Campaign (Killzone 3)

"At the end of the First Extrasolar War, Earth's ISA forces had crushed the rogue colony of Helghan. The victory did not bring peace, but instead brought humiliation, hardships and bitter resentment. Driven by the vision of Scolar Visari, the population of Helghan transformed from a defeated nation to a military superpower. They would become humanity's greatest threat. They called themselves the Helghast. Provoked into war, the neighbouring planet of Vekta, launched an invasion fleet to deal with Visari. Within seconds of entering Helghan's atmosphere, ground-to-space defenses ripped the fleet apart. Uncountable lives were lost over the next days. But against all hope a small elite unit managed to fight their way into the heart of the Helghan nation. Visari's Palace. With the ISA forces on his own doorstep, Visari resorted to extreme measures. The nuclear devastation of his own capital, the city of Pyrrhus."

―Text introduction to the game

The campaign of Killzone 3 follow in the aftermath of Killzone 2. With Scolar Visari having been killed during the previous campaign, the Helghast form a vicious counterattack on the ISA to avenge his death. Alpha Squad has to fight the Helghast on several occasions to ensure a safe evacuation from Helghan. The primary antagonists of the campaign are Jorhan Stahl and, to a lesser extend, Admiral Orlock.

Campaign Chapters

A New Beginning

"The ISA forces are scattered. The man responsible for Visari's death is to be executed. This is the Helghast's finest hour."

―Chapter description

• Stahl Arms Compound — Stahl Arms Deep South: uncontested forerunner in Helghan's advanced weapons manufacturing and development. Patrol the area.
• Factory - Sub Section B — Report for weapons testing outside Vehicle and Heavy arms assembly.
• Lithreich Labs — Assist Chairman Stahl as he prepares to execute the prisoner.

Serving as the introduction of the game, A New Beginning starts at a later part of the story. Jorhan Stahl is about to order the execution of Captain Narville and launch an invasion of Earth. Sev and Rico are sent to the weapons testing range, and then make their way to the broadcast chamber, where they interrupt Stahl's broadcast and liberate Narville.

Evacuation Orders

"Alpha Squad and what remains of the ISA invasion force are ordered to evacuate Helghan."

―Chapter description

• Escaping Visari's Palace — When the ISA convoy is scattered, Sev and Rico must fight to rejoin it, protecting stragglers along the way.
• Rooftop Showdown — Drawn by the sound of ISA engines, Sev and Rico must engage a sizable Helghast force intent on eliminating a separated fragment of the convoy.
• Dead End — A group of ISA find themselves surrounded when the Helghast cut off all avenues of escape.
• Bilgarsk Museum — As Rico orders the surviving vehicles forward, Sev leads the charge into a nearby museum swarming with Helghast forces.
• Broken Highway — After reuniting with the bulk of the convoy, Narville orders Sev and Rico to lead the charge across the only available route - a broken and exposed bridge.

The true start of the story. Evacuation Orders starts off shortly after the death of Scolar Visari. The ISA forces are ordered to retreat from Helghan, but while Narville's forces are regrouping to start the evac, Helghast strike ships ambush the convoy, killing numerous soldiers and destroying vehicles. Sev and Rico are cut off from the rest of the convoy during their attempted escape, and need to fight through the city to find another way back. Coming across other scattered ISA forces, the pair fight with their allies against the Helghast resistance until they can rejoin Narville's forces.

Pyrrhus Evac

"As the ferocity of the Helghast onslaught increases, Sev and Rico must find a way to break through by leading the convoy in the final charge to the extraction point."

―Chapter description

• Senlin Beach — In order to buy the slower vehicles time to reach the extraction point, Sev and Rico drive directly into the path of oncoming Helghast armor.
• Salach District — A lethal and heavily defended Helghast Arc cannon wreaks havoc against the retreating convoy's air support.
• Ground Zero — As the list of casualties continues to grow, Sev and Rico must pilot salvaged EXOs in their final attempt to reach the extraction point.

Sev and Rico are ordered onto HAMRs with the purpose of weakening the Helghast resistance for the slower vehicles of the convoy, until they come across other ISA forces being stalled due to a heavily fortified Arc Cannon. Sev takes up the position of a sniper, dealing with numerous threats while the ground forces blow up the cannon. Having destroyed the cannon, a MAWLR appears, firing at the ISA cruisers and destroying their HAMRs. Sev and Rico find a dead ISA squad, and manage to obtain two EXOs which they try tp use to get to the extraction point. They are shot down by a MAWLR, however, and the two split up as Rico disobeys orders for trying to rescue Jammer while Sev continues to the evac, meeting a number of scattered ISA forces along the way. Narville's forces, alongside Sev, eventually manage to successfully escape to one of the ISA cruisers.

Six Months On

"Under Narville's orders, Sev attempts to re-establish communication with Earth Command."

―Chapter description

• Jungle Valley — Sev and Kowalski move stealthily through the jungle and learn that the Helghast aren't the only threat on this planet.
• Behind The Vale — Avoiding the Helghast patrols that are hunting them, Sev and Kowalski sneak deeper into the jungle.
• Cruiser Wreckage — Somewhere within the Cruiser wreckage lies the ISA's last hope of rescue...
• Kaznan Deep — Sev hurries back to the ISA camp wary of what lies in store.
• ISA Camp Siege — Sev returns to find Narville and the survivors engaged in a desperate firefight with a Helghast strike team.

Six months after the death of Visari and Narville's evac, Narville's forces manage to survive in the harsh jungles of Helghan after their ISA Cruiser crashed. Having established an uplink with Earth, Narville's forces are awaiting transport off of Helghan, but due to a problem with their uplink, Sev and Kowalski are ordered to restore it after a previous recon squad failed to report back. While the two are looking for the uplink, they come across a considerable Helghast force, which abduct ISA forces and experiment with weaponry on them. As such, Sev warns Narville to keep moving, only to be denied due to Narville's insistence on having the uplink with Earth. When Sev gets the uplink working, Narville learns that Vekta had capitulated to the Helghast, and that his forces had to stand down for the peace talks. Narville denies, his forces keep fighting until he, and Sev, are ultimately captured by Helghast forces.

Icy Incursion

"After a daring mid-air rescue, Sev and Rico make their way into the frozen maw of Helghan's most desolate territory."

―Chapter description

• Frozen Shores — Reunited with Rico, Sev and the Raiders pursue the remaining Helghast dropships.
• Shipwreck — Downed by the Petrusite AA platforms, Sev and Rico engage the Helghast aboard a shipwreckedtanker.
• Akmir Rig — In a last-ditch effort to take out the enemy's anti-air weapons, Sev straps on an experimental Helghast jetpack and takes the flight to the skies.
• Nilfrost Rig — Unable to approach the AA battery from above, Sev is forced to come up with a new plan to destroy the rig.
• Providence Bay — The small group of surviving Raiders face overwhelming odds as they come up against a heavily fortified Helghast positiion.
• Providence Station — The last outpost before entering into the heart of Stahl Arms Deep South.

After Narville and Sev were captured, the Helghast got too confident in themselves, and became careless with their transmissions. As such, Rico was able to pinpoint where the dropships were, and staged an ambush. While he did manage to rescue Sev, Narville was still en route to Stahl Arms Deep South. Sev insisted that Rico's Raiders follow Narville and rescue him, and so the team continued. Fighting through the freezing south of Helghan, taking heavy losses from the defending Helghast forces.

Stahl Arms Infiltration

"Sev and Rico must stop Narville's execution and escape the high security Stahl Arms research facility."

―Chapter description

• Stahl Arms East Block — With the clock ticking down, Sev and Rico hurriedly explore the facility in search of Narville and the kidnapped ISA soldiers.
• Ward 5 — Amidst the confusion of Narville's rescue, Sev and Rico split from the group in an attempt to find more intel on the Helghast invasion.
• Assembly Line #17 — Sev, Rico, Narville and the freed ISA prisoners fight their way out of the facility as all hell breaks loose.
• Sharp Pursuit — Using a stolen Helghast Ice Saw, Sev and Rico plough across the frozen wastes in pursuit of Stahl's Cruiser.

Impersonating the Argus 2 Helghast unit, Sev and Rico infiltrate Stahl Arms Deep South and disrupt Stahl's message to the nation, while also rescuing Narville and any other captured ISA pows. Within the facility, it quickly becomes clear that the Helghast have been performing fatal and inhumane experiments on their captured prisoners, including, but not limited to, the tests on irradiated Petrusite for their Arc Cannons. The team manages to fight their way out and hitch a ride on Jammer's Intruder, but not before Jorhan Stahl starts his plans to destroy Earth. Sev chases Stahl's cruiser with an Ice Saw, but is unable to catch up with the vehicle, instead landing at a warp launch. At the same time, Narville and his troops had formed a convoy of sort and were headed towards the same area.

Scrapyard Shortcut

"The space elevator looms in the distance as Sev and Rico abandon the Ice Saw and cut through a deserted scraoyard."

―Chapter description

• Scrapyard Perimeter — When the scrapyard's automated defenses suddenly activate, Rico and Sev are caught in the middle.
• Fenced In — Rico and Sev have to take the Petrusite fence offline if the ISA are to stand any chance of getting to the space elevator.
• Blind Yards — Time is running out for Sev, Rico, and the trapped ISA forces.
• Mobile Factory — After a high-speed chase, Sev, Rico and a small group of Raiders board the mobile factory.
• Belly Of The Beast — Any hope of liberating Narville's grounded troops in time lies with the Raiders and their charge on the factory's control room.

Realising that the invasion is underway, Narville, Sev and Rico decide that they need to prevent it at all costs. As such, Rico and Sev start looking for the space port. As a defense mechanism, however, the space port had an irradiated petrusite field, costing the ISA lives when one soldier couldn't take the pressure. While Narville's forces were slowly trying to remove the threat, Rico and Sev instead went for a mobile factory to run down the defense mechanism. Fighting through heavy Helghast resistance, the two managed to get a hold over the machine, and drove it into the Petrusite fence.

The Reckoning

"With the Petrusite fence down, the ISA forces make their final push towards the space elevator."

―Chapter description

• Trenches — Sev fights his way through the trenches hoping to make it back to Narville's forces.
• MAWLR — With no other options left, Sev takes on the MAWLR alone.
• Freight Elevator — Sev climbs the freight elevator as the MAWLR devastates the ISA forces below.
• Ashen Skies — With a renewed sense of purpose, the ISA forces make their final desperate stand against the MAWLR.

With the Petrusite fence down, the Convoy regroupped and prepared for combat with the Helghast due to the attention drawn with the destroyed Petrusite fence. In a short timeframe, the Helghast formed a counterattack, luring the ISA forces to a MAWLR which devastated the ISA forces. At the same time, Helghast forces were engaged with the ISA in trench warfare. After a small fight between Sev, Rico, and Narville, it was decided to take on the MAWLR. Sev and several ISA forces took the fight to the MAWLR directly, while Rico and Narville provided distractions. When the MAWLR was assumed to be defeated, they moved up again, however, the MAWLR recovered. As a result, a number of ISA armor was lost to the incoming MAWLR weaponry. Following the attack, chaos ensued with many radios going offline. As a result, scattered ISA forces had to fight against an overwhelming Helghast force, though they did turn out victorious. The MAWLR was eventually truly destroyed through the efforts of Rico's Raiders and Sev.

Interception

"With the Helghast invasion already underway, the survivors make a last ditch effort to warn Earth."

―Chapter description

• Outer Tunnels — Sev, Rico and Narville emerge from the elevator to a waiting Helghast reception.
• Power Vacuum — The outbreak of in-fighting between the Helghast forces gives the ISA a glimmer of hope.
• Inner Sanctum — Fighting continues deep within the bowels of the space station as the ISA attempt to secure a way off the station.
• Fleet Battle — Sev and Rico blast their way through a fleet of fighting starships in pursuit of Stahl's prototype battlecruiser.

Having defeated the MAWLR and what remained of the Helghast resistance, Narville's forces were originally going to give up. After a motivating speech from Sev and Rico, however, the 60 remaining troops all decided to take their chances and go up the space station. Aboard of which Stahl's and Orlock's tensions were also being settled, causing a conflict between the Helghast Military and Stahl's forces, resulting in the Helghast fleet becoming weakened. At the same time, the fight between Stahl and Orlock resulted in Orlock's death by a STA-5X Arc Cannon. Narville and his men then boarded a strike ship and attempted to stop Stahl's cruiser from reaching Earth. The team successfully prevented the Cruiser from stable flight, but Stahl was attempting to get the Cruiser to land, and was going to succeed. However, Sev intervened. Sev dropped a nuke on Stahl's Cruiser, causing it to crash onto Helghan, decimating the population in what would later be known as the Terracide.