Mysterious New Resource Discovered, Grave Consequences Following

[Kaiser Kris]

Note- Based on the Tiberium Universe of C&C, but deviates from it, in timeline and in other details. Instead of 1999, I moved the beginning of the First Tiberium War to 2019 ...

To Set The Stage ...

The first signs of the new substance are discovered in the mid-1990's, near Rome in Italy. Promptly named 'Tiberium', the new compound is promptly discovered independently in several other locations on the planet, including Central Asia, the Rocky Mountains in North America, Mexico and the Congo Basin in Africa.

Many of the characteristics of Tiberium remain mysterious for some years, but quickly becoming apparent is its massive potential as an energy resource and as a means of economically extracting mineral resources from areas in which it exists, as Tiberium appears to concentrate minerals from nearby regions into its crystalline structures. It is also very quickly apparent that Tiberium is highly toxic and extremely dangerous- the more economically valuable 'blue Tiberium' has a terrible tendency to ignite easily and all types of Tiberium are extremely dangerous to humans.

The technology to harvest Tiberium largely comes from the Abel Corporation, which has patents on the heavily armoured harvesters required to mine the substance, as well as on several of the early refining techniques for the material. Tiberum-based technology, despite its risks, very rapidly emerges as a promising substitute for fossil fuel-based energy, and as a source of other materials. In addition, there are believed to be a variety of potential military applications for the crystalline substance.

Diplomatically, the world is in a tense state. The United Nations is generally considered to be a failed experiment, and, <i>de facto</i>, the world seems to have returned to a state not unlike that of the Cold War.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, however, has been transformed into the Global Defense Initiative, and member states include all former NATO states, as well as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Israel, South Africa and others. The other major alliance is based around the Shanghai Cooperation Organization of 1996, and in addition to Russia and the People's Republic of China, includes several other states, such as Pakistan, Iran, the Central Asian former Soviet Republics, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Algeria, Libya and others.

A number of states, and regions of states, however, do not fall under either of these alliances, or under any clear international authority- that is, they have fallen into chaos. Somalia, Haiti, Colombia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan and Iraq have all become failed states and serve as incubators for international terrorism- which both major national alliances work to contain. Unfortunately, many of these failed states are also home to the world's largest Tiberium deposits, and it is believed that illegal Tiberium smuggling has supplanted the drug trade as the primary source of income for terrorist organizations and militias operating in these areas.

The first decade of the twentieth-century was largely concerned with the establishment of the two super-alliances and the fight against international terrorism. However, as the second decade of the twenty-first century dawned, international terrorist activite seemed to lull somewhat. While going into the varioius failed states of the world was still an immensely dangerous proposition, it seemed that their energies had turned inward. Optimists proclaimed success in the so-called 'War on Terror', pessimists wondered if it was the calm before the storm.

Meanwhile, the Abel Corporation, which owned most of the world's patents on Tiberium-related technology, became the wealthiest corporate entity in the world, with wealth greater than that of many nations. With virtually unprecedented wealth, the Abel Corporation started to expand its operations, getting contracts with the military to develop Tiberium-based weapons and also, acquiring media outlets. By 2017, the Abel Corporation was able to buy out Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, giving it control of vast international media assets. Occasionally accused of abusing its power to sell the global public on Tiberium technology and for being GDI-skeptical, however, the Abel Corporation was either not thought of much by most citizens or regarded as a trailblazer to a better future.

In October 2018, Chinese and Russian troops were engaged in a pacification exercise in Tajikistan, supposedly to assist a nation that had signed treaties with China and Russia, but in actuality, mainly to position themselves, possibly, for a strike into Tiberium-rich Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a government probe began to uncover an incredibly alarming realization- that billions of dollars of weaponry had been mysteriously funnelled away to unknown groups in failed states.

[Codae]

The first Command & Conquer game came out in 1995...

And they'd been working on it for a while before...

Is anyone going to notice the connection?

[Kaiser Kris]

I do have a preface note, but I'm kind of making this an AU of the Tiberium world. Honestly, I think it's probably the most interesting AU history that a computer game's ever produced, but eh, if people aren't interested, I'll just have to figure out something that people like better. ;)

[alt_historian]

The first Command & Conquer game came out in 1995...

And they'd been working on it for a while before...

Is anyone going to notice the connection?
I think Kaiser is doing this in a world where C&C doesn't exist, but everything else is the same... otherwise yes, someone would notice!

Very interesting... especially liking the "Abel Corp" reference. :cool:

[Kaiser Kris]

I think Kaiser is doing this in a world where C&C doesn't exist, but everything else is the same... otherwise yes, someone would notice!

Very interesting... especially liking the "Abel Corp" reference. :cool:

Yes, sorry. There is no Command and Conquer in this universe, of course. The history IS command and conquer. And the Abel Corporation is an addition of mine- partly to help explain how the Brotherhood of Nod gets its funding and influence.

And soon, I'll be adding some more- we're pretty much up to the beginning of the First Tiberium War.

[alt_historian]

Yes, sorry. There is no Command and Conquer in this universe, of course. The history IS command and conquer. And the Abel Corporation is an addition of mine- partly to help explain how the Brotherhood of Nod gets its funding and influence.
Ah, so there is still a Brotherhood in this. Good.

About the Abel thing - I meant the OTL mythical backstory of Kane/Cain.
And soon, I'll be adding some more- we're pretty much up to the beginning of the First Tiberium War.
W00t!

[Bishop]

This is going to be interesting, as a big fan of this series, I hope to see how it develops.

Hopefully with eventual Scrin arrivals.

[Communist Wizard]

A better alternative to that is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation).

[Kaiser Kris]

In January 2019, a Russo-Chinese task force in Tajikistan disappeared entirely, with over ten thousand troops simply being wiped off the map by enemy forces that were capable of disguising themselves entirely from Russo-Chinese command and control elements. A week later, Chinese frontier outposts were being taken by extremely mobile forces using modern, and in a few cases, seemingly futuristic technology. A Russian forward airfield in Krygyzstan was destroyed by a series of airstrikes coming from Afghanistan, and a massive wave of terrorist attacks began to ripple through Central Asia and the disputed Western provinces of China, as well as through Pakistan and ethnic minority areas in Iran.

News coverage in the conflicted areas was relatively light, due to the fact that most of the areas in question were already highly dangerous warzones, and the unwillingness of Russian, Chinese, Pakistani and Iranian authorities to admit to their total bewilderment by the explosion of military activity and terrorist activity. Furthermore, Abel Corporation-owned news media consistently spun the explosion of violence as the result of Russian, Chinese, Iranian and Pakistani oppressions and blind greed over controlling the vast Tiberium deposits of Central Asia.

Leaders in Moscow, Beijing, Islamabad and Tehran were baffled by the enormous escalation in violence and also by the evidence of highly advanced Western, Eastern and, apparently, entirely new military technology used by what should have been disorganized bands of insurgents. It soon became apparent that this new military force, whatever it was, was rapidly seizing control of all of Central Asia, and thus, one of the world's richest sorces of Tiberium- and the only massive deposit within direct reach of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Its loss could mean economic disaster and falling even further behind the GDI-aligned forces technologically.

Where did these terrorists get access to modern Western weaponry? Was the United States and its European and Asian allies selling weapons to them in order to destabilize the Moscow-Beijing Pact? Scientists at the University of Chicago moved the Doomsday Clock ahead two minutes, from five to three minutes before midnight.

Meanwhile, in Africa, bands of refugees coming from the violence-stricken, and Tiberium rich Central Africa came with lurid reports of a secretive, yet all-powerful 'Brotherhood' that had destroyed the petty warlords, only to replace them with something that was much worse. FOX News, owned by the Abel Corporation, promptly dismissed popular concerns regarding ties between this 'Brotherhood' in Africa and popular NRM (New Religious Movements) in North America and Europe, hailing the coming of Tiberium and the swift coming of their Prophet.

In Haiti, the tottering democratic government was overthrown by a military junta, several members of whom were linked with Tiberium cults. Furthermore, Haiti was not the only government overthrown that month- an enterprising general known only as 'Seth', long a threat to the government in San'a, to seize the capital and overthrow the government of the elderly President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Violent riots in the cities of neighbouring Saudi Arabia killed hundreds and deadly terrorist attacks occcured in Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria.

GDI-aligned peacekeeping missions in nearby areas were put on high alert, and Israel called up reserves for an possible preemptive strike into nearby staging grounds for terrorists. An emergency meeting of GDI-aligned world leaders was called for in Vienna for Feburary 6th, as the United Nations made impotent calls for all groups concerned to end violence.

[Kaiser Kris]

This is going to be interesting, as a big fan of this series, I hope to see how it develops.

Hopefully with eventual Scrin arrivals.

The Scrin won't be around for awhile yet, at least in visible force ...

A better alternative to that is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organisation).

Thank you. Will edit to accomodate that.

[Kaiser Kris]

If January 2019 was a month of crisis, the next few months would prove to be just as bad.

The emergency summit at Vienna starting on February 6th was disrupted by a daring raid by commandos, wearing distinctive red and black uniforms and calling themselves the 'Black Hand'. Analysis of their tactics proved that, far from a terrorist militia, these 'Black Hand' were sophisticated, well-equipped and well-trained soldiers. Thankfully, however, the Black Hand commandos were swiftly overpowered by GDI security forces, although four hostages were killed in the attack.

Strangely, much of the Western media didn't focus as much on the Black Hand attack and its aftermath, but rather, focused its attentions on 'provocations' that GDI forces had made in Africa, as well as the outrages that SCO-aligned forces had committed in Central Asia. The recent attacks were painted by much of the media as a response to endless provocation and blind Tiberium-greed- with sad but inevitable results.

Meanwhile, in Central Asia, Russian, Chinese, Iranian and Pakistani forces were continuing to lose forward outposts to the mysterious enemy, as massive escalations of terrorist activity continued to destabilize their cities and populations. Although it was difficult to determine precisely where the front lines, due to the highly mobile nature of the enemy's conventional forces and its seemingly perfect coordination with terrorist strikes, it was becoming clear that the enemy was beginning to gain the upper hand in Central Asia. Attempted airstrikes into the few enemy bases that had been identified were not notably successful- thanks to impressive anti-air defences.

In the Middle East, the news was no better. Yemen had clearly become aligned with the enemy, and Saudi and Omani military forces found themselves stretched thin trying to protect their borders, military installations and infrastructure from raids by the enemy. At least for the moment, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain were having somewhat better luck, perhaps due to the small but well-equipped GDI garrisons located in them.

Also disturbing was news out of Lebanon and Syria, as the two countries, closely connected to each other, began to convulse in revolution. Hezbollah guerillas reoccupied the south of Lebanon and set up rocket attacks upon cities in northern Israel- although, disturbingly, they were using much more sophisticated weapons than previously. The Israeli response to the rocket attacks on cities such as Nazareth and Haifa was predictable, but overwhelming- a ground invasion of Lebanon and massive airstrikes all over the country and against suspected Hezbollah positions in southern Syria.

If the Middle East was smouldering- Africa absolutely exploded in the spring, with small GDI peacekeeping forces mostly overwhelmed by sophisticated enemy armies appearing out of seemingly nowhere. However, not all GDI forces were defeated so easily, one contigent of peacekeepers under Gen. James Solomon managed to not only secure the oil-rich Niger Delta, but sweep much of central and northern Nigeria clean of the enemy. However, his forces were small and suffered sizeable casualties in the operations.

Elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, the news was generally bad. Enemy forces spread out from what was once the Democratic Republic of the Congo and seized several of the surrounding countries, with very little resistance from many of their governments (already rather weak), and most GDI garrisons being unable to do anything more than to attempt a hasty retreat in the face of an enemy that seemed simultaneously overwhelming and totally invisible.

North Africa was doing no better, though. Instead of falling, Libya and Algeria openly declared themselves in sympathy with the 'people's resistance movement' that was consuming much of the world, reducing the chances of making already tottering Sahel states any more secure, and placing Egypt, already fighting intensely with enemy forces coming from Sudan, in an especially tense position.

The position of GDI in the Americas was relatively stronger, and American troops were rapidly deployed to Haiti to deal a punishing blow to the seemingly enemy-aligned movement- although much of the media condemned this move as 'wanton aggression', storehouses of weaponry were discovered on the island- much of it being top-of-the-line Western weaponry, and some of it seeming to be completely new designs. Rumours that the weaponry depot included tanks with thermooptic camouflage and samples of functional laser weaponry were, however, promptly dismissed by the Pentagon.

However, there were disturbing reports coming in from Colombia, suggesting that the mysterious enemy had aligned itself with FARC guerillas- or perhaps it was the other way around- and were defeating government troops in pitched battles as well as in guerilla operations across the entire country. However, decisive military action there was hampered by insecurities about the reactions of Venezuela and its allies in Ecuador and Bolivia.

In late March, GDI Central Command in Frankfurt recieved a disturbing communique- a prerecorded video of a man speaking. Identifying himself only as 'Kane', he mocked GDI leaders for their blindness in not seeing the rise of the Brotherhood of Nod and prophesied total destruction for all those that opposed him. That very same day, the Chinese Leader and the Russian President recieved the same message, mocking their own weakness.

The next night, every major television channel in the world had their transmission hijacked and Kane appeared to the world, promising a glorious future to those who would join the Brotherhood of Nod and whole-heartedly and unreservedly embrace the blessings of Tiberium- and to watch for the construction of the Temple of Nod. Immediately following Kane's broadcast, dozens of terrorist attacks occurred in cities all around the world, killing thousands of people and destroying billions of dollars in property.

Worst struck of all was Pakistan, which suffered multiple attacks in almost every major city and a determined Nod offensive in the Northern Tribal areas, with assistance from the local Pashtuns. Worst of all, however, was what was possibly the most audacious theft in history, much of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal went missing, presumably to be transported to Nod-controlled Afghanistan. Included in the heist were all of Pakistan's most sophisticated nuclear weapons, the Saheen III, capable of striking anywhere within 4,500 kilometers.

[Kaiser Kris]

By the beginning of June, it was clear that, far from a terrorist crisis, there was an outright Third World War on the hands of the countries of the world. Furthermore, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Global Defense Inititive seemed to be facing an enemy with no noticeable hubs of command and control- an enemy seemingly able to strike and vanish at will. Victories on the ground during the spring had been few, far between and less than decisive.

The crisis in Central and South Asia continued to deepen, as Nod forces seized almost every Russian and Chinese military base in Krygyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and had penetrated deep into Pakistan's and Iran's frontiers, winning major victories against the ill-prepared Pakistani and Iranian militaries. In response to the crisis, India's nuclear forces and conventional militaries were put on high alert, although Indian troops were hesistant to move into Pakistan, for fear of provoking a wider conflict. There were even brief Nod reconissance thrusts into the western territories of China itself, although the Chinese won a minor victory against Nod forces when one of these attacks was caught by a large detachment of Chinese armour.

While the Chinese struggled to build a powerful defensive perimeter, the Russians began to dig in in Kazakhstan, determined to maintain a strong buffer between Nod forces and Russia itself, where there were concerns that a powerful strike could simply sever the nation's European and Asian portions- possibly overblown, but the atmosphere had been relentlessly grim so far. So far there had been no attempt to use any of the nuclear weapons stolen by the Brotherhood, but the knowledge that Nod was nuclear-armed was in the backs of the minds of hard-pressed Chinese, Russian, Iranian and Pakistani military commanders.

The situation for Iran, already struggling to form a defensible perimeter around its eastern regions, deterioriated enormously with a series of devastating air strikes against its aircraft, and soon, a second front against Iran opened, as well-armed Nod troops moved out of Iraq. Black Hand commandos spread out from Iraqi bases to create havoc in much of the Middle East, sabotaging oil fields and destroying key infrastructure in almost every country in the region and supplying weapons to Nod-friendly Kurdish guerillas in southeastern Turkey, as well as Hezbollah forces in Syria and Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Israel, already engaged in ground operations in Lebanon, immediately switched to a full war footing- to an extent which had not been seen since 1973.

North Africa had already, with the sole exception of Morocco, been lost to Nod forces, and indeed, most of the continent was being subverted or overrun by Nod military forces- massive defections and desertions whittled down many of the African armies to nothingness, and bolstered the ranks of Nod troops, which were now driving determinedly up the Nile to seize Egypt. However, there seemed to be some minimal good news on the African front. General Solomon, already famed for his success in securing Nigeria had recieved enough reinforcements to sweep Nod forces out of much of West Africa, keeping open key port facilities. Meanwhile, the Moroccans, with assistance from French and Spanish GDI troops had managed to hold their own against Nod and Nod-aligned Algerians and Mauritanians.

Although Europe remained one of the safest areas in the world from the current war, there were a few notable hotspots in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, in addition to a recurring problem with terrorist attacks. The breakaway territory of Transinistra, long a hub for organized crime, had become a major centre for Nod influence in the post-Soviet territories and large amounts of weaponry from both Russia and Western Europe had been smuggled through Transinistra to ports on the Black Sea. However, an operation by Ukrainian, Romanian and Moldovan troops soon secured the area.

Somewhat more serious was a major Serbian insurgency in the Serbian Republic itself, Bosnia-Herzegovnia and Montenegro, having been supplied by corrupt authorities with sophisticated weaponry and being capably led by General Dragan Slavik. The insurgency rapidly gained considerable support amongst the Serbian military and threatened to, at the very least, greatly complicate GDI efforts to focus troops on the extremely dangerous African and Middle Eastern fronts. Although it was considered unlikely that Slavik's insurgency could hold out against the powerful GDI force that was assembling against it in forward bases in Croatia and Hungary, it meant that tens of thousands of much-needed GDI troops wouldn't be sent to critical fronts in Africa.

In late August, the Brotherhood made another grand series of terrorist strikes around the world, focusing on the most important ports. Entire ships, loaded with volatile chemicals, explosives and shards of Tiberium were driven into several important world ports and blown-up, damaging port facilities and sending horrificially toxic Tiberium dust into the air. Thankfully, a last-minute tip saved most of the key ports from attack, but two of the eight ships managed to reach their targets- Istanbul and Hong Kong. Over five thousand were killed in the two attacks immediately, and for weeks and months afterwards, victims would be admitted for Tiberium poisoning- for which there was no cure.

[alt_historian]

Horrifying... :eek:


(:cool:)

[Bishop]

Interesting story, especially with FOX news owned by Abel, a little bias don't you think.:D

I don't expect Pakistan and Iran to last that much longer. It'll be interesting to see the conflict reaching Indian borders.

[Kaiser Kris]

Interesting story, especially with FOX news owned by Abel, a little bias don't you think.:D

I don't expect Pakistan and Iran to last that much longer. It'll be interesting to see the conflict reaching Indian borders.

Just a little. I personally tend to get my world news from the BBC and local news from CBC (ie, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). It's also that of the major American networks, Fox is the easiest to purchase, since I believe all the others are own by giant megacorporations like General Electric.

[alt_historian]

Interesting story, especially with FOX news owned by Abel, a little bias don't you think.:D
Of course not. Fair and balanced. Anyone who says otherwise is either a liberal or a GDI stooge!
:p

It'll be interesting to see if there is an analogue of the "Greg Burdette / Bialystok" incident...

[Kaiser Kris]

The most catastrophic news came from the Middle East and South Asia in the fall of 2019, as in September, the armies of Iran and Pakistan collapsed and were torn to shreds by the highly mobile and well-equipped Nod forces. By the end of the month, there was only scattered armed resistance in both countries. Reports came in of mass defections to the armies of Nod of civilians and military forces, but also of massacres of those that continued to resist. More disturbing reports suggested that the Brotherhood of Nod was actively attempting to spread Tiberium fields within its zone of influence, in a belief that it was their mission to spread Tiberium across the entire planet.

As the military situation in Pakistan collapsed, Indian forces, operating under a GDI mandate were ordered to move to secure a defensive perimeter to prevent Nod forces from moving into India proper. Initial skirmishes with Nod forces were bloody, but superior Indian numbers were sufficient to establish, at least for the time being, a defensive perimeter.

Vital to the successes of Indian forces were the use of brand-new and combat-untested Orca attack craft- combining unprecented manueverability and a respectable weapons payload with a highly advanced suite of electronic sensors, capable of defeating Nod stealth technology. Although there were not nearly enough Orcas, those that were present were invaluable, although there were some concerns about the relative fragility of the light craft. Inventive field commanders soon realized that the Orcas, at least in their current numbers, were best used as scouting craft, and they were frequently used to call down artillery attacks upon enemy columns.

Chinese and Russian troops, lacking the more sophisticated technology of the GDI-aligned militaries, relied largely on brute firepower in order to establish rough defensive perimeters- in Kazakhstan in the north, and Xinjiang to the east. Russo-Chinese forces had some successes in defending essential strategic areas, but inevitably faced heavy casualties and were forced to throw massive amounts of men and machinery in an effort to smother the tactically superior and more mobile enemy. Casualty reports were being tightly censored, but estimates of casualties ran well into the hundreds of thousands, to say nothing of civilian losses, which were almost certainly in the millions for Central Asia alone.

Meanwhile, to the west, the collapse of Iran meant that significant numbers of Nod troops would eventually be freed up to engage in operations against the Israelis, Saudis and other powers in the region. Frustrating GDI efforts enormously in this respect was the combination of the Serbian insurgency, which was proving more difficult than anticipated to control and the terrorist attack on the port of Istanbul, which was proving to be even more damaging than previously thought. Almost ten thousand people had suffered from Tiberium-related illnesses, and another two thousand had died. Even worse was the fact that Tiberium radiation continued to remain in the area, at dangerous levels- and there were unverified reports of small growths of Tiberium crystals around the locked-down harbour.

The effective loss of the harbour of Istanbul meant that GDI forces were becoming more and more reliant on Israeli port facilities in Haifa and Tel Aviv for any operations in the Middle East. The Syrian and Lebanese ports were effectively unusable thanks to rampant Nod and Nod-allied activity there. The Turkish government launched an emergency effort to free up the port of Izmir for GDI military shipping, but even so, the loss of Istanbul was a serious strategic blow.

In Morocco, however, GDI forces had been more successful and managed to launch an offensive, aimed at severing Nod from the ports of the southern Mediterranean, from which it was feared that Nod could use to smuggle Black Hand commandos or weaponry for terrorists. General James Solomon, having developed quite a name for himself in the struggle against Nod in Africa was commanding a military drive around the city of Al-Jazair, the capital of Algeria when he noticed something very unusual- a column of seemingly GDI tanks and infantry advancing into the city. Troops that were not under his command- but why would Nod conduct such an elaborate hoax simply to drive into the city?

The reality, however, was that the incident had little to do with Solomon's offensive into Algeria, but with the news back home. Greg Burdette, a well-known Fox News broadcaster, had the exclusive story of a series of horrific GDI atrocities against unarmed civilians in the capital of Algeria. The images provided were disturbing and all too real. On the Internet, even more horrifying images circulated, of GDI soldiers executing children at gunpoint and napalming mosques and schools filled with screaming civilians.

The outcry against GDI was instant and enormous, as reports of atrocities began to filter out from all fronts of combat. Sadly, a few of them were true- there had been an unfortunate incident with American and Mexican GDI troops panicking and opening fire on a civilian convoy, for example, but most of them were false. The Abel Corporation's media division ruthlessly spun the information for their masters and soon there were cries to put an end to the war.

Facing enormous pressure from governments whom, in many cases, had little trust in the GDI command itself, GDI was forced to put a temporary halt to offensive operations as an investigation started. In many areas, such as North Africa and India, the positions seemed to be secure enough, but in other areas, such as the Middle East, the rest of Africa and in the many areas which were not formally Nod-controlled but still had a serious problem with Nod-affiliated terrorists, the results were likely to be more dire.

Solomon, virtually at ground zero of the investigation- and only still in North Africa due to a desperate intercession from GDI Military Commander-in-Chief General Mark Shepard, could only sit and hope that the fever would dissipate rapidly. It was shaping up to be a long, long winter.

[alt_historian]

...
General James Solomon, having developed quite a name for himself in the struggle against Nod in Africa was commanding a military drive around the city of Al-Jazair, the capital of Algeria when he noticed something very unusual- a column of seemingly GDI tanks and infantry advancing into the city. Troops that were not under his command- but why would Nod conduct such an elaborate hoax simply to drive into the city?

The reality, however, was that the incident had little to do with Solomon's offensive into Algeria, but with the news back home. Greg Burdette, a well-known Fox News broadcaster, had the exclusive story of a series of horrific GDI atrocities against unarmed civilians in the capital of Algeria. The images provided were disturbing and all too real. On the Internet, even more horrifying images circulated, of GDI soldiers executing children at gunpoint and napalming mosques and schools filled with screaming civilians.

The outcry against GDI was instant and enormous, as reports of atrocities began to filter out from all fronts of combat. Sadly, a few of them were true- there had been an unfortunate incident with American and Mexican GDI troops panicking and opening fire on a civilian convoy, for example, but most of them were false. The Abel Corporation's media division ruthlessly spun the information for their masters and soon there were cries to put an end to the war.

Facing enormous pressure from governments whom, in many cases, had little trust in the GDI command itself, GDI was forced to put a temporary halt to offensive operations as an investigation started. In many areas, such as North Africa and India, the positions seemed to be secure enough, but in other areas, such as the Middle East, the rest of Africa and in the many areas which were not formally Nod-controlled but still had a serious problem with Nod-affiliated terrorists, the results were likely to be more dire.

Solomon, virtually at ground zero of the investigation- and only still in North Africa due to a desperate intercession from GDI Military Commander-in-Chief General Mark Shepard, could only sit and hope that the fever would dissipate rapidly. It was shaping up to be a long, long winter.
And there it is... :)

This, of course, is just before the tide begins to turn in GDI's favour.

...

... right?

[Kaiser Kris]

And there it is... :)

This, of course, is just before the tide begins to turn in GDI's favour.

...

... right?

All things considered, I'd say that GDI's performance hasn't been that awful. They've taken losses, but they've also managed to get some blows in thus far.

[Kaiser Kris]

The cessation of GDI offensive operations had an immediate impact across the board, but was first felt in Central Asia as the conflict between reinforced Nod detachments and the Russo-Chinese forces intensified. Fighting by now, largely, in their own national territory, the Chinese generally held their lines, although at intimidating costs in men and machinery. Nod sympathsizers among the Uighur populations of Xinjiang were making things occasionally difficult for the Chinese supply lines, but the People's Liberation Army, increasingly becoming aware of the life-or-death nature of the war, were managing to keep them down, and viciously.

Things were worse amongst the Russian troops as losses continued to mount and morale began to dwindle. The knowledge that GDI had ceased offensive operations weighed heavily on the Russians, as they believed, whether rightly or not, that Nod's hardest blows would come to fall upon them. Although this wasn't entirely true, it was true that Nod would be testing some of its most horrific weapons systems on the Russians, that was, crude Tiberium-based chemical weaponry, as both an infantry and artillery weapon. With inferior (and insufficient) NBC protection equipment, Russian troops suffered horrific casualties. In addition to the military casualties, civilians in nearby areas suffered dramatically from the use of Tiberium-chemical weaponry. Nuclear retaliation was considered to be ineffective, however, due to a severe lack of knowledge about Nod central command locations- and the knowledge that Nod could retaliate with its own nuclear weaponry, possibly against Russian and Chinese major cities. As a consequence, the Russian defensive positions in Kazakstan began to weaken, promising, perhaps, a return to fluid warfare in which Nod held a massive advantage.

Moving to the Middle East, GDI forces found themselves in an impossible situation as Nod forces ran rampant around fortified positions, wreaking havoc with supply lines and committing daring raids against both military and civilian targets. Continuing the steady delivery of oil supplies was becoming a major problem, due to the fact that Nod forces controlled a significant portion of the world's oil output. To make a bad situation even worse, Nod's attacks emboldened local terrorists to engage in spontaneous attacks against GDI-allied troops, their supply lines and civilian infrastructure. The result was virtual chaos, as almost the whole of the Middle East seemed like one gigantic warzone- with GDI troops locked into fortified areas that felt more like deathtraps than refuges.

The critical situation spilled over into Africa as Nod forces swarmed over most of the continent, seizing territory, in many cases, only a few miles from GDI emplacements who were unable to to make effective counterassaults- only purely defensive moves. Solomon himself was forced to make a retreat from Algeria back to Morrocco in order to preserve his forces and keep his supply lines shorter, allowing Nod to seize what was left of Al-Jadzair and much of the Algerian coast in his wake.

Over at GDI Central Command in Frankfurt, General Shepard continued to recieve the bad news from the vast region in the active warzone- the struggles of GDI forces to keep in place, the slow collapse of the Russians and the incredibly heavy losses suffered by the Chinese. The bad news from the Russians and the Chinese was creating a diplomatic nightmare for GDI and ensured that their efforts were largely kept seperate, through distrust. The Russians and the Chinese felt that they were being ground down in order to weaken them for the afterwart period- and Shepard wondered, briefly, if that was exactly what the civilian authorities wanted.

Shepard wondered how the situation could get worse.

On December 23rd, 2019, the situation grew much worse. Kane appeared again to make a broadcast to the world, mocking GDI for its combination of cruelty and cowardice and promising a swift end to the Russian and Chinese resistance to 'the Age of Tiberium'. At the end of the broadcast, Kane called for his followers to carry on their struggle threefold. And then finally, he promised the obliteration of the Chinese tyrant and its Russian ally.

"It is said that China is the world's oldest civilization. How fitting then, that it it be the first to fall before the coming of the Age of Tiberium. Watch, my children, as I slay the Dragon of the East and its ally to the north."

He then pressed a button, which caused the launching of no less than twenty nuclear weapons towards the largest cities in China and Russia.

To be continued ...

[alt_historian]

:eek: Goodbye Beijing... and Moscow... and many others!

[Kaiser Kris]

Much of the world was in complete horror and shock as Kane's broadcast faded out. But for those in positions of power around the globe, there was no terror, only grim determination. For the Chinese and Russian leaders, there was just enough time for leaders to evacuate to nuclear proof bunkers and desperately set into motion plans for carrying on the struggle, possibly after the loss of many of its urban centres. The struggle to modernize their ground and air forces in the face of GDI superiority had left their missile defences in inadequate condition.

At GDI Central Command, General Shepard took approximately two seconds to come to a decision. He was aware that, most likely, Nod had targeted China and Russia due to the fact that GDI missile defences were, as of the completion of the Guardian missile shield, as close to impregnable as was possible. The answer was clear- there was no choice, as both a general in a war and as a human being wanting to save possibly hundreds of millions of lives. Immediately, Shepard contacted all the command centres for Guardian emplacements in Western Europe, Turkey, South Korea, India, Thailand and Japan, ordering them to attempt to intercept all nuclear missiles headed towards Chinese and Russian territory.

It was a gamble, strategically, and in terms of his own career- already under suspicion, Shepard wondered if he would be courtmartialed. He didn't much care, however. The Guardian system was activated and hypersonic missiles branched out to intercept the missiles launched by the Brotherhood. Targets had been identified, sixteen missiles were going to China and four were going to Russia, to the following cities.

China:
Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Tianjin, Changsha
Wuhan, X'ian, Nanjing, Harbin, Chengdu, Jinan, Lanzhou, Hangzhou, Handan

Russia:
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod

Identified odds of interception were 90%, given that the missiles were intended to strike at a somewhat shorter distance than was required of them. In practical terms, this meant that, most likely, one to three missiles would get through. For General Shepard and for Chinese and Russian authorities that immediately picked up the activation of the Guardian system, the next several minutes would be the longest of their lives.

Across much of Asia and Eastern Europe, Guardian missile interceptors struck down their targets, one after the other. GDI Command watched as one after another, Russian and Chinese cities were saved. After several tense moments, it became clear that of the twenty cities targeted, only two would be hit.

At 11:15 am, Greenwich Standard Time, nuclear missiles launched by the Brotherhood of Nod struck the cities of Moscow in Russia and Shanghai in China. Twelve million people lived in the metropolitan area of Moscow and over twenty million in the metropolitan area of Shanghai. Both cities were effectively obliterated in less than a second.

Still, many millions more had been saved by the timely intervention of GDI's Guardian system. However, for General Shepard, that victory felt rather hollow. Pulling himself together, he looked grimly at all of the monitors, aware that field commanders all over the map were struggling to hold on to what they had and wondering what the hell was going on at Central Command.

What the Brotherhood of Nod didn't realize was that, in its most recent rampages through Africa and Asia, they had severely overextended themselves. Even the Brotherhood had supply lines, that were stretched to the brink. Already, plans were in motion to send reinforcements to beleagured forward posts, preparing them for the counteroffensive.

Shepard looked hard at the monitor. Perhaps, at long last, Nod would reap what it had sown.

Note- I picked the locations where the missiles struck by simply rolling a d20 and associating a number to the list, 1-16 Chinese cities, 17-20 Russian cities. That being said, ouch.

[Kaiser Kris]

As the dust began to settle on the smouldering craters of Moscow and Shanghai, the Tiberium War continued to rage on, on a front from northern Kazakhstan in the north, to central Xinjiang in the east, to Nigeria and Morrocco in the west, and in the south, on the very frontiers of South Africa. Aside from the primary fronts of warfare, there were countless hotspots of insurgency around the world, some of them serious indeed, like the Slavik Insurgency in the Balkans, to minor hotspots in countries like Brazil and Thailand.

No one knew what exactly Kane planned to accomplish with his nuclear strike other than to kill tens, possibly hundreds of millions of people. However, if he was intending to destroy the morale of the Russians and Chinese, the effect was, if anything, the opposite. Russian troops, previously on the verge of simply melting away, began to realize that this was their Great Patriotic War- and that it was their duty to fight Kane with everything they had, just as their ancestors had fought Hitler, and Napoleon before that. The Chinese were no less determined to hold on and to, fate willing, bring the war to a victorious close. The 76th Armoured Division symbolized the spirit- their new name translating into English as something like 'Avengers of Shanghai'.

While the mood had changed somewhat, the fact was that the Brotherhood still seemed to have the tactical and strategic advantage, especially with GDI's current strategic paralysis. Easily ignored, however, in the flush of successful Nod raids and the increasing isolation of GDI strongholds was the fact that Nod troops were suffering heavy casualties. The Brotherhood had access to countless followers to serve as cannon fodder, but the fact was that losses among the better-trained and equipped elite formations were beginning to get worrisome. And as Nod's strength reached a peak, and perhaps, began to decline and the strength of the Russo-Chinese forces maintained themselves better than expected- the power of GDI was beginning to build.

The Brotherhood of Nod needed a smashing success on the ground if it was going to maintain itself, and it was gambling a great portion of its resources on a single, massive offensive in the Middle East. The Palestinian Campaign opened on January 17th, 2020, with massive air and artillery strikes, and then, a vast combined offensive of infantry, armour and assymetrical warfare, aimed at the complete destruction of GDI forces in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.

"Go forward my children- and this time next year, we shall begin building the Great Temple of Nod in the Sacred City itself!" The world had been delivered by Kane himself and the forces of Nod poured forth from bases in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and the Arabian desert to make his vision a reality. Even reenforced with American and European GDI units, the Israeli Defence Forces, the Royal Jordanian Army and the remnants of the Egyptian military began to buckle under immense pressure, particularly in the central sector and Jerusalem itself. With GDI forces holding relatively well in the southern sectors around Beersheba, Gaza and Aqaba and in the north around Haifa, the fear was that the powerful Nod offensive would sever the Holy Land in two and create two vast pockets. Complicating the situation was the fact that Haifa was the primary military port for GDI forces- if for any reason it was lost, it would mean the effective surrender of the Middle East to Nod.

General James Solomon was promptly exonerated by the ongoing investigation into GDI (an investigation that was noticeably running low on steam) and promoted to Supreme Commander of GDI forces in the Middle East. Wishing to boost morale and make clear that there would be no retreat, Solomon himself went to Haifa to steady GDI forces in the area. Although it seemed that Nod was most interested in Jerusalem itself, Solomon knew that, although Jerusalem had immense world historical, cultural and religious importance, that it was strategically far less important than keeping the port of Haifa operating.

If Nod could be defeated here, Solomon surmised, Haifa may end up becoming a dagger in the very heart of Nod's plans of world dominance. But first, the battle itself had to be won. He was well-aware that, despite having a formidable number of troops in his command that he was outnumbered by Nod.

There could be no surrender, no retreat. Either Nod, or GDI, would be broken here.

[alt_historian]

Ooooh... :cool:

Still feel sorry for Muscovites and Shanghai... -ites, though... :(

[The Sandman]

Just wait until they discover ghost rock in the hills of California...

[Kaiser Kris]

The Nod offensive in the Holy Land seemed to gather greater and greater strength through the end of January and the beginning of February, with GDI forces slowly being hammered back, although only after exacting severe losses on their enemies. Amman, the capital of Jordan had fallen already and Nod forces were pressing hard into the West Bank, towards Jerusalem, employing new and terrifying weapons on the way, such as a small, but heavily armoured tank capable of rapidly clearing urban areas by spraying vast plumes of flame up to a hundred meters before it, and a variety of noxious, crude and effective Tiberium-based chemical weaponry. The infamous Nod stealth tanks seemed to be everywhere, all at once, frequently raiding deep behind enemy lines with devastating effect.

However, the Brotherhood of Nod were not the one ones employing new weapons on the battlefront. Large numbers of Orcas had been shipped to the Middle East and the nimble raiders proved to be worthy foes of the dreaded stealth tanks and vulnerable enemy emplacements. GDI was also employing an experimental ultra-heavy tank, the X-66 'Mammoth' Heavy Assault Tank- a monster of a weapon that, although slower than standard GDI armour, was also capable of shrugging off almost any attack. Possessing twin 120mm cannons, each easily capable of blowing any standard tank to scrap metal and, additionally, rocket pods capable of engaging smaller targets or low-flying aircraft, the Mammoth Tank, although few in numbers, was proving a serious impediment to Nod armoured columns. In addition to the Mammoth Tanks and Orca attack aircraft, detachments of infantry in powered armour were proving to be successful on the battlefield.

Although, overall, GDI was inflicting significantly more casualties than it took, Solomon was still concerned that it would not be enough to stop the Brotherhood's momentum. Haifa had already been a strategic point of paramount importance, particularly with Istanbul being nearly unusable for military traffic, but now that GDI had resolved to reinforce the region, particularly with a heavy concentration of high-tech assets- Solomon knew, more and more, that the course of the war may very well pivot around Haifa.

GDI forces found themselves pressed into an ever smaller area, effectively a pocket- a powerful Nod attack on February 11th had cut off a small pocket of GDI troops in Gaza City, and late in the month, GDI forces were being pushed into Jerusalem itself from the West Bank. Every city remaining in the GDI area was under heavy bombardment from artillery and Solomon knew that civilian casualties were very high indeed, and liable to get even higher. GDI air assets were constantly busy, assisting GDI defences on the ground, but Nod had considerable anti-air assets and a small, but well-equipped air force of its own. Overall, in the air, GDI had an edge, but hardly the overwhelming air superiority that Solomon would have liked.

The GDI cause would, however, get some help from an unlikely cause. Many Palestinian factions had initially favored Nod, hoping that the organization could win their freedom from Israel once and for all. However, it became plainly apparent that Nod had little use for their agenda, and furthermore, the knowledge that Kane proposed to build a shrine to his Tiberium cult in Jerusalem outraged both religious and national sensibilities. Soon, the occupied Palestinian areas were engulfed in a series of attacks on Nod supply lines, including suicide attacks on Nod depots. The Palestinian partisans found support and weaponry in their efforts from the very Israelis they had opposed for decades. Those groups that remained allied with Nod found themselves the targets of extensive partisan operations as well.

Nod's retaliation against the partisans was one of horrific cruelty, and soon, it was a whispered rumour that Kane had given secret orders to obliterate everyone in the entire region of Palestine, whether they be Palestinian, Israeli or others. Whether that was true or not, Nod's willingness to employ Tiberium weaponry and other chemical weapons demonstrated an utter lack of mercy. However, every Nod soldier engaged in anti-partisan work was one that was not fighting GDI forces, whom, although battered, were far from finished.

Furthermore, GDI engineers had managed to rapidly refit facilities at the Port of Ashdod to accomodate military traffic, allowing for an increase of approximately 66% in supply and reinforcement efforts. With no less than four aircraft carriers and their support ships providing support airpower, Nod was beginning to lose the airpower that it had carefully saved for the Palestinian offensive. As Nod's aircraft were blasted out of the sky, GDI air assets could focus on attacking, rather than defending their own troops from enemy air attacks. Over the month of March, military assets from the United States and Europe, consisting of well over 500,000 men and many thousands of military vehicles, including three hundred Mammoth Tanks (about 2/3 of all Mammoth Tanks currently in existence) had been shipped through Haifa and Ashdod.

By the end of March, General Solomon was no longer the beleagured commander of a pocket, being run up against the sea- but rather, the supreme commander of a powerful beachhead. On March 30th, the GDI investigation formally ended and GDI commanders were formally given permission to counter attack. The next day, General Solomon began to launch his counteroffensive. Simultaneously, GDI forces in Morocco, South Africa, West Africa, India and surrounding the Serbian insurgents began to attack.

[Kaiser Kris]

The GDI spring offensive started with devastating airstrikes against identified Nod forward bases and command centres both from ground airfields and aircraft carriers. Simultaneously, GDI commandos infiltrated the rear areas, causing havoc in the Nod rear areas, with their activities giving a much-needed morale boost to partisans, who were suffering horrifically, as was the civilian population. However, they would not have long to wait, as the GDI counteroffensive got underway. Nod forces were caught by surprise by the sheer power and coordination of the offensive- facing for the first time, an enemy with tactical and technological equality, and a decisive edge in raw firepower.

Nod's chemical weapons arsenal was terrifying to contemplate, but GDI's armoured infantry and fully NBC-protected armoured regiments were easily capable of dealing with the problem. Granted, Tiberium weapons were a somewhat more intractable problem, but delivery systems were clumsy and even they were incapable of doing any serious damage to Mammoth Tanks- indeed, almost no weapon in Nod's arsenal seemed to be capable of destroying the monsters, which, in more than one documented case, simply ran over enemy vehicles, crushing them. Nod's stealth tanks found that GDI had finally acquired a large enough supply of Orca attack craft- and their fragility was made all too plain.

Nod forces fought back ferociously, but GDI forces fought with equal determination- after all, for the Israelis, Jordanians and Egyptians, the war-shattered Middle East was home, and even the Americans and the Europeans could appreciate that this was a struggle at least as important as that which their great-grandparents fought against Hitler. Although Jews and Muslims made up an important portion of the great army which broke out of the Israeli pocket, there was something of the air of a crusade about the GDI army.

Away from the Holy Land, the general mood may have been somewhat less mystical, but there was no less determination on the part of GDI commanders to finish Nod once and for all. GDI columns broke out of Morocco, smashing Nod forces decisively and advancing all the way to the Tunisian border within a month, as GDI garrisons in West Africa began to advance north into the Sahel to get rid of long-standing areas of Nod control. In South Africa, GDI columns advanced so swiftly that Central Command actually had to order them to slow down, lest they put strain on their supply lines.

In Europe, the Slavik Insurgency was finally and comprehensively routed, with Dragan Slavik reported killed in a last stand at his compound near Sarajevo. However, several commanders of the insurgency, including Dragan's young son, Anton, managed to escape. The destruction of the Slavik Insurgency freed up tens of thousands of European troops for deployment elsewhere. In South Asia, Indian troops, reinforced with GDI forces from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the USA, managed to comprehensively break through Nod lines and retake most of Pakistan.

Long-beleagured Russian and Chinese forces hung onto their positions and waited for an opportunity to begin their own offensive, although some generals thought that it might be best to let GDI take the brunt of that work- after all, they had been largely on their own in the early stages of the Great Tiberium War. Also, the Russians in particular were in no strategic position for a sustained advance- having been bled white earlier in the year.

By the end of the spring, GDI forces had made impressive advances on all fronts. General Solomon's troops, still advancing- had already seized Beirut, Amman and Damascus- having nearly linked up with Turkish troops moving south. Much of Africa was liberated, although campaigns to reclaim areas around the Congo River where Nod had been in control even before the First Tiberium War would be very difficult. The scenes in occupied territory, however, were horrifying. Areas which had erupted into partisan activity had been decimated, with bodies lying in the streets and cities in flames. Elsewhere, they encountered strangely fanatical resistance from lightly armed locals who seemed convinced that Kane was a divine figure. Surreal rumours about human experimentation in genetic engineering, Tiberium and cyborg enhancements were rife.

One rumour that was confirmed was the presence of a horrifyingly powerful defensive weapon around important Nod bases- called the Obelisk of Light. It seemed to be an energy weapon so powerful that it could destroy even Mammoth Tanks with ease and incinerate whole columns of infantry or light armour. Thankfully, the Obelisks were vulnerable to air attack and seemed to require a huge power supply.

Although as the summer began, GDI forces were making excellent headway into Nod-occupied areas, it was becoming clear that the devastation had been even worse than previously thought. And every so often, GDI forces would come across a miniscule patch of Tiberium, where there had been no record of Tiberium growth previously. Was the spread natural? Or was Nod deliberately spreading Tiberium within their zone of control?

Solomon's resolve was undiminished by these reports, but he had to wonder just what the hell Kane wanted to do to the world. His activities didn't seem to be rational for a conqueror- he already controlled more than enough Tiberium to ensure vast wealth and power, why spread such a dangerous substance far and wide? And how had Kane managed to constantly stay several steps ahead of every significant power in the world?

Whatever it was, Solomon knew that it had to be stopped, and soon.

[alt_historian]

Just wait until they discover ghost rock in the hills of California...
"ghost rock"?
:confused:

Anyway... love the last two updates, Nod are being rolled back... :)

[Ion_StormH]

I mean, with our world economy in such dire need for about any new ressource.

I wonder how fast Tiberium must spread OTL to be not extinct by the time the Sino-Euro-Indo-American ressource-eating mongrels swallow everything in our way. :D

[The Sandman]

"ghost rock"?
:confused:

It's from a tabletop RPG called Deadlands. Think supercoal that allows steampunk tech and you'll about have it.

[Kaiser Kris]

The summer of 2020 marked marked advance on virtually all fronts for the Global Defence Initiative, as Nod military forces, designed largely for mobile attack, began to crumble when placed on the defensive, facing an enemy with superior firepower and greater numbers, led well. On June 7th, Damascus fell to the forces of GDI and troops formerly seperated by a considerable distance, in Anatolia and on the Israeli coast were able to link up. Until recently threatened with the prospect of a courtmartial, James Solomon had become the hero of the hour and the face of the Global Defence Initiative to the world.

Elsewhere, the once-vast area of Nod control was shrinking dramatically as Russian and Chinese tank columns began to retake Central Asia. Their advance was tacitly aided by the efforts of GDI commandos, who began to discover that many of the grim rumours of the Middle East were reality in long-standing Nod facilities in Afghanistan. That Nod was performing human Tiberium experimentation was confirmed by Captain Nick Parker, the leader of an ultra-elite squad of GDI commandos known only as the 'Dead-6'. GDI officials, however, denied rumour that these commandos encountered living Tiberium mutants in Nod facilities in Afghanistan.

Successes on the African front were similarly dramatic, although they slowed down considerably when approaching the dense jungles of the Congo river basin, where Tiberium deposits were rife and Nod had been established for a considerable period of time. Resistance to GDI forces by the local population grow more fanatical and widespread as they began to investigate deep into areas where their control had been mostly unchallenged for, most likely, years before the Tiberium War had been waged.

As June went into July, Nod resistance began to stiffen again, although it was to be expected. GDI commanders suspected that it was a last ditch effort and that, perhaps, they weren't far from Nod's central base- if indeed, they had one. Nod's resistance to the GDI landings in Basra in late July looked on the ground like determined bravery, but top brass caught the whiff of desperation.

As GDI penetrated deeper into Iraq, the resistance went from merely tough to fanatical, with hundreds of attempted suicide bombings on GDI convoys from devoted followers of Nod and determined last stands by Nod regulars. It was in the beginning of August that GDI finally discovered Nod's central base of operations, south of the city of Baghdad, located in, around and underneath the site of Babylon. Unfortunately, an airstrike was almost out of the question, due to the presence of a highly advanced series of air defences that would create a massacre for GDI aircraft, not to mention that much of the base was deep under the earth. Nuclear weapons were ruled out, due to unpleasant proximity to Baghdad and the presence of civilians in and around the area.

Thankfully, and with timing so ideal it was practically suspicious, Solomon was informed of the existence of a new and incredibly powerful orbital satellite weapon- an ion cannon, capable of devastating large areas, including areas deep under the ground. It was an attack which Nod could not counteract in any meaningful fashion, and it also did not present the same problems of radiation as nuclear weapons did.

In conjunction with a land attack from three directions, it was hoped that the destruction of Nod's temple in Babylon would finally break the back of the Brotherhood and lead to the end of the Tiberium War, once and for all.

[Kaiser Kris]

Despite fanatical, desperate resistance by the Brotherhood of Nod, GDI forces were pressing hard on Nod's fortress in Babylon, and by the middle of August, GDI forces had managed to take the city of Baghdad and create a tight ring around Nod's base in Babylon. Meanwhile, on all other fronts, Russian, Chinese and GDI forces were advancing strongly against the Brotherhood's forces.

Just as GDI looked ready to obtain its ultimate victory, another message came out from Kane to the world.

"To the faithful, remain steadfast. This may seem like an end, but it is only the beginning. To those who oppose the coming of the Tiberium Age- know that all your tanks and all your men cannot bring back the old world. The future is coming, and it shall be a future inaugurated by the Brotherhood of Nod. Enjoy your small victory while it lasts."

As the transmission faded out, Solomon saw it appropriate to send a response in the form of the world's first ion cannon strike, blasting a vast crater in the centre of Nod's base in Babylon and obliterating the Temple constructed there. GDI ground and air assets then attacked, finding that the base's otherwise formidable defences were greatly weakened by the seeming loss of command and control.

At the end of the day and the conclusion of the day's battle, GDI forces raised their flag next to the heavily damaged, but miraculously still standing Ishtar Gate and recovery teams went down to ensure any remaining Nod facilities deep underground were found and destroyed. Kane's body was never found, but a strange video tape of him was found, his arms wide open, facing the coming light of the ion cannon and then, disappearing into the blast.

Solomon found something very disturbing indeed about it, and the image would haunt his sleep occasionally for the rest of his life.

[Kaiser Kris]

Although Kane and the central command of the Brotherhood of Nod had been destroyed in Babylon, it soon became apparent that the task of suppressing the Brotherhood would be an ongoing, possibly permanent commitment. There were far too many isolated mountain ranges, impassable jungles and highly dangerous Tiberium-contaminated areas to completely eradicate the Brotherhood. As long as the Brotherhood remained, GDI would need to be maintained and strengthened, as the force that had defeated the Brotherhood.

In the next few months, the remaining nations under Brotherhood control were, at least in name, liberated. With Kane gone, much of the fanatical Brotherhood resistance of July and August had faded, although many seemed to cling to the belief that their leader was not dead, or that he would rise from death to lead them once again. The Brotherhood began to split into factions, with different attitudes and beliefs about how to carry on the struggle.

The main battles of the Tiberium War had been waged in a vast front from South Africa and Morocco to the Indian frontier and Kazakhstan, with subsidiary actions taking place in Haiti, Colombia, the Balkans and terrorist actions and nuclear strikes against Moscow, Shanghai, Vienna and countless other cities around the world. The number of dead could only be guessed at, but from the evidence, the number of dead were at least comparable to, and quite possibly greater than, World War II.

GDI military deaths were counted as 1,127,188, although there was some suspicion that the true figure was somewhat higher, perhaps 1.3 or 1.5 million. For every GDI soldier killed, approximately two were severely wounded. The Indian military counted for approximately a third of these, Europeans and Americans for another third and other GDI forces (Turkey, Israel, Japan, etc) for the other third. While GDI casualties were very heavy, they were almost certainly the lightest of any of the major factions.

GDI authorities estimated that Chinese military deaths were comparable to the GDI total, and that Russian military losses were slightly higher than that, for a total of perhaps 2.5 million military deaths. To blame for this was the relatively greater engagement of Chinese and Russian troops in the disastrous early months of the war, as well as military doctrine which tended to accept high military losses. The ratio of severely wounded to death was somewhat less favorable than the GDI total, approximately 1.5 wounded for every fatality- in great part due to inferior medical facilities and insufficient preparation for Nod chemical and Tiberium weaponry.

The military losses of the smaller nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization were unknown, but were thought to be very heavy. GDI authorities tentatively estimated that perhaps 750,000 Pakistani and almost half a million Iranian soldiers were killed and perhaps a total of 500,000 for other countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Losses for countries not officially aligned with either GDI or the SCO could only be guessed at, and 500,000 seemed to be the most commonly used 'filler' figure.

The military losses of the Brotherhood of Nod could only be guessed at, but GDI authorities investigating tended to come to a rough agreement around the figure of 3.5 million, with perhaps 400,000 added for the casualties of Nod-aligned nations and terrorist groups. In all, the losses probably counted for about 80% of Nod's military strength. In total, military losses were believed to be somewhat over nine million.

Although the military losses were atrocious, and approximately on the scale of the First World War, the civilian losses were much worse, as they had been in almost every war since 1914. Early estimates suggested that as many as thirty to thirty-five million people perished in regions under Nod control. Nuclear attacks on Moscow and Shanghai had killed a combined twenty million people, and GDI and Russo-Chinese military efforts had most likely resulted in the deaths of two to three million civilians. Thus, estimates for civilian losses ranged between fifty and sixty million. Possibly the worst suffering, per-capita was in the rear areas of the Middle Eastern front, where Nod retaliation for partisan attacks had killed about a third of the population of the West Bank, as well as around 150,000 Israeli civilians.

In addition to the horrific loss of life, a vast amount of economic wealth and production simply disappeared, with most of the Middle East's oil-producing facilities highly damaged and the other economic output of Nod-occupied regions nearly zero. Moscow and Shanghai were two of the world's great economic centres and the economically most important cities of their respective countries. Both were effectively obliterated, and the long-term damage to the Russian and Chinese nations would be dramatic.

Two other economically and strategically important cities would, in later years turn out to be effectively lost. The Tiberium-laced suicide ships that struck Istanbul and Hong Kong had triggered the growth of Tiberium fields that would, over the next few years, cause hundreds of thousands of illnesses, tens of thousands of deaths and the effective evacuation of the cities as Tiberium fields began to expand from the original port areas. The loss of Istanbul would have a dramatically negative economic impact on all countries around the Black Sea, and the combined loss of Hong Kong and Shanghai would put China into an economic meltdown, creating a global economic crisis of almost unprecedented proportions.

In addition to the Tiberium expansions in Hong Kong and Istanbul, Nod had seemingly seeded Tiberium throughout its area of control, creating a toxic legacy for much of Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Almost every country that had endured long-term Nod occupation started to enter into economic and population decline- while, at the same time, becoming prime targets for corporations and countries wishing to take advantage of the benefits of Tiberium.

All of the world's institutions were being rocked to their very core by Tiberium and the great war that had been fought around it, and only one of them emerged from the chaos stronger than ever- the Global Defence Initiative. More and more, GDI became a sort of world government, controlling what was by far the most powerful military arsenal ever created, with seemingly umatcheable land, air, naval and space assets and with member countries making up the great majority of the world's economic output.

However, in countless mountains, caves, jungles and isolated bases, millions knew in their hearts that the Tiberium Age was dawning and that the fight was not over, that the age of the imperialist GDI combine was not an eternal one. The Brotherhood would achieve its dream of peace- through power. That Kane lived in death.

[alt_historian]

So, the (First?) Tiberium War is over...

Excellent stuff, Kaiser!

[Kaiser Kris]

Thanks. And yes, it shall indeed be the 'First' Tiberium War. As General Granger said to an anonymous (but very important) GDI commander in 2047, "As long as there is Tiberium on the Earth, Nod is a serious threat."

As a bonus, a little map of the world during the height of Nod power.

Blue = GDI or GDI-aligned
Green = Shanghai Cooperation Organization member or ally
Red = Occupied by the Brotherhood of Nod
Yellow = Indicates tiberium deposits. The bigger the square, the more Tiberium the place produces.

[flamelord]

2 things:

1. Cain killed abel and this kane doesn't seem to be fulfilling his namesake.

2. Abel can use the nuking of moscow and shanghai as propaganda. The GDI hit all of them except the ones that hit the capitol of russia and the ceremonial capitool of china...