Exterminatus!

As the Warship reached the Mandeville Point, the two massive Imperial fleets entered the Warp once more.

The first time had been unfamiliar. The second came easier.

From the bridge, Lorgar watched his Fleet slip into the Warp, then race through its boundless expanse.

"Carry out Exterminatus on the target Planet and every Planet occupied by the enemy. The Primarch has approved it."

A command was relayed to every Warship, and the Revenge Fleet, built around dozens of battleships, responded at once.

Lorgar stood on the bridge and waited for the Warship to arrive.

Exterminatus was the High Gothic term for the destruction of an entire planet's biosphere and all life upon it.

The order was issued only in extreme circumstances, generally when a Planet harbored a strategic threat to the entire Imperium, or even an extinction-level threat that might spread to other worlds.

When the cost of holding or retaking a world was deemed too high, or when mutation, plague, or Chaos threatened to spread beyond it and could not be contained by conventional means, Exterminatus became the Imperium's last resort.

For that reason, it was rarely used on planets vital to the Imperium or of strategic value.

Exterminatus could usually be carried out only by senior officers of the Astra Militarum, the Imperial Navy, or the Astartes, or ordered by an Inquisitor of the Inquisition. There were, however, many ways to execute it.

As a Primarch, Lorgar could order it practically at will.

Solomon System

Otlak

As Fleet after Fleet emerged from the Warp, a force of Warships powerful enough to change the course of battles across several sectors appeared above the Xenos.

Macragge's Honour hung motionless in synchronous Orbit over the Xenos homeworld, a monument to civilization in blue and gold.

Across from it, in a somewhat lower Orbit, was the Word Bearers Legion's Gloriana-class Battleship, the Law of Faith.

Sacred reliefs and scripture covered its dark-gray hull. It was a solemn sanctuary built to move through the stars and deliver final judgment.

Though utterly different in design, the two great ships now seemed like fists extended by the Emperor's will. One embodied the absolute power of reason and order; the other, the burning fury of faith and purification. Both were aimed at the Planet below, which still gleamed with an ominous pallor.

Through interrogation, Lorgar had learned everything about these Xenos.

They were known as the Kaindrashi Civilization, also called the Flesh Editors Civilization.

They possessed neural nodes. Particularly powerful individuals among them retained part of their consciousness when they were connected to the vast telepathic network, where they endured eternal agony to amplify and transmit its signals.

The Kaindrashi believed they were "elevating" lesser life-forms. They "wove" them out of meaningless individual existence and into their great, unified collective consciousness, also known as the "Unified Flesh."

They offered this "ascension" to conquered species and those with whom they sought to negotiate, regarding it as the highest gift.

Now, they were about to perish.

"Carry out Exterminatus," Lorgar ordered.

Incense and the smoke of burning sacred oils filled the Torpedo bay, while the low, unbroken chants of hundreds of Tech-Priests, Legion Chaplains, and Word Bearers echoed through the air.

Sacred images and scripture covered the Warship's walls. In the mingled glow of flickering candles and data screens, they seemed to come alive.

The Atmospheric Incineration Torpedo stood upright at the center of the Temple. It was no longer a cold weapon, but a sacred instrument of war for the Emperor.

The red-robed Tech-Priests moved like priests conducting a Ritual. With their mechanical Tentacles, they spread sacred oil over the Torpedo's cold casing, each streak accompanied by a prayer to the Machine God.

Chaplains in gray robes and Space Marine armor affixed parchment Scriptures to the Torpedo. Upon them were written holy words calling for the expulsion of Xenos and the purification of filth.

The entire Torpedo was almost entirely covered in sacred marks.

"Praise the Omnissiah!" cried a hoarse-voiced Tech-Priest. He raised a blessed censer high, shrouding the Torpedo's warhead in smoke.

"Praise the Machine God!" the Tech-Priests answered as one. Their mechanical voices mingled with the sound of their remaining vocal cords in a strange chorus.

The Word Bearers Legion's Space Marines wore scripture-covered stoles and struck the floor rhythmically with ceremonial weapons, producing a thunderous beat like war drums.

Hundreds of Legion Chaplains stood at the front. Their Staffs slammed into the floor, and their amplified voices rose above every other sound:

"May Thy power fill this sacred weapon, in the name of Revenge! May its flames burn away every blasphemous form! May its light reflect the Emperor's wrath! May its detonation toll the death knell of the Xenos!"

Their words set the Word Bearers' zeal for annihilation ablaze.

Nearly every voice joined in one deafening roar: "Burn! Purify! Destroy!"

To the shouts of countless Legion warriors, the Torpedo launched from the Law of Faith, bearing their boundless faith and hatred.

To the Word Bearers, its exhaust glowed like the radiance of a descending angel, lighting the path to destruction.

On the Planet's surface, the remnants of the Kaindrashi Civilization gazed up at the heavens. Their compound eyes might have caught the newly appeared points of light in Orbit, each promising destruction.

Perhaps they were still shrieking, still trying to mount one last futile defense with their blasphemous biotechnology.

But they could not understand that what faced them now was no longer war. It was judgment.

Their species had been sentenced to death, and the means of execution was one of the most extreme, thorough instruments of purification in the Imperial arsenal: Atmospheric Incineration Torpedoes.

Two planet-strike Torpedoes detonated along their calculated low-altitude Orbit.

No sound could travel through the vacuum, but the sight alone was enough to tear any enemy apart.

First came an indescribable, all-consuming white.

Two miniature suns were born in the Xenos world's atmosphere.

Their light was so intense that it instantly eclipsed the star's dim red glow and briefly illuminated even the Planet's perpetually dark side.

That light was the Emperor's fury: the power contained within the detonating Torpedoes, enough to burn away a star.

That ultimate light and heat became the match that set the world ablaze.

HSSSSS—!!!!!

A vast force traveled through the Planet itself, producing a sound like canvas being ripped apart that shook everything.

Wherever the light reached, the burning began!

But this was no ordinary ignition.

That was the terror of Atmospheric Incineration Torpedoes: they ignited the atmosphere itself!

The oxygen abundant across the Planet's surface, the gas on which life depended, had become the perfect fuel for destroying the entire world.

After the light came an endless firestorm! The Planet's entire atmosphere ignited in an instant. From pole to equator, from ocean to land, unimaginable flames filled every visible stretch of space.

The sky vanished. In its place was a boiling, roaring sea of fire, its temperature soaring in an instant high enough to vaporize all matter!

The oceans did not merely evaporate. They caught fire, the water breaking down under the extreme heat and feeding the blaze!

Mountains began to melt, and rock flowed like wax!

The enormous, pulsing organic structures, the "Unified Flesh" covering the Planet, were ionized completely in a hundredth of a second. They vanished without a trace, without even producing a wisp of smoke!