“	Ice and moss-covered rock can be found across most of the surface of this planet.	„
	~ Official Description

Estanu is one of the three planets that reside within the Draco Sector. It is the planet to have seen the most combat out of any others in the Terminid front, with a total of 14 successful defense operations (of which 7 have been part of Major Orders), 6 victorious liberation campaigns (of which 3 have been part of Major Orders) and an infamous 5 consecutive successful defences during Operation Enduring Bulwark, a feat that has not been achieved since.

Additionally, Estanu was the planet with the highest recorded death toll in the war, with 174,164,438 Helldivers dead in service to Freedom, until September 7th, 2025 when it was surpassed by Oshaune during Operation Righteous Reclamation.

Topography and Astrography

Estanu is a cold, hostile planet. Its surface consists of large, snow-covered regions, broken up by rocky mountains and crevasses. The planet's surface is windswept and barren. It has little flora, with only small patches of plant life able to withstand the winds and frigid temperatures.

A notable form of xenoflora present on Estanu, although not exclusive to this system, are plants that will be colloquially referred to as "space artichokes". Space artichokes are, as the name might imply, plants with a striking resemblance to terrestrial artichokes that glow with a bright cyan hue and, when touched or disturbed in any way, violently explode. This explosion only delivers a minor amount of damage (up to around 5% of a Helldiver's HP) but will apply a stun effect similar to that of an Orbital EMS Strike. Additionally, the explosion will leave behind a cloud of residue that will apply this stun effect onto any entity that comes into contact with it. This cloud of residue vanishes after approximately 15 seconds, though it may last longer if multiple space artichokes explode close to one another.

Estanu is not home to any notable urban centers, however its surface is dotted by a good number of urban settlements that house its mostly rural population. Besides these settlements, Estanu is home to many E-710 farms and refineries which fuel its economy, both literally and metaphorically.

The Estanu System consists of planet Estanu itself, its moon, and at least 3 other astronomical bodies, which are a gas giant with a ring system, its orbiting moon and another unknown planet. Following the activation of the Terminid Control System, Estanu became one of the many frontline worlds in the battle against the Terminid Horde. It would fall and set free multiple times without really resting within either Super Earth's embrace or the Bugs' fascist grip for too long, a reality that would only change with the apparition of The Gloom and the resurgence of the Illuminate in December 2184, which allowed the Terminids to aggressively expand and, therefore, prevent the Helldivers from continuing their attempts to end the struggle over Estanu for good.

Estanu would remain firmly under Terminid control and get absorbed into the Gloom on October 2185, its surface now polluted by dense quantities of Gloom spores. However, unlike at Hellmire or Gacrux, the environmental damage on Estanu has been minimal and hope remains that, following its liberation, Estanu can be safely resettled. Estanu's position right at the border between the Mirin, Draco and Umlaut Sectors makes it a crucial pivot point to control, as it is a critical flank on Gloom Base Alpha that the Terminids nested at neighboring Fori Prime could utilize to attempt a takeover of the base, dooming future Gloom operations. The liberation and control of Estanu is critical to the security of Hellmire and, by extension, the future of The Great Expedition at large.

History

Special Military Operations

Operation CBCT Protection

Merely days after the successul deployment of the Terminid Control System (TCS) on the neighboring Barrier Planets, several Civilian Biomass Collection Teams (BCTs) were deployed to Estanu, Hellmire, Fori Prime, and Crimsica in order to collect and process inert Terminids. The Helldivers successfully liberated and defended each of these planets until operation completion.

Operation Rearing

Following Operation CBCT Protection, Estanu remained relatively peaceful outside of small-scale Terminid raids.

Following the success of Operation Swift Disassembly and the eradication of the Automaton Expeditionary Forces, Helldivers were re-routed to this planet, alongside with Hellmire and Crimsica, in order to build safer, more efficient E-710 farms and refineries.

Invasion of Cyberstan

When the Automatons resurged in the Valdis Sector, SEAF forces had to be diverted away from the Terminid front, leaving Estanu and the rest of the Draco sector under-defended. Despite this shortage of manpower, the colonial defenses stood against the Terminid raids, resilient in their commitment to protecting the spread of Freedom.

Operation Organic Harvest

As the war against the Automatons raged on in the Menkent Line, logistical challenges began to emerge. The righteous campaigns of the Helldivers had depleted Super Earth's E-710 reserves down to untolerable levels. As such, Super Earth High Command issued an order to exterminate 2,000,000,000 Terminids through the week of April 14 - April 20, 2184, in order to replenish the depleted reserves. The Helldivers, boundless in their loyalty and commitment to the cause of Liberty, managed to accomplish this order in under 24 hours, making it one of the fastest operations in Super Earth History.

The Ministry of Truth hereby reminds the reader that any rumours of "accounting errors in the kill-count" are the result of Automaton-sponsored dissidents and can be safely disregarded. Reporting any and all dissemination of these rumours to your local Democracy Officers is highly encouraged

Operation Enduring Bulwark

Immediately after the replenishing of the E-710 reserves, the Terminids, in a cowardly demonstration of treachery and evil innate to their species, managed to launch a coordinated assault on Super Earth-controlled planets alongside the Automaton assault on their respective front. The battle was fierce, with the heroic personnel on Estanu withstanding 5 consecutive assaults.

Despite massive losses and countless heroic sacrifices, the Helldivers valiantly defended their positions against the massive onslaughts on both fronts, securing Estanu firmly into Democracy's protection.

Failure of the Terminid Control System

Shortly after Operation Enduring Bulwark came to an end, the Terminid Control System began to cause dangerous mutations on the Terminid populations of the Barrier Planets. As Meridia fell to the Terminid tide and became a Supercolony, chaos spread to the neighboring planets of the Umlaut Sector and into Estanu. While it has been spared the fate of Meridia thanks to the deactivation of the TCS infrastructure in the Umlaut Sector, Estanu fell to the Terminid onslaught, alongside the rest of the Draco Sector.

The Ministry of Humanity requests that all citizens set aside one minute of silence during lunch breaks in remembrance of all the lives lost on Estanu.

Second Galactic War

During the first weeks of the Second Galactic War, Estanu remained under Terminid control, enduring horrendous cruelty brought onto it by the bugs. However, their toil was not going to go unheard for much longer. Scientists on Moradesh were beginning to prepare experimental Dark Fluid for deployment on Meridia. A decision was reached to deploy the Dark Fluid and collapse Meridia into a Black Hole.

Operation Enduring Peace

Operation Enduring Peace began on May 28th, 2184 and concluded on the afternoon of June 2nd, 2184, with Meridia being successfully destroyed. Without the Supercolony and with the black hole now siphoning away all of the remaining supercolony spores, new fronts began to immediately open, with Estanu and Crimsica now being open for liberation once more.

Operation Hive Breaker

With the securing of Database One in Wasat and the valiant rescue of the trapped children in Super Citizen Anne's Hospital for the Very Sick Children at Vernen Wells, Super Earth High Command now had more breathing room to divert manpower back against the Terminids. Even though the Supercolony had been destroyed, Terminid population levels remained at unmanageable levels, demanding an unsustainable cost of lives and munitions for its adequate containment. As such, a Major Order was given out on June 14th to liberate Hellmire, Nivel 43, and all 3 planets in the Draco Sector (Estanu, Crimsica and Fori Prime). Crimsica was liberated first on June 16th, with Estanu quickly following on June 17th after a quick but devastating battle.

Operation Andromeda

However, Estanu's liberty would be short lived. With Fori Prime failing to be secured, Estanu's colonists were living on borrowed time. One by one, slowly but surely, the Terminids in Fori Prime would take back all the planets lost. First Gacrux, from which they would then go on to infest the rest of the Jin Xi Sector. Then, Crimsica during Operation Starslayer. And then, on July 13th, Estanu once more. Due to the ongoing Operation Andromeda, the Helldivers were unable to answer to its call for aid and, understandably, it fell to the Terminid assault.

Terminid Research Initiative

While under Terminid occupation, the Helldivers would deploy onto Estanu in order to carry out the Terminid Research Initiative, which would yield very positive results and data for the Ministry of Science. While the Terminids at Estanu did react by launching a failed assault onto Fenrir III, not much else of note would occur

Operation Glorious Xenocide

However, the Terminid Research Initiative would not be the only time during which Estanu, despite its occupation, would see action. As the Terminid Research Initiative shifted into a second stage, it mandated the culling of 1 billion Terminids through several different methods. As such, the Helldivers would valiantly charge into Terminid territory, in order to carry out the Ministry of Science's request. They would successfully cull the required amount of Terminids and push them out of the Jin Xi Sector after a bloody counteroffensive at Acamar and the liberation of Gacrux, which quickly allowed the Helldivers to redirect to Estanu and progress its liberation considerably before being ordered back towards the Automaton Front.

Operation Vengeful Cleansing

Despite Estanu; or for that matter, planetary liberations, not being the specific target of the Major Order, the Helldivers would wind up liberating Estanu during Operation Vengeful Cleansing, making such an efficient, effective and impeccable usage of land mines and combined arms tactics that the Terminids would be eradicated from the planet by the evening of August 4th.

Operation Lighthouse

Estanu would remain free since August 4th. However, being free almost never means being safe from the menace of tyranny. As The Gloom appeared in Enuliale, Estanu's colonists would see their home threatened once again. On August 13th, shortly after the liberation of Troost in the Western Front and the victory at Acamar IV, the Terminids would launch a dual assault onto Estanu and Erata Prime. Given Estanu's reputation, the majority of the Helldivers concentrated on the defense of Estanu, repelling the Terminid attack in under 12 hours.

Operation Prometheus

However, the Bugs would not be done with their push towards Estanu as, a mere 12 hours after their first failed assault, they launched a second, even more reinforced assault onto Estanu. However, now that the Helldivers had order to focus on sample collection tasks on Crimsica, Erson Sands and Nivel 43, it was unlikely that Estanu will be able to successfully defend itself. However, in a sprout of good luck, Operation Prometheus would be aborted, as counterfeit samples would be encountered within the deliveries of the ordered samples.

With the major order aborted, the Helldivers could redirect forces towards rescuing Estanu, as many in the corps had a noticeable emotional investment into the planet. In detriment of the liberation of Crimsica, the Helldivers shifted towards Estanu and turned around the situation, securing its freedom once more.

Operation Brute Force

Estanu would remain secured against the bugs after the liberation of Crimsica, with the only attack coming towards it being from Fori Prime on August 25th. In honor of all the Helldivers lost to Estanu so far, the Helldivers rushed to defend Estanu and managed to repel the assault during the night of August 26th, which began a courageous string of victories during the operation, having first started with the liberation of Acamar IV before this.

Operation Ring of Freedom

Estanu would remain in peace for 2 months after its final defense on August 26th, as the Gloom stabilized and stopped its expansion. However, its safety was not guaranteed, as it stood at the very edge of the Gloom, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from both Fori Prime and Hellmire. Yet, despite this, Estanu was not attacked for 2 whole months, as the Terminids focused on aggressively expanding into the Jin Xi sector.

However, this status would soon change, as, on October 16th, both Crimsica and Estanu would be attacked from within The Gloom. Since Crimsica was the planet connected to Acamar IV, Estanu was essentially abandoned to its own devices. Despite this, the colonists at Estanu fought valiantly against the evil insectoids, determined to drive back the fascist tide that pounced upon their sufficiently sized dwellings. However, it was all for naught, as the Helldivers were forced to completely concentrate on Crimsica, leaving Estanu abandoned and letting it fall to the Terminids on October 17th.

Despite this, the Helldivers would not abandon Estanu, maintaining a sizeable force on the planet in order to ensure its swift liberation. Estanu would wind up being liberated shortly after the defense of Marfark, with the last terminid hives being effectively cleansed on October 22nd.

Operation Courageous Exodus

After October 22nd, Estanu would remain mostly peaceful, with not many incidents worthy of note occurring. However, following a surge of Terminid spores, the Terminids inside the Gloom would launch a massive offensive, just as Super Earth had begun mobilizing volunteers from Gloom-adjacent planets in order to staff the Democracy Space Station. As such, the Helldivers were ordered to hold the line while these millions of volunteers were processed and transported to the DSS.

Estanu would find itself back in the frontlines on November 5th, as a Terminid attack from within the Gloom made landfall on it, alongside Erata Prime and Fenrir III. After Fenrir III was defended, Estanu would enjoy the help of the Helldiver Corps in its defense, to the detriment of Erata Prime's own defense which lead to a victory in Estanu on November 6th, at the cost of losing Erata Prime to the Terminids yet again.

However, this would not be the last time Estanu would be attacked. After another triple assault, this time at Heeth, Esker and Bore Rock, Estanu would once again be attacked, along with Crimsica. The Helldivers decided to start by helping Estanu's defense first, which would allow the Terminids to make crucial gains at Crimsica. The Helldivers would fight tooth and nail to defend Estanu against the Terminids, as both assaults were unusually fierce.

After some 17 hours of fighting, Estanu was secured, which allowed the Helldivers to initiate immediate redeployments on Crimsica.

Operation Vermintide

Estanu would have seemed to have reached the end of its role in the Second Galactic War. After spending almost the entirety of 2184 embroiled in the chaos brought on by the ravenous Terminids and with the dead numbering in the tens of millions, Estanu would enter 2185 in a battered state, its repairs intertwined with the funerary rites of those who were still yet to be buried.

Estanu, finally given time to rebuild for the first third of 2185, almost forgot that there was even a war going on around it, seemingly enamored by its new, rare peace. A certain disgusting plague wouldn't be quick to forget, however.

On April 16th, 2185, a new offensive by the Terminids began in earnest, this time led by their newly mutated Predator Strain. Outbreaks erupted across Esker, Crimsica, and the Centre of Science on Fenrir III. All Helldivers were immediately ordered to the defense against at least nine incoming attacks by the bugs, and it appeared that Estanu had survived this initial wave, as the Helldivers had succeeded in a double defense of both Fenrir III and its neighbor, Crimsica, unexpectedly. Estanu would breathe a sigh of relief... but not for long.

In the early morning hours of April 19, 2185, with the Helldivers attempting a defense gambit of Bore Rock, Terrek, and Erata Prime, the Predator Strain began yet another assault, this time on Estanu's icy rocks. With the planet's peace seemingly on the brink, the Helldivers were called for aid to stop the proliferation of the deadly vermin.

Sadly, Estanu's absurd streak in 2184 of staving off the Terminids wasn't slated to last in this instance. New outbreaks by the Predator Strain began on Turing and Crimsica once again, and with the Helldivers ordered to the double defense of both this latest attack and the ongoing invasions of Terrek and Erata, Estanu was left isolated, and for the first time, abandoned. Saddened yet understanding, Estanu's brave civilians and whatever few Helldivers were stationed on Estanu battled with all their might against the Terminids, but the Strain was simply too numerous to stop in their proliferation. Through unfortunate circumstances, Estanu was left to its own devices and fell the next day.

Operation Calamari Damacy

Estanu had unfortunately lasted under the oppression of the Terminids much longer than it had hoped. With the Helldivers constantly drawn away to other large priorities, including numerous offensives by all three enemy factions and expeditions deeper into The Gloom, Estanu had simply moved away from the limelight, an unexpected far-cry from when it was prioritized for 5 straight defenses in Operation Rampart.

At the tail-end of Operation Calamari Damacy against the Illuminate, Gloom spores had appeared over Estanu for the first time during the War, covering it in a light, sickly haze. Over the following days, these spores would envelop the whole planet and make operations increasingly more difficult, as the spores complicated the re-arming of Eagle fighters, forced Pelican shuttles to take longer to extract and created logistical constraints that halved the amount of supplies available.

Operation Heatshield

Estanu would have been seemingly forgotten. With the galaxy in a state of ever-growing turmoil, greater and greater battles had siphoned away the Helldivers that once used to battle for Estanu's liberty. Most would have lost all hope for Estanu to ever return to Liberty's embrace but, as Liberty herself would have it, a chance soon loomed upon the horizon.

Gloom Base Alpha had been established on neighboring Hellmire 2 months ago during Operation Righteous Reclamation in order to allow Super Destroyers to have a safe harbour from where they could conduct operations within the Gloom itself, which marked the start of the Great Expedition. However, Hellmire's position left it vulnerable to attacks not just from within the Gloom, but also from nearby Terminid-controlled worlds.

With this vulnerability identified, High Command opted to immediately secure all possible flanks on Gloom Base Alpha before initiating its planned great offensive into the Gloom. As such, orders were sent out for the Helldivers to liberate and secure Erata Prime and Estanu. Operations on Estanu commenced the day the Major Order was issued. However, on October 21st, an attack would go out from Estanu onto Hellmire the next day.

Despite a whole day worth of battle, no progress had been made on Estanu by the time this attack on Hellmire began and, despite High Command's Strategic Advisory attempting to steer Helldivers to capture Estanu, most Helldivers neglected Estanu's liberation in favor of Hellmire's defense and, following that victory, the liberation of Erata Prime, as it had advanced significantly farther than Estanu's despite having greater planetary resistance projections.

Only when Erata Prime was liberated on October 23rd did Estanu finally see Helldivers deploy in full force onto its surface. With the early aid of the Democracy Space Station's Heavy Ordnance Distribution, vast swaths of Estanu would be rapidly liberated within the first 4 hours of the campaign, before the rest of the planet was rapidly liberated 12 hours later. Estanu was back to Liberty's embrace....yet it was struck with the illness of fascism persisting in its atmosphere. Much like Erata Prime, Estanu's liberation still hadn't helped cleanse the heavy presence of Gloom Spores on its atmosphere.

Operation Big Brother

Estanu would be back to Super Earth's embrace. Even with its mild case of persisting Gloom spores saturating its atmosphere, Liberty embraced its beloved child with open arms; for this was only but a mild fever that, following Operation Relentless Uproot, came to pass. With the glorious victory of the Helldivers at the Battle of Oshaune and the liberation of the Hive World, the Gloom would be massively reduced in size. The spores that had lingered over Estanu, as well as those covering Fori Prime and Erata Prime, receeded and Estanu would breathe in the fresh air of Freedom once again. However, the Terminids were apparently displeased at their rejection and, when the Helldivers had to turn away to go tend to pressing matters on the Illuminate front, struck once again.

Estanu would be attacked by the Terminids on November 15th, with 6 million broods making planetfall all throughout its surface. However, the Helldivers were not going to let the heroic Estanu fall to such a feeble attack and, by November 16th, the Terminids were repelled, just as an ongoing assault on Lesath was also democratically obliterated by the Helldivers.

FTL Lines

• Crimsica
• Fori Prime
• Hellmire - Mirin Sector

FTL Timeline

• February 8th, 2184: Estanu is connected by FTL to Crimsica, Fori Prime, Hellmire and Meridia.
• April 29th, 2184: FTL line to Meridia is destroyed.
• June 2nd, 2184: FTL line to Meridia is re-established.
• January 30th, 2185: FTL line to Meridia is destroyed.

Gallery

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