Omicron

“	A perenially chilly climate has allowed short, colorful shrubs to flourish across this planet's surface.	„
	~ Official Description.

Omicron is one of the seven planets that reside within the L'estrade Sector.

Topography and Astrography[]

Super Destroyer Fleet conducting operations over Omicron.

During the first 6 months of the Second Galactic War, Omicron was a planet very similar to Angel's Venture and Trandor. It's perennial climate allowed for the growth of many shurbs and bushes of various colours across the vast valleys, cliffs and hills that were scattered all throughout the planet's supercontinental landmass, ocassionally dotted by coniferous trees and small clusters of Moor Mushrooms. It had no weather adversities so to speak and its magnetosphere was capable of producing consistent auroras every night.

However, once Omicron got assimilated into The Gloom after its fall to the Terminid Horde, its once-beautiful surface would be slowly terraformed, its polar oceans dried and the entire biomass of the planet consumed as the Terminids festered unimpeded. By January 2186, it had been discovered that Omicron, much like Oshaune, had now become one of the many Hive Worlds that sustained the odious fascist nebula.

The once majestic cliffs and valleys of Omicron had now been reduced to endless dune seas of sickly yellow, littered with the bones of Terminid Hive Lords (or perhaps other larger, unknown forms of them) in a final, despicable insult to Liberty's once beautiful creation. The sickly dunes are interrupted by lakes of a murky, yellow liquid (possibly E-710, if not Terminid waste fluid) spires of Terminid rock matter towering high into the spore-choked sky and, most notably of all, the Terminid Cave Systems that now covered significant portions of the surface.

These tunnels, partially dug out by a Hive Lord and partially formed through months of uninterrupted Terminid terraforming, host various forms of xenoflora that bears a striking resemblance to terrestrial coral, as well as having barnacle-like glowing growths throughout certain portions of its walls or even having destructible fossils in between some of the gaps. Certain portions of these caves have open ceilings that allow for stratagems to be called in, while others are either so deep underground that no sunlight ever reaches them, requiring flashlights, or are even flooded with the same mysterious murky, yellow liquid as the odd lakes and springs on the exterior. Stalker Lairs abound in the tunnels, and they reproduce rapidly, making them vastly more dangerous than on other planets plagued by the Terminids.

Prior to its assimilation into The Gloom, Omicron did not possess any Mega Cities or known Super Earth facilities of note. Despite this, Omicron's surface was home to a number of civilian settlements that, evidently, would be entirely destroyed and buried into the Terminid Caves. Some of these settlements can still be found, as their E-710 storage facilities can be found embedded into the caves by Helldivers. However, contrary to what most might believe, it appears that some patriotic souls managed to eek out some additional months of resistance after the fall of the planet into The Gloom. Only Liberty knows what kind of horrors they witnessed, as all of these patriots can now be found as odd skeletons throughout the planet.

The Omicron System consists of planet Omicron itself and at least 3 other planets, which are a red rocky exoplanet, a cyan gas giant and its orbiting yellow moon. Additionally, one nebula can be seen from Omicron's orbit. The Omicron System was one of the very first to fall to the initial Terminid Outbreak of February 2184. Ever since, it remained as the farthest point the Helldivers had ever reached, as Omicron is the only planet accessible in the L'estrade Sector through either Oshaune or Zagon Prime. Because of this, Omicron would never be liberated prior to its assimilation into The Gloom, which predictably doomed it to Terminid terraformation after August 2184.

History[]

Up until January 2nd, 2816, Omicron itself had never been the target of any Super Earth High Command issued orders. However, the brave Helldivers took it upon themselves to conduct several expeditions into Omicron, going so far as to reaching around 80% liberation of the planet in April 2184, only being unable to fully liberate it due to the failure of the Terminid Control System and the Automaton Invasion of Cyberstan, which left it unable to be accessed. Below, the tales of the expeditions into Omicron have been logged by the Super Earth Digital Archive of Valorous Acts.

Special Military Operations[]

First Expedition - March 2184[]

The planet was once the site of a military Expedition. A small expedition of at least three thousand super destroyers commanded by the Helldivers attempted to liberate the world during the initial Mirin Sector Offensive during the slow march to Zagon Prime, and after the initial liberation of Oshaune. Omicron had also become the world with the highest known Terminid resistance recorded at the time.

Helldivers were swarmed very quickly after landing and incurred heavier than usual casualties, which started discouraging Helldivers from assaulting the planet. The expedition hastily retreated after Oshaune and Hellmire fell, which coincided with the commencement of Operation Swift Disassembly in the Trigon Sector, leaving only a few stranded Helldivers on Omicron who were listed as Missing-In-Action, as well as a number of unaccounted-for Super Destroyers that were still running surveys in the L'estrade Sector. High Command would reportedly express interest in eventually returning to Omicron and bringing the rest of the L'estrade Sector back under SEAF control in future campaigns.

Second Expedition - April 2184[]

A number of weeks after the First Expedition, Oshaune was again liberated and the Helldivers mounted another expedition into the L'estrade Sector, now with four times the manpower. Starting with Omicron once again, the level resistance encountered on the planet was interestingly lower compared to the first expedition, with skeletal remains of giant unknown Terminid creatures being sighted more often.

Later however, in an act of sinister syncronicity, both the Terminids and Automatons launched large-scale assaults across the galaxy. The second L'estrade Expedition was put on hold, with the Helldivers being pulled back in a more organized manner compared to the last time and in an effort to defend Super Earth's citizens on two fronts at once.

Eventually Oshaune was once again liberated a week later, and the second Expedition resumed again but with numbers reduced to just over three thousand Helldivers active on Omicron upon resumption of the expedition, the number would swell to over forty thousand a day later. Omicron would be mostly liberated eventually as the Helldivers had secured most of the planet on April 29th, largely avenging the shameful defeat incurred more than a month earlier.

However, due the failure of the TCS system, the Helldivers had to put a stop to any plans of fully liberating Omicron. With the TCS causing the bugs to mutate at a rapid pace, all SEAF forces were ordered to the Umlaut Sector, with the remaining Terminids on Omicron launching a fierce counter attack now that the majority of Super Earth's forces were off world. Progress made on Omicron was quickly lost, with only some operational successes like the successful evacuation of civilians, scientists and high-value assets.

Second Galactic War[]

Apparition of the Gloom[]

“	Okay, so we're the 16th scouting vessel to lose contact with High Command as soon as we entered the Gloom. No biggie! We'll just get to Omicron, see what's up, and report back. Lemon Squeezy. Wait, is this thing on?	„
	~ Expedition Log --GWW Galactic Terminal^[1]

Further opportunities to deploy onto Omicron would be permanently destroyed on August 2184, when a mysterious nebula formed around Enuliale. This nebula, composed by extremely high densities of intergalactic Terminid spores, would slowly begin to expand across the planets controlled by the Terminids, eventually engulfing Omicron and fully blocking it from further SEAF surveillance, as the satellites around Omicron's orbit stopped transmitting information back to Super Earth, like with all other planets engulfed by what is now known as The Gloom.

By September 10th, there was only 1 Super Destroyer above Orbit, its status was only known to be operational at best. By October 3rd the Super Destroyer's signal went dead. It can only be assumed that all crew are lost and the ship is simply floating in High Orbit or the ship was pulled by Omicron's gravity and crashed onto the planet or crashed into one of Omicron's Moons. Whatever the case, the SEAF will eventually learn of its actual fate. It is also likely the ship is moving away from the planet on autopilot through the use of its subspace engines and limping back to Super Earth space by itself although this will take a very many years and eventually the E-710 on board will be exhausted, leaving the ship adrift in space and by extension the Gloom.

Operation Relentless Uproot- October & November 2185[]

Omicron, once another brilliant ring in the set of jewels that comprise the Federation of Super Earth, was now but a forgotten ruin. After a year spent enveloped within The Gloom, the Terminids had mutated and gestated into new, disgusting variants that went on to terrorize and invade worlds outside of Gloom space, of which Omicron was one of the biggest contributors to such crimes. Deep within Terminid-controlled space, Omicron would remain inaccessible to any hope of righteous Helldivers setting foot.

As the last quarter of 2185 approached, Super Earth would drastically change its posture toward The Gloom. After fitting Helldiver Super Destroyers with proper Gloom-resistant coatings and after the massive Tripartite Invasion of August 2185, it was deemed that taking a defensive position against The Gloom was no longer sufficient. An offensive aimed at destroying it was the only solution to halt the Terminids from causing such destructive loss across the Eastern Front. Thus, on August 31st, the Helldivers would receive new orders unlike any other before: to establish the first base within Gloom space by liberating one of Hellmire, Fori Prime, or Nivel 43 from the massive spore cloud's clutches.

By the end of the short operation, most Helldivers had chosen Hellmire as their staging ground for Gloom Base Alpha. Despite being met with fierce Terminid resistance, the planet was liberated in just over 36 hours of battling on September 2nd. Now, having established a new FTL line to Oshaune, which was fully entrenched in Gloom space, the Helldivers could now brave the deep depths of the maleficent nebula to uncover what secrets were hidden within.

Shortly after deploying to Oshaune, the Helldivers had uncovered something right out of a horror movie. The Terminids had not merely occupied the planet and enshrouded it within The Gloom. They had twisted it into a totalitarian, grotesque, vile destitution unlike anything that had been encountered by the Helldivers before. The first deployments had confirmed the initial geological scans: the Terminids had singlehandedly terraformed the planet and disfigured it completely. Gone was the green grass of Oshaune, and in its place were plains and dunes of dirt. Small townships and farms were a faint memory, now replaced by Terminid cave systems- akin to a single, underground network of a large interconnected hive where Terminid nests lay.

Worst of all wasn't just the shocking dismantling of the formerly beautiful planet, but the new disgraceful Terminid mutants that now colonized Oshaune. In addition to the already known strains of Terminids such as the Predator Strain, a new Terminid strain was discovered- one with the ability to burrow tunnels underground before rising to the surface. They were summarily dubbed the Rupture Strain. This would be far from the worst of what was discovered, as a new form of the Bile Titan had seemingly surfaced- a flying Bile Titan dubbed the Dragonroach, spewing toxic, corrosive acid from the skies as opposed to on the ground. The Helldivers had thought that this flying monstrosity was the end of it- but they would be horribly disabused of this notion. During their early deployments, seismic, massive levels of tectonic movements had been observed whilst they conducted their ground operations. What surfaced from these disturbances was nothing short of nightmarish. The Hive Lord, thought to be extinct from the First Galactic War, had shockingly resurfaced on Oshaune. Taller than skyscrapers, this affront to human life spewed tonnes of devastating acid while showing no qualms in simply squashing Helldivers to a pulp. The evidence was clear to see- this world was no longer anything resembling that of its former status within the Federation of Super Earth. It was now firmly a Terminid Homeworld- a Hive World.

In late October, after significant preparations to finally conduct the offensive, High Command would officially call on the Helldivers to liberate Oshaune. With only a week to do so, the Helldivers had gotten right to it as they bore the depths of the twisting Terminid caverns, restarted oil pumps, harvested the new substance known as E-711, and decimated the Terminids across the planet- from the smallest Rupture Warrior to the biggest of Hive Lords. While it came at the cost of millions upon millions of Helldiver deaths, by November 4th, Oshaune had been officially liberated to spark sheer jubilation across Super Earth. It was grueling, it was deadly, it was bloody, but the Helldivers never wavered as their militaristic expertise was on full display throughout.

Now, the Terminids had been dealt a mighty blow. Not only had their Hive World of Oshaune been purged, but the entirety of the easternmost parts of The Gloom had disappeared from several other planets, leaving The Gloom to mainly be confined to the L'estrade and Falstaff Sectors- along with Nivel 43 and Zagon Prime. This victory was monumental- not just for Oshaune, but for all of the Eastern Front.

Following the Helldiver capture of Oshaune, an FTL line to Omicron was finally established for the first time in nearly 2 years. Yet, with how infested Omicron has become for the better part of over a year, the planet remains inaccessible until the Helldivers are properly able to access the planet- likely by having to cut off its other FTL connection of Zagon Prime, which remains locked away for now. In any case, with this latest brilliant Helldiver victory, Omicron's eventual liberation of its likely transformation into a Hive World is no longer an if- it is a when.

Operation Magma Charter & Kalium[]

Several weeks after the liberation of Oshaune, outflow analysis from the Gloom had pointed to Omicron and confirmed what was suspected, it had become a Hive World. Seeing an opportunity to extract E-711, High Command authorized Helldivers to commence operations on the surface of the Hive World and maximize E-711 extraction for operation Free Space.

Operation Free Space[]

On January 2nd, 2186, Omicron would, for the first time in the Second Galactic War, be a Major Order target. Super Earth High Command would declassify details of the much anticipated Operation Free Space, as well as the initiative's ultimate objective: the Star of peace.

An augmentation for the already formidable Democracy Space Station, the star of peace is a cutting-edge superlaser capable of firing a beam of ionized Dark Fluid, allowing the station to bring peace to an entire planet! However, firing the superlaser even once would require vast amounts of Dark Fluid, which could be synthesized from vast quantities of Element-711. With the reserves on Oshaune almost depleted, the Helldivers were deployed to Omicron to enable the extraction of the invaluable resource needed to fire the Star of Peace.