Ultramarine Commander Tygerius stood with the Inquisitor in the colossal battleship and stared through the viewscreen at the planet Knuhm.

The fighting was over. The rebellion on Knuhm had been crushed. The combined forces of Space Marines and Imperial Guard had yet again triumphed over the evil of Chaos. Yet at what cost? Thousands had died and a major part of the planet's population had been wiped out.

They had seen some terrible sights as the full power of Chaos had been unleashed. Foul horned daemons armed with terrible swords, hideous women with clawed limbs riding on impossibly slender beasts, shimmering pink and blue creatures that shifted their form and maggot-infested one-eyed beings that oozed slime. The Space Marine officer tried to banish these thoughts from his mind.

"You must forget what you have seen," said the Inquisitor, as though he was reading Tygerius' very thoughts. "The lure of Chaos can play on the mind through simple knowledge."

"Those rebels were fools to think they could traffic with such monstrosities," said Tygerius.

"Those who hunger for power and resist the Emperor's will are easily ensnared. Chaos awaits in the dark places of the universe. These are terrible things; things that are against everything we believe in. This is an evil that goes back to the dawn of time," replied the Inquisitor.

The Inquisitor was from the Ordo Malleus, the Daemonhunters. He had spent a lifetime battling horrors that other men could never imagine.

"What now for Knuhm?" asked Tygerius.

"The planet will have to be cleansed completely," replied the Inquisitor. "I am ordering the Exterminatus."

'No, not the Exterminatus!' thought Tygerius. The entire planet would be bombarded with virus bombs. Not one inhabitant would be allowed to survive. Even the Imperial Guard who had fought so hard would be wiped out. A terrible waste of life.

"As I said, just the knowledge of Chaos can be a lure and allow it to gain a foothold in this universe. The people of this world have seen too much. I cannot allow that knowledge to pass freely."

Tygerius had heard much about this particular Inquisitor. He was known to be particularly ruthless. His true name was unknown, but they called him 'The Destroyer of Worlds.' He had even heard darker rumour. He was known to be unorthodox in his methods and perhaps suspect in his loyalty to the Emperor. The most shocking rumour was that the 'Destroyer of Worlds' was not even human, but a Xeno!

It was hard to believe the rumours when one looked at the Inquisitor. He was so short and not at all threatening to look at. He spoke softly with an air of mystery. He could even at times be comical, even when he was angry. While other Inquisitors wore magnificent armour and carried the most deadly weapons in the Imperium, this one wore just a simple white suit and a colourful tie. Bizarrely, he went unarmed. On the other hand, he was usually accompanied by a female warrior who carried devastating heavy weapons. The 'Destroyer of Worlds' preferred others to do the destroying for him.

The Inquisitor gave a bow and returned to the strange blue box that he somehow teleported himself in. With a wheezing, groaning sound it disappeared taking away its mysterious owner.