With Meridia destroyed, Helldivers 2 players are staring into the void while waiting to see if Arrowhead deploys the Illuminate

Despite it being tough as nails prior to a quick patch, Helldivers 2 players have successfully completed the game's latest Major Order - the Terminid Supercolony on Meridia, as well as Meridia itself, is no more. While that experimetal Dark Fluid did end up creating a pretty suspicious black hole in the process, it seems Arrowhead might now be trying to lull folks into a false sense of security before potentially deploying their next big foe.

If you're out of the loop, the involvement of Dark Fluid in this MO has been fuelling a lot of speculation that it could mark the point when The Illuminate - one of the alien races from the first Helldivers - could make their grand entrance into the Galactic War. That still looks like it could happen, but it hasn't gone down as quickly as some had theorised.

First of all, the good news. "Helldivers, thanks to your valiant efforts the Terminid Supercolony on Meridia has been eradicated," Arrowhead tweeted last night in commemoration of operation "Enduring Peace" ending successfully.

"All it took was courage, determination, and the total collapse of the planet into a black hole," it added, "A brave sacrifice that has not seen any unforeseeable consequences." So, yup, nothing ominous in any way there.

While the MO's conclusion did feature some action, with Meridia's former spot on the map being filled by the purple-ringed hole you can see below, and players' ships seemigly being auto-jumped back to Super Earth, there was no immediate Illuminate invasion, as many had expected. What's going on? Well, no new Major Order has been issued as of writing, so maybe Arrowhead's allowing a bit of time for the energy signal kicked out the the hole to reach Illuminate scanners, or something like that.

So, while the completion screen for the Meridia MO seems to suggest that another Automaton assault could be incoming soon, and insists "the war is far from over", players have been left at a bit of a loose end for now.

What're they doing to fill the MO-less time, you ask? Well, making memes about the black hole and staring into it while trying to work out just how worried they should be about the noises coming from it - some of which players reckon sound like whalesong. Hey, I can think of worse hobbies.

What do you think'll follow up this calm before Helldivers 2's next storm? Let us know below.