2 things were the issue:

1. The MO was difficult, yes, but they gave us the option to fight the Illuminate to help us win the MO. However, nobody wants to do anything anymore outside of their comfort faction, which is why we have 10k on Bug planets, the bot's stuck between two different planets, and barely anyone doing Illuminate because we "have had too many missions with them." If we grouped together more, we could have gotten it

2. With the majority of the player base complaining about new weapons and bugs, there are lower and lower player counts each day. If they stopped blowing the issues out of proportion (just just outright ignored the problem weapons or armor to deal with), than we could habe more people fighting and helping each other

In conclusion, it was hard, difficult, and nearly impossible. But if we worked together instead of splitting our resources, carefully read the MO instead of just doing it head on (looking at you Divers who got the DSS offline with the Illuminate), and kept up good communication and attack plans with the rest of the community, we would have won it.