TCS Towers

With the Terminid Outbreak at the start of the galactic war threatening to spread out of control, Super Earth scientists developed the Terminid control system: a planet-wide bug extermination network. The TCS would be constructed on an unbroken line of barrier planets in the Umlaut Sector, with the plan being to quarantine the bugs behind them.
== Activation of the Terminid Control System ==
After the bugs were pushed back to the barrier planets, where after weeks of work SEAF engineers had finished a building a network of massive, Termicide-dispensing towers upon each Barrier Planet: the key to the Terminid Control System. Once activated, the TCS would exterminate every Terminid on that planet, and inoculate it against all future infestations. However, surges in Terminid activity also forced the SEAF Engineers to evacuate, with the Helldivers being sent into activate the Terminid Control System at any cost.
The Terminid Control System would later be successfully and fully activated several days later thanks to the efforts of the Helldivers. The Termicide would work as intended, killing millions of Terminids on the Barrier Planets. Super Earth's citizens could finally rest easy, knowing their children were forever safe from being eaten alive by fascist insects.
However unconfirmed reports, antidemocratic rumors and unpatriotic conspiracy theories say that the Termicide, an Anti-Terminid Neurotoxin dispersed by the TCS Towers, is causing the Terminids to mutate and evolve faster. These rumors and conspiracy theories are all slanderous and defamatory, and most of all untrue, and any Helldivers or Citizens that is caught in the act of spouting such rumors must be reported to your nearest Democracy Officer.
== Failure of the Terminid Control System ==
For around two months the Terminid Control System worked as intended, even proving key during Operation Enduring Bulwark by providing a solid barrier against further Terminid advances into federation space.
However after two months, the TCS started to no longer functioning as intended as Terminid outbreaks erupted on all Barrier Planets. Most shockingly of all however was that the bugs were displaying resistance to Termicide! Something our top scientists previously believed impossible. Not only that but situation on Meridia, Terminid reproduction exploded overnight, and continues to increase exponentially, with the planet almost fully infested within hours.
Whilst the exact mechanism for this hyper-reproductive adaptation is unknown, it appears to be linked to continued Termicide Exposure. Whilst this effect is still limited to Meridia, it cannot be allowed to spread. With the situation on Meridia is unsalvagable, High Command placed Operation Legitimate Undertaking on indefinite hiatus. whilst the Helldivers were ordered to immediately deactivate the Terminid Control System on the remaining Barrier Planets.
== Decommissioning and aftermath ==
Further calamity has been thankfully averted, thanks to the swift and disciplined response of the Helldivers to deactivate the remaining Terminid Control System nodes. With further Termicide disbursement arrested, the remaining Barrier Planets are safe from suffering Meridia's fate.
Additionally the cause of the TCS failure has been identified. The Termicide had functioned as expected, killing nearly 100% of all Terminids (and 0% of absolutely any other biological life). However, for the small fraction of Terminids that survived, exposure to non-lethal doses of Termicide eventually caused beneficial changes to gene expression, in a completely unprecedented process known as hormesis.
On most Barrier Planets, this adaptation was limited to increased Termicide resistance, but on Meridia, non-lethal Termicide exposure caused higher reproduction rates and reduced generation time, with continued exposure to Termicide perpetuating this effect. The planet is now infested to a degree nearly comparable with the Terminid home planet, and scientists have classified Meridia as a "Supercolony".
The infestation is so severe that conventional Helldiver operations on the planet are out of the question. Currently the Ministry of Science is hard at work on a solution, but in the meantime, the Meridian Supercolony is likely to accelerate the spread of the Terminids in unforeseeable ways.
Rest assured, the reckless scientists responsible for created the Termicide are being thoroughly investigated. With the TCS inoperable and this new Supercolony active, the Terminids are now a greater threat than ever before. However there may yet be hope as following the destruction of Meridia, the Ministry of Science has announced that it is working on a new variant of Termicide (Termicide 2.0) which promises to be even more deadly...
== Gallery ==
File:Hanna-severien-tcs-tower-03.jpg
File:Hanna-severien-tcs-tower-04.jpg
File:Hanna-severien-tcs-tower-05.jpg
File:Hanna-severien-tcs-tower-01.jpg
File:Hanna-severien-tcs-tower-02.jpg
== Trivia ==
* The terminid control towers in look and function are giant bug sprayers, pumping neurotoxin into a planet's atmosphere.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCp64RkuBBo - Coretta Kelly - TCS Activation - News Broadcast
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_mqixDEafA - Coretta Kelly - TCS Failure - News Broadcast
Category:Terminids
Category:Termicide