“	The lifeless grey of this planet is interrupted only by the violet flowers that grow from strange, parasitic outcroppings.	„
	~ Official Description

Nivel 43 is one of the four planets that reside within the Mirin Sector.

Topography and Astrography

Similar to planets like Cirrus, Nivel 43 is an ashen, rocky planet perpetually covered in a thick fog that hinders visibility, making combat more difficult for both friendlies and hostiles alike. The planet's abundance of active geysers and visible smoking volcanoes over the horizon suggest volcanic activity on the planet. Little to no living flora can be found on the planet, with the dead trees and coral-like plants only really serving as carcasses housing violet growths of a possibly parasitic nature.

A form of living xenoflora that can be found on Nivel 43 are Shrapnel Bushes. These bushes consist of one central stem from which multiple spiky fruits sprout. Should these plants be disturbed by any kind of munitions or a violent impact such as a vehicular collision or an exosuit stepping too close, they will violently release the thorns contained within the fruits, such release being as violent as the explosion of a Frag Grenade and being capable of immediately disabling vehicles and injuring Helldivers inside these.

Nivel 43 also can have multiple undetonated Hellbombs strewn across its surface, product of the multiple campaigns conducted by the Super Earth Armed Forces on the planet. Exercise extreme caution when operating vehicles and explosives close to one of these, as any impact will prime them to explode within a second and any explosion will make the Hellbombs detonate immediately.

Nivel 43 is not home to any known Mega Cities or critical Super Earth facilities. At some point following the destruction of Meridia, it housed a number of Terminid Nurseries that would be destroyed by the Helldivers, but beside that, no other points of interest have been noted to exist on this planet. Besides these nurseries, Nivel 43's surface is dotted with a collection of urban settlements that once house its rural population, as well as having many detached dwellings, camps and SEAF facilities that now all lie abandoned.

The Nivel System consists of planet Nivel 43 itself, its orbiting moon and at least 4 other astronomical bodies, which are 2 gas giants, the moon of one of these gas giants and a planet with a ring system.

The Nivel System would not have much relevance during the early months of the Second Galactic War. Sitting right next to Hellmire, it would never show much strategic opportunities beyond its FTL connection with Zagon Prime and, later, its FTL connections into the Falstaff Sector through Esker. Nivel 43 would only gain some relevance once it was absorbed into The Gloom after its fall to the Terminid Horde. It's location right on the edge of the Gloom allowed not just for a Second Gloom Expedition to be undertaken, but also made Nivel 43 into a prospect for housing what later became Gloom Base Alpha, only being beaten by Hellmire due to Nivel 43 not being as easily accessible.

History

Special Military Operations

Nivel 43's distance from Super Earth and non-strategic position kept it under frequent tyranny of the despotic Terminids. After the unexpected failure of the Terminid Control System on the Barrier Planets, the tide of fascist insectoids overtook Nivel 43 along with the entire Mirin Sector.

Second Galactic War

Operation Hive Breaker

The judicious destruction of the Meridia supercolony on May 30, 2184 allowed the SEAF to push forward into Terminid-occupied territory. Shortly after multiple overwhelming victories on the Automaton Front, the Helldivers were directed to liberate five planets illegally occupied by the Terminids: Estanu, Crimsica, Fori Prime, Hellmire, and Nivel 43. Though Nivel 43's location meant it would be liberated last, it had not been forgotten. Despite the Terminids' sloppy attempts to slow down the SEAF through outbreaks on Gacrux and Esker, Nivel 43 was finally liberated on June 21, 2184.

Falstaff and Jin Xi Lockdown

However, Nivel 43, ignored as usual, would fall to a Terminid assault on June 25th, as the Helldivers were occupied with the protection of the Xzar Sector. It would be stuck on a deadlock since then, as the Helldivers then began racing to secure the following key planets in the nearby Falstaff and Jin Xi Sectors.

However, despite this victory, Nivel 43's Terminid Hives managed to shield themselves from democracy, as they would launch another dual barrage of intergalactic spores onto both Hellmire and Esker, while Estanu would be under attack from a Terminid spore barrage coming from Fori Prime, which inevitably would create a triple defense situation that succesfully locked Nivel 43 away from the Helldivers' reach....for now.

Operation Benevolent Sanitation

With their position secured, the Terminids at Nivel 43 mostly stood by as their spawns on Esker went on to launch a massive superonslaught onto Socorro III on August 6th. In their devious machinations, the Bugs at Nivel 43 would send an assault onto Erson Sands on August 7th by creating a new FTL line, which forced the Helldivers to abandon it in order to concentrate on the defense of Socorro.

With Erson Sands taken, the bugs were able to conduct the next part of their plan. Originating around Enuliale, a massive cloud of intergalactic Terminid spores had begun engulfing the planets in the L'estrade Sector that were under Terminid control. And soon enough, it began to expand onto other neighbouring planets that were controlled by the Bugs, with Erson Sands and Nivel 43 being engulfed and SEAF Satellites being unable to monitor the situation on these 2 planets any further.

The situation on Nivel 43 remained unknown for the rest of 2184, the planet thought lost to Managed Democracy.

Until it wasn't.

Operation Niflheim

On April 11, 2185, High Command had approved another mission into The Gloom, to gain enough E-710 to stop and counter the movement of Meridia. Nivel 43 was deemed the ideal site for this expedition due to decreased terminid resistance. Resistance was projected at 6%, less than the previous expedition into Fori Prime and Meridia during the Supercolony crisis, but still significantly higher than all non-gloom Terminid planets.

As the Helldivers engaged the Terminids on the surface, the resistance at Nivel 43 started to decrease, in a way familiar to how it happened before at Fori Prime. At approximately 00:00 SEST of the next day, the enemy resistance index went down from 6% to 5.90%, and then decreased again at approximately 10:20 SEST from the previous 5.9% to 5.7%, then to 5.4% some more hours later, which is when small ground gains were achieved.

As the Helldivers continued to engage the Terminids, resistance fell to 4.5%, then 4% shortly after before then going down to 3.5%, as the Helldivers began to make significant gains on the ground. From 3.5%, the enemy resistance would plummet all the way down to 2.9% by the afternoon of April 14th, and then fall down to 2.4% until, on April 15th, Nivel 43 would be liberated, marking a second occasion where a planet would be liberated within the Gloom and granting Super Earth an important victory that allowed for the construction of the Repulsive Gravity Field Generator at Pilen V, a device that was key in definitively stopping the Meridian Singularity's movement once and for all.

Operation Righteous Reclamation, Celestial Power and Information Reclamation

Nivel 43 was one of the objectives of Operation Righteous Reclamation that began on August 31st, 2185, although at that point it remained inaccessible inside the Gloom. Nonetheless, it remained of strategic interest to the Ministry of Defense as a potential staging ground for further operations meant to combat the Gloom itself.

Indeed, Nivel 43 was chosen as one of three target planets to be held as part of Operation Free Space, as Zagon Prime was a potential target for the newly constructed Star of Peace. The Helldivers began liberation efforts on January 16th and liberated the planet on January 17th, although ultimately these efforts were unneeded as Penta would become the first target of the Star of Peace.

Unfortunately Nivel 43's freedom wouldn't last long as almost two weeks later on January 30th, 2186, the Terminid Horde would attempting to reinfest Nivel 43, by launching spores from Zagon Prime, following up disturbing reports of a marked increase in the Gloom Spores engulfing the planet. Local and orbital would be further exacerbated by the sheer volume of bloodthirsty insect fascists ravaging the planet.  Helldivers would be ordered to hold Nivel 43 and repel the despotic swarm to enable surviving scientists to disperse the Gloom and restore optical sovereignty.

Unfortunately this would prove to be a tactical blunder on the part of Super Earth High Command. Not only would fewer Helldivers than required (estimated 90% of the corps would be required) answer the call, but their absence from the Illuminate front would put in jeopardy the liberation campaigns on Adhara and Mog. This would be further exacerbated by the recently repaired Democracy Space Station also being thrown into fight too late into the defense to make a significant difference and depriving other fronts of much needed support.

The fall of the planet on the 31st would provide a bitter pill to swallow for many in the Helldiver Corps. Recognizing the battle as lost, the Democracy Space Station and most of the Helldivers redeployed to other fronts. However a patriotic but shortsighted core of several thousand Helldivers would remain behind to attempt to liberate the planet. While they did retake some ground, the resources and manpower needed to do so was unsustainable.

FTL Lines

• Erata Prime - Umlaut Sector
• Erson Sands - Falstaff Sector
• Esker - Falstaff Sector
• Hellmire
• Zagon Prime

FTL Timeline

• February 8th, 2184: Nivel 43 is connected by FTL to Hellmire and Zagon Prime.
• June 18th, 2184: New FTL line to Esker is established.
• August 6th, 2184: New FTL line to Erson Sands is established.
• August 27th, 2185: New FTL line to Erata Prime is established.