blowing the fuck out of a planet, understand the motherfucking context. A world deemed worthy of Exterminatus is one considered past the point where anything can be salvaged from it - whether because it's about to be lost to ravening monsters that will eat fucking everything or because it will be turned into a fucking daemon-and-heresy-infested shit-pit where neither sanity nor time has any meaning. The alternative is fucking glassing a planet and trying to deny it to the enemy or ensure SOMETHING can be fucking saved. It's the last-ditch measure and it's there because the alternative sucks even fucking worse. Well that's the theory, but the over the top villainy of Warhammer 40k means that the Imperium does sometimes get trigger happy with this, using an Exterminatus on worlds over things like a few of its people coming into contact with alien technology, or a small hint of heresy that would probably not require killing everything.

Deal with it. Bitching any further will rile the Commissariat. You have been warned.

Ways of Exterminatus

The Inquisition has several means for dealing with infestations:

Just Shoot the Shit Out of It

Shooting planets with oversized lazor cannons larger than apartment buildings is the stereotypical way of nuking the fuck out of something you don't like. Space marine battlebarge bombardment cannons, Nova cannons, Lance batteries and any type of HUEG lazor is often used. An example of this being used is when the Dark Angels destroyed their homeworld, Caliban, after it was lost to heretics within their chapter. AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS FOR OUR NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS, the Night Lords' purge of Nostramo, and during the purging of Typhon.

Virus Bombs

Loaded with a biological payload that causes living tissue (plant or animal) to rot and decompose, Virus Bombs are only rarely used now because every time they're used, they feed the fucking Plaguefather. The general gist is that they spread a virus that spreads by contact that causes necrosis of tissues and rapid decay of plant and animal tissues. This immediate rot causes a buildup of flammable gases, which in turn, ignite suddenly, sweeping the area in firestorms. A relentless bombing of these fucking things is what reduced Tallarn from a verdant forest world to the desert hellhole it is now. They were also used by Warmaster Horus to kill off loyalist space marines during the Istvaan Campaign of the Horus Heresy.

Cyclonic Torpedoes

Modified Melta Torpedoes, these capship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, trigger a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with nuclear fire given a sufficient barrage. If you fire enough in the same spot it will break through the crust of a planet causing part of the mantle to erupt out, royally butt fucking the planet in the process(See Fire Warrior End Cinematic). Krieg is an example of a World that survived multiple cyclonic torpedo strikes, though in this case it was on a much smaller scale. This was the method that probably killed Typhon in combination with the above shoot the shit out of it method. (Another theory holds that the bombardment is used to remove anything that might prevent the torpedo from reaching the surface). Only the Inquisition and the Space Marines are authorized to carry cyclonic torpedoes, the former because the Inquisition has the authority to do anything, the later because the Imperium believes that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes

Same thing but they use the melta charge to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. A second charge then goes off causing the planet to break apart Death Star style. Really the only way to deal with Necron Tomb Worlds since due to their undergroundness they aren't overly bothered by the other two methods which devastate the surface but leave the planet as a whole mostly intact.

Smashing It with a Fucking Moon

This method requires radically changing the orbit of the moon in question to a collision course with the planet, and therefore requires the use of several Mechanicus voidships. This method was used to destroy Phaenon Prime when the Virus Bomb failed to wipe out the planet's corruptive influence.

IRL Exterminatus

SAGE Bombing

The electronic equivalent of Exterminatus, a Sagebomb is achieved by repeatedly using the SAGE tag on a thread, ergo reducing its priority. When fired in bulk by multiple users simultaneously, such barrages of SAGE are capable of dragging almost any thread screaming down to the depths of a given imageboard, where they will eventually be purged. The ultimate fate for all threads containing Furry and similar Heresy.

...Or at least that's how many fa/tg/uys think it works.

SAGE is supposed to add a "negative" response to a given thread, ergo reducing its apparent post-count. Because such a system would be easy to troll others, however, SAGE instead is used simply to reply without bumping a given thread. In olden times, SAGE did work that way supposedly, however, and was a tool of righteous wrath. Sagebombing still has an effect to the extent that once a thread passes the "autosage" limit it can no longer be bumped even by normal posts, and so even if it is still active it will still sink to the bottom of the board and into the depths of deletion; hence a large number of zero-content SAGEs will hasten the demise of the thread without bumping it in the process, although they do not actively cause the thread's departure.

The Fall of Typhon

Good to know there's a ceremony for blowing up a planet.

We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. In fealty to the God-Emperor (our undying Lord) and by the Grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial World of Typhon Primaris. I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion. May Imperial Justice account in all balance. The Emperor Protects.

The Words of Gabriel Angelos

It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Inevitably many will fault the hands upon the sword that fell Typhon, The Ordo Malleus. But the Inquisition merely performs the duty of its office, To further fear them is redundant; to hate them, heretical. Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of the Inquisition. With some fortune they may foster this hatred into purpose, and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service.

Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer, God Splitter.

-End-

The use of a properly modified version of this quote from Dawn of War Retribution has proved highly effective in saging furfag troll threads and thus has been sanctioned by the holy /tg/ Inquisition for public use (keep it on /tg/).

Exterminatus on the Tabletop

Though not the most effective of lists, it is particularly hilarious and surprisingly fluffy to declare Exterminatus on large table games of 40k. The general gist is to simply stock up on as many large blast templates fired from off table as possible, whether via army list or stratagems. One relatively simple list is to simply take a Grey Knights army, field a single Bro-Capt. or Grand Master with an orbital Strike Relay, Karamazov (who also has one) and two troop choices (if you're playing a regular game -- if you're playing Apocalypse, you can skip the troops) Then cram in as many Techmarines as you can, give them all Orbital Strike Relays and watch the bombs drop. For the average 3000 point game, you can get Krazypants off and 20 bare-bones techies with the relays. that's 21 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates smashing down on your opponents Baneblades, Warhounds and other special hard-as-balls to kill shit your opponents have! Also great for swarm-busting (the relays can fire D3 pieplates each per guy but at Strength 6). Picture Krazypantsoff standing on a hilltop, pointing at buildings and going "Bang.", then watching them all blow up. Of course, if the Inquisitor dies, you're fucked. So maybe just camp him in cover. But that's only if you're lame.

TL;DR

You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped.

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  Suffer not the Furry to live

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  The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.

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  If the inhabitants of a planet remotely resembles this creature, it's guaranteed to be exterminatused upon discovery. If pictures like this are found on a thread in /tg/, it's guaranteed to be saged and trolled upon discovery

Vidya:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNc242mbiUs&feature=channel_video_title
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM