Malevelon Creek

"The strange subversion of photosynthesis that sustains the oddly-hued flora that flourishes on this planet remains an intriguing mystery to the Super Earth's greatest exo-biologists."

- Official Description

Malevelon Creek is one of the five planets that reside within the Severin Sector. Its landscape generally consists of lush jungles and wide ponds and has become infamous for its extremely intense and difficult fighting. The planet's challenging terrain, combined with its thick layer of vegetation, fog and clouds, make for engagements which are extremely challenging to keep under control. The Helldivers continue their increasingly massive attack on the planet, but struggle to make significant gains against the overwhelming force of the Automatons.

Topography
Malevelon Creek is largely covered in flora, including thick brushing and dense, dark forests. In addition, it bears a persistent fog and heavy clouds, giving the surface an appearance of eternal night regardless of local time. To make matters worse, the storms covering the surface of the planet are highly electrically charged, interfering with communications which resulting in difficulty in calling in help from orbiting ships.

Its overall geography is varied, ranging from large lakes to shallow inlets, separated by peninsulas covered in jungles and rocky hills which are difficult to traverse.

The First Battle of Malevelon Creek (Feb. 8th-28th)
Fighting on Malevelon Creek broke out immediately with the beginning of the Second Galactic War, with the first day already seeing small-scale fighting between Helldiver forces and the Automatons. Slowly but surely, the Helldivers called on for more reinforcements on the planet as the fighting grew more and more intense. This resulted in the "Fight for the Creek" recruitment drive, which saw a large propaganda campaign take place, calling for citizens to enlist and fight on the Creek, which quickly became infamous for being among the deadliest battles in the war. Some say the Creek single-handedly assisted in boosting the recruitment numbers for the Helldivers.

While other planets went back and forth with the liberation progress, the Creek consistently saw relatively low liberation percentages, proving the difficulty the Helldivers were facing on the planet. Soon enough, Helldivers began to widely use napalm on the jungles of Malevelon Creek as a way to deprive the Automatons of cover. But, seeing the Helldiver effort on the planet, the Automatons only continued sending millions of their troops to defend the planet.

As fighting ensued, the Helldivers began to struggle on the Automaton front, and this all culminated on February 28th with Malevelon Creek falling together with the entire Severin Sector, Draupnir, Mantes, and other planets. The fall of the Creek was seen as a tragic moment for the war effort, but morale among the Helldivers remained high once news reached that Mort had been fully liberated.

Second Battle of Malevelon Creek (Feb. 28th - Apr. 1st)
Although Draupnir and Mantes, the only supply routes leading into Malevelon Creek, both fell; pockets of Helldiver forces remained on the planet, in a brutal siege which has become a legend among Super Earth's citizenry. The battle on the Creek was even more brutal, as the Automatons wished to annihilate the remaining Helldivers before a counter offensive began, and Helldiver casualties spiked during this period. The Helldivers on the planet were able to continue fighting much longer than anticipated as the fighting on Draupnir and Mantes saw a cycle of Helldivers launching offensives on the planets, losing them, and then repeat.

On March 4th, the Helldivers liberated Mantes, allowing reinforcements to more safely enter the Creek. But this time saw a sharp decrease of the active forces on the planet as the liberation of Draupnir became a much higher priority once Helldivers understood that the Creek would be too difficult to liberate with the present abilities of Super Earth's military.

On April 1st, the brave Helldivers finally retook Malevelon Creek, fulfilling a major order designed to finally liberate the world.

Third Battle of Malevelon Creek (Apr. 2nd)
The peace on Malevelon Creek unfortunately lasted only few hours: on April 2nd, the Automatons launched a dastardly attack in an attempt to reconquer this world. Once again the Helldivers were called in to rescue civilians and wipe out the bots.

Determined to win at all costs, the Automatons deployed two new types of war machines on the battlefield: the Gunship and the Factory Strider, both recently assembled in their forges on Tibit. Their plan was to secure an advantage by taking the Helldivers by surprise, who were unprepared to face the new heavy vehicles.

Unfortunately for the socialist robots, Super Earth's elite soldiers were undeterred by the new threat and responded with ever-increasing fury. The cold brutality of the machines was not enough to counter the determination of humanity's champions.

Just nine hours into the battle, the planet's surface had been completely cleared of all killing machines and numerous space wreckage orbited the planet, a last grim reminder of what once was the majestic Automaton fleet.

FTL Lines

 * Maia
 * Durgen
 * Mantes - Xzar Sector
 * Draupnir - Xzar Sector

Trivia

 * Malevelon Creek became a popular subject within the Helldivers 2 community in the wake of the game's launch, with numerous memes springing up centered around how the planet has proven disproportionately difficult to liberate. Such memes became especially prevalent following the game's second major order to defend against Automaton invasions across the Xzar and Trigon sectors.


 * According to a major order issued on April 1st, Malevelon creek has exceptionally rich rhodium deposits, which is a highly valuable and rare metal, significantly rarer than gold.