Meridia

"Abundant with life, this wet planet is covered in deep oceans, thick forests, and tall grasses."

- Official Description, prior to TCS activation...

Meridia is one of the four planets that reside within the Umlaut Sector. It's general terrain consisted of vast ponds and heavily forested areas.

On the 29th of April, the terminid control system was discovered to cause mutations in the bugs that allowed them to reproduce rapidly. Gaining an immunity to its deadly effects and enhanced reproduction capabilities, the Meridia Terminids rose up and overwhelmed the planet in a matter of hours. Now a Terminid super colony, High command has deemed the planet a lost cause...

Topography
Previously Meridia was populated by dense jungle vegetation. Federation scientists were able to categorized a number of tropical tree and plant species native to the planet. Deep, warm oceans border the edges of Meridia's continental landmass, which is contiguous around the planet. Citizens are warned not to approach any of the multiple active volcanoes sighted near inhabited zones.

Topography Post TCS failure...
"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."

- Coretta Kelly - TCS Failure - News Broadcast

The topography and ecology of Meridia has changed drastically after the loss of the planet on the April 29th following the miscalculation of the effects of Terminid Control System. Orbital observations by the Super Earth Navy have confirmed that Meridia is no longer a lush, blue and green jungle world. The atmosphere and oceans are now a sickly brown, filled with a mix of termicide from the TCS tower remnants and mutated terminid spores, which choke the life out of most fauna and flora on the surface; with the bugs consuming the rest.

Orbital photographs confirm that the Topography of Meridia has been radically altered by the Terminids. The Ministry of Science concluding that Meridia has undergone a process of proto-terraforming (or Termaforming) which has effectively turned the entire planet of Meridia into one gargantuan nest, dubbed a "Terminid Super Colony". The terrain now consists of dead forest areas, and vast terminid mound and hive structures including 'forests' of spore spewers and shrieker nests. The volcanoes though are left as they are, due to them being natural geographic occurrences.

The implications have been equally parts fascinating and horrifying for the Scientific community, as Meridia stands as stark proof that the Terminids can essentially, and potentially irreversibly, DESTROY the environments of planets. Whilst the Ministry of Science and Super Earth High Command debate whether it would be ethical to nuke the planet from orbit, Meridia now stands as a monument to scientific hubris and we can only pray now that this once beautiful world will be the exception, rather than the rule going forward...

FTL Lines

 * Fenrir III
 * Turing
 * Angel's Venture - Orion Sector
 * Estanu - Draco Sector
 * Crimsica - Draco Sector