| “ | A rocky, lonely moon with extremely valuable mineral deposits underneath the surface. | „ |
| ~ Official Description. |
RD-4 is one of the six planets that reside in the Rigel Sector. Along with Rogue 5, it is one of the farthest colonies of Super Earth, standing right at the southern border with the uncharted deep space regions.
Topography
Similar to other bodies with lunar biome, this planet features a barren grey desert, dotted with craters and occasional rock formations that break up the long sightlines. Elevation changes are medium, creating advantageous vantage points that can be freely traversed. Its barely existing atmosphere allows for full view of stars above, even during daylight. This causes both meteor storms, that pass unobstructed and pepper the surface every 10 to 15 minutes. Only flora on planet consists of small, branchy bushes and corn fields near human colonies.
On cosmic scale, RD leads to rest of Rigel sector, being connected to both Hort and Hesoe Prime.
History
Second Galactic War
Return of the Illuminate
RD-4 was a peaceful frontier colony of Super Earth, far off in the Southern Galactic Rim. Given its remoteness, it was discovered during the First Galactic War but would not be appropriately colonized until several decades later, well past the start of the Great Democratization. As such, RD-4 would take a good amount of time to populate, but in return would form small, tightly-knit communities that would utilize their collective wealth to build scattered urbanized settlements across the planet.
However, a xenophobic race stared at these colonists in envy of their closure. The 
Illuminate, an ancient foe of Super Earth, had returned to wreak havoc and wage war against Managed Democracy once more. On January 1st, 2185, the odious aliens launched an attack onto RD-4. Having attacked neighbouring Hort and Hesoe Prime during December 2184, the Illuminate were apparently intent on plundering even more resources off the poor colonists of RD-4 as if their previous heists hadn't been successful.
However, the Illuminate were not counting with the righteous Helldivers coming right after them following the Illuminate's defeats at Kharst, Parsh and Liberty Ridge. Having delivered a string of defeats to the maleficent plunderers, they would immediately deploy onto RD-4 on full force, determined to deliver one more defeat to the alien invaders. With all their might, the Helldivers would inflict upon the Illuminate such agony that they would be forced to immediately retreat, granting them another victory.
Operation Democracy Delivered
However, the Illuminate's defeat would not shake them off their ambitions. As the month of January progressed, the Illuminate raids continued across the Southern Galactic Rim, allowing the Illuminate to plunder and recuperate their losses while still inflicting damage and horror upon Super Earth's colonies. Amidst this campaign, the Illuminate would target RD-4 once again on January 20th, 2185. The Helldivers would rotate as quickly as possible towards it, hoping to repel the invasion.
However, the Helldivers would be severely delayed not only by the closing invasion on Alathfar XI, but also the liberation campaign on Heeth keeping a significant contingent of Super Destroyers and the recently repaired Democracy Space Station both away from the Illuminate, which allowed them to make significant gains during the early hours of their invasion and ultimately allowed them to escape RD-4 unscathed.
Operation Heatshield
While the 
Helldivers were carrying out the Major Order from High Command, the purpose of which was to eliminate the threat of a 
Terminid attack on Hellmire from Erata Prime (liberated on October 23 at 05:15 SEST) and Estanu (liberation continues as of 18:18 SEST) by liberating these planets, the insidious Illuminate decided to take advantage of this distraction. Having recovered and accumulated forces after the unification of the two cut-off groups and the expansion of their occupation zone (thereby creating a large enclave similar to the letter lambda), they resumed their offensive in the Rigel sector and attacked the RD-4 moon.
Helldiver keeping the skies clean during extraction - October 25th, 2185.
8 invasion fleets entered this star system and reached orbit at 17:43 SEST. A small contingent of Helldivers and several hundred Super Destroyers were sent to help. Unfortunately, majority of Divers and DSS were instead sent to help besieged Gacrux, giving up RD system for free to the Squ'ith
FTL Lines
- Rogue 5 (Re-established on October 7th, 2185)
- Hesoe Prime (Re-established on October 7th, 2185)
- Basquine VIII (Established on June 16th, 2186)
FTL Timeline
- February 8th, 2184: RD-4 is connected by FTL to Hesoe Prime and Rogue 5.
- June 13th, 2184: FTL lines to Hesoe Prime and Rogue 5 are destroyed.
- October 7th, 2185: FTL lines to Rogue 5 and Hesoe Prime are re-established, plus a new line to Hort.
- June 16th, 2186: FTL Line to Hort is Destroyed and replaced with new one to Basquine VIII