Character stuck getting "The Defiance Service not available"

I keep getting hit by a bug where I start a new character, get through the first set of missions and when I kill the 75 mutants with the Gatling gun it kicks me back to lobby and locks me in a "CRITICAL The Defiance Service is not Available" message loop. I started a new char and got to that point and it did the same thing. It will not let me play them any more.
https://image.ibb.co/mCCcwy/Defiance...2_58_11_PM.png

Any help would be appreciated!

PC NA, Ditto, ditto, ditto
Something is broken again.

And it's still broken, too, as of 4:50 Central time. Sigh.