| “ | The lifeless grey of this planet is interrupted only by the violet flowers that grow from strange, parasitic outcroppings. | „ |
| ~ Official Description |
Pandion-XXIV is one of the six planets that reside within the Jin Xi Sector. Until of September 2184, it was the planet with the highest regeneration rate in the Terminid front that is outside of The Gloom, with a staggering 3% liberation loss per hour. As such, it gained a reputation for being a "liberation blackhole" during Operation Critical Mass and especially during Operation Liberty Tide, as it managed to have up to 60% of the entire Helldiver Corps orbiting it, yet not a single digit of liberation would be accomplished despite the amount of resources devoted towards it.
Only after 3 weeks of constant deployment of at least 35 to 40% of the entire Helldiver Corps, would Pandion XXIV be liberated, at the expense of 2 major orders and significant losses numbering in the hundreds of millions of Helldivers.
Topography[ | ]
Similar to Nivel 43 and Cirrus
History[ | ]
Second Galactic War[ | ]
Pandion XXIV had remained in its lifeless gray stillness for most of the Galactic War without much incident. However, the Terminids quickly made their acquaintance with this planet, as the Terminid Control System's failure and the apparition of the Meridian Supercolony would usher in a bolstered Terminid offensive.
Operation Enduring Peace[ | ]
Prior and during the conduction of Operation Enduring Peace, Pandion XXIV would see itself besieged by the alien bugs in 2 occasions, both of them resulting in a collapse of their defenses and the quick restoration of freedom through a similarly swift and deadly liberation campaign. However, on May 30th, the situation would be seemingly stabilized, as the Meridian Supercolony would be destroyed and the Terminid advance crippled, allowing for the final liberation of Pandion XXIV on the early days of June.
Operation Hive Breaker[ | ]
However, Pandion's peace would be short-lived. As the Helldivers resumed their advance back into the Draco and Mirin Sectors, the desperate insectoids seeked ways to safeguard their fascist species. Using Fori Prime and Nivel 43 as their final launching pads, the bugs shot abnormally elevated concentrations of intergalactic spores, which resulted in outbreaks springing out on Esker and nearby Gacrux, both of which eventually overwhelmed the colonial defenses and allowed for further outbreaks both on Erson Sands and Pandion XXIV.
Due to the higher priority of other missions, the Helldivers could not heed Pandion's call for aid. It would fall by the next day and remain occupied for the rest of the month.
Jin Xi-Falstaff Sector Lockdown[ | ]
Pandion's occupation would last for the rest of the month of June, as the Helldivers were diverted towards the Automaton Front, where they would accrue numerous victories over the robots. However, while they were gone, the Terminids had begun to spread over to the Jin Xi and Falstaff Sectors en masse and, comprehensively, were spreading at an alarming rate. As such, Super Earth High Command ordered the Helldivers to ensure both sectors were free for the Ministry of Expansion to conduct settlement missions. A number of key planets were ordered to be liberated and held: Erson Sands, Bore Rock, Phact Bay, Acamar IV and Pandion XXIV.
Since the Helldivers started with Phact Bay, Pandion XXIV would be the third to be liberated during the first week of July, right after Acamar IV and Phact Bay.
Operation Brute Force[ | ]
Pandion would remain free for the rest of the month of July and for the first 3 weeks of the month of August 2184. However, the war would slowly come back towards Pandion. As the Helldivers were once again diverted towards the Automaton front during Operation Andromeda and other later operations, where they secured major victories. However, the Terminids would begin preparing a new, even more horrid offensive. As the Helldivers focused on destroying the Automaton Encirclement, a massive nebula of intergalactic Terminid spores began to form around Enuliale, which then began to threaten to expand towards Socorro III.
The Helldivers would be ordered back towards the Terminid front, as Super Earth High Command raised concerns over the new Terminid variants that were discovered in Socorro and the rest of the Falstaff sector. As the war continued into August, the cloud of spores began to soon extend onto other planets, earning it the codename of The Gloom.
By August 21st, the Gloom encompassed all of the L'estrade Sector, as well as Zagon Prime, Oshaune, Fori Prime, Erson Sands and Nivel 43. And it was threatening to continue expanding, as it bolstered a new Terminid offensive. As such, Super Earth High Command would issue a major order to hold back the advancing Terminids while culling their numbers as much as possible, as efforts to research the Gloom advanced slowly due to high numbers of counterfeit samples that were obtained during Operation Prometheus.
On August 22nd, the Terminids would launch a massive assault onto Pandion, which was unable to be repelled due to the higher priority of Crimsica's liberation. As such, Pandion would fall to the Terminid onslaught, leaving it caught in battle until August 24th, as the Terminids showed unusual ferocity and resilience.
Operation Overrun[ | ]
With Pandion's capture, the Terminids quickly reinforced it, nestling and burrowing into Pandion and rapidly multiplying in order to concentrate their forces. Then, on September 2nd, the Terminids in Pandion and Partion, a nearby planet on the Sten Sector that had fallen to the Terminids during the initial February Outbreak, decided to launch successive assaults onto Phact Bay, with Pandion's Terminid Brood attacking first, sending the third biggest Terminid Superonslaught onto the planet, only being smaller than that of nearby Gatria and the one that attacked Socorro III during Operation Benevolent Sanitation.
Operation Critical Mass[ | ]
During Operation Critical Mass, the Helldivers would deploy en masse onto Pandion, determined to break the unusually resilient insects and reclaiming the colonial outposts on the ashen planet. However, once more, the fascist bugs would somehow manage to resist freedom's graceful touch, possibly aided by the malevolent influence of the Gloom. As such, despite the massive presence of at least 15,000 Super Destroyers throughout the entire 3 days of the operation, no progress would be accomplished at all, leading to the partial failure of the operation, as the Helldivers would at least manage to capture Tarsh and Mastia, as well as meeting the required quota of dead Terminid Warriors, which resulted in the fleetwide deployment of Orbital Napalm Barrages.
Operation Liberty Tide[ | ]
However, the nefarious resistance of the Terminid Brood at Pandion became fully clear to Super Earth once Operation Liberty Tide commenced. While this ordered for the Helldivers to capture as many planets as possible, the Helldivers would persist in trying to capture Pandion-XXIV, with a surge in Helldiver recruitment leading to up to 35,000 Super Destroyers orbitting the gray planet during the first two days of the operation. Yet, despite such an impressive display of Super Earth's military might, the bugs continued to defy Freedom and prevented the Helldivers from doing any progress towards any other liberation campaigns while also considerably slowing down the progress towards Pandion's liberation.
After the first 2 days of the operation, Claorell and Clasa, being poorly defended, fell to the 
Automatons, leaving the Helldivers at a negative balance of liberation. As such, Helldiver Strategic Command began to search for opportunities towards quick planetary liberations in order to make up the deficit. The 2 best options that appeared were Trandor, which had exhausted the bulk of its Terminid hives after 5 consecutive failed onslaughts onto Gatria, and Claorell, which the Automatons had ignored in order to focus on Clasa so that they could expand further into the Tanis Sector.
Despite the consensus agreeing to Trandor and Claorell being the best options for resetting the balance, a significant portion of Helldivers chose to remain in Pandion, only continuing to be resisted and deflected by the Terminids there.
However, even the most brutish, boneheaded and stubborn of fascists are but mere pebbles against the mighty sledgehammer of Managed Democracy. Once Trandor was liberated by the Helldivers on September 21st, all of its designated Helldivers would immediately redeploy onto Claorell and a now severely tenderized Pandion. Yet still, the Terminid scourge refused to die, burrowed into Pandion with an unusual devotion, even with imminent death at its doorstep.
The Bugs would give no quarter against the Helldivers, requiring them to valiantly uproot every ashen tree, every dry coral and every parasitic outcrop in search for even the most trifling of Terminid larvae, for Pandion would not be free of the fascist scum until the very last Terminid egg had been squashed.
Despite their unusual, almost enviable efforts if it weren't for their Fascist genetics, the Terminids' fate would be completely sealed after the Helldivers managed to liberate Claorell. With Claorell's liberation also came the relief of an ongoing siege at Imber, which freed up the majority of the Helldivers at the Automaton Front to assist in liberating Pandion once and for all. However, despite all of the tenderizing and pummeling of insectoids, the Bugs at Pandion would manage to pull one last vicious trick before meeting their demise.
Due to how much manpower had to be diverted exclusively for the liberation of Pandion XXIV, it meant that now most of the frontline planets in the Automaton front at the Talus Sector were left pretty much unmanned. The Automatons would see this opportunity to strike at the Helldivers, sending an assault towards Imber mere hours before the operation ended.
Stuck between Pandion and Imber, the Helldivers would first move to secure Pandion as fast as possible, while a significant chunk of the corps detached and went to relief Imber's defense. Yet, the Bugs played for time, evading their eradication as much as they could, keeping the Helldivers at Pandion for at least 10 hours after Imber's attack had started, allowing the Automatons to make significant gains.
Then finally, on September 23rd at 21:03 SEST, Pandion XXIV was thoroughly cleansed of every single Terminid across its surface. The Helldivers immediately rotated towards Imber en masse, attempting to save the planet to the best of their ability. Yet, they could not get the required manpower to save it, mostly because of a significant contingent that had decided to rotate towards Gacrux to conduct eradication operations.
On September 24th, Imber's fate was sealed and its defenses collapsed, causing Operation Liberty Tide to fail, as the Helldivers had ultimately been unable unable to increase the amounts of net galactic liberation after a week of struggles.
It seems that, in the end, the fascist bugs managed to get the last laugh on Freedom.
The sacrifices of our heroes will be lamented, and their losses regressed.
Operation Alcubierre-II[ | ]
Following Pandion's liberation, the ashen planet laid pretty much dormant, its colonists returning to a home riddled with impact craters and seas of Helldiver corpses spread all over the planet. Whatever burials could be arranged were arranged, as the colonists in Pandion mourned the enormous sacrifice. However, the odious bugs, in their mindless hatred, would not even allow for our martyrs to be properly buried.
On September 30th, the Terminids at Gacrux attempted an attack on Pandion, as an attempt to plug the gap between their domains in the Jin Xi Sector. However, the Helldivers would not allow the immense sacrifice of their brethren to be defiled and deployed en masse onto the planet, repelling the assault by the noon of October 1st.
Operation Freedom's Forge[ | ]
However, the Terminids were determined to attain control over Pandion, for it served as the single best chokepoint to control the Jin Xi Sector. As such, while the Helldivers occupied themselves with the liberation of Claorell and the construction of the Deep Mantle Forge Complex, A terminid assault would hit Pandion in the late hours of October 6th. The underdefended planet would fall on October 7th, however, the Bugs were unable to burrow into the planet as deeply as they could before. As such, once Claorell was captured, the Helldivers were able to return to a relatively unchanged Pandion, without as much Terminid resistance as before.