When we finally reached the cold, gloomy rock known as Ceryshen, we quickly assessed the situation and made our move. The continent had a few scattered TR and Vanu stations in the area, but the New Conglomerate still owned most of the landmass, so we set off to secure the rest of the facilities and go for another lockdown. Things were looking pretty quiet on our quest for free experience until an unfortunate mishap occurred involving the Galaxy I was piloting and a very large, very solid tree. I signaled everyone to bail out due to the damage the craft had received (rather than being destroyed outright, it was simply crippled to the point where "control loss" was flagged) before hopping out myself. I watched as everyone fell loosely from the Galaxy around me, including the ANT we were carrying (which nearly landed on my head) before the craft hit the tree again and exploded horribly. Stranded essentially in the middle of nowhere, a small team diverted to capture the nearby tower that was our original target. While waiting for them to return, another dropship touched down and discharged a load of troops. Expecting a handsome greeting, I politely walked up to the pilot and inquired if we could get a ride back to base. After all, their vehicle bay was empty, and they had plenty of room to hold our squad in the Galaxy's holds, so why not? A few moments after I fired off my query, I saw the pilot reach for his pistol. Expecting it to be a repair kit or medical device (my health was at a rather critical level after our original Galaxy exploded), I bravely stood there, awaiting his generosity – and was then promptly shot in the face with what looked up-close to be a standard-issue MAG scatter pistol. Ow. By the time I respawned and returned to my awaiting team with a fresh dropship, the traitorous villain had vanished, never to be seen again. Deciding I'd had enough of the hellhole known as Ceryshen, I collected my squad and headed off to the nearby gate linking to the Terran Republic-held continent of Forseral. Surely a surprise assault with such a small squad would catch them off-guard!

Our initial attack went off mostly without a hitch, with only one minor complication. Our first target upon setting foot on Republic terrain was a nearby dropship center. Now, interlink facilities offer automated control for turrets at every base on the continent for whatever faction owns them. These turrets will then automatically shoot at incoming vehicles, and will return fire on infantry if fired upon first. Why is this important? Because I, still in my half-dazed state from being unexpectedly shot in the face at point blank earlier, failed to take into account that the Terran Republic already controlled one of these facilities on the other side of the continent. As I blindly zoomed the Galaxy overtop of the enemy base, the anti-air fire was quick and brutal. Sure, we managed to bail in time, but until the dropship center came under our control, we were effectively stuck on foot. And we still had the interlink facility to deal with after that.

Our group quickly assembled and moved on to hack the base and it's nearby gun towers before any roaming TR patrols could become aware of our presence. Once we had finally secured the base, we wasted no time in charging over to the west to grab the Interlink facility before the enemy could react. Ground transport would've been too slow, so we opted to risk a Galaxy airdrop, courtesy of our freshly acquired DSC. The plan was simple: fly over the enemy base, order everyone to execute the "bail" command, and then pray we all made it down in one piece. As it stood, we managed to get into the facility with little incident, and it wasn't long before it fell under NC control. By the time we had finished our expansion with the capture of a third base to the north, the Republic had taken note of our appearance on their land and was moving to engage. It all began with a small enemy group that had suddenly appeared towards the middle of the continent and had successfully repelled our attempts to capture the bases in that zone. This group began moving east after a few bloody skirmishes and re-captured a pair of nearby towers to bolster their position.