Editing Exterminatus

[[Image:Exterminatus Retribution.jpg|right|600px|"I didn't expect that kind of Imperial [[Inquisition]]-" '''*BLAM*'''|thumb]] 

'''Exterminatus''' is the [[Imperium of Man|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 [[Tyranids|countless ravening giant insects that will zerg-rush and eat fucking everything]] or [[Ork|reality-warping omnicidal fungi that reproduce into millions of spores everytime one dies and will all kill you because they think it's fun]] or because it will be turned into a fucking [[Chaos|daemon-and-tentacle-rape-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 [[Grimdark | 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 [[Commissar|Commissariat]]. You have been warned.

==Ways of Exterminatus==
The Imperium has several means for dealing with infestations:

'''Just Shoot the Shit Out of It'''

Saturating 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]] <s>destroyed their homeworld, Caliban, after it was lost to heretics within their chapter</s> AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER FOR OUR NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS, the [[Night Lords]]' purge of Nostramo, and during the purging of Typhon.

'''Virus Bombs'''

Virus Bombs are biological warheads loaded with the Life Eater virus, a biological payload that causes living tissue (plant or animal) to rot and decompose 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, can be ignited by one of the lazors above, 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 [[Horus|Warmaster Horus]] to kill off loyalists in the Traitor Legions during the Istvaan Campaign of the [[Horus Heresy]]. According to [[Amberley Vail]], Virus Bombs are only rarely used in the "present time" because the Inquisition has figured out that every time they're used, they feed the fucking [[Nurgle|Plaguefather]].

'''Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo'''

Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes are [[Plasma]] torpedoes that bursts in low planetary orbit and super-heats the atmosphere of a planet until all combustible material ignites. This method of Exterminatus was used on Medusa IV. Pretty much like the Virus Bomb but it skips right to the firestorm and directly turns the planet's surface into hellfire.

'''Cyclonic Torpedoes'''

The primary method of Exterminatus in the 41st millennium, these are basically nukes OD'd on steroids. These capital ship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, fuels a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with a thermonuclear holocaust 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 radioactive perpetual-winter 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 latter because the Imperium believes that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

'''Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes'''

In the two-stage torpedo, they use a [[melta]] charge to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. A second thermonuclear 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 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 or asteroid 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.

'''Release the Krourk'''
Krourk [[Ogryn|ogryn]]s are known as the most brutal, powerful, and primitive tribe of Ogryns in the Imperium (And that's saying something). They are known for their incredibly savagery in close combat that even orks can't hold a candle to them and are also known for being so primitive that the guard can't even teach them to use traditional Ogryn weapons like Ripper guns. It has gotten to the point where deploying thousands of these things is considered a crude method of Exterminatus amongst Imperial commanders, given that they'll attempt kill anything within visual range: friend or foe.

==Non-Imperium Exterminatus==

'''[[The World Engine]]'''
A necron planet sized vessel equipped with the largest [[Gauss|gauss weapon]] known to man. Looks like the combination of the Death-Star, Unicron and a Forerunner Shield-World all roled into one. A [[Rape|flying rape-machine of ungodly proportions,]] and needed an entire fleet of several space-marine chapters and a whole Imperial Navy to destroy it. For some reason, it has shields that could withstand the [[Awesome|bombardment of an ''entire navy'',]] [[What|yet it is vulnerable to a ship]] [[Meme|impacting at sufficient velocity.]] (Although it is possible that the shields weren't designed to deflect speeding projectiles the size of Battle Barges.)

'''[[C'tan|Transcendent C'tan Shards]]'''

Maybe under certain circumstances, if the Necrons wanted to destroy a world, they could just unleash a particular powerful Transcendent C'tan shard on it without a Tessaract Vault.  Though it would most likely escape and be nearly impossible to return to Necron control, it would achieve the same effects.

'''[[Blackstone Fortress|Blackstone Fortress]]'''

Ancient weapons of the Eldar designed to fight the [[C'tan|C'tan]].  To put it simply, think of a large spaceship with a Distort weapon (like the ones the Wraithguard have) the size of a continent.

'''[[Abaddon|Abaddon's Blackstone Fortresses]]'''

'''Celestial Orrery'''

The Tombworld of Thanatos has a giant hologram map of the Galaxy, if you were to destroy a star on it, the real life counterpart would go supernova.  However the Necron don't really use it, inset they just treat it like a giant bonsai tree.      

Several factions outside the Imperium have access to this (adding any examples from the lore would be greatly appreciated).  However, most of them don't use those methods often. For each faction, the reasons are; 

* The Craftworld Eldar have some respect for life (and not as many WMDs left as they had before) so they don't do it often. Didn't stop them from purging all life in the Octarius system to clean up Kryptmann's mess, though.
* The Dark Eldar don't have many (if any at all), and they see more benefit in keeping the inhabitants alive to ensure a regular supply of victims. If they do feel like killing off an entire planet(s), though, they'll probably just steal that star system's sun.
* The Necrons have lost some, but may have several more just waiting to be awakened ([[Not as Planned|Maybe the Necrons are more trigger-happy with Exterminatus than the Imperium, but they're better at ensuring there's no witnesses]]).
* In theory the [[Ork]]s could develop one (as much by accident and luck as by design); they grab an asteroid, put engines and weapons and armor on it and fill it with Orks and ram it full speed into a planet. It doesn't matter if it turns out to be a transport or just a missile, it generates tememdous amounts of lulz and served it's purpose of making a big boom. This haphazard design and construction process would limit the amount Orks have (if any).

==Exterminatus-style Destruction in other Fiction==

'''Colony Drop'''

The answer of the Anime ''Gundam'' franchise to smashing things with a fucking moon. When it was first introduced, it involved the resident Space Nazis, the Principality of Zeon, getting around the various treaties limiting the use of WMDs by inventing a new one. They filled the atmosphere of an O'Neill Space Colony full of residents they didn't like with nerve gas, then sent it on a collision course for Earth. While the intended target was the the Federation capital in the Americas, it was diverted away and hit Australia, basically butt fucking the continent out of existence in the process and causing billions of deaths in one strike. Later "colony drops" occured throughout the franchise.  Notably, ''Gundam X'' is set on an almost uninhabitable shit-hole-of-an-Earth that's been the victim of an ''entire barrage of colony drops'' killing off 99% of the planet's human population.

'''[[Samus]]'''

Deployment of a single [[Female Space Marines|female space marine]] on a xenos or chaos infested world. Though surprisingly effective, the [[High Lords of Terra]] and even the Inquisition have yet to formally sanction Samus's use as a method of Exterminatus.  Mainly as she steadfastly claims that while she does leave the enemies of man as smoldering corpses, the planets, star ships, and space hulks blowing up afterwards usually isn't intentional.

'''[[Halo|Halo's Reality Fuckery]]'''
	 
Pretty much any faction in Halo is capable of buttfucking a planet or entire star-system from the inside out. The Forerunners for example, pretty much turn Exterminatus into art. Their list of fucking up a Galaxy includes the following...ripping apart entire planets on what counts as "Private Security Infantry", reducing entire planets into ash with one shot of their point-defence guns of their weakest ships, flinging entire planets into Slipspace (Which reduce it to proto-matter), blowing up entire stars and solar-systems like popping candy with a single frigate, destroying entire proto-universes (We are not fucking around here) just to power up their engines and of course, the Galaxy-Busting Halo's themselves. And these are just the Forerunners, god forbid if we go into 'Silentium' Flood and the Precursors which pretty much cause reality, time and alternate universes to bend over and make the likes of Tzeentch look like a four year old brat in comparison. 

So literally, when we meant that anyone in Halo could make mother nature cry, we really meant it. Yes even the UNSC have it which is coincidentally named as the "NOVA Bomb"; being ripped strait out of Starship Troopers, these are literally the Death Star in a can, no kidding. To put this in a nutshell, when the UNSC finally realised that all shit is lost and NUKE IT FROM ORBIT! is all but useless, the UNSC high command issue to drop the NOVA bomb that blows apart the planet or moon and all unfortunate bastards to kingdom-come. Made of literally nine-nukes strap together by duct-tape (Which made many in /tg/ to wonder whether the UNSC hired Macgyver to construct their "Fuck You" bomb), these bombs are the size of a child (Fuck logic!) and can have a Slipspace drive attached to it, meaning that it could ''[[Rape|hit anywhere and anyone without difficulty.]]''

'''[[Codex - The Covenant|Glassing]]'''

Another planet killer from Halo, the Covenant are known to "Glass" an entire planet when they are feeling bored or being dicks about it. Similar to "Just Shoot the Shit Out of It", Glassing takes longer then the other Exterminatus weapons but the results are still roughly the same. Glassing is when Covenant ships uses their Energy Projector to literally burn the planets surface until it is but molten rock and ignite the atmosphere Cyclonic Torpedo style. But due to the amount of contradictions prominent in Halo, Glassing can go from being barely lighting a birthday candle to turning an entire planet into a giant crystal ball. This is really more due to the one leading the covenant fleet and how long they fired on the planet.

'''[[Halo|NOVA!]]'''
	 	


'''[[Star Wars]] Shenanigans'''

It is of no surprise that WH40K's fellow fantasy-sci-fi mashup Star Wars has its own methods of Exterminatus. However, while 40k tends to depict a small number of "tried and true" tactics, the various cultures of the Star Wars univers, not limited by technical stagnation and general awfulness, invent new methods of devastating worlds all the time.  (One is actually ''called'' the World Devastator.) Easily the most iconic one is the Death Star introduced in the very first film, which is a massive battle-station the size of a moon that can blow a planet apart ''in a single shot''.  Some of the weirder/cooler ones in the Expanded Universe include the World Devastators, which essentially land on planets and [[Tyranids|consume all matter before reproducing and moving on to other planets]], the hilariously-phallic Galaxy Gun, which is essentially a planet-sized [[railgun]], the Centerpoint Station, a giant tractor beam that can move entire planets, fire beams of energy to destroy fleets of starships, and supernova stars, and the Sun Crusher, the lovechild of an Old One's Blackstone Fortress and a UNSC NOVA bomb that, as its name implies, literally destroys suns from the other end of the galaxy. Even a ''single'' Star Destroyer can turn the surface of an unshielded planet to molten slag, in a matter of mere hours. 

In the original trilogy's timeline, the strategic use of these doomsday weapons to inspire fear and loyalty was referred to as the "Tarkin Doctrine," after Peter Cushing's character from the first film who funds the Death Star before being blown up on it in his moment of triumph.  [[Abbadon]], take note, for there but for the grace of your-various-dark-gods go you...

'''[[Star Trek|General Order 24]]'''

Despite being a bunch of NobleBright space hippies The United Federation of Planets do have their own Exterminatus and call it something really boring because they don't like to think about the  "kill everything on a planet" part.  It's in the "sterilize its surface"  type and each Galaxy-class ship (including the iconic USS Enterprise) can solo the job.  And since all of their starships are basically just cruise liners where colorful crewmen go to have wacky [[noblebright]] adventures with their families, it really speaks volumes about Teddy Roosevelt's "speak softly and carry a big stick" proverb, and just ''how far'' the Feds out-tech their neighbors.  Or they would if the writers didn't fuck with the firepower with the setting constantly, so the theory is that their guns for whatever reason loses a lot of punch when not used on planets and not at specific settings.

'''[[Marathon|Trih Xeem]]'''

One of the things that the Pfhor found in the Jjaro tech cache is a weapon that roughly translates as "Early Nova". As the name suggests, it makes suns go supernova, consuming the nearest planets and burning those just outside of its reach. The Pfhor usually only use it on very serious slave revolts, and don't use often on pure military matters.


'''[[Starcraft|Protoss "Glassing"]]'''

Think of them as the more powerful version of the Covenant's glassing, while the Covenant only glass the crust of the planet, the Protoss glass ''right down to the mantle'', although this is usually reserved for when complete [[Tyranids|Zerg infestation]] has enveloped the planet. This is usually the case because their voracious cousins have this annoying ability to burrow beneath the planet's surface, so if they just glassed the surface, any drones or larvae that survive by burrowing will be able to reinfest the planet again in short order. Very overpowered in their universe, but not something they like doing, since burning up valuable real-estate and cheesing off the redneck Terran neighbors isn't really their style.

==IRL Exterminatus==

'''Nuclear Holocaust'''

Apparently even when we aren't in the 41st millennium we still mastered the art of royally buttfucking a planet. In this case, it's ours, and a full scale thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union would be enough to kill off humanity multiple times over. This is how Mutually Assured Destruction works, threatening our own planet with Exterminatus just so we won't begin another World War. Because [[Imperium of Man|we're bastards like that]]. Speaking of nuclear technology, the Doomsday Device described in ''Dr. Strangelove'' indicates a type of weapon known as a ''cobalt bomb'' or salted bomb, a thermonuclear device specificially designed to irradiate cobalt and spread it all over the atmosphere, and just 50 of them can spell the end of all multicellular life on Earth.

'''An asteroid'''

Really, at it takes to kill everything on a planet is a big enough rock travelling fast enough. Normally its the cloud of dusk that is kicked up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun does most of the work. Dinosaurs learned this the hard way. Of course this doesn't really work too well on a forge or hiveworld which is already like that.

'''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 [[Dungeons and Dragons|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.

'''William Tecumseh Sherman'''
[[File:Tree creed.JPG|200px|thumb|right|The only tree Khorne will ever decorate with bloody corpses on Christmas.]]
William, an Union commander and a [[Creed|tactical genius]], is known for nuking a lot of pretty places like Atlanta and pwning every [[Chaos Space Marine|Confederates]] and [[Tau|Native American]] he faced. He invented the total war strategy, which it is basically the earliest form of exterminatus, <s>rape, pillage, plunder</s> Sherman didn't do any of these things and went out of his way in preventing civilian deaths and harshly punished any of his solders he found doing them meaning he's old-school Khrone, then [[Sisters of Battle|burns every fucking thing down to ashes]]. Because of his hatred for everything, he becomes the [[Spiritual liege|spiritual forefather]] of [[/b/|anonymous]], [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|for the fact he has shown those basement dweller the true meaning to be humans]]. He probably ascended to daemonhood of Khorne after his death, like pretty much all extremely badass warlords.

'''Nine familial exterminations'''
To put it simply, for your [[HERESY]] you and your entire family, grandmother, ancestor, cats and children are going to fucking hell!!! It is the most serious punishment created in the ancient [[Imperium|imperial china]] in order to erase heresy stains at that time period. This is still being practiced today in North Korea, however.

==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.<br>
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.<br>
I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion.<br>
May Imperial Justice account in all balance.<br>
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 which felled 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-


Fuck, that's deep. 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, [[Witch Hunters|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.

For those of you with enough money to field the Horus Heresy army list from Forge World, Horus can call down an orbital strike with infinite range and S10 AP1 from anywhere on the map. Now you can reenact the Istvaan III atrocities yourself!

For an Apocalypse game you can also field an exterminatus guard force.
All you need is:
n * 6 guardsmen (one with a vox).
The list is fairly simple - Just field as many Company Command Squads with nothing but Master of Ordinance and fire away (for a 3k game its almost 38 s9 ap3 blasts a turn)
Don't forget to field some epic(troll) music to laugh at your opponents face, and after the battle proceed with knocking the table down to finish with a speech gritty nuff to make Sturnn himself proud.

==TL;DR==
You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git [[FATAL|raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped]].

<gallery>
image:exterminatus.jpg
image:exterminatus2.jpg
File:Red nuke button turned into EXTERMINATUS.png|Suffer not the Furry to live
File:Exterminatusthread.jpg|The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.
File:Foxy Lady.jpg|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
File:Fall_of_Reach_1.jpg|If said inhabitants started space-faring like a certain [[Chakat|Chakat]], then you could call your local Inquisition or any Xeno manly enough to [[Get shit done|get shit done, just like the Covenant shown in the image.]]
File:Hello exterminatus Warhammer 40k sister of battle rule 34.jpg|See? The Internet can even make the end of the world look sexy!
File:Rocks are not free citizen.jpg|Don't suggest bolides as a method of exterminatus.
File:Sherman.gif
File:Ohara Incident.png|Although this is not a planet, it's just too B-E-A-[[weeaboo]]-TIFUL.
</gallery>

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

[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Meme]]