Adeptus Ridiculous - ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY | Helldivers Lore

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousThe Second Galactic War, sometimes referred to as the Second Intragalactic War, the Galactic War on Tyranny, or simply the Galactic War, is a galaxy-wide armed conflict between the  Federation of Super Earth, the Automaton Legion, the Terminid Horde, and the Illuminate Cult. The  Automatons, sometimes referred to as the Automaton Legion and self-denominated as both The Collective of Cyberstan and The Automaton Collective, are descendants of the Cyborgs, created to continue fighting against  Super Earth and one day liberate the Cyborgs from their enslavement on Cyberstan following the end of the First Galactic War in 2084.The  Illuminate, formerly the Illuminate Empire, sometimes referred to as the Illuminate Cult and self-denominated as the Squ'ith, are an advanced race of squid-like alien humanoids serving as the de facto archenemy of the Federation of Super Earth. According to a voiceline by the Democracy Officer, these aliens predate humanity's existence by millennia. They are a technologically advanced, mystical, and highly intelligent species, having gone down the path of electricity in the same way that humans went from rocks to bullets.The Terminids, sometimes referred to as the Terminid Horde or Terminid Swarm, and commonly called Bugs, are one of the enemy factions in the Second Galactic War. Having escaped the farms where they were harvested for Element-710, the Terminids engage in the violent attacks against the citizenry of Super Earth and with their un-Democratic power structure.Support the show

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous podcast. My name is D.K. Diamantis. His name is Bricky, and you know why you're here. But if you want to support the podcast, maybe heading over to patreon.com slash adeptus Ridiculous, where you get access to the Discord, bloopers if they happen, $15 tier, get you access to all the posters in crispy digital form. The one right now is such is the power. It's a big poster. You should check it out.

Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous. Bricky, how's it going? It's going pretty good. How are you doing? It's morning, so, you know, I woke up and we're here, and it's great. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Hell yeah, brother.

And today is the Big Wednesday, which there means there is a big old new merch stuff happening today. So, we have a ton of items that we've accumulated over the years. And it was time for a little bit of spring cleaning. And by spring, I mean fall. Fall cleaning in September. And so if you go and check out the Adeptus Ridiculous merchandise site down in the description, link down below or you just look up Adrick merch orchidate or something like that, you will notice that there is a ton of items that are currently last chance items. And there is a huge discount applied. Everything in the store is 10% off.

If you buy two items, it's 15% off. And if you buy three items, it is 20% off your entire order. And in addition, if you spend $100 or more on the store, you will get a free pouch of natura pine toothpicks added to your order. Random flavor, because the first hits free. baby. Hey, I like that. My favorite flavor is the, is the winterman, honestly. They're all good, but I really like the winterment. I think it's just, you know, we've had a lot of these products for a while, and I really want to do a little bit of cleaning out on some that stuff. So there's a ton of stuff.

There are the hats, the ad brick hats, the ones, the little necrons. There's the little guy shirts. There's some older, you know, desk mats and things like that. And we're just getting rid of it all. And of course, you know, the more of stuff that you purchase, the more of a discount you get. And, I mean, if you're going to get three things, it probably will over take 100 bucks, even with the 20% discount. And you'll snag a free pouch of natura pine flavored toothpicks just, just for your generosity and your support to the podcast. It is all available currently. It is all available in the description at the moment. You can also go to Orchidate or just, I mean, you can use something as easily as just typing in Adric Orchidate and you'll find it.

Easy peasy. Check it out in the description. Snag yourself some merch. This will be going on just for the month of September. And then they will be finally gone gone. So give it a look, see. What a deal. What a deal, baby. What a bunch of deals. Holy. What a bunch of deals. A dollar, except it's not a dollar, but whatever. No, it's not a dollar. But it could be a discounted dollar. A.

It could be, well, technically it's several discounted dollars. That is true. Damn, DK. You are so, you are so right. That, dab me up. I buy that for. I don't think the mic picked that up, but whatever. The mic definitely did not pick that up.

Yeah, trust me, it was a dab or dab or whatever. Yeah, it's fine. It happened. You know. My mic can pick up a vacuum three rooms over, but it can't pick me up clapping. So true. All right. Are you ready for today's episode?

Yep. I mean, I'm ready. Not necessarily for the quote, but I'm ready to get this shindig rolling. All right. Well, there's two quotes. I'm going to give you both of them because I think that you will think things. Uh-huh. Wow.

I know. I know. A lot of our viewers are like, you're still going out on the limb here, Bricky. We know how D.K.'s brain works. He might not. This is a gamble. So, uh, the first quote is,

there is but one assured path to peace. And that path is war. The second quote is, if an enemy tries to engage in diplomacy, shoot them. We mustn't believe their lies. Oh, this is more hell diver shit. This has to be more hell diver stuff.

Yes. Yes, he's done it. He's done it, baby. I mean, I was like as soon as the diplomacy, even the first one I was like, this, you know, like this could be a 40K trickery thing, but this really sounds like hell divers. Hell divers just had like a big update. And the second one, like as soon as you mentioned diplomacy, it's like, well, there's 40K out the window. I mean, that is true. Diplomacy is a, well, okay, that's ironic because we did just do an episode about working with aliens.

But that is true. That is so true. Oh, we got a new background. Yo! Whoa! Wow, that's sick. Typical. Okay, there's a lot of typical stuff here. I enjoy the fact that Shai is throwing grenades at us.

I also enjoy the fact that D.K. is the immediately dies Seaf Soldier. And I particularly enjoy the Cybertron Possum. Wow. Yeah, Possum looks. Possum got dripped out of it. You and Possum kind of got dripped. out in this one. I'm not going to lie. What do you mean possum got dripped out? Why would you think that he's dripped with that look, D.K.?

Why would you think that? Why would you think that? It just looks cool. That's all I'm just saying it's cool. He's dripped out. You try to tell me that you think Cybertron looks cool? No, this is all possum. I didn't, I don't, I, I, I'm all about humanity and only humanity and super.

All right, all right, that's it. That's it. Remove his organs. Mom, Mods, take his organs. All right. So today we are doing Know Your Enemy.

This is Hell Divers' Lore, Part 2. If you are not familiar with Hell Divers'Lore 1, that was a prior episode we did in the past. Please go check that one out. I actually would highly recommend it if you have not seen, if you have not seen it before, because we actually cover some things

you really may not know a lot about Hell Divers and Super Earth, like the corporations and things of that nature. It's actually, it was far more, interesting than I expected it to be. But so today we are doing a more broad overview of hell divers. This time specifically on the, well, last time we did it on the equal species of the planet,

but this time we are going on the less equal species, the three primary aliens that hell divers have to fight, both in the pre-first galactic war and the post-first galactic war. So obviously, prior to the galaxy, shifting conflict in the first game, the other factions were mostly doing their own thing. Some were advancing over the centuries and others were forging their own means of independence. And we know that the Federation of Super Earth ultimately was victorious in the first Galactic War, but now we are deep in the midst of the second Galactic War. And we are dealing with three particular factions.

The are the bugs, the bots, and the squigts. I said squigs. I was like, squigots. I was like, squeak did this? I know, dude. I noticed I was saying squigs and then I tried to pivot and it didn't work. Oh, man. The boss baby is deep in the roots, man.

Yes. New players better know their enemies intimately because last week we lost 25 planets. Oh. That's, has it ever been so catastrophic in Hell Divers 2 that it's just like, oh God, Super Earth is going to fall or something, and it's just all aliens all the time, everywhere, whole map. Well, that was the Illuminates. Oh, right. I didn't, I wasn't, I wasn't playing when the Illuminates were around.

I don't even know what they look like. Squigididaz. Hey, hey, listen. And, yes, so the, well, you do know what they look like. We showed them in the last episode, but, uh, the, right, right, yeah. But yes, I know you have not fought them. Okay, so the bugs. We'll start up with the bugs, because the bugs are the most known ones.

So the first sentient species found in the galaxy by Super Earth were literally known as the bugs. They were not known as the terminids. They were known as the bugs. And as far as the Federation knows, the bugs developed on the arid desert planet of Kepler Prime. They were a dominant species of that planet. and despite not being evolved enough to have their own spaceships, they somehow found a way to go from planet to planet within the radius of Kepler Prime at the time. The scientists of Super Earth deemed that it was done by sending eggs via meteors to other planets,

but the same scientists found something else about them that was a little bit more important. They found that the planets the bugs were on had insane amounts of oil. Oh, oh, it's one of these situations. It is one of these situations. Oh, man, they found the planets with the unobtainium resource that they needed, and they were just like, you know, genocide sounds good. They are so down for the oil, baby. And so it's also not just any oil.

It is the oil that is just right for Super Earth's FTL drives. So Super Earth made the decision to establish a presence on these bug worlds and set up these massive rigs to pump and get this oil known as Element 710. However, cohabitation was not a huge hit among the bugs. So the bugs fought their new neighbors and cleared them off of these worlds and left the refineries and pumps derelict. But a certain scientist by the name of Hank Pluag made a surprise discovery, when researching element 710. Oh, it turns out why these planets

were so ripe with this stuff is actually a byproduct of the bugs when they decompose. So Super Earth didn't actually need the bug control planets for 710. They just needed the bugs. Oh, boy.

So. And they need decomposed dead bugs, eh? Because that's how the oil gets up produced. Yeah, so don't worry, D.K., the bugs make the oil. So this isn't genocide. This is just slavery.

Yeah, but don't you need to kill the bugs to get the oil? Bugs, as essential as they are vile, never forget. Element 710 extraction is just as important as eradication. Super Destroyer announcement. Wow. All right. Okay, super. Okay.

Listen, man. If humans ended up decomposing into the most powerful element that makes your drives work, then you're going to do something called human farms. And at the ripe age of the biggest, you're going to take them out. Oh, boy. All right. So this is, all right. This is, oh, yeah, shy said, so you got to make new bugs.

But after you make new bugs, you got to kill those bugs and then make more bugs because you don't want to run out of oil because you, you know, extinct the bugs. that make your FTL drive oil. So, yeah, I guess it's, that's a, oh boy, that's a vicious cycle. Bug farm, bug farm, choochoo. Bug farm, yeah. So, of course, after this, well, sorry, shortly after finding this out, they determined that bugs were a galaxy wide threat against managed democracy. And even though they said that they do produce oil that's very beneficial for Super Earth, that's merely a side effect.

And the main reason for the war is because the bugs were far too dangerous to be allowed to live. Uh-huh. Okay. All right, super. Conveniently, they decide this after finding out that the bugs have a crucial, crucial element that they need, right? Crucial oil their FTL drive. It's like, hmm. Damn, they're a threat to everyone.

Go to war with them. You love to hear it. I see it. Convenient. Convenient. So that was one of the Magistur first dominoes that occurred in the first Galactic War, and it was known as the bug front of the conflict. Despite not being as organized as the other threats in the war,

the bugs actually put up quite the hell of a fight over the 40 years, and eventually the Federation gained the upper hand in 2084 as they defeated the bugs on their presumed homeworld of Kepler Prime, stopping the threat. However, despite total annihilation being in their grasp, Super Earth declared that the bug threat was not to be totally wiped out, and a dramatic tactic would be employed, explained by Senator John W. Killjoy. Ahem. Actually, would you like to read this?

Sure. We have found through extensive research that the bugs generate the quantities of oil that we require for a sustainable future. To eradicate them from the galaxy just doesn't seem right from a moral perspective. and due to this, we have collaborated with scientists, such as the brilliant Dr. Hank Plowag, to devise a way where we can safely breed this rare species and, potentially, harvest more oil than we have ever done before. I don't know which major company from Helldivers would lobby for this,

but I know one of them is lobbying for this. I'm sure there are, like, I mean, any company that has any stock in, Probably the military FTL drive production and stuff like that would probably like, oh yeah, don't kill the bugs. Because like, you know, once you make their oil like a necessity, you can raise

the prices on that, and we can jack up the price over FTL drive, and we can get exclusive military contracts, exclusive FTL drive contracts, and yeah, I can see that being a nasty, nasty political pitfall. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So we sent that. the bugs to camps. And I mean, summer camp? Yeah, I mean, they'll spend at least one summer there. Oh. So, uh, initially met with concern, obviously, especially since the citizens of

the super earth have been indoctrinated with the idea that bugs have no right to live. The, uh, citizens of the super earth took this as a way that they could do their part for the benefit of the federation. And they certainly didn't for the next one, a hundred years at least. Uh, so for those of you who, will play the second game, I'll helldivers too. You have certainly encountered one of the hundreds of E710 farms on the various planets, and the bugs were taken to these farms so they could be bred and harvested with relative frequency.

There is a small, unprecedented side effect of this, though, which is that the containment of the bugs was designed for a rapid turnaround and not a reasonable containment. Therefore, the farms were very poorly kept up and ripe with chemical spills and mismanagement. But there was a drive to really speed up the process of developing E710, which led to poorly tested genetic mutation. Now, the massive amounts of E710 in the air and the soil also may have impacted the development of these bugs because, boy, was there a lot of E710. And the easiest way to make sure that this happened was to make the bugs reproduce a hell of a lot more, which applied extreme pressure to the bugs. to the bugs, which stressed out a lot of genetically modified bugs and pens, which meant something had to give, something had to give. Oh, man, that's, boy, this just sounds like, hey, we haven't shot ourselves in the foot in a while. Let's give it a try again.

I seem to be having all five of my toes. We got to fix this. Yeah. Oh, boy. So after a hundred years of peace, these terribly modified nightmare bugs struck back. Billions of them escaped and tore down the farms that kept them in, and their newfound freedom was followed by a desire to kill their masters. These monstrosities were now known as terminids, and they were a bigger threat to super-Earth than their biological ancestors. And in the eyes of Super Earth, the terminids were content on their farms. this retaliation was a problem for the whole galaxy. God damn.

That's, um, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's some, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's some, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, it's great on our, on our, on our crazy little blood killing reproduction farms. Ah, now that you're not there, we need to eradicate all of them. It's like, oh, boy, this is, it's almost like, uh, it's almost like, it's almost like these, these, the, these styles of governance have been happened before and make for some great media. Yeah, agreed. Agreed. Burkey, have you seen the new war bond where we go into bug territory and go into their deserts? It's relevant to your interests.

I have the, uh, the, this is totally not Dune, uh, at all. Definitely not Dune, hell diver thing. Uh-huh. I out dust devils. Uh, yeah, that's, I see no instance. from Dune here. You're right. No, ridiculous. Also, can I appreciate the player banner and cape known as, and I quote, rightful occupier?

God damn. Love that. Love that. Wow. Oh, yeah. Holy. Well, God damn, Super Earth. Why don't you just?

Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm. To move along from that, eventually Super Earth realized that brute force was fun, but they wanted to make something new. The terminated control system. The TCS was designed to be installed in the service of a planet, and they can shoot something called termicide into the atmosphere, thus killing the entire population of terminids and halting the spread of them. It worked in the first Galactic War.

However, and I quote, the termicide has backfired, twisting the planet of Meridian, into a terminid super colony, an unforeseeable devastating outcome. Oh, so did it work literally, like, in reverse in the sense that, like, not only did it not kill them, it just, like, juice them up and just made them crazy strong and reproduce faster?

Yeah, so we're definitely having a, I'm not, I mean, I'm going to boss baby it. Like, it is very obvious that the terminids are based on the tyranids. there is no surprise in that. It is not a hot take. That is simply true. And they have the ability to, you know, rapidly regenerate from various kinds of toxins and things in that nature. So, yes, you slap them with a ton of that.

And they have now become super powerful. In fact, as shy posted earlier, the flying screechers are a result of this genetic mutation. Okay, got you. Also, I have to say Bravo because the amount of times you've said terminids and not tyrannids, man, if I was hosting this episode, I would have done that like eight times already. I've definitely been, I've definitely been watching myself. I've definitely been like, been very careful. Bravo. Well done.

Thank you. Thank you. I do my best. But so as opposed to the rapid, you know, obviously rapid eradication. they became much more powerful. And now, one thing that's particularly interesting in the galaxy is, or more notable, is that there is an utterly gigantic nebula that is being shown to contain terminated spores that is lumbering through the galaxy.

And as mentioned earlier, it's presumed that the bugs had thrown meteors, plants that spread their eggs. But it is more recently determined that terminids produce far more rapidly than expected, and the remnants can cause the spread of spores that will usher in a new generation of terminids. The spore nebula, words I would have never liked to say, known as the gloom, seeds plants with terminate life as it passes over it, but it also yokes up the existing terminus

and seems to be greatly enhancing their anti-humanity evolution. Oh, man, that is all, like, just the sound of that is just so devastating. stating. Like, spore nebula is just like, oh, no. And it's just this looming gloom that just spreads the seeds and juices up other terminids. Like, that's just awful. That just sucks all around.

That's just the no hope nebula. It is the no hope nebula. Now, obviously, passing through the gloom is nearly impossible. And the Ministry of Science believes that it might be a sentient nebula in its own. right. This is actually very good timing, though, because I believe a day after this episode comes out, they will have the new Into the Unjust Update that will go over the full impact of the gloom and also planets beyond the gloom.

So we are attacking the gloom, which is why it's like crazy. Oh, wait, we're like, then the new update is like going into the gloom? Yes, yes, we are attacking the gloom. Oh, it might be time for me to read download Helldive. too, because that sounds really fucking cool. There's a lot of bits of it where you're going like underground. There's a lot of like rock and stone type shit going on here. Yeah, I think it's time to redownload helldivers too.

It might be time to redownload hell divers too. Yeah, yeah. But all that aside, uh, the original structure of the terminids is built on genetics. Larger terminids like Alpha commanders and Brood commanders are able to, uh, direct smaller terminids through the various pheromones, but it's something that is a bit more contemporary, sorry, temporary. Once the fighting breaks out, any and all terminids will just straight up do whatever they can to kill a combatant in almost a blind manner.

Because of how the big ones like to control the little ones, Super Earth refers to the terminids as a fascist group. A group of terminids is referred to as a bane of terminus, but it is also referred to as Future Element 710. Well, yeah, I guess it would be, wouldn't it? Yeah, it's fair. Unlike the, however, unlike the other enemies, the existence of the terminates is very normalized. So beyond the whole, like, oil claiming thing, during conflicts on Super Earth, you may find restaurants called Bugfest, for example.

Oh, okay. So the bugs, because the big ones control the little ones, they are known as fascists. Of course. Of course they are. Because, yeah. Yeah, no, totally. Totally. are fascists, automaton's are communists, and the Illuminate are autocrats.

Mm-hmm. How dare they? How dare? How dare? How dare? So, that's the bugs. I like the bugs. Pretty humorous on the bug side of things.

I find them quite funny. Mm-hmm. In their various ways. But the... Fascists. They damn fascists. Oh, shy. What's up? You got a little additional bit?

Some more bug shenanigans. Bug nannigans? Bug nanners. New bug next update. Oh, great. It's a flying one, lovely. It's a big flying one, too. Like, that's a...

It's a flying bile titan? Are you shitting me? I love the four-wing aesthetic, by the way. For like dragons and stuff, where I got the two big wings and they got like the two medium-sized wings. Love that. Also, ew.

Flying bile titan, yucky. Those are like the really like big ones with the long spindly legs, right? Yeah, those are the huge ones. That's like the worst thing I've ever heard in my life. Yeah. Do not. Yeah, yeah, kind of hate that one. Not going to lie.

Kind of hate that one. Well, next one we have is the bots. The cyborgs, my personal favorite faction to fight. I, uh, I like them. They look so cool. They look super sick. They're also just a really fun enemy design. I like them a lot.

They have a great look to them. Huge fan. So one thing that's not very normalized on Super Earth, unlike eating bugs or the bug fest, is secession. There may have been others that tend to break free from the Federation, and almost all of them have been brought to heal under the banner of managed democracy except for one.

Be it intentional or not, the early history of the cyborgs is not known to the fullest extent. The cyborgs most likely started as a group of humans that felt a little slighted by managed democracy and bound themselves to pre-super-Earth political systems that were long eradicated, studies that were deemed to be socialism by the Federation. While exploring these older teachings, these humans also began to grow fascinated with machinery and genetic manipulation. The combination of the teachings and the technological fascination made people very wary of them. And they were ostracized and threatened in the Prime Federation.

So they slowly fled to the snowy wasteland of Cyberstan. Cyberstan, huh? Cyberstan, uh-huh. Okay. All right. Cyberstam. Hey, listen, we're from 40K. I have no room to judge weird names and on the nose names.

Hey, this just is what it is. It's cyberstand. Cool. And I love the cyborgs. Yeah. We can't have genetic mutation in our world right here. That's unacceptable. How dare. So true. So true.

Now, the individuals of Cybersand were generally left to their own devices for decades until they were eventually revealed to be a separate nation of cyborgs that declared their independence from Super Earth in favor of their own unique political ideology known as the collective of Cybersdam. Their proclamation of independence was a very much non-combative stance as far as. as they were concerned, which made the Federation very suspicious. After the socialist uprising on Northman's Creek, sorry, Northman's Creek, the Federation viewed any form of independence from the Federation as a major potential threat. And very conveniently, an incident occurred in District 48 that justified their hatred. Oh, no, did they do a false flag on the cyborgs? It's very conveniently, D.K., I have known.

idea what you're talking about, those gormans had it coming. Oh, okay. Silly me. Right. It was totally justified. Sorry. I even mentioned it. I'm very upset with you for saying these things.

The gormans had it coming. Of course, of course, they did. How stupid of me? How dare. Praise super earth. So, the cyborg front of the first galactic war was interesting because a man with cybernetic parts had definitely totally detonated a ball. on Super Earth that killed a total of eight people in District 48.

So immediately, Senator John W. Killjoy moved to blame cyborgs for this attack. And without hesitation, war was declared not only on cyborgs, but also anyone who contested the main narrative or found any form of sympathy toward the cyborgs. Oh, boy, that's, uh, hmm, that's, uh, boy, that's, uh, yeah. You know, I got a lot, man. You know, like, I mean, I don't need to even begin to describe what they're doing here because I feel like you'd have, you'd have to have a little dent in your head. Yeah, the parallels are definitely there. You see them.

We see them. Everybody sees them. Right. Yeah, this is an easy one here. And I quote, those hippies that believe there is a single thought of peace in the silence. I mean to be put in jail or even execute him. We're going to war. And that's the end of the discussion.

Wow. All right. That's, that's wild. I mean, the, yes, the image of, or sorry, Giff of Guy, I forget his name, who's like, I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards. That's, boy, that's, uh, boy, that's, uh. It's very on the nose, unfortunately. Love you, Arrowhead. Love you guys at Tom.

So the cyborg front of the first galactic war was one of the most brutal. The technology developed on Cybersden allowed the cyborgs and their machinery to adapt to the Federation's attacks with general relative ease. And the goal of the cyborgs were to ultimately exist in their own right. But it also really highlighted their perception of the Federation's impact on humanity. But of course, this was spun as the Federation, by the Federation, as a form of inhuman indoctrination. In fact, rumors began to circulate that cyborgs were the result of a crazy scientist that kidnapped good voters and turned them into socialist killing machines. Wow. I love the phrase socialist killing machine with a burning passion.

Socialist killing machines. Those damn cyborgs. Man, good thing we went to war. Crazy. Now, eventually, despite the fierce fighting, managed democracy prevailed. And the Battle of Cybersetam was a war-ending victory for Super Earth. And the hope for the Federation was that the cyborgs would serve them well. Voting polls were set down to Cybersetam, and the cyborgs were brought into the fold under the watchful eye of the Super Earth Construction Company.

So for five years, Cyberstand was formed into a mining colony. complete with massive industrial complexes and rehabilitation centers that allowed for the new, quote, happy cyborg workers to contribute to the Federation. The, quote, yearning for the mines was so strong, in fact, that they remain locked in these minds to this day. But unbeknownst the super earth, the sons of Cybersdam, worked on something else that would be revealed after a hundred long. Years. Boy, that's brutal. Rehabilitation centers and locking them in the mines, that's, oh boy, that's, you heard it. Yeah. You heard it today, folks. You, uh, you become some kind of socialist hippie and you get sent to the minds. Yeah, or I'm, I'm sure the rehabilitation centers are just lovely places where everybody has tea, cookies, they sing kumbaya and talk about their feelings until they realize that super, Earth truly was right all along. I mean, that's what Senator Kiljoy would tell you. I'm not even sure he would.

He probably be like, no, we force indoctrinate those fuck. Yeah, yeah, we killed those shitheads. Yeah. He killed the shit out of our rehabilitation center. Hell yeah, Super Earth. I like how you gave him like a heavy, heavy Southern accent like I did. I mean, his name is Killjoy. Of course, he's like, hell yeah, America.

We're going to kill those robots. I like the, I mean, it always makes me think, what's the, oh, crap, Shai, what's the name of the general that everyone loves again? General is a brash? Because he has a similar accent. It always makes me, yeah, brash. It's like, more from General Brash. And I think it's also played, I think, by the drifter from Destiny, which is really funny. Anyway.

Anyway, so, after a relative silence for a while, super, Earth came into contact with a much more mechanical force in February of 2184. These robots were a symbol very similar to that of the cyborgs of the past that went, we, the collective from Cybersand unanimously assert our independence from Super Earth. We have the right to defend our home from the brainwashed hell divers. Our children, the automaton, will not suffer as we have under the impression or oppression of Super Earth. So the sons of the collective of Cybersand are, in fact, the automaton's. Okay.

And God, they're so cool. They're so sick looking. Oh, my God. It's really hard not to just like boss baby into like dreadnots and stuff like that. And I think that's why I like them so much is because I just get that really cool, like, dreadnought robot vibe from them. And it's just, oh, it's real great. I don't know if you've ever heard the automaton's do their little chant as they're marching. But they have the very much like heart, steel, we kill kind of thing.

You know, like go to New War, the Cybersand thing. It's pretty great. Man, hearing those guys doing like an automated chant like that is just, oh, that's, that's, that's terrifying. It's sick as hell. But so the automaton's obviously lack the humanoid features of their cyborg descendants and are far more menacing with their dark metallic bodies, heads look like human skulls, bright red glowing eyes, very genero-coded. Now, on the surface, it's very easy people to look at these robots and presume their soulless metallic killing machines, which Super Earth would really like it if you did think that. But Super Earth would also like it if you really ignored the following, that the automatons are so advanced tech-wise they are capable of independent thought

and intercepted messages between them confirm that they come up with strategies in a conversational manner and also express their feelings like sorrow for those who have died and vengeance against the people that they are being killed by the helldivers. They even have propaganda posters and stuff. which is actually sick as shit. Yeah, actually that is really cool that they have their own propaganda posters. Yeah.

I mean, I will say though, despite the obvious stuff being that well, it's humorous because these look very much like a certain faction's World War II posters. Yeah, they sure do, don't they? Which I think it's kind of fun because it does look really interesting,

but it is interesting to have like that visual style be the automaton when the you're playing as the faction as the hell divers which is the authoritarian faction it's interesting it's a it's interesting dichotomy

it's a good juxtaposition hell yeah but you can also they also communicate via sorry the language they speak is a combination of binary and Swedish um

if I'm not mistaken arrowhead is a Swedish company so I that's just kind of their little fun bit there. Mm-hmm. And it is communicated via written transmissions and radio frequencies, also verbally, but the pitch is kind of hard to understand for humans to perceive. So most of just sounds like they're maniacally laughing, which is very easy for the Federation to be like,

they're laughing at us, they're laughing at us, they're killing and laughing at us. They're just speaking. No, they're not. They're maniacally laughing as they murder your children. Yeah. They do scream helldiver scum at you sometimes, but that's kind of okay, because, you know, are they at war with them? You're trying to kill them.

So, yeah. Now, as mentioned before, the original cyborgs had a very ambitious goal for independence and a degree of sovereignty while providing a harbor for those who might see the veil of super earth. The automaton, by all accounts, have a far more aggressive goal. And their primary goal is driving them to free their cyborg creators from their servitude in the federation and complete the cyborg goal of full autonomy from the federation. And now the Ministry of Truth would like to point out that the concept of unfeeling machines being driven by a desire to liberate and retake a heritage site is easily refutable because robots don't have feelings.

Oh, wow. Wow. That's that's bulletproof, uh, bulletproof theory right there. Mm-hmm. Much like the bulletproof armor that all hell divers wear. Hell yeah, super earth. Hell yeah, super earth. Now, obviously this goal is made very difficult by the Federation as this constant fighting back.

is very much likely to have an unintended side effect of the programming of the automaton's because in order to have full autonomy, the threat against them needs to be eradicated to the fullest extent. And to do this, the automaton have been employing battle tactics similar to those of the SIF, like drop ships, tanks, special ops, etc. And of course, they've also been gathering way more materials to feed their fabricated weaponry. They're, and the longer they are engaged with the Federation, the more diverse their tactics

are. They have used jet brigade, incineration core, etc. And while though their end goal is not currently known, the automatons are clearly far more emboldened than their creators, and the chip on the robotic shoulders is substantial. I'd say so. Yeah, yeah, that's, they probably do have a very big chip on their shoulder with the whole, you know, our fathers are enslaved in the minds. I mean,

As said, their latest major order was that they defeated the robots And it says, we can confirm that robots feel fear, which is the most... Well, that's the most Starship Troopers thing I've ever heard. Yeah. Well, to be fair, Hell Diver seems like it's just one big homage to Starship Troopers, right? Oh, yeah, but I mean, at the same time, the, like, We, we can, like, it feels fear is one of the most common lines associated with Starship Troopers at the end of the movie.

Which, I mean, which in fairness, I mean, like, it's not just tyrannids that the Terminids are based off of. It's clearly also the bugs from Starship Troopers, but the high, the hyper adaptation of it, I think. Very nice. Right. And yes, the devs confirmed that the automatons and cyborgs are not the same because the bots do not have any fleshy parts or a human brain. the uh the bots are in fact a the bots are in fact the smaller version the um the created version from the cyborgs that's not like what the cyborgs ended up becoming this isn't like sort of your

i'm a boss baby it again this isn't like an ad mec thing where it's like oh once i knew the weakness of my flesh type of thing and it's just like oh replace all flesh with steel it's this is a totally different um stick This is, this is, they're just, they're different entities. Right. Yeah. So, that's the bots. Last but not least, we have the squids.

The squids. These are the ones that I, I never fought. I never fought the illuminates. The, the, uh, the enlightened squiff. So, uh, for several thousand years before the rides of humanity, there's a species that evolved in isolation on the planet, Skuba Shrine. Squibba shrine. It's like SQU and then

I apostrophe B-A-I, so scuba, I don't know. Scuba, scuba, scuba. For some squids? Yeah, yeah, squid, squid diving. These squid-like species call them skulls the squith. And it's S-Q-U-A-Postrophe, I-T-H, squith. And so for centuries, they focused on furthering their own

enlightenment. And they developed power similar to that of magic. And they continue their evolution to education and made them slowly expand outward towards the stars. Now, they would eventually form their own council and carefully watch over by an artificial intelligence known as the Great Eye. And the expansion of their empire would cause them

to bump shoulders with the Federation, and eventually the Squith, or as many calls them, the Illuminate, arrived on Super Earth with a peace offering. According to the Federation, this was a ruse. These supposedly enlightened, creatures with a massive amount of really cool and hyper-advanced knowledge that they had a dark secret and needed to be wiped out. What?

Dark secret? You might ask? What dark secret? Oh, man. We have reason to believe the illuminates have weapons of mass. Oh, my God. Continue, please. Sorry.

reason to believe the Illuminants have weapons of mass destruction, capable of destroying entire planets, stated House Representative Polly Cole, he continued, every statement I make today is backed up by reliable sources. Whether or not the Illuminants prove the large threat that Mr. Cole is so certain about is met by a little resistance. Some sympathizers deny this fact and instead state that the Illuminants are an ancient and wise species. They are no threat to us unless we threaten them. These voices were set right immediately afterwards through public executions. Jesus Christ. All right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep. No, no real world parallels here, folks. This is all just strictly fiction, and it could never happen in our civilized world. When I read the weapons of mass destruction, I nearly pissed myself laughing. It's just, all right. Yep. God damn. It's so good.

So, yeah. So the, the Illuminant Front of the First Galactic War found the Federation facing down a species that were really powerful, but predominantly defensive. The Illuminant employed the use of mind control, teleportation, things like that, to push back against wave upon wave of helldiver. But a defensive force can only defend so much. and the brutal might of the Federation eventually overwhelmed the Illuminant. The Super Earth took control of the Skubai Shrine, an absolute victory over the Illuminant was declared, and they were forced to surrender, and declare after a forced surrender by the Illuminants themselves. Now, the treaty that the Illuminate had forced to sign was extreme. They were forced to dissolve whatever remained of their armed forces and hand over any and all means to rearm themselves.

They were stripped of all their military tech as well as their regular tech as well. Of major note, their dark fluid technology, a physics-defying tech that creates mini black holes to travel far farther away, was implemented within the SIF. So the Illuminate now fully stripped of their technology and means to sustain themselves were then forced to vacate the Milky Way galaxy as part of their surrender. The hope was that the banishment beyond the confines of the galaxy without any technology would result in their pure extinction. Oh, and I am sure it had the exact opposite effect. Yeah, so the Federation were pretty confident that would be achieved because obviously sending them into the darkness of the Milky Way

is a pretty good way to get you to die. Yeah, your Super Destroyer also moves as fast as it does because of reverse engineered illuminate tech. Oh, okay. So, returning from the brink of the extinction, we now have the aluminum. History matters. At the end of the first galactic war, we magnanimously allowed the illuminate to flee the galaxy. Why?

Or sorry, now they're back. Why? Because they hate peace. Of course. It's not like they came to Super Earth with a peace treaty. Of course. Of course. So true.

So true, Super Earth. The Illuminant Return. Prior to their first signs in the galaxy, a big catalyst that may have allowed for the return was the collapse of the planet Meridian. The planet, which was one of the primary terminated control system planets, was difficult to maintain after the termite, or sorry, the termicide backfire,

and the planet was deemed a total loss. To take care of this, the Federation began what was known as Operation Enduring Peace, which was simple. Launch some of that illuminate dark fluid at the planet, planet and cause it to collapse into a black hole. That way, it was gone for good. And also had a gravitational anomaly that prevented easy traversal for any and all enemies the Federation had.

Fair. However, there was a little bit of a side effect to Meridia, the giant black hole planet. It turns out that the black hole was not just a one-way space anomaly. It was a wormhole with an, unknown exit point. Over time, strange readings came from the wormhole, collapsing the various FTO lines in the area, and the Federation advised against travel around there. Further signs of the return of the Illuminant came in the form of citizens in remote colonies, vanishing after horrific mutations appeared. Now, obviously, these were brushed off, but then the

unspeakable happened on the planet of Calypso. Of Calypso. 90, 86 invasion fleets appeared seemingly out of nowhere and they had the telltale signatures of the illuminate. The hell divers were deployed planet side, but instead of facing the squid-like enemy of the past, they instead found themselves

facing down hordes of humans under the control of some unseen entities. And these humans were dubbed the voteless. It's the funniest goddamn name of all time. And they are definitely husks from Mass Effect.

You know, I was going to say, like, when they, when they opened the meridian, I was like, man, that feels a lot like when the humans opened a mass relay and they didn't know where it goes. And it's like, do you want to get Rackney? That's how you get Rackney humans. And yeah, I immediately had a mass effect like flashback. And it's like, oh, look, it's literally husks. Oh, yeah. And so, the voteless were upon death, the voteless would briefly begin the pre-abduction consciousness or regain. their pre-abduction consciousness, saluting those who shot them before collapsing. The extreme psychological warfare is only the tip of the iceberg for the now emboldened illuminates, as unlike their enlightened and embracing counterparts from a century prior, this cult-like form of the illuminate are far more ritualistic. They are communing with more ornate and ominous monoliths, and they carry religious-like totems. The old illuminate were more structured and formal before their banishment, and their structure seems to lack the hallmarks, sorry, this new structure seems to lack the hallmarks of the old

structure, suggesting they have become more like a cult-like theocracy. Emboldened with a more extreme religious view, the illuminate cult is far more aggressive this time around, with a more zealous-like desire to eradicate those who banished them to the darkness of the galaxy. Damn, I hate it when I find problems of my own making. Yeah. Shai had a funny example. Old Illuminate, Tao. New Illuminate, Dark Eldar.

I mean, that's, yeah, that seems very fair. The old Illuminate, we're like, oh, hey, guys, we just want to, we just want to have peace. We just want to hang out. It's like, your technology is too advanced. And yeah, now you've essentially got Reapers. Yeah, I mean, more than anything, like, it's kind of humorous because I would argue that of all the factions, the Illuminant probably feel the most evil. They feel the most like, you know, like, oh, wow, that's like a genuinely bad force. But then you remember why they're that way, probably because they became a religious zealic cult because they were stripped of all their technology and then shoved into the darkness between galaxies.

that's they they probably kind of had to and is it like um since they don't have any technology they just is this sort of like oh yeah the illuminate worship some sort of space deity i don't want to say chaos god i don't want to say chaos god but is it is it like something like that or is this just like this was a technological thing that they had that they're further employing or is this like some there's a darkness in space that they now worship and that's what's giving them their mind control powers I mean, they have tech. Like, they got stripped of their tech, but they clearly have tech now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, they return with their tech. But they're just more, yeah, they're more fleshy now with it than they are, than they are without it. Okay. Well, I was just wondering, it's not like they found, like, you know, chaos space religion in the void. They just use their tech differently now in a more insane. Yeah.

I mean, they were beaten, destroy. and left to die. And I think in that sense, they have become very angry. Yeah, naturally, obviously, you're going to get that way. But yeah, I wasn't sure if this was like,

you know, a new evil entity that was like, you know, worship me and I'll give you, you and your tech the power or if they're just sort of like, nah, fuck it. We wanted peace before.

Now we're just going to use our tech and brainwash literally everyone. And yeah, which I get it. I get it. I mean, there are more than anything. They're pissed off.

Yep, yep, yep. That's the best way to put it. They are very angry. Yeah, no peace treaties now. No. So out of all the enemy factions, the Illuminat have been the most successful against the Federation. They have an unexpectedly huge fleet called the Great Host, and they steam rolled across the galaxy with one goal in mind, which was the destruction of Super Earth. Like, in almost no time flat, they push their way into the solar system.

and they scoured Mars destroying the most prominent hell diver training facility on the galaxy, which was meant to be a symbolic victory to shake the Federation. But the eventual landing on Super Earth was way more than just a scare tactic. The siege of Super Earth took over the course of 10 days and was a constant and nonstop level of warfare, so much so that it occurred over the course of this battle that's almost arguably worthy of its own episode. but the end result was twofold. The planet was defended by the Maya of the Hell divers, but it came at a cost,

where the siege destroyed not only illustrious landmarks like the Superstone Park and almost the entirety of Eagleopolis Entertainment and Commerce Center, but also several megacities fell, not just Eagleopolis, but York Supreme, AdminCEN, and Remembrance, also rebuilt as Gunn, if you remember.

Ah, yes, Gun. Also, I love York Supreme. York Supreme. It's not new New York. It's York Supreme. York Supreme. Now, the Illuminate did take substantial casualties, but they are far from eradicated

and are still a looming threat. And those are the enemies of hell divers. Damn, the enemies of hell diver got some real dope lore. That's crazy. And I love that a sense. all of the enemy lore in helldivers are just like, yeah, Super Earth sucks. And they're, they're just, it's all a, oh no, it's the consequences of my actions. And, you know, actual diplomacy and you don't have any enemies.

And you just got a lot of friends that are willing to coexist and leave the bugs alone. I love the fact that, you know, I mean, obviously taking memes regarding the, the um like authoritarian dictatorships fascist governments um not like technically that but like you know just major authoritarian type situations are media that is as true as time for the most part you know but i i must say obviously warhammer as a as a world is founded on that the imperium is founded on that level of satire always has been. It's just, I think Warhammer is most definitely kind of become its own thing. It's very much built itself into, despite having its roots vary there, they've kind of

done their own stylistic way to do it. Whereas for Hell Divers, it just feels farcical, and I love it for it. Oh, yeah. Hell Divers definitely feels like it has much more of a whimsical parody where they're not afraid to be, you know, kind of really on the nose with it. But man, it's just so funny because it's so on the nose and it's so like, yeah, it is, it is a good vibe. Yeah, it is, oh my God, this right.

Keep their tentacles off our children. Yeah, once someone think of the kids. Damn, illuminate. Yeah, it's, it's just like, I don't know, there's something about it. I really appreciate it's sheer level of. of just farce. It's so over the top. I mean, the Illuminants have WMDs

is the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life. I had to do a double take when I was reading it because I was like, there's no way! There's no way. I love it to death.

It is genuinely a fantastic little series of lore they've done for themselves. I hope they expand on it because I feel like there is just a never-ending amount of humor that you can pull from this. Oh, yeah. And it's helldivers too is doing real well, so there's no reason for them

not to continue expanding on it, right? Yeah, what, hell die, I'm curious. So today is Monday. We film on Mondays. And what is that, I'm curious of the helldiver steam charts for today. 138,000 players in the 24-hour peak. Whoa. That's huge. That's crazy. I mean, for the most part, Hell Diver sticks around like the 40 to 60,000 players, which is wildly good. That is in, for a multiplayer game, that is it. And especially after, you know, the stuff that happened with Sony, you would think that that number maybe tailed off a little bit. But I guess once that all got settled, it just, you know, it's just a good game.

It's a fun game. Love playing it with your friends. Just good lore and, yeah. Yeah, I mean, Hell Divers launched on Xbox last week. That's right. They had the Halo co-lab, too. Yeah, you're... That's right.

So that probably helped the numbers a lot. But still, that's... Wow. Good for Helldivers. Yeah, I mean, you look at, you know, top games on Steam, and it'll always be, like, Counterstrike and Dota. But past that, you know, there's always a large amount of variance. And, um, God damn it, dude.

Baldur's Gate 3 is still in the top 20. 25. It's insane to me. Yeah, that's actually kind of crazy because usually like it is a long game, but usually single player RPGs have a shelf life. And the fact that Baldersgate 3's shelf life is just, well, it's, it's almost like you would think it was a multi-well, I guess it is multiplayer. You can't play it with your friends. But yeah, it's crazy. It's a very good game. But wow, that it's still up there in the charts is crazy. That's just, that's crazy to me. But yeah, but yeah, no, Hell Divers too, still going strong. Arrowhead is

a great, in fact, hilariously, when this episode goes live, I will, the same day, Wednesday, I will be doing a sponsored stream for Helldiver's on the new, on the new updates. Let's go. We're moving along. It's still going. Hell yeah. Glory to Super Earth.

Glory. Yeah, this video is not sponsored, but my stream later on will be. So it's just funny that it's the same time frame. It lines up perfectly. It's really goofy. Hell yeah, let's go. Hell yeah.

But that's what we got. D.K., glory to Super Earth will stop those fascist, communists, and autocrats. How dare they? Glory to Super Earth. Yeah, Cyberstand can't keep her down, baby. Go automaton.