Fall of Medusa V - Exterminatus: For two and half standard years, Medusa V's hastily raised army kept the citizens of Medusa IV still loyal to the Emperor from being totally overwhelmed, turning back one assault by the Chaos Cultists after another. Eventually, the defenders knew there could be no true victory against such odds, not even when the Warp Storm finally dissipated and the 2nd Company of the Ultramarines Chapter was at last able to come to the planet's aid. The Inquisition despatched its agents to ascertain the scale of the Medusan IV heresy and eventually, regrettably, the Inquisition determined that Exterminatus was the only viable solution.The Cult Mechanicus and the Adeptus Administratum lobbied the Inquisition agents monitoring the Schism to suspend the sentence just long enough to allow what Loyalist citizens remained on Medusa IV to be evacuated. Tithe forecasts and resettlement schedules showed the crippling effect leaving them to die would have on industry in the sector, so the Inquisition granted a one-week stay of execution. Millions of Loyalists were loaded onto transports normally used for shipping foodstuffs to Medusa IV and a mass exodus of the Loyalist hive cities began. While the Ultramarines and the PDF regiments of Medusa V fought a heroic rearguard defence against an endless horde of insane Chaos Cultists, those innocents that could be saved were ferried off-world to Medusa V.Even the Astartes could only prevail so long in the face of such overwhelming numbers and unreasoning hate. Finally they too were forced to withdraw, leaving the heretics and remaining civilians to their fate. A sleek Inquisitorial corvette under the command of Inquisitor Baptiste fired a single salvo of Cyclonic Torpedoes at the planet, a deadly payload of the variant known as Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes. The warheads ignited the oxygen-rich atmosphere of the planet in a massive thermonuclear reaction, devouring everything in a blistering conflagration that seared all signs of life from the world, turning metal into molten slag and rock to glass as the Inquisition's fiery judgment took its toll. The planet burned brightly for a whole solar month, and from the safety of their own world, the people of Medusa V looked on in awe as their neighbour was consumed in the purifying flames of the Emperor's justice. Those Loyalist citizens of Medusa IV who had escaped offered prayers of gratitude to the Emperor for their deliverance.The new residents of Medusa V arrived from their burning planet by the millions and were welcomed by the waiting agents of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus. A drawn-out process of screening to root out any heretics amongst the refugees commenced and many thousands found their way to the pyre as the Inquisition acted ruthlessly to ensure the future purity of Medusa V. Colossal prefabricated cities were hastily erected by the Adeptus Mechanicus, vast structures that could house millions upon millions. Into these makeshift hive cities the refugees from Medusa IV were herded in droves, kept separate as a precaution against the spread of heresy. These "refugee cities," grim edifices of steel and stone, gradually found their place within the society of Medusa V, providing a vast new labour force to work the ore extracted from the mining world's crust. In only a few years, Medusa V found itself producing more promethium fuel, metals and supplies than it had ever been able to manage before the arrival of the refugees.In the two centuries before the outbreak of the conflict on the world in 999.M41, Medusa V continued to thrive as the gateway through Van Grothe's Rapidity, resupplying convoy vessels and exporting millions of tons of precious strategic ores to the ever-hungry Imperial Navy and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Only in the past few years had events begun to accelerate, casting the safety of Medusa V into doubt. The Rapidity had begun to "boil over," a phenomenon that has left even the wisest of the Imperium's savants and Observators baffled. Initially, the change in the nearby Warp rift was not deemed to be of concern, but soon there was little doubt that its instability was growing at an unexpectedly rapid rate. The Rapidity began to expand through space at a terrifying speed and every outpost and waystation the Warp storm touched was lost, all signs of life completely eradicated. Adeptus Mechanicus vessels attempting to monitor the storm calculated that in only a few months it would reach Medusa V. The best minds of the Imperium agreed on a single fact: all the people of Medusa V would die.