Editing Terminid Control System (section)

== Decommissioning and Aftermath ==
{{Quote|I've actually read about what happened with Termicide. It's called hormesis—basically, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Like how small doses of poison can make you immune. Or how workers in uranium mines can't get cancer.|[[Service Technician]]}}Further calamity was averted thanks to the swift response of the {{Helldivers}} to deactivate the remaining Terminid Control System nodes. With further Termicide disbursement arrested, the remaining Barrier Planets were safe from suffering Meridia's fate.

Additionally, the cause of the TCS failure was identified. The Termicide had functioned as expected, killing nearly 100% of all {{Terminids}}. 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 [[wikipedia:Hormesis|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 was now infested to a degree nearly comparable with the {{Terminids|Terminid}} home planet, and scientists classified Meridia as a "Supercolony".

The infestation was so severe that conventional {{Helldivers|Helldiver}} operations on the planet were out of the question. The {{Ministry of Science}} began working on a solution while the Meridian Supercolony accelerated the spread of the {{Terminids}} in unforeseeable ways.

The reckless scientists responsible for creating the Termicide were arrested and thoroughly investigated by the {{Ministry of Unity}}. With the TCS inoperable and the Supercolony active, the {{Terminids}} were 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.