Editing Claorell (section)

==== Operation Culling Nightmares ====
However, the failure of Operation Drydock Lockout would not be the end of the battle in Claorell. Despite the failure to liberate it, many Helldivers would persist and press on the counteroffensive at Zenith. And their efforts would soon seem to be well worth their price as, soon enough, High Command would issue a major order focused on the elimination of those foes that most frequently plagued the dreams of the innocent citizens of Super Earth, including the Automaton [[Factory Strider]]. With this new major order, the Helldivers would now have another important incentive to keep the fight going at Claorell.

With the liberation of Gaellivare on July 23rd, the Helldivers would be able to restore the {{Democracy Space Station|DSS}}' tactical actions back to their normal resource requirements, which would soon pay off in spades by allowing the Heavy Orbital Bombardment to become active and allow the Helldivers to gain significant ground on Claorell. Zenith would be liberated hours later, delivering a heavy blow to the Automatons that, if not for a sudden attack by the {{Illuminate}} at both [[Alamak VII]]; a crucial urban core in the Hanzo Sector, and [[New Stockholm]]; the headquarters of Stähl Arms; the Helldivers would have been able to capitalize on.

Nevertheless, the Helldivers pressed on the offensive. By July 25th, the Helldivers would successfully liberate the city of Quasar, driving back the {{Incineration Corps}} that, because of the diversion of manpower towards the Illuminate attacks, were now advancing once again. Within hours, the Helldivers would finally approach the outskirts of the last Automaton stronghold on the planet at the city of Majosyri, which if liberated would mean the decapitation of the Automaton Garrison's command structure and would catapult Claorell towards its final liberation.

Majosyri would eventually be liberated on July 27 at roughly 5:15 AM-SEST. Many {{Helldivers}} would rejoice at this latest development- only to realize that the planet's liberation index only stood at 64%. During the Helldivers' righteous liberation efforts on all 3 cities, the {{Automatons}} would be just powerful enough on the planet to slowly drag down their liberation progress in between the major boosts in progress granted by freeing each city. As such, whilst the liberation of each city was ongoing, the bots would essentially undo much of the boosts that were made on the ground. Further, liberation indexes had shown that the Automatons had increased their resistance rate at least twice on the planet between July 25-26 (0.68 --> 1.14), further aiding their ability to hinder Helldiver liberation progress. 

In total, by liberating all 3 cities, the {{Helldivers}} should have gained roughly 94-95% of the liberation progress total on the planet. Instead, their net gain only stood at 64%, indicating that the {{Automatons}} had essentially taken back nearly a third of what was gained within that timeframe alone. Now, even with all 3 cities liberated, the Helldivers continued to slowly lose progress to the Automatons. By the time the {{Illuminate}} unleashed a vicious assault on [[Valmox]] just hours after Majosyri's liberation, Claorell's liberation progress had fallen to 61%.

Many Helldivers would flock to the defense of [[Valmox]], however after six hours it became clear that the planet was lost with many {{Helldivers}} returning to Claorell to liberate the {{Deep Mantle Forge Complex}}. This would coincide with a notable drop in the {{Automatons}} resistance (0.91 --> 0.68), likely due to extensive fighting throughout the previous week, and by midnight of the 28th of July, planetary liberation progress had risen to 72%. Assuming the socialist toasters didn't have any tricks up their non-existent sleeves, Claorell will be liberated within the next two days.

Even with the major manpower drain that would be the failed defense of [[Valmox]], the Automatons{{Automatons}} stood no chance on Claorell, and it is likely for this reason that the {{Incineration Corps}} would abandon the planet -- leaving the occupation to regular Automaton forces. With the completion of Operation Culling Nightmares' objective to eliminate 750,000 [[Leviathan|Leviathans]], High Command would allow the Helldivers{{Helldivers}} free usage of the [[EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit]] for the remaining 8 hours of the operation. With Claorell seeing a surge of Factory Strider reports and the only remaining Major Order objective being the destruction of 6,250,000 Factory Striders, Claorell became the focal point of the Helldiver Corps', where they delivered great devastation upon the occupying {{Automatons}}.

Though it would be close (with less than an hour remaining) Operation Culling Nightmares would be completed successfully on time, against all prior projections. While Claorell wouldn't be liberated during the operation, the devastation dealt to Automaton forces because of it would see resistance levels deteriorate (0.45 --> 0.23) as the number of [[Factory Strider|Factory Striders]] on the planet return to normal levels and, eventually, allowed the {{Helldivers}} to liberate Claorell and the {{Deep Mantle Forge Complex}} a mere couple hours later (8:15 PM SEST, 29th of July).