Want to get in on Helldivers 2's latest Major Order? You'd better hurry, as it's about killing a billion bugs and over a hundred million are already toast

Oh no, you'd better run to Helldivers 2 as fast as you can. There's another Major Order about killing a bunch of things, and it's looking like it'll be over before you can say 'slow down Super Earth, you're supposed to savour it a bit or you might get indigestion'.

In case you don't get what I'm on about, Helldivers 2's player base has worked very hard to cultivate a reputation of being able to murder death things in incredibly rapid fashion. The first time it happened, people were so confused they started trying to do maths. More recently, they blew through an entire MO in one evening and then started wondering if Arrowhead had accidentally set the required kills total too low. These people do not play - well, they do, but you get what I mean.

After landing some temporary free mech ride tickets via their last victory, the MO that's followed is a nice break from both fighting to control planets and battling the automatons. "Following the Helldivers' inspiringly rapid support of the Terminid Research Initiative, the Ministry of Science has requested a second, much larger research trial," it reads. "A key finding of the first research phase was that Terminid E-710 yield is significantly increased if harvested following periods of extreme duress.

"In order to determine if there is a relationship between method of extermination and E-710 production, the Ministry of Science has requested that the Terminids be exterminated using a variety of means. High Command has authorized a rotating series of augmenting Stratagems for the duration of this trial, in support of scientific progress. The Terminid biomass required for meaningful data in this endeavor equals 1,000,000,000 dead Terminid bugs."

Oh, and in case you hadn't guessed, dispatch has provided a helpful warning: "Terminid aggression and expansion may increase in response to these efforts".

With only about two hours of this mission looking to have passed so far as of writing, how's it going? Oh boy. About 168 hundred million - that's about 16% - of the one billion bugs it'll take to complete the order are already dead.

So yeah, unlike the last order, I wouldn't bank on being able to leave it a few days before you drop in, even if there's currently about four days and six hours left on it.

Seriously, stop dreaming about playing 16-bit Helldivers in your ship and MOVE, SOLDIER!