After 11 gruelling days and the death of Super Earth's president, Helldivers 2 players have succeeded in turning the Illuminate to calamari and protecting democracy

It's official—grab your special someone and fill out your C-01 permit—Super Earth is saved. After a gruelling 11-day campaign, the players of Helldivers 2 have finally emerged victorious in a pitched battle against the Illuminate.

As an official in-game announcement reads, Prosperity City and Equality-on-Sea were the last bastions to remain—the latter of which caused some bizarre review bombings from players who, best I can tell, didn't understand that the objective was to hold planets until the major order was over. The fact that players managed to cap Equality-on-Sea's liberation percentage at 99.9783% is mightily impressive, but I don't know if it was grounds for Arrowhead to completely change how its event was designed in the 11th hour.

The heart of democracy was held over almost two straight weeks of fighting, which saw the loss of the cities Eagleopolis, Remembrance, York Supreme, Port Mercy, and Administrative Centre 02 (just down the road from Administrative Centre 02 Final Ver).

This included jaunts to Automaton-controlled planets to secure scrap for the Democratic Space Station, as well as a brief defense of a Terminid-infested planet to make sure some malware could make its way into the Illuminate fleet. You can see a full play-by-play, shared by Arrowhead in-game, below.

Oh—also, the Super Earth president died, apparently while "defending the Presidential Security bunker with only a pistol against waves of Illuminate foes". Don't worry, though, Super Earth has elected a new one in short order via the dystopian wonders of managed democracy.

As someone who has very much enjoyed getting my boots on the ground (I am, as they say, doing my part) it really is cool to see Arrowhead finally delivering on the promise of the Galactic War. Desperate last stands, keeping one planet alive through the entire invasion against all odds, and plenty of meme-able hijinks, plus the actual, genuine threat of Super Earth falling.

ALIENS ARE NOT SCARY from r/Helldivers

What comes next, though, is anybody's guess, now that Arrowhead's able to set the stakes this high. Will the Automaton fleet come for Super Earth next? Might we lose the Galactic War in the future and, if so, what then? One thing's for certain, as the Super Earth news broadcast shown above states: Aliens aren't scary. Next time, bring your big guns, you squid suckers.