“	Tall, gnarled trees flourish across the surface of this forested world. Sunlight filters past dangling vines, to the saturated undergrowth below.	„
	~ Official Description

Seasse was one of the five planets that resided within the Omega Sector. Seasse became the first planet to feature Illuminate Exostorms on March 19th, 2026, as well as being the first planet to feature the Illuminate Appropriators. Following the failure to liberate the planet in time, Seasse became the first planet to disappear into The Void.

Topography and Astrography

Similar to Asperoth Prime, Seasse is a swampy marshland planet, its surface comprised entirely by a single, endless bayou. The trees in Seasse, while undoubtedly a sight to garnish in peacetime, also make for a formidable obstacle to consider when deploying Eagle and Orbital strikes on targets, as they can and will intercept the payload of a poorly placed stratagem beacon. The terrain in Seasse is rugged and wavy, the hills undulating endlessly before being interrupted by the frequent mud patch or cut off by a snaking river of a deceptively profound depth, since they can often appear shallow before a Helldiver plunges in and never comes back out.

A form of xenoflora found in Seasse, although not exclusive to this system, are plants that will be colloquially referred to as "Flamer Stumps". As the name suggests, these are plants resembling stumps of dead trees that are oozing out a vibrant green sap that, when disturbed by gunfire or explosions, explode and ignite their immediate vicinity. Helldivers should tread carefully around these plants, as the explosion of the stump can knock them to the ground and, if they were close enough, leave them ablaze for long enough to kill them. Vehicles are ill-advised in Seasse should no roads be available, as the jagged, muddy terrain and the frequency of deceptively shallow water makes driving a challenge. However, Exosuits may still be utilized without much impediment, although caution is to be exercised around Flamer Stumps, as the footsteps of the mech can set them off and damage or destroy the exosuit, as well as injuring or killing nearby Helldivers.

Seasse is not home to any Mega Cities or notable Super Earth facilities. However, Seasse is still home to a number of scattered urbanized settlements that exist throughout the swampland, which house the majority of the frontierspeople living on the planet. Besides these settlements, the undeveloped bog also contains the odd detached settler dwelling, frontier camp and S.E.A.F. installation. Having been part of the Illuminate Empire prior to the First Galactic War, Seasse contains an amount of Illuminate Ruins buried beneath its surface. However, do remember: Only a traitor is curious about alien artifacts!

The Seasse system is comprised of planet Seasse itself, its orbiting moon and three other planets, which are 2 red gas giants and a brown, volcanic moon of the closest gas giant. Additionally, a blue subgiant star can be seen from Seasse's orbit, but whether it forms a binary star system with Seasse's sun or exists independently of the Seasse system is unknown due to its distance.

Seasse, due to its remoteness, does not serve much of a tactical purpose in the greater effort against the Illuminate Cult. The planet would become the junction of the Omega and Heze Bay Encirclements in October 2185, becoming a rare planet to be the sole connector of two encirclements. Seasse one of the only two planets allowing passage into Rogue 5. However, with the excavation of Illuminate Ruins throughout the Galactic South and Seasse being the first planet to be struck by Illuminate Exostorm, it would have been important to secure.

However, now claimed by The Void, Seasse is inaccessible and rendered unobservable to all equipment. The current state of the planet, or if it even still exists, is unknown, but rest assured the Ministry of Science is aggressively investigating the situation.

History

Second Galactic War

Return of the Illuminate

Seasse was a peaceful colony in the southern galactic rim, having been integrated into the Federation after the end of the First Galactic War, much like the rest of its neighbors in the Omega Sector after the dissolution of the Illuminate Empire. However, things weren't fated to remain in this state of calm stillness for much longer.

On December 23rd, 2184, the Illuminate launched an assault onto Seasse, hours after their prior raid at Hydrobius had ended. Even though the Helldivers had orders to secure the Umlaut Sector, a contingent would divert to help repel the Illuminate raid at Asperoth Prime, hoping to prevent the plunder of its resources and guarantee the safety of its citizens. However, despite their best efforts, this contingent would be unable to repel the raid, and the Illuminate sacked the planet's settlements before leaving 12 hours after they made planetfall.

A second Illuminate raid would hit Seasse on January 14th, 2185. Much like the first raid, the invasion would not be repelled in time and the Illuminate would plunder the planet's colonies as they pleased once more, before leaving 12 hours after they had arrived. A third raid would occur on February 4th, also being uncontested. However, when a fourth raid struck Seasse on February 9th, the Helldivers would successfully repel it with the help of the Democracy Space Station.

The next Illuminate raid would only come until March 16th, 2185, amidst the Illuminate campaign to harvest Dark Energy to siphon into the Meridian Black Hole as they propelled the singularity towards Super Earth. This invasion would be left unrepelled, allowing the Illuminate to harvest the Dark Energy from the planet before leaving 12 hours later. The Illuminate would send another raid towards Seasse on March 24th, but this time the invaders would be successfully repelled by the Helldivers, just as the Penrose Energy Syphon was successfully fueled and deployed.

A seventh Illuminate Raid would hit Seasse on March 29th, as the Illuminate now seeked to regain the momentum that the Meridian Singularity had lost because of the Penrose Energy Syphon. This invasion was left unattended and the Illuminate would leave on the morning of March 30th after they harvested more Dark Energy out of Seasse.

Post Illuminate Raid Campaign & Operation This Belongs in a Museum

“	What are the Illuminate doing in those ruins, do you know? Wait, don't tell me, I don't have the clearance. "Curiosity makes dissidents," that's what my mom always used to say. Who would speculate about the ancient Illuminate ruins activating after millennia, generating spacetime-altering phenomena and vanishing hundreds and thousands of citizens? Not me. I'll just wait to hear from the Ministry of Truth.	„
	~ Service Technician[1]

By April 2185, Seasse had been left in ruins. Time and time again, the Squ'ith had plundered small cityscape after small cityscape while devastating its rural infrastructure, and kidnapping as many innocent civilians as they could to transform them into Voteless monsters. The Illuminate would eventually abandon their raid campaign once the Helldivers managed to finally stop the Meridian Singularity, only for the Illuminate to reveal The Great Host and launch a despotic invasion of Super Earth on May 21st, 2185.

Following their pathetic failure to capture Super Earth, the Illuminate retreated to secret hideouts and raid sites in the Galactic South to begin re-establishing their former empire from June onwards. They would first concentrate themselves within the Hanzo, Ferris, and Omega Sectors, taking control of the majority of the planets within each sector, including the Mega Cities of Alamak VII and Alairt III. They would eventually begin to push into the Gallux and Rictus Sectors as well, though not having a major foothold within each. Eventually, however, their territorial ambitions would culminate in the Tripartite Invasion of late August as a joint Terminid- Automaton- Illuminate offensive began to encroach on the Federation of Super Earth. Planet after planet would fall to each faction, with the Galactic South itself in particular crisis as the Squ'ith pushed deep into the Rictus and Morgon Sectors, and even the Super Earth-bordering Cancri Sector.

More importantly for Seasse, the Illuminate had previously attacked Senge 23 right around the end of June, and due to little support from the Helldivers, the planet fell easily to the Squ'ith. They would then go on to capture Setia as well, and with that, the entirety of the Omega Sector was within the Illuminate's hands- except Seasse, which had remained cut off from the FTL network for as long as it could be. Its policy of isolationism- while straining- was the only thing keeping it safe from the horrors of oppression that seemed to be right on its border.

Months onward, on October 7, Seasse could no longer bear the lack of supplies and coordination from elsewhere and established new FTL Lines along with the rest of the neighboring Rigel Sector, with Seasse now connecting itself to both Rirga Bay and Rogue 5. However, this move was noticed by the harbingers of tyranny, who quickly followed suit as the Illuminate re-established their previously downed line from Senge 23 to Seasse. This move wasn't the only act of coordinated evil, as the Illuminate on Heze Bay would also establish an FTL Line to Rirga Bay. These acts came shortly before a new Major Order by High Command, ordering the Helldivers to liberate old archaeological Illuminate structures on Alairt III, Herthon Secundus, and Zea Rugosia.

Seasse, now flanked by the Illuminate menace on Senge 23, began to stockpile whatever weapons it could to defend against an imminent Illuminate attack. The Seassean's stress would only worsen when the Illuminate attacked and captured Rirga Bay, now leaving them surrounded by two points of attack. Unfortunately, as if it couldn't get worse, Seasse had sadly garnered even more tactical interest in being captured by Illuminate forces. Two encirclements had been ongoing at the time, as both Setia and Senge 23 were cut off from the rest of Illuminate territory after the liberation of Hydrobius in late September. Further, as a result of the liberation of Alairt III due to the Major Order, the Illuminate became encircled on Heze Bay and Rirga Bay as they were disconnected from the rest of the Illuminate's controlled space. Somehow, as fate would have it, both encirclements were essentially located right next to each other, and Seasse was the lone standing junction stopping the encirclements from being connected.

This latest cruel twist of luck for the planet made it a prime target for the Illuminate to go on and invade it, and that they would eventually do. On October 13, with liberation efforts wrapping up on Zea Rugosia, Seasse's colonial overseer issued an SOS as 10 Illuminate invasion fleets appeared within its atmosphere, and ground forces began attacking the planet.

Several divisions of Helldivers (and between 10,000 and 14,000 Super Destroyers at various times) arrived to help the planet's inhabitants, the colonial militia, and a small S.E.A.F. garrison, but by the time they arrived, almost everyone was either on the run or had been killed. The Super Earth elite began to repel the insidious attack on the peaceful world, destroying thousands of squids in fierce battles in the colonies and in the not-so-dense but lush tropical swamps. But the attack of the terrifying Terminids on Crimsica and the gradual expansion of The Gloom into its system forced most of the Helldivers from all fronts to head to this planet to prevent the aggressive and mysterious phenomenon from engulfing another free planet of the Federation. The Democracy Space Station also moved there from Zea Rugosia's orbit, leaving the defenders of Seasse with too few forces to repel the onslaught of the human-hating aliens. There were no free resources for an emergency transfer to Seasse even after establishing superiority over the Terminids on Crimsica, which only complicated the already critical defence situation.

At approximately 11:00 SEST, the last Helldiver units were withdrawn from the planet due to the impossibility of continuing the defensive campaign. Most of the Super Destroyers left the Seasse system shortly after the failure, but a small group of nearly 500-600 ships remained to support the regrouping Helldivers, who continue to carry out sabotage operations against the Illuminate occupation forces. Thus, the Illuminate regional command was able to realise its plan and unite two isolated groups – the first on Setia and Senge 23, and the second on Heze Bay and Rirga Bay – into one large crescent-shaped enclave in the south, affecting three sectors: Hanzo, Rigel, and Omega.

Joining forces and taking advantage of the diversion of forces to Crimsica, the squids moved on to Rogue 5, the southernmost planet of the Federation of Super Earth, in an attempt to compensate for the territorial losses suffered during Operation ‘This Belongs In A Museum’ by S.E.A.F. forces.

Cult of the Orb

The Cult of the Orb would come to galactic prominence in February of 2185 as a group of subversive dissidents who worshiped the Meridian Black Hole.^[3] Despite the wave of arrests in November of that year, the Cult of the Orb would persist in Super Earth society, as its members would soon cause commotion by spreading "doomsday propaganda" all over Super Earth on March 11th, 2186, after reports of astral anomalies coming from Illuminate-controlled planets in the Southern Sectors.^[4]

Naturally this material was classified as dramatic nonsense by the Ministry of Truth, who launched their own investigation into the matter. By March 13th, multiple reports would come in of Cultist activity in colony zones on Illuminate occupied Seasse. With the planet being deep behind enemy lines, the Ministry of Truth suspected that these cultists had undergone undemocratic amounts of Illuminate brainwashing, and that their predictions were therefore unfounded and expected nothing to happen.^[5]

This was seemingly confirmed on March 14th, when nothing seemed to have happened on Seasse, with the Ministry of Truth declaring that the Cult of the Orbs' words were nothing but empty noises.^[6] Unfortunately, while the cult's doctrine remains fictitious, even a broken clock is right twice a day as on March 17th, gravitational waves that defied sanctioned scientific models would be detected emanating from Seasse, as well as anomalous weather formations covering its surface.^[7]

Simultaneously, spacetime anomalies in the vicinity of Illuminate ruins would spike, with the Ministry of Science theorizing a direct connection between the two events. The atmospheric disturbances would be traced back to towers raised from the ancient Illuminate structure dubbed "exospires," while the atmospheric disturbances were likewise dubbed exostorms. However these storms were believed to only be a side effect of the exospire activity, with Ministry of Science astronomers observing gravitational "wobbles" between planets with exospires. Further evidence of some sort of connection.^[8]

However, the Federation did do not need to understand their ways to recognize anti-Democratic activity of an unknowable and perverse nature, which intelligence assessed with a high degree of certainty that the enemy was conducting. In response, the Helldivers were ordered to launch an immediate offensive towards Seasse, with the objective of determining the nature of this Illuminate activity, and interdicting it.

Operation Archaeological Anomaly

“	Man, those Illuminate Exostorms give me the creeps. Reminds me of Hellmire's fire tornados, just darker, and more truth-resistant.	„
	~ Service Technician[9]

It would take the Helldivers 2 days to reach Seasse, having to punch through Heze Bay and Rirga Bay first as the Illuminate deployed the Mindless Masses, massive hordes of Voteless and their variants, onto both planets in hopes of delaying the arrival of the Helldivers. However, ahead of schedule, both planets would be liberated and the Helldivers would be able to start deploying onto Seasse, coming into immediate contact with the Illuminate Appropriators.

The initial reports confirmed the presence of excavated Illuminate Exospires laying amidst other unearthed ruins that dated back to the days of the Squids' defunct empire. However, the initial reports also reported extreme weather. Unending, torrential rainstorms that would not cease; the deluge accompanied by occasional thunderstrikes which also anomalously caused visual distortion phenomena in their impact zone seconds before making landfall. The phenomenon would be categorized as a Class 1 Exostorm by High Command.

By March 20th, the phenomena on Seasse had intensified to the point where Super Earth High Command rescinded the requirement to complete full Operations on the planet for Helldivers, instead emphasizing the need for Helldivers to meet the required Major Order kill count. With the intensified Exostorm, High Command would recategorize it as a Class 2 Exostorm, as multiple Exospire weather cells congealed into a single mass.

Despite the Helldivers' best attempts at saving Seasse, the situation was looking increasingly unwinnable. By March 22nd, the weather throughout the entire planet would begin to merge, enveloping the whole planet under one anomalous cyclone that directly defied atmospheric physics. With the anomaly reaching critical mass, Super Earth High Command would recategorize the Exostorm into a Class 3 Exostorm.

Around 11:00 on March 24th, the Exostorm on Seasse hit critical levels, plunging the Seasse system into The Void. As a result, the entirety of Seasse system disappeared from tracking stations, and observation satellites could no longer see it. The system had become fully unobservable.

The Void

“	So, this was the Illuminate plan. A shadow cast over our Galaxy, where Liberty's light can't reach. An Illuminate void, full of nothing, no light, no truth... just pure darkness.	„
	~ Ship Master

After being subsumed by The Void, Seasse became inaccessible and rendered unobservable to all equipment. The current state of the planet, or if it even still exists, is unknown, though the Ministry of Science would aggressively investigate the situation. In the meantime, the Illuminate would use The Void as a base to launch an attack on neighboring Rirga Bay during Operation Voidfall - implying that the squids have some means of traversing the dark nothingness.

Seasse's assumed position in The Void.

FTL Lines

• Senge 23 (Re-established on October 7, 2185)
• Rirga Bay- Rigel Sector (Established on October 7, 2185)
• Rogue 5- Rigel Sector (Established on October 7, 2185)

FTL Timeline

• February 8th, 2184: Seasse is connected by FTL to Senge 23.
• June 13th, 2184: FTL line to Senge 23 is destroyed.
• October 7th, 2185: FTL Line to Senge 23 is re-established, plus new FTL lines to Rirga Bay and Rogue 5.

Environmental Change History

Patch	Changes
1.000.000	Seasse is a Shadowed Jungle Biome.
1.000.400	Seasse is change to a Swamp Biome.