Helldivers just failed a Major Order and lost a whole dang planet

On Wednesday night, I enjoyed my evening by playing a few rounds of Helldivers 2 with friends. The Major Order was to defend against eleven attacks from the Illuminate, and with nine successes, I figured it was safe to let the night crew clean things up. I slept soundly with the knowledge that I had done my part in protecting humanity, but awoke to find a horrifying revelation on my Super Destroyer’s console: we failed the mission so bad that the Illuminate destroyed a whole planet, and now they’re aiming for Super Earth.

In order to understand the tragic fate of Angel’s Venture, you have to understand Meridia. The Meridia worm hole has been like a cosmic Chekhov’s Gun, just waiting ominously in Terminid space. Meridia was once a planet, but it developed into a Terminid Supercolony. In order to stop an endless swarm of mutated Terminids, Helldivers had to pump the planet full of mysterious Dark Fluid until it collapsed upon itself. Was it kind of our fault that Meridia became a Supercolony? Technically, that’s one way to look at it … if you hate liberty.

When the Illuminate first showed up, fans speculated that they would be linked to the Meridia worm hole, and sure enough, some weird stuff started happening on the cosmic map. While we dutifully chased down robots wearing jetpacks, the Illuminate were gathering their own Dark Fluid. Upon logging in on Thursday afternoon, I was greeted with the following message:

Angel’s Venture has been torn apart by the gravitational pull of the Meridia Singularity.

This is an incalculable loss. 

The land cultivated by generation. The lives of the Super Earth citizens whose evacuation could not be prioritized. The proud pines shading the Democratic Youth Scouts campground. All gone forever, ripped to shreds by savage cosmic forces.

Finally the Illuminate, hiding behind their mask of intelligence and sophistication, have revealed what they truly want: carnage.

The President of Super Earth has announced a Galaxy-wide mourning period of 24 hours.

Needless to say, I immediately fell to my knees and cried out: “No! Those God damned Illuminate!!” But before I could process any further, I couldn’t help but notice a little something. The Singularity has a predicted path, and it’s going to gobble up every planet in said path until it hits Super Earth. I’m shaking, I’m crying, and I’m absolutely terrified to see what happens next.

I have no doubt Super Earth scientists are working overtime to figure out a solution, but Angel’s Venture will never recover from such a tragedy. It’s the evolving galaxy of Helldivers 2 that makes me like the game so dang much — while new players may never understand the tragedy at hand, every time I gaze at the scattered rocks that remain, I shed a single, solemn tear. Now, players just have to wait to see what the plan is, and whether we can rally to save Super Earth.