#alnbroadcast

After a brutal and efficient blitz campaign to retake Vernen Wells, Helldivers have saved the lives of 4311 citizens trapped in Super Citizen Anne's Hospital for Very Sick Children, including very many very sick children. Despite SEAF intelligence indicating that Terminid and Automaton numbers would drop across the board, this was one of the hardest-fought battles yet, and enemy forces now swarm across the surface of every planet they contest.

The children saved are now being transported to another hospital, Super Citizen Mary's Hospital for Tragically Ill Youths, where their care has been crowdfunded by many citizens inspired by the Helldivers' victory. Even though Super Earth goes out of its way to wage war with every other faction it can find, it forces its citizens to bear the weight. Additionally, many children have reportedly signed an MOD Form 11, a form that indicates an adolescent's desire to enlist when they become of age. Here's hoping this war doesn't last that long.

After securing Vernen Wells, High Command noticed the Automatons on Marfark had begun transporting the explosive materials necessary to create the MD-17 Anti-Tank mines off-world. With less than 24 estimated hours to stop them, more than half of all deployed Helldivers across the galaxy dived onto Marfark's surface in an endless barrage, desperate to secure it in due time. Despite the Diver's herculean efforts, the bots managed to move the majority of the cache away from the planet to some new, unknown location.

High Command has internally marked the entire major order as a failure, disregarding the thousands of lives saved. Lacking the necessary resources, Super Earth is shuttering all MD-17 Anti-Tank Mine factories and reassigning all workers to new, equally dangerous jobs.

Despite how much territory must still be reclaimed from the bots, High Command is already shifting focus back to the Terminids with a new major order. Unveiling the "Hive Breaker" drill, a nuclear device based on the designs of the tectonic drills used to destroy Meridia, Helldivers are to deploy them on every planet in the Mirin and Draco sectors. The device can supposedly strike at the heart of a planet's hives, killing millions of larvae before they can grow into the dangerous warriors we see on the surface. Officials hope it will be the last time these sectors must be taken, citing the toll on troopers and ammunition it costs to keep the bugs at bay and how desperately this space is needed.

...back? We're back? We are? Okay, good. good. Finally.

Welcome back, viewers! We took a wrong turn in FTL and ended up very far outside of transmission range with Super Earth, and it took us the better part of the last 48 hours to find our way back. Very sorry about that. We'll try to catch up on the news now.

Day 6 of the Galactic War was a solemn loss on the bot front, as the Helldivers were unable to protect Vernen Wells from the Automaton invasion. Who knows how harshly the war effort will be impacted by the loss of recruits training there? Unfortunately, we were among the many who did not even notice the simultaneous attack of Varylia 5 in the Trigon sector, leading to a near-completely unopposed takeover of the planet by Automaton forces. 

Indeed, even High Command seemed to be working against their own best interests, having sent out personal orders to eradicate over two dozen Hunters, leading troops to land on less tactically valuable planets in the East rather than Vernen Wells, where they belonged. On the other hand, SEAF forces in Terminid territory managed to completely cleanse Fenrir III this time, rescuing the day from being a total loss. Let's hope another undiscovered nest doesn't spring up, though.

And now onto the current day. With the factories back at home churning out bullets, there must be an excess, as the personal orders of the day are to score at least one hundred confirmed kills using the A/G-16 Gatling Sentry. While incapable of penetrating heavy armor, this automated bullet hose near-instantaneously tears apart anything short of it.

As for the matter of territory, a swarm of bugs has found its way onto Turing in the Umlaut sector and is spreading across the surface now. SEAF forces are already quelling the infestation as I speak! Back on Vernen Wells, what little ground we have left is slowly receding as SEAF troops struggle to maintain control. Reinforcements cannot come soon enough!

Today's personal order is to kill 5...

...

...

Hulks.

5 Hulks.

Today's personal order is to kill 8 Chargers.

Today's personal order is to kill 8 Bile Spewers.

Our resident Helldiver told me to say it should be a lot higher than 8.

Today's personal order is to put down 25 Terminid Hunters.

Welcome to a special, extended segment of the broadcast, viewers! This is the first of many aimed at informing you of the latest changes in the behavior and armaments of the foes of Super Earth. While these particular changes have been noticeable for nearly two weeks now, it has taken us a while to confirm their validity and extent. Let's begin with the Terminids!

We've covered this one before, but there's no harm in retreading it one more time. Many of the bugs and even certain growths surrounding their breeding grounds are known to secrete highly corrosive and paralytic acids. Previously, it could stifle the maneuverability of a Helldiver by as much as half of their typical jogging speed, all the while inhibiting longer strides for as long as three seconds. 

Now, galactic-wide mutations have led to the weakening of the paralytic effects in exchange for a longer-lasting effect. One of our resident Helldivers was deployed into a controlled environment with specialized equipment to help us record the difference. We estimate that the paralytic effects are now only inhibiting his motions by as much as 30% but lasting for 33% longer than before. 

Unfortunately, more strains, such as the Bile Spewer, have developed the ability to produce this variation of acid. While previously their bile could melt through armor and flesh in seconds, it curiously became innocuous almost immediately upon settling. This is no longer the case, as it has now inherited the effects of the acid, insidiously weighing down and eating away at anything it touches. There is a silver lining, however, as the immediate effects of their bile have become less acidic than previously recorded. As a result, mechanized units have reported significantly higher success rates in territory swarming with Bile Spewers.

And for some better news, Bile Titans have reportedly become easier for less conventional weapons to take down as of late. The Federation has some handy officialized metrics for determining how damaging a penetrating shot can be against a particular target, depending on two primary variables. The type of firearm and ammunition used, and the target being fired at. These are represented in abstract form by the aforementioned metrics, "durability" and "durable damage." The most reliable way to guess how "durable" something will be is to check how many vital operational components reside in it and how resilient to kinetic force it is. 

For example, while a Bile Titan's head has all the squishy gray stuff it needs to stab and spit, it's protected by a ridiculously tough cranium. It is so tough, in fact, that it rivals the armor plating used by Automaton tanks! 

Explosions are usually rated on the "durability damage" scale at 100%, which is to say they are fantastic at punching through highly durable material. But many popular weapons utilized by the Helldivers are not entirely explosive. For example, the Emancipator exosuit fires explosive shells, but a majority of the force imparted on its targets is through the direct kinetic energy of the rounds impacting their targets. These rounds have an underwhelming rating on the durability scale, only reaching 20%, which means it takes a tremendously costly amount of trained firepower from an Emancipator to put down highly durable threats.

This is where the good news comes in! All newly formed Bile Titans for the past two weeks have, for lack of a better word, devolved. Previously, their heads were rated as 100% durable, but extensive testing has shown a drop to 95%. What this means is that weapons that struggle with durability are now going to have just a little easier time putting down the biggest of the bugs. Although many say it isn't enough, we're just glad that nature is throwing us a bone, no matter how little.

Finally, and most dramatically, is the rampant proliferation of Charger "Behemoths." Previously only seen very rarely and less imposingly, the Charger Behemoth is an overgrown monster that does everything a Charger does but takes a lot more punishment to put down. Helldivers have tried their best to develop workarounds, finding that, similar to the very beginning of the war, the head is no longer a primary weak point to fire on. Instead, Helldivers are resorting to focusing down the front legs and the rear abdomen in order to take them down, both of which appear to be less heavily reinforced than the head compared to the typical Charger counterpart.

That's all that we have exclusive to the bugs, but stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 in the coming… well, hmm. Trixie, when are you going to be done with the next part's script? Hours? Days? What do you mean you don't know? Fine, fine, whatever, as long as you do it. Maybe I will write them myself. What? Nothing, I didn't say anything!

Oh, right, we're still on. Ahem. That's all we have on this topic for now, but we'll see you in the next one!