re: #110 Targetpractice

Nukes would be too messy.

Virus Bomb

Virus Bombs deploy a hideous genetically-engineered pathogen called the Life-Eater virus intended to exterminate all forms of life in an inhabited planet’s biosphere. The pathogen, once released in aerosol form from the Virus Bombs, is extraordinarily virulent, capable of infecting every living thing, including flora, fauna and even bacteria on an entire world in only solar minutes if 100% orbital dispersal is achieved. The pathogen can penetrate even sealed environment suits, including Power Armour. The virus is designed to violently lyse living cells, essentially causing infected organisms to “melt” into a contaminated soup of organic matter. Entire forests and other plant matter can be reduced to this sludge in a short period of time, and individual animals die excruciating deaths as their bodies rapidly decay around them. The incredibly rapid breakdown of organic matter results in the steady release of great volumes of highly flammable gas, much of it composed of methane. Eventually, as the contamination spreads across the surface of the world, a single spark, a single lightning strike, or an intentional incendiary event, will cause this gas to ignite, sweeping the planet with an apocalyptic, global firestorm. This incredible heat will scour the world’s surface back to bare rock as well as eradicate most of the remaining oxygen in the planet’s atmosphere if it was habitable by Terran life.

In some cases, the lifeless Dead Worlds that are all that remain of planets that have suffered a virus bombing still prove valuable to the Adeptus Mechanicus after their violent death. These planets may be transformed into Mining Worlds or even prepared for a new round of terraforming to make them habitable for Imperial colonists once more.