Campaign:Distant Shores

Distant Shores is the title of the second campaign released in PlanetSide 2. It launched on November 17th, 2021 for all players, and is currently slated to remain available until April 1st, 2022.

The campaign focuses on the continent of Oshur, an archipelago abandoned before the start of the Auraxis War due to its lack of amenities—namely the rebirthing network.

Distant Shores is played over two chapters—Siren's Call and Off the Map. Each chapter must be unlocked independently, with a flat cost of for characters not enjoying Premium Membership, and players must complete each chapter in order.

Events
Listed below are the events of the Distant Shores campaign, missions that tell the story of the campaign and task the player with relevant objectives through which they progress the chapter and unlock items, earn currency, and open new events and missions for play.

Chapter 1: Siren's Call
In a short-lived period of peace before the Auraxian War, the Terran Republic and like-minded soldiers, scientists, and civilians flocked to the coastal paradise of Oshur.

As new technologies were discovered throughout Auraxis, and ideologies further diverged, the sunny resort-like atmosphere became more politically charged, and developing sub-factions begun engaging in shadow research and corporate espionage.

''The declaration of war was almost a welcome reprieve from the tension. With no Warpgates among the islands, or sufficient access to rebirth matrices, the only sane choice for those stationed on Oshur was to retreat to safer territories.''

Chapter 1, Siren's Call, became available on the 17th of November 2021, and will remain playable until the end of Distant Shores on April 1st, 2022.

Synopsis
Abandoned over three hundred long years ago, at the start of the Auraxian war, Oshur laid silent, all those who lived there having fled to safer areas of the planet. Following the events of the Shattered Warpgate, however, the Terran Republic sought to return to the archipelago. Unfortunately, they were met with an insurmountable obstacle—a massive energy barrier fully preventing access to the isles.

To solve this problem, the Republic contracted Nascent Expeditions to organize an expedition to the continent and help find a way through the barrier. Deep as the Terran's pockets were, Nascent Expeditions could not fulfill this task through sheer lack of manpower and Coordinator Tolland seeks the aid of external mercenaries, a request the other three factions were all too keen to accept.

Nascent Expedition's first order of business is to begin stocking up on Auraxium which—with the quelling of the storm on Esamir and the completion of the Containment Sites—is no longer being mined in the volumes it once was. Operatives from the four factions are tasked with employing their personal mining lasers at the sites of the companies' colossal Elysium Drills.

Meanwhile, in the shadows, FL-34 sees an opportunity for profit, and contacts the operative with a tempting proposition—the shadowy broker knows the locations of two schematics, stored away and forgotten following the evacuation of Oshur. Hinting at their contents, FL-34 collects the schematics from the operative and sets off to see to their realization.

As one robot works, another contacts the operatives with a simple request—Nanite Systems is interfering in the black market's assuredly above-board operations, and SPRK-33 needs you to eliminate their agents to ensure smooth operations. Completing the request, a contented SPRK-33 ensures the operative gets a generous payday.

With the air clear, FL-34 returns to the operative with a surprise gift of two new vehicles, created from those schematics and acquired by very legitimate means—the Deliverer Prototype and Lodestar Prototype. It is down to the operative to field-test these once forgotten vehicles at FL-34's request.

Back at Nascent Expeditions, Coordinator Tolland seeks to further prepare his mercenaries for the expedition to Oshur, and tasks them with using Advanced Nanite Transports to harvest Cortium, practice for the task ahead of harvesting the abundance of that selfsame resource on the continent. However, the operative's ambassador contacts them with an alternate proposition to use the mining vehicle as a vehicle of war. The operative makes their choice, and leaves one taskmaster very happy.

Not content with hindering Nanite Systems, SPRK-33 also wishes to make a profit from the chaos on the field, and requests scrap from vehicles—particularly those prototypes previously leaked out onto the market by FL-34. The operative does so, and once against receives a handsome sum from the black market.

Finishing up his dealings, FL-34 discovers a final, third schematic previously unknown even to the broker. Following the operative's successful retrieval of the schematic, the robot reveals the contents—blueprints for the Wasp Prototype, and the black market's engineers are immediately ready to deploy it to the field.

Following a large amount of upstanding dealings, the operative heads back to Sanctuary to debrief with their ambassador, who reminisces on the times prior to the Auraxian war, and with Nascent Expedition's Representative Nalla, who is very excited at the prospect of the expedition to Oshur and promises to keep the operative tasked up and busy.

Chapter 2: Off the Map
Familiar conflicts test a newfound peace as the empires of Auraxis return to Oshur, the tropical island paradise that has remained untouched by battle for generations.

Massive Exodus-class fleet carriers descend off the sandy shores, serving as a base of operations for the war hungry factions and providing access to the vital rebirthing matrices required to keep the wheels of war turning.

Chapter 2, Off the Map, became available on the 27th of January 2022, and will remain playable until the end of Distant Shores on April 1st, 2022.

Synopsis
After a long wait, the expedition to Oshur begins, and the operative is summoned to the bridge of Sanctuary by Coordinator Tolland of Nascent Expeditions, who offers them a seat aboard the next Exodus-class fleet carrier leaving for the archipelago. Once the operative reaches the new continent, they are immediately summoned by their representative who briefs them on the scenario, and reminds them that the Auraxian war is yet on-going, despite the short-lived truce held during the journey.

The representative's first goal is to recover the remains of the many soldiers who died their final death when Oshur was abandoned at the beginning of the Auraxian war, prior to the construction of the rebirth matrix. The operative collects three pairs of dog tags from beneath their flotilla, before being sent to join the battle for territory.

After the battle lines have settled in, the representative contacts the operative regarding an oddity—despite Oshur having been abandoned for three hundred years, heat signatures can still be detected across the archipelago. After a brief investigation—which reveal a weather drone, solar-powered outhouse, and a camp fire left by Nascent Expeditions—the operative discovers an abandoned facility, and leaps into a broken elevator shaft leading deep underground.

At the far end of this tunnel lies an abandoned genetics lab, and the operative is quick to download the data from the ancient hardware left behind, revealing a dark truth—this facility was in use by Viridian Genetics in researching human augmentation, and their data leads the team to several Vanu shrines submerged around the island chain. On investigating the otherwise uninteresting shrines, the operative finds a recently-produced key card for the genetics lab they had just left.

Returning to the lab, the operative uses the key card to open a locked gate leading deeper within the underground facility, one that is as modern as the key card, and evidence of the lab's resident vehicle terminal having been used to evacuate in recent times. Rerouting power to the terminal to allow them to extract the data, the team begins to hone in on the signal of the evacuee.

After an extensive search, the team finds a grievously injured researcher atop the Sirinan Trident, whose injuries blind her from telling who she is speaking to—she reveals the purpose of her team's research. At the behest of the Terran Republic, Viridian Genetics was researching the rebirth matrix, seeking a way to selectively exclude the New Conglomerate and Vanu Sovereignty from the network.

With her final act, she directs the operative to retrieve her data pad and return it to Republic command, unaware of whether or not the operative is of Terran allegiance. The operative returns the data pad to their representative, who promises to deliver the data to their faction's scientists, concluding the investigation and the campaign.

Equipment and Rewards
Aside from a sizable amount of Campaign Standing awarded from the completion of the campaign's events, players make use of and earn a variety of equipment throughout the Distant Shores campaign.