“	The strange subversion of photosynthesis that sustains the oddly-hued flora that flourishes on this planet remains an intriguing mystery to the Super Earth's greatest exo-biologists.	„
	~ Official Description

Merak is one of the six planets that reside within the Valdis Sector.

Topography and Astrography

Merak is largely covered in flora, including thick bushes and dense, dark forests. It is covered in persistent fog and heavy clouds, giving the surface an appearance of eternal night. Its lush jungles slow down movement, its dense canopy blocks line-of-sight, and its foggy atmosphere and dark shadows obscure vision on the ground. To make matters worse, ion storms are common in the planet's atmosphere, scrambling communications with orbiting Super Destroyers and preventing Stratagem deployment.

The land itself alternates between hills covered in dense vegetation and low-lying atolls of mostly shallow water. Potential danger includes the ever-present Perforator Plant, that explodes in halos of deadly spikes on contact, and hidden pockets of deep water that may catch the unaware Helldiver.

Merak remains a feral world, without much infrastructure. Despite the passage of time over two years, the Automatons never built anything more on Merak than their standard military architecture.

On an astronomical scale, Merak, together with Aurora Bay, is one of two entrances to the Valdis Sector, and an important chokepoint. The Automatons ensured to keep it well prepared and fortified for any potential attempt at liberation; or at least they did, before Merak was razed in February 2186.

History

Before 2184

Not much is known on events on Merak before second galactic war. Most likely due to its proximity to Cyberstan, residents of this system were also part of the re-education program.

Special Military Operations

The Reclamation

On April 9th, 2184, a day after completion of Operation Swift Disassembly, a massive Automaton fleet have jumped into Valdis Sector, overwhelming planetary garrisons in mere hours. Multiple communication arrays have been knocked out by this attack, therefore news of it arrived late. Some Helldivers instantly begun dropping on Merak, but mere minutes later the neighboring Penta has also fallen to the Automatons, locking the planet out.

Operation: Legitimate Undertaking

Following the failure and conclusion of Operation: Legitimate Undertaking, Penta was freed from Automaton occupation, allowing temporary access to Merak during final days of April 2184. Alas, due to both heavy resistance, only small progress would be made, which then was interrupted by the TCS Failure in Umlaut Sector. Automatons would perform a counterattack, retaking Penta on May 3rd, and locking out Merak.

Until October 2184, there was only 1 Super Destroyer still orbiting the planet, at least judging by its signal still being received back in Super Earth. However, they have since gone silent, their status unknown. To this lone warrior, we dedicate this one line of the tale, for they truly stand as the brightest spark of Freedom in the fight against the Automatons.

Second Galactic War

Operation Valid Pretext

On February 3rd, after thorough investigation, Ministry of Truth confirmed that it was the Automatons that were responsible for the illegal downloading of plans for Democracy Space Station. With this, fears of Automatons building their own planet-ending weapon forced Federation to act. Operation Valid Pretext was called with single objective - March to Cyberstan with goal of liberating it.

It seems the news of this grand operation reverberated throughout the known space, and Automatons instantly begun setting up defenses across every planet between Lesath and Cyberstan itself. Over next two days, both Jet Brigade and Incineration Corps have been stationed on the planet, in what could be considered a layered defense.

Combat on Merak began at the same time as on Aurora Bay: approximately 06:30 SEST on the 6th of February. However, unlike Aurora Bay, the contingent on Merak was much smaller, which was primarily due to the huge enemy resistance rate of 6%, as well as the deployment of units of two elite military formations of the Automaton Legion, as well as on a relatively neighboring planet. In addition, the dominant biome of Merak belongs to the same type as on Malevelon Creek, and this, taking into account the above-mentioned factors, created additional negative associations.

Given the initial success achieved by the Super Earth forces on Aurora Bay, more and more units were being withdrawn from Merak to the "neighboring" planet, but even before that, offensive operations had not achieved progress. On the same day, at 13:38 SEST, the High Command sent a message to all troops about the adjusted analysis of the resistance indicator on Merak, the value of which was reduced by 1 percent to 4%. By that time, the S.E.A.F. offensive on Aurora Bay was hampered, but there were still hopes of repelling the Automaton counteroffensive. A relatively small group continued to operate in Merak, carrying out various acts of sabotage against enemy infrastructure and troops.

On the 7th of February, for reasons not fully understood, the Automatons withdrew all units of the Jet Brigade from Merak, leaving only the forces of the Incineration Corps, as well as regular troops. On Aurora Bay, the campaign turned into a military disaster for the Super Earth Armed Forces, the troops remaining there launched a Second Offensive against Eaglemount Town, so as not to be completely destroyed by the superior forces of the socialist machines. Meanwhile, there were still no territorial changes in Merak. At 22:00 SEST, an Automaton offensive force, with a strength rating of Invasion Level 17, was dispatched from Merak to Chort Bay. However, by 19:00 SEST on the 8th of February, these aggressors were completely defeated, including due to the timely activation of the Eagle Storm tactical action by the forces of the Democracy Space Station Air Group.

The next target of the DSS, as well as most of the Federation troops, was Merak. Already at 19:02, a significant number of units began fighting on this tropical planet, beginning the conquest of a foothold for the main forces. As of 22:00 SEST on the 8th of February, 135000 Super Destroyers alone arrived on Merak with a colossal total number of Helldivres on board – the shaded jungles of this planet have become even darker from such a large number of deployed forces. By this point in time, more than 6% of the planet's area had been taken under the control of the Super Earth, and the Automatons had no way to stop the rapid advance, unlike the failed Aurora Bay campaign.

Throughout the 9th of February, the Legion's military units continued to retreat and be destroyed at an extremely rapid pace. The Automaton command realized too late how critical the situation was for their troops. At 15:08 SEST, Merak was liberated by almost 75% when reinforcements in the form of the Jet Brigade were sent to the planet by Socialist machines. But this only slowed down the advance of the Super Earth Armed Forces slightly, increasing the resistance level from 3% to 3.5%. At 21:47 SEST on the same day, Merak was completely torn out from under the yoke of robots programmed to greed and hate humanity.

Soon, the last stage of the preparation of all S.E.A.F. units for the Battle for Cyberstan – the capital of the self-proclaimed Collective of Cyberstan – began. After the establishment of a powerful FTL link with the highest bandwidth between Merak and Cyberstan at 14:00 SEST on the 10th of February, this momentous battle began.

Merak itself was subjected to a 24-hour orbital bombardment on the 10th of February at 23:20 SEST, following he results of the relevant vote. The Helldivers chose this option because previous Automaton attacks on Lesath and Chort Bay had exposed the vulnerability of defenses in a planet where numerous enemy structures remain, particularly on Merak, which had been under enemy control since the 9th of April 2184.

FTL Lines

• Chort Bay - Lacaille Sector
• Merga IV

FTL Timeline

• February 8th, 2184: Merak is connected by FTL to Chort Bay and Penta.
• April 9th, 2184: FTL line to Chort Bay is destroyed.
• February 5th, 2186: FTL line to Merga IV is established.

Trivia

• Merak is named after a star in the Ursa Major constellation. Despite Merak being in the Ursa Major constellation it is not part of the Ursa Sector.