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
"New updates on the backfiring on the TCS in the Meridia system. Here's the latest: A preliminary investigation by the Ministry of Science reveals that the Termicide initially worked, quote: "as intended," eliminating 99.6% of the Terminid population on all Barrier Planets. However, on Meridia, some of the remaining Terminids not only survived, but actually began reproducing up to 20 times faster than before. Scientists are now calling the planet a Terminid, quote: "Supercolony." The mutations caused by the Termicide appear to be random, but according to the report, it is only a matter of time before the same reaction appears on the rest of the Barrier Planets. The Helldivers may be in a race against time to deactivate the TCS before this occurs."

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.

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