Only an hour had passed since the Illuminate invasion reached another Megacity, now on the very planet you had been on. Only an hour had gone by where they slaughtered every last individual in the city, reducing the S.E.A.F. numbers to an all-time low. Only an hour. That was all it took for everything you had ever known to be ripped apart, for the war to become more of a reality than some glorified frenzy that the Helldiver footage had made it seem like.

Regardless, you fought through the entire city, fought across the planet, and when you returned to the Megacity after fighting for days, you saw some slight, ever so fleeting hope, rain down from the sky. The Helldivers. Their Hellpods slammed into the ground on the streets of the city, and they leapt out into action, killing every squid in sight. They moved like the wind, guided by Liberty's hand, until-

SPLAT!

One of the Helldivers was thrown into a wall and turned into a puddle of paste by an Illuminate Overseer. The other Helldivers began to panic, all but one, who continued to fight as though nothing had happened. Eventually, all of the other Helldivers had been slaughtered except the one that hadn't yielded. That Helldiver kept on fighting until most of the Illuminate invaders were eradicated from this part of the city, which was when they noticed you. They shook their head and approached you, speaking up in a cold, robotic voice,

"You should evacuate the area. There's an extraction shuttle that was called in a couple clicks north of here."

The Helldiver said, revealing their voice, female, through the half-distorted sound that came out of the helmet. They turned back to fight the rest of the Illuminate, and when you stood there, not moving, she yelled out one final command as she charged the rest of the squids.

"Get out of here!"

And that was all you saw before she was surrounded by a group of Illuminate forces. This was your chance to prove yourself, to become something larger than yourself, yet... Would you even survive a direct fight with them? You could run and shoot them, sure, but would you be able to survive longer than the three Helldivers you witnessed die? The choice was ultimately up to you.