| “ | Dense, toxic fumes from deep within the planet's crust seep out of cracks in the earth and coat the ground in a sickly haze. | „ |
| ~ Official Description |
Darius II is one of the four planets that reside within the Borgus Sector.
Topography[]
Similar to Esker and Slif, Darius II is an acidic desert world who's very core is toxic to life. Toxic fumes seep up from the planet's crust, covering the surface in a sickening haze.
Darius II is home to one tier-3 mega-city. Mega City tiers have no effect on Level Generation, but are still split into four different categories on Colony planets, identifiable by the number of stars above the icon: Settlements (one star), Towns (two stars), Cities (three stars) and Mega Cities (four stars).
- Buju (City)
History[]
Second Galactic War[]
Operation Alcubierre-II[]
Darius II had managed to avoid most of the horrors that ensued during the initial Terminid outbreak, mainly because of Achird III's very crucial move to cut its supply line with Turing early on in February. However, Darius' Colonial Overseer was able to see that this measure would not keep their sector safe. He immediately moved to sever all supply lines leading into the Jin Xi Sector, due to his dangerous proximity to both Turing and Acamar IV. This move would prove wise once the Terminids shifted their focus towards the Falstaff and Jin Xi sectors. But as usual, the fascist insects would find a way to bring a once peaceful planet colony of Super Earth into the war by force.
On September 28th, 2184, The Terminids would unprovokedly attack Darius II, in an attempt to reinforce their attack on Turing by flanking through Achird III. Darius' colonists had spent almost 6 months reinforcing their planet home, digging trenches alongside the towering plateaus and stockpiling weapons in stashes buried all over the green, acidic dunes of the planet. However, even with all that preparation, they began to falter, as the Terminid assault was too strong and, as such, they were forced to call on the Helldivers for assistance.
Despite 60% of the entire corps assisting with Darius' defense, it would prove too late to save and, consequently, Darius II would be lost to the Terminids by the afternoon of September 29th, the Bugs now having deeply entrenched themselves into the acidic planet, following a pattern of hard defenses and difficult subsequent liberations that had been eating away at the Terminid Front for some weeks by then.
Operation Ring of Freedom[]
Despite Darius' valuable position, the Terminids never made a move out of Darius after their failure to take Achird III on September 30th. As such, they instead burrowed themselves into the planet and began to build up their strength and numbers in order to reattempt an attack on Achird III once more. On October 11th, the Terminids on Darius sent a barrage of spores at Achird III and began an assault onto the planet.
For the first 12 hours of the invasion, the Terminids seemed to be having the upper hand, as the defenders on Achird III began to get overwhelmed. However, Achird's defenders managed to hold on for long enough that the Helldivers managed to liberate Pandion-XXIV, freeing them up to relief Achird III immediately. With a mere 20 minutes remaining before complete planetary infestation, the Helldivers managed to repel the assault on Achird III and, now knowing for certain that Achird III's flank on Turing was far too valuable to lose, the Helldivers immediately began deployment onto Darius II.
For 2 days, the Helldivers battled across the acidic dunes of Darius, knowing it to be such a critical position that they would be forced to let Gar Haren fall in order to ensure Darius II was fully captured. By October 14th, Darius II was liberated, freeing the Helldivers up to relief a struggling defense on Achernar Secundus and, consequently, freeing the Borgus Sector from the Terminid scourge once and for all.
Operation Spark of Liberty[]
Darius would remain free of any Terminid presence after its liberation. It would seem that, after all, things hadn't come to boil despite the tactical miscalculation at Pandion-XXIV and Gacrux during Operation Crossroads. But the seeds of fascism had already been sown on the Terminid Research Preserve, and it was only a matter of time before their bore their nefarious fruits.
On November 12th, in the middle of a busy day for the Tyranny Park, a massive underground Terminid hive erupted spontaneously, leading to a bloody massacre of visitors and park staff alike. Acamar IV was overrun in mere minutes, which prevented the nuclear security measures from being activated and allowed the Terminids to take over the planet without any impediment. Once Acamar IV fell, it launched 5 simultaneous attacks onto all of the planets connected to it. This catastrophe could not have been any more poorly timed, as the Jet Brigade had also just returned in massive numbers and destroyed the DSS Logistics Hub on Tarsh.
The painting was clear on the wall that the Helldivers had to act quick before more damage had to be done. Despite Acamar's positioning, High Command gave the indication to protect the Xenoentomology Center at Turing by all means, as it still contained critical research material on the Terminids, pretty much dooming Acamar IV and all of its attached planets to perdition.
Expectedly, with the Helldivers focused on saving the critical research material at Turing, Darius-II would be lost to the Terminids by the afternoon of the following day, in a massive disaster that took millions of lives and undid all the progress achieved in the past 3 months.
Operation Iron Rain[]
After the disaster at Tyranny Park, Darius-II had been left in ruins. Its settlements colonized by Terminids as its patriotic colonists watched amidsts desperate evacuations. However, after every thunder, the sunlight of Liberty always rises. Despite the immense losses at the Terminid Front, the Democracy Space Station was successfully fueled. And despite a chaotic initial deployment, it would ultimately be harnessed into a weapon of peace and freedom like none before it. With its mighty alloy plates, it rained planetary armaggedon onto Mastia, swaths of righteous Eagles onto Gaellivare and was indispensable in the campaign to recover Acamar IV, preventing further chaos and keeping the flame of hope alive.
With Operation Balance of Liberty, the Helldivers managed to recapture Crimsica and finally eradicate the Jet Brigade at Imber before then further inflicting damage onto the robotic menace on Lesath. These victories bolstered the Helldiver Corps and, most importantly, freed them up for alternative endeavors in regards to Galactic Liberation.
Following a thwarted attack by the Terminids on Fenrir III on November 24th, Operation Iron Rain was declared, as the Ministry of Defense sought to conduct an efficacy review on the then-available machine guns that the SEAF had access to. With Fenrir III being successfully defended, the Helldivers turned towards the only planet left that stained the Borgus Sector with the stench of Terminid Fascism.
From November 25th to November 27th, the Helldivers deployed en masse to liberate the acidic planet, with many colonists even contributing with their shovels, break-action shotguns and some with machine guns of their own. Alongside the DSS' support, the battle for Darius-II would see amounts of ammunition expenditure ranging in the hundreds of billions of bullets. After 2 days of battling, the Terminids would be sufficiently eradicated, as the last Terminid broods were vaporized through the forceful opening of sufficient concentrations of bullet holes.
Operation Ink & Thunder[]
Since its last liberation in November 2184, the acidic planet would remain untouched for the rest of the year. Even into early February 2185, the planet would face no attacks as the Helldivers did their best to ensure that no planets surrounding Darius would be afflicted by the Terminid scourge. Until the fall of Phact Bay in late January, Darius would enjoy its relative peace for the better part of 2 months.
While the planet remained peaceful, the SEAF would be headed for a massive crisis unfolding across the Galactic South and the Umlaut Sector. Following the return of the dreaded, xenophobic 
Illuminate to the Milky Way in December 2184, their intentions would finally be made clear to liberty's great wardens of Super Earth. They began to harvest Dark Energy through their constant raids across the south to begin moving the Meridian Singularity toward Super Earth. All Helldivers would immediately be ordered to fight the Illuminate on all emerging fronts to stop them from cultivating the Energy needed to move the freight-train like Singularity, which was on a clear collision course with Angel's Venture.
Despite all the Helldivers' best efforts, the Singularity had reached critical momentum and could no longer be stopped or slowed in its tracks. Worst of all, High Command would utter seven tragic words: Angel's Venture can no longer be saved. The countdown began for which the Singularity would collide with the planet, while mass evacuations began to save as many lives as possible before death came to the Venture's doorstep.
With the SEAF in crisis and the Helldivers still trying to battle the Illuminate, the bugs at Phact Bay would attempt to take advantage, starting a relatively low level 9 invasion of the acidic Darius II around 8 AM-SEST.
Luckily for the beleaguered SEAF, the Illuminate had taken a roughly 6 to 7-hour pause of raids after they were repelled by the Helldivers on Rasp. This gave a decent window for the Helldivers to challenge the bugs on the invaded Darius, with the plurality of the Corps heading to the planet following the conclusion of Rasp's defense. As a result, by the time the Illuminate had invaded Hort later on, the Helldivers had built a significant lead over the bugs and appeared ready to ride out to victory.
Operation Wild Hunt[]
Indeed, the Helldivers would easily ride out to victory over a relatively weak bug strike force. Following its defense, the acidic planet went on quietly with efforts in the Jin Xi Sector from bug and Helldiver alike at a relative standstill. All told, the bug front shifted away from the sector following the massive Predator Strain-fed invasion on Fenrir III and the Helldivers' first foray into the Gloom at Fori Prime, with the focus of the bug front shifting to the West in the Umlaut and Draco sectors.
In early March, following brutal battles out West against the resurgent Automatons who had taken significant territory from the Helldivers, High Command brought all Helldiver attention back to the Meridian Singularity which began to close in on Moradesh. For a while, it was known that the Illuminate directly fed the Singularity with Dark Energy from its raids in the South, yet no Illuminate spaceships had ever been sighted by Super Earth in this time. For the time being, as scientists attempted to find a proper way to stop the destructive wormhole, High Command ordered a military blockade of the perimeter of Meridia to potentially stop any unsighted Illuminate ship advancements into the Singularity. To build the blockade, the Helldivers would be tasked with exterminating 1,500,000,000 Terminids while also eliminating 1,000,000,000 Automatons to gather both E-710 and scrap metal.
The Helldivers immediately deployed across both fronts, with most efforts initially being concentrated at Phact Bay and Vog-Sojoth. A smaller portion of the Corps deployed to Bore Rock after the discovery that liberating the Termind-controlled planet would bring Eagle Rearm cooldown times back to normal by capturing its supply node.
However, as in many other instances in the Second Galactic War, liberation progress wouldn't come for free. Around an hour after the Order was issued, the Terminids at Phact Bay began a massive assault on Darius II with a force of 18 million broods beginning an infestation of the world. The attack was timed in tandem with a vicious Automaton assault on Mintoria in the northern galactic fringe of the Gellert Sector.
The plurality of the Corps immediately began to turn up to Darius II, with far more Helldivers prioritizing the latest bug outbreak into the Borgus Sector over the distant bot campaign on a planet very far from the frontlines in Mintoria.
FTL Lines[]
- Acamar IV - Jin Xi Sector (Established on September 28, 2184)
- Achernar Secundus (Established on September 28, 2184)
- Achird III (Re-established on September 28, 2184)
- Phact Bay - Jin Xi Sector (Established on September 28, 2184)
FTL Timeline[]
- February 8th, 2184: Darius II is connected by FTL to Achird III.
- June 13th, 2184: FTL line to Achird III is destroyed.
- September 28th, 2184: FTL line to Achird III is re-established, plus new lines to Acamar IV, Achernar Secundus and Phact Bay
Trivia[]
- Darius II, also known by his given name Ochus, was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 423 BC to 404 BC.