Postwar Cleanup

After the roar of the main battle subsided, a deeper, more oppressive silence blanketed Azure Dawn.

But this silence was not peace. It was the prelude to another form of war.

The Empire's war machine had never truly stopped. It merely shifted gears, turning from frenzied destruction to precise, systematic, and immensely prolonged eradication.

The cruelty of this so-called "peace" surpassed even the direct slaughter against the Tyranid Swarm.

The Empire's reckoners arrived first.

A Cardinal from the Ecclesiarchy of Holy Terra came with a dedicated cleanup team under an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor.

They arrived aboard pitch-black, unmarked transports, descending silently upon this ravaged and scarred land like crows drawn by the scent of carrion.

Their arrival formally marked the beginning of a new round of suffering for Azure Dawn's native inhabitants.

The purification began with a comprehensive screening of all survivors.

The order was signed directly by the Inquisitor and held the highest priority, second only to an edict from the Emperor.

Every living being that had somehow survived while the Tyranid Swarm swept across the planet had to undergo the harshest and most merciless scrutiny.

Whether they were civilians who had spent months huddled in lightless underground shelters, their spirits long since withered; the remaining planetary Imperial Guard forces who had fought guerrilla battles through the ruins until the last man; or even the planetary nobles rescued from reinforced bunkers only after the Imperial Navy's guns blasted open the hive barriers—none were exempt.

At the core of the inspection lay a double purgatory: genetic screening and interrogation of faith.

The Tech-Priests of the Inquisition had brought precise, cold instruments.

Gene probes could pierce bone marrow and analyze the smallest abnormalities in genetic sequences.

Psykic detectors, like instruments of torture for the soul, captured even the faintest trace of