Editing Exterminatus (section)

==Exterminatus in other settings==
===Star Trek===
In [[Star Trek]] the Federation's General Order 24 calls for the extermination of all life on a planet. It is threatened multiple times, but never seen on screen. One novel and (very weird) comic do show it, however. Just the original Enterprise on its own is supposed to be able to accomplish this task. While this would take time, the fact that it's theoretically possible without preparing the ship at a shipyard indicates Federation ships are quite a bit more powerful than the Federation's peaceful goals suggests.

More famously, ''Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan'' introduces the Genesis Device. When used properly it's a planet-seeding device that can instigate the formation of life on dead worlds. In practice the massive amount of energy released means it also functions as a planet-glassing bomb, killing everything that already lived there.

===Star Wars===
While it is known to the Clone Wars era (possibly earlier) Republic and the Galactic Empire as Base Delta Zero, the Galaxy Far Far Away has known of orbital attack causing the destruction of all life on a planet for much longer. [[Bioware|Knights of the Old Republic]] implies Tatooine is the giant ball of sand that it is because it pissed off the Rakatan Infinite Empire precursors long before the formation of the Republic, and shows the city-planet of Taris destroyed with such an attack on orders of Darth Malak.

A few years before that, Mandalore the Ultimate ordered two planets (Serroco and Jebble) nuked from orbit, killing everything that failed to escape (but for one Jedi Assassin on Jebble, who was stuck in a stasis coffin built by an ancient Sith alchemist and managed to survive). Three centuries after Taris got bombed (with only the Undercity inhabitants surviving before succumbing to rakghouls) various super weapons theoretically capable of Exterminatus were made during the Great Galactic War period. Various other super weapons were made and used earlier and later, occasionally [[Not_As_Planned|backfiring]].

The Empire regularly made use of Exterminatus as part of its campaign to rule through terror. The peaceful planet of Caamas was destroyed early into the Empire merely for the suspicion they would one day oppose the Empire and (due to the widespread respect they had for maintaining a stance of actual pacifism) encourage others to do so. BDZ is implied to have been relatively common under the Empire, as opposed to the Old Republic (who used it as a last resort before the Ruusan Reformation; they slowly began getting more and more liberal with it during the Clone Wars due to Palpatine and his cronies' manipulation.) The Empire even had propaganda broadcasts that would mention "planetary liberation utilizing the Base Delta Zero initiative". It would seem that the vast majority of the Empire's population (including one of the characters from Star Wars Rebels) was unaware as to what "liberation" by Base Delta Zero actually implied.

This was taken to the extreme with the Death Star, a weapon designed to make Exterminatus so easy nobody would oppose it out of fear. This backfired horribly when the station was destroyed after its second use at Alderaan, causing the galaxy to lash out in revolt (the first use was the slave labor planet it was being built at, where it took three mid-power shots to kill everything, crack the mantle and blow it up in that order. A minimum-power blast also one-shot the sole Rebel capital ship in a task force that tried to attack it at that slave-planet).

Aside from these, the Empire had a fetish for impractical super weapons capable of Exterminatus, with the pre-Disney EU featuring weapons such as the Galaxy Gun (the Death Star, but smaller and with missiles), the ''Tarkin'' (The Death Star, but ship-sized), the ''Eclipse'' and ''Sovereign''-class Star Destroyers (see before), the World Devastators, and the [[Mary Sue|Sun Crusher]] ([[What|the Death Star, but the size of a ''starfighter'']]; generally regarded as a concept emblematic of the [[C.S Goto|worst elements of the original Expanded Universe]]). Amusingly enough, [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Superweapon/Legends#Superweapons it's actually pointed out in-universe how stupid this hard-on for powerful but impractical superweapons is].

While the New Republic initially rejected Exterminatus, the war with extra-galactic invaders the Yuuzhan Vong (who had their own Tyranid-like Exterminatus methods, converting biospheres to forms inimical to non-Yuuzhan Vong life) eventually pushed them into using it. BDZ was frequently used in later years as well by the One Sith, most notably at Ossus in 137 ABY and during the Genocide of Dac (in which Mon Calamari was basically Virus Bombed to uninhabitability by the One Sith; as with the destruction of Alderaan a hundred years earlier, this backfired horribly in the long term, the One Sith getting themselves wiped out with no other Sith remaining a few years later).

===Halo===
In the [[Halo]] universe wiping out all life on a planet happens surprisingly often, and there are many interesting ways of doing so. It is the only way to be 100% certain you have dealt with a Flood outbreak.

The UNSC has the options of nuking the planet in the bog-standard nuclear holocaust situation that's very much what you'd expect. However, their most powerful weapon is the NOVA bomb. The NOVA bomb is created by strapping together nine standard fusion warheads and encasing them in a casing of lithium triteride which amplifies the warheads destructive output that is unfortunately never mentioned but has the power to crack open a planet, earning the nickname "Planet Crackers". The first real use of this weapon was when it detonated between a planet and its moon, destroying the moon and scorching half the surface of the planet, as well as destroying three-fifths of a 300-strong fleet.

The Covenant is well known for their orbital bombardment technique known as "glassing", where through sustained high-energy plasma bombardment, a planet's surface is reduced to a glass-like material resembling obsidian. This was the fate of many human planets during the Human-Covenant War, including but not limited to Harvest, Madrigal, Eridanus II, Miridien, Paris IV, and Reach.

The Forerunners, of course, have arguably the most powerful method of wiping out all life on a planet in Halo canon: the titular Halo rings, which can cleanse either a single planet of life on lower settings, to everything within 25,000 light-years at maximum. When all seven are fired in concert, they can wipe out all life in the galaxy, which they have done before. The Forerunners have also created a device known as the Composer, which takes an organic being, destroys their body, and uploads their consciousness into a digital format. The process is extremely painful and those composed aren't always sane by the end of it. Of course, there could be who knows what kind of galaxy-killing weapons in the Forerunner arsenal that haven't been revealed yet.