If theres one thing Helldivers 2 has excelled at thus far, its emergent storytelling. Players' actions or inactions in-game have a real effect on the narrative unfolding in the Second Galactic War. When the Helldivers destroyed Meridia and left a gaping, dangerous black hole in its wake, it was hard to see it as anything but a massive attempt at foreshadowing something sinister on the horizon. But even before any horrible, democracy-threatening alien menace can come from it, the campaign against the Meridia supercolony forced the Helldivers 2 community to grapple with a challenge more terrifying than any bug or bot: actual teamwork.