How to kill a planet?

[PorridgeMeister]

Basically, in my IA, my Chapter initially has two pretty similar homeworlds, from which they draw recruits. Now the chapter has very strong bonds with the planets and their inhabitants. In one of the key stories featured in the IA, I have decided that the planet HAS to be rendered practically destroyed (I want the Chapter and the inhabitants of the other planet to be able to look up and see it's husk at night and remember the destruction) - the question is how? I have already considered several possibilities:

 

- have a Necron tomb fleet come along and scour the planet of life (think of the World Engine story from C:SM).

- have a Chaos incursion strike the sector and be beaten back at the planet; only for them to bomb it with virus bombs or something like that. However, this might cause the =][= to come along and quarantine the system, which would make it sound too familiar to the Storm Wardens (semi-celtic theme and forbidden Chapter system).

- planet-killer scale weaponry? Not thinking on the scale of Blackstone Fortresses, but maybe Ork "planit-eataz"?

 

PS: I might not get an opportunity to reply to any responses for a few days.

[vipertaja]

Well, you start by killing seals and manufacturing styrofoam and plastic bags and... :huh:

 

Nah...seriously though your first two alternatives seem most credible to me. I'm not sure how exactly orks would destroy a planet (nor do I know if they would, they're more into clobbering the people living there).

[Reyner]

Orks could attach rockets to a massive asteroid and smash it into the other planet as they try and invade the other. I do like the Necron idea, that would be an epic battle for marines and the Imperial Navy to hold off a Necron fleet - the World Engine needed a massive fleet and a whole Chapter to sacrifice themselves to destroy it though :o

[Ring-around-the-roses]

The way to kill a planet in 40k, oh, this is so tempting.

Depends on the type of planet, and how you want you're chapter to think of it as.

As a symbol of hatred? Destroyed by the enemy in some kind of sneak attack. DISHONOURABLE!

As a symbol of duty? They had to destroy it to prevent the citizens from falling prey to corruption.

Or as something more complex, like a literal reminder that they are always balanced on a knife edge of extinction(Thinking of Mortifactors style grimness in chapter)

[hendrik]

the wolves destroyed quite a bit of the quietude their planet by making sure a huge chunk of their ordbital defenses crashed down on the planet

[Marshal Rohr]

You could go with a star wars route and have an Emperor class crash into the planet and its reactors poison the planet.

 

I like the idea of a massive Ork ship called a planit eata igniting its atmosphere or something.

 

Maybe have a stellar anomoly render it lifeless, like a massive solar flare reach out and touch the planet. It could be caused by some kind of chaos ritual.

 

Have the planet crash into the sun, or have the sun go red giant and a previously temperate world be rendered into something like mercury.

[Luna Drake]

Few Questions :mellow:

1. How recently was the planet nearly destroyed ?
   
2. How has the planets near destruction affected the chapter ?
   

 

 

 

Your ideas are really good but if the planet was nearly destroyed recently then what about a Tyranid genestealer cult that spreads rapidly across the planet and unable to purge the cult the chapter evacuates the unaffected citizens before orbitally barrage the planet. ^_^

Sorrry if that didnt make much sense its late here :lol:

[Khiros]

unable to purge the cult the chapter evacuates the unaffected citizens before orbitally barrage the planet.

I don't mean to be a buzz-kill or anyting, because yours is a very good idea. However, if a Genestealer cult got to the point where it couldn't be purged, the planet would probably be marked for Exterminatus, since at that point there would be almost no way to guarantee that none of the refugees were tainted. But to continue along your idea, the planet would forever remain a reminder of what happens when a populace turns from the Emperor's grace, whether intentional or not, and they would probably also be forever on the lookout for signs of another cult spreading on the remaining planet.

[Olis]

I'd personally go with a 'mercy-kill' scenario - the chapter itself was forced to destroy the population of the world because of corruption (genestealers/chaos/other aliens of somekind). The chapter thus had to bombard the planet (or exterminatus it, maybe) and reduce it to a husk for the good of the Imperium and themelves. :(

[Ring-around-the-roses]

Would make great background, agreed. Could affect the whole Chapter's decision making, turning them from glory hunting Marines into Depressive, 'lets do our duty before we die' kinda guys. Or they have a tendency to fight almost stupidly if it means they can save ANY imperial citizens.

[vipertaja]

I'd personally go with a 'mercy-kill' scenario - the chapter itself was forced to destroy the population of the world because of corruption (genestealers/chaos/other aliens of somekind). The chapter thus had to bombard the planet (or exterminatus it, maybe) and reduce it to a husk for the good of the Imperium and themelves. :)

 

 

Ooh, nice tragedy there. The very stuff 40k is made of.

Maybe some generous bitter mass executions and slaughter as well before the bombarding? :(

[Olis]

I'd personally go with a 'mercy-kill' scenario - the chapter itself was forced to destroy the population of the world because of corruption (genestealers/chaos/other aliens of somekind). The chapter thus had to bombard the planet (or exterminatus it, maybe) and reduce it to a husk for the good of the Imperium and themelves. :)

 

 

Ooh, nice tragedy there. The very stuff 40k is made of.

Maybe some generous bitter mass executions and slaughter as well before the bombarding? ^_^

 

Sure, grimdark it up, baby. :P

 

Perhaps as a stage along the way between 'a cult needs a-purging' and 'TOTAL ANNIHILATION' the chapter had to put down a corrupted city and the only sure way was mass summary executions. But, ultimately, they didn't get them all... hence the exterminatus. :D

[vipertaja]

I'd personally go with a 'mercy-kill' scenario - the chapter itself was forced to destroy the population of the world because of corruption (genestealers/chaos/other aliens of somekind). The chapter thus had to bombard the planet (or exterminatus it, maybe) and reduce it to a husk for the good of the Imperium and themelves. :)

 

 

Ooh, nice tragedy there. The very stuff 40k is made of.

Maybe some generous bitter mass executions and slaughter as well before the bombarding? ^_^

 

Sure, grimdark it up, baby. :P

 

Perhaps as a stage along the way between 'a cult needs a-purging' and 'TOTAL ANNIHILATION' the chapter had to put down a corrupted city and the only sure way was mass summary executions. But, ultimately, they didn't get them all... hence the exterminatus. :D

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking as well.

[Shinzaren]

Killing a planet is relatively easy on a Cosmic scale. Life can only be supported in very specific conditions and things that alter those conditions can have pretty terrifying consequences. If the destruction is deliberate, and the planets are relatively close together, I think destroying the entire planet would be cool. Basically you destroy the core and the planet just explodes and shatters, leaving a bunch of debris that is held together by its own gravity and the gravity of the other planet. That way the inhabitants of Planet B could look up in the sky and see the shattered remnants of Planet A. I would imagine that a planet could be basically torn apart at the seams (tectonic plates) and annihilated by some fantastic weapon or event, but still leave the general shape and such. That would be the coolest thing I can think of, with just a shattered and broken planet held together by its own remaining gravity.

[DarkCrusader]

Mind if i also steal that idea?lol..u could say that the nearby planet keeps the debris in orbit or something..that would be awesom ;)

[Ring-around-the-roses]

And, if they mount space ports and defenses on the asteroid belt, that could be a very effective defence. Or, they could have a tractor beam to simply throw giant rocks at space invaders. What a weird idea... ;)

[PorridgeMeister]

Thanks to everybody who replied to this thread! All your ideas are appreciated.

 

I really like the ideas of Shinzaren and Marshal2Crusaders, and of course the whole purge idea - it seems appropriate as the name of the section of the IA in which it happens is named "Sacrifice: the Death of Ailswater". However, the thing is that the planet wasn't urban at all - it was sparsely populated; most of the land surface was marshland and thick forests with some mountainous uplands. The natives lived underground in secret barrows and there were virtually no valuable natural resources so there were no buzzing hives here; the touch of the Imperium is only directly felt through the Chapter's presence - there was only one major settlement, which was an Imperial colony.

 

If I had to roll with the whole corruption thing here, it would be a possessed traveller corrupting the colony with the Knights purging it - or so they thought. A single tainted individual could have escaped into the deep forests and manifested as a high-ranking Daemon and by spreading its influence slowly, corrupted enough people for them to manifest as Daemons over a period of several years.

 

@Vipertaja: :huh:

@Luna Drake:

- The planet was meant to be "destroyed" relatively close to the founding of the Chapter; only 500-1000 years after the death of the First Master.

- Well, originally the idea was that Enemy X attacked the sector and the Imperials fought the invasion to a bloody standstill on Ailswater, but Allied Chapter Y decided that the war was going against them and following the Codex, they upped and left only the Knights Valiant to defend it. This caused the loss of the battle and the Knights being forced to withdraw to watch Enemy X destroy their world. Most of the marines by now are native inductees headed by the few Sons of Orar veterans, so they would be seriously :lol: at the idea of losing their homeworld.

 

So I could have that original idea of allied Chapter Y helping the Knights fight the campaign against the Daemons and then abandoning them at the critical point. The Knights could have alerted the Imperium to the threat and called for reinforcements when they had lost contact with enough settlements for them realising something fishy to be going on. The only question is who is Chapter Y? Any volunteers..? :)

[Allfather1]

The only question is who is Chapter Y? Any volunteers..? :huh:

 

I would suggest the Dark Angels. You don't have to explain why they left and it doesn't affect their background.

[DarkCrusader]

The only question is who is Chapter Y? Any volunteers..? :P

 

I would suggest the Dark Angels. You don't have to explain why they left and it doesn't affect their background.

 

yeah,their constant moving makes them a cool 'put into a story pull out of a story' chapter :huh:

[PorridgeMeister]

The only question is who is Chapter Y? Any volunteers..? :D

 

I would suggest the Dark Angels. You don't have to explain why they left and it doesn't affect their background.

 

yeah,their constant moving makes them a cool 'put into a story pull out of a story' chapter ^_^

 

That's a good idea, but I was hoping to use the Ultramarines as then I could use that to explain the Codex-compliant attitude of the Knights and also...so I could hate on them indiscriminately. ;) :P

[Evz]

The planet was cooked alive with some magical warp thingy of Chaos?

[Brother Excedis]

I'd let you use my own chapter but pulling out is against our combat doctrine.....The DA's are a good idea because they do thqat all the time (as stated). But the Ultramarines, while compliant to the codex, would withdraw from such a battle at the defense of citizens only if it mean the destruction of their chapter if they stayed....and even then. Im not exactly a huge fan of who the UM's are today (I really liked my idea of them when I started) but they wouldn't do that. Maybe one of their successors would though. Like the silver skulls you oculd say they read in the tarot or something that they needed to pull out when they did. It would mak sense considering they only fight...or do anything else....when they read it in the tarot.

[DarkCrusader]

Yeah.thats the main problem.the untouchable cliche.but lets get back on topic

[Ferrata]

This isn't a discussion about Ultramarines so don't take it that way. In addition, please avoid using text-speak such as 'u', type correctly please.

 

Finally, it isn't typically a good idea to use a GW chapter in your history - it always comes across as attempting to look cool by association. Just come up with a random chapter like the Grey Sharks or the Stealth Destroyers or the feared Furious Gators (all names taken from the Chapter Name Creator).

[Ring-around-the-roses]

Gator Rex Chapter. Hard to find, preferring close assault ambushes and overwhelming short ranged firepower. Ship fleet consists of five battle barges, with no support craft at all, preffering to concentrate their numbers, close the distance with either ambushers or over-driving their engines dangerously, and boarding while firing at the enemy, to do maximum damage at the rare expense of their battle-brothers lives.

 

How's that? ;)