Chapter 1: Diving Deep

Diving Deep is a Helldivers 2 Fan Fiction. It follows the hapless Lucas Loverso as he tries to discover who he truly was while fighting for managed Democracy.

Feb 07, 2025

Original Image Credit: Arrowhead Game Studios

Waking, covered in a thin layer of ice, it’s jarring.

The weird sensation of my neural pathways being rewritten sears my brain as my fingers tighten, breaking the sheen of an icy shell.

The flood of new memories fills my consciousness, and I have to shake my mind clear. I remember Lucas’s last moments.

No.

I am Lucas now.

I remember my last moments. I remember the red lights of the Automatons approaching through the foggy green jungle of Malevelon Creek.

I remember the burning in my guts as round after round of Automaton fire pierced my B-01 Tactical armor. I can still see my blood-soaked hands desperately pushing against my wounds, trying to stop the bleeding in vain.

But now I am new again.

Lucas Loverso the second.

When they took that genetic swab, I think… I think I knew this was a possibility. I’d heard the rumors, of course. We’re all clones, but I’d figured I’d last longer than ten minutes on my first drop.

“Welcome aboard, Helldiver. Now that you’re here, the war is as good as won.” The Ship Master announced from the center of the mezzanine. She’s staring at me, which is unnerving enough, but I feel like I remember her always standing there - stoically at her post.

“Thanks,” I grumble and clench my right fist, extending my arm vertically upward to chin height - just like I learned in Basic Training.

She stands stalk still, still watching me as I drop the salute.

She’s probably an agent for the Ministry of Truth, but I haven’t broken any rules. So why does she fill me with such dread?

To my right is Strategem Hero—a classic arcade game I long to play. Truthfully, it probably saved my life on that first drop. I remember playing it as Lucas Prime when I first came aboard the SES Knight of the State.

I want to take off my gloves and play, feel the nostalgia in my fingertips, or remove this stuffy B-01 helmet. Something stops me. It’s imperative in my core: If I remove my helmet, I’ll die.

I don’t know why I care about dying; I know I’m a clone. But there’s something competitive in me. I want to have the highest rank with the fewest clone iterations.

I guess when you can’t indeed die, and you just keep coming back for more - accomplishment is the only real currency.

Ok, it’s been like five minutes and I haven’t moved. I’m fully thawed, but here I stand like a moron contemplating what it means to be a clone.

My first step was as uneasy as I expected. Truthfully, this is like my sixth or eighth step. After all, I had walked out of that genetic tube, but that was more of a stumble. These are my first steps as Lucas Loverso, Helldiver, and commander of the SES Knight of the State.

“Proud to serve by your side, sir.” The service tech standing by the unfinished Engineering Bay greets me. She snaps to a perfect salute. Dressed in her service greys, she had been inventorying the crates beside her when I dethawed.

“You as well, Tech,” I replied, giving my salute back to her. “How long until the Bay is online?” I asked, motioning to the large ‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION’ sign painted on the air-tight bulkhead.

She smiled, her perfect white teeth making me uncomfortably aware of my teeth as they suddenly felt foreign inside my helmet. “The Ministry of Defense doesn’t authorize unsealing the Engineering Bay until a Super Destroyers Helldiver brings back a minimum of sixty common samples and ten rare samples from a mission.” Her smile seems almost condescending as if she’s in on some big joke I don’t understand. “Unfortunately, neither you nor any of the divers with you could extract samples from your last mission.”

“Why do I need to exchange samples to be able to use sections of the ship?” I ask, knowing that was a dangerous question as soon as it left my lips.

“We have tens of thousands of Super Destroyers in Super Earth’s Navy,” The sudden interruption caused my heart to skip a beat. I turned to see my Ship Master, who’d finally moved over by my side. “It was decided long ago that upgrades to ships will be made through merit, and that merit is awarded by bringing much-needed samples off the surface for transfer to Super Earth.”

“Makes sense,” I grumble, uneasy with how she snuck up on me.

“You can always use the Patriotic Administration Center to view the Knight of the State’s statistics and see how many samples you’ve been credited for to select improvements.” She smiled and added as an afterthought, “Once you finally start collecting samples.”

I heard it again. They call it my ship as if they don’t recognize that I’m a clone. “I’ll do that,” I agree, moving away from the two women crossing the mezzanine to a menagerie of crates with portable computers stacked on them—the telltale ‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION’ sign blocks access to the actual bay.

Without hesitation, I typed into the computer; Username: LLOVERSO.Password: ECHIDNA.

That was weird. I could type in my random password without even a second thought. The Knight of the State’s green-blue outline glowed as I logged in. Sure enough, the tally for samples was all at zero, and I still had the super credits I’d brought from civilian life.

I remember, as a kid—well, I guess Lucas Prime remembers—I thought the Super Destroyers looked impressive high above my home on Calypso. Floating in low orbit against the red sky, burning dissident camps to dust with orbital lasers, and Eagle strafing runs.

I had known I wouldn’t follow my father into the legal world—that was my older brother’s task—my destiny lay commanding one of those Super Destroyers high above our dwelling.

Little did I know these destroyers were just a metal tube of shit. Little more than a hanger, a small command area, and a bridge—they’re obviously expendable enough to entrust to a Cadet Helldiver, who was already a lackluster clone.

Wait, what if the Ministry of Truth can read my thoughts? They can already write my fallen copies of memories into my brain. Why wouldn’t they be able to extract them?

I love Super Earth.

Carefully, I glance towards the bow of the ship. I can see the scan-well and the Democracy Officer standing beside it. I remember his droopy face, marred with an unsmiling mouth that always hung limp, and his fuzzy bald head reflecting the dim light of the bridge.

I realized I hated that mother fucker. He’d stood there as I selected the landing point, my FIRST landing, and he didn’t mention that the red blooms all over the map were probably NOT the best place to land. He cost me my first clone. He left me to –

I love Super Earth.

“Welcome aboard, Helldiver. We can never have too many heroes fighting for peace.” The Ship Master announces behind me as I hear the cryo pods open. Shaking himself free, I see an identity tag in my heads-up display: Super Citizen Rhyno, a fellow Helldiver who’d answered Lucas Prime’s SOS on the last drop.

He wore the rather gaudy DP-53 Savior of the Free armor, complete with the gold trim and braids with real gold Helldiver skulls pressed into his gorget and greaves. Despite the haughty armor, he wore the spartan FS-23 Battle Master helmet, a simple flat-face guard with Helldiver yellow striping curving from the back of the helmet along the sides of the face until it reached the yellow-painted mantling.

Saluting the Ship Master, Sergeant Rhyno broke his salute and crossed to greet me with an unexpected embrace. “Cadet, glad to see you made it.”

I know, logically, he couldn’t see the confusion on my face, but the subtle tightening of his grip on my arm caused me to pause before I challenged him on our mission failure.

“I brought along another Cadet I met, Cadet Rogers -”

The PA system announced Helldiver joining the Knight of the State almost as if on cue, and the cryo pod entrance opened again. “Always good to have another hero on board.” The Ship Master greeted him. He, like Lucas, wore the basic B-01 Tactical Armor and approached with a salute. Unlike Lucas’ B-01 helmet with its single yellow stripe down the crest, Cadet Rogers had opted to paint parallel lines on either side of the crest of his B-01.

Other than that singular difference, they could’ve been interchangeable without ID tags.

Wait! Are we? Are we all just interchangeable freaks? I can’t help but wonder. What is under our helmets?

As if sensing my wondering thoughts or perhaps reading my tightening body language, Super Citizen Rhyno touches my arm again.

“Cadet Loverso, perhaps we should move to the bridge,” he gestured ahead towards the bridge with its built-in drop pod launchers. “Malevelon Creek calls for aid.”

Disclaimer:
This is a work of fan fiction based on Helldivers 2, a video game developed by Arrowhead Game Studios. The characters, settings, and concepts used in this story are the property of their respective creators. I do not own any part of the Helldivers 2 universe, and this story is written purely for entertainment and fan appreciation. No copyright infringement is intended.