Exterminatus—an Imperial term used for the sanctioned annihilation of an entire planetary biosphere, and all life upon that world.
Put simply, it means turning a planet into a dead world. A bare rock. A ruined sphere with no remaining value.
In most cases, Exterminatus is not used unless the situation has reached an extreme.
The usual prerequisite is that the planet contains an extinction-level strategic threat to the Imperium—something that could spread across the system, continuing to metastasize.
Or, the cost of reclaiming the world has become so high that it exceeds the cost of executing Exterminatus.
In other words: when conventional means can no longer realistically retake the planet, Exterminatus becomes the Imperium's final option.
But in this case, the Tyranids' true invasion hadn't even properly begun yet. This was only the outbreak of dormant organisms—an explosion of infiltrator-broods—throwing the entire planet into chaos.
Under those circumstances, the planet shouldn't fall so quickly. It shouldn't be at the point where Exterminatus is even on the table.
Which meant something else had happened.
Something abnormal.
For example… a Chaos incursion.
After all, right after Kain dug up the STC, he'd run into a Chaos incursion down in the hive's underhive—and he'd even "lightly teased" it while he was at it.
And there had also been a Night Lords Chaos Astartes—one of their "brothers"—showing up.
The Night Lords might have fallen to Chaos, but they were the sort of lunatics the Imperium didn't love and the Ruinous Powers didn't particularly cherish either. They lived for slaughter and devastation—sowing pain and fear like a crop across every corner of the Imperium.
Had those bastards done something huge… something that could force the Imperium into considering Exterminatus?
Then, from the Salamanders Astartes—specifically the one who'd been "keeping an eye on him"—Kain got more information.
Exterminatus wasn't fully confirmed yet.
It depended on whether Imperial reinforcements could arrive in time. If the estimates said they wouldn't, then Exterminatus would be authorized.
And the crisis really was tied to a daemonic incursion—at the hive city Kain had been in earlier.
Because of a Planetary Defence Force commander's idiotic decision, a void fortress had been driven into the hive in a catastrophic impact. The released energy was exploited by someone, tearing open a "gap"—
A Warp rift.
And so the armies of Chaos had begun forcing their way onto the planet.
That meant the Tyranid threat and the Warp incursion had collided on the same battlefield. The defenders simply didn't have the strength to handle both. At best, they could barely hold one front.
If this dragged on—if reinforcements failed to arrive, if no one could seal the hive and close the Warp rift—then the hammer of destruction would fall.
Exterminatus.
Kain then used a comms device and brought up a virtual window, seeing the situation there for himself.
When he'd left earlier, looking down from high altitude, it had been like a colossal volcanic crater had been blasted into existence—an enormous, brutal wound, with the ground swallowed by flames.
Now, at the heart of that super-crater, the magma and fire looked as if they'd gone out.
All that remained was an abnormal裂—an enormous tear.
That tear looked like it was exhaling fog into the world, but that "fog" was the manifestation of daemonic incursion.
Zoomed in, it resembled the barrier between reality and hell being shattered and ripped open—like the far side of the crack truly was hell.
And in a sense, calling it hell wasn't wrong.
That was where the daemons came from.
Looking closer at the ground around the rift, he could already see creatures clawing up through the soil. He could also see half-buried, severed limbs twitching and writhing.
Clearly, the hive city—and the satellite-hives around it—had become vessels for the daemons of the Warp.
Normally, the energy from that kind of massive blast should have burned most bodies to ash.
But judging by what he was seeing, that energy had been "used" instead—so the surrounding area hadn't been scorched cleanly and completely.
"Stop staring. The next wave is coming!"
The warning came from an Astartes brother. And Kain, already sensing movement, turned and saw something stirring in the darkness.
Then the flares went up.
This wave looked even more vicious than the last.
And now, the distance to the area Kain needed to reach was down to thirty kilometers.
The force that had driven deep behind enemy lines had been reduced to this:
All Astartes still alive—plus Kain—and fewer than a hundred surviving Planetary Defence Force soldiers.
Kain also noticed the massive crate an Astartes had been carrying the whole time.
They still hadn't used it.
It was being guarded tightly.
Was it some kind of special weapon?
But now their route was drifting away from the hive, and it overlapped perfectly with the area Kain needed to reach.
"We're still going to the destination?"
"In this situation, how could there possibly be anyone there to receive the cargo?"
Receiver?
Kain's brow twitched.
So the crate was the delivery.
"Captain—message from the Deathwatch. They want us to temporarily suspend the current objective and rendezvous with them."
That single report made every Astartes fall silent.
"Thirty kilometers. We reply after we reach the destination."
So it really was the same area Kain needed to reach.
Had something happened to his ship?
Thirty kilometers—if the Astartes went all-out, they could reach it fast.
The problem was the constant Tyranid attacks. It wasn't going to be that easy.
On the way, they were almost guaranteed to hit worse dangers.
At this pace, they might not even reach it in a full day.
Just like earlier: after the Carnifexes appeared, five hours had passed, and they'd advanced only twenty kilometers.
Suddenly, Kain felt pressure.
The captain—bareheaded—looked at him and started walking over.
That sheer size, that heavy power armor… the oppressive weight of it was stronger than the Chaos Astartes Kain had encountered in the underhive.
"You're not PDF," the captain said. "And your objective seems to be the same as ours."
After those words, the gaze that pinned Kain felt as if it had mass—like the air itself was filling up, squeezing the breath out of him.
…
"Maybe," Kain said, "I'm the receiver you're looking for."
"Name."
"Lance Plaine."
"That is the name of the person I was commissioned to deliver to," the captain replied evenly. "But prove you are Lance Plaine."
How was he supposed to prove that?
It was like those ridiculous stories from his old life—someone goes to a bank to withdraw money from a dead father's account, and the bank demands proof that "your dad is your dad."
A brief silence.
A silence filled with gunfire, as the Tyranids surged in again and the other Astartes held the line.
As for how they'd found the location of his ship…
Kain suspected it was because one of the tunnel-borers he'd acquired carried some kind of GPS beacon.
After all, that batch of "tunnel bugs" had been obtained through a trade connected to them, and his general operating area had been exposed more than once.
And why hadn't the signal locked onto the hive?
Probably because he'd self-detonated the tunnel bugs—no signal remained—so they went straight to the original source.
His ship.
When the tunnel bugs had emerged near it, the signal had gone out.
Honestly, he was lucky he hadn't started digging directly around here in the first place, or he might've driven headfirst into a Tyranid nest.
"The one who commissioned the delivery is Archmagos Belisarius Cawl, right?"
The captain's expression didn't change. He simply stared, calm and heavy.
After several seconds, he nodded toward the Salamanders brother carrying the crate.
That brother stepped forward, set down the metal container—about the size of a wardrobe—then unlocked it.
The latches disengaged.
The crate began to open.
So… what had the Archmagos sent him this time?
Kain couldn't help feeling a flicker of anticipation.
(End of Chapter)
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