| “ | Submerged in eternal winter, this world's frosty peaks glimmer in the light of its too-distant star. | „ |
| ~ Official Description |
Heeth is one of the seven planets that reside within the Orion Sector. A frozen, desolate tundra, this planet was home to a mothballed Super Earth Armed Forces (SEAF) training facility, which was constructed in the initial days of the Second Galactic War. Following it's shutdown, it has been turned into a campground for the Democratic Youth Scouts.
Heeth is the planet with the longest recorded streak of operational victories against any faction. From the start of the war on February 8th, 2184, to January 13th, 2185, the Helldivers had never been defeated on its surface.
Topography[]
Heeth is the sixth planet in a remote system of the same name. Anyone who looks at Heeth from above would be forgiven for thinking it a mostly-dead ball of ice, as it is a small, terrestrial backwater planet blanketed by intense blizzards.
Thanks to its distance from its native star, Heeth has a freezing arctic climate, with most of the surface being covered with glaciers and frozen ice plains. Although the planet is habitable, it is also too cold for native intelligent life to develop, though the Terminids that infest the ice caves below the surface have been noted to be extremely resistant to colder temperatures.
Temperatures across Heeth are almost always frigid, having been known to drop to -60°C after nightfall, and even lower during blizzards.
History[]
Special Military Operations[]
Operation Valiant Enclosure[]
Heeth, alongside with Angel's Venture, was the first planet to feel the devastation that would be brought on by the Special Military Operation preceding the Second Galactic War. The Terminids contained within Heeth's E-710 farms suddenly broke out of control, forcing the SEAF to deploy the Helldivers for the first time in 100 years. As the Terminid outbreak slowly began to worsen, orders were made for the Helldivers to establish a defensive line at the Umlaut Sector by first establishing a foothold in both Angel's Venture and Heeth.
Even after being liberated, Heeth and Angel's Venture saw another Terminid siege before the month of February 2184 came to an end, which the Helldivers successfully repelled.
Deployment of the Terminid Control System[]
Shortly after Heeth and the barrier planets in the Umlaut Sector were firmly secured in Freedom's hands, Ministry of Science engineered the Terminid Control System. This advanced network of towers was designed to deliver the newly-invented Termicide, a substance completely harmless to humans, but deadly to fascist, freedom-hating insectoids.
With the deployment of the TCS, Heeth and all systems up to the Barrier Planets saw a brief return to peace after long, grueling months of suffering. Between March and May 2184, the returning colonists of these planets happily worked their lands, settling planets and spreading the righteous rule of Managed Democracy just as Liberty intended.
Failure of the Terminid Control System[]
Unfortunately, during the first weeks of May 2184, the Termicide stopped working. Due to a novel process known as hormesis, the Terminids not only developed immunity to the Termicide, but also developed genetic mutations that allowed to reproduce up to an astonish 20 times faster than their usual rate. The Barrier Planets were overwhelmed, with Meridia having been transformed into a Terminid Supercolony.
Immediately after, chaos spread throughout all of the planets within the immediate vicinity of Meridia, with Heeth, Veld, and Angel's Venture being some of the few that, while still seeing regular onslaughts, still stood strong in the face of the Terminid scourge. The Galactic War on Tyranny had begun.
Second Galactic War[]
In the wake of the Second Galactic War, a training facility was established by the SEAF on Heeth's frigid surface. To save on construction time (and cost), the training facility was carved out of a glacier and connected through artificial corridors linked together with structural supports, while natural caverns were expanded to suit the Federation's needs.
Although the smallest of the four training facilities constructed, it is nonetheless still able to process millions of eager voluntary-conscripts, with the 72-hour SEAF basic training course being even more rigorous due to the harsh conditions of the planet's surface.
Prior to Operation Enduring Peace[]
As the war developed, the Terminids launched intermittent assaults on Heeth. The planet saw five separate assaults within the month of May, during Operations Metallic Harvest, Freedom's Calling, and Emancipator. Thankfully, the tactical genius and impeccable discipline of the Helldivers allowed it to stand strong against the bugs, even when other bases such as Vernen Wells had fallen.
Heeth continued to suffer from Terminid offensives while Ministry of Science devised a solution to the Meridia problem through experiments performed on nearby Moradesh.
Operation Enduring Peace[]
On May 28th, 2184, Super Earth High Command decided that Meridia was too far gone to be saved, with its destruction being the only way to safeguard the Eastern Galactic Rim. While the SEAF established defensive lines at Fenrir III, Angel's Venture, and Turing, Heeth withstood vicious attacks by the desperate Terminids, as they rushed towards Veld and Cirrus in an attempt to invade Moradesh before their experiments bore fruit.
Their vain attempts would prove futile, as during the morning of May 30th, the final remnants of the Terminid push towards Moradesh were crushed on Heeth. The Helldivers were soon able to deploy the newly-created Dark Fluid on Meridia, destroying the Supercolony once and for all through its collapse into a black hole.
Operation Starslayer[]
With emergency recruitment levels swelling ranks to targeted numbers, training throughput requirements have been reducing. In light of this change, the surviving emergency SEAF Training Facilities on Heeth and Angel's Venture were shut down and converted into recreational campgrounds for the Democratic Youth Scouts.
Operation Courageous Exodus[]
Following its final defense in May and the closure of its SEAF Training Facilities, Heeth hasn't seen much action since. It would be attacked on November 5th, amidst a defensive operation aimed with protecting Terrek, Cirrus and Angel's Venture. However, this attack was quickly repelled due to the Helldivers prioritizing Heeth due to its strategic location and its popularity given how rare its biome is on the Terminid front.
Operation Farsight Breach[]
Heeth would spend the rest of 2184 in peace, as the Terminids had been successfully pushed back to the opposite side of the Barrier Planets. However, this peace was not fated to last. With the unexpected return of the Illuminate on Calypso in December, the SEAF was thrown into disarray and the frontlines began to crumble amidst all the chaos. In January 12th, 2185, the Terminids would advanced from Erata Prime onto Heeth, following a surge of spore outbursts from within the Gloom. Normally, Heeth would have been a priority to defend, but given how Polaris Prime, a planet in the Farsight Sector that had been designated as a major order protection target at the time, was also under attack, the Helldivers would see themselves stretched thin.
By the time the Helldivers had finished defending Polaris, the battle at Heeth was too late to save, yet the Helldivers did not surrender, instead choosing to fight in order to save as much as they could from the icy stronghold. Heeth would fall on January 13th, 2185, marking the first time in the war that the Terminids had ever overwhelmed its defenses.
Operation Democracy Delivered[]
Although High Commands focus would once more shift towards the Southern Front, a force of around 10,000 Helldivers would remain behind on Heeth to support efforts by the local SEAF ground forces to retake the planet. These efforts would be bolstered by the reactivated Democracy Space Station, which took advantage of it's newly overhauled engines to periodically visit Heeth between major illuminate raids and provide sporadic air support for the SEAF.
Local forces would slowly but steadily retake ground on Heeth during the operation. Then on the 18th of January, 2185, a catastrophic weather event would be recorded on the planets surface. However whilst such planetary storms are often dangerous and "freaky", this particular storm would actually prove fortuitous as it primarily decimated Terminid forces (with resistance dropping from 2% to 1%). This allowed for significant friendly unit advances on Heeth and proved that even mother nature is on the side of managed democracy.
It would be this miracle that allowed the Helldivers to liberate Heeth a day later, even when they had no orders or incentives to really do so. It simply was the Helldivers' call to their true purpose, their calling to serve the will of Liberty even if it meant ignoring orders from Super Earth High Command. Even though they are the most formidable fighting force that the universe has ever seen, they are naught but humble servants of Managed Democracy.
FTL Lines[]
FTL Timeline[]
- February 8th, 2184: Heeth is connected by FTL to Cirrus, Erata Prime and Fenrir III.
- November 4th, 2184: FTL line to Angel's Venture is established.
- February 13th, 2185: FTL line to Angel's Venture is destroyed.
Trivia[]
- The planet of Heeth is a reference to Hoth, an ice planet in the Star Wars fictional universe. It first appeared in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back and has also been a setting in Star Wars books and video games.