Its 4-player coop in-mission, but there is a meta-game where the entire community contributes towards spreading or defending democracy across several planets neighboring super-earth. So this week one faction might have gained some ground, so everyone is encouraged to fight on that front, but the next week there might be an order to push back the border of the opposite faction. I believe there is one person, Joel, who is in charge of playing dungeon master for the overarching war.

At a player level, the status of the war will determine which planets are available to do missions on and what your personal challenges will be set to (to reward you for contributing to the cause). This updates on a near daily cycle and adds a bunch of great variety to the environments and challenges you'll face.