Penta

"The lifeless grey of this planet is interrupted only by the violet flowers that grow from strange, parasitic outcroppings."

- Official Description

Penta is one of the four planets that reside within the Lacaille Sector. Penta is noted to house several caustic chemical factories, vital in the production of the RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher.

Topography
Although a seemingly a lifeless grey rock from orbit, the topography of Penta is actually comparable to some of the massive boreal and primeval forests of Super-Earth prior to the last great war, though obviously less colorful and much less dense.

The density of the planets foliage can range from being sparse to surprisingly dense, with rocky outcroppings, freezing rivers, drooping evergreen palms and colorless Cycad plants breaking up the banks of perpetual fog that cover the planet. The only natural color to be found comes from a verity of violet flowers that grow from strange, parasitic outcroppings.

Despite its somewhat 'uncomfortable' temperatures, Petra is quite forgiving compared to other, more hostile planets, with it's abundant native foliage, plentiful water sources and an atmosphere that won't immediately freeze a human as soon as they step outside their habitats. Thus Penta is one of the many planets colonized by the Federation of Super Earth.

Operation Legitimate Understanding
Penta was one of several planets to fall to the red tide during Operation Enduring Bulwark, with organized SEAF resistance ending by the 26th of April. Never the less the citizens of Penta were able to synthesize and store tons of caustic chemicals vital for the production of a new support weapon strategem: the RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher. Production of these chemicals by Penta's brave citizenry continued right up until prior to, during, and even after the planets fall.

However with Automaton forces closing in on the last survivor holdouts as well as their hidden caustic chemical and weapon stores, not to mention the colonists of Choohe also calling for help, it is likely that only the citizens and weaponry of the first planet liberated will be saved.

The Helldivers would reach Penta first on the 27th. With 90% of Penta's chemical factories secured, fleetwide distribution of Airburst Rocket Launchers could now commence. Most of the chemical technicians who had been trapped on the planet were rescued. Tragically though, some had already perished by the time we reached them, having succumbed to the toxic fume poisoning. The Automatons show no hesitation in the use of chemical warfare against civilians, but the sacrifice of these heroes will never be forgotten.

However due to the weapons still being prototypes, the airburst rocket launchers had some... notable teething problems.

Experimental Launchers
The first of these was an overly sensitive proximity fuze in the airburst warhead, which caused it to detonate much sooner than it was supposed to (sometimes as soon as it left the launcher, which isn't helped by Penta being a planet full of small rocks and trees). Secondly was the high spread and blast range of the scattering cluster munitions, which although good for destroying large groups of enemies, also had a habit of killing the weapons user, along with their team and everything else withing 30-40 meters. Finally was the mishandling of the weapon by the Helldivers themselves, who aimed it directly at a target (similar to an EAT-17 or GR-8 Recoilless Rifle) rather than ABOVE the target as intended, which when combined with the previous two bugs results in a lot of friendly fire incidents.

Never the less, the weapon still has promise with those who used the weapon properly reporting positive feedback, with at least one Helldiver reporting to the Ministry of Defense that they destroyed a factory strider using it (firing between the legs of the walker with the shell detonating under it's vulnerable underbelly). The Ministry of Science have taken note of feedback on the weapon and promise a fix to the proximity cluster warhead when the weapon goes into full production in a weeks time, but until then the Helldivers will have to deal with a slightly... moody weapon.

FTL Lines

 * Merak
 * Chort Bay
 * Lesath

Trivia
The citizens of Penta likely didn't die from Automaton Chemical weapons, but instead from toxic fume poisoning from Penta's caustic chemical factories.