Arrowhead Game Studios’ excellent live service roadmap for its acclaimed co-op shooter continues onward with another surprise.

From fire tornadoes and meteor showers last week to new armour and weapons later this week, Arrowhead Game Studios’ accelerated post-launch plans for Helldivers 2 have been bearing fruit in some interesting ways. Most intriguing have been the developer’s ongoing live service storytelling efforts, which have now taken the form of flying bugs- but don’t let any of the Super Earth faithful hear you say that.

Flying variants of Helldivers 2’s bugs (or Terminids) have suddenly started appearing in the game, with many sharing clips of the same on Reddit and elsewhere on social media. However, Arrowhead Game Studios has thrown an amusing wrench into those works, with CEO and creative director Johan Pilestedt quickly taking to Twitter to label “rumours” of flying bugs as “preposterous claims” and “propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash good people”. And what about the flying bugs on the game’s cover art? That’s just “image manipulation by traitors”, Pilestedt says.

Arrowhead recently pushed a new Major Order in Helldivers 2, directing the community to the Umlaut sector with orders to eradicate Terminid population on all planets in the system by inoculating them with Termicide. True to form, the studio has snuck in the surprise addition of a new enemy type here, and used it as an opportunity to continue telling the game’s ongoing story.

In similar vein, earlier this month, Helldivers 2 randomly started unlocking pilotable mechs for players. Shortly afterward, Arrowhead kicked off a new Major Order to liberate a planet from Automaton control so the Super Earth factories there could begin manufacturing mechs that players could then use in the game.

Helldivers 2 is available on PS5 and PC.